Last October, Ogilvy Paris launched the 4th edition of its Hors Circuit competition in partnership with Mediawan, Instagram, Society, Les Déterminés and Hogarth. As a reminder, Hors Circuit is a springboard for the emergence and, above all, the support of artists who have talent but no network. This year, the competition focused on the need for lightheartedness in a particularly anxiety-inducing atmosphere. Participants were asked to submit a humorous film in the form of a short film, web series or sketch...
The jury, made up of artists, communication and production experts and committed entrepreneurs, met on December 17 to discover and judge the projects. The Vabene collective's project won unanimously. The jury also awarded two “coups de coeur”: the first to Naomi Huart for “Enfer et contre tous” and the second to Sybille de Montigny and Marie Jocteur for “Les Chroniques de Lady Robinson”.
Vabene is a team of four friends with a passion for humor and creativity: Aymeric Garreau, Jules Blondel, Léo Chapuis and Paul Cordillot (as pictured above), Four buddies from Grenoble who spend their free time writing, directing and editing mock documentaries, sketches and parodies. Often inspired by the codes of television and mainstream media, they try to tell zany stories fueled by their respective inspirations. Watching Vabene's videos is a bit like flipping through the latest cable channels, faced with increasingly shady reports. You wonder what you're still doing here, and yet you can't help but stay.
Photo taken during jury deliberation. From left to right: Joanna SEBASTIEN DA ROCHA, Diane GERIMENT, Minima Gesté, Chloé RÉAUTÉ, Matthieu ELKAIM, Anne-Claire TELLE, Aurélie APPERT, Amir LAÏEB, Sambou DOUKANSI, Amadou DABITAO, Yan DEGORCE-DUMAS, Sarah NASRALLAH.
“Humor has the merit of being simple to judge: you either laugh or you don't. We had the pleasure of discovering a few projects with a lot of potential, but Vabene's managed to elicit smiles and laughter from all the members of the jury, which was no small feat. The project was well-written, the direction was obviously simple but well-paced and well-edited, and the acting was convincing. These four individuals have real potential, and we're going to do our best to help them structure and professionalize their project so that they can land some interesting opportunities,” says Matthieu Elkaim, President and Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Paris.
“Honestly, it's a great surprise to have won. We've been writing for months, shooting our videos in our corner and trying to believe in this project, so we're very happy that we're finally going to be able to give Vabene an official dimension. We'd like to thank Ogilvy Paris and the members of the jury for organizing this competition, giving us a chance and a big boost of motivation. Now we're going to work even harder, with the right support. Thank you, Hors Circuit!” exclaims Léo Chapuis.
THE HORS CIRCUIT COMPETITION
Hors Circuit is an initiative dreamed up by the employees of Ogilvy Paris via its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. Launched in September 2021, the first edition of the Hors Circuit competition revealed illustrator Mélanie Gilloury (@studio. fulmine), in 2022 director Eugène Bolengu won the second edition and Djenaba Diame, content creator, was the winner of the third edition in 2023.
ABOUT OGILVY PARIS
Ogilvy inspires brands and individuals to make an impact on the world. Since the agency was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy, it has been creating ideas that are iconic, popular, culturally innovative, value-creating and value-bearing for its clients. Its guiding principle, “Borderless creativity”, continues this rich heritage. Its experts operate at the crossroads of advertising, experience, public relations, influence and consulting in 131 offices in 93 countries. Ogilvy is a WPP company (NASDAQ: WPPGY).
Ogilvy Paris, the French office, brings together a collective of 250 talents who imagine hybrid and innovative creative solutions in France and abroad for brands, institutions and emblematic companies such as Accor, Allianz, Coca-Cola, Decathlon, Herta, Ikea, Michelin, Milka, Vittel, Perrier, Tinder and the World Food Programme.
Ogilvy Paris is proud of its open-mindedness and its commitment to greater diversity, equality and inclusion in the communications professions and, more broadly, in society.
