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DFS and krow tap Aardman to create iconic Christmas campaign

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DFS; the UK’s biggest sofa manufacturer and retailer, has partnered with the Oscar-winning studio Aardman to create a multichannel advertising campaign that makes heroes of its talented team of craftsmen and women. Borrowing a trick from the classic Halifax spots of yore, the campaign features 14 actual DFS employees drawn from the sofa firm’s three UK factories in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire. It's been designed to shine the spotlight on the hard work, technique and artistry of the DFS team who hand-make customer orders all yea'r round, honing in especially on the busy run up to Christmas. The work, titled “Special Delivery,” is the first instalment in a new campaign created by krow for the brand.

Each of the 14 DFS employees featured in the campaign were meticulously transformed into lifelike handmade fabric characters by the expert team at Aardman. The characters were then brought back to life for the TV campaign through the painstaking and precise art of stop motion animation. The new campaign took over six months to produce as Aardman sought to depict the real DFS people and real DFS factories with forensic precision. Following weeks of site visits and nearly 40 interviews with DFS craftspeople, krow and the Aardman team selected 14 DFS employees to feature in the campaign. Each of the 14 DFS employees selected for the campaign were transformed into a character measuring approximately 30cm tall. The lifelike models were then constructed out of a core metal armature and different fabrics with each one taking approximately five weeks to make.

Darryl George, Creative Director at krow, said: “We thought Aardman, as another world class British brand, is a great fit for DFS to showcase the brand’s attention to detail and craftsmanship. We think they have done an excellent job of capturing the spirit and personality of the real DFS employees to let them tell their own brand stories and show the people behind the brand.” Steve Harding-Hill, Creative Director at Aardman, added: “We used stop frame animation to create an authentic handcrafted world that would reinforce the handcrafted nature of each DFS sofa built. It’s been such a joy to work with the truly talented folk at DFS, who put so much attention to detail into the products that they create, very much like we do with the characters and storytelling in our productions.”

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