Stamp bring to life Bridgestone’s Prepared to Perform campaign in the lead up to Paris 2024.
Bridgestone are proud Olympic and Paralympic partners heading into the Paris 2024 Olympics. After a competetive bid, Stamp were chosen by the creative agency WEAREFEARLESS to create the advertising campaign for TV and social.
We have created 14 spots from as many athletes in 5 nations and multiple languages. We wanted to really push how we could create such a large campaign as sustainably as possible and believe it is the most environmentally produced content of its type ever made. Learn more about how we achieved this landmark series below.
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Mission: Increase sales with a campaign that increases brand awareness and Olympic association. Working with the Fearless lead creative Directors Arch Sulivan and Kevin Howes, we worked to craft films that would show the hard work that elite Olympians go through away from the lights to ensure they don't rely on luck and are prepared to perform.
THE CLIENT
Bridgestone are a world leader in tyres and sustainable mobility solutions and worldwide Olympic partner. For this Campaign, Bridgestone Europe wanted a series that has both cinematic scale and the opportunity for emotion and the personal touch of each athlete. Their journeys are different but their dedication to meet any challenge is the same. Just like Bridgestone tyres where every tyre travels a unique path but is always poised to perform when tested.
THE AGENCY
WeAreFearless is an integrated creative agency solving business challenges differently through culture, sports and entertainment.
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14 Olympians/ Paralympians
5 territories: UK, Germany, France, Spain & Italy
Multiple disciplines: Speed Kayak, Canoeing, Fencing, Decathlon, Swimming, Breaststroke, Front Crawl, High-Jump, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Table Tennis.
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The Mission
The athletes in this series are formidable and represent some on the best ever athletes in the world representing France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Great Britain.
All films were made for their local markets with a few being selected for use internationally in multiple markets.
The atlehtes are a formidable set of competitors.
FR - AMANDINE BUCHARD, MANDY FRANCOIS-ELIE, KEVIN MAYER, PAULINE ADO, MANON APITHY-BRUNET & RÉMY BOULLÉ.
GB - ADAM PEATY, CHARLOTTE WORTHINGTON
SP - ANA PELETEIRO, SAÚL CRAVIOTTO
IT - GIANMARCO TAMBERI, GREGORIO PALTRINIERI
We wanted our filming to mimic their hard work but also, protect the planet. To do this only a very small crew from the UK worked across the seires with our local partners helping us reduce costs to the client and harm to the environment.
Sustainable filmmaking
Filmmaking is classed by B-Corp as an industry with significant impact. Here is how we sought to meet this challenge:
No plastic bottles of water on set.
Generated more power than we used by utilising our portable solar array.
Using Enterprise level Frame.io camera to cloud technology, we were able to reduce crew required to travel to set by over 50%.
Intelligent creativity - eg Day for Night filming eliminating the use of large and energy-sapping lights.
Instaled KoolShade on our studio to passively cool the office instead of using air conditioning.
Preparation
Each film was storyboarded to ensure, transitions and movements were safe and we could execute the films with only limited time with our finely tuned athletes.
We tested our systems and crew before we began filming to ensure we could achieve our amitious shots with effectively a crew of three supported by local runners and assistants.
Day for night
Night shoots are expensive, bad for the environment and bad for crew health. However, it is integral to the story to know that the athletes need to train all year round and often at uncomfortable times. To solve this issue, we did a number of day for night scenes in the campaign. Here Mandy Francois-Elie, the French Paralympian is working hard on a track at midday. We worked intelligently to get great shots in camera and then worked a little magic in post production (the wonderful team at Platform Post helped us here) to establish the narrative that she works hard year round.
Cinematography
The look of the campaign had to feel united, yet unique to each individual athlete and discipline. The way the camera moves, the lenses and the journey from preparation to perform and removing luck and chance from the equation. Benjamin Uttley is the Producer, Director and Director of Photography of this campaign utilising all twenty years of experience to pull it off.
Working with talent
Working with people is what we do best. Talent, crew, suppliers and agency all working as one to get what the client needs to meet their goals. For us, it all starts with the atmosphere on set and making sure it’s professional but also straight forward and any chellenges met with positivity.
Product shoot
We created animatics to prep for a product shoot that would be done by a different crew in Italy to save on flights and emissions. Getting the product into the story and relate the work Olympic athletes do to the rigorous preparation and work Bridgestone does was essential for the client and helped them drive sales.
Animatic of the Bridgestone tyre shoot as part of prepartions.
Sound Design
Sound will plays a key-part in delivering the emotion of all films we make. Working with an award-winning sound designer, engineer and composer to create and mix the sounds that bring the visceral sense of being in the moment with the athlete.
Every lap, squat, press and sprint towards performance should be heard. Close up ‘human’ elements drawing us in and sound design and subtle music will take care of the journey and pacing to a final climax.
Charlotte Worthington
The first British woman to win gold in BMX freestyle, Charlotte made history at Tokyo 2020 landing an extraordinary 360 backflip. A move never performed by a woman before.
In a sport she didn’t start until the age of 19, her meteoric rise to fame includes 2 bronze World Championship medals (2019/2021) and victories at the British and European Championships in 2019.
Preparation is key. Her training requires epic sessions to hone strength, flexibility, speed and co-ordination. Giving her the courage and confidence to go big when it matters most.
Sporting Achievements:
• Olympic Games Freestyle BMX Gold Medallist
• World Championship Freestyle BMX 2x Bronze Medallist
• European Championship Freestyle BMX Gold Medallist
