* To promote Kumon’s 2-week free trial in an interesting and engaging way
* To produce an animation that appeals to both parents and children
* To integrate 2D animation with real footage
We worked with digital marketing agency FKC to create a 30 second commercial to advertise Kumon’s 2-week free trial. While the majority of the ad is animated in 2D, the beginning combines this with pixilation of children’s hands drawing. This method involved taking photographs of the kids' hands, and then using the still frames to create movement. Working this way allowed us to work with both real images and hand-drawn animation, without having to go through the lengthy process of compositing the animation work with video footage.
The client wanted to show that studying at a Kumon study centre helps children achieve their full potential, so the ad starts with 3 children drawing what they want to be when they grow up, in this case a doctor, engineer, and an astronaut. The characters then come to life through the 2D animation, and are seen studying at their local Kumon centre.
In addition to the animation and photography work carried out, we carefully designed each of the characters, ensuring that we thought about how the children would draw themselves, and the level of skill each age group would possess.
The commercial was shown on various television channels, including the children’s channel Boomerang, and was scheduled to be re-run to promote the later trial.