Ben&Julia were approached directly with the US team of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams for their vibrant visual work and playful design sensibility. Tasked with creating a campaign video for their annual ‘Ice Cream for Breakfast Day’ and their new pancake flavour, Ben&Julia executed the brand’s clear vision: something joyful, handmade, musical, and completely unforgettable.
Design
Ben&Julia developed a completely original universe built around their two custom-designed characters, Scoop and Scoopy, playful alien-like mascots with scoops of Jeni’s ice cream on their heads. The characters quickly became the emotional core of the campaign, providing the classic Ben&Julia flavour.
Embracing a nineties inspired aesthetic, Ben&Julia mixed stop motion, 2D animation, practical food styling and animated elements in After Effects to craft a tactile and vibrant world.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the production for Ben&Julia was the food creation itself, experimenting with the shape, texture and scale of the pancakes to achieve the perfect balance between realism and playful exaggeration. The sets were also custom built in their Berlin studio using environments specifically designed for this campaign.
With the team at Jeni’s being inspired by Ben&Julia’s previous music video work, the campaign was deeply music-driven, designed to be infectious, memorable and fun. Composed by Pierre Créac’h, with vocals performed by Owen Ross and final mix by Deadbeat.
Approach
Expanding on their expertise in fully-integrated projects that develop a life of their own beyond the films, this campaign was supported by exclusive merchandise for the event, designed by Ben&Julia to craft a physical experience for the audience and reach another touchpoint.
The entire production was developed in-house from Berlin: concept, direction, character design, music supervision, food styling, set design, animation, editing, and overall visual identity. At the same time, Ben&Julia collaborated with American creatives living in Berlin, reflecting the city’s unique international creative ecosystem.
The campaign became a major success for Jeni’s, selling out the pancake ice cream and merchandise fairly immediately, resulting in a project which, for Ben&Julia, remains one of those naturally aligned projects where music, characters, food, humour, craftsmanship, and pure creative freedom come together harmoniously.
