Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand creates Live PacMan game in latest commercial for Telecom
There’s a lot you can do with half cent texts to any New Zealand network, including a life-size game of PacMan. Saatchi & Saatchi is launching Telecom’s latest Text Anyone 2500 offer (send 2500 texts to any network each month for just $12), with a TV commercial encouraging customers to have fun with their mobiles. The spot shows five mates playing a game of live PacMan, using their phones to text directions as friends take on the city streets as PacMan and the ghosts.
Says Saatchi & Saatchi ECD Dylan Harrison: “We wanted the idea toignite customers’ imaginations and entertain the possibilities of whatyou could do with 2500 1⁄2 cent texts. The Telecom network is reallyfast and because you can text any mobile network, we coordinated areal-life game of Pac Man. It’s a great little demo.”
KierenCooney from Telecom, says one of the brilliant things about Mobile ishow people are coming up with seemingly endless ways of using thephones and services. And this idea celebrates that – the imaginationand energy of New Zealanders, specifically in the way we’ve embracedMobile to enrich our lives.
“We want to reflect this increasedusage with better plans, and ensure customers have real certaintyaround the price they’re paying. That was the idea behind Text Anyone2500 – it’s the best text plan in New Zealand, you get 2500 texts toanyone on any New Zealand network for $12 – that makes it around half acent a text.”
The PacMan TVC is live from tonight and forms part of a wider campaign for Text Anyone 2500, including cinema and online.
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand
ECD: Dylan Harrison
Digital Creative Director: Scott Huebscher
Art Director: Rich Robson
Copywriter: Jon Austin
Head of Content TVP: Jane Oak
Group Account Director: Simon Wedde
Director: Adam Gunser
Producer: Declan Cahill
Production Company: Automatic Fims
43 Comments
Fun. A telecom ad actually brought a smile to my face.
Finally, some decent work from Telecom.
Clever idea. Beautifully shot.
Good job losing Felicity. Cringe.
I hate S&S and i like the ad… maybe i only hated mike and rocky after all.
Choice. 5 credits!
What’s going on here? What’s happened to angry blog? 2 posts, both positive. Where’s ‘It’s been done before, here look’? Where’s ‘Will be the last job for Telecom before it goes to DDBhotfootDroga5’. And the old fav ‘Will the last person out at Saatchi’s turn out the lights’.
When did Rich and Jon go back to Saatchis?
Nice work chaps. Kisses.
I really like this, go Wedde!
Boring. Been done before.
It’s a start anyway. Kinda circa 2002 when youtube style we really did this ideas were in vogue… but a decade ahead of bright shiny city chitty.
If they actually did have a live pac man game great. But an ad about it is just an ad.
It’s a nice ad. In fact, take the end frame away and it feels a lot like a Vodafone ad.
As boring as my clients may be, I still thank the Lord every day that I don’t have to work on Telecom.
That’s more like it 4:52! But, despite being a fellow blog hater, I have to admit I really enjoyed this spot. It actually made me think warm fuzzies towards a company I normally detest. Job done I say.
That kid with the ginger fro is awesome.
Like it.
Nice one.
I know this idea has been done before but I still love this ad. Its been beautifully shot, the timings great and its pushing Telecom into a more contemporary space with its brand. 5 stars.
This passed the smile test. Also I had the sound off.
i liked it better the first 5 times it was done.
Oh dear, been done before.
Jeez, between this, the National Bank ad, and the Freeview pile of poos, it has been a rather poor week for New Zealand advertising.
My only hope is that the CD’s of all the agencies involved will send an email around their creative departments to tell them that they are all crap.
Yes it has been done before and it does not have a particulary strong tie in with the message however….Nice ad, has feel good factor, and well shot (props to the director )……good come back S and S.
I agree with 5:21. It does have that vodafone ‘cool’ to it. I know from experience how much of a nightmare telecom can be, which makes me even more impressed that a spot like this made it through.
Well done. Some really nice creative.
Meh
2:59 – Rich and Jon left Tribal about 4 months ago I believe. Wonder if they miss all the starburst McDonald’s banners?
Great TVC from an up and coming team.
Dear Saatchi, while this is the best thing you’ve done in a while, to become great again (and i mean pre- 2004great) you’ve got to be original. To me this is sad. Anyone can lift ideas from you tube and hire a production team to trick the public -and the client – into believing you’ve done something great. When you clearly haven’t.
All you’ve done is charge Telecom a fortune for an american uni student’s idea from almost 10 years ago. -Which by the way was fantastic. I urge you, do something new. Or at least be decent pirates about it and track the kid down and send him some cash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQg7qOB5Heg (posted on aussie blog)
really, really really like it.
Nice one boys.
Like it, certainly the best thing Telecom has done in a long time.
Gold.
In the gratuitous use of a client’s kid category.
Great tie in with the product. Excellent creative. 5 stars.
Great to see Telecom go for a cool idea. No doubt there was a lot of smart selling to get that through. Well worth it, too.
looks cool. nice boys
Yeah, it’s good for telecom. But it’s still a bit of a Go Team video rip off.
Which is a rip off of various other youtubes.
Saatchi turnaround begins . keep it up boys
Done before? Sure. Did I like watching it as an ad? Yes.
Says Saatchi & Saatchi ECD Dylan Harrison: “We wanted the idea to ignite customers’ imaginations and entertain the possibilities of what you could do with 2500 1⁄2 cent texts. The Telecom network is really fast and because you can text any mobile network, we coordinated a real-life game of Pac Man. It’s a great little demo… That we got courtesy of youtube.” Come on guys, make sure you put in the complete quote.
So, 9:03 “My only hope is that the CD’s of all the agencies involved will send an email around their creative departments to tell them that they are all crap.”
You’ve clearly never been involved in any of these advert things. All the CDs would have been heavily involved, and potentially written the ads you mentioned. Perhaps they’ll just send emails themselves they’re crap. Oh, and there is no apostrophe on CDs.
If you’re going to slag people for being shit, try and be a little smarter yourself.
I likey 🙂
However I also thought Vodafone when I first saw it, oh well.
awesome stuff Jon and Rich!
Real life pacman? Done.
Real life pacman with fantastic tie into the product? Not done.
Great work guys. Best thing I’ve seen in a while.
Outstanding. Great work Rich and Jon. Looking forward to what else you guys crank out.
I liked it much more without the ‘fantastic product tie in’
By the way who in their right mind would even say fantastic product tie in, must be an American
i like how this will be the one and only good ad Dylan does at S&S before he moves on….only a matter of time before he heads off somewhere else with more international reputation.
I don’t know whether this is an original idea or not, but I like the concept. It’s fun, and Telecom desperately needs that.
The problem I have with it is in the execution. Maybe I’m thick, but I don’t know that I’d have understood what was going on if I hadn’t read the accompanying blurb. It’s supposed to be about sending loads of txts, but we only see one – “Turn right”. Is that enough to tell the story?