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Real Plaza Malls Reframes Christmas Around Human Values Not Discounts
Real Plaza Malls launched "Christmas Clowns" in Peru in December 2021, a single-film campaign created by Fahrenheit DDB that repositions the country's largest mall chain as a gathering place for human connection rather than a venue for seasonal transactions, anchored by the message "The Best Gift Is Within You."
Real Plaza operates more than 20 malls across Peru, making it the country's largest shopping-centre chain. That scale carries an obligation that the brand has chosen to express through purpose rather than promotion. Where most retail advertising in December defaults to price-led messaging, "Christmas Clowns" tells a Christmas story built on tolerance, understanding, and freedom of choice — the values the brand claims as its own. The film's Spanish-language title, "Navidad Payasa — El mejor regalo está dentro de ti," signals immediately that the campaign belongs to the realm of intrinsic worth, not commercial incentive.
In Peru, the campaign appeared at a moment when the retail sector was recovering visible momentum. According to Inretail Pe, InRetail's shopping-mall revenue reached S/531 million in 2021, up 38.0 percent year over year, with Q4 2021 alone contributing S/163 million, a 38.9 percent increase over the same quarter in 2020. Against that commercial backdrop, the decision by Real Plaza and Fahrenheit DDB to forgo promotional messaging in favour of an emotional Christmas narrative was a deliberate strategic risk — one that the campaign's subsequent award record suggests paid off. The film was submitted to industry recognition circuits by Mauricio Loredo of Fahrenheit DDB, and it went on to earn international honours that extended Peru's reputation in global creative competition. Clapboard rates "Christmas Clowns" 63 out of 100.
Real Plaza Malls occupies the leading position in Peru's shopping-centre landscape by physical footprint. According to inretail.pe, Peru's shopping-centre market held approximately 3.3 million square metres of gross leasable area at year-end 2021, with the Lima Metropolitan Area accounting for approximately 1.8 million square metres across 37 operating malls. In that context, Real Plaza's more than 20 properties represent a commanding share of the national inventory — yet scale alone does not differentiate a brand emotionally from competitors such as Jockey Plaza and MegaPlaza, which compete for the same family audiences in Lima and regional markets.
The strategic insight Fahrenheit DDB brought to "Christmas Clowns" rests on a reading of what malls have become in contemporary Peruvian life. Rather than retail venues, they function as new public spaces — places where families spend quality time together, particularly in a country where dedicated public leisure infrastructure can be limited outside major urban centres. That positioning is not incidental; it is the brand's stated purpose, and the 2021 campaign is its clearest expression yet.
According to inretail.pe, ACCEP-member shopping-centre sales across Peru totalled S/24.518 billion in 2021, up 18.1 percent from 2020, reflecting a sector in active recovery after pandemic disruption. Within that recovering market, the risk of an emotion-led Christmas film that names no product and offers no discount is real — but so is the opportunity to claim distinct territory. Fahrenheit DDB had already demonstrated this logic in 2018, when a campaign for Real Plaza addressing elderly isolation, drawing on the insight reported by Mercadonegro Pe that 75 percent of elderly people in Peru felt abandoned by their families, won audience recognition. "Christmas Clowns" extends that lineage by turning the brand's inclusive values into the gift itself.
"Christmas Clowns" was directed by Bacha Caravedo and Chinón Higashionna, also credited as Bacha Z and Chinón Z, through production company Señor Z. The directorial craft of the film is precisely what Cannes Lions 2022 recognised, awarding it a Bronze Lion in the Film Craft — Direction category — marking, according to Larepublica Pe, Peru's first Cannes Lions award in the Direction category. That distinction places the film's visual and narrative execution at the centre of its achievement, not simply its strategic premise.
The creative leadership at Fahrenheit DDB included Executive Creative Director Ricardo Chadwick, General Creative Director Sergio Franco Tosso, and Creative Directors Mauricio Loredo and Gonzalo Veratudela. Manuel Vergara Alberti, Director of Brands at Fahrenheit DDB, described the production process in comments reported by latinspots.com: "A nivel ejecución, Señor Z en la realización y Noize en el audio fueron aliados fundamentales para que esta pieza tenga la sensibilidad que buscábamos." He also noted, as reported by latinspots.com, that the team went through many rounds of script refinement with Señor Z to achieve the emotional register the campaign required. Audio production was handled by Noize, whose contribution Vergara Alberti identified as integral to the film's tonal sensitivity.
Talia Barrios, Corporate Marketing Manager at Real Plaza, reflected on the collaborative dynamic in comments reported by latinspots.com: "Definitivamente fue un trabajo en equipo emocionante, Fahrenheit tomando en cuenta el objetivo que teníamos como marca, le dio vida al concepto de 'El mejor regalo está dentro de ti'." That account of the creative process underscores a production philosophy in which the client's brand purpose and the agency's conceptual instinct were aligned from the outset, with Señor Z and Noize translating that alignment into a finished film precise enough in its emotional calibration to earn recognition on the global stage.
"Christmas Clowns" carries a documented and independently verifiable awards record. According to latinspots.com and larepublica.pe, the film won a Bronze Lion at Cannes Lions 2022 in the Film Craft — Direction category, representing Peru's first recognition in that category at the festival. At El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2022, the campaign won a Bronze award in the Film category and two additional Bronze awards in Audiovisual Production, and was listed as a third finalist in the Peru Local Piezas category, according to records from that competition.
No independently audited viewership or sales-conversion figures for the campaign are publicly available beyond platform-level indicators. According to information reported by Infomarketing Pe, the film accumulated more than 73,000 Facebook shares, a figure that points to substantial organic amplification within the Peruvian market without paid media as its primary driver. The YouTube asset documented in the campaign record registered approximately 2,107 views and 11 likes at the time of submission — modest numbers that suggest the film's primary distribution occurred through Facebook rather than YouTube.
Structurally, "Christmas Clowns" achieves what few holiday retail films manage: it generates award-level recognition in a craft category, meaning the jury evaluated the direction itself as exceptional, not merely the concept. For Real Plaza, operating across a recovering Peruvian retail market where, according to inretail.pe, mall revenues rose sharply in 2021, the campaign provides brand equity that price-led advertising cannot replicate. The Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100 reflects competent creative execution and meaningful industry recognition, balanced against the limited scale of documented public engagement metrics.
"Christmas Clowns" is a 2021 Christmas film campaign created for Real Plaza Malls in Peru by Fahrenheit DDB. It positions the mall chain as a family gathering space through an emotional narrative centred on tolerance and the message that the best gift comes from within, deliberately avoiding promotional or discount-led messaging during the holiday season.
Fahrenheit DDB created "Christmas Clowns" for Real Plaza Malls. Production was handled by Señor Z, directed by Bacha Caravedo and Chinón Higashionna. Audio production came from Noize. The creative team included Executive Creative Director Ricardo Chadwick, General Creative Director Sergio Franco Tosso, and Creative Directors Mauricio Loredo and Gonzalo Veratudela.
"Christmas Clowns" won a Bronze Lion at Cannes Lions 2022 in the Film Craft — Direction category. According to larepublica.pe, this marked Peru's first Cannes Lions award specifically in the Direction category, recognising the directorial craft of Bacha Caravedo and Chinón Higashionna rather than the campaign's strategic concept alone.
"Christmas Clowns" won three Bronze awards at El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2022: one in the Film category and two in Audiovisual Production. The campaign was also listed as a third finalist in the Peru Local Piezas category, confirming its standing as one of the most-recognised Peruvian advertising films from that year across Ibero-American competition circuits.
Real Plaza's brand purpose centres on spreading happiness and fostering tolerance across its more than 20 malls in Peru. Fahrenheit DDB identified that positioning the malls as public family spaces, rather than retail destinations, offered stronger emotional differentiation from competitors. This approach continued a creative lineage established with the 2018 campaign that also displaced conventional gift messaging.
Clapboard rates "Christmas Clowns" 63 out of 100. The score reflects a campaign with credible craft-level industry recognition, including a Cannes Lions Bronze in Film Craft Direction, set against limited publicly documented audience engagement metrics beyond the more than 73,000 Facebook shares reported by infomarketing.pe, indicating strong organic reach within Peru.
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