Barclaycard: Toys

Remember that time when you were a kid and really, really wanted the new He-Man figurine with the extra-armoured Battlecat for Christmas, but ended up with He-Man's 'girlfriend' Teela? Cuh, that was a rubbish Christmas. And Mum forced us to eat all our brussel sprouts... anyway, we digress.

This spot from BBH London, Gorgeous Enterprises' Chris Palmer and Passion Pictures shows how parents can avoid the trap of buying the wrong present for their child and pay for it quickly and easily with Barclaycard. With the help of a giant, James Corden-voiced monkey a dad is guided through the throng of a major toy shop and introduced - via some very good jokes - to a host of toys.

Alongside the TV spot and with the help of digital agency Dare, Toys also allows viewers to interact with the film via the app, Shazam. Viewers can tag the ad via the app for a chance to win a prize and everytime a prize is won Barclaycard will donate £5 to Great Ormond Street Hospital's children's charity.

There is also an augmented reality game, Toys Unleashed, which is available to download free from the Apple App Store from 16 November. “There can be nothing more daunting for a young father than walking into a toyshop at Christmas time trying to find that perfect gift and we wanted to bring that to life in a really engaging way," says Gary Twelvetree, global brand director at Barclaycard. "We’re really excited about the innovative use of the AR game and Shazam in the new campaign.”

Below, BBH creative director Matt Doman, takes us through the new campaign:

What was the motivation for the idea behind the spot?

The idea came from the thought that paying with your mobile phone is so easy, it actually makes shopping the hard bit.

Did you always plan on having the interactive elements of the campaign or did they develop as the campaign developed?

Although a big TV ad is always the most visable part of a campaign, we always make use of all the media and technology available around to amplify the idea.

Were there a whole host of toys you had jokes for and was it hard to choose which ones made the cut?

There were many which were written originally and more along the way when the opportunities arose. At the end of the day you get selective, a few well placed jokes are always better than a gag fest

What did Chris Palmer bring to the project?

To pull off this kind of job you are really looking for a director and production company who are brilliant at pulling off the multi-discipline nature of the ad, performance, puppeteering and post production. It also needs a big eye for detail across all of these to sew them together seamlessly.

Was James Corden the obvious choice for the VO?

It was an interesting time casting and choosing the voice. Some of the ideas that we had worked well, some were disasters. We settled on James at the time we started seeing concept drawings for our monkey and they felt right together, there's a lot of him in the design of the character in the end.

What was the hardest part of putting the campaign together?

The sheer man hours that were needed to pull it off from everyone involved were immense and over such along period (we started shooting in January this year) and a lot of understanding from our client. There are a lot of heroes on this one, I hope they feel proud of the final film.