Bain's Whisky TVC - remastering a masterpiece

This resonated with strategic digital marketing consultancy, Hoorah, the agency behind the TVC. The strategic digital marketing consultancy was briefed to create a campaign for the brand that would have relevance for a new and wider consumer audience.

The insight the campaign is based on is curiosity fuelled by experimentation as Bain’s audience likes to experiment and try new things.

A brave idea

“The brand’s core values that lie in curiosity and experimentation gave us a perfect platform to create something special,” says Hoorah co-founder Shaune Jordaan.

"It’s a brave idea that needed to be treated with credibility and authenticity, especially when working with some of South Africa’s icons. The idea challenges the status-quo of what whisky drinkers should be and perfectly places itself within our consumers and the concept of remastery,” he explains.

Mastery remastered is the creative idea that fuels the concept. “This is based on how Bain’s is remastering how whisky is made. The creative interpretation is how we take this concept with the added layer of curiosity and experimentation and align it to a consumer interest in music,” explains Jordaan.

A metaphor for remastery

"Music was used as a metaphor for remastery, taking a traditional yet iconic song and then reinterpreting it for a current audience. This highlights that Bain's is for everybody and you don’t have to be a traditional whisky drinker to appreciate,” he adds.

The new TV builds on Hoorah’s previous TVC for Bain’s, Whisky Made To Music, with music the pillar of the commercial.

In brainstorming the germ of the idea, the Hoorah team looked for a South African musical virtuoso with an iconic song. “The challenge was to find a way somehow to remaster the music at the same time as creating something visually outstanding,” says Jordaan.

Few tunes in the South African playbook have a more immediately identifiable intro than Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata and so the germ took root and the creative process began.

Recreating

The TVC uses AI, CGI, and advanced sound technology to recreate a Miriam Makeba performance of Pata Pata.

In the TVC, the unmistakable opening bars of the song transition into the remastered version. Working with Robin Kohl of Jazzworx as well as the Miriam Makeba Foundation, Hoorah brought in Sama-winning contemporary artists Sun-EL musician and Msaki who brought a modern twist to the song, whilst showing deep respect for the original version.

Combining the music with a complex process to bring Mama Africa back to life required a body double and transposing mapped images of Makeba’s face over that of the actress.

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Taking time

“There were so many elements that we had to get just right to retain the integrity of the original song when in fact the entire object of the exercise was to remaster it, so we really took our time with the project,” says Jordaan.

“It was important for us that the end product would convey the authenticity of both the artist and the song, and of course, most importantly, that of the Bain’s Whisky brand,” he adds.

Credits

• Client: Distell
• First flight date: 15 August 2022
• Agency: Hoorah Digital
• Client service director: Anine De Wet
• Account director: Jessica Cloete
• Executive creative director: Marco Russolillo
• Executive creative director: Gavin Wood
• Copywriter: Paige Nick, Eeden Eekers
• Art director: Karin Barry
• Agency producer: Chris Coetzee
• Director: Zwelethu Radebe
• Director of photography: James Adey
• Production co-art director: Keenan McAdam
• Stylist: Gabrielle Zarandah
• Production co-producer: Kerry Hosford
• Executive producer: Colin Howard
• Editing company & city: Me&My Friends, Cape Town
• Editor: Anthony Lee Martin
• Post-production co & city: BlackGinger, Cape Town
• Music & music publisher: Msaki & Sun-El Musician, remaster of Pata Pata by Miriam Makeba
• Sound design & mix: TigerFight