Bringing to life the Dawn Chorus as Breakfast Radio

This is a TV ad. There aren’t too many of these on here. But this one was an utter joy to create from beginning to end.

The brief was to launch Dorset Cereals’ new positioning around ‘Life Begins at Breakfast’. We thought no one epitomised this 'get-up-and-go' attitude more than a breakfast radio DJ. Not only do they have to start the day full of energy, but – a bit like the product – it’s their job to wake up and energise the nation, too.

It was also important to reflect the cereal's natural qualities. Drawing inspiration from its origin, we imagined an anthropomorphised neighbourhood of woodland critters ­– as they happily start their day listening to breakfast radio. Naturally, our DJ character was a chirpy bird waking up the nation with his dawn chorus – Iggy Pop's 'Wild One' provided a fitting soundtrack.

The idea was brought to life by Conor Finnegan. His animation style mixed live-action puppetry with 2D animation for a completely unique look. As opposed to CGI, all 18 of characters were lovingly handmade with 100% organic British lambswool. This carefully crafted approach complemented the all-natural ingredients of the cereal.

Our DJ character also took over Dorset Cereals’ twitter feed where he gave shout-outs and shared a topical playlist every morning at 6:32am.

While the TVC may not have one any major awards, Grocer Magazine did name it ‘Cereal Ad of the Year’, which was nice.