Campaign Spotlight: Ideas agency GIGIL sets the record straight about the brain-dead/brand-dead spot for RC Cola

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On a happenstance that I was within earshot of a mother tugging along her kid buying whatever’s the cheapest softdrink at a corner store, the owner, having just ran out of stock, pokes humor into the transaction and says to the kid, “Let’s check beneath your mama’s head, maybe there’s an RC inside.”

Controversial and polarizing. At those two descriptions, one no longer has to state the obvious which ad is the subject. When an ad has created as much Twitterverse explosion, and memes beyond the usual metrics of likes and shares, that brand has sealed its fate as a gamechanger among local companies.

For years, the driving preference for RC Cola was its price point. The creatives behind “that ad,” GIGIL, shared more about the brief. “The brief given to us was that the competition was now at parity with RC in terms of pricing—something that used to be its biggest advantage. Because of this, the brand needed to stand for something stronger, more differentiated in the mind of the Gen Z drinker.”

But how does it go from that insight to this:

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In talking to the word on creativity, GIGIL set the record straight, once and for all: RC Cola is for the cool kids.

In their creative process, they came out wanting to “make the brand stand for something cool in the minds of the Gen Z audience, so much so that they’d want to be associated with it.

‘RC is my brand because it is cool, and I am cool.’”

Creatives who fit the demographic

The agency admits that one ace up their sleeve is having a creative team that fits the profile of their target market. Having this insider’s view led to the ultimate decision to latch on humor over the time-tested ways of music and taste tests.

With the wide spectrum of comedy–from satire to slapstick–the agency marked a spot for Gen Z’s “just because” humor.

Describing the parallel between the brand and the consumer, they said, “They don’t need a list of reasons before doing something. They can do something ‘basta masaya!’ They can buy something basta gusto nila! They can drink something ‘basta masarap!’ We appropriated that attitude and made the brand stand for it. Making the RC a mirror of our drinker, so they see RC as the softdrink that’s really theirs.”

“At first, the team presented lots of stories playing around ‘Basta’ humor. With the help of Badong and Herbert, together with our director Marius Talampas, the team ended up with several stories—one of which is family.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIIRqIbnVAx/?fbclid=IwAR2sWoqRHqazzIXSodmwufw18MuWvdQSQLWl9xqufJYVo-ZQJVsLXFe0qhY

Pushing the envelope

When they presented the idea to the powers that will at RC, it was clear to them that they had dissected the drinker (or the bottle?) and unearthed a unique insight that would separate RC from the rest.

“James Loverio, Head of Marketing at ARC Refreshments Corp., loved the idea during the first presentation. He knew that they had to go for something that’s never been done before, in order to create an image for RC Cola that will make it stand out from the rest, and be the preferred one of the youth market.”

Plot twisting the cap

This would not conclude easily without mentioning the frame of the mother character revealing an RC bottle as its real identity in a very Whovian fashion.

“There was a considerable amount of CG (computer graphics) that had to be done for the film. It also took us some time to shoot the scenes where the mom lifts up her head, and pours the RC Cola on her son’s back, as this required multiple frames to be shot and stitched together in the final edit. We also had to make sure that it would still look surreal yet funny.”

“We had to make sure that the talent was capable of delivering what the board required which is why we opted to go for a theater / indie movie actor to play the lead,” they added.

Having a never-been-done-before tag at any work is always a two-edged sword that comes with criticism. However, upstaging every other brand that are puffing out work with seasonal relevance at the year’s end definitely says something about the prowess of the agency. RC Cola’s film is a stand-alone piece of work that will last until the agency’s next big thing.