Case Study: Lee Kum Kee x Universal - Kung Fu Panda

Brief.

Previous long-term client Lee Kum Kee is are a household brand that have been operating for over 130-years and are well known as the creators of Oyster Sauce amongst many other firm favourites. Sold from Hong Kong to the UK and US - they have a far-reaching product range that is loved by many - from home cooks like me, to Michelin-starred chefs like Andrew Wong.

With the release of the fourth installment of the popular animated franchise, Kung Fu Panda -the Lee Kum Kee Europe marketing team had just partnered with Universal as an official partner to the newest film.

Previous collaborator to us both and production company HeeHaw reached out to me to capture food photography heroes and product pairings of recipes that are inspired by each of the four core characters in the movie; to be used alongside a series of recipe videos.

The usage of the food photography would be split between their digital touchpoints, POS, online recipes, and outputs edited into designed product cards - across the UK, DE, and NL.

Approach.

To start our project off I collaborated with the producers at the agency, film Director, and Art Director to help bring together a salient style across the food photography and filming - for each character and dishes that the food stylist Mandy Thompson would be creating.

As I had worked with the client on over 10 other projects, and we had a refined workflow - I suggested we used our tried and tested lifestyle food photography format of shooting 2 core shot formats; a food photography hero, and recipe and product pairing - with either an individual or collection of products for each dish and region.

Including a load in and pre-lighting day, we shot at Stoke Newington location studio N5 Studios - capturing content in a separate space to the recipe videos, shot by the film crew. I worked with food stylist Mandy Thompson and the Art Director, Giorgia Joseph to shoot four distinct scenes

Now retouched and delivered, it’s great to see the Kung Fu Panda 4 food photography and video outputs live and doing so well.