Proco — The Helpies

  • Lydia Lapinski

ProCo offer so many helpful services, and their customers are so pleased with what they do, there’s a rumour going around that they must be getting some extra help. This campaign solves the conundrum by introducing the Helpies and follows these mysterious creatures on their nightly journey around the ProCo facility. The Helpies exist to make life easier for ProCo, because ProCo make life easier for their customers. It’s like good karma. Just like the big folk at ProCo, they get a buzz out of being helpfully productive and making work a genuinely happy place to be. I designed the Helpie characters, then commissioned Holly at 'A Little Stranger' to make 500 plush toys of them, along with mini t-shirts and caps. The Helpie plush toys were sent out to clients, in custom silver tubes (to match the pipes they usually live in) along with an adoption certificate, Helpie food and sticker sheet. I built sets in different locations around the ProCo factory at night, shooting the Helpies in action for a special book of their story that also doubles as a guide to ProCo. Images were also made for a teaser postcard & email, featuring suspicious miniature mugs, hoovers and fork lift trucks found around the factory by employees. Designed at Iris Associates / Photography by Tom Jackson and Tom Smith