Warmies, the wonderfully huggable toy brand, needed an attention-grabbing TV campaign to sit alongside its existing radio and social advertising. Creative agency JWE Studio came to us with a brilliantly bonkers script to develop: a breaking news report following an outbreak of uncontrollable cuddling sweeping the nation. The culprit? Warmies!

We loved the idea of presenting these soft toys in such a serious way. The thought of news reporters earnestly warning the country that nobody was safe from their irresistible huggability was not only wonderfully silly, but had real potential to make the brand stand out in a crowded toy market.

Rather than the typical child-led product demonstrations in bright white studios, we wanted to create something with a little more personality. Frantic reports would take us across the country, from remote fields and busy classrooms to builders’ vans and even the news studio itself. Children and adults alike were powerless to resist the cuddling epidemic. Nobody was safe from Warmies!

But despite taking viewers across the nation, we filmed the whole thing without ever leaving our studio in Greater Manchester.
Using a hybrid approach to production, we combined real actors and real Warmies with locations and environments created in post-production using AI. This allowed us to bring a whole host of settings to life without having to physically visit each one.

Hybrid production brings its own challenges. Every scene needed careful planning ahead of the shoot, from framing and lighting to how our actors would interact with their surroundings. With so many locations and scenes to cover, however, this approach made perfect sense.
Keeping the entire cast and crew in one studio meant less time travelling, fewer location changes and more time to focus on getting the performances just right. With comedy so central to the idea, we didn’t want the logistics of a busy shoot getting in the way of the story.

The result is a playful campaign that puts Warmies front and centre. A great example of how hybrid production can be another useful tool in telling a story, allowing us to create an ambitious world on screen while keeping the focus firmly on the people, the performances and the wonderfully huggable Warmies.

Find out more at Warmies