Hasta La Creative!

Time for your very favorite thing in the world: case study videos!

Virtual reality can seem pretty cool when it’s taking you to Pluto or helping you enjoy the speed of NASCAR with none of the risk. But it still seems like a great indulgence with little or no real purpose, hence the coming wave of campaigns that double as pro-VR explainers showing viewers how the technology can be valuable (if not practical).

The latest such effort comes from M&C Saatchi Stockholm. The agency and its partners, utility giant E.ON and the Swedish Swimming Federation, looked to help solve a basic problem: an embarrassing number of Scandinavian kids don’t know how to swim, so they used VR to get those water-shy children in the same space as the people who make their livings in the pool.

Do you have 5 minutes to watch young people get emotional about their own physical limitations? Of course you do.

“There’s no difference between real fear and virtual fear” except for the fact that one can actually drown in a real body of water.

Skepticism aside, this project makes sense. The press release calls it “a small but significant step towards a swim-savvy Sweden,” and when has a press release ever made grandiose claims unsupported by empirical evidence?

FTR, we do not believe that a VR project could help us get over our very real fear of heights. Since this is not an irrational phobia, we will just keep it, thanks.

Here’s the VR film itself, in which three Swedes with zero grams of body fat between them lead viewers into a friendlier underwater atmosphere and (probably) create a whole new set of insecurities in the process.

At a Cannes event on VR, Ed Brojerdi of KBS talked about how the technology will not truly touch most consumers until cardboard goggles are a thing of the past. But given all the money the tech giants are spending on related products, that may happen sooner than you’d think. In the meantime, we have case studies like this one.

CREDITS

Client: E.ON / Swedish Swimming Federation
Advertising agency: M&C Saatchi Stockholm
PR agency: Rippler
Digital and VR production: Apartment5
Film production: Lygrell & Silver

Leo Burnett Canada launched a campaign for Mr. Clean featuring a reboot of the P&G brand’s iconic jingle (you know the one).

While the Mr. Clean mascot has been an advertising mainstay since his introduction in 1958, the brand’s jingle has faded to the background in recent years. Here Leo Burnett Canada gives the jingle a proper reintroduction, changing a few words but mostly staying true to the original. The bald mascot appears, guitar in hand, including a proper metal axe at one point, to strumg along with the tune while his product is used to clean a variety of surfaces.

“We…discovered that there is something magical in the jingle,” P&G associate brand director Kevin Wenzel explained to Adweek. “We recognized that there was a uniquely ownable and relatable campaign in the jingle that could span generations.”

“We wanted to renew the jingle for today’s millennial households,” added Leo Burnett Canada creative director Heather Chambers, with an emphasis on how the product is “helping to make the cleaning process easier with people from all walks of life.” 

And the jingle is just as catchy in Spanish:

Credits:

Advertiser/Client: Mr. Clean
Product/Service: CPG
Type of Ads: TV
Where they ran: North America
Date of Appearance: July 1, 2016
City/Country of Appearance: US and CA
Media Company: Hearts and Science
Agency: Leo Burnett Canada
Chief Creative Officer: Judy John
Creative Director: Heather Chambers
Group Creative Directors
Copywriter: Mike Cook
Art Director: Mike Sheehan
Agency Producer: Tina Muratovic
Group Account Dir: Anchie Contractor
Account Executive: Aryana Hassan
Account Supervisor: Samantha Sabatini & Spring Morris
Planner: Dan Koutoulakis
Production Company: Skin and Bones & The Big Picture
Director: David Hicks
Producer: Andrew Sullivan & Dan Ford
Editing Company: School
Editor: Jon Devries

The New York and Atlanta offices of BBDO launched a new campaign for AT&T, introducing the network’s new Ticket Tuesdays offer, which allows AT&T customers to bring a friend to the movies for free on Tuesdays.

A series of comedic spots promote the new program, showing how the deal lets you bring along any type of friend.

Maybe it’s just that we find it the most relatable, but the approach works best in the down-to-earth “Married Friend.” In the ad, a chef calls up his married buddy and asks if he can join him at the movies on Tuesday, describing the Ticket Tuesdays deal. He asks his wife, who tells them they made plans to “sit on the couch together on Tuesday,” but then tells him to go anyway. The decision waffling then continues until the man eventually decides to go.

Two 15-second spots, “Sentimental Friend” and “Impulsive Friend” apply a similar approach to an overly-sentimental friend and a friend who impulsively decides to leave his hospital bed to go to the movies. In the 30-second “Boyfriend,” a college guy asks a girl to the movies, but she decides she’d rather borrow his phone and bring her boyfriend. It kind of feels like a scene that would  go down in a modern version of Undeclared. Each ad manages to fit in a description of the offer in a fairly convincing way while also getting to the point with its comic narrative, even if the humor doesn’t always land as intended.

The campaign arrives amidst a U.S. creative and media review, which AT&T launched last month. It launched today on AT&T’s social channels and will roll out soon on broadcast, pre-roll and, naturally, in cinemas. Digital and social components from BBDO and Organic will support the effort.

Credits:
Chief Creative Officer Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald
Creative Director//Copy Writer: Kevin Mulroy
ACD//Art Director: Bianca Guimaraes

Head of Integrated Production: Dave Rolfe
Group Executive Producer: Julie Collins
Senior Content Producer: Whitney Collins
Executive Music Producer: Melissa Chester

Managing Director, BBDO North America: Mark Cadman
Managing Director: Doug Walker
Group Account Director: Lesley Brown
Account Director: Khari Mpagazehe
Account Executive: Jenn Wang

Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director: Matt Aselton
Director of Photography: Corey Walter
Executive Producer: Marc Marrie
Managing Director: Mal Ward
Head of Production: Christa Skotland
Producer: Zoe Odlum
Production Supervisor: Bailey Reeves

Editing Company: Arcade Edit
Editor: Dave Anderson & Sean LaGrange
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Assistant Editor: Elizabeth Parsons

Visual Effects: Spontaneous
Head of Production: Chris Decker
Executive Producer: Bryce Edwards
VFX Supervisor: Andy Milkis

Sound Design (Impulsive Friend): Trinitite
Sound Designer (“Impulsive Friend”): Brian Emrich

Audio Mixing: Sonic Union
Audio Engineer: Steve Rosen

Droga5 launched a new campaign for Hennessy V.S.O.P Privilège, telling the story of how the cognac is “Mastered from Chaos,” with a remarkably consistent product created despite the myriad variables in its creation.

The campaign is built around an interactive web experience at a campaign landing site, which you can check out for yourself for the full experience. The interactive web experience employed some complex tech in its creation, including LiDAR and 3D Kinect scanning, along with plenty of CG effects. 

There’s also a 60-second online spot telling the same story. The spot opens with the admission that the process isn’t chaotic at all, as it’s the well-controlled variables, of course, which lead to the product’s consistency. “To the untrained, it appears as chaos,” begins the voiceover, over quick, stylized cuts of a grape arbor through the seasons. “But here there is only mastery,” it continues, celebrating the brand’s long heritage and the product’s complex sophistication before arriving at the “Never stop. Never settle.” tagline.

The online spot and interactive experience “are directly related, complementary and were developed in tandem,” Droga5 executive interactive producer Justin Durazzo told Adweek. “All of the film content also lives on the site in some way. The site is a longer format, interactive version of the same story we’re telling in the :60, only it allows people to stop and further explore, play with things and get immediate tactile feedback for each ‘chapter’ in the Hennessy V.S.O.P Privilége production process.”

“The campaign was designed as a more premium chapter of Hennessy’s “Never stop. Never settle” campaign. It’s about mastery and the infinite variables that the experts at Hennessy overcome each year to create a cognac that’s completely harmonious and consistent,” added Droga5 copywriter Phil Hadad and art director Marybeth Ledesma.

Credits

Client Moët Hennessy USA
Product Hennessy V.S.O.P Privilège
Campaign “Harmony. Mastered From Chaos”
URL: MasteredFromChaos.com
Launch Date June 30th, 2016
Agency Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman David Droga
Chief Creative Officer Ted Royer
Creative Partner Duncan Marshall
Group Creative Director Nick Klinkert
Copywriter Phil Hadad
Art Director Marybeth Ledesma
Executive Design Director Rob Trostle
Associate Design Director Mark Yoon
UX Director Daniel Perlin
Chief Creation Officer Sally-Ann Dale
Head of Interactive Production Niklas Lindstrom
Executive Broadcast Producer Jesse Brihn
Executive Broadcast Producer Ruben Mercadal
Executive Interactive Producer Justin Durazzo
Interactive Producer Ian Graetzer
Interactive Producer Morgan Mendel
Integrated Production Business Manager Grant Thompson
Director of Integrated Production Business Affairs Dianne Richter
Head of Art Production Cliff Lewis
Executive Art Producer Julia Menassa
Print Producer James DePrima
Senior Retoucher John Ciambriello
Global Chief Strategy Officer Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director Aaron Wiggan
Strategy Director Elaine Purcell
Strategy Director Danielle Travers
Senior Communications Strategist Delphine McKinley
Senior Data Strategist Brad Mumbrue
Executive Group Director Steven Panariello
Account Director Kendra Schaaf
Account Manager Andrew DeMatos
Associate Account Manager Rebecca Warren
Project Manager Dean Farella
Client Mo ë t Hennessy USA
CMO & EVP of Brands, USA Rodney Williams
SVP, Hennessy, USA Giles Woodyer
SVP, Strategic Marketing, USA William Paretti
Brand Director, USA Richard McLeod
Global CMO, Hennessy Thomas Moradpour
Global Marketing Director, Hennessy VSOP Violaine Basse
Broadcast Production Company Tool of North America
Director/Interactive Director Ben Tricklebank
Director of Photography Justin Gurnari
Managing Partners Oliver Fuselier, Dustin Callif
Executive Producer Sarah DiLeo
Line Producer Kelly Christensen
Interactive Production Company Active Theory
Creative Director Andy Thelander
Technical Director Michael Anthony
Executive Producer Nick Mountford
Producer Annie Chen
Editorial Rock Paper Scissors
Editor Jamie Foord
Assistant Editor Jay McConville
Executive Producer Eve Kornblum
Head of Production Justin Kumpata
Producer Lisa Barnable
3D Scanning Company SCANable
CEO & Founder Travis Reinke
Post Production Blacksmith
VFX Supervisor Tom Bussell
CG Lead Artist Tom Bussell
CG FX Mike Dunkley
2D Lead Artists Iwan Zwarts, Daniel Morris
2D Artists Nick Tanner, Dan DiFelice
Executive Producer Charlotte Arnold
Producer Bomyee Hwang
FILM: Music and Sound Design Plan8
Executive Producer Tor Castensson, Calle Stenqvist
Creative Director Oscar Tillman
Composer Bali Harko
Composer / Sound Designer Karl-Johan Rasmark
INTERACTIVE: Music and Sound Design Plan8
Executive Producer Tor Castensson, Calle Stenqvist
Creative Director Oscar Tillman
Audio Developer Andreas Jeppsson
Lead Developer Rikard Lindstrom
Composer Bali Harko
Composer / Sound Designer Karl-Johan Rasmark
Mix Heard City
Mixers Phil Loeb, Dan Flosdorf
Executive Producer Sasha Awn
Producer Talia Rodgers

Leo Burnett launched the latest in its ongoing “Like A Girl” campaign for Always with the sports-themed “Keep Playing,” released ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Based on the insight that, according to the brand’s research, half of girls quit sports during adolescence, the 60-second spot follows several girls who are determined to stick with the games they love.

“A lot of boys have told me I can’t play rugby, because I’m a girl,” says one such athlete at the opening of the spot, as she’s pictured tackling an opponent. “Keep Playing” goes on to depict a young female weightlifter, shot-putter, boxer and more. “Girls could actually play rugby and they could also be the team captain…” adds the young rugby enthusiast. The spot concludes by inviting viewers to “Show the world how you keep playing #LikeAGirl.”

The timely ad benefits from taking its subjects out of the controlled “social experiment” environment of “Unstoppable,” allowing the girls to tell their own stories in their own environments. Its message is something of an evolution of “Stronger Together,” which celebrated girls’ accomplishments in sports, without dealing as explicitly in the negative attitudes such young female athletes have to overcome. For an example of such attitudes at the their most noxious, one need look no further than the video’s comments on YouTube (or, for your own sake, just take our word for it).

“The Olympic Games are a time when, all around the world, female sports participation is elevated in the public eye. And for that reason, we could not think of a better moment to drive awareness of the critical role sports play in building girls’ confidence,” Always associate director Michele Baeten told Adweek. 

The brand partnered with American soccer star Alex Morgan to promote the spot. She tweeted it out with a message regarding her own story of discouragement, saying, “At age 13, one of my coaches told me that I wasn’t good enough. As a young girl just wanting to play and do my best, that was difficult to hear. It would have been easy for me to quit, but I wouldn’t be the confident person I am today if I had.” 

Credits:

Client: P&G Always
Agency: Leo Burnett Worldwide

Creative
Mark Tutssel – Global Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide and Creative Chairman, Publicis Communications
Judy John – Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Toronto
Nancy Hannon – EVP Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett Chicago
Isabela Ferreira – VP Creative Director
Natalie Taylor – VP Creative Director
Amanda Mearsheimer – Associate Creative Director
Gloria Dusenberry – Associate Creative Director
Anthony Brooks – Senior Copywriter
Jillian Lamb – Senior Art Director
Garrett Vernon – Copywriter
Pete Kellen – Copywriter
Luis Marques – Senior Art Director
Darlene White – Creative Resource Manager

Production
Vincent Geraghty – EVP Executive Director of Production
Mary Cheney – SVP Group Executive Producer
Tony Wallace – VP Executive Producer
Adine Becker – Senior Producer
Chris Clark – Director of Music
Alex Stern – Assistant Music Producer
Linda Yuen – Senior Talent Manager
Julie Lewandowski – Production Manager
Nanette Burnstein – Hungryman/Director
Kevin Byrne – Hungryman/EP Head of Production
Julianne Maloney – Hungryman/Producer
Tami Rieker – Director of Photography
Nikki Vapenski – Whitehouse Post/Editor
Luke Morrison – Mill/Colorist
John Binder/ David Gerbosi/ Peter Erazmus – Another Country/Audio Mix

Planning
Kristin Hayward – VP Participation Strategy Director

Account
Annette Sally – EVP Account Director
Katie Nikolaus – Account Director
Sarah Kaminsky – Account Director
Ashley Sawatzke – Account Supervisor
Suz Sward – Assistant Account Executive
Raleigh Ward – Assistant Account Executive

Legal
Michael Sirota – SVP Associate General Counsel
Tracy Scimeca – Commercial Clearance Manager

A cat intrudes on an amorous couple with just a glance in BBDO’s “What Cats Want,” promoting Mars cat food brand Sheba’s Sheba Perfect Portions product, which the agency introduced last year with “Snap, Peel, Slurp, Purr.”

When a man brings a woman back to his apartment, things start to get heated. But then his hungry cat makes eye contact and he can’t help but stop making out and stumble to the kitchen, pants around his ankles, to feed his famished feline friend. The spot ends with the tagline “What Cats Want.”

As far as cat food spots go, this one is definitely on the memorable side. Leveraging humor around the situation, it also manages to show the product’s selling point, as the man quickly quickly snaps off a container of Sheba Perfect Portions and serves it to the cat mess-free. Efficiency aside, by the time the cat is chowing down, his partner seems about ready to leave. The spot may bring a smile to the faces of cat lovers, but the she remains unamused.

BBDO also released a print ad as part of the campaign (see below), featuring the line “Love means never having to say ‘leftovers.’”

Zambezi launched a new spot for Autotrader, championing the brand as “Driven by Sport” ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympics.

While the 30-second launch spot is not directly tied to the impending games, which begin August 5, many of the sports referenced in the ad are Summer Olympic events. Text ties a series of sports to qualities a user might search for in a vehicle, like “power locks” and wrestling, “traction control” and gymnastics, etc.

The approach allows the brand to tie itself to a range of sports while also promoting the various search aspects it offers. While that’s a fairly sound strategy, the execution of the spot may just be a little too generic to hold viewers’ attention and stand out from the pack — especially with a wide field of ads tied to the Rio 2016 Olympics more explicitly. It is undoubtedly a step above last month’s confusing “Concert” spot, however.

“Zambezi exists to put more extraordinary into culture,” said Zambezi CSO Kristina Jenkins. “For Autotrader, we can’t think of a better way to be a catalyst for this than to celebrate the training process of athletes while including Autotrader’s breadth of feature selection. It’s a perfect matchup.”

Back in February, W+K launched “The Bud Light Party” campaign with a Super Bowl spot starring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen, promising the campaign’s light-hearted satire of American politics would continue through November. At the beginning of the month, the campaign continued with Rogen and Schumer proclaiming their support for gay weddings, which they say are “just like any wedding.” Now the pair are back to tackle “Equal Pay” in a new, 30-second spot, which, like its predecessors, never quite finds its comedic voice. 

Like its predecessor, the spot sees the brand taking a popular stance on a relatively non-divisive issue. When Rogen says “Women don’t get paid as much as men and that is wrong,” Schumer adds, “And we have to pay more for the same stuff.” An alarmed Rogen then calls his mother, yelling about she has to pay more for a car than dad.

The approach, which seems to be a pattern now, is a different one than the Super Bowl spot at the campaign’s inception, which was a more generic parody of the American political process. We could see a return to the former as the general election approaches and dominates news headlines. Whatever approach W+K chooses to take going forward, we hope the agency and the “Bud Light Party” comedians can find the humor in it going forward. Given the talent involved, this campaign has had a disheartening lack of laughs thus far.

“The Bud Light Party is about bringing people together and sparking national conversations around timely topics,” Alex Lambrecht, vice president, Bud Light at Anheuser-Busch said, in a statement. “In our newest spot, Seth and Amy have a colorful banter surrounding the matter of equal pay—which the Bud Light Party proudly supports.”

To the brand’s credit, it is to some degree putting its money where its mouth is, donating a dollar to workplace equality organization Catalyst for every time someone uses the #CheersToEqualPay hashtag on social media.  

Atlanta-based, multi-brand homebuilding company PulteGroup, Inc. appointed independent, Dallas-based agency The Richards Group as its content agency of record. The Richards Group will be responsible for providing strategic counsel and creative work for the Pulte Homes, Centex, Del Webb, John Wieland and DiVosta brands across traditional and digital channels. As best as we can tell, the company had been working with Organic since appointing the agency as AOR in December of 2013. 

“PulteGroup is on a journey to becoming a world-class marketing organization, and our engagement with The Richards Group is a key building block required for us to reach our intended destination,” said PulteGroup CMO Manish Shrivastava, who was appointed to the position in September of 2014. “It is critical in today’s world of consumer distraction and media fragmentation that we create rich, deep and aspirational connections with our consumers. It gives me great peace of mind knowing that we will have a competitive advantage in this ongoing endeavor with The Richards Group given their history of creating intimate relationships between consumers and home-related brands.”

The appointment marks The Richards Group’s third account win this month, coming on the heels of being named AOR for Pie Five Pizza at the beginning of the month and Famous Footwear yesterday.

W+K Portland launched a new campaign for KFC introducing yet another actor portraying Colonel Sanders. This time it’s…George Hamilton!? The famously tan actor (who is not, as Scottish indie pop band The Golden Dawn’s 1989 single on Sarah Records jokingly alleges, dead) is extra bronzed for his portrayal of “Extra Crispy Colonel Sanders” in a series of four new spots.

“I love Original Recipe, but in this sizzling summer heat, I’m feeling a little extra crispy,” Hamliton says, introducing the character in the 30-second “Lifestyle,” looking quite healthy for his age and lifetime UV ray consumption. The spot promotes the Extra Crispy $20 Fill Up, which the Extra Crispy Colonel says, “isn’t just a product, it’s a lifestyle.”

Two other spots, “Extra Crispy Boy” and “Tray,” see Hamilton promoting KFC’s Extra Crispy $5 Fill Up. In “Tray” Hamilton tans with a tray which also holds a bunch of crispy chicken (HY Connect/Chicago and the American Academy of Dermatology might have something to say about that), while “Extra Crispy Boy” sees a child transformed into the titular character by Hamilton’s suggestion to try “something extra crispy” instead of Original Recipe. The 15-second “Fun in the Sun” promotes the larger meal with the largest dose of W+K weirdness, largely absent from the spots, which tend to leave the camera lingering on the product in question. The spots make their broadcast debut this Sunday, ushering in another Colonel and another series of spots following a similar, tired formula as their predecessors.

“Just like no one person could play the Colonel, no one Colonel can sell both Original Recipe and Extra Crispy fried chicken,” said KFC U.S. CMO Kevin Hochman, said in a press release today. “And no actor was more qualified to play our Extra Crispy Colonel than a very tan George Hamilton.”

“I’d like to think that I know a thing or two about being extra crispy,” added Hamilton. “It didn’t take long for me to get into character as the Extra Crispy Colonel. One could argue that my entire career has been leading up to this role.”

Credits:
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Directors: Eric Baldwin + Jason Kreher
Copywriter: Shaine Edwards
Art Director: Matthew Carroll
Producer: Nicole Kaptur
Business Affairs: Connery Obeng
Account Team: Jesse Johnson, Andrie Wheeler, Kate Rutkowski, Madeline Parker

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Woodshop Productions
Director: Trevor Shepard
Executive Producer: Sam Swisher
Line Producer: Ursula Camack
Director of Photography: Tom Lazarevich

EDITORIAL
Editorial Company: JOINT
Editor: Kelly Brickner Lyon
Assistant Editor: Mimi Bergen
Post Producer: Chris Girard
Post Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy

VFX
VFX Company: JOINT
VFX Coordinator: Nathanael Horton
Flame Artists: MB Emigh, Leif Peterson, Dave Sarbell, Stephan Lectez, David Stern, Noah Poole
VFX Exectutive Producer: Alex Thiesen

MUSIC + SOUND DESIGN + MIX
Mix Company: JOINT
Mixer/Sound Engineer: Noah Woodburn
Sound Designer: Noah Woodburn
Song: Through the Worm Hole
Producer: Sarah Fink

TELECINE
Telecine Company: JOINT
Colorist: David Jahns
Color Executive Producer: Alex Thiesen