Sipsmith's first commercial, starrring the animated Mr Swan, has won the Thinkboxes Award for TV ad creativity.
Mr. Swan - the brand’s icon, inspired by the shape of the necks on its gin stills - guides us through the company's approach to small-batch gin distilling and discusses what makes Sipsmith different.
The charmingly urbane, if somewhat clueless, character outlines the brand’s uncompromising pursuit of quality - something the craft of the ad itself sought to reflect to the extreme.
"Not only is stop-motion animation a distinct and engaging way to tell our story, it is a labour-intensive and very skilled process that doesn’t allow for corners to be cut – and that’s our approach to making gin," said Kate Moorcroft, global marketing director at the London microdistillery.
Most of the effects were achieved directly in-camera and the ad features around 10,000 unique assembled and hand-made elements. "It’s the animators’ craft that takes the film to the next level," said Ogilvy’s executive creative director Jules Chalkley. The film was directed by Jeff Low through Biscuit Filmworks.
The Thinkboxes Awards for TV ad creativity are run in partnership with ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 and voted for by the Thinkbox Academy of senior creatives. The ads in contention ran in March/April.
Second in the latest Thinkboxes Awards was 'Boy' for British Heart Foundation by MullenLowe London and the Citroën idents for ‘First Dates’ by Havas London were third. Also shortlisted were 'So Stylish You Can Wear It’ by The&Partnership London for Argos and 'Hair do' by The Leith Agency for Irn Bru.
The Thinkboxes, in association with ±±¾©Èü³µpk10, are the only bi-monthly awards that celebrate the UK’s world-beating TV ad creativity, in all its forms. They are judged by the Thinkbox Academy – 200 advertising and marketing luminaries who have been involved in award-winning creative work for TV.
Take a deeper dip into Mr. Swan's life and the making of the ad in the June issue of ±±¾©Èü³µpk10.
Want to see more great work? Head to the Thinkboxes hub
Thinkbox is the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, in all its forms. Its shareholders are Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media, Turner Media Innovations and UKTV. Thinkbox works with the marketing community with a single ambition: to help advertisers get the best out of today’s TV.
