How This HORNBACH Ad Birthed a Green-Fingered Human
As a caterpillar man is birthed from a cocoon, he stumbles and wriggles on the grass before standing up and joining a community to garden together. Weird? Totally. Wonderful? No doubt. And that is the starting point for the spring campaign of gardening and home improvement store HORNBACH.
Known for its quirky campaigns which ooze with creativity, the store’s 2024 spring spot is no different. Enlisting Stink Films’ directing collective TRAKTOR, together with HeimatTBWA\, the shoot took place in the New Zealand summer, to capture the right ambience for the given time of year. With careful planning across the board, the team hung the actor up, “added a lot of slime, and started rolling the cameras,” and the ad unfurled from there.
To hear more about the process of misdirection leading to a surprise birth, LBB’s Nisna Mahtani speaks to TRAKTOR.
LBB> How did HORNBACH want to tackle the new spring campaign? What were some of the themes and ideas floating around?
TRAKTOR> What goes on in the minds of HeimatTBWA\ and Hornbach’s marketing department is beyond our knowledge. There must be something in their creative juices that keeps them coming up with bizarre yet poignant campaigns. We’re just happy to be invited to the (garden) party.
LBB> The caterpillar-to-a-butterfly story is a classic one. How did you think of the quirky twist of this one and how did it lend itself to the story you were trying to tell?
TRAKTOR> We love a metamorphosis story, which is particularly fitting for a spring campaign. When Heimat sent over the script to us, we hadn’t even finished reading it before we faxed back a big thumbs up. A man coming out of a cocoon!? Lots of slime. A lovely misdirect and then the surprise birth – a perfect metaphor for garden work.
LBB> Why was spring the perfect time to launch a campaign for HORNBACH?
TRAKTOR> Well, growing up on the Scandinavian tundra with long dark and cold winters, everyone’s fingers itch to get working in the garden, even if you don’t have one.
LBB> When it came to the shoot, what were some of the lighting decisions which were made to give the campaign its aesthetic?
TRAKTOR> We wanted to create a slightly heightened, warm and sunny aesthetics that we up in the North crave in spring. Knowing we had to shoot in the southern hemisphere due to the time of the year, we decided on New Zealand. New Zealand has a naturally heightened look and feel, and we found a lovely area just outside Auckland where our amazing production designer Neville Stevenson and his team created a set consisting of spring projects. Then our DP Martyn Williams added his magical touches. We felt it was important to create the cocoon and the ‘birth’ as a practical element and action and not have to rely on CGI. The cocoons were made by the local super team Main Reactor in full scale to fit our actor. We then hung them up, added a lot of slime, and started rolling the cameras.
LBB> Are there any existing pieces of work which inspired this campaign? Anything from the aesthetic to the storyline or even the music.
TRAKTOR> It’s a classic story and we really enjoyed getting a script that works as a 30-second edit, and even shorter, without compromising the story. Aunt Gunnar’s singing at our midsummer festivities was a big inspiration for the music.
LBB> What was the timescale of the shoot and where did the shoot take place?
TRAKTOR> Heimat approached us in September last year and we started production in October with casting, location scouting, cocoon design, and R&D. The shoot took place in early December in New Zealand, and we had a locked edit just before the Christmas break – final delivery at the end of January.
LBB> Before the spot launched, you created a teaser to intrigue the audience. Why was it important to release this ahead of the full campaign?
TRAKTOR> It’s really a question for the clever marketing people at Hornbach and Heimat, but we really like the idea of creating intrigue for such an iconic campaign as the Hornbach Spring commercial. Every spring campaign Hornbach has a new fun, weird, yet poignant approach. We never know what they will come up with, and we really like that.
LBB> In terms of reactions, what did people think of the spot when they saw it? What were some of the social media comments?
TRAKTOR> After the initial shock of the ‘birth’, we’ve only got very positive reviews.
LBB> If you had to describe the spot in one sentence, what would you say?
TRAKTOR> Human is born, human wants to do garden work.
LBB> Are there any funny stories from the set which you can share?
TRAKTOR> No, we never have fun on our jobs…
