How do you show off a whole autumn range in 40 seconds without it feeling like a catalogue? You get everyone dancing. That was the thinking behind Changing Clothes, our latest TV advert for clothing brand Chums.

Chums is all about comfort, value and feeling good in what you wear. Rather than tell people that, we wanted the ad to show it. So we built the whole TV commercial around a choreographed dance routine, with our couple swapping outfits mid-move as the season’s new looks keep on coming. Trousers, tops, knitwear and shirts all get their moment, and none of it feels like a sales pitch.

The secret weapon was a robot camera. Motion control lets you repeat exactly the same camera move again and again, down to the millimetre, which meant we could shoot the routine over and over in different outfits and then cut between them seamlessly. Pair that with dancers who could hit the same marks every time and the clothes appear to change in the blink of an eye. It’s one of those techniques that’s tricky to pull off on the day and looks effortless on screen, which is exactly how it should be.

Then there’s the music. Feel Comfy is an original song written for the ad by Merger Media, and it does a lot of the heavy lifting. It’s upbeat, catchy and built to sit perfectly with the choreography. An original track gives a brand something it owns outright, and this one has a habit of getting stuck in your head.

Bold colour, a clean studio set and big, punchy supers keep the focus on the clothes and the prices, while the phone number and web address stay on screen throughout. It’s a fashion TV advert that works as hard as a DRTV ad, and it’s a lot more fun to watch.

Chums is a brand we know well, and every campaign is a chance to try something new. This one had us all dancing in the edit suite.

Want your brand to make a move on TV? We’re a TV commercial production company in Manchester and we’d love to hear from you.

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