Whether it’s his leadership skills or his slick sense of style, we could all take a few notes from Pep Guardiola. Nissan’s latest campaign for their electric vehicles, produced by The Gate, features all the ways we can be inspired by the famed football manager - including driving the new Nissan ARIYA or LEAF.

We were super excited when Dark Horses asked us to work on this campaign, having worked on previous campaigns with them over recent months. They have a long standing client relationship with Nissan, so it was a brilliant opportunity to work on a project that combined performance with beautiful car work.

Dark Horses briefed us to produce a series of short content films to promote the new Nissan Ariya and Nissan Leaf for their ‘Be More Pep’ campaign. The concept consisted of 4 vignettes of different characters taking inspiration from Pep Guardiola in their everyday jobs such as head waiter, parking attendant, barber customer and window dresser. 

Our task was to bring the 4 different vignettes together in a cohesive way so that they demonstrated the ‘Be More Pep’ concept across each one. 

Director Barry Kimber approached the creative from a performance and comedy point of view - to get the humour and light heartedness of people wanting to ‘be like Pep’ in their everyday lives - when in essence they could drive a Nissan electric vehicle to be like him! 

Casting was incredibly important to these films, so we spent a lot of time finding the right people for the roles - we think the result is brilliant and they are all very ‘Pep-esque’! Working closely with the creatives Matt and Will at Dark Horses, we brought the films together across a 3 day shoot in various locations across Manchester. 

As expected, Pep Guardiola is a busy man, so we faced the challenge of scheduling our time with him around all of the other production elements and locations. We worked closely with Manchester City FC to shoot at their campus - the iconic Etihad Stadium in Manchester - with Pep himself. 

Director Barry said of the shoot:

"The toughest part of the shoot was the day with Pep. We knew we had less than 90 minutes to get everything we needed from him. When the whole idea of the commercial is all about Pep, that's a lot of pressure. Fortunately he was great to work with. He had a very positive attitude, took direction really well and instinctively understood what I needed from him. To add to that, the sun came out (in Manchester, in February) at exactly the right time which was a massive stroke of good luck for the end scene."

Post-production was done in-house by The Gate’s top team of online and offline editors. For the colour grade we enlisted Steffan at Company 3 in London, and sound mixing and design were done by Alexander Wells. 

The result was a suite of films demonstrating the ‘Be More Pep’ concept to launch the new Nissan ARIYA and advertise the existing Nissan Leaf. These assets can be found online across YouTube and Nissan’s social pages. 

Client & Agency:

Client | Nissan

Agency | Dark Horses

Creative Director | Francisco Lopez Nunez

Agency Creative | William Butler

Senior Producer | Andy Walsh

Senior Account Manager | Harriet Hall

Account Director | Alexandra Fearn

Crew:

Director | Barry Kimber

Producer | Hollie Newton

Production Manager | Lindsay Cowan

Production Assistants | Ellie Martin, Lewis Faithfull

1st AD | Stevie Fylan

2nd AD | Ben Eve

Runners | Dom Childs, Lois Griffiths

DOP | Mike George

Focus Puller | Ben Oliver

Focus Puller (Day 1) | Sean Lomax

AC | Adam Sheldon

VT Operator | Duncan Lees

Camera Car Driver | Alan Warden

Key Grips | Dave Leigh, Jason Lee

Grip Assistant | Jack Heels

Gaffer | Russell Greenhalgh

Sparks | Wes Smith, Sam Gibson, Adam Murphy

Genny Operator | Mark Stanley

DIT | Lauchlan Scott

Sound Mixer | James Jones

Art Director | Pete Rodwell

Art Director Assistant | Chris Lowe

Art Assistant | Ed Kelly

Construction | John Bruce

Stylist | Steven Spencer

Styling Assistants | Megan Oliver, Olivia Kelly

Makeup Artist | Lou McCann

Makeup Assistants | Georgina Wadsworth, Natalie Burrill, Nikita

Casting | Lee Mountjoy

Online/Offline Edit | The Gate Films

Colour Grade | Steffan @ Company 3

Sound Mixing/Design | Alexander Wells

Cast:

Pep Double | Dave Parkinson

Traffic Guy | Fraser Hammil

Other Traffic Guy | Marlon Bailey

Window Dresser | Freya Stotch

Window Walk By | Claire Hewitson

Head Waiter | Justin Marosa

Head Waitress | Bruna Borges

Waiters | Cameron McKendrick, Ali Allahdin, Kelly Flatley, David Mercer, Oliver Lefley, Gabriel Evans, Reo Williams, Sherrie Hamilton, Helena Sunderland

Hero Customer | Clark Alexander

Barber | Eddie Barile

Barbershop Customers | Ryan Broadhurst, Paddy Walley-Hammett, Mohammed Asif, Babatunde Obi, Keiran Rees, Barnaby Harrison, Nicauri Mayi Colon, Steve Redshaw, Danny Rees, Ashley Sewell

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