Hasta La Creative!

With the opening series between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks (finally) kicking off the MLB season this Saturday in Australia, Hub Strategy, AOR for the Oakland Athletics, have just launched the fifth incarnation of their award-winning “Green Collar Baseball” marketing campaign for the A’s.

There’s been reason to celebrate in Oakland the past two years, as the A’s have won back-to-back AL West titles. This year, for their integrated campaign featuring “eight television commercials as well as print, outdoor, digital & social advertisements,” Hub Strategy wanted to up the personality factor. There’s certainly no shortage of personality for the A’s, and Hub had a blast working with the players on the new campaign, with Hub CEO/Creative Director DJ O’Neil calling it “by far my favorite work yet.”

The feeling is mutual, as A’s VP of sales/marketing, Jim Leahey, says, “We feel that this year’s TV commercials may be our best ever and we are confident that our fans will enjoy connecting with the fun personalities of our players.”

So far, two of the eight TV spots have been revealed: “Tunnels of Greatness” and “Tarp Therapy.” “Tunnels of Greatness” — featuring Josh Donaldson, Jarrod Parker, Sonny Gray, Sean Doolittle and Derek Norris — is a lot of fun, built around the idea of extending the “Home Run Tunnel” celebration to other, more mundane aspects of the game. “Tarp Therapy,” which references Donaldson’s spectacular tarp catch from last season, isn’t quite as effective. It’s the kind of concept that might look funny on paper, but doesn’t play out so well on tape (although they deserve bonus points for featuring Mike Gallego). Hopefully the rest of Hub Strategy’s “Green Collar Baseball” spots can build on the momentum of “Home Run Tunnel” and give fans one more reason to cheer on the A’s. Here’s the info we have on the remaining six spots:

• Secrets of the Game: Young players Parker, Gray and Norris turn to veteran Brandon Moss for his secrets to success in the majors.
• Unicorn 2.0: Doolittle and Parker attempt to take the signature unicorn bullpen ?backpack to another level this year.
• Generations: Moss learns that for some fans, being on the field for a fireworks show can fulfill a lifelong dream.
• #winning: Doolittle coaches Bob Melvin, Curt Young and Mike Gallego on social media best practices.
• Holding Him On: Moss is a talkative guy, and his mouth can be as much of a weapon as his bat.
• Pre-Internet: Coaches Young and Gallego both reflect on how much has changed since their 1989 World Championship with the A’s.

You can watch “Home Run Tunnel” above, and stick around for “Tarp Therapy,” along with credits, after the jump continued…

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Each year, 300,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications or unsafe abortions. To bring this statistic to life, production company B-Reel conceived and created “Names Not Numbers” for ad agency BETC Paris and Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), “a new experiential installation and digital experience” giving names to the women in the faceless statistic.

On International Women’s Day, March 8th, on a public street in Paris’ 3rd distict, B-Reel and BETC Paris unveiled their “Machine of Death” — “an artfully constructed and coldly methodical device that, each minute, cursively prints the given name of an actual woman who has died in childbirth or during an unsafe abortion.” After the name is printed, onlookers have 60 seconds to claim the card before it is dropped into a bin and lost forever. The cards include details on methods to help put an end to this tragedy on their flip side, and recipients are urged to sign the card and send it to local politicians or UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon.

“This machine is a factory of death,” says Florence Bellisson, creative director at BETC, in a statement. “We are forced to confront this tragedy, live. It’s difficult to imagine that even today a woman’s right to choose what happens with her own body is not universal. This machine will become a weapon of salvation if every name it produces lands on the desk of someone who holds the key to change.”

The harrowing “Names Not Numbers” experience was captured in a digital short film (featured above), shot by B-Reel “at Stockholm’s Independent Studios and on location in Paris on March 8th.” Visitors to the “Names Not Numbers” website are given a minute following the film’s conclusion to retrieve, sign and send out their card through social media, in a digital recreation of the original experience. Claim your card now, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Critical Mass has launched a new digital campaign for Nissan, called “Real Owners. Real Questions.” which celebrates the milestone of 100,000 LEAF electric vehicle sales, making it the best-selling electric vehicle ever.

For the campaign, Critical Mass calls on the LEAF community to share their experiences and stories with “custom and crowd-sourced videos, images and text responses” to answer common questions about Nissan’s electric vehicle. Critical Mass’ newly launched website for the brand displays questions like “Why did you choose to drive an electric car?” and “How far can you go on a single charge?” with a variety of answers from actual Nissan LEAF owners available at the click of a mouse (up to 31 answers per question at the moment). If visitors don’t find the question they’re looking for, they can ask Nissan in a livechat or a LEAF owner on Facebook. The revamped website features over 500 quotes, 200 images and video footage. In addition to crowdsourcing video footage, the site also showcases stories of LEAF drivers, like “Neal Wagner, who is shown using a journey to catch a sunrise on Maui’s Haleakala Volcano to charge his LEAF.” The site should clear up a lot of questions that might make people reluctant to make the leap to electric, all while celebrating the LEAF’s 100,000 owner milestone. Critical Mass, Nissan’s digital AOR, has handled digital work for LEAF starting with their award-winning campaign launching the brand back in 2010.

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Havas Worldwide Chicago has launched a new March Madness campaign for DISH Network featuring a new kangaroo mascot, which also marks Havas’ first campaign for the company since being named lead digital agency last summer.

The kangaroo mascot, voiced by Rebel Wilson, makes her debut in the TV spot “Mobile Basketball.” In the 30-second spot, the kangaroo shows off the DISH Network’s capabilities by watching college basketball at work, only pretending to be engaged in actual work when the boss walks by. While the spot never quite hits the humorous mark it’s aiming for, it’s still world’s ahead of the campaign’s painful digital spot, “Fight Song.” As you might have guessed, the 30 second spot is built around a “fight song” for DISH Network (in the style of college team’s fight songs) extolling the Network’s ability to let you watch March Madness games anywhere. “Fight Song” will run on sites like ESPN.com, where it will most likely be muted after approximately 1.2 seconds. Havas’s campaign also includes social media activations on Facebook and Twitter featuring the new mascot. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Creative content agency Bonfire Labs is taking its online video “Beauty Is All Around” from the Internet to broadcast, at the request of client Ricoh.

Ricoh tasked Bonfire Labs with creating engineering a tagline, website, concept/inspirational video, and a how-to video for the worldwide launch of their new camera Theta, which shoots a 360 degree spherical image. For the concept video, Bonfire secured a large studio to serve as a blank canvas for muralist Sirron Norris. For two days, Norris prepped and painted the space, while the Theta captured the process with in time-lapse fashion, with the assistance of a tiny robot (called the roboTap3000).

“The creative behind our concept video revolved around capturing time-lapse images with the Ricoh product, but the product didn’t have the capability to do that,” explains Bonfire Labs creative technologist Phil Spitler. “I needed to find a way to automatically capture moments in time as the mural developed. So I designed and built the ‘roboTap 3000’ to allow us to achieve our creative vision.”

The resulting video (featured above) which debuted on September 5, 2013, was such a success that Ricoh has asked Bonfire to cut 30 and 60-second versions for television audiences both domestically and in Japan.” Our team will assure the broadcast creative makes as much of an impression on audiences as the longer online version did,” promises Jim Bartel, managing director at Bonfire Labs. The broadcast campaign will launch on ESPN in the U.S. and domestic channels within Japan this Spring.

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Bacardi has launched “Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future,” described as an “environmental initiative for sourcing, packaging and operational efficiencies across the entire Bacardi family of premium spirits brands.” The new initiative builds on existing programs and efficiencies in an attempt to “reduce water and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.”

One aspect of the in-house campaign, highlighted in the above online video, is recycling of oak barrels used for aging Bacardi rum. Bacardi ages their rum in American white oak barrels, in some cases for many years, to instill their product with “richness, aroma and smoothness.” Usually these barrels are used continuously for about 20 years or so until they are retired. But even at this point, they haven’t become useless. At the Bacardi Corporation in Puerto Rico, “old barrels are ground into woodchips that are then spread as mulch for landscaping.” This commendable recycling effort helps beautify Bacardi’s 127-acre campus, while also supplying employees with nutrient rich mulch for their own lawns and gardens. “If we didn’t recycle, our barrels would eventually go to a landfill, which is not the best option for a small island like Puerto Rico,” explains Lissette Sepulveda, environmental health & safety coordinator for Bacardi Corp.

The “Good Spirited” campaign is built around specific goals in three areas: responsible sourcing, global packaging, and operational efficiencies. Bacardi pledges to source “all raw materials and packaging from sustainably sourced, renewable or recycled materials while maintaining or enhancing the economic status of growers and suppliers,” to “use eco-design to craft sustainability into its brand packaging and point-of-sale materials,” and has pledged to reduce water use and greenhouse gas emissions — with a “2017 goal to cut water use by 55 percent and GHG emissions by 50 percent.” To learn more about Bacardi’s “Good Spirited” campaign, head on over the the campaign website and check out the video above for more on their barrel recycling efforts.

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Saatchi & Saatchi NY are helping Walmart in their bid to get you to please not hate them, delivering a an emotionally effective (some may say emotionally manipulative, given how Walmart treats their own employees) online spot for their “Work is a Beautiful Thing” campaign telling the story of Patrick.

Patrick introduces himself by saying, “When I was born the doctor said I had a condition that affected every part of me, from my body to my brain.” His whole life, Patrick is treated differently: sent to a different school, put on a different team, talked to “a different way.” But Patrick doesn’t let his disability stand in his way, as his fierce determination to be independent leads him to learn how to drive, to learn to walk again when his condition causes him to lose feeling in his legs, and to get a job at a local factory where he’s part of a team.

“My whole life, people have been telling me I have a learning disability,” Patrick says in a line turning that phrase on its head, “I guess they’re right, because I’ve never learned how to give up.” This great line is followed by the “Work is a beautiful thing” tagline and Walmart’s message: “It’s why we’re committed to the American factory, and all the people who work there.”

As you’ve probably gathered, it’s impossible not to like Patrick, so Saatchi & Saatchi hopes that by aligning Walmart with him, it’s a little harder for people to hate Walmart, too. Patrick’s poignant story is already making waves on YouTube, where it’s garnered over 600,000 views in five days. If it wasn’t for people’s reluctance to have anything to do with WalMart (let’s say this was an ad for Target, for example) that figure would probably be even higher. As is, Saatchi & Saatchi NY did a fine job here, with a conversation changer that just may get a few people to rethink their views on the retail giant, and which stands as great work regardless. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Wow, talk about efficient. Fresh off winning the AB InBev Harbin Beer business back in November, BBH China has launched a series of ultra-short television spots for their Harbin Beer World Cup 2014 campaign.

Harbin, the official World Cup sponsor in China, will run the blink-and-you’ve-missed-them spots every night on CCTV1 news and OOH media, where they are expected to reach hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers. As might be expected given the short duration, the ads keep things simple. The above “Freedom Time” exemplifies the approach here: the spot sees a Harbin drinker ignore a call from the boss during the big game, instead using the phone as a coaster. There’s something admirable about the efficiency required of the format, especially in contrast to the lengthy online spots that we see on a daily basis. Check out “Red Card” below, and stick around for the lengthy (7 seconds) “Slide Tackle” after the jump. It won’t even take a minute.

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Energy BBDO has called on the talents of comedienne Sarah Silverman for their new campaign for Wrigley’s Orbit gum brand.

Representing Wrigley’s strategy “to restore and grow the gum category by investing in its top brands,” the new U.S. campaign aligns Orbit with a broader global campaign that has driven sales for the company in international markets. The new campaign is centered around a pair of television spots (one 30 seconds, one 15 seconds) starring Silverman. In both spots, Silverman breaks up with the cup of coffee she had that morning, much to the coffee’s dismay; continuing the anthropomorphic trend from last year, but in a decidedly less creepy vein.

In both spots, Silverman breaks the news to that nagging cup of coffee, followed by a “Break up with lingering food” voiceover and the “Eat. Drink. Chew. Orbit.” tagline. Also of note is the fact that Energy BBDO seems to have dumped “Orbit Girl” Vanessa Branch  Farris Patton (for this campaign at least), who has been a fixture of Orbit’s campaigns for the past several years, with the “For that just brushed clean feeling” line instead delivered by a male voice actor. We’re not sure what prompted the change, but without her the spots kind of feel like they’re missing something (that touch of “fabulous” I suppose). Stick around for the 15-second “Lipstick” spot after the jump. continued…

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Today, Budweiser has officially launched its “Rise As One” campaign, developed by Anomaly, to promote its sponsorship of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The basis of the campaign is a “fully integrated, global content series” centered around the the theme of honoring “the moments that unite football fans worldwide.”

Highlighting the campaign is the new spot “Believe As One,” which made its digital debut today and will air internationally as anticipation for the World Cup continues to grow.  The new spot, filmed in black and white by director Garth Davis “to truly highlight the passion and pride for the sport that unites fans around the world, irrespective of the team they support” stokes anticipation of the FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil by showing the almost religious fervor fans across the globe bring to the game. The 60-second spot concludes with a group triumphantly raising their beers, followed by the “Rise As One” tagline.

“Football is unique in its ability to unite fans all over the globe and its unifying power is never more evident than when the world comes together during the FIFA World Cup,” Andrew Sneyd, Budweiser global VP, explains in a statement. “Through the ‘Rise As One‘ campaign and our new spot ‘Believe As One,’ Budweiser showcases the passion and building anticipation shared by fans and players the world over.”

In addition to the new spot, the folks at VICE (who are everywhere these days) are getting in on the action, partnering with Anomaly and Budweiser to launch “Budweiser Heroes,” which showcases “the real-life stories of individuals who have made a significant impact in their community and how their love of football transformed the lives of everyday people.” Beginning today, Budweiser is calling on fans to submit their own “Budweiser Heroes” stories. Budweiser and Vice will also be creating a series of digital shorts to serve as inspiration for the program. A few chosen winners will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, tickets to a football match and a three-day stay at the Budweiser Hotel in Rio de Janeiro.” You can learn more about the “Rise As One” campaign at the official website, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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