Mike Pearson

With over 100 destinations around the world, from Toronto to Tianjin, Shangri-La's fans are as technologically diverse as they are geographically spread out. For the brand's 2015 festive social campaign, we needed an idea that could spread the cheer seamlessly across multiple platforms.

The answer? A magical animated advent calendar for both Instagram and WeChat that followed the journey of a Christmas Star travelling to earth. In each 15-second episode the Star was warmly welcomed to a Shangri-La destination. If viewers screengrabbed and shared the moment the Star’s heart glowed, they could win stays.

In under a month, the campaign increased Shangri-La’s Instagram following by 20% and its WeChat following by 40%. On December 25th, we revealed the full five-minute video following the entire journey of the Star around the world, and within days it had already received over a million views.

To view each individual episode as they appeared online, visit http://late4tea.com/shangrilawow/

Accolades: Shorty Awards, Kam Fan, Marketing Excellence

Directors/Animators: Cirkus

Creative Directors: Mike Pearson, Sarah-Leith Izzard

CCO: Reed Collins