A father-of-two hoping to rival the festive adverts of the UK’s top retailers has spent five nights making a spot of his own, all on a budget of less than £30.
Mark Goodwin, 42, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, spent just £23 creating the video which shows Santa stopping by the store in the nick of time to pick up the pianos in time for Christmas.
Mark – who runs Mark Goodwin Pianos – revealed he stayed up until 2am for five nights after tucking in his children Sally, ten and Louis, seven, to finish the advert.
For the magic animation to be created, he needed to move each piano over 2000 times.
His advert was just a fraction of the cost of John Lewis’ Unexpected Guest telly advert – which cost an estimated £5million.
Santa Claus is seen greeting one of the employees at the shop as he arrives to collect the pianos that people ordered for Christmas.
He explained that he would take snacks with him every night from 9 to 9, and then head alone to the shop for pianos.
‘I’d get home at around 2am every night with aching bones after moving the pianos around 200 times each night.
The animation has 25 seconds and includes up to five keyboards.
“That is a lot of piano moves. You can add outtakes to make it more like 2,000.
Mark Goodwin, 42, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, spent five nights and £23 making a Christmas advert for his piano business, pictured
This is a picture of a festive Santa who visits the shop before Christmas. Mark explained that the advert was written at night while he was putting his children down to bed.
The short video shows Mark tuning the pianos (pictured) as they prepare to be shipped off to new homes.
The pianos begin to move around in the room. Mark spent five nights animating the pianos to make them move on their own.
Mark’s shop is featured in the advert. He can be seen tuning pianos ahead of Christmas season.
The video features Mark’s wife and piano shop manager Julie Goodwin, 35, and piano cabinet repair technician Phil Reynolds, 57 – who plays Santa.
After it became clear that Phil had the whitest and longest beard, Phil was offered the job of Father Christmas.
In 2019, Mark’s children starred in the £10 ad where they delivered a piano to their granddad for Christmas and it racked up over 50,000 views on YouTube.
Last year, he spent £30 on a Covid-19-themed one of the kids dropping one off for their grandma but she couldn’t go in the house.
The festive advertisement shows one of the workers at the shop waiting to see Santa arrive in time for Christmas.
Santa Claus asks the happy Santa if the pianos have been prepared before going into the shop and seeing them himself.
Mark made the sweet advertisement with the pianos that move themselves after the shipment cost went up by 1,000 percent this year, compared to 2020.
Mark said, “So far people love our new video. This is huge relief for me as I feel the pressure while making these videos.
‘We never have a big budget and this year we spent just £23 – which included a £13 Santa cloak from a local charity shop along with £10 of decorations.
“These two past years were really hard.
“We are currently low in stock, and our container shipping prices have gone up by 1000 percent compared to 2020.
‘But we’ve focused on trying to make our staff feel valued and putting our customers’ needs first.
“And although we feel that it has been a great help in keeping us on our feet, 2022 seems to be just as difficult.
“But, we’re ready for any challenge and are grateful to have a job we love.”
Mark explained that this year he had focused on making sure his employees felt valued. Pictured are the pianos that were shipped in the advertisement
Pictured are the advertisement’s music instruments that move by themselves. Mark indicated that 2022 would be a difficult year for his business but said that it was a rewarding job.