Saving Aslan
Fixodent
Issue 35 | June 2015
Agency
Saatchi & Saatchi Italy
Creative Team
Art Director Alessio Bianconi Manuel Musilli Copywriter Alice Scornajenghi
Production Team
Production Company Golden Planes Director Sven Harding Wayne De Lange DOP Wayne De Lange Executive Producer Herman Le Roux Music Pressure Cooker Studios Dustin O’Halloran
Other Credits
Regional Creative Director John Pallant Executive Creative Director Agostino Toscana Creative Director Manuel Musilli Salvatore Tarallo Account Director Simona Boracchia Digital Strategist Philip Mattei TV Producer Lavinia Confortini
Date
March 2015
Background
Denture adhesive was such a functional product, raising awareness and changing perceptions of Fixodent was always going to be challenging. Nevertheless, the brief was to reach out to younger partial plate wearers to position the product as their ally in the difficult period of transition that occurred after teeth loss.
Idea
Fixodent knew better than anyone about the physical and emotional distress that could be caused by tooth loss.
So when they heard about Aslan, a nine- year old white lion who had lost his bite, they were determined to help him.
Partnering with the Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary, Fixodent went to South Africa to sponsor an operation that had never been attempted before to repair Aslan's jaw.
Veterinarian Dr. Steenkamp and anaesthesiologist Adrian Tordiffe successfully operated on the lion, who was successfully reintroduced to his pride just four weeks later.
The online film captured Aslan's journey from isolation to recovery, the same journey Fixodent helps many denture and partial plate wearers make.
Results
The video was posted up on March 30th, rapidly becoming one of the ten most-viewed and shared videos on YouTube (source: viral video chart). The campaign attracted global media coverage, generating spontaneous conversation on Twitter and Facebook, changing perceptions of the brand.
Our Thoughts
What I love about this is that what started out as a brief for a 30-second TV commercial wound up here, a film over five minutes long which has 9 million views on YouTube in just a month, let alone all the tens of thousands of views for the ‘behind the scenes’ videos. Proof people will stay with a story if it’s interesting enough.
When I look at branded content, what often seems absent is the branded bit. Content with no obvious role for the brand except as sponsor. Here, though, the brand is absolutely central to the idea, even if the product name is only discreetly mentioned in a couple of titles. The story of a lion, who becomes anti- social and depressed because he has lost his teeth is clearly a metaphor. In fixing Aslan, Fixodent has established its credentials as the experts in oral care.