Lee Valley Tools’ shift to more emotional advertising has set the basis for a new campaign that’s designed to highlight the joy in woodworking and evoke feelings of nostalgia.

The Canadian brand’s “Making Happiness” campaign highlights the excitement that hobbyists feel when cutting, sanding and working with wood. And Lee Valley Tools president and COO Jason Tasse tells strategy that the ad represents a move towards highlighting emotion in the brand’s advertising moreso than a specific focus on the products it sells.

“It’s not that we’re passively waiting to sell you tools, it’s ‘Hey, this is fun. You remember back in school, the moment you made that ugly ashtray in shop, or no matter what it was?’” Tasse says. “Whether you’re a beginner or you’re an advanced (woodworker), the reality is it’s about this emotive state.”

The ad also comes as Lee Valley is seeing a generational shift. With the retailer turning 46 this year, a lot of the hardcore woodworkers that have made up its customer  base are being replaced by a new generation of craftspeople. Tasse says part of Lee Valley’s shift toward emotional advertising came as it realized the role the brand can play in getting people inspired to do hobby and craft work.

The new campaign is designed to both appeal to its core customers, and to reach anyone with an aspiration to pursue more craft work.

“You don’t want it to feel alien to your core customer. You want to tap into their deep, emotive responders. And then to the younger generalist, it’s to say there’s something here about making something on a rainy day,” Tasse says.

The spot features a voiceover from actor Nick Offerman, the latest in an ongoing partnership between the actor and the brand that came from a shared love for woodworking. In the past, Lee Valley has promoted the Would Works non-profit that Offerman supports, and served as a backdrop on the NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation, which the actor starred in.

The new campaign, which was developed by creative agency Lifelong Crush, was directed and produced in-house, and represents the shop’s commitment to in-house production, coming after Christina Yu and Derek Blais were brought aboard as CCOs and Brad Kumar was hired as a studio director, last year.