Dancing in the world of bookmakers
Every two years, the football championship captures the entire African continent. As part of the partnership between 1xBet and the African Football Confederation, we have created three commercials for broadcast on television and stadiums for the 2022 World Cup.
For several years now, the concept of "Everyone has a chance" has been going through all 1xBet's activities in Africa — it unites the bookmaker's players with the participants of the tournament with a chance to win. Starting from this concept, we started to come up with the idea of commercials with the question: "What does the African Cup of Nations give people, and why is it so important to them?"
The answer is simple: football unites African countries living in constant conflicts (at least for a while). They also were united by music, rhythm, and movement. So we decided to make an energetic dance story in the world of bookmakers. There are no habitual interactions with the brand and direct calls to action, the purpose of the video is to convey the atmosphere of unity of people arising in the dance.
Is he definitely from there?
To implement the idea, we were looking for representatives of the participating countries of the championship. The selection of heroes was a responsible and long stage, Africans perfectly distinguish each other's nationalities. Due to the pandemic conditions, it was impossible to go to Africa in search of natives, so we had to look for all of them in Moscow. The task was made more difficult because all the characters had to dance well — the success of our plan directly depended on this. We selected 8 out of 50 people.
Since the 2022 championship will be held in Cameroon, representatives of this country (they are also representatives of 1xBet according to the plot) have become the main characters of the videos. We were lucky to find a Cameroonian couple who set the dance and energy bar for all the other guys.
Making a ballet
We shot three independent videos with a common plot, but different main characters and the order of their interaction with other dancers. Thus, representatives of different countries and parts of the population were at the center of the story to reach the widest possible audience.
Big football, like a wave, captures the whole continent. The bet, adding dynamics to the game, in our videos becomes a catalyst for this wave and starts the process of reviving everything around - people, music, light. Therefore, we shot each video all in one shot. The lens accompanies a gradual "awakening — in the center of the frame, the main character begins to move simultaneously with the cameraman, gradually enlivening and involving representatives of other African countries in the dance. Such shooting implies careful synchronization at each stage.
A lot depended on the choreographer's work on the set. Despite long and persistent rehearsals, we spent more than half of the 15-hour shift on the first video, spreading choreography, characters, music, props, and light by seconds. The cameraman synchronized with everything that was happening, moving on a segway — so we were able to achieve the correct movement of the camera with sharp acceleration and stops. After each take, we had to return all the elements to their original positions (and recharge a million firecrackers). In fact, we were creating a ballet by checking and automating the movements of each element and team member. To create an African ethnic vibe, we used artistic means and also Cameroonian music that we made.
Despite all the difficulties, each of us enjoyed the process immensely. Instead of the usual advertising shooting, a theater was taking place on the site.
