Myer, Australia’s leading department store, has always been an iconic, one-stop destination for Christmas. So we figured that went for everyone, including little Christmas decorations. Meet Elf, Reindeer, Angel & Mouse. Four unlikely ornaments who, with the help of Myer, must rise to the challenge to save Christmas when a change in Santa’s star roadmap throws everything into jeopardy.
Created with Aardman - the Academy Award-winning animation studio of 'Wallace & Gromit' and 'Shaun the Sheep' fame – the five-month production process saw each of the characters lovingly sculpted by hand, filmed frame-by-frame and combined with a complex mix of live action and CGI.
Beyond the brand film & online teaser, the story of these characters ran through retail TVC’s, posters, press, social, catalogues, shopping bags, staff uniforms, wrapping paper, gift cards, visual merchandise and more. Every touch point at Myer was transformed with the campaign designed to funnel consumers towards Myer’s Christmas gift giving destination, the ‘Giftorium’.
To accompany the campaign, we created an interactive children's storybook. Readers could enjoy a longer version of our tale crammed full with original animated illustrations, word-for word narration, character voices, interactive games and more. Available for free to download on both the Apple App and Google Play stores, the magic of Myer Christmas was brought vividly to life in people’s hands - and the app quickly shot to a feature on the App Store.
Online, people could go beyond the film to learn more about each of our loveable gang, get gift giving wisdom from our ‘Gifticians’ and shop a limited edition range of merchandise. In fact, demand for each character was so high the entire collection sold out within the first week.
Australians embraced the campaign with the films skyrocketing to 10 million + views. To bring the characters to life beyond this, we created a surprise snapchat lens on Christmas Eve that allowed fans to transform into Elf and Reindeer - voices and all. The results reflected Australia’s love for the campaign - our lens had over 4.018m plays, 72% of Australians named Myer their top-of-mind Christmas shopping destination and best of all average customer spend was up 12% year-on-year.