Argos’ longstanding creative partner Billion Dollar Boy has worked with the leading UK retailer on a new creator-led, mockumentary-style social media series. Looking to promote the launch of the A-List, a monthly curation of top brands and must-have products, Argos tasked the social agency to come up with a campaign that is bold and creatively ambitious.
Enter Arghaüs, a fictional art gallery in which Argos’ most premium products are reimagined as high-concept art pieces. Featuring the gallery’s motley crew of staff members, played by influential creators from across social media, the series follows them as they prepare for the Arghaüs opening night.
The eclectic team includes: CCO Finn Hawksmoor, played by Chris Hall; head curator Yolanda Voltage, played by Abi Clarke; junior consultant Blade Withers, played by Paul Olima; and intern Frida Hangslo, played by Ella Willis. Together, these characters attempt to make Arghaüs a must-visit destination for the city’s biggest critics and style icons. These are played by Luke Millington-Drake as Void, an art critic; Asim Chaudhury as Achänlèy Chardonnay, a workshop facilitator; and Em Walbank as Beatrix Healey, a journalist at Prodication Magazine.
Through deadpan humour and a knowing touch of irony, the Arghaüs series at once satirises the contemporary art world and spotlights the range of high-end products on offer at Argos. It also taps into a growing appetite among social media users for longer-form content and ‘vertical dramas’, as they’re now known. In recent years, episodic content like this has proven to be a hit with audiences that have grown tired of relentless, quick-fire social marketing.
“With Arghaüs, we set out to create something that feels distinctly different but still brand coded,” says Ed East, global CEO and co-founder of Billion Dollar Boy. “The resulting campaign is Argos’s boldest yet.”
The first season of Arghaüs will conclude with its fourth episode, due to be released on August 18 across Argos’ Instagram and TikTok channels.