Hasta La Creative!

Hunky football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is immediately recognizable around the world (That gorgeous face!). But stuff him into a padded suit, add scruffy facial hair and ratty clothes and he can hang out undetected even in his bustling hometown. Even a soccer ball and fancy footwork can’t give him away.

That’s the setup of a just-launched video to announce the athlete’s foray into consumer electronics, namely headphones and portable speakers. Posted on Facebook, with no paid media push around it, the video has racked up  33 million views in two days. It also has nearly 900,000 shares, 1.4 million “likes” and 100,000 comments. At one point on Monday, the digital piece was attracting nearly 1 million views every half-hour, outpacing even YouTube’s “Ad of the Decade” with Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant.

The four-minute video, shot in a busy plaza in Madrid, comes from Los Angeles-based Shareability, which is a co-owner with Ronaldo and Incubrand of the new ROC Live Life Loud brand. Execs there said a prank-style approach made sense for the famous Real Madrid forward.

“He’s a very serious guy who plays and trains 98 percent of the time, so we wanted to show him in a way he’s never been seen before,” said Tim Staples, one of Shareability’s founders. “We thought it would be really fun to take the biggest athlete in the world and hide him in plain sight.”

Ronaldo, like many U.S. entertainers before him, is wading into the hot tech and audio market. The new company has a partnership with manufacturer Monster, which is presently embroiled in a lawsuit against celebrity headphone pioneer Beats by Dre over Monster’s role in the design of Beats products—a fight that’s now also soured Monster’s relationship with Apple, Beats’ new owner.

In other words, Monster is chasing market share by pairing with another huge name, and all the cachet that brings. Though the U.S. may be flooded with gadgets like the one Ronaldo is now hawking, global territories where the soccer star is hugely popular have plenty of room for growth, Staples said. And Ronaldo’s 105 million Facebook followers have gotten the ball rolling, so to speak, proving that his nascent brand can make a name for itself without traditional advertising.

The headphones themselves, at $200 and up, aren’t exactly an impulse buy, so time will tell if the video’s popularity converts to sales. But the short film, even if it weren’t a commercial on the down-low, would have its own charm. One passing pedestrian refuses to give Ronaldo her phone number—she must really regret that now—and in the end, a beaming kid gets to unexpectedly meet an idol—not to mention the priceless look of confusion on his face when a bearded rando starts autographing a ball for him.

Check out a behind the scenes clip below. 

It’s a good time to make an ad with Serena Williams, and Beats by Dre has done a particularly good job of it. Hot off the tennis star’s sixth U.S. Open win, her 18th major victory overall, the headphone brand is spotlighting the gym routine that helps her get so much crushing power on the court.

It would be standard-fare fitness footage if not for the fact that it continues Beats by Dre’s habit of creating ads that feel more like exceptionally shot, psychologically rich sports-themed music videos rather than commercials.

In this case, the clip (from R/GA’s London and Los Angeles offices) weaves in flashbacks to Williams’s childhood in Compton, Calif., as she pushes through her workout, while the song “Black Unicorn” by 2 Chainz featuring Sunni Patterson plays.

The track is a spectacular match, with beautiful lyrics about struggle and success. And that goes a long way to making the spot feel greater than the sum of its parts—packed with a inspiring storyline about an athlete at the top of her game, rewarding to listen to and watch—even if it is also loaded with product shots that demonstrate the value proposition.

This is the kind of timing that professional media planners dream of pulling off. On Sunday, the same day that Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman drew national attention for his post-game trash talk, Beats by Dre also released an ad in which Sherman is grilled by reporters for his "reputation as a thug."

As has since been pointed out by several commentators, most notably Deadspin founding editor Will Leitch, Sherman is likely one of the most intelligent and philanthropic young players in the NFL. But his 4.2 high school GPA, degree from Stanford and charity leadership are often overshadowed by his bombastic demeanor, such as on Sunday, when he called San Francisco 49er Michael Crabtree a "sorry receiver" and "mediocre."

Sherman's ad for Beats by Dre may not be as intense as the previous installment starring Kevin Garnett, but it does convey his frustration with the oversimplified sound bites that the sports media seem to want from him. And that same frustration is likely what boiled over Sunday night, when he decided to stop playing by the unwritten rules of post-game interviews. Or maybe he just felt like bragging. Coincidentally, Beats by Dre has also been airing a commercial starring Colin Kaepernick, whose 49ers were vanquished by Sherman's Seahawks on Sunday.

Knowing that he's only going to become more of a focus for public debate in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, Sherman seems to be saying, "If I'm going to get a reputation, I might as well own my reputation."

Check out the ad below, followed by a clip of Sherman's adrenaline-fueled interview with Erin Andrews on Sunday.

"Hear what you want" is the theme of this intense, nearly three-minute Beats by Dre spot starring Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Garnett, who's shown using the brand's wireless studio headphones to cancel out angry, often ugly catcalls from fans on game day. Haters viciously taunt him for being too old, at 37, to lead the team to a championship, and the racist epithet from a red-capped rowdy around the 55-second mark—he calls the power forward a "gorilla motherfucker"—is especially jarring. Aloe Blacc's uplifting, anthemic track "The Man" works well as a counterpoint, and the fact that Garnett and the Nets have stumbled badly out of the gate this season adds power and poignance. I'll be rooting for K.G. to tune out the static and make some noise the rest of the way.

UPDATE: R/GA did the creative on this, with Prettybird doing the production.

CREDITS
Client: Beats by Dre
Agency: R/GA
Production Company: Prettybird
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Damion Clayton