The project began with strategist Duncan MacLennan of Sunny Futures, who was tasked with taking The Stormers from a traditional rugby franchise into a globally relevant entertainment brand. With a fresh rebrand in hand, the next challenge was how to launch it. Duncan knew it needed to be something with depth, story, and cultural relevance. Something that would unite fans, old and new, under one identity.

Enter Justin Gomes, co-founder of Bananas (of Cannes Lions Gold fame 😉), whose passion for the Stormers runs deep. “This team has given us so much,” Justin reflects. “When the opportunity came to do something for them, it was a no-brainer.” His storytelling instincts soon met the filmmaking muscle of director Anton Visser from Patriot, who Justin approached not just as a director, but as a creative collaborator.

Unlike the rigid, pitch-heavy processes that sometimes dominate our industry, this campaign was built differently. Anton was brought in upstream, before the script was even finalised. Justin spent time with the Stormers coach and players, including match days, when he observed the simple but powerful ritual: the team’s pre-game breathing exercise.

That breathing became the campaign’s creative spine. On screen, the Stormers’ inhale cuts away to Capetonians across the city, until Cape Town itself seems to breathe as one with its team. Every face in the film is real, no actors, just people from local communities who gave their time to be part of it. And it shows. It’s not often you see a muezzin, a ballerina, or even a woman in labour in a rugby ad! Add the cold-water swimming Dalebrook Divas and the SACS schoolboys in full war cry, and the piece becomes a living snapshot of Cape Town’s spirit. As Justin explains, “Each scene was so carefully selected, including of course the SACS war cry. SACS is South Africa’s oldest school and the SACS jersey informed both UCT and the blue and white hoops of Western Province.”

“It was incredibly fluid,” says Anton. “Ideas bounced back and forth on WhatsApp at all hours. It wasn’t about endless command chains, it was nimble, joyful, and collaborative. And because we made it with real Stormers fans, it truly feels like it was made by the city for the team.”

The commercial feels like a big step out of the traditional South African world of sports advertising. “If you look at how the big international football and basketball clubs do it, their work becomes part of culture, not just sport,” explains Duncan. “That’s what we wanted, something that made being part of the Stormers bigger than rugby.”

“It’s also a stake in the ground for South African sports advertising, which has too often shortchanged athletes with underwhelming work. Here, the players themselves leaned in, staying past call times to make sure Anton got the shots he needed. They believed in it because it resonated as authentic,” says Justin.

Already the most-watched team in the URC and boasting the highest matchday attendance last season, they’re aiming to push past 35,000 average spectators this year. More importantly, they want to expand their fan base beyond diehards, making attending a Stormers game as much a part of Cape Town’s culture as climbing Table Mountain or drinking wine in Stellenbosch. And if this campaign is anything to go by, they’re well on their way.

As Anton puts it, “This was about the Stormers, about Cape Town, and about the people who love them.”