BITE Insight

Sometimes brands tell emotional stories that tug at the heartstrings, using individuals that the viewer can relate to and empathise with. But sometimes, brands accept that humans often aren’t the best transporter of a message. Sometimes, all you need is a body-popping animated chameleon.

JWT worked with VFX artists from the studio MPC to create Roccy the chameleon, who dances along to Panjabi MC for the integrated Berocca campaign #BeMoreBerocca. Produced by MPC Creative, the chameleon was designed to energise the nation, exaggerating the feeling of being at your best. The campaign encouraged people to use Berocca, not just as a restorative measure but as something that can be taken every day to make you feel more energised.

MPC, the studio behind Oscar-winning film The Jungle Book, created the Ace technology behind Roccy for both the advert and the subsequent social activity. They designed and made a bespoke piece of software that renders Roccy in real time. Whatever people asked to see Roccy do, an animation could be created in seconds. It also allowed Roccy to be added into pre-existing home videos.

Roccy changes the way the pharmaceutical industry markets itself. The ad may be for vitamins, but the dancing chameleon from a brand like Berocca is unexpected for the audience. JWT and Berocca have harnessed the power that a simple, animated, but realistic, character can hold over a viewing audience and the emotional response that it produces, recognising that “sometimes, the best way to express a simple human truth is by doing it without people”.