The animation wizards at Aardman teamed up with agency Wieden + Kennedy London and Montreal-based director Patrick Boivin to create a playful new stop-motion spot highlighting Nike’s CTR360. The ad features a marionette version of Spanish soccer star Andrés Iniesta, who elegantly glides through opponents across the plane of an elaborate puppet stage.

On the heels of the recently-breaking campaign, Aardman Animations’ Heather Wright talks to AWN about trends in animation and advertising. Wright is Executive Producer/Head of Commercials and Branded Content at the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations in Bristol, UK.

As one of the most respected animation studios in the world, what trends do you see emerging in the area of animated TV advertising?

Heather Wright: Enlightened clients and agencies now understand the necessity of good quality creative work to cut through online. Online films used to live in a lo-fi, low-quality, mainly live-action ghetto relying on shock tactics to cut through. Formally the exclusive province of TV and cinema, there is now real investment being made in the production of animated films which will only ever appear online.

Is there a particular animated “look” that ad agencies are looking for in 2012? What's hot and what's not?

HW: People love to see the hand of the artist so there’s a trend for things that look hand crafted. Hot projects which demonstrate this are pieces like Johnny Kelly’s ‘Chipotle’ ad and BluBlu.org’s wall painting animations like ‘Big Bang Big Boom’ that still have a massive following. I love both of these.