This ain't your grandpa's snorkeling mask.
To promote Tribord's Easybreath full-face snorkeling mask, French agency Rosapark released a spot that almost seamlessly blends water and sky—a visual metaphor for how the Easybreath lets you breathe underwater just like you do on land.
"Easybreath is a real innovation in the world of diving—gone is the need for a separate mask and snorkel, and the difficulties some people having using them," explains the agency's creative director, Jamie Standen. "Our brief was to get across the scale of this invention."
Because the Easybreath covers your entire face, it allows you to breathe the way you would normally—instead of focusing on keeping a snorkeling tube properly affixed to your mouth hole. You also don't have to worry about the logistics of putting on a separate mask and affixing the snorkel comfortably.
To illustrate this, Rosapark enlisted help from Fleur&Manu, who directed the spot, and composer Laurent Perez Del Mar. The ad opens on a snorkeler who—shot from above, with the clouds reflected on the water—looks as though he's floating in the sky.
The ad also lingers on the mask itself. Its clarity and elegant design are neatly highlighted by how well its face mirrors surroundings: Surreal sky and schools of fish ripple across its surface. A stingray passes, close enough to touch, and the snorkeler reaches slowly forward.
The serene work is a marked departure from Rosapark's last Tribord campaign, which was way more in-your-face: To sell the brand's Izeber life vests, it offered boardwalkers samples of a disgusting new drink—sea water. That ad won a Silver Lion at Cannes.
"I think there's still consistency; both projects revolve around innovation," Standen says. "For Izeber, we felt people would understand quite quickly what the product did—it's a lifejacket—so we adopted a really innovative approach for the marketing. For Easybreath, the product is already so innovative. All we had to do was find a simple idea to showcase it, then stand back and let the product itself do the work."
The ad perhaps succeeds most at demonstrating what the Easybreath doesn't do—get in your way. If you've ever used a snorkel and mask, the very logistics of the bulky plastic apparati are sufficient to remind you that people don't belong in the sea.
While the Easybreath still won't take you deeper than the average snorkel can go, the limpid way in which its users float under the water's surface, hands and faces free to experience what's around them, is a selling point in itself—neither oversold nor undersold here.
"What we aimed to convey in the TV spot, visually, is that there's a new way to be in the water, to see the water," Standen continues. "I hope people who can't be bothered with snorkels will try diving with the Easybreath. Diving is pretty cool!"
The price point is also as easygoing as the product's name: $44, a reasonable enough investment to transform your relationship with our underwater friends. Of course, there remain some watery experiences you probably still won't want to witness up close.
"During the shoot, there was a tsunami warning. Needless to say, the boat didn't go back to port that night," Standen adds.
The film is currently airing throughout France in 15-, 30- and 60-second increments.
CREDITS
Brand: Tribord
Brand Management : Espen Heier
Directeur de la communication : David Martinelly
Agency: Rosapark
Co-founder: Jean-Patrick Chiquiar
Co-founders in charge of creative: Gilles Fichteberg and Jean-Francois Sacco
Creative Directors: Mark Forgan and Jamie-Edward Standen
Copywriter: Nicolas Gadesaude
Art Director: Julien Saurin
Account Management: Rozenn Traineau
TV Production: Lauriane Dula
Production: Insurrection
Directors: Fleur & Manu
Production Directors: Matias Boucard
Producers: Hélène Daubert and Mounia Mebarki
Coordinator: Marie Mezeray
Post-production: Home DP
Film Editing: Nicolas Larouquère and Alyson Gordon
Colorists: Bertrand Duval and Laurent Ripoll
Post-producer: Bianca Benloukil
Special effects: Mathematic
Post-production: Julie Lagadec
Flame artist: Fred Brandon
Music: Grabuge
Title: « Emmersion »
Music management: Jérôme Hatchuel
Composer: Laurent Perez Del Mar