SCENE WAS TRANSFORMED ROAD TO AD
Two weeks - but even Sly Stallone says it was worth the work
had its own challenges due to the unpredictability of working with animals.
“Again, it was just trying to calculate how it was done, and we had sand-based terrain to make it comfortable for the horse.”
Jon Forsyth, co-founder and acting executive creative director at Neverland, says it was their third advert for Ladbrokes, and the company challenged them to go bigger this time.
Audacious
He said: “Because they wanted us to be more audacious, we looked to the world of Marvel-level entertainment, and how we could emulate that.
“It didn’t take long for us to arrive at the Rocky sequence... it’s the most epic scene, that brings people together.”
But Neverland and Selected Works first needed to get approval to use the Rocky II clip, including from writer, director and actor Stallone. He gave the nod over his morning eggs.
Jon says: “It was a long process, but as we went through each step it felt like the idea would become a reality. I am a firm believer that a really good idea will find a way to live.”
The advert also features the song in the 1979 film Gonna Fly Now, composed by Bill Conti in 1976.
For the commercial it was rerecorded by the English Session Orchestra and sung by the choir
London Voices.
James Kennedy, UK Brand Marketing Director for Ladbrokes, said the idea from Neverland knocked him for six when they first pitched it.
He said: “I knew I’d be signing up to a hell of a journey with pitfalls at every step, but leaping in my mind to the likely end result, I felt this was going to be epic.
“I’m a big Rocky fan and to take an icon, the most famous run in movie history and mix it all up? I was all in.
“We’re confident that this new version packs a punch. We hope it brings a smile to everyone who watches it.” Jon adds that the advert is some welcome escapism for viewers, adding: “At the moment in particular there’s a big appetite for nostalgia and looking back at some of the classics.
“We are living through very challenging times so to have that feel-good factor is really uplifting.
“There’s a massive appetite at the moment for massive, exciting audiovisual content.
“I think this advert could change things going forward. In all my 25 years of working in advertising I’ve never seen anything like this created before. It’s off the scale.”