Emerald and Asenshal create Sri Lanka’s first – ever ‘remote shoot’ for Runn innerwear

Tuesday, 16 December 2014 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

‘We Get Our Guys’ records 60,000 views in the first week Sri Lanka’s leading clothing manufacturer Emerald recently teamed up the creative agency Asenshal to break all boundaries and take advertising to new frontiers with its ground-breaking television commercial (TVC) for the Runn brand of innerwear. Launched a couple of weeks ago on radio, television and on the internet, the commercial ‘We get our Guys’ features up and coming YouTube sensation Tharindu Wijesekara (aka Gappiya). It reached over combined 60,000 views within the first week, as per statistics from the Runn Official Facebook Page. The TVC reached massive virality with people creating memes from screenshots and sharing it with friends online. Manufactured by Emerald and priced at Rs. 275 upwards, the Runn innerwear brand is made exclusively for Sri Lankan men, and, comes in a wide range of Boxers, Briefs and Vests. This also includes packages such as Brio – two in one briefs. Runn showcases novel versions of

underwear such as the The Exposed Elastic Brief, which is a combination of a boxer and a brief where the exposed elastic in boxers is incorporated into a brief design. Unlike its competitors, Runn is specially crafted for the Sri Lankan physique, with the quality of the fabric used being on par, and, on some occasions, even far superior than its competitors. “When Emerald approached us to develop a campaign, Runn had already been in the market for over a year. We needed to convey that Runn is made by Sri Lankans for Sri Lankans and that it is a brand that perfectly understands the consumer. And all this within a very brief time frame,” says Shaveen Bandaranayake, Managing Director/Creative Head of Asenshal Limited. “We realised that in order to get the maximum impact offline and maximum virality online, we had to resort to unconventional means. We wanted to spread the message through a medium that resonates with the target group and use an iconic figure which is instantly recognisable,” noted Shashin Weeratunga, Creative Director of Asenshal Limited. Kisani Dahanayake Head of Marketing of Emerald said, “Producing a TVC for a major campaign such as ours by remote control is a daunting and risky exercise. As a company that is at the forefront of innovation by allowing new, unique and at times revolutionary processes to take place, we had great confidence in Shaveen Bandaranayake and his ambitious teams both in Sri Lanka and Australia. The end result has surpassed all our expectations. The response from across the globe is continuing. It is very positive and very encouraging. With Asenshal, Runn and We Get Our Guys’, were proud to blaze a trail and set forth once again into new and innovative territory.” With Tharindu Wijesekara based in Australia, the entire shoot morphed into a remote yet totally live shoot across continents linking Sydney and Colombo. This was unprecedented and demanded perfect coordination and split second timing. With storyboards and scripts criss-crossing the two cities over the internet, Asenshal directed the process over Skype from Sri Lanka while the shoot took place simultaneously in Australia. “There are a lot of patriotic and emotional commercials on TV today, proving that Sri Lankan advertising has come a long way. We had to thus find a way to rise above such great ideas so as to resonate with the audience and become memorable,” said Senthooran Katpaganathan, Managing Director/Chief Strategist of Asenshal Limited. The Asenshal team successfully navigated the different time zones while co-ordinating the technical requirements (lighting, angles, rehearsals etc) to perfection. With the concept being unique and very flexible, the team resulted in shooting three commercials as opposed to the one that was originally planned. The commercial is currently on local television and has sparked great interest and attention on the internet on http://on.fb.me/12Ht847.