Hasta La Creative!

Stopp, “an integrated production company that combines creativity, technology and VFX disciplines to create innovative work with emotional connections” has launched a new broadcast and digital campaign for Adidas Outdoor promising the brand is “Open All Winter.”

For the campaign, Stopp partnered with extreme sports stars Hayley Ashburn (slackliner), Jean-Baptiste Chandelier (paraglider) and Junhee Han (ice climber) to show off Adidas’ range of Climaheat products boasting an insulation design that keeps the wearer warm in extreme winter conditions. The spot opens on a seemingly abandoned town as a sign reading “Closed for winter” swings in the breeze. A group of determined runners bust through, undeterred. Then the spot focuses on ice climber Junhee Han as he takes on a steep slope, followed by the other featured extreme athletes showing off their skills, before ending with the “Open All Winter” tagline.

In addition to the broadcast spot, which also runs online, the campaign is supported by digital elements and a competition running over the course of twelve weeks, inviting participants to share winter pics on Instagram and Twitter. A new winner will be picked every week, with an athlete jury selecting one grand prize winner to receive a winter road trip across Canada with four friends.

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Kevin Durant stars in a new digital and outdoor campaign for Talking Rain’s sparkling water brand Sparkling Ice from agency jimwalkerseattle.

In the 60-second online spot, Durant is shown arriving in Seattle, shooting hoops, drinking Sparkling Ice and posing for the camera. Representatives for Durant approached the brand inquiring about an official partnership back in April after the Oklahoma City Thunder star started drinking the beverage and the campaign marks the first creative work to come out of the deal. Digital ads will run on ESPN.com and Bleacher Report, and billboards will be placed in markets with a meaningful Durant connection: Oklahoma City, of course; as well his hometown of Seat Pleasant, Maryland; and Austin, Texas, where he attended college. One place you definitely won’t see billboards is Seattle, a location where Durant’s presence may not help the brand, since the Supersonics franchise moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder — much to the chagrin of Seattle fans.

“It would be better if he didn’t have the Seattle connection,” Jim Andrews, a vice president at the sponsorship consultancy IEG, told AdAge. “But the positives outweigh the negatives, if we get any.”

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Mullen, Boston worked with JetBlue on an online campaign entitled “Fly It Forward”, in which the airline gives away tickets to individuals with inspiring stories, who then select from a list of people to receive the next ticket.

The causevertising initative is detailed in a three minute online ad following the stories of several individuals selected to “Fly It Forward.” Their stories vary widely from the inspiring to the not-as-much (Hipster street artist travels to Brooklyn to paint a mural? Are we missing something there?) but the video effectively communicates the philosophy behind the campaign. Ultimately the effort makes JetBlue look good, as the airline manages to support a variety of causes all at once, and even takes the selection process and effectively gives it over to those touched by the campaign. As the ad states, the campaign is effectively set up so that there’s no end in sight. (more…)

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72andSunny combines Alice in Wonderland with holiday sweetness in the holiday ad “Alice in Marshmallow Land” for Target.

The 60-second spot opens on a young girl following Target’s official mascot Bullseye (a Bull Terrier) down a giant Target logo into “Marshmallow Land.” Once there, the girl, presumably named Alice, eats a mini marshmallow and shrinks to join a group of popular toys at a table as they enjoy hot chocolate. From here, Bullseye and Alice continue on their holiday-themed adventures, set to a cover of the holiday classic “Marshmallow World” by Karen O and mostly removed from any of the malice of Carroll’s classic, of course — the one threatening moment involving a giant robotic dinosaur is easily resolved — until the girl wakes up. It’s a cute and imaginative approach that should appeal to families with small children, while featuring a number of popular holiday items at the giant retailer. Although since it’s debuting so early, it certainly runs the risk of wearing out its welcome by the end of December.

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Team One is launching a campaign today to introduce Lexus’ first-ever RC 350 sport coupe and RC F performance coupe.

The multimedia campaign is centered around a pair of broadcast spots promoting each of the new vehicles. In “Face Off,” actor Wes Bentley (Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games, that creepy voyeur kid in American Beauty) confidently walks into a dark factory. As he glances at the Lexus RC Coupe, he likes what he sees (and for some reason lightbulbs explode as he unlocks the door) and he drives off smiling. The spot ends with the tagline, “Once driven, there’s no going back.”

“No Limits” was inspired by the RC F reveal video, and touts the vehicle’s powerful performance as barrier-breaking. It combines footage of the RC F racing through turns with athletes pushing their bodies to the limits.

Both spots launch today and will air during prime time, late night, cable, network television and cable sports, including “multiplatform ownerships within the Thursday Night Football Halftime Show on CBS and NFL Network.” In addition to the general market spots, “three additional RC F commercials geared toward multicultural audiences will also air at launch.” The broadcast efforts will be supported by digital, print and OOH executions. (more…)

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Grey New York teamed up with Whitehouse Post and Carbon VFX to document the rise of One World Trade Center and promote One World Observatory, set to open in the spring of 2015 in “The Rise of See Forever: One World Observatory.”

In the 50 second video (featured above) the visual history of One World Trade’s rise is pieced together from hundreds of crowdsourced Instagram images. Reminiscent of a flipbook, the images flit across the screen, documenting the eight year construction of the structure in under a minute and ending with a 360 degree view of the building as it morphs into the One World Observatory logo and the line “See Forever.”

“The Whitehouse Post team and I have watched One World Trade being built from our office since we moved in six years ago,” said Executive Producer Lauren Hertzberg in a press release. “It has been an absolute honor for all of us to work on this project with Grey.” (more…)

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Instead of trying to scare you this Halloween, Droga5 decided to go a different route for Chobani.

“We made a scary video,” reads the text at the video’s opening, set to ominous music, “this is not it.” The remaining 30-seconds are, instead, devoted to dogs in funny costumes eating Chobani. It’s cute stuff, to be sure, but we’re not sure how dogs eating Chobani are supposed to make people want to eat Chobani. But then the point is probably more to raise awareness for the brand with a video Chobani and Droga5 hope people will share on social media. The video will be pushed out on the brand’s social channels throughout the weekend, supported by social media posts and a Chobani sampling (presumably for humans, not dogs) at the Chobani café in SoHo. (more…)

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Commonwealth McCann has debuted a new campaign for the Chevy Colorado entitled “You Know You Want a Truck.”

In the “Focus Groups” spot above, they polled groups including “guys with bears,” “single women,” “rich housewives,” children and the elderly. The results? Truck guys are 85% more handsome, 76% more resourceful and 100 percent more likely to have an awesome pet. Other spots include the creation of “Truck Guy” deodorant and a “Trucked Out” dating profile. Each spot presents itself in a documentary style (and claims to use “real people, not actors”) but also features a playful tone that shows the brand isn’t taking things too seriously.

“The films are centered around the idea that there is an inner truck guy in everyone,” said Paul Edwards, U.S. vice president, Chevrolet marketing. “The game-changing Chevrolet Colorado will enable people to unleash their inner truckness.” (more…)

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W+K has a new ad for Nike, promoting the launch of its new LEBRON 12 sneaker today with a celebration of LeBron James’ return to Cleveland directed by the Malloy Brothers.

Yes, that’s right: another LeBron James ad about the star’s return to Cleveland. This follows on the heels of Translation’s spot for Sprite (which we wrote about yesterday) and R/GA’s “Re-Established 2014? for Beats, which deal with the exact same subject, as well as the recent Kia spot from David&Goliath, also starring James. Nike’s new spot will run tonight during the Cavs first home game, when it’s theoretically possible that ads featuring James will run back-to-back-to-back.

So there’s a bit of an oversaturation issue with this message, to put it mildly. But how does W+K’s version compare to the others we’ve seen? It might actually be the most melodramatic of the bunch. It opens on James giving a pep talk to his team about giving their all for the city of Cleveland. Soon the entire city is in a huddle, chanting, “Forward! Together!” It’s well-shot, in black and white, but the message comes across as a bit over-the-top, all the more so given the story’s overexposure. The spot will continue to run through November.

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Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation) is the latest marquee Hollywood director enlisted for Wieden+Kennedy’s “Dress Normal” campaign for Gap, following David Fincher‘s efforts in August and taking the reigns of four holiday  spots — a pair each for broadcast and online.

The ads spin the “Dress Normal” tagline by showing some abnormal (and often cringe-inducing) family holiday moments. But then what’s more normal than pondering the family you’ll never understand? Each spot ends with the message “You don’t have to get them to give them Gap” preceding the tagline. It’s an interesting approach, positioning Gap as a gift for those family members you have no idea what to give to, but it sits well with the “Dress Normal” tagline and Coppola and company do a good job of making it work in most of the ads.

In perhaps the most successful of the spots, “Gauntlet” a girl returns home to her large, boisterous, and often odd family. Perfectly set to the Johnny Cash song “I Got Stripes,” she makes her way through the house greeting her relatives with an awkward expression on her face that says a lot about the effort she’s putting in to deal with these people. It feels like a telling glance into the lives of a particular family, which is the approach taken throughout these efforts and, along with some great song selections, what makes them charming. The other broadcast spot, “Mistletoe,” documents a particularly cringe-worthy moment under the mistletoe at a holiday party. It’s almost hard to watch, but then that makes it fit the “You don’t have to get them to give them Gap” all the more.

In addition to the two online ads — “Crooner” and “Pinball” — the campaign is supported by print and OOH elements, as well as digital banner ads launching on Gap’s social media channels and GapGiftGuide.com on November 3rd. (more…)

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