Situation: “Every Smile Tells A Story” (Prime Video brand positioning) was the funding to develop this storytelling.

Brief: If Prime Video is a brand that tells stories, why not telling one ourselves. A story that focuses on the power of smiling and the importance that our platform can play on people's happiness.

Objectives: Promote the brand positioning from another angle, showing the importance of our content on people's lives and how content can make you and your loved ones smile.

Prime Video is a company about content and stories, that is why we wanted to create a modern Christmas tale that’s as entertaining as the content on the platform and make people smile this Christmas.

"An Unlikely Friendship” is the tale of an unexpected bond, forged through a shared love for entertainment, between two misfits: Hattie, a bullied hyena who can’t smile, and Carl, a grumpy zookeeper who can’t find any reasons to smile. What better character than a hyena, a usually misunderstood and feared animal, to tell a one-of-a-kind Christmas tale condensed into two minutes. Hyenas are usually portrayed as savage animals, so we had to turn that around through the storytelling, different gags in the film, and our main character’s evolution.

The campaign was Prime Video's first Christmas advert in Europe, showcasing across seven countries on TV, digital channel, social media, and cinemas.

If Prime Video is a brand that tells stories, why not telling one ourselves?

“Every Smile Tells A Story” is Prime Video brand positioning and it was the funding to develop this storytelling: a story that put the focus on the power of smiling and the important rol that our platform can play on people's happiness.

An unlikely friendship was a very ambitious project from the beginning; our main character is a fully CGI (yet ultra-realistic animal). This required a very detailed and careful design of all the details involving the production and coordination of more than a 100 people in an international crew and 50 VFX animators working worldwide.

Most of the locations and sceneries in the film were crafted and created from zero. From Carl’s apartment to the hyena’s den, carefully built with glass and stones. And locations like the zoo entrance and streets were reconstructed to fit the story.

The street decoration, snow, housing details, and the classic Christmasy American streets had to be redesigned and rebuilt as the commercial was shot in Spain's balmy September.

The campaign was Prime Video's first Christmas advert in Europe, showcasing across seven countries on TV, digital channel, social media, and cinemas.

The spot was extremely well received across the whole world, not only in advertising festivals, but also on the streets, magazines and specialized media.