How do you shoot an advertisement for a product so small it can easily disappear on screen? Oura and agency nice&frank decided to change the perspective. Rather than constantly moving the camera closer to the Oura Ring 5, they changed the entire world around it. They built a city at a 1:10 scale, populated it with hands and let them do everything people do: rush to work, ride the subway, swim, skateboard and soak up the sun.
In the Wear Your Best Life campaign, unveiled on October 8, the ring is always present, but it is not the only reason to keep watching. The hands have their own habits, personalities and small everyday stories. This was the creative answer to a challenge that had accompanied the brand’s previous productions: how do you make a product that takes up so little space the main character of an advertisement without resorting to yet another extreme close-up of technology?
To make this world believable, the team spent three weeks in Prague building 12 sets and eight miniature cars. The project involved 35 master modelmakers, with details including a street approximately six metres long, subway trains with working lights, a remote-controlled taxi and a swimming pool filled with real water.
Instead of digital simulations, the cars were operated by remote control or pulled by strings, while underwater scenes were filmed by lowering cameras into miniature pools. Even a model train derailing became a real production problem that the modelmakers had to fix before filming could continue.
The film was directed by Sam Walker through production company Superprime, which collaborated with Unit+Sofa on the project. The movements of this unusual city’s inhabitants were choreographed by Lilach Chen, known for her finger dancing, who brought together 14 performers from 14 countries. They included artists specialising in juggling, violin playing and fingerboarding.
Particular attention was paid to details that give the hands human qualities. Tan lines, jewellery, sleeves and manicured nails reveal something about the characters without anyone having to say a word. The film therefore has no dialogue, with personalities developed through movement and scenes in which audiences can recognise themselves.
Laura Petruccelli, co-founder and chief creative officer of nice&frank, explained to LBB that the team wanted to treat the hands with the same seriousness they would give human characters. She believes that in an era of generative AI, physically crafted objects and sets have gained renewed value, precisely because of the human work behind them.
For Matt Kipper, Oura’s head of creative, that choice was not purely aesthetic. Hands have already become a recognisable part of the brand’s communication, particularly following the Give Us the Finger campaign, which challenged conventional attitudes towards ageing. The new campaign continues to use the same visual motif, but takes a more upbeat approach to health and everyday life.
Wear Your Best Life launched with a film and out-of-home advertising, alongside broader extensions across social media and retail. Since October 8, the campaign has been running in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, with expansion into Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Finland also announced.
At a time when technology makes it possible to create almost any visual without building a physical set, Oura chose a more elaborate route for its latest campaign. Behind every miniature car, street and movement are real people. And a product that was initially too small for the frame ended up with an entire city of its own.
