When the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association decided to promote indigenous pubs to Canuck readers with a two-spot campaign, there were obstacles. First, it was the post-Sept. 11 world, so comparisons to US brands were out. Second, outside the industry, the CMPA wasn't exactly a household name. So, how do you build a brand and promote a Canadian industry? Kangaroos. Lots of them. And elephants. Elephants playing hockey.

In "Rocky Mountain Kangaroo," a group of kangaroos frolic in snow-capped mountains. Closely resembling a "Hinterland Who's Who" PSA (a series of campy '70s conservation spots every Canadian remembers with an odd fondness), the spot uses original footage, lots of stock, and is slick enough to make you wonder if kangaroos do call the Rockies home.

"Paul Henderson Elephant Soccer" shows a team of Asian elephant polo players recreating Paul Henderson's winning goal over the Soviet Union in the '72 Summit series - a piece of Canadian hockey folklore, although viewers old enough to remember it might have a hard time placing the elephants.

MONEY WRANGLING

The two spots were part of a $3.6 million US campaign with print, direct mail, Web and in-store components as well as a roadshow of award-winning magazine covers. Much of the funding came from in-kind services, with pubs providing space pro bono, dropping the outlay of cash to near $2 million. The majority of that money came from the Canadian government (although, as always, government money proved to be a mixed blessing).

CMPA project director Maureen Cavan knew the spots would do the job, even though magazine readers are not necessarily heavy TV viewers. "[When those readers] watch TV, they watch specialty channels," she explains. "So we bought a specialty channel campaign and were able to have terrific penetration of our target audience, whom we defined as moderate to heavy magazine readers, aged 25 to 49." The CMPA also bought into news, weather and cable outlets, both in English and French.

Cavan chose Toronto agency One Company and challenged them to come up with a way of branding the local pubs. One came back with the slogan: "It's not the same if it's not Canadian. Get the genuine article," a tag that became the center of the campaign.

One Company presented content ideas last September, and the finals were decided upon by the end of October. That's when the heavy hand of the government was felt. Funding approval didn't come until January, so production was squeezed into three weeks after Christmas in order to meet the CMPA's mid-February street date.

In the end, both spots were produced for under $165,000, with a significant portion of that going to the Henderson audio lift.

TAKING STOCK

For stock, One turned to agency producer Karen Peterman. Peterman says finding the elephants wasn't a problem (there is an annual elephant polo event... really), but the kangaroos were another matter. Obviously, none would be found lolling about in the mountain snows - that would have to be shot - but suitable backgrounds had to be found.

Peterman turned to footage.net and placed her request at the portal. Within hours, matches were found at National Geographic in Washington and Getty Images NY. "We found footage that had mountain goats and bears in it," recalls Peterman. "So, we had to edit pieces together that went along with a script to make our [background] plate and then had to paint out the animals."

The stock deal was straightforward. Explains Peterman, footage is charged "per shot, at about $2,000 a shot, and it can be any length. But, the more you buy, the cheaper it gets. You're better off if you can get as much footage from one house as possible. They just keep giving you a deal." (Buying a half dozen shots can drop the per-shot price by about 25%.) Although it sounds like an inexpensive alternative to shooting, Peterman suggests some caution. "I think the misconception is that stock footage is cheap. Two thousand dollars a shot doesn't seem like a lot, but sometimes it can take between 10 and 15 shots a commercial."

After the footage, the audio was easily found, but it came with its own set of difficulties. Says Peterman of the Henderson goal play-by-play: "When the feed came from Russia, right at the point where Foster Hewitt is yelling that Paul Henderson scored, there is a huge glitch in the satellite feed. Our audio guys found the word 'Canada' elsewhere, pieced it back together and made it sound totally clean."

The tech was only the first audio hurdle. Brian Groves, copywriter at One, explains, "We were the first ones to use more than 11 seconds of that Henderson clip. No one had ever asked for a 30-second needle drop, and they were a little hesitant to let us use it. The guys on the '72 Team Canada actually own it, and there's a gentleman who brokers the usage of it for them. When we sent him the scripts, he said: 'Oh, I don't know. You're referencing Paul Henderson as being as fat as an elephant.' But he took it to the guys and they loved it, so we had no problem getting it after that."

BOXING THE 'ROO

Meanwhile, the "Rocky Mountain Kangaroo" spot was in need of kangaroos. Mark Morton, the editor at School in Toronto who worked on the spots, began the process by building backgrounds from the stock Peterman collected. Starting from several 30-minute tapes, School compiled 30 seconds of background, and Morton met with director George Morita to decide how to dress the shots and storyboard the kangaroos for each scene.

Marsupial problems were unavoidable. Peterman found two kangaroos in Canada (one only a few hours away at about $2,000, plus travel), but kangaroos are not bright. "This kangaroo had never been in a shot before," notes Groves, "and [the handlers] had never done a commercial. The trainer came in and he was all scratched up. You can't train those animals. Not at all." Minutes stretched to hours and nothing was on film. "Kangaroos aren't really good in closed-in situations," says Peterman, "and then all of a sudden being in a green environment with all the lights shining on it...." The crew was set to start shooting by 11:00, but nothing hit film until after 3:00. In the three hours that followed they got every shot they needed.

Groves recalls the day with some envy: "They were setting up a [Nike] Dr. Funk spot next door... and we're running a kangaroo around a corral." From almost the first shot (trying to get the kangaroo to run up a ramp in order to approximate a rocky slope in the background), the crew began considering what other animals they might use. But after several hours the kangaroo tuckered out, and they managed to get some shots.

The most complicated shot has the kangaroo boxing itself, a feat accomplished in post. "I had to take a shot of the kangaroo," explains Morton, "and double it to make it look like there were two actually fighting, which was difficult because the trainer was holding onto the its arms. We had to actually create the forearms."

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

The Kangaroo spot took the most time in post. Beyond adding snow and shadows, and taking out the extra animals, there were a host of concerns. Morton recalls: "The backgrounds were all from different places... so we did a low-contrast, trying to make it look like '70s film. We [gave it] a washed out, de-saturated look, and then took the kangaroo footage itself and keyed it over the backgrounds." To make the kangaroos look unique some were transferred darker. The next stop was Axys for the compositing on the inferno. The entire post process took five days and nights - with two days devoted to the boxing scene. The final stage was to add birds (for extra reality), film grain and neg dirt.

The elephant spot took little post time. Morton cut the footage from a single event and pieced it together as though one of the teams was moving from right to left. (He also made sure there were the legal number of elephants for a hockey game - and changed the uniform of the player riding the scoring elephant so he would be wearing Canadian colors.)

In total, the five days of post ran about $26,000 (plus an editor), bringing the cost of stock and manipulation to near $52,000. (By comparison, the day of shooting ran to about $45,000.)

...IS WORTH A KANGAROO IN THE BUSH

Although it's too early to judge results (the direct mail just dropped), Cavan says word of mouth has been incredible and online subscriptions are higher than hoped. She expects a follow-up campaign to begin planning soon.

And although a ton of stock footage can be the bane of an editor's existence, Morton says he didn't find the job daunting. "People don't realize what you can do if you find the right stuff. The gag of the kangaroo spot is the stuff that we shot ourselves, but we made it look real by combining it with stock. And then of course, the elephant spot is all stock and it's hilarious. It's the only stock spot I have on my reel because it's a great laugh and a great idea. If you have a great idea, the footage comes second."

CREDITS:

Agency - One Company Inc.
Creative Director - Jim Ranscombe
Writer - Brian Groves, Irfan Kahn
Art Director - Stephen Leps, Rick Mayzis
Agency Producer - Karen Peterman
Production Company (Mountain Kangaroo specific): Avion Films
Director (Mountain Kangaroo specific): George Morita
Post Prod Company - Crush - titles and supers
Compositing - Axyz, Dave Giles
Editing - School, Mark Morton
Sound Design - Pirate Music