A Surprising Splash of Spring

HOBBY’s Oskar Bård unleashes a surprising splash of spring for the Netherlands e-commerce company.
Captivated by the first rays of spring sun, a woman inadvertently plasters her neighbour head-to-toe in mud in this creative from Agency Dept in Amsterdam. HOBBY CEO and Founder OsKar Bård stepped behind the camera to direct this mud bath in all its muddy glory.

“It was really important for Oskar to do the mud shot entirely in camera,” said HOBBY producer Yara Hendriks. “And to make it totally convincing, we used actual mud. The actor did an amazing job, he had to have his face entirely caked in the stuff for four hours. The make-up artist assured me it was entirely edible, which was fortunate because Oskar wanted the guy to spit a little bit out of his mouth. Oskar’s love for in-camera effects really paid off – it looks fantastic and so much better than using VFX.”

“We don’t mind getting down and dirty here at HOBBY,” said Bård. “This is exactly the kind of effect we love to get our grubby hands on. It’s a marvellously muddy calling card for what we do.”

Production took place in Portugal to guarantee a suitably springlike vibe. “We really needed a beautiful spring day for this shoot and anyone who has been to the Netherlands in February knows that’s probably not going to happen!” said Hendriks. “We were able to find a property that looked just like a Dutch or Belgian house. A lot of houses in Portugal have those very beautiful (but very distinctive) tiles. And it’s much hillier than Holland! So we were super pleased to find a location near Lisbon that worked so well.”

The two day shoot included two additional online videos for the campaign. The mud-spattered TVC was filmed in just one of those days, which Hendriks attributes to the warm atmosphere on set. “The agency gave us so much support, the client gave us so much trust. We were an incredibly effective team. We had a lot of shots to get and they gave Oskar space to do what he does best. Working with everyone was, as we say here in the Netherlands, a real feestje (party!)”