shots Awards 2016: Branded Entertainment Series

Bacon director Jeppe Ronde lifts the lid on creating the Gold-winning spot for online independent global travel search site Momondo. The campaign invited 67 people from all over the world to explore their DNA, with surprising results.

shots Awards 2016: Branded Entertainment of the Year Series

Gold winner: Momondo The DNA Journey

You were involved with The DNA Journey. Can you tell us about its inception/what the client wanted and the initial thinking behind the campaign?

The client, Momondo, wanted to break down cultural barriers between ‘them' and ‘us’ that are often experienced by travellers faced with meeting new cultures (as Momondo is a travel-searching site). So the idea was quite simply to show that through DNA testing, we’re all actually a little bit from everywhere and that as a consequence, we're all made the same.

There were numerous people and stories involved in the campaign. How did you find the people to star in the ad and how did you choose which stories to feature?

We casted 67 people from all over the world; through a normal casting process where the cast told their life stories and showed who they were to the camera, but also through a DNA - test that mapped out where in the world they all came from. After that we put the two tests together and chose the ones that would compliment each other and also open up the overall story we wanted to convey in the best way possible.

Ronde pictured

For the campaign, why did you decide that a documentary-style approach would be most effective?

The documentary-like strategy was chosen in order to accentuate the real story of all these people as they had actually done a real DNA-test. I also wanted to heighten the emotional level by letting all the cast witness each other as they received their DNA results - not unlike various TV shows. Having ’the whole world’ sitting in the background as each individual read their results, also enabled me to tell the overall story - that we all come from everywhere - in one simple image.

One of the Awards judges referred to the film as “refreshingly genuine and relevant to all of us”. Why do you think this series has been so successful?

Because its theme speaks to all of us. It's emotionally-gripping. We live in a time that is unfortunately still segregated and the series speaks directly against that.

What was the hardest part of putting this film together?

It’s difficult to speak about what the hardest part was, because it was truly a beautiful process from start to finish. But it was a long project; the writing process took a long time, as did the casting. In the end, it was tough to make an edit out of so many wonderful people. We can literally keep expanding the series with new portraits. And we might just do that…

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