Aardman and isobel Bring Bullring Land to Life
LONDON, UK — London ad agency isobel have joined forces with Aardman Animations to create an audacious new campaign for Bullring — one of the UK’s premier shopping centers.
Building on the success of the “Life’s Even More Exciting at The Centre” positioning, the new campaign features a four-tier revolving mechanical model — a quirky, “playful” interpretation of Bullring and Birmingham. An array of products including lipsticks, illuminated ladles, cheese graters and perfume sit alongside a number of recognizable architectural landmarks — including the iconic Selfridges building which in ‘Bullring land’, is clad in buttons.
Rob Fletcher, Creative Partner at isobel comments: “We wanted to show a world full of delight and joy — to capture the many and varied facets of Bullring and to communicate its position as the heart of Birmingham.”
The campaign that will launch the new strapline “We Are So City” will feature 12 different executions each capturing a different shopping experience; season; event and/or festival. The campaign that will launch on Monday 27th August will include: TV, outdoor, press, advertorials, digital and in-store. For outdoor, isobel have worked closely with Aurasma, the world’s leading augmented reality platform, to bring the creative executions to virtual life.
Louise Hamer-Brown, Head of Marketing at Bullring, says: “We’re immensely proud to be part of Birmingham and believe that the We Are So City campaign perfectly captures the essence of our city with Bullring at the heart of it. With our 9th birthday just a matter of days away it’s important to keep the brand fresh and remind our customers just how special and unique Bullring is.”
Tamara Roukaerts, Head of Marketing at Aurasma comments: “We’re thrilled to be a part of the ‘We Are So City’ campaign. Bullring’s use of Aurasma shows that Birmingham really is at the forefront of innovation when it comes to embracing new technology.”
On choosing to work with Daniel Cohen and Aardman, Fletcher explains: “We knew we wanted to take a different approach with this campaign and Aardman were the obvious partners. Their exemplary track record speaks for itself and they understand the essence of ‘playfulness’ and ‘adventure’ which is key to the execution. The mechanical model has the magical, ‘characterful’ quality we hoped it would and they have an uncanny knack of rendering the ordinary extraordinary and smacking a big fat smile on your face in the process.”
The model, which consists of four contra rotating discs with miniature models and buildings interspersed with a host of desirable products, proved a perfect challenge for Aardman, who are celebrated for their model making prowess.  The craft-led model build of the We Are So City world allowed Aardman director Daniel Cohen to get in touch with his inner child “I always like making world’s and try to imagine where I would want to live in that place. I kind of just think like a child…that’s what I really feel lucky to be able to do — then there’s no right or wrong!”
