The Lunar New Year (LNY) represents one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture. It’s a moment of joy, a time when people celebrate through dances, decorations, fireworks, and, of course, family gatherings. Grandparents, parents, kids, all reunite to create new priceless moments, raising a glass to the promise of good health and prosperity.

In honoring the Year of the Tiger, which has just started on February 1st, Coca-Cola joined hands with WWP company Ogilvy Shanghai to feast the public’s eyes with a heartwarming story that blends Chinese traditions with modern storytelling. Directed by Yves Geleyn via production company Hornet, the story showcases a family of lovely tigers coming together to celebrate the LNY.

Via the simple but highly emotional ad, the director carries the audience in a dreamy place, with landscapes inspired by the Tianzi Mountain and karst topography of Guilin. Here is where a family of tigers lives and, as the tradition dictates, they decorate their place to reflect the magic spirit of this festivity. While preparing the dinner table, the youngest of the family appears.

His mother and grandmother express their joy at the sight of the son, yet the father makes everyone think that his son’s visit doesn’t impress him, signaling that they have been distant lately. However, his heart says otherwise: An old photo from when his boy was just a young tiger makes him smile. The father keeps having the same attitude towards his son. One can almost feel the tension between the two but luckily, a bottle of Coke, strategically placed by the mom on the table, breaks the ice. Will the two be able to find the common ground and reconnect with each other? Hit play on the video below to discover how the story ends…

Everything — from the vibrant characters, which are brought to life in textural and sculptural CG, to the landscape that was carefully contoured, allowing viewers to easily guess where the story unfolds — was built to make sure that the one-minute-long video captures the authentic emotions of the country around this time of the year.

“One of the best aspects of this project is that almost everything was done in-house in Hornet’s studio. It’s always such a pleasure to have such a close-knit & talented team of artists working together. And I’m very proud of the result — a nice mix of almost stop-motion style CG (led by Natalia Perez) and graphic & painterly texture,” explains Yves Geleyn.

Amid modern society and with the rapidly changing social norms associated with the pandemic, people couldn’t find a common ground. As members of families unintentionally drifted apart, the gap between the young and older generations started to widen. To bridge the gap, Coca-Cola’s LNY-themed ad spotlights togetherness. The integrated “Real Magic Lunar New Year” campaign champions intergenerational bonds and defines the bottle of Coca-Cola as the glue that keeps people together.

Credits:

Client: Coca-Cola China, Ella Liu, Cloe Von Krause, Charlotte Sng, Elsa Gu, Du Jing

Agency: Ogilvy Shanghai

Production: Hornet / Unlisted

CCO: Reed Collins

GECD: Fei Wei

GCD: Mike Pearson

CD: Jimmy Wang, Sascha Engel

Producer: Alice Chu

Accounts: Ole Luk, Queenie Shou, Lyia Chen, Adrian Xing

Strategy: Arvind Srivastava, Arjun Vedanayagam

Director: Yves Geleyn

Managing Director: Hana Shimizu

Head of Creative Development: Kristin Labriola

Producer: Hanna Smith-Ide

Production Coordinator: Madeline Metolius

Senior Editor: Anita Chao

Assistant Editor” Cole Bannick

Storyboard Artist: Stephanie Dere

Environment Design: Benjamin Plouffe

Character Design: Alejandro Diaz

Matte Painting + Design: Tristan Ménard

Junior Design Support: Kaycee Nwakudo, Hannah Kim

CG Lead: Natalia Perez

CG Generalist: Angeline Rivera

Models: Constance Benson

Additional Models: Cecilia Puglesi

Rigging: Josh Planz

Lighting & Rendering: Cody Chen, Mohamed Sinbawy, Nicole Noel

Compositors: Cody Chen, Mohamed Sinbawy, Nicole Noel

Animators: Hee Jin Kim, Tom Shek, Meg Oswalt

Original Score/Sound Design + Mixing: Ambrose Yu