The John Lewis Christmas commercial has a worthy rival this year. The Monkeys, Exit director, Glendyn Ivin, and Telstra present the story of a lost reindeer, Dash, who is pining for Santa, a little girl called Cassie and the Telstra payphone she uses to help him find his way home.
Ivin has built all the important heartstring tugging moments into the 90-second spot, Hello Christmas, and given it its distinctively Australian flavour. He has just completed three years on Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, that premiered on August 4 to screen through Amazon Prime in 240 countries and territories. The music is by Australian band, Zefereli, who provided the soundtrack with its 2016 emotive ballad, Oh Christmas.
Brent Smart, chief marketing officer at Telstra, stated, “We wanted to rise above the retail noise in the market at this time of year, especially in our category, with a big brand statement for Telstra. We created a uniquely Australian Christmas story with a unique role for the Telstra brand. I want to especially pay tribute to The Monkeys for a great piece of work, what a way to go out on the brand.”
“We’ve loved bringing Dasher and this campaign to life, and we know Aussies will love it as much as we do,” added The Monkeys chief creative officer, Ant Keogh.
The TV spot is one part of Telstra’s fully integrated Hello Christmas campaign which will roll out across the coming weeks.
Credits:
Client: Telstra
Chief Marketing Officer: Brent Smart
Head of Creative Excellence: Anna Jackson
Head of Brand & Network Marketing: Alita McMenamin
Senior Brand Specialist: Maria Rizzo
Senior Marketing Specialist: Stephanie Fredericks
Principle Media Sponsorships, Awards & Experiential: Genelle Sharples
Senior Media Specialists: Robbie Aoukar & Deeptha Chugh
Creative Agency: The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song
The Monkeys Group CEO & Accenture Song ANZ President: Mark Green
The Monkeys & Accenture Song Managing Director: Matt Michael
Chief Creative Officer: Ant Keogh
National Head of Production: Romanca Mundrea
Head of Production: Penny Brown
Chief Client Officer: Belinda Drew
Managing Director Strategy: Milla McPhee
Senior Strategist: Brona Kilkelly
Creative Directors: Hugh Gurney & Connor Beaver
Art Director: Emmalie Narathipakorn
Senior Designer: Stephen Leupen
Group Business Director: Amanda Porritt
Senior Business Director: Alex Austin
Business Executive: Georgia Wong
Senior Broadcast Producer: Jade Rodriguez
Senior Integrated Producer: Henry Welch
Production Company: Exit Films
Director: Glendyn Ivin
Executive Producer: Leah Churchill Brown
Producer: Alice Grant
DOP: Germaine McMicking
Offline Edit: The Editors
Executive Producer: Nicoletta Rousianos
Producer: Charlotte Griffiths
Casting: Nick Hammond Casting
Editor: Shannon Michaelas
Post Production: ALT.VFX
VFX Supervisor: Dave Edwards
Producer: Martina Joison
Music: Oh Christmas by Zeffirelli
Audio Post: Squeak E. Clean
Sound Engineer: Paul Le Couteur
Executive Producer: Ceri Davies
Photographer: Toby Burrows
Retouching: Electric Art
Media: OMD
