When it comes to sport, it doesn’t get much bigger than a tennis Grand Slam. This year, we at Jumbla were thrilled to“serve up” something special for ANZ, in collaboration with our friends at TBWA: This pre-roll ad to be played during the Australian Open event and on ANZ’s social platform. Not only was it awesome for Jumbla to deliver something special for one of the big four banks during one of the world’s big four tennis events, it was also extra exciting because we got to animate tennis superstar, Novak Djokovic!

The animations would draw on the ties between Novak’s world-renowned unfailing patience and ANZ’s new campaign message: keep moving. The suite of animations was intended to be endearing, comical and heartfelt. It was to draw on what the public knows of Novak’s life experiences and demeanor, which has been the key to his staggering success.

Essential to these animations was showing that all of us can learn from Novak… even if we ourselves aren’t pro tennis players. By illustrating Novak applying his mental fortitude to a range of challenging scenarios, the viewer gets the impression that patience, resilience and tenacity really are virtues.

Our client says “When all eyes are on the heart-stopping critical moments of match play, no one stops to shine a light on the just-as-important moments happening to millions of avid fans across the country. We’re talking about the dislocated thong plugs, the tomato sauce sachet misfires and the forgotten jumpers on a 35-degree day. When a person is faced with such a crisis a choice must be made: will they stay calm like Novak, overcome the challenge and keep moving?”

Overall, the message is to think positively and strategically, even when the going gets tough. Just because we aren’t all elite athletes doesn’t mean there aren’t critical moments of each day where we’ll be rewarded by holding it together – because tenacity and grit aren’t just strengths that exist to serve athletes!

Jumbla producer Natalie (who knows a lot about holding things together – namely animation projects) says it was wonderful to collaborate with our good friends at TBWA to bring this project to life.

“It was a really collaborative effort. TBWA brought the campaign and video concepts to the table, while Jumbla made the vision a reality,” she says.

“We had a lot of creative licence in terms of the style and detail. We supplied the characters and storyboards, based on their concepts, and designed all the animation elements. The client was thrilled with how it turned out.”

Our creative manager Kane admits it was both fun and challenging creating the Djokovic character.

“One component of animating real people involves slightly exaggerating certain features. I knew, however, that I wasn’t able to go overboard because all our images actually had to be approved by Djokovic’s people! I don’t think they’d be too impressed if the character looked too exaggerated or comical,” he says. “I’m glad to know we were able to come up with something in the end that made everyone happy!”

Check out the work below: