BEHIND THE STORY: LE PETIT PARKOUR

Few days ago I did a post (in french) about the Guarana Antatica viral video on youtube: le Petit Parkour!!!
I did get the chance to interview one of the mastermind behind the concept and creation.

credit of the picture: Rodolfo Goudinho

Daniel Ottoni (on the picture) is a young brazilian art director at DM9DDB (DDB Brazil) one of the largest agency in brazil.Daniel is a nice guy originated from Belo-Horizonte, one of the biggest city  and seems to be very funny. we were so excited by the Guarana Antartica commercial that we sent him a mail to more informations and know more about the story behind the story. He kindly answered all my questions. (we definitly need more art director like him ;0)

EmergenceSportsMarketing:

What made you choose parkour to illustrate the video? Why ?

Daniel Ottoni: 

We love Parkour and all the energy generated by a sport that requires extreme concentration and performance from the traceur. The integration that exists between the traceur and the urban environment is not only in form, is contagious. The concept of Guaraná Antarctica is energy that is contagious. So, it was just a matter of putting the two things together.

ESM

  How do you came with the concept of "petit parkour"?

 D.O

It all started with as a joke between friends. Estêvão Queiroga, copywriter and my partner at this work has always played Petit Parkour. He made ​​this movements on our way to lunch. Until one day Moacyr Netto, our creative director said we should do the video. We convinced Estêvão to be the main actor in the video and he did a professional work. ;)

ESM 

·       How do you know about parkour? Did you knew it before?

D.O

In Brazil Parkour is known and has been practiced for some years. There are schools and organized groups of people who take the sport seriously and disseminate its practice. It wasn't hard to talk about it.

ESM 

·       It seems like you wacthed a lot of videos of parkour because you picked and reused the parkour's code but turned them into a funny way, could you say more about that?

D.O 

The truth is that we only play with what we like. We always watched videos, and people practicing Parkour. These codes helped to create Petit Parkour. We wanted to create a new sport that anyone can practice, even without being an athlete and being an athlete and also a tribute to Parkour.

ESM

·       It is pretty funny the way you made fun of  fench language and french accent, did all brasilian see us talking that way?

 D.O

We know that this is not the French accent, lol. We also love France and it was a way to make a humor that mix French, English and Portuguese languages, often in a single sentence. When we created it, we had no idea what would be the reaction in France, if people would understand the humor, but when we saw that the video was widely seen and well commented upon in France, we were extremely happy.

ESM 

·      How do you came with the idea of a song only with french expression? Who is the Band?

D.O 

Estêvão Queiroga wrote the lyrics. He's also a musician and his original work in music is fantastic. In addition to acting, he also sang and created the melody with our partners of Cabaret Studio. Estêvão is a one-man show, besides being very funny. It's impossible to keep a straight face around him, even in ordinary situations.

EMS 

·       How DDB and the Guarana Antartica company received the concept?

D.O  

DDB Brazil as well as Guaraná Antarctica loved the concept and supported us to make the video. When we saw the support received we had something good in hands.

ESM 

·       Guarana isn't as well as it is in brasil but the video seems to have take over the net , in some way thank to the parkour communities all over the world. Did the video reached the expectations ?

 D.O

The video is doing way above our expectations. We had many posts from different parts of the world and in Brazil were so successful that the film ended up at MTV in a one minute version. I believe that beyond achieving a universal language, it is an honest work. We put our hearts on it.

ESM

·       Parkour is an exteme sport but hanging with friends seem to be even more extreme to you...

D.O

All that is done with friends is better. I believe that even Parkour. This work I did with my friends at the agency.  DDB Brazil itself is not just an agency is a union of friends who work together. The feeling of union is very strong in our team.

The partners of Talk Filmes, the production company who shot Le Petit Parkour are my friends. They are used to work with me, I'll ask to change several times until find me satisfied with the end result and quality. We know how to deal with each other because we already we are close friends.

We went through a historic period in which it said that business with friendship should be not mixed. This is a big lie. You can be friends and be professional at the same time. Moreover, it's much easier to trust and have fun with your friends.

My advice is to spend more time with your friends. Life is too short to have bad coffees.

 ESM

·       What makes the video funny is that you realize only at the end that this is a commercial, the action and the music keeps the viewer captive... people wants to share it , it deadly viral what do you think?

D.O 

Le Petit Parkour is a story of a group of friends who live in the suburbs and has no money but they can have fun as they use the elements of the city as obstacles. This need not be said, but it's all there.

The shooting is done as if they were interviewing for television network documentary. I wanted the scene in which the brand appears to be when one of the members goes through an initiation to finally join the group. The product itself comes as a magic wand in the pet version to allow the guy to be a member of the group.

It was a hard work to do the whole story and all the steps for creating, shooting and editing was very intensive. I believe it brought a genuine result.

And you tell us what  you think? Did you know about Guarana Antartica before?