New Argos Christmas campaign, pumped by brightly colored Yetis
Argos has turned to speed, adrenaline and excitement for its 2016 Christmas advertising campaign, following last year’s extreme snowboarding ‘Just Can’t Wait for Christmas’ spot.
Created by CHI&Partners and directed by Henry Scholfield through Caviar, the 60” ‘Christmas Yetis’ advert is a whirlwind of excitement, energy and colour, reflecting the market-leading speed of Argos’ Fast Track Same Day delivery service and 60-second in-store collection promise. Set against an exclusive adaptation by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra of Danny Elfman’s “What’s This?”, the spot creates a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation.
It was shot in camera on a purpose-built skating track in the picturesque center of Warsaw, and stars five semi-professional ice skaters – with more than a century’s experience collectively – as the yetis. Based on the folklore that yetis move twice as fast as the average human, the Argos yetis leap and carve round corners like lightning on their skates – collecting, playing with and delivering Argos’ top products as they go, from Beats headphones, Virtual Reality headsets and Dyson vacuum cleaners to Fitbit, GoPro and Furby products.
The yetis are led by Peter Hallam (in orange), twice British Figure Skating Champion and holder of five international Gold medals as well as two silver medals at the Senior British Figure Skating Championships. The remaining blue, pink, green and purple yetis are played by George Southall (in blue), who is recognised as one of the best amateur freestyle skaters in the UK; professional Adrian Jack (in pink), a principal in Disney on Ice; and professional ice hockey players Brad Slade (in green) and Kevin McGlynn (in purple).
The campaign broke on TV on November 4th, and is supported by print, video-on-demand and paid digital through Mindshare. AllTogetherNow, CHI&Partners’ sister agency within The&Partnership, will be creating a supporting social content campaign featuring the yetis, including a ‘Yeti Unboxing’ series on YouTube – with the yetis doing the unboxing – following the award-winning success of its ‘Toy Unboxing’ series for the retailer last year. It has also been hinted that the yetis may be making public appearances as part of a consumer PR campaign from W Communications.
Stephen Vowles, marketing director at Argos, said:
What we love about this fun, fast-paced campaign is that it beautifully captures the spirit of excitement and anticipation surrounding Christmas. Fun loving and friendly, these larger-than-life, speeding yetis colourfully bring to life the role that Argos hopes to play in the Christmases of families nationwide this Christmas – and the skill, speed and precision that make us market leaders, with our super-speedy, same day Fast Track Delivery and Fast Track Collection services.
Jim Bolton, deputy executive creative director at CHI&Partners:
This campaign brings out the excited Christmas-Eve kid in all of us who just can’t get to sleep, they’re so eager for the big day to arrive. We hope our loveable yetis bring excitement to thousands of British households this Christmas – reminding us of the joyous, fun-filled experience the festive season should be.
The campaign follows Argos’ 2015 spot ‘Just Can’t Wait for Christmas’, in which skiing and snowboarding champions showcased their speed and skill on a mountainside in Chile’s Valle Nevado.
Credits
- Agency: CHI&Partners
- ECD: Micky Tudor, Jonathan Burley
- Creative Director: Jim Bolton
- Creatives: Ben Da Costa, Duncan Brooks, Sarah Levitt
- Producer: Adam Henderson
- Planners: Rebecca Munds & Josh Roth
- Business Director: Gary Simmons
- Account Director: Stephanie Leonard
- Account Manager: Nathan Brocklesby
- Production Company: Caviar
- Director: Henry Scholfield
- Producer: Giles Skillicorn
- Photographer / Director of Photography: Jallo Faber
- Costume: Animated Extras
- Editor: James Rose, Cut & Run
- Post-Production: Electric Theatre Collective
- Producer: Sian Jenkins
- VFX Supervisors: Yourick Van Impe
- Post Supervisor on Shoot: Angus Wilson
- Audio: Sam Robson, 750mph
- Music Company: Wake The Town
- Voiceover: Miquita Oliver
- Media Agency: Mindshare
- Social Media Agency: AllTogetherNow
Sainsbury’s Argos is a leading UK digital retailer and sells more than 60,000 products under the Argos and Habitat brands. It sells through www.argos.co.uk, www.habitat.co.uk, its growing mobile channels, its 845 stores and over the telephone. Argos Digital Stores and Mini Habitats can also be found in Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
Argos is the UK’s largest high street retailer online and the second most visited website, with nearly a billion website visits a year. More than half of the company’s sales originate online and around 120 million customer transactions take place in its stores each year. Argos offers customers market leading delivery and collection services, including Check & Reserve, Fast Track Delivery and Fast Track Collection which make customers’ lives easier, every day.
Sainsbury’s Argos is part of J Sainsbury plc, a leading retailer of food, clothing and general merchandise and owner of Sainsbury’s Bank. Sainsbury’s commitment to helping customers live well for less has been at the heart of what the company does since 1869. J Sainsbury plc employs 195,000 colleagues across the UK and Ireland whose strong culture and values are integral to driving its success – now and in the future. Our vision is to be the most trusted retailer where people love to work and shop.
CHI&Partners is a UK-based advertising agency. Founded in 2001, the agency is listed in the Sunday Times’ Top Track 250 and International Track 200 as the UK’s fastest-growing privately-owned ad agency both within the UK and internationally, and was this year named the UK’s most awarded independent creative agency at Cannes Lions.
CHI&Partners has offices spanning New York, Canada and Asia as well as Europe – working with large domestic and international clients including Argos, British Gas, Carphone Warehouse, Diageo, GSK, Lexus, News UK, Royal Bank of Scotland, Samsung, TalkTalk and Travelodge. CHI&Partners is a partner in The&Partnership.
The&Partnership is an independent agency holding company where the majority owners are the founders and partners of the individual businesses, sharing one bottom line. A cross-discipline communications group built for today’s complex industry landscape, The&Partnership comprises ten businesses spanning four continents, with 1,500 staff. The group houses agencies specialising in advertising, design, CRM, media planning and buying, data analytics, PR, content and social – with digital at the core of all its businesses. The&Partnership is backed by WPP, the world’s largest communications agency network, which is both a partner and a significant minority shareholder.