‘Story Studio’ is a free, stop-motion movie creation app, inspired by the ad but designed for long term creativity. Acting as both an entertaining and educational platform for kids, it’s a simple way to encourage families to spend time together, creating their very own Christmas film.

The app was promoted through a boxed animation kit sold in Sainsbury’s stores, including a director’s handbook, puppets of the characters, film sets and customizable stickers. These were sold as ‘stocking fillers’, encouraging customers to give the gift of sharing at Christmas. Every box sold meant a donation to the Great Ormand Street Hospital Charity.

The app itself includes tips and tricks, filmmaking advice and a level of creative functionality that put it a step ahead of its commercial rivals - including ghosting, sound effects, video filters, voice-over recording and powerful editing. It’s everything an aspiring animator might need, wrapped and a beautiful and friendly

Working as an agile team of UX, Tech, Design and Copywriting, our first step was to workshop existing filmmaking apps with kids, to find out what key features ours should or shouldn’t include.

The design used cues from the Christmas activity. However, to ensure the longevity of the app, we used campaign neutral art-direction. Bright, bold colours and simple typefaces give ‘Story Studio’ an aesthetic that appeals to both kids and adults. Every design element plays a functional role, so there’s no visual clutter to complicate the user experience.

The app was implemented across the Google Play Store and App Store, with social media driving to download across Facebook and Twitter. The app and associated box set were also advertised at point of sale in Sainsbury’s stores.

We saw over 1.9 Million new movies created over the campaign period with an average session time of 15 minutes – remarkable for a brand app. On Christmas Day itself, there were 175 thousand new movies created, putting Sainsbury’s at the heart of the most important family day of the year.