Quintessentially British Retailer, Marks and Spencer returns to The Mill for the 4th year of Fairy magic. Voiced by iconic actress/comedienne, Dawn French, our festive Fairy character is back, alongside Dawn, in the flesh!
Similarly to previous years, the high quality retailer is releasing a six-part festive series, starting with a mood boosting hero film. The 90 second M&S Food commercial focuses on an unenthused Dawn, exhausted by the chaos of Christmas. The energy quickly changes when Dawn's mini-me appears to save the day, with an M&S festive feast, copious drinks, fabulous friends and a wonderful party look. It is heartwarming, humorous and certainly relatable.
The Mill is known for an ability to create lasting, memorable brand characters, emphasised by the ad's impressive System1 score of 5.9. System1 is The Creative Effectiveness Platform that quickly harnesses the power of emotion to drive profitable growth for the world's leading brands. This is the second year, consecutively, that we have seen such a high score from our work on the M&S Food Christmas campaign, highlighting the value of creating a brand character viewers really love.
Our talented The Mill team worked wonders, again. Led by Creative Director Andy Steele, we teamed up with Director MJ Delaney and Production Company, Merman, to lift Christmas spirits to new heights. Andy said, "the privilege to work with Dawn on set is a real highlight of my career, her ability to turn a scene on a sixpence with improvisation was magical. MJ and Dawn had a fantastic understanding of each other, which allowed each scene to flow with some truly funny moments.”
The impressive work did not stop on shoot. Our VFX team waved their magic wands in post to really bring the commercial to life. VFX Supervisors Mike Little and Adrian Monroy Diaz were leading the force, telling us, "it was great to have Dawn for Fairy to react to. We wanted to make the most of their similarities and distinctions, helping to keep the humour going in shots where Fairy is the focus. Fairy's magic was used in some new and interesting ways this year, particularly in interactions with Dawn, something we explored at length to keep consistency with other magic shots, which was vital.”
The second helping of this Christmas food series is 'Christmas Gifts'. Fairy focuses on the edible gifts of the season.