Center Parcs launches new 'Forest is Your Playground' campaign
Center Parcs, which specialises in short breaks, has unveiled a new campaign celebrating the forest as an immersive playground. The campaign features a new television ad, 'Forest is Your Playground,' a 50-second commercial December, which debuted on the company’s Facebook channel before jumping to TV.
The new campaign builds on the success of last year’s 'Bears' campaign and the Center Parcs “Get Together Again” positioning. Created by agency Brothers and Sisters, the commercial showcases the acres of forest at Center Parcs and shows how the forest is a fantastic playground for families.
Directed by Eric Lynne from Partizan and using the well-known children’s game of consequences, the commercial follows a family of four through the forest telling a story. Starting as all good stories do with “once upon a time,” the imaginative tale builds between mother and father, son and daughter each sharing different lines. The children and parents create a story that brings the forest to life with animated leaf monsters, robots, forest creatures even and a great forest whale.
Colin Whaley, Sales and Marketing Director at Center Parcs commented, “Our research shows that in modern life, parents rarely get the chance to get on the same level as their children and give them undivided attention. This new campaign shows how through imaginative play and simply using the things around you such as the forest and nature, you can be together as family. The TV commercial builds on the approach of the previous campaign to focus on the emotional benefits of a Center Parcs break, rather than the actual product alone.
“We want to inspire people to carve out family time, not just during the festive period, but in daily life as well. So many of our guests come back time after time and tell us we are a great place to truly get together and enjoy being a family,” he said.
Electric Theatre Collective collaborated with Hollywood concept artists to design the characters in the ad. The characters took over two months to develop, with painstaking detail to ensure they fitted naturally in the forest environment. The piece took 1,200 hours of animation in addition to the time spent modeling and lighting each of the characters.
Credits
Agency: Brothers and Sisters
Executive Creative Director: Andy Fowler, Brothers and Sisters
Creative Team: Robbie Ferrara & Andy Drugan, Brothers and Sisters
Senior Business Director: Katie Jackson, Brothers and Sisters
Senior Account Director: Lloyd Sampson, Brothers and Sisters
Senior Account Manager: Susie Seldon, Brothers and Sisters
Account Manager: Rebecca Simpson, Brothers and Sisters
Agency Producer: Phoebe Rixon, Brothers and Sisters
Agency Executive Producer: Nicola Ridley, Brothers and Sisters
Director / Production Company: Eric Lynne, Partizan
Editor: Walter Mauriot
Post Production Producer: Sian Jenkins, Electric Theatre Collective
Lead VFX: Ryan Knowles, Electric Theatre Collective
Assistant VFX: James Belch, Electric Theatre Collective
Lead CG: Dean Robinson, Electric Theatre Collective
Lead Animator: Paul Templeman, Electric Theatre Collective
Sound Design: Sam Ashwell @ 750
DoP: Arnaud Potier
Media planning/buying: Blue 449