Tech Reborn

Today, Back Market, the leading refurbished electronics marketplace, has launched ‘Tech Reborn’, its first national UK 360° brand campaign. Enlisting double Cannes Grand Prix winner, Johnny Kelly, to create the centrepiece film, 'The Monster’, the campaign will launch on 30th March across a breadth of digital and social environments, including YouTube, Vevo, Sky, All4, Twitch and others.

The stop-motion animation follows the relationship between a young girl and a monster. The young girl shows the monster how the constant production of new technology is harming the planet, and explains why we should be making the most of what we have today, instead of constantly looking to the latest devices.

“We had to create an unconventional campaign to challenge the perception of refurbished technology here in the UK. The majority of Brits are opting for new devices, over refurbished ones. As such, we wanted the monster to reflect our purchasing power. When we choose new devices, we feed the ‘monster’ that is Big Tech. But, when we do more with what we have, and make sustainable decisions, we’re able to use our purchasing power to create a better future.” said Luke Forshaw, Head of Brand and Marketing at Back Market UK.

To create 'The Monster', Johnny Kelly used a combination of puppetry, stop-motion and 2D compositing. The production featured over 20 hand-crafted puppets, three of which were different versions of the monster himself. For the visualisation of the phone becoming refurbished, the team used stop-motion and lighting to craft a stylised representation of the phone regeneration process. Model maker Andy Gent and his team were behind the creation of the monster and his fellow puppets.

“Somehow, I get to play with puppets for a living, and this particular puppet was especially fun to play with. Assembled from the kind of cables you find in every drawer, in every home around the globe - monster is a sort of big-tech 'Mr. Messy'. Behind the juggling phones and belching phablets however, is a slightly less silly message about our obsession with the new, and the havoc our over-consumption is wreaking on the world,” said Johnny Kelly, director at Nexus Studios.

TVO, YouTube and Vevo will run three different edits at 60, 30 and 15 seconds, with shorter edits going live across other pre-roll, social and digital channels.