Wallace & Gromit animators bring Myer’s Christmas campaign about a worried elf to life
A worried elf and a nonchalant reindeer star in Myer’s Christmas ad made by the creators of Wallace and Gromit.
Myer and its agency Clemenger BBDO Melbourne spent four months painstakingly working on a stop motion film with Aardman, with the ad set to hit screens this weekend and telling the story of an elf panicking at the thought he is yet to buy his Christmas presents.
Set on a snowly landscape, the Myer effort is still rooted in a very Australian sense of humour as the elf and his friends journey to Myer’s Giftorium. It is also starkly at odds with the retail-focussed efforts of many of its low-cost competitors.
While the film acts as the centrepiece of the campaign, the story of the shopping foursome will be extended through retail TVCs, posters, press, microsite, social, catalogues, shopping bags, staff uniforms, wrapping paper, gift cards and visual merchandise displays.
The four character depicted in the campaign are the Christmas fanatic reindeer, the practical list-making elf, the Christmas Fairy – a harried mother of four – and a dithering mouse.
“We wanted to bring a little bit of magic back to Christmas this year, but without being typically saccharine about it. The result is something beautiful and whimsical, but with a uniquely Australian tone,” said Clemenger BBDO creative director Stephen de Wolf.
Simon Canning
Credits:
Client: Myer
Chief Merchandise & Marketing Officer and Deputy CEO: Daniel Bracken
GM Marketing Strategy & Communications: Nathalie Warren-Smith
Senior Marketing Manager Retail Events & Services: Joanne Brennan
Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Creative Chairman: James McGrath
Creative Director: Evan Roberts
Creative Director: Stephen de Wolf
Creative Director: Carolyn Mackintosh
Senior Copywriter: Hilary Badger
Senior Producer: Karolina Bozajkovska
Operations Director: Sharon Adams
Group Managing Director: Simon Lamplough
Business Director: Kellie Lennon
Senior Planner: Matthew Kingston
Production Company: Aardman Animations
Director: Steve Harding-Hill
Producer: Steph Owen
Production Co-ordinator: Caroline Hague
Head of Model Making: Chris Entwistle
DOP: Mark Chamberlin
Lighting Cameraman: Jeremy Hogg
Animator: Dave Osmond
Post Production Supervisor: Jim Lewis
Editor: Dan Hembery
Lovely stuff! Amusing and endearing. Well done Clems
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Unusual to see an Aussie brand embracing the northern hemisphere vision of Christmas. Not sure how that will go, but it’s beautiful nonetheless
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Beautiful, yes – that’s Aardman for you. It’s a shame about the dialogue and voice talent though.
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Great that these characters are so Aussie but confusing that Myer would be snowbound at Christmas.
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A little bit fabulous alright!! Well done to everyone involved! X
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Frank Woodley voices the elf, and I’m pretty sure that the angel is voiced by Denise Scott but who are the other characters voiced by ???
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Congratulations Myer your Xmas Ad is absolutely delightful. It is so heart warming to see you still have the Xmas spirit. You will make a lot of children very happy.
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Beautiful and refreshing to see something like this mixed with the drivel on TV.
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My family & I really enjoyed this ad. Loved the dry humour through out the ad, made us laugh and smile
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The reindeer is Rhys Nicholson.
Yeah love this ad, so good with the Aussie comedians as voices. Way better than Qantas’ Christmas ad!
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This ad along with Mog the Cat, are the two best ads I’ve seen this year. Well done Aardman and all involved.
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australiam humour, great. European setting, not so great. A pity that they were not able to create a more relevant ad with similar sentiment. Overall, a disappointment.
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Nice one Myer.
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um..
John Lewis 2013 – The Bear & The Hare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0
Even the ‘making of’ is exactly the same?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKfFhUdXA5M
lame.
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ADORABLE. Nice to return to those “old school” xmas movies from 30years ago.
Well done on the voiceovers – Denise Scott is perfect!
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Best department store Christmas ad I’ve seen in years. The voice overs are all perfect – frank woodley as the elf and Denise Scott as the Angel? But who are the other voices?
Might be a northern hemisphere setting but who hasn’t dreamt of having a white Christmas – even just once!!? Love everything about this ad. Draws you in and you pick up on a different thing everytime I see it. And above all it encourages me to shop at myer for my gift needs this Christmas. And isn’t the purpose of an ad.
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Terrible dialogue and voice overs – contrived- don’t like this at all – too busy and twee.
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I just loved the add..so gorgeous.
Very well done.
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Love the ad, makes me smile every time. Can’t believe there are negative comments, they must all be old Scrooges or Grinches.
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Great ad, love the dialogue. And the scene is what a traditional christmas has been forever. How is it hard to work out.
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love you ad……best ad I have seen in a long time
” it’s a little bit Fabulous”. ?
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I Love Love Love your Christmas ad for Myertorium, the Angel is a blast, how could any body Not love this Adorable Ad. It’s the Best ad I’ve seen for a very long time,and tell channel 7 Not to take out Angel’s Comments. Happy Christmas to you all. Keep up the Awesome work Myer ???
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Would like to know who does the voice overs plz.
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So Rhys Nicholson – reindeer Denise SCOTT -Angel Frank Woodley – Elf Justine Clarke – mouse yeah mystery solved 🙂
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I love this ad thought it was just me till I read comments , seems a big hit ! Two weeks on the Gold Coast cracks me up! Please don’t show short version , the humor & voices are great!!!
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Absolutely love the Christmas 2015 ad…the voices match the characters perfectly. Makes me smile every time I see it. I have loved aardman for years….awesome. Merry Christmas ?
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Love this ad, it’s adorable. all the characters are wonderful. It makes me smile, laugh and maybe even think about going shopping at Myer!!! well done to all
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I love this ad. very magical. Thanks Myer. love the instore connection! I’M in the spirit of xmas
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I think the ad is adorable. I LOVE the reindeer and his lisp!
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I would like to know who do the voices, especially the deer.
I’m thinking it might be Tim?
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Makes me smile everytime best add ever well done to Myer for bringing the Christmas spirit back
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The reindeer is so cute what is his name my partner wants to name his dog after him
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Hmmmm why has the Angels (Denice Scott) voice been muted now?
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The deer is Tim from Big Brother & Celebrity Apprentice. Love him!
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A note to those who have commented on the, so called, northern hemisphere version of Christmas.
The birth of Christ, if it happened at all, certainly did not happen in Darwin or Sydney or anywhere even close to Australia.
Whatever beliefs the Australian Aboriginals have, and there must surely be thousands of them, I can say with confidence that the Christ child and Santa Clause are at least two concepts that very likely have never had a place in them.
If we are to continue to celebrate Christmas, then we must accept that it has its roots in Christianity, and if we are to support our children’s fantasy about Santa Clause, Father Christmas, St Nicholas or whoever we wish to call him, then we must accept the entire myth, the entire fantasy that we choose to share with the world, and the world shares with us.
Why are the shops filled with puddings and mince tarts and turkeys and hams? Why are there old men padding about in in Red suits with ermine and bells and boots and gloves, and hanging about with reindeer and Angles? Because it’s CHRISTMAS :o)
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Where has Denise Scott’s angel dialogue gone in latest versions of this great Myer ad, she had the funniest lines, put her voiceover back!
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Looks like a UK ad with the snow – kind of irrelevant here – and why is the reindeer depicted as so camp?! Super confusing TVC. Sorry, Myer, you lost me completely.
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@Aly
Northern UK, France, Germany, half of Europe and the USA to name but a few places where it snows at Christmas. Actually, in a couple of our high country areas, there will be snow at Christmas also.
This is beside the point, we have shared the notion of a white Christmas and an old man in a red suit ever since the first settlers arrived here. It isn’t real Aly, Santa and tree top angels and talking reindeer and fir trees, they are all fantasy things, even the elf isn’t real.
It’s called the spirit of Christmas, little children love it.
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I just love everything about it
“Is’nt it a little bit fabulous” is going to be the new catchphrase for Christmas in my home.
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Seriously, who are all these first time commenters/nice ladies who’ve made their way to an industry-specific site just to praise this ad?
Is it just me who finds this a bit suss?
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Brilliant. Hope you make another/follow on. Keep up the great work. I work with an ‘elf’ and a reindeer character, makes me laugh every time I see it. I might be the mouse character.have a wonderful Christmas .
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I agree LM. The comments are bizarre. Seems weird to see a xmas ad received with sincere, earnest praise by randos on here.
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The more mainstream / popular the ad, the more likely that Google thing is to present Mumbrella to the great unwashed when they type in “Myer Christmas Advert” for instance.
And so we get their nauseatingly naive engagement and opinions across our special, secret enclave of marketing excellence.
That this is how the Interwebs work is is probably not a revelation to those who understand marketing, digital or consumer behaviour. But to some of you, it seemingly is. Ironically.
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It’s a christmas miracle.
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Love the Myer Christmas Ad so much..
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I get how the Internet works, AdGrunt, I don’t get why Irene, Maude, Trudy, Agatha, Maureen and Ethel et al would bother commenting here, rather than on Myer’s Facebook page, or, you know, somewhere Myer-related where someone from, say, Myer would read about their unabashed love for their sweet little ad.
One if them, #5, Danielle Dunsmore, has even linked to a non-existent website called http://www.danielledinsmore.com, implying she doesn’t even know how to spell her own name. It all just looks a bit suspicious to me.
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What an absolutely beautiful, funny little ad. Didn’t want it to end. Love it.
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We thought the reindeer was voiced by Tim from big brother,and I thought I could hear Sofie Munk too.maybe too much ‘ the apprentice ‘….at our place
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Great Ad.
Imagine how many characters like the Reindeer they could have sold – would have outsold all ornaments.
Where can I get the Reindeer?
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Greatest television commercial ever made. Love it. Their adventures should be made into a feature film.
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