A Rising Ballet Star Struggles, Then Shines, in Activia's Global Campaign

In the U.S., consumers might still associate the Activia brand with Jamie Lee Curtis, who long-touted the product's digestive benefits, and was subsequently replaced by other celebrities including Shakira, Reba McIntyre and Laila Ali. But in a new global digital campaign via Wunderman Paris, the brand is going with some lesser-known, but no less accomplished names. Up-and-coming ballerina Ingrid Silva fronts the new "#InSync" campaign, appearing in a powerful, cinematic first-person POV film. It chronicles her struggles of growing up in a poor Rio suburb, holding down a job in order to sustain her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina, and finally moving, alone, to a strange new country to pursue her passion on the grand "stage" of New York City. The film is accompanied by a beautiful 360-degree experience which allows the viewer to step onto stage and experience Silva's performance close-up. The campaign also includes documentary-style videos telling the stories of Silva and Dee Caffari, the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world. The films were directed by Ben Briand and produced out of Moonwalk Paris. The campaign seems to taps into the ad world's female empowerment zeitgeist -- but one might think the connection between active cultures and girl power is a bit of a stretch. According to a statement from the brand, the effort hinges on insight that women believe their bodies can prevent them from achieving their biggest goals, so Activia offers them "the opportunity to 'live in sync' with themselves and ultimately unleash their full potential." The push will also include "InSync Stories," what the agency describes as "augmented editorial content" the leverages story, motion, video and explosive pictures in an interactive format to be pushed out through Facebook Canvas. Additional executions will include gifs, cinemagraphs and Instagram posts. The global effort will run in 27 countries in Europe, Latin America and Canada. A separate U.S. push will release different assets in January. Wunderman is part of WPP's Team Danone and is leading global digital work for the brand. Ballerinas, at the moment, may be the go-to spokes-celebrities for yogurt. Oikos, for example, recently featured Misty Copeland in its advertising.

A Rising Ballet Star Struggles, Then Shines, in Activia's Global Campaign

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