The Brief
The Brief for LinkedIn
We were tasked with creating a commercial for LinkedIn, which featured their new brand spokesperson and world champion heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko. The intention was that this would position LinkedIn as a less impersonal brand.
By using the multi-talented and instantly recognisable sports star, LinkedIn wanted to create an inspirational story about how you can use the service to move your career to the next level.
Ideally, we would see Klitschko in a variety of different modes. As a boxer, as a writer, as a business person and as a spokesman. He would voice the piece too, taking the audience on a journey through the many aspects of his professional life that they may not be aware of.
However, due to his upcoming title fight, Klitschko would only be available for four hours in a very particular hotel in the Alps of Austria (Hotel Stanglwirt).
Our Approach
The biggest challenge was to create the sense that there had been a passage of time, and that we were genuinely seeing Klitschko in different environments. In reality, clever art direction, lighting and camera angles were deployed to create the illusion of a variety of locations.
The hotel was almost entirely clad in wood and it was requested that the film crew cause the smallest amount of disruption to the paying guests as possible. To achieve this an extremely tight schedule was formed, built around an intricately detailed recce. We filmed four scenes per hour – over the course of four hours – and concluded by capturing a voiceover with the boxer.
The campaign was the biggest piece of commercial video that LinkedIn had created globally and the results were overwhelmingly positive. In the first few days of its release the video racked up millions of views, tapping into the newsworthiness of the sports star with his upcoming high profile fight.
The piece also launched a competition that invited LinkedIn members to apply for the chance to win a trip to Iceland to spend time with business advisors and mentors.
