A colourful and characterful campaign showing the families of Greater Manchester all the summer fun the Bee Network can bring

The destination, and the journey

We needed to feature some specific destinations that the tram and bus routes take you to, but also wanted to show the enjoyment and excitement of the journey too. And of course, we had to include the iconic yellow trams and buses of the Bee Network.

The challenge was to plan the story so that it included the activities in a route that a family might take around Greater Manchester, but also integrated the travelling between destinations.  

The joy of summer

We wanted to create a magical world of summer fun, that opens up to the family as mum taps the Bee Network app. To bring the summer vibes to life we created a cast of weird and whacky characters that interweave with the filmed footage in a playful and colourful vision of Greater Manchester in the summer.

A host of anthropomorphised animals, food and summer related items all come together to form a fantastical and colourful world of fun. Some initial sketches and early colour treatment tests here.

Brining the world to life

The team had a lot of fun bringing the little guys to life with animation. The character designs were deliberately weird and wonderful to bring that feeling of magic that exits in the summertime, where anything seems possible.

All of the Flow team were represented in the film in illustrated form too, as protein shakers, orange juice cartons, flamingos and more.

Full production

With a full production crew we facilitated a two day shoot across multiple locations to capture our cast using the Bee Network to get around, and enjoying a range of summer activities together.

It was a big logistical challenge to fit everything into a tight schedule, but it was managed with military precision and went smoothly. The unpredictable Manchester weather even played along as we got two days of glorious sunshine, exactly what we needed for a summer campaign film.

Bringing it all together

To integrate the characters and illustrated elements into the live action footage we used a variety of compositing techniques, including motion tracking the footage, stabilising the shots, creating reflections and shadows, applying track mattes and overlays, colour correcting and colour grading.

Campaign art direction

The vibrant and colourful world we created for the film provided the art direction for the wider campaign, with characters popping up in communications on a paid social campaign, billboards, bus stops and print advertising.

Campaign photography

Our brief also included the creation of a set of campaign stills to be used in a range of communication assets for the summer campaign. These were shot on location as part of the film shoot.

A new direction

An exciting new direction for the TfGM brand, the mixed media style is flexible allowing you to show real people, but also have the humour and joy that animation brings. For a family-focussed summer campaign it felt like a perfect fit.