The Magic of Time Together

SMYK is one of Poland’s ‘dormant’ love brands. Many still remember the SMYK Department Store in Warsaw, once the largest toy shop in the country. Today, SMYK is not only a toy retailer and a producer of children’s clothing – it is a global-reach marketplace. Our task was to prepare the brand’s largest annual campaign – the Christmas campaign. Its goal was primarily to refresh the spirit of the brand, which not only understands the magic of Christmas but also knows exactly what it means to be a child.

The campaign was built around the concept: ‘We do toys, you do Xmas magic’. SMYK provides the toys, but they aren’t the most important part – what truly matters are emotions, relationships, shared play, and the magic that happens when we are genuinely close. Because the most meaningful gift is the time we spend playing together with our children. Nothing brings us closer than those moments – that’s when the real Christmas magic happens.

While maintaining the classic convention associated with Christmas films, the aim was to give the spot a contemporary touch. The key to achieving this was the direction. The transformation of adults into children needed to feel magical, yet natural and effortless. It was crucial to create and portray an extraordinary relationship between children of different ages, to capture in the older ones a subtle trace of adulthood, to ensure authenticity, and to build scenes that evoke cherished memories or moments reminiscent of family adventure stories such as ‘Five Children and It’… and these were only some of the director’s challenges.

We paired a swinging love ballad with a film about children playing in an old house just before Christmas Eve, which created a surprising layer of added emotion and significantly strengthened the overall concept. The lyrics of the song chosen for the spot, though not literal, complemented the story presented in the film.