Street Surfers
We got people living thousands of kilometres away from the sea to care about ocean pollution.
Corona and Parley have partnered up to end marine plastic pollution and inspire real change in the fashion and beverage industries worldwide. We were asked to bring the story of how plastic pollution in urban areas can affect the oceans to an inland audience in a way that would resonate with them.
In South Africa, there are people who collect plastic waste on handmade carts to earn a meagre living by selling others waste to recycling companies. They are looked down upon and seen as a nuisance or even a danger.
By creating a link between these “street surfers” and the fun, wholesome image of surfers, we saw an opportunity to shine a light on the positive impact they have in protecting our oceans and turn them into heroes.
We partnered up with Frank Solomon, a South African Big Wave Surfer and ocean activist, to tell their story to the world and change how people see these amazing individuals.
Perseverence…
There were a lot of great ideas for this project in the agency, but this was the one we believed in and fought for. Our clients were not convinced and we had to commit to meeting some pretty big KPIs to justify the production and media spend. Much work and many conversations, presentations and emails were required to convince our clients that this idea was a winner.
We first sold this idea in 2018 and shot the parts of it with a different South African Surfer called Michael February, however, the client we were working with left and the project was put on ice. Once we had established new client relationships, we started the process again and convince new clients of the value in an “old” idea. In 2019, we resumed production with a new production company and Frank Solomon.
Michael Wilson, our Integrated Creative Director conceptualised and wrote the story based on his observations and brilliant insight. Jared Gower provided Art Direction and Justin Oswald was the copywriter.
We more than met the KPIs set by our clients and Corona Street Surfers ended up winning a Gold and the Grand Prix at Ab Inbev's Africa Zone Creative X awards along with a host of film festival, advertising and PR awards.