Have a Me Moment with Spark44 and Tetley Herbals

Spark44 commissioned LEAP’s integrated advertising production teams to support their multichannel campaign for Tetley Herbals. Spark44’s creative scenarios for the ‘Need a Me Moment? campaign’ feature a cup of perfectly blended herbal tea as a comforting gesture to lift the spirits of three hapless heroes coping with a mini food-fight, DIY disaster, and make-over mishap.

Spark44 producer Elizabeth Newton says, "Working with LEAP is always a really great experience. For our social campaign they looked after the whole shoot and edit process alongside seamlessly arranging the deliverables and managing the digital and press elements. They collaborate really well with our creatives and client which makes life easier for the whole team".

LEAP’s production team, under the creative direction of Danny Coster, found effective ways to maximise efficiency and ensure Covid-safe compliance. Casting sessions took place online. Pre-production planning including storyboarding, set design and stunt tests ensured that the team could capture the scene of a foot crashing through the ceiling while maintaining rigorous health and safety standards.

Filming with babies is notoriously complicated, perhaps more so during a pandemic, so LEAP found a way to harness technology and avoid the need for an infant on set. VFX editors working with the developers of Mug Life used facial mapping and 3D animation to manipulate a photo of a baby. The baby’s spaghetti-smeared expression could then set the scene for Mum’s need for a Tetley Herbals ‘Me Moment'. 

During the studio shoot, LEAP configured a direct video link from the camera output and connected it with the Spark44 offices via Microsoft Teams. This enabled the agency and client teams to collaborate with the onset production team. LEAP also set up a remote editing station using an Atomos Sumo playback system to utilise ProRes proxy files. Thus, the creatives and clients could approve takes and timings of a ‘soft’ edit without having to wait for the camera rushes to be ingested into an editing suite. After the shoot, agency creatives were able to attend the final postproduction grading and finishing sessions via video links. 

To make the most of the shoot and content creation opportunities, LEAP’s digital team also used the live-action assets to create the digital marketing campaign. Using hand-coded animation techniques, LEAP’s designers developed HTML5 banner ads which would maximise the campaign’s reach across a wide range of sites. 

Within a few days of filming, LEAP’s integrated advertising production teams were able to deliver the three creative routes in a variety of formats ready for roll out across social media platforms, digital displays and press publications.