“Can I have six Greek gods, four Egyptian Pharaohs and seven Roman gladiators please?” Neither Pheidias received orders like that 2500 years ago. However, Café Design had to fulfill such requests on a daily basis in August. From these items was born the first sticker album of Auchan, which was fully designed and produced by Café Design. The time travel of Arnold and Oscar has been available in the hypermarkets since 5th September.
The idea of the project first appeared three years ago when Cora entrusted the agency to create an educational album for kids. Although the concept was prepared, it was not implemented due to the acquisition of Cora, and the project was shelved for two years. The rebirth started in January relying on the original concept, but this time commissioned by Auchan. The journey that starts with the times of dinosaurs and ends in the Middle Ages was extended with new locations and topics, and the characters of Arnold, the smart school boy and Oscar, the talking suricate were also added to the story. In the past three years, there were several ideas about who should guide the kids through the adventure. Besides Tom and Jerry, the popular hamsters of Auchan, robots and aliens were also potential candidates, but at the end Arnold and Oscar came out the winners.
The two main characters and hundreds of drawings from the time, including 166 different stickers, were created by Gyula Pozsgai and Zoltán Lovász. The editor and copywriter of the album was Bálint Szluha. The texts were revised by university and college professors with a careful consideration of the target group, so that kids can learn from the album in a truly playful way. Nothing illustrates the extent of the success better than the words of a cashier in Auchan who told enthusiastically the editor, who visited incognito the store, about his hyperactive son who was thumbing the album for 45 minutes. The kid, in general, is not able to concentrate on one thing for even 10 minutes, she added.
The stickers can be collected until the beginning of November. After every 2,000 forints spent, customers get a pack of stickers, which can also be bought for 99 forints. To fulfill collectors’ request, the store organized exchange days at the end of September, and many look for the missing stickers via want-ads. Besides billboards and city-lights, radio and animated television spots were created for the campaign. Fans can find photo walls featuring a time machine and Arnold and Oscar gifts in the stores. What is more, kids can try logical games on this website and a Facebook application will be available soon, too. Erika Szilágyi, project coordinator at Auchan and Barbi Petz, project manager at Café Design played a key role in getting everything done on time.
More photos of Arnold and Oscar in the photo gallery: