Lee Valley Tools - "Give Your Christmas Tree a Second Life"

As Lifelong Crush continues to focus on production craftsmanship, a new spot for Lee Valley, “Making Happiness” showcases the increased range of the agency’s capabilities since bolstering in-house production talent with the addition of Brad Kumar as Studio Director and Integrated Producer/Production Coordinatro Rae Harder.

The spot, directed and produced entirely in-house (including pre and post-production) leans into the brand’s DIY DNA to remind woodworkers to relish in the ‘doing’. Shot with vintage macro lenses and a contemplative voice-over, the spot evokes a crafted feeling of nostalgic detail that woodworkers can relate to. It utilizes a shallow depth of field and AMSR-esque sound design to highlight the happiness woodworkers feel when they’re cutting, sanding and ‘playing’ with wood.

The production discipline has been central to Lifelong Crush since its inception in 2020. With the addition of CCO Derek Blais and Partner, CCO Christina Yu in 2023 – who has directed a number of spots for brands like Kruger, Subaru and The Canadian Women’s Foundation – the team has adopted a maker-mentality attached to its ‘unconstrained ideas’ mantra. With a next-level passion for working on projects from initial creative concepts right through to execution they’ve bolstered the agency’s production leadership with the addition of Brad Kumar and Rae Harder.

Brad comes to Lifelong Crush from his role as Studio Director at Rethink where he created and expanded the Toronto production studio. He’s worked with brands across a number of categories including Kraft Heinz, Volkswagen, IKEA, and Scotiabank. His previous studio roles include doug & partners, Red Urban (DDB), Lowe Roche, Taxi, and Ogilvy & Mather.

Harder joins the production team as Integrated Producer with a remit that focuses on supporting in-house production. She brings a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving with her work on Lee Valley, Scarborough Health Network Foundation, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, and Kelseys Original Roadhouse.

“As marketers experience the proliferation of channels, compressed timelines and fractured budgets, a flexible production model is critical”, says Yu. “This recent project for Lee Valley is a great metaphor for our approach at Lifelong Crush – specifically strengthening the production and studio processes. It’s about the craft and about the ‘doing’. We can manage and produce projects at a new scale now – from soup to nuts so to speak”.

“Lee Valley wants to shift to this kind of perspective with their ‘Making Happiness’ spot. They want to remind woodworkers to relish in the doing, not just the completing,” adds Yu.

Building off the brand’s ‘Let’s Start Something’ platform, the new film follows a woodworker playing at their craft and making mistakes along the way – playing being the most important part. The beautiful visuals and charmingly gruff voice-over pair perfectly with the amplified ASMR sounds of the woodshop, making anyone who has ever held a saw want to start cutting wood immediately.

Even if the feeling fades slightly between projects, woodworkers love everything about wood-working - from the sounds it makes when shaving some live edge lumber, to saving every scrap that will no doubt be put to future use. The film brings to life all kinds of those satisfying moments to make the viewer feel as if you were there making happiness too.