Wild Guides

Role: Creative and Writer

 

Awards: PR Week, Brand Film Festival: Winner Best Viral Film, Nominated: Best Consumer Brand Travel Marketing Awards: Runner Up, Best Rebrand

 

Sri Lanka Tourist Board challenged us to accompany the rebrand of their beautiful country with a campaign that would get locals and international visitors excited and visiting. So in difficult political circumstances  (it’s the only time I’ve been asked to stop work on a campaign because of an ongoing coup), Wild Guides was born. 

 

Working with the makers of Blue Planet II, we told a unique story about Sri Lanka, a country with the greatest biodiversity in the world outside of western Africa,  and created a tourism film that avoided all the cliches of beautiful people holding hands on a beach. 

 

We travelled around Sri Lanka for two weeks, filming wild animals, and seeing their natural habitat through their eyes. The shoot wasn’t without challenges. From elephants stepping on cameras, to baby turtles taking their sweet sweet time to hatch, we dodged mosquitoes and rabid cats to create the film. But the results spoke for themselves. 

 

The campaign went live across social media and quickly went viral in Sri Lanka. It received over 101 million views with a minimum paid media budget. The campaign has won numerous industry awards including Best Viral Film at the PR Week brand film awards.