In its first work for Pier 1 since wining the account last fall, Deutsch, New York, has turned the focus of the chain, which offers imported decorative home furnishings and accessories, back to the product, using animation to tell stories of where Pier 1’s offerings originate.
In previous efforts for the retailer, stars such as Kirstie Alley, and Thom Filicia from Queer Eye for The Straight Guy, acted as the face and voice of Pier 1. In the new efforts, which include the :30 spots “Indian Rug” and “Tibetan Box,” animation is used to make the offerings at Pier 1 the focus. “Indian Rug,” directed by Jonas Odell of Filmtecknarna, Stockholm, opens on a watercolor like image of a dragonfly and a tiger, shifting into images of people. As the spot continues, colors begin to come together with a kaleidoscope effect; the view pulls back to reveal a live-action shot of a glass-top coffee table atop an intricately pattered Indian-print rug. “Tibetan Box,” directed by Tim Hope and Gaelle Denis of Passion Pictures, London, opens on a brightly colored animated scene that appears more life-like than the more abstract “Indian Rug.” In the opening, a butterfly perched atop a flower takes flight towards a stream with a waterfall. At the waterfall, goldfish are swimming upstream to a pond, which is ringed by flowers; the flowers pop onto the screen to form the inlay of a nightstand in a woman’s bedroom. Each spot features a voiceover that notes: “Your home is a story, how you tell it is up to you. Pier 1. Life more interesting.” Other ads in the package feature live-action shots of furniture and accessories offered at the store. Robert Bryant of bicoastal Order directed the :15s.
The idea behind the campaign, explains Kathy Delaney, managing partner/executive creative director at Deutsch, was to highlight the variety at Pier 1 stores. “Our idea was to really open the doors of the store and let the product be the star,” she notes, “instead of hiring a star to be the spokesperson. That was our big a-ha for this.”
Animation was used for the longer spots in an effort to detail where the imported products come from. “There’s something about going to Pier 1 that’s sort of like going on a journey,” says Delaney, “because all the stuff is so exotic and imported, and you get this flavor of other countries, other worlds, and we felt like the best way to bring that feeling of a journey to life was to do it via animation.”
Bruce Andreini, senior producer at Deutsch, noted that the agency wasn’t necessarily looking for European animators for the ads. “We didn’t set out to go to Sweden,” he relates, “but Jonas Odell was just amazing–like a fine artist, and we were also big fans of Tim Hope’s work, and fortunately, they were both really into it, and we loved working with them” The animators began work on the spots in January, and the team from the agency went to Sweden and the U.K. to oversee the live-action portion of each spot. .
“One of the reasons why we chose the two companies that we did was we never wanted any of the animation to ever look the same,” explains James Baldi, associate creative director/art director. “We wanted to indicate that these products came from different places. That’s why we did the rug spot kaleidoscopic and the Tibetan box spot is much more 2-D/3-D. We’re doing some future animations that are completely different.”
The spots make liberal use of color, which works to convey the brightness of Pier 1. “If you go into a store, it’s all about the color,” she says. “And it’s all about us living in a beige world and all of sudden being able to spice it up with what Pier 1 offers.”
Additional agency credits on “Tibetan Box” and “Indian Rug” goes to: Bryan Black, senior VP/group creative director/copywriter; Jim Frame, executive VP/director of broadcast production, and Alison Curtain, associate producer.
