John West.
Clemenger BBDO has taken the traditional John West brand and introduced a cub into Alaskan-styled Queenstown in its brand campaign.
The campaign, created by Clemenger BBDO, follows a cub bear presenting fish to its mother, who is actually a John West fisherman.
It was filmed in Queenstown, New Zealand, in a single day.
The team captured the fisherman, scenery, and a variety of fur-covered balls for the VFX team to capture into bears in post-production.
Clemenger BBDO creative director Tian Murphy told AdNews that the shoot was shifted twice, and post-production took around three months.
“In the weeks leading up to the shoot, our location had some truly apocalyptic rain, and we had to shift the shoot twice,” said Murphy.
“So after a stressful couple of weeks gazing at weather forecasts, we crossed our fingers, packed our waders, and picked the only bright spot in a week of rain.
“In the end, the weather turned it on for us, and we had the most stunning day at one of the most picturesque locations.
It’s the first brand campaign John West has done in about 10 years, taking tribute to John West’s 2000 ‘Bear’ campaign, following a bear and a fisherman fighting comedically over a piece of salmon.
“We shot the fisherman and the location in Queenstown, but everything else was created from scratch in CGI," said Murphy.
“It was a particularly challenging process as we needed to find a sweet spot between photorealistic and characterful.
“Our bears needed to express much more human emotion than a genuine bear ever would. This meant a lot of back and forth with character design and testing out different looks along the way to the final result.”
Clemenger BBDO client partner Emma Salmon said that the brief was to bring back John West’s iconic, distinctive brand assets, the bear and fisherman, modernising them with a new chapter.
“One that would resonate with modern audiences in the same way the original ads had done so successfully,” Salmon said.
With competitor brands like Sirena and Greenseas, John West Tuna wanted to increase market share and awareness among younger audiences.
Simplot Australia’s director of marketing and communications, Jessica Romeo, said that the brief was about honouring a campaign that is deeply loved while ensuring it evolved modern tastes.
“We wanted to reintroduce the bear and fisherman in a way that felt nostalgic but also genuinely fresh for younger audiences discovering John West for the first time," Romeo said.
“It wasn’t an easy brief, and we knew it was going to take time to crack.
“Pairing the bear, fisherman and our distinctive tagline into a storyline that worked for our audience, and drove a connection with the brand was a challenge we knew the Clemenger team could take on.”
The tagline ‘it’s what it rejects that makes John West the best’ is described by Romeo as part of a ‘Australian advertising legacy.’
Murphy said the tagline probably couldn’t happen today.
“It’s long, it plays in the negative - it pretty much breaks all the rules,” he said.
“Which is probably why it works so well, stands out and is one of John West’s most enduring and recognised assets. It was a non-negotiable part of the campaign.”
Salmon said that the agency not only had great brand DBAs at its creative disposal but a tagline that is extremely well known.
“It was our job to take these elements that are so ingrained in the John West brand and bring them to life," she said.
“Clemenger’s values are grounded in courage - courage to do big things, courage to play, courage to speak your mind, courage to be your whole self as an example, and I feel in working with the Simplot team, we’ve collectively touched on all of these elements throughout the journey in bringing this campaign to life.
“Together we are brands that want to stand for the best and deliver quality, be that salmon or tuna for John West or advertising campaigns for us."
System 1 described the campaign as the "perfect mix of consistency and novelty that delighted the audience," with it becoming their ad of the week based on its score of 4.7 (out of 5).
"While the early creative testing has been incredibly encouraging, we’ll be looking closely at shifts in preference, taste cues, and ultimately market share," said Romeo.
"For us, great storytelling must also drive commercial outcomes."
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