Hong Kong, July 10, 2006 - FedEx Express (FedEx), a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and the world’s largest express transportation company, announced today the launch of two new TV commercials in Asia Pacific, in which FedEx couriers in both rural and urban areas of China reveal their hidden talent for breathtaking sporting feats as they lift a truck and rappel down an elevator shaft.
Airing in nine countries in Asia Pacific including Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, the new commercials highlight FedEx’s spirit of teamwork, flexibility, courage, and drive to excel.
“Based on our highly successful ‘WeLiveToDeliver’ platform, the new commercials show a dramatic, but humorous side of how our committed employees work together to develop creative solutions for our customers, in particular when shipping to China,” said Malcolm Sullivan, Vice President, Marketing for FedEx Asia Pacific. “Behind every FedEx courier is a team of professionals who go the extra mile to ensure packages are delivered on time. In short, the FedEx Team is the team to trust when shipping to and from China.”
Both commercials keep score of the FedEx team’s achievements versus the forces acting against them. Needless to say, the FedEx champions outscore the obstacles each time.
In “Weight-lift”, a package faces possible delay as a FedEx van gets stuck in mud during torrential rain in a remote area of Southern China. The FedEx support team rushes to the scene and lifts the vehicle out of the mud in a surprising turn of events. The second version, “Rappel”, sees a FedEx courier delayed in a malfunctioning elevator. A FedEx team member rappels down the elevator shaft to “rescue” the trapped package for an on-time delivery.
“Weight-lift” will be aired on major TV channels in Asia Pacific from June 30, 2006 and “Rappel” will follow.
Both commercials were developed by David Guerrero and Simon Welsh from BBDO Guerrero Ortega, directed by James Holt and filmed on location in Shanghai, China.
FedEx’s ‘WeLiveToDeliver’ advertising campaign began in 1998, focusing on the people who make daily FedEx deliveries possible. Following a pilot campaign series that highlighted FedEx’s reliability and capability to transport heavyweight packages anywhere, at any time, there came a number of humor-driven spots, “Pizza”, “Ambulance”, and “Jenny”, which explored the previous lives of today’s star FedEx couriers. With a whimsical twist, a later ad, “The Difficult Package,” showed the ingenuity of an entire FedEx team who needed to convey even the most challenging parcel. The last addition to the series was a TV commercial entitled “The Stepping Stones,” which showed the cooperation of a team of FedEx specialists who managed to deliver the packages. The present commercials, “Rappel” and “Weight-lift”, again emphasize the FedEx team spirit along with individual talent.
FedEx TV commercials are known worldwide for their creativity and humor. FedEx’s TV commercials “Is It There Yet” and “Ambulance” were voted as the “Top 10 Most Popular TV Commercial” respectively in the 4th and 8th Annual Most Popular TV Commercial Awards, co-organized by Asia Television Limited and The Hong Kong Advertisers Association, in 1997 and 2001. Another TV commercial “Difficult Package” was ranked as the top ten most-remembered TV commercials in Singapore in a series of AdTrack surveys collated by MediaCorp TV in 2004 and 2005.