London, United Kingdom Jul 11, 2019 (Issuewire.com) - Paper Boat Creative's photography and post-production work on a poster ad campaign for Unilever Philippines won a highly-coveted Wood Pencil from the D&AD, a UK-based educational charity and non-profit whose annual awards have become "the Oscars" for the advertising and design community. Thousands of campaigns by agencies from all over the world vie for the approval and recognition of the D&AD juries, making a Pencil award a huge honour for any agency.
The prestigious D&AD Awards Ceremony took place at The Old Truman Brewery last May 23, 2019. The organization awarded Wood, Graphite, Yellow, and the elusive Black Pencils to agencies, creators, directors, and production companies who produced standout design and advertising campaigns in the last 12 months.
"[The award] verifies [our team's] skill as artists able to do work for international campaigns, and that our level is world-standard," says Rebecca Van Ommen, the Founder and Creative Director of Paper Boat Creative.
The campaign was for Unilever's Master Facial Scrub, a popular brand of men's facial soap in the Philippines. Ogilvy Philippines created the concept for the campaign and tapped Paper Boat Creative for its services on photography, production, and post-production.
"Do you know where that soap was used?"
The campaign centered on a typical situation in a Filipino household: men using the body soap everyone else uses as their facial wash. Most homes in the country have only one bathroom, and it is customary for family members to share one bar of soap. Unfortunately, while women have taken to buying their own soaps and facial washes, many men are still in the habit of using whatever is available in their bathrooms for washing their faces.
This became the premise for the Family Soap Series campaign for Master Facial Scrub. Ogilvy's concept was to demonstrate how the soap men use for their faces could have also been used on someone else's sweaty armpits, hairy back, or dirty feet. They wanted to show male characters in comical poses and pressed skin to soap to skin — funny images that send a clear message through to audiences.
Ogilvy needed a production house that could produce the shots and perform high-end photo retouching for this project. The agency chose Paper Boat Creative's owner and CEO, Rebecca Van Ommen, as photographer and Paper Boat Creative itself as the production house for this Unilever poster campaign.
The campaign consists of three images featuring pairs of naked men bathing and soaping up. Each poster showed a young man with a cheek pressed against a grandfather's foot, a dad's armpit, and a brother's hairy back. The finished pictures are funny, striking, and delivered the brand's message about thinking twice before using communal soap on one's face.
The Technical Challenges
The posters look simple, but creating them was challenging for many reasons.
First, the men in the posters weren't photographed in the exact poses as shown on the posters, nor were they in the nude (Ms Van Ommen also wouldn't receive nude photos for the campaign). The models all wore underwear which had to be edited out in post-production.
Second, the models weren't as flexible as the final image made them look to be. The Paper Boat Creative team had to manipulate their positions and the way they bent their arms and legs on Adobe Photoshop.
Third, although Ms Van Ommen photographed the models with soapy water sluicing over their skin, Paper Boat Creative's artists still had to enhance and digitally hand-paint a lot of the details that made the images look natural (e.g., hair clinging on wet skin, drippy bubbles). They also took photos of other men with a lot of body hair and layered those images over the models' skin.
The final pictures were what Ogilvy Philippines envisioned for Master Facial Scrub: funny and memorable posters that delivered the brand's message in one glance.
Striving for Accuracy in the Smallest Details
To ensure accuracy and realism in the final images, Ms Van Ommen and her team did some pre-production tests to determine the combinations of bubble densities and liquids that would work best for this campaign.
"We did a light test to ensure the details of the bubbles and hair would be seen across medium to dark skin tones," Ms Van Ommen shared. "We used about nine lights to create a very high-key, shiny look so that even if the layout was comical and messy, it still looked pristine."
Drawing body hair and bubbles also required precision and keen attention to details. What visible hair the models had was concealed under the bubbles and soapy water washing over their skin. The Paper Boat team, therefore, had to make sure the men's body hair was visible and realistic. "The images needed to look wet AND dry at the same time," remarked Ms Van Ommen.
A Tried and Tested Partnership with Ogilvy Philippines and Unilever
The Master Facial Scrub campaign isn't the first collaboration between Paper Boat Creative and Ogilvy Philippines. Both firms had previously collaborated on other brand campaigns for Unilever and Pfizer.
The history between Rebecca Van Ommen and Unilever goes further back. Immediately after graduating from Ateneo de Manila University, Ms Van Ommen was hired as the Art Director for all Unilever accounts at DYLL Communications from 2004 to 2005.
A Bright Chapter on the Horizon
Winning a Pencil from the D&AD is an honour reserved for professionals and agencies that have shown creativity, innovation, and excellence in their work. Ms Van Ommen sees this recognition as a testament to Paper Boat Creative's high level of expertise in photography, high-end retouching, creative compositions, and other post-production techniques.
"Advertisers can look forward to working with Paper Boat Creative on any illustration idea they can dream of, and we will make it a reality," says Ms Van Ommen. "[We are now in] the world of merging illustration with realistic photography, so there are no limits. Anything is possible."
Winning a Wood Pencil is a remarkable achievement as the advertising community recognizes the D&AD to be the highest — and most critical — body for judging art and commercial advertising in the world. D&AD, however, isn't the only organization to have seen the excellence of the concept and execution of the Family Soap Series campaign. It is also a finalist in other high-profile advertising awards, such as ADFEST, Spikes Asia, and Cannes Lions.
About Paper Boat Creative:
Paper Boat Creative was founded in 2011 by Rebecca Van Ommen, photographer, creative director, and a former Senior Art Director at Getty Images London. The company provides photography and post-production services, such as high-end photo retouching and editing, colour correction, creative compositions, and more. Its clients include Getty Images, Leo Burnett, CNBC, Men's Health, Adidas, Speedo, and VISA.
Paper Boat Creative has collaborated with award-winning ad agencies, photographers, and corporations in creating photos for commercial use, fashion spreads, and editorials.
Get in touch with Paper Boat Creative. Reach out to their offices in London or Manila via phone call or email.
Media Contact
Paper Boat Creative hello@paperboatcreative.com Avant at the Fort, 26th Street, BGC Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Metro Manila Philippines https://www.paperboatcreative.com/
