Client

When we won the Dejure tender, we knew that foundations needed a video about adopting older children [as the older the child, the lower the percentage of finding their future family].

The tender task was to find a creative way to tell this story. And we decided to create an animated video.

There were several reasons for this:

1. Deeper storytelling. Through illustrations, anything can be depicted. Therefore, with their help, we can easily show the inner world of the child and adults, their emotions or joy.

2. Absence of limitations. All locations and characters exist only in our heads. And we can create everything we envision.

3. The opportunity to stand out. Animation allows us to stand out, to be different, and consequently, to be memorable to the audience through style, colors, and characters. This captured Dejure's heart. And we began to work on storytelling.

Idea

Dejure shared statistics with us: 70% of children in need of adoption are over 5 years old. But prospective parents are primarily focused on adopting infants and toddlers. They wanted to emphasize in the video that childhood does not end at the age of 5.

On the contrary, it is just beginning, and there are still many happy moments to be had for the child. Our desire was to tell a story that would be warm yet surprising. So we decided to focus the storytelling on the main character, who recalls his life: from the moment he became a father to the first bike ride. But the most important moment is at the end of the video, when we learn that our hero was adopted at the age of 5.

The key message of our story is TO BE TOGETHER. Because the best thing we can do for a child is to create memories with them.

The entire plot of the video will be built on memories given to him by his new family. We wanted to combat the main fear of adults who have just decided to adopt a child: the fear that the child will grow up “wrong.” In the video, we show that adults shape the environment in which the child lives.

"Together with Dejure, we outlined situations that are new for a person from an orphanage: for the first time to pay with a bank card [after independently choosing clothes in a store], to go down into the subway, to cook for themselves [yes, even such simple things], to visit the sea, and even to say "mom" and "dad" for the first time. All these moments may seem trivial, but they are easily read as milestones for those who understand the reality of life in orphanages," says Maryana, copywriter.

Illustrations

"Since our hero's memories of his childhood are the basis of the video, the overall style and mood had to be warm, dreamy, and somewhat nostalgic. Situations and illustrations were meant to immerse the viewer in childhood, reminding them of this happy and carefree time. We wanted to first relax the viewer so that at the end, when we see that our hero is adopted from an orphanage, this information becomes an awakening for us," says Olya, art director, illustrator.

The most difficult part was drawing the hero at different ages, as we age him from approximately 30-year-old Alexander to 5-year-old Sasha. His stature changes, his appearance changes, and his features become childish [and naive].

Result

Our video was shown in the subway and cinemas in the capital. And the video received warm reactions from viewers [which is exactly what we wanted], both on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.