ABOUT
Habitat tasked Armoury via New Commercial Arts to get viewers to spruce up their homes before the holiday party season kicks off with a sleek commercial. Set to Janelle Monáe's 'The Way You Make Me Feel', the camera glides through the guests while highlighting different objects (a rug, a lamp, fancy glasses), with velvety lighting and dewy, smiley faces.
You'd think that curating a fun party scene on camera is easy. Get some good-looking people together in a decent-sized space, add random music and fake drinks and off you go… But director Rollo Hollins, New Commercial Arts creatives Charlotte Prince and Loriley Sessions beg to differ!
A lot of other elements bring it all together. Casting was a huge priority, led by the amazing Tree Petts, to ensure that the ad remained authentic and inviting. It was genius to have all the background cast come to the physical castings to workshop in groups and help to create an authentic tribe out of them. Another production power move was having on-set DJ Roberta Cutulo on vibe patrol – she never let the vibe die even during non-shooting moments (And no, Roberta did not take requests).
For the client, the products and the home had to do most of the talking and Rollo and production designer Max Randall understood this, and remained very zen even when faced with the last-minute challenge of building a new wall to safeguard an immovable family heirloom or an unavoidably staccato set of prop deliveries'.
Instrumental to the success of this ad was also a careful consideration of the brand and client and a well-oiled agency-production company relationship.