Weetabix - Steeplechase

Weetabix has been a bastion of breakfast bowls for decades. It's one of those great British brands that requires little introduction.

However, being a household name can mean a brand gets taken for granted. The challenge for Weetabix's latest campaign was to remind people that it sets you up for the day ahead. The brief to ad agency WCRS was to make people fall in love with the brand again.

'Steeplechase' shows a horse and jockey taking a tumble at a fence during a big race. As they try to pick themselves up, the horse starts to talk - and tells the jockey to go on without him.

The jockey sets off on foot and roars past the rest of the field to win the race. The ad uses the strapline: 'Someone's had their Weetabix.'

Sally Abbott, Weetabix's marketing director, says: 'We are trying to reconnect people emotionally with Weetabix. We have done a good job about telling them what they can eat it with, now we are reminding them why they love it. The ad was mentioned on blogs and Twitter.'

Abbott says that additional excerpts are being produced that will add a twist to the commercial.

'Steeplechase' emerged triumphant from a shortlist of five ads broadcast in November and December last year, and voted on by members of Thinkbox's Creative Academy of ad industry experts.

The ad beat off stiff competition from an impressive shortlist.

We are trying to reconnect people emotionally with Weetabix. We have done a good job about telling them what they can eat it with, now we are reminding them why they love it.

Sally Abbott
Marketing Director
Weetabix

• Client Sally Abbott, Marketing Director, Weetabix
• Brief To make people fall in love with Weetabix once again
• Ad Agency WCRS
• Creative Team Larry Seftel, Dave Day
• Production Rattling Stick
• Director Ringan Ledwidge

Other ads on the podium

Barnardo's - Turn Around

Just over a year ago, an acclaimed "break the cycle" campaign raised awareness of Barnardo's and the work it does with abuse victims. This ad takes that initiative a step further and seeks to deepen levels of understanding about the way the charity works. The film makes powerful use of the Bat For Lashes song Moon And Moon as it demonstrates how Barnardo's transforms the lives of sexually exploited children and young people. A sequence of shots tells the story of a young girl's journey into despair - then, utilising a striking "palindromic" structure, the scenes play back in reverse order but this time we see they're part of a far more positive storyline. In the first sequence, for instance, when the girl gets into the car, it's at the behest of her abuser; the second time around, it's her mum picking her up after counselling. This neatly illustrates the point that vicious cycles can be reversed.

John Lewis - The Feeling

John Lewis wanted to create a campaign that showcased the store's array of gifts in a way that was seasonal and emotional but which stood apart from the usual Christmas clichés. This evocative execution, accompanied by a stripped down and understated version of the Guns N' Roses classic Sweet Child O' Mine, performed by the Swedish band Taken By Trees, was born out of the belief that the perfect gift makes everyone, however old, feel childlike delight and joy. It shows a series of poignant scenes of children opening presents that turn out to be adult gifts - a necklace, a pair of slippers, a coffee-maker, a laptop, a text reader, coffee mugs, an umbrella. Then, with the last gift, the child morphs into her adult self, still showing the same childlike delight as she unwraps a camera. The TV campaign dovetailed with cinema, press and poster activity in the run-up to Christmas.

Also shortlisted for November/December 2009

Honda - Everything

The brief was to remind the audience of the decades of engineering innovation that make Honda what it is today - and to convey the notion that the company can apply its knowhow to evolve on a continual basis. Wieden & Kennedy plumped for a film featuring innovative camera and editing techniques to produce a cascading montage of images evoking Honda's product heritage. There are 972 edits used to layer fractured video images of cars, motorbikes, all-terrain vehicles, marine vehicles and Honda's humanoid robot, Asimo; and it ends on a shot of the British-built Honda Civic, emphasising the point that every product with a Honda badge carries that engineering DNA. It also features a backing track called Atlas, courtesy of Battles; and the pay-off line, "everything we do goes into everything we do," is delivered by Garrison Keillor, the now-familiar voice of Honda advertising.

Kleenex - Let It Out

Kimberly-Clark broke with tradition in this campaign - featuring the actor Tom Hardy, Sir Bob Geldof, Emma Bunton and the former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, it's the first celebrity-led campaign in Kleenex's history. It features tattoo-covered Hardy overcome with tears as he watches a film on TV; Geldof crying with laughter in a meeting; Bunton playing up as a rock chick; and Eriksson celebrating madly as he "scores" by playing keepy uppy with a scrunched up ball of tissue before slotting it home in the wastepaper bin. The ad aims to build on Kleenex's 2007 "let it out" ads, which featured members of the public sitting on a blue sofa, releasing their emotions. The idea was to chose celebrities who are known for displaying certain emotions; then show audiences a completely different side to these people - a side they release in private.