It’s the holiday season, which means lots of ads from retailers showing off the items consumers could gift. And British high street brand Argos is leading the charge with its campaign featuring a doll called Connie and a plastic dinosaur named Trevor.
Developed by agency The&Partnership and directed by Traktor, the main 30-second ad and the accompanying 40-second edit show Connie as she excitedly dances across a table on the night before Christmas while wearing her holiday jumpsuit to Le Freak by Chic. She is under the misdirection of Trevor, who is apparently filming her on his smartphone.
Along the way, numerous Argos products can be seen, including a coffee maker, a Shark hair dryer and a Sonos smart speaker before the twist in the tail is revealed.
The campaign continues to build on the Argos brand platform “There’s More to Argos,” which was launched earlier in the year and aims to showcase it as a destination hosting a wide range of products from home and beauty to technology and toys.
“For 50 years Argos has been strongly associated with gifts for kids at Christmas. And whilst that’s still true today, the brief this year was to tell people that there’s much more than toys at Argos this Christmas,” Laura Boothby, head of campaigns at Argos, told Adweek.
Animated by Untold, the voices of the characters are from People Just Do Nothing’s Ruth Bratt and This Country’s Charlie Cooper.
Supporting the launch of the TV spot, releasing on Nov. 1, will be OOH activity followed by further 10-second TV spots to follow from Nov 19. BVOD, press, social, online, radio and PR will also run alongside a suite of TikTok films featuring Connie and Trevor.
“Sentimentality is something that runs through most ads at Christmas. We want to entertain families this year, so the team came up with an idea that was fun and high energy,” Matt Moreland, creative directors at The&Partnership, added.
Credits:
Client: Argos
Chief marketing officer: Mark Given
Director of communications and creative: Radha Davies
Head of marketing and brand communications: Laura Boothby
Campaign manager: Jade Nielsen
Marketing campaign Executive: Tiff Winchester
Campaign assistant: Ben Arnold
Campaign assistant: Melissa Williams
Campaign title: Argos Christmas: Dancer
Agency: The&Partnership
CEO: Sarah Golding
ECD: Toby Allen
Creative directors: Chris Clarke and Matthew Moreland
Senior creative: Carl Storey
Head of integrated production: Charles Crisp
Senior agency producers: Alfie Glover-Short, Sam Topley
Managing director: Gary Simmons
Business director: Alice Poole
Senior account director: Alex Fitzsimons
Senior account manager: Sasha Ford
Account manager: Emily Colinese
Planning director: Matt Linnett
Senior strategist: Isabel Day
Production company: Stink Films
Director: Traktor
Executive producer: Jon Chads
Producer: Traktor
Production manager: Nurjan Nevzat
Director of photography: Pär M. Ekberg
Production designer: Poppy Luard
Costume designer: Amy Albertine Andrew
Choreographer: Lizzie Gough
Editor: Ryan Beck @ Final Cut
VFX Studio: Untold Studios
Exec producer: Melody Alexander
Producer: Ange Toner
Production assistant: Natalie London
VFX supervisors: Chris Redding and Jon Wood
CG supervisor: Tim Philips
Animation supervisor: Aimee Westley
VFX artists: Amanda Cheung,
Bhavesh Budhkar,
Daniel Escobar,
Emma Lepuil,
Jack Bond,
Irina Alzuru,
James Primhak,
Kerim Camdzic,
Michael Diprose,
M Gopikapriya,
Rachel Bosc-Bierne,
Sarah Higgs,
Swati Barnwal,
Tom Paterson,
Emine Arkin,
Jan Kanta,
Rebecca Clay,
Sebastien Gaucher
Online: Richard Harris
Colorist: Julien Alary
Color producer: Eli Sandal
Audio post production: Grand Central Recording Studios
Audio producer: Kelly Noble
Sound designer: Munzie Thind
Music supervision: DLMDD
Music supervisors: Lizz Harman and Jeremy Newton
