Every year at about this time the world becomes flooded with magical stories and joyful scenes. In the UK this year, there will also be this:

The point of this rather wonderful, very honest view by Grey London and Very.co.uk is that Christmas is still wonderful even though it’s not as perfect as the Christmas ad clichés.

The 90-second spot was directed by Gary Freedman and inside all this life-affirming humour is just the barest hint that Very.co.uk helps to make Christmas run a little smoother. Perfect. The campaign launched on November 2 in primetime during ITV’s Pride of Britain. The hero film will be supported by an out-of-home campaign, print and online ads. It will be followed by 60-second shorter versions.

Christmas is this Very moment is the second campaign created by Grey London for Very.co.uk and follows the agency’s campaign for the online retailer in October which focused on celebrating all of life’s little moments of joy right now, with the tagline, Life is this Very moment.

Carly O’Brien, chief marketing officer at The Very Group, stated, “It is great to see our new brand platform, Life is this Very moment, brought to life for Christmas with a truly uplifting campaign that we believe our customers can relate to. It’s honest, raw and captures what’s really special about the whole of the Christmas period, not just the day itself. It is a celebration of every single moment in the countdown to December 25 and it goes beyond the festive celebration, which we know might not be the same this year.”

Javier Campopiano, chief creative officer Europe and creative chairman London at Grey, added, “We are thrilled to launch the newest and biggest instalment so far of the new creative platform, Life is this Very moment. It´s rare to see a pitch winner campaign coming to life, so this is a particularly special campaign for us as an agency. It also means the brand platform is so relevant that it can go through a pandemic and become even more meaningful.

“It’s a different Christmas message, a message that offers the unfiltered point of view of someone who truly loves everything about Christmas, every single bit that makes it such a magical season. Not only is it different to what the brand and its customers have seen before, but we’re confident it’ll resonate right now, when we’re facing the prospect of a very different festive period.”

Credits:

Creative Agency: Grey London
Creative Chairman: Javier Campopiano

CCO: Laura Jordan Bambach
Creative Directors: Matt Moreland & Chris Clarke
Creative Teams:  Matt Moreland & Chris Clarke, Emma Thomas & Ryan Delaney, Angela Harding & Terry O’Neill
CSO: Raquel Chicourel
Strategy Director:  Jess Smith

Group Business Director: Kate Ilott
Business Directors: Tamsine Foggin & Charlotte Coughlan
Account Directors: Natasha Thomas & Naomi Templeman
Account Manager: Emilie Jenner
Account Executive: Meg Johns
Senior Producer: Maxine Hose
Assistant Producer: Kate Reynolds
Print Producer: Toby Horrocks

Production Company: Independent Films
Director: Gary Freedman

Executive Producer: Jani Guest
Producer: Sara Cummins
DOP: Barry Ackroyd
Production Design:  Jacqueline Abrahams

Editing Producer: Dan Breheny @ The Assembly Rooms
Editor: Adam Spivey
Post Producer: Phil Whalley @ MPC 

Colourist:  Matthieu Toullet
Audio Post Producer: Mary-Ann D’Cruz @ 750mph 
Sound Engineer: Sam Ashwell

Media Agency: PACE & Vizeum

Client: The Very Group
CMO: Carly O’Brien
Senior Brand Manager: Kim Pritchard