Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.
I am (Ricardo Chadwick) the Executive Creative Director of this Project at Fahrenheit DDB, and also the film director.
We created the idea at the agency for our client Plaza Vea, the leading Peruvian Super Market, but unlike most of the campaigns we create, in this case we lead the production and the execution. Because of the complexity of the activation and the unpredictable reaction of the 60,000 Peruvian fans that invaded Russia, we decided to assume the leadership of the process, but always with the support in the production of Canica Films and Roxana Rivero, and Bazelevs from Moscow.
Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about and when was it released?
In 2018 Peru finally qualified for the football world cup after 36 years. The country lived an euphoria never seen before. People even sold their cars to follow their team to the far stadiums of Russia. Plaza Vea Supermarket, that built its leadership in Peru based on the everyday low price promise, embraced the task of doing something to help Peruvians survive the expensive cost of Russia. To accomplish the task in each city where Peru had to play we made an agreement with three Russian Super Markets to lower the prices to match the ones the brand had in Peru. The only thing fans had to do was to show their ID, so they could access the Peruvian Prices.
Besides a Cannes grand prix, what would you like to win for your campaign?
One of the most important rewards this campaign is receiving is that a category that used to be boring suddenly became sexy and entertaining. The promise of delivering “Low prices” doesn’t sound very emotional, but context is everything, it can turn your communication upside down without changing your strategy. Also, the fact that a big well known campaign for a supermarket is winning Effies and Important creative awards, is the kind of reputation and fame you really want for a campaign, of course, as you said, besides a Cannes GP.
It is the second year of the new “Cannes Lions”. What are your thoughts on this? Is it now easier or harder to win a Lion?
I think that now it is harder for one single idea to win a lot of lions, and even less in categories that do not fit naturally with the essence of the idea. The new rules gives more space for the brilliant work that naturally belongs to Direct, PR or Entertainment. It gives back a more value to the single trophy. You don’t want a festival where a winner says “oh it went bad, we won only 3 lions”.
What would a Lion represent for this campaign, your agency and yourself?
It would be a final and wonderful recognition by a festival and colleagues that we respect to a piece of work that we enjoyed a lot doing, that took an important part of our lives last year and that already is part of the football and advertising history of Peru.
What about this work do you think will make it stand out to the jury?
The amount of energy and emotion around this historic moment for our country is impossible to resist and not feel. Every time we have showed this campaign, everyone asks me: How did you do it? And I think that this kind of impossible idea which seduces the jury. It seems so difficult to put this thing together… and it really was!
Where do you see this campaign going in the future?
The campaign went so well, that right now in Brazil there is a 2.0 version of this campaign going on for the Americas Cup.
But overall, Perussian Prices has been a break point and represents how client and agency have embraced the challenge to be bold and take risks, with powerful storytelling that strengthens the brand and the business.