How Isobel Created This Mechanical Christmas Masterpiece with Zero CGI

London ad agency isobel have joined forces with Aardman Animations to create a national Christmas campaign for Hammerson shopping centres.

Building on the success of ‘There are many sides to...’ positioning, the campaign features a 13ft fully-automated mechanical model designed to express and bring to life the brilliant collisions that are unique to shopping centres - the many possibilities of Hammerson shopping centres.

Food, technology, fashion, beauty, accessories and cinema are all represented in a one-off model conceived by isobel creative director Rob Fletcher and created by the award-winning Aardman Animations.

A smart phone peeks out of a blue leather bag, a meccano-esque contraption drips brightly coloured nail varnishes onto revolving records, scarves ‘pour’ out of china teapots, shiny baubles scatter onto a raised umbrella, brightly coloured plastic ladles evoke the charm of a Ferris wheel. And then the camera pulls back to reveal the complete model, turning and twirling, snow falling - a cacophony of unlikely, delightful collisions.

“This is all for real” explains Rob Fletcher, creative director, isobel “I can’t believe that Aardman managed to make the model that actually works in real time. There’s no CGI and hardly any post-production which is fresh and exciting - and rare nowadays”.

Daniel Cohen, Aardman Director adds: “When so much nowadays is created by computers, it was refreshing to build something unique by hand”.

The campaign that launched on Monday 17th November includes: TV, radio outdoor, press, advertorials, digital, in-store and VOD. You can view a behind-the-scenes below.