William Sinclair Horticulture has finished location shooting in South Africa of the launch TV commercials for its new Growing Success GrowQube® tomato planter and Deadfast 4L RTU weedkiller spray.

The 30 second commercials will start to air on March 26 and the campaign will run until the end of June – including prime time slots on ITV1, Channel 4 and several Sky channels. It required a production team of 75 people to complete the week-long shoot in Capetown under the direction of Sinclair Marketing Director, Simon McArdle.

Local production company, Groundglass first had to find a garden location without tropical or native plants so that it could be made to look like a natural English garden.

Erica Brumage who directed the GrowQube® video, said: “I wanted to capture a little girl’s delight in the joy of growing her own tomatoes and I’m sure the final cut will stir the emotions of a British audience.”

The Deadfast Weedkiller commercial required a different approach. Director Ari kruger was commissioned to bring the effectiveness of the product to life using a complex mix of live action and CGI special effects. He said: “The Deadfast brief called for drama and excitement,” he said, “and viewers will pay attention, for sure.”

“It’s an intensive process, but extremely rewarding,” said Simon McArdle. “Winter filming requires that we follow the sun to the Western Cape of South Africa. It’s a big investment but we anticipate it will be returned with interest when these new products hit the shelves. The agency, production company and the directors have exceeded all our expectations.”

Creative and media work was done by Jola Jackson from Sinclair’s London agency, Premier Communications. “We approached this brief in a very innovative way,” she said, “and this enabled us to give our clients exceptional results and value for money.”

For trade enquiries, call Decco on 01635 556600 or contact Sinclair on 01522 780300; or see the Sinclair online trade area at www.william-sinclair.co.uk/gardening/trade. E-mail enquiries may be sent to info@william-sinclair.co.uk.