Watch Manchester agency CheethamBell JWT's new ad for John West, which was influenced by the work of a budding filmmaker.

The agency's creative director, Andy Cheetham, explained that the inspiration for the ad came from a film he had spotted in a BBC competition to create a music video for M Craft.

He said: “It was beautifully animated and the fit to our story was uncanny. We simply put two and two together - the idea of delivering fresh fish direct to the store and this wonderfully simple animation technique.”

Cheetham said the agency was keen to use the original director, Gemma Burditt, to make the commercial: “All too often you see up and coming filmmakers’ work plagiarised by ad agencies. In turn agencies get a bad reputation for it. Honda Cog and other well-known ads have been accused of such behaviour."

The agency tracked down Burditt first through leaving feedback on the BBC website and then through Facebook. She was said to be keen to make the ad, but having never produced a commercial before and being only two years out of film school, the agency teamed her up with production company Onward and post-production house 422.

Burditt’s original video was shot on digital SLR cameras and CheethamBell say the technique suited John West's brief to shoot the ad on a low budget. Each frame of the commercial was shot individually over two days in Northern Ireland.

The ad will air in Northern Ireland in mid-June. You can view Burditt’s original film here.