Brief:

We teamed up with adam&eveDDB to recreate models of Sir Elton John, throughout his life, in extreme detail for the brand’s highly anticipated Christmas campaign.

Solution:

This type of VFX is rarely seen in advertising post production and is usually reserved for feature films. During the shoot, actors were made up with specialist prosthetics to create a base for the team to work with. Our teams performed scans of the actors, photographing their skin and making busts of each person. In order to create the skin from the blend of the scans taken of the actors with the CG model of Sir Elton John, various passes were created. In addition to the creation of Elton, our teams re-created each of the iconic venues by hand. Mood, lighting and the time of day of each environment was also incredibly important. This was not only for seamless transition but to provoke the different levels of excitement and emotion to be found at each venue.

Success:

This ad is perhaps one of the most anticipated and scrutinized ads of the year in UK and achieved stellar results.

– 50.2m views (+62% YoY)

– 11.8m unique reach on Youtube masthead on launch day

– Over 34,000 spots on TV across the Partnership

– Over 1M cinema views

– 43% of adults saw the advert on TV at least once

– 1st ever Partner launch with 98.9% positive sentiment

– #WeArePartners & #EltonJohnLewis trending in the UK before 8am on launch day