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Behind the Work in association withThe Immortal Awards
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How an Osmow’s Shawarma Revived Canadian Soccer Star Cyle Larin Ahead of the World Cup

29/11/2022
Production Company
Toronto, Canada
563
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Alfredo Films director Adeel Shamsi, with Osmow’s Shawarma’s Marina Baric and Bernadette Farag discuss the brand partnership with the Canadian men’s national soccer team, and creating the perfect World Cup spot, writes LBB’s Josh Neufeldt

Canada might be out of the World Cup, but the pride of the nation still rests firmly behind them. Qualifying for the first time in 36 years? Monumentous. Playing the second-ranked Belgium squad to a very close (and unconvincing) 1-0 defeat? Hopeful. And watching Alphonso Davies leap into the air and put a header - and the first goal ever scored at a World Cup by the Canadian men’s team - into the Croatian goal? A truly triumphant moment that reverberated nationwide. 

But for the Canadian chain Osmow’s Shawarma, there’s been twice the reason to celebrate. Having landed the status of the ‘Official Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Restaurant Partner of Canada Soccer’s National Teams’, this World Cup has proven a prime opportunity to promote the brand. Enter ‘Habibi’. Directed by Alfredo Films’ Adeel Shamsi, the 30-second spot stars Osmow’s newest brand ambassador, Brampton, Ontario-born Cyle Larin. Depicting the Club Brugge KV forward (who also happens to be a huge Osmow’s fan) knocked unconscious to the ground, viewers are able to witness the unusual but undeniably effective tactic of the coach sending in ‘Habibi’, an Osmow’s delivery guy who charges onto the pitch with a heroic ‘Habibi! I’m coming!’ to revive Larin with the smell of a fresh shawarma. 

Supported by national media buy throughout the World Cup, the spot has featured during Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors telecasts, and has played multiple times on DAZN during NFL games, as well on both specialty and conventional TV - giving it the most attention any Osmow’s TV spot has received ever.

To learn more about the making of the campaign, LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Adeel, as well as Osmow’s president and CMO Bernadette Farag, and marketing director Marina Baric - learning more about both the spot and the restorative power of Osmow’s shawarma. 


LBB> What was the brief for this campaign like, and what made Adeel the right director for the spot?


Marina> We have previously worked with Adeel on several TV Spots. Because of this, he really understands the brand and our tongue and cheek humour, so it made it easier to align on the vision. The brief clearly articulated the consumer insight which was ‘I can always rely on Osmow’s to lift me up’. 

Since we do not work with an outside agency, the team ideated the concepts knowing that we were going to leverage our Canada soccer partnership and feature Cyle Larin as our brand ambassador. The real ‘aha’ moment of the spot was highlighting an unlikely hero - ‘Habibi’ - saving the day with an Osmow’s Shawarma in a very humorous, true-to-brand style.

Bernadette> Leveraging our Canada soccer partnership and Cyle Larin as our star brand ambassador made it fun for the entire office to start brainstorming commercial ideas. The brief for the campaign needed to represent our fun brand personality, and the concept of ‘Osmow’s doesn’t just fill you up, it gets you up!’. 

We’ve worked with Adeel from day one on our TV spots, and he’s never given us a reason to look elsewhere. He’s a huge fan of Osmow’s himself, so he really gets what works and what doesn’t. 



LBB> Representing Osmow’s Shawarma's partnership with team Canada is a big deal! How did this relationship come to pass, and how did it factor into the making of the spot? 


Marina> We know our customers and we always try to be present in culturally relevant moments. This has included major sporting events like the 2019 NBA playoffs [which Toronto won], where we worked with Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell. In this case, we anticipated the Canadian men’s national soccer team having a big year ahead of their involvement in the FIFA World Cup (the first time in 36 years!). As such, it made sense to leverage them as a partner while growing awareness for the shawarma category across Canada. 



LBB> Cyle Larin is also a brand ambassador for Osmow’s. How did you land him, and what has working with him been like?


Marina> Cyle was amazing to work with! He was really open to our ideas and fully embraced the final concept. Since he grew up in Brampton and has been a major Osmow’s fan for years, it has made the partnership very genuine. 

Bernadette> You never really know what it’s going to be like working with someone until you meet them for the first time. With Cyle, he was extremely down to earth, and he told us about his love for Osmow’s growing up, and how it is his go to shawarma place. You can’t top working with a star athlete who’s also a fan of Osmow’s. 


LBB> Adeel, what was the script for this campaign like, and what immediate ideas came to mind when you first saw it? 


Adeel> During our initial conceptualising phase, the creative team and Osmow’s and I had quite a number of ideas which we went over together. We knew we wanted to make it comedic, but we also wanted to give their shawarma the spotlight. This specific concept hit the sweet spot. 

I like to do something new for every project, and what really made me keen to be involved with this one was the originality of the script, as well as the new challenges it proposed to me: filming in an outdoor stadium, as well as the large scale of the VFX component. 



LBB> What was the initial concepting process like? How did the spot evolve?


Adeel> It began with Ben Osmow having the idea of a shawarma saving the day by lifting up one of the Canadian soccer players. The evolution came when we scouted the location and started storyboarding how to really bring this idea to life. We shot a previsualisation - a step in the pre-production where we basically film the entire ad on an iPhone to see how the pacing and edit would work. During that period, we fell in love with the idea of creating an epic cinematic moment where the trainer, ‘Habibi’, runs in to save the day and started adding other scenes that would heighten the drama, such as the intro referee shot as well as the commentators narration.



LBB> The dialogue is hilarious - especially the ‘Habibi! I’m coming!’ and ‘I fix you’. Did you have a hand in the writing process?

 
Adeel> Yes! As a matter of fact, this was something that actually came to life on set. While we were doing the close ups of ‘Habibi’ looking down at Cyle, we tried out a couple lines and realised his delivery on ‘I fix you’ was incredible. So, we tried a few more renditions of it, and I asked him to really downplay the humour and instead try it very serious - to show how much he cared for Cyle - and what we got from that was the comedy, because it’s so unexpected. Feels like a moment straight out of a dramatic series. 


LBB> How long did it take to shoot, where did you shoot, and what was the experience like? 


Adeel> We shot for two days at the York University soccer field. It was a unique experience because we had the entire field - including the locker rooms - to ourselves, so communicating with different departments got a little tricky at times (thank God for walkie talkies). But overall, being on location in an actual stadium instead of a green screen or a smaller arena really helped us frame up the shots in a dynamic way, as we were able to use our surroundings as inspiration.



LBB> Adeel, you mentioned that you only had the chance to speak with Cyle Larin briefly before the shoot. How did that factor into the way you approached directing?


Adeel> I made sure I knew exactly what I needed from Cyle before he arrived. Some shoots you get to improvise a bit more, but with this project I had to make sure I directed him as specifically as possible to ensure we got what we needed within the time frame we had him on set for. Luckily, he was just as great of a team player on set as he is on the field, and going back and forth with him on the directions was pretty easy. He understood what was needed and gave it to us. 



LBB> Filling up a stadium with fans, putting players on the field and bench and loading the commentary box would have been a lot of work. How did you achieve this, and as a whole, what was production like?


Adeel> The production process was definitely very intense with all these moving pieces. However, what helped was that much of the crowd was actually created in post, via VFX. During the shoot the stadium was empty, so we had the ability to just focus on our actors on camera. The crowd shots were captured on green screen of the actual field (from the day of the shoot), and were then used as assets in VFX. 

This doesn’t mean, however, that moving all around the field - from a set up near the bench, to centre half, to the commentary box - wasn’t a lot of work. We could only pull this off through the combined effort of our incredible production team. We had different departments working on different scenes so that we were always ahead of the next setup. Everyone played their part beautifully, and that allowed for a great end product. 


LBB> When it came to aesthetics and the look and feel, what were your main aims and ambitions and how did you achieve them through lighting and colour?


Adeel> From the beginning, my main goal was to make this feel like a cinematic moment. I think the comedy is pretty easy to spot, as it’s just an exaggeration of the circumstances. Because of this, I decided I didn’t want to be too on the nose and film it like a comedy. Rather, I wanted to put the comedic situation within a dramatic world. 

To achieve this, I had a few discussions with the cinematographer (Matt Bendo) on how to frame certain shots to amplify the emotions. The opening referee shot being a great example of that, as well as the shot of ‘Habibi’ looking down at Cyle Larin. And then in the colour stage of post, we had the super talented Clinton Homuth bringing the right tone to emphasise the drama of it all. 



LBB> Did you have a hand in casting? If so, what were you looking for, and what made you choose the people you did?


Adeel> I try to be very involved in casting. When you’re directing a comedic spot, the performances can truly make or break the entire project. My executive producer (Xavier St-Roch) and I worked closely in reviewing all the auditions, before submitting a shortlist to Osmow’s for their approval. 

Funnily enough, our main character, ‘Habibi’, was the last to be cast. The wait was worth it though, as I truly feel we got the perfect actor for it. When we saw his delivery during the audition phase, it was clear he understood what drove the humour in this spot and boy did he nail it. His performance truly brings the spot to life. 



LBB> Shooting with food is an interesting challenge, as it has to look delicious for the camera. How did you approach this when capturing the shots of the shawarma?


Adeel> Having a super talented food stylist in Justine Brady definitely helps a lot. We’ve worked on a couple projects together and have created a great workflow. We usually block out a certain portion of the schedule where we do all the shots that have the shawarma in them, and this allows us to not only be more efficient, but also to just focus on making the shawarma look great in those moments. 


LBB> How long was the post production process? And in general, how was post?


Adeel> This was probably the most lengthy post production process we’ve ever had, due to the extent of VFX done for it. I would say it took approximately four months of editing, VFX work, colour and sound. It was tricky because we were exploring uncharted levels of creating a world in post. But the great thing about film is when you have a team as committed to the project as you are, it helps get you to your desired goal in the end. Even the hiccups along the way just feel like speed bumps, and helped ensure that we didn’t rush the final product, and maintained a focus on achieving the best possible result. 



LBB> Do you have any memorable lessons learned from the making of this new campaign?


Marina> Having come from larger QSR brands and having always worked with agencies to ideate new campaigns, this has been a real shift in mindset for me. I would never take anything away from agencies - as the value they provide is immeasurable - but working for a smaller brand with a smaller advertising budget, my advice to other brands in similar positions would be to not be intimidated, and to think about growth as coming from leveraging outside creative. Where there’s a will there’s a way, and untraditional thinking can be a refreshing way to move forward. 



LBB> What has the initial response to the campaign been like? 


Marina> Overwhelmingly positive! We’ve had both customers and vendors reach out to say it’s a very cool experience to watch Canada compete in the World Cup with shawarma brand advertising to go with it. It just goes to show how diverse we are as a nation, and that’s what makes Canada so great!

Bernadette> I second what Marina said! This campaign received the most attention any TV spot of ours has ever received. Lots of laughs and great impressions of some of the lines used like ‘Boom! That’s Osmow’s baby!’. 


LBB> Are there any elements of the project you’re particularly proud of, and why?


Adeel> I’m very proud of the team for being able to handle a project with so many uncontrolled variables. We shot outdoors which means the weather can turn on you at any moment, we filmed with an empty stadium with the vision of filling it all in post, and we worked with a celebrity as the main lead (and that was there for only a limited amount of time). And yet, through intensive pre-production and solid teamwork, we came out of it with no scratches. 



LBB> Is there anything you’d like to add?


Adeel> The spot wouldn’t have been possible without the trust and insight from Osmow’s, as well as the amazing support from Alfredo Films. I’m very grateful to have been a part of this project.

Marina> Congratulations to the entire team on making this campaign such a roaring success. We look forward to pushing the bar and delivering great creative, year after year, while we continue to expand across North America!


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