Sensational Ewan McGregor and BSS Group project

At the end of December 2016 Ewan McGregor fans got surprised by the social media revelation of his visit to… Warsaw. The actor came to Poland at the invitation of BSS Group, specialising, among others, in selling the publicity rights of celebrities for advertising campaigns. He played a lead in sensational commercial ‘Czerwony punkt’ (‘The Red Spot’) debuting VOD platform – ShowMax.

The focal point of the campaign is a 7-minute film etude directed by Patryk Vega. Along with Ewan McGregor, Olga Bołądź, Andrzej Grabowski and Piotr Stramowski joined the cast. Commercial spots are aired in TV, cinemas and on showmax.com platform. They are supported by the campaign on social media platforms, outdoor projects, and direct marketing.

The star of the campaign, Ewan McGregor, is a popular movie and theatre actor, widely known by public for his role as Mark Renton in ‘Trainspotting’, and as Christian in ‘Moulin Rouge’. He also played the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in classic ‘Star Wars’. He is also very keen on motorcycling and a charity worker. He brought these two passions together in the Long Way Round project, when he travelled from London to New York through the European Union, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, and Canada. During the trip McGregor and his companions visited UNICEF facilities in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

BSS Group takes credit for recruiting McGregor for the campaign, concluding the agreement with the star and cooperating management on a film set. This is not the first success of the company in the field of engaging a Hollywood star for promotional activities in Poland. BSS Group agency ensured Kevin Spacey’s appearance in a Bank Zachodni WBK advertising campaign. We also take credit for many contracts with Polish sports celebrities. In 2016 Maciej Żurawski played in a Kuchnia Lidla (Lidl Kitchen) advertisement, Zbigniew Bródka took part in a campaign ‘Nestlé porusza Polskę’ (‘Nestlé Moves Poland’). BSS Group is a coholder of Filip Mecner Artist Management – the leader in the field of commercialisation of rights of publicity of Polish show-business stars. Recently the agency carried out campaigns with Anna Starmach for Electrolux and Rio Mare brands, Małgorzata Rozenek for Perlux, Sidolux, Foxy and Fargotex campaigns, Olga Frycz for ING Bank Śląski, and Piotr Kędzierski for T-Mobile.

Engaging a world-famous star of this stature is always a huge production and logistic challenge, but it is also an exceptional joy and experience. There are not many campaigns in Poland dedicated to this area, with actors known from Hollywood productions. It makes us even more happy of the fact that BSS becomes a leader in implementing this kind of projects in Poland. What is more important, the success of these campaigns and their professional development are an encouragement for other celebrities to take a look at our country, not only as a tourist destination, but also as a business opportunity, the President of the Board BSS Group, Damian Raciniewski, commented.

The author of the campaign is Bridge2Fun agency, with Opus Film as a producer.

ShowMax is a payable VOD platform, a part of Naspers consortium, available in 65 countries. It is going to debut in Poland in 15 February 2017.