The Enduring Power of a Story Well Told: The Man Who Walked Around the World
10th August 09
Posted in creativity, online video, storytelling
We’re super proud of our friends at BBH London who’ve produced something very special for Johnnie Walker. “The Man Who Walked Around the World” is a six-minute piece of storytelling that features Robert Carlyle walking through the Scottish Highlands. Carlyle tells the story of the brand’s birth, growth and development via some dazzling copywriting from BBH’s Justin Moore. This alone is an achievement – to keep the viewer listening intently for six-and-a-half minutes in a world where 140 characters constitutes ‘engagement’. Clearly Carlyle plays a huge role here as well.
What’s even more impressive, for us, is that this was all achieved in one take, with no editing done afterwards. Apparently there were 40 takes in total, and this was the last, completed at 8pm on the last day of the shoot. When you see how finely timed this is you’ll see why we’re in awe of the production.
There’s a great interview with the Director, Jamie Rafn, on the Shots site which goes into detail about how the piece was shot and some of the considerations that affected how it turned out. Definitely worth checking this out. Rafn took on a challenge many others thought impossible. As Mick Mahoney, BBH London Creative Director of the project told us:
“Every director we spoke to told us that it wasn’t possible to do what we wanted. That we would need concealed cuts and so on. Which would still have made a good film, but it’s the undertaking, the commitment, of doing it all in one take that makes it. Jamie Rafn was the only director who felt the same. Getting Robert Carlyle to do it then just took it up a gear. He has exactly the screen persona that we wanted. Tough, uncompromising, enigmatic.”
The inspiration came straight from the brand. Mahoney talks about the relentless, unstoppable progress, & tough, no-nonsense men that marched the brand forward: “Justin and I decided that the best way to realise it would be a single continuous take. No cuts, no cheats. Just a genuine, bullish progression”.
We were curious about what came first, the time frame or the idea, but Mahoney’s clear that time length was never an issue. “It just so happens that that was how long it took to tell the story. We were concerned though that it was going to end up too long. But we felt that if the performance was strong enough and the single take mesmerising enough we would be ok.”
Although one would expect us to be heavily biased (and yes, we are), we think it’s very strong work.
For a start it’s one of those pieces of content that you look at and wonder how on earth it was done, so it has that element of magic that’s so important for a propagation-based media approach (this was produced originally as a film for internal use, with zero formal media budget behind it).
Second, in a world that feels at times mesmerized by the new, the shiny, the glossy (and we’re certainly guilty of swaying in that direction occasionally here at BBH Labs), it’s actually delightfully refreshing to watch something that takes that long to watch, that involves relatively little post, and is, in effect, a piece of film that could have been shot decades ago (someone far more expert than us will surely be sharpening their pencil to tell us that this is in fact not the case).
But more than anything, it’s a reminder of the awesome power of a story, well-told. At BBH Labs, we’re heavily into the role of new forms of narrative from brands that involve audiences in novel ways. We’re also into forms of storytelling that use emerging technology platforms to engage people more deeply, particular across platforms, and in a social fashion (see our posts on interactive storytelling & the art of storytelling, for example). “The Man Who Walked Around the World” is, in one sense at least, back to the future. It’s long form, it’s linear, it’s free of special effects. Yet it engages because the story is strong, the delivery is (as far as we can tell) flawless, and the role of the brand – whilst central – is carefully nuanced.
As one of our favorite media thinkers, Griffin Farley, of agency 22squared, rightly points out when discussing the piece on his ‘Propagation Planning’ blog, it’s frequently the case that online video features fly-by-night production and little (if any) talent. That’s not to say that this rough & fast approach can’t work (it very often does), but when something of tangibly better quality comes onto the radar, it’s a reminder of the value that can derive from spending a little more time and money on making the production stand out. Yet it’s also a reminder of the power of a well-written story, told exceptionally well.
Watch out for plans to develop & extend the platform. We think this story is just beginning.
CREDITS
Brand: Johnnie Walker whisky
Agency: BBH London
Agency Producer: Ruben Mercadel
Creative Director: Mick Mahoney
Creative: Justin Moore
Planner: Lisa Matchett
Business Director: Jason Cobbold
Business Director: Pablo de Arteaga
Director: Jamie Rafn
Production: HLA
Producer: Stephen Plesniak
Director of Photography: George Richmond
Post Production: Glassworks London
Editor: Kate Owen
Beyond awesome and well worth celebrating. I put this in the same league with the Nike-sponsored animated piece from a little while back (that both you guys and I highlighted). Quality, no matter the format, shines through. 10 years from now the Cadbury dancing eyebrows video will have no resonance and no meaning for the brand. 100 years from now you could show this Johnnie Walker piece and it would still be brilliant.
Full disclosure – I’ve worked on JW in a public relations capacity, travelling the globe to support of their F1 sponsorship and my agency, Taylor, has been with Diageo for 20 years. We had nothing to do with this piece of master storytelling though.
Agree with Rick about resonance…and would add that having a great story to tell makes telling it much easier. There’s a big difference between made-for-viral and being so good that it becomes viral. The latter is certainly where this JW piece sits.
What a wonderful antidote to the cute-animals-and-talking-babies tactic for engaging attention these days. Goes to show the timeless appeal of a beautiful narrative wrapped in superb, thoughtful production.
Brilliantly done.
Refreshingly different it is. I thought at over 6 minutes it would get boring because I’m so used to 140-characters or 2 minutes at the most if it’s a video, but I didn’t. I’m actually glad there’s no digital component to this, and I’m intrigued to know if it was considered at all.
Agreed, this goes after organically acquired audience share off the strength of inspiration and perspiration, in equal amounts.
Always good to see the story of the story become the story. This is what 21st century story-telling is all about.
I absolutely love this. The simplicity of the piece, and the great delivery make it come alive for me – even after I had read the background text first. (I wonder how much more intriguing it is for people who are not told beforehand it’s one take – and wonder if it is?)
The honesty of everything in this: brand as story, one take, spectacular but funky, real setting, props you could pick up at junk store, make it electrifying as Hell. I wanted it to be longer!
My only suggestion is I wish the sound from the clutch of TV’s with contemporary ads was recorded live.
love the film it’s awesome but did you hear they are closing the distillery upon which tis based? via some darwell
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/08/05/exclusive-last-surviving-relative-of-johnnie-walker-accuses-diageo-of-betraying-whisky-workers-and-her-family-86908-21572237/
[...] Vía [...]
Really nice work. If people are looking for this idea taken to extreme I strongly recommend checking out Sokurov’s “Russian “Ark”. It’s a mesmerizing film from 2002. 90-minutes long, spanning 400 years of Russian history, shot entirely in the Hermitage, with a cast of hundreds, and not a single cut or digital fakery anywhere!
Incredible storytelling. As a commercial, this is one for the ages – within a few days I’m sure it will be all over all kinds of media. Great write-up on it, too – nice work.
well first off it has to be good, according to twitter it’s steve wax’s favorite commercial . . .
but in all seriousness this is what we need more of, great storytelling that transcends broadcast/print/ooh/digital and facilitates conversation across all mediums. creating a piece of work that gets people talking is more complex than a :30 spot these days. this does exactly that. not going to lie, i got chills the first time i watched this. it’s just spot on from casting to music, to photography to script. good advertising doesnt need to be shoehorned into a niche, hopefully this will lead a pack of brands to create entertainment that isnt selling to us, but selling around us
one thing’s for sure, i’ll be having a blue label at my dinner tonight.
very.good.indeed.
All the values of good scotch applied to long-form content.
Some more interesting background to the film on Creativity’s site – here’s a link: http://creativity-online.com/news/behind-johnnie-walkers-walk/138386
A rolling stone is worth two in the bush, thanks to this acrtlie.
I wrote “keep walking” on to an a4 pad in the office next to john hegarty’s in 1999. I drew the man walking the other way to walk the way the eye scans the line and stuck him between the two words. John loved it the moment he saw it an gave me a handsome pay rise as a result of the pitch win. it’s great seeing this stuff 10 years later. keep walking
Thanks for the many generous and enthusiastic comments today. Really appreciate them and I’m sure the JW team responsible (who should take 100% of the credit here) will get around to responding to some of these in the not too distant future. Cheers, Ben.
Robert is on record saying this is the hardest job he’s ever done. The guy has an amazing memory…plus an unerring ability to time his walk past each of the props perfectly. Genius.
This reminds me of dance, it is amazing but doesn’t show how hard it’s working to be effective. It reminds me of what I love about art and advertising and those times when they meet.
Antonio alludes to a great point. This looks effortless, but was of course amazingly difficult to pull off. That’s a pretty good definition of art in my book.
[...] this short stands out because of its sharp copywriting and great direction. Be sure to visit the BBH Labs post to read more about its inspiration and how it was done. By the end, I wanted to COL (clap out loud) [...]
[...] terrifically compelling filmmaking in support of a brand. Read the full story over at BBH Labs. This is such a departure from the “let’s make a viral video!”-mentality that [...]
Great interview with the film’s director, Jamie Rafn of HLA, London in Contagious here: http://bit.ly/NuceA
A dissenting voice – I love the idea, the direction, the script and the shot, but I think Carlyle is miscast. I don’t think he has enough warmth or gravitas to balance the tough, uncompromising landscape and script. He seems a little too chippy and whiny – I keep hearing Begbie, and that’s not good.
(And this is a very minor point, but he also seems to be walking funny at the end.)
A truly engaging piece of work. And different. I would be really interested to know how it is used?
[...] can read more about it on the BBH Labs website, or check out the interview with Jamie Rafn here. You can follow any responses to this entry [...]
Inspiring. Engaging. Not sure the credits are needed at the end, but it makes sense to credit all those involved since it really is such an amazing feat to pull this 1-take piece of film off.
… which is why we credited the folks involved at the end
Some great comments here. For me the film is more proof that a brand can start a story about itself that people want to hear. We may (rightly) be obsessed by the need to ‘socialise’ the brands we work on, but simply creating forums for ‘real people’ to chat about a loosely brand-relevant topic (for example) cannot be the answer for all brands, all of the time. The truth is we forget many brands have ‘real people’ behind them with incredible stories waiting to be told, and told well. To add to Rick’s point, if you can dig them out and then execute brilliantly, those are the stories that really last, building myth and magic around a brand.
How we share and propagate those stories nowadays is where at least 50% of the action lies however. For me the most interesting learning from this Johnnie Walker film, albeit still in its infancy, is in Dan Light’s comment above which I like so much I am going to repeat it here:
“Always good to see the story of the story become the story. This is what 21st century story-telling is all about.”
[...] at 2:22 pm · Filed under advertising and tagged: BBH, drinks, Johnny Walker This is just a gorgeous piece of work from BBH here in London. Especially poignant to me after the work that I was working on for Bacardi [...]
I understand that this is used in “internal comms” via your twitter comment?
Surely not?
Everything that has been said is about the work socializing the brand with consumers. Surely it needs to reach them to do that?
I am gutted if it is just internal and shocked that the expense would be spent on converting those that should be evangelists already. If I were the brand, I would buy the cinema time and get it to the punters.
This is brilliant storytelling. We live in times where if you can’t say it in 140 characters then it might not be notice. The fact that JW’s Keep Walking story remains interesting after 4 minutes in this piece tells me that the art of storytelling is not taking that path.
As Mel said, at the end of the day, this is about real people. That’s why it becomes a fresh breath of air to know we still can rely on the power of a good brand story to connect with them.
I saw this in the cinema before the main feature, and it’s the first time I have experienced the whole packed cinema silent during te ads. Personally, I think it’s a masterpiece of cinematography.
I felt quite emotional at the end of the ad, as it is a stirring, compelling story, but the sheer perfection of the timing and the narrative by Robert Carlisle all done in one take was just awe inspiring.
Thanks to BBH for a stroke of genius; hats off to you.
Simply sensational!