TrueStart / The Coffee You Need
Director / Guy Saville
Producer / Tom Lonergan
Creative Director / Thom Wood
Director of Photography / Jim Petersen
Art Director / Fiona Fernie
Edit, Colour & Sound Design / Ben Harding
From wake-up to wind-down, the rhythm of a day shifts again and again — but coffee usually doesn’t. For TrueStart, a fast-growing brand, their first ever TV commercial was the chance to show what it looks like when it does, on their biggest stage yet.
We built four bold worlds alive with character and colour: morning yellow, high-energy red, calm green and restful blue. Each scene carried TrueStart’s trademark energy, brought to life through carefully crafted sets and a shoot packed with visual sleight-of-hand. Director Guy Saville and DOP Jim Petersen leaned into whip-pans, match cuts, orbitals and the odd probe lens, while Art Director Fiona Fernie made sure every detail played its part in the riot of colour.
The whole shoot took place in a single day — ambitious in scope, nimble in execution, and fuelled by TrueStart’s collaborative spirit (and plenty of their coffee). For a brand stepping into TV advertising for the first time, that could have been daunting. Instead, as co-founder India Rawlin put it: “Nowadays treated us like one of their own, always putting our needs first and making an intense process feel seamless.”
Launched on ITV and supported across YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn, the ad marked a milestone moment for TrueStart’s brand. October then saw their colourful world expand to billboards across London and Bristol — proof that their colour, confidence and energy could leap from can to screen to city street. For TrueStart’s audience, the film distilled a simple message with cinematic flair: whatever you need from your coffee, TrueStart is with you all the way.
