The National Society of French Railways (SNCF) have managed to build a solid foundation with the clients’ trust as a core value. Besides delivering high-quality services, which have helped the company built a good relationship with its customers, SNCF decided to add a new ingredient that shall strengthen this bond between the brand and the people even more. At the beginning of the new year, France’s national state-owned railway company launched a new ad campaign that takes inspiration from one of its foundational purposes: “To offer everyone the freedom to easily move around while preserving the planet.”

To properly introduce this concept, SNCF joined forces with TBWA/Paris, production company EDDY.TV, and a creative duo representing the Caravane Studio. This collaboration burst into the “Fireworks” campaign, which depicts a series of highly-colored flower bouquets as a bunch of ‘feu d’artifice’ that light up the dark sky with an extraordinary explosion of colors. By showcasing the successive blooming of a multitude of flowers, the company wants to highlight how much of good can one do to the environment when they choose to travel by train over their personal vehicle.

To give a huge “thank you” to those who are doing their best to preserve the planet by traveling by train, the company picked flowers to show just how grateful it is for its infrastructure, which helps SNCF avoid inflicting millions of tons of CO2 on the environment. According to the brand, trains provide the best way to travel, as these machines give off 30 times less CO2 than individual cars and 20 times less than planes. Five million French citizens choose the train each day, meaning that the environment can breathe 5 million fewer tons of CO2.

Yes, this is quite a big thing. The brand doesn’t stop here; the railway group is committed to transitioning from diesel-powered rail by 2035, to developing stations that are autonomously powered, and to fighting against the personal use of cars. Let’s hope that SNCF will fulfill these ambitious dreams!

The folks at the railway society chose a powerful statement that illustrates their bold plan. Nicely packed in a 55-second-long video, we see flowers taking shape of a series of fireworks. The Paris-based agency monitored the plants’ each move in slow motion and matched their sensual dance with banging sounds of the explosives.

The short movie is based on a 200-hour scenario that introduces over 50 varieties of flowers. The artists worked from dusk till dawn; five images were taken every five seconds. Everything culminated with 14,000 images per each flower, which were then recreated into a time-lapse that precisely mimics a fauna-style firework display.

“Fireworks are choreography and a very precise work of art. Our main materials were nature and flowers. To infuse these two elements was a big challenge. While selecting the flowers and plants, we aimed to choose the ones that would be associated with a sound. What kind of plant can be associated with crackle or a big explosion? It was a task to make the right associations,” said Caravane Studio’s Directors, Francis Dakin-Côté & Jean-Constant Guigue, in the behind-the-scenes video.

“The key word of this shoot was ‘patience,’” added Garance Du Nord, the Floral Designer behind this bold project. “We worked with living matter, which takes time. It was a peaceful shoot,” she concludes.

The spot comes as a multi-sensorial experience designed to appeal to all the human senses, engage emotions, and evoke some memorable moments. If you loved the short video, then you don’t want to miss the behind-the-scenes, which carries you deep into the heart of the intense process that lies behind the creation of this ad. Boom!

Credits:

Client: SNCF

Agency: TBWA/Paris

Production: Caravane Studio & EDDY.TV