CR Blog
Dance pony, dance
Posted by Gavin Lucas, 1 March 2013, 11:43 Permalink Comments (86)
Wieden + Kennedy's London office has conjured up a dancing, moonwalking Shetland pony to demonstrate that mobile network Three understand that "silly stuff" is important to its users...
Here at CR towers we were talking just the other day about how clients like to ask their agencies to "make us a viral" but of course you can't make a viral, you can simply make a film you hope goes viral. And this film – shot by Blink's Dougal Wilson who worked closely with MPC to create the pony's magic moves – just might prove to be a super example of a piece of content that will be shared like crazy.
Who can resist the silliness of a Shetland pony that struts and moonwalks to the sound of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere? Not us - show us the 'like' button!
As well as the film, W+K has cooked up more ways for the campaign to be shared in the form of The Pony Mixer, an online app that also lives on Three's YouTube channel and allows users to create and share (via Twitter or Facebook) their own remixed videos of the pony performing to different types of muisc. Choose from Rock, Punk, Bollywood and more for extra, ridiculous, levels of shareable silliness.
Here's a trailer to show how it works:
Find the Pony Mixer here.
Credits
Ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, London
Creative directors Dan Norris, Ray Shaughnessy
Creatives Freddie Powell, Hollie Walker
Director Dougal Wilson
Production company Blink
Post production MPC
Pony mixer interface and programming by B-Reel. Content created by Blink and Munky.
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86 Comments
love it
you lucky buggers for getting that brief. Silly Stuff. It matters. aces.
2013-03-01 12:15:30
I love this. Adorable and very catchy. Hope the Interwebs loves it too!
2013-03-01 12:21:02
So this is what they were spam texting me about this morning.
2013-03-01 14:56:09
My daughter has a pony and we just laughed and laughed when this advert came on, we are both on three network, great advert :-))))))))))
2013-03-01 19:56:57
Just watched the advert with my kids they're in stitches :-)
2013-03-01 20:31:58
Love it haha great! X
2013-03-01 21:25:46
Love it!
2013-03-01 21:33:04
Hilarious. :-))). Just the image of a pony i know - could be related. :--)) would love to know the breeder's name.
2013-03-01 22:14:30
I think this one supersedes the T Mobile Royal Wedding
2013-03-01 22:17:06
Absolutely fantastic!!!! If you feel a little down play the pony a few times and you will feel upbeat
Again for sure such a clever video. Thank you so much and the music it goes with is great too!!!
Can't stop singing now! Love when the tractor passes and pony pretends to graze, absolutely
Brilliant whoever created it. More please !!!!!!!!!!
2013-03-01 22:20:32
Love it cant get song out my head love it :)))
2013-03-01 22:29:03
Brilliant!!!!!
2013-03-01 22:32:39
Love it - especially in these horse eat crazy times!
2013-03-01 22:33:32
utterly brilliant love it
2013-03-01 22:49:00
Ha ha brilliant!
2013-03-01 23:06:03
I LOVE this and, as a Shetlander can vouch that this is actually shot there...which can only be a good thing in promoting the Isles. In fact i have stayed in the Eshaness lighthouse featured
2013-03-02 00:37:10
Lovely!!! Something silly in a gloomy world!
2013-03-02 09:51:00
where is the location, looks so beautiful
2013-03-02 10:11:30
awesome...... on my facebook as soon as we saw it and rolled around for ages laughing!!
2013-03-02 10:49:10
I want a dancing pony!! Oblige it :-)
2013-03-02 12:50:32
Brilliant advert and very believable. A clever mix of dance,music, horses and logo :)
2013-03-02 14:29:00
my dog loves it and i yust want to go and cuddel it so funky and catchie more of it please
2013-03-02 16:03:15
Brilllllllll !! made my week :)
2013-03-02 18:04:14
Pure genius! He a tough day and this made me smile!
2013-03-02 18:44:07
so cute i love it
2013-03-02 18:52:40
love it - keep on doing the silly stuff - its so important
2013-03-02 19:18:00
Stunning. It gives me the feel good factor.
2013-03-02 19:47:54
best advert ever
2013-03-02 20:03:28
Absolutely brilliant it's got to win an award. I love ads that
Make me laugh and this one certainly did. The intricate moves the horse does are so funny. There are no ads around at the moment that match this one. Let the theme continue.
2013-03-02 20:04:12
Love it! Thanks for share!! :)
2013-03-02 20:07:00
Great advert,laughed my socks off when my daughter showed me it
2013-03-02 20:22:42
Brilliant advert the old needs silly stuff
Yvonne wilmot
2013-03-02 20:23:29
Love it! What great imagination and clever idea. Makes me smile every time I see it lol
2013-03-02 20:23:45
I love this add ... just seen it for the first time today, very current. Excellent work.
2013-03-02 20:24:15
Fantastic advert! Can't wait for it to come on! Very clever!
2013-03-02 20:24:23
I was just left disappointed it wasn't an advert for Cadbury's...
2013-03-02 21:15:21
The shetlands moves won me over loved it, shared it, well done
2013-03-02 22:02:19
Class me and the kids love it
2013-03-03 00:21:11
Humour makes the world go round - fantastic!!
2013-03-03 08:57:45
Love it,, just looks like my old Shetland Jezabel :)
2013-03-03 10:10:20
Fantastic luv it, im a 3 user:)
2013-03-03 10:59:16
Well done its absolutely fantastic,lets see more. Haaaaaaa!
2013-03-03 11:16:11
Well done its absolutely fantastic,lets see more. Haaaaaaa!
2013-03-03 11:17:00
I loved it I thought it was cute and funny.
Laughed sooooo much I now want one. :D
2013-03-03 12:10:10
i love the ad,he is so cute
2013-03-03 14:07:44
OMG Love it. Creative and nnovative. So fantastic it even stopped me hoovering .. Yes it made me smile too. What a mood upper
2013-03-03 14:46:22
Everything stops when the advert comes on, I even get a shout "Quick mum, here's you're advert!"
I love it and unlike other adverts I remember what it is advertising! It's brilliant, makes me smile every time, especially the part where the pony smiles. Can't wait for the follow up ;)
2013-03-03 15:46:54
Brillant ad, love to know how they did the dancing. Now don't go wanting a pony you lot!
2013-03-03 15:51:06
so good ive just tweeted about it so much! what you could do with that brief!! Silly stuff it matters. amazing http://www.lifeinCMYKblog.wordpress.com
2013-03-03 16:09:36
Brilliant. Well done to all involved
PatB
2013-03-03 16:25:35
Absolutely brilliant. A real laugh out loud moment!
2013-03-03 17:03:33
loved the add great fun xx
2013-03-03 17:41:17
Wow wow wow love it!
2013-03-03 18:34:00
Fantastic, best advert I've seen in a long time, hope there will be more made xxx
2013-03-03 19:22:53
its good but everyone i ask don't know what the advert was for Too good a job Three but love it anyway
2013-03-03 19:46:37
It's one of those adverts you just have to drop everything and watch when it comes on. Very rare these days! It is already viral I think and trends on Twitter every time it's shown. I think it works because most of the moves are not outrageously impossible for a pony to physically achieve and you can really image the pony doing those moves when the farmer isn't watching. I can't stop watching it. Amazing!
2013-03-03 20:11:26
Please don't let Tesco or Findus find this poor horse.
2013-03-03 20:41:36
Wonderful! The little grin as he dances past that big horse is classic. Thanks for making me smile :)
2013-03-03 20:46:28
It made three pensioners giggle this evening!!
2013-03-03 22:22:42
Is very very good, but don't actually think any differently about three. In fact thought it was an EE advert at first...but well done W+K. The new Harlem shake perhaps.
2013-03-03 22:23:00
Absolutely brilliant ad best ever so funny we all need silly stuff keep it coming
2013-03-03 22:26:21
hmmmmm, i sense a theme in these comments.
good spamming
2013-03-04 10:32:44
These comments look VERY suspicious CR - rarely are readers so positive.
2013-03-04 10:38:00
@ Mark, @ female name
Readers are rarely so positive on here because they usually come from the industry. This story had been top of the Google search terms for this ad over the weekend and has therefore been bringing in readers from the general public who searched for it after they'd seen it on TV (it's also been linked to by some message boards). So what you are seeing is the difference between what the public thinks and the more jaded inside response.
All the comments have different ISP addresses and most have email addresses supplied so they appear to check out
PatrickBurgoyne
2013-03-04 10:51:00
ha brilliant
then apologies for my suspicious / jaded view.
you have to admit though:
'So fantastic it even stopped me hoovering"
"I think this one supersedes the T Mobile Royal Wedding"
are taking the piss surely?
2013-03-04 11:04:37
Haha well at least I wasn't the only one!
Fair enough, well I look forward to normal jaded service resuming soon!
2013-03-04 11:24:50
Heh funny –_–
I've seen it once and that was enough, it's too long and try's to hard to be a viral
3/10
2013-03-04 11:34:54
@ Mark
We did once have a design consultancy try to 'game' the system by submitting loads of really positive comments on a particular project of theirs. But they forgot that we could see which ISP address they were coming from and I had to have a word... PatrickBurgoyne
2013-03-04 11:57:52
Despite all the positive comments, I feel this is exactly what I'd expect from an ad agency producing 'quirky' work like w+k.
One of the joys of the internet is the way that truly strange things that users have made and uploaded float to the top and become popular. Look at the top youtube videos of all time...most are user generated.
An ad agency trying make something in that style, almost seems like trying to beat the democratic system that creates popular memes.
Whether you love or hate harlem shake and the like, at least it came from a user first and inspired other to create.
A dancing pony? hmmm, I think the hive mind can do better
2013-03-04 13:31:48
@ josh
Good point - and one we will be exploring in the April issue of the magazine PatrickBurgoyne
2013-03-04 14:08:59
I'm obviously in the minority IF you believe all the gushing comments above - but I think it's boring and not at all funny.
As josh succinctly said above - "An ad agency trying make something in that style, almost seems like trying to beat the democratic system that creates popular memes."
2013-03-04 17:02:27
i just can't stop watching the advert its the best one going lol
2013-03-04 17:07:01
As rare as rocking horse shit. A thought provoking funny ad. Well done!
2013-03-04 19:21:19
"TV advertising used to be about sitting on your sofa while creatives were paid to throw a bucket of shit in your face. Today you're expected to sit in the bucket, fill it with your own shit, and tip it on your head while filming yourself on your mobile"
– Charlie Brooker
2013-03-05 09:49:55
It does smack of viral but then I guess that is a good thing, at least for the client (and agency?). It's a good ad, it has obviously worked well for Three so far. What I enjoyed about this is that it didn't take the normal 'tacky and crap' approach which seems so popular today. It has the viral touch whilst having a feeling of quality. Good work, I say.
2013-03-05 11:33:24
I'm deffo not commenting that I don't like it now after all that positivity. It's unheard of this!!
DM
2013-03-05 13:30:04
Similar to Cadbury's drumming Gorilla advert. I like them both because they do what they're intended to do - make you smile (and appeal to mums !) which is marketing gold.
As for the Harlem Shake videos zzzzzzzzzzz
2013-03-05 14:08:01
Wishing that pony weren't a better dancer than me...
2013-03-05 14:57:48
Great advert but i have to say i do not think it has any real effect apart from raising brand awareness. See my blog for my view for why?
http://stevenpreston21.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/dancing-pony-pointless/
Talk to you soon
Steven
2013-03-09 14:30:52
Classic stuff !
2013-03-10 08:47:44
i dont know how you can make your very own pony cause i want to
2013-03-14 19:08:12
Love it.
2013-03-14 21:15:15
I didnt think it was that great, actually am i the onlyone who has no idea what this advert was about?
2013-03-17 20:47:03
Hi Alex,
you can make your own Pony Advert on the 3 network website :)
2013-03-22 15:30:14
Fantastic Idea ... its a brilliant piece of marketing, allowing the public to create their own.
2013-03-22 22:41:01
i loveeeeeeeee dissss pony sooo much can me and ma mate chelsey have ya pony me love it long timee
2013-04-22 11:41:13
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