Hasta La Creative!

Siltanen & Partners are launching a new dog-themed spot for Coldwell Banker entitled “Home’s Best Friend.”

The 30-second spot will make its broadcast debut during ABC’s coverage of the Academy Awards, marking the third straight year the brand has debuted a new ad during the program (following the debut of “Your Home” last year). Directed by Kat Coiro, “Home’s Best Friend” focuses on the moment homeowners are greeted by their dogs, and the happiness felt during this moment by both pet and owner. It opens with the excruciating wait dogs face while waiting for the owners, with an original song to match, before the mood (and tune) abruptly shift when the owners arrive at home. The spot refines the celebration of coming home (now with dogs!) in last year’s “Home Sweet Home” and retains the “#HomeRocks” hashtag.

All of the dogs in the ad are real rescue dogs, and Coldwell Banker has partnered with Adopt-a-Pet.com for an initiative called “Homes for Dogs Project,” which seeks “to help adoptable dogs find homes in their communities through a variety of tactics including hosting adoption days by partnering with local shelters in the Adopt-a-Pet.com network.”

“We are so inspired by the desire of Coldwell Banker to launch this amazing program,” said Abbie Moore, executive director of Adopt-a-Pet.com, in a press release. “Coldwell Banker has such a rich legacy of helping people find homes, and they recognize how important pets are in making those homes complete. We share the view that nothing turns a house into a home more quickly than the addition of a loving pet. And with more than 40 million viewers tuning into the Academy Awards, this commercial has the potential to raise tremendous awareness about pet adoption and help us find homes for so many dogs.”

Not to be outdone by David&Goliath’s own brand of lotto creativity, we have this East Coast-centric work from MDB Communications, a DC-based agency that also works with the likes of Nextel and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

In this campaign for the DC lottery, MDB posits on the theory of “what if?” to highlight the dreams of those chasing lottery winnings.

While luck is almost always elusive, the work by MDB Communications summarizes what pretty much any of us would do — whatever the situation — to gather our winnings. According to the agency, the campaign was inspired by “…some aspect of human nature or common usage.”

More from CCO Richard M. Coad:

“One need only look on [T]witter or Facebook to see how many people use the idea of ‘winning the lottery’ as something that would change their lives and give them a reason not to do some of the things they have to do each day.  ‘Be there tomorrow…unless I win the lottery.  Be back after lunch…unless I win the lottery.’”

As you can see from the numerous scenarios, a little luck helps as well.

Client: DC Lottery
Agency: MDB Communications
Chief Creative Officer: Richard M. Coad
Associate Creative Director: Gretchen Carswell
Account Director: Jodie Warren
Director: Stan Schofield
Production Company: Weaselworks, Inc.
Editor: Jesse Reisner-The Now Corporation
Sound Engineer: Brad Starkey-Georgetown Post

160Over90 debuted a new spot for the Atlantic 10 celebrating student athletes, entitled “Any Arena. Any Field.”

Arriving ahead of college sports’ most notable month, the ad shows rapid-fire footage of athletes rising early, training, competing and studying to show the different sides of college athletics, eschewing any voiceover and instead allowing the images to speak for themselves, with the final message of “Any Arena. Any Field.” in the tagline. In addition to the 1:45 online spot above, the campaign also includes three 30-second TV spots which will broadcast nationally. The focus on the balance of athletic and academic life celebrates recent statistics from the NCAA which found that “Atlantic 10 student-athletes graduate at an 89 percent rate — five percentage points higher than the national average.”

“The campaign perfectly ties into the mission of our league, which is about the overall student-athlete experience,” said Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade, in a statement. “We are proud of both our significant athletics accomplishments and the high academic marks that our student-athletes and institutions receive.”

BBH London celebrates KFC’s 50th anniversary in the UK with a new 60-second spot entitled “Families.”

The ad continues the agency’s recent feel-good efforts, such as “The Boy Who Learnt to Share” and “<a href="Fans.” Like those spots, BBH London’s most recent effort positions KFC as a treat that brings families together. “Families” follows an adopted son named Andy through major life events, ending with him all grown up and visiting his family  over a meal from KFC. Directed by Ben Liam Jones, the spot carefully tells its story about family and the passing of time, employing  sentimentality without seeming over-the-top and using the family’s story as the basis for celebrating KFC’s milestone. The tagline, “Celebrating 50 Years of Family,” is designed to avoid making the brand seem self-congratulatory.

Credits:

Creative Agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty
Creative Matt Fitch / Mark Lewis
TV Producer Jodie Sibson / David Lynch (Asst)
Film Production Mustard
Director Ben Liam Jones
Producer Nick Papworth
Photography Tat Radcliffe
Editor Patric Ryan @ Marshall Street Editors
Post Production The Mill
Sound Design Dan Beckwith @ Factory

Fresh off of its regional Super Bowl campaign for new client Jack in the Box, Los Angeles-based agency David&Goliath continues to work its home turf with an effort for the California Lottery.

D&G promotes the California Lottery’s Taxes Paid Scratchers game — which lets lucky winners reap the spoils of their winnings without having to fork over a chunk of change to Uncle Sam — by promising, via tagline, that “It’s All Yours.”

The money, that is.

A series of fairly familiar analogies takes shape in the :30 second spot, which will focus on key Cali markets including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and Fresno. Along with the TV component, D&G’s work for California Lottery will include digital placements on Hulu and others as well as OOH, social, mobile and radio.

Agency:  David&Goliath, LA
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo

Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery

Creative Director: Greg Buri

Creative Director: Basil Cowieson

Senior Art Director: Jenn Tranbarger

Senior Copywriter: Anne Sanguinetti

Copywriter: Kacey Coburn

Strategy Director: Kristen Knape

Account Planner: Jessica Watts

Director of Print Services: Meredith Walsh

Account Director: Stacia Parseghian

Management Supervisor: Janet Wang

Account Executive: Lindsay Brown

Assistant Account Executive: Ellen Lovoy

Project Manager: Erin Cavin

Digital Director: Josh Crick

Director of Digital Delivery and Technology: Robert Boucher

Digital Producer: Michael Karney

Digital Production Coordinator: Keenan Howard

Director of Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese

Broadcast Producer: Jessica Gardner

Production Company:

Director: Errol Morris

Executive Producer:  Robert Fernandez

Producer: Julie Ahlberg

Production Supervisor: Tonya Bertino

Assistant Production Supervisor: Tim Collins

Second Assistant Production Supervisor: Molly Gilula

Editorial House: Spinach

Editor: Heidi Black

Producer: Jonathan Carpio

Online & Color:

Executive Producer: Robert Owens

Special Effects Supervisors: Jason Schugardt

Music:

Head of Production: Jessica Einziger

Senior Composer: Ben Einziger

TBWA/Media Arts Lab worked with musicians Elliphant, Riton and The Gaslamp Killer in its latest spot for Apple’s iPad, which debuted during the Grammy’s yesterday.

The 60-second spot, entitled “Make Music with iPad” highlights the tablet’s music-making capabilities by following the musicians as they write, record, perform, and re-mix a song called “All or Nothing.” According to Billboard, Apple and TBWA chose the musicians involved because they already use the iPad in their creative process. “I’ve been using an iPad in every single performance I’ve done since 2009,” said Will Bensussen, the producer and DJ who goes by The Gaslamp Killer. “You can only have so many big giant keyboards in your house, and it’s an extremely dynamic tool for creating music from scratch as well as spicing up music that I’ve already made.”

Apple’s iPad push comes shortly after a quarterly earnings report which saw a decrease in iPad sales compared to last year. The decision to promote the tablet’s musical capabilities recognizes core strengths of both the brand and the device, and (regardless of how you may feel about them musically) utilizing artists who already employ the iPad lends the ad a feeling of authenticity. And of course there couldn’t be a more appropriate place for the spot to debut than during NBC’s Grammy Award broadcast, even with the hefty price tag (reportedly over $2 million).

In case you missed it, Deutsch LA gets credit for dropping a Grammys first last night: an ad that wasn’t quite an ad at all.

The agency gave followers some context before the event:

Tonight, @Target gives fans #MoreMusic w a live commercial performance during the #GRAMMYs feat. @ImagineDragons. Proud 2 partner w them!

— DeutschInc (@DeutschInc) February 8, 2015

 …and one viewer definitely gets it:

Deutsch does it again. Instead of commercials, how about #MoreMusic ? @Target #GRAMMYs — Jasmine (@yaz_jazz) February 9, 2015

The Deutsch creative team got a bit less credit than usual for this campaign, which the release describes as “a collaboration between Target, Imagine Dragons, director Jonas Akerlund, Deutsch LA, Haworth, Grammy Network CBS, Target’s social-media partner Carrot Creative and PR partner Rogers & Cowan.”

As we now know, the move posed something of a risk for Target, which paid $8 million to buy an entire commercial break for the campaign. Here’s one of Carrot’s teasers:

.@ImagineDragons is taking this stage during a special #GRAMMYs commercial break, tonight. Tune in for #MoreMusic. pic.twitter.com/moVgFTWuKj

— Target (@Target) February 8, 2015

Since the ad simply featured the band playing a song, any judgement of its aesthetic merits will be closely tied to one’s opinion of the band in question. But the campaign did link directly to the client’s retail initiative involving a product that will only be available at Target:

Love what you heard from @ImagineDragons? Preorder now & get #MoreMusic when it drops Feb 17. http://t.co/0VWleyAe1epic.twitter.com/2qFxVh1oBR — Target (@Target) February 9, 2015

The meaning of the #MoreMusic tag was twofold, then: viewers got more music during the Grammys broadcast thanks to Target’s ad spend and consumers will also get more music when they buy the album from Target. Observers, however, couldn’t seem to agree on how to classify this project:

That @Target ad w/ @Imaginedragons is homerun of content marketing. Live? Cajones. Ads that try to add to the content, instead of leaching. — Bill Werde (@bwerde) February 9, 2015

This @Target#GRAMMYs@Imaginedragons#moremusic interstitial is pretty much the TV version of native advertising. interesting.

— Randall Lane (@RandallLane) February 9, 2015

Was it content marketing or native advertising? And does anyone really care?

Kastner & Partners of Los Angeles has long been known primarily for its work with Red Bull. But the agency has many more clients, and it’s looking to expand.

Back in September, we spoke to recently-hired CCO Jamie Reilly — an industry vet who worked in creative at Deutsch LA, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA/MAL and 72andSunny — on the appeal of moving from a large to a mid-sized agency.

This week Reilly spoke to us again about his agency’s new work for a very different client: Adidas golf. Here’s the first :30 TV spot in the campaign:

As Reilly explains it, Adidas increasingly “thinks of itself as an innovation/performance brand across the board.”

This makes for a challenge in the golf field, however. “Most perceive golf to be played on a beautiful day in an exclusive environment,” and the agency/client wanted to “position it as a sport with athletes of the highest caliber. We wanted to show them pursuing excellence against adversarial conditions.”

In discussing how the campaign came about, Reilly says that the agency wanted to avoid promoting the client’s new apparel line in way that simply says, “hey, here’s this” by telling “a bigger story about competition.”

Here’s another :15 spot:

The client “challenged [Kastner & Partners],” who “felt like this was a great way to talk about the product through the lens of competition and innovation.”

The client agreed: “when they saw the pitch idea, they started nodding their heads.”

Why?

Reilly says, “When you look at golf advertising…it’s mostly white people wearing white clothes in the bright sun. To me, this resonates as a competitor to other campaigns” due to its “grittiness.”

This :15 spot conveys Reilly’s point:

The goal is to “appeal to dedicated golfers,” who think: “I’m the guy who’s out there playing in the rain when my friends aren’t up to the task.” Reilly adds, “I can relate to their dedication.”

The campaign, which is already running on TV and online but hasn’t received any press attention to date, is a global effort; these efforts will be “picked up and adapted” for international markets.

The campaign also includes print elements that reinforce the “hot weather, cold weather, rain” theme via art and copy:

Kastner and client hope the work will prove to be “disruptive.”

As Reilly explains, “We shot it all in Florida in two days in the middle of August, so all the other components were put together with magic and pixie dust. It’s ambitious.”

adidas Golf – 18/365 PRODUCTION CREDITS

18/365 TV CREDITS:

KASTNER & PARTNERS:

Chief Creative Officer: Jamie Reilly

Creative Director: Tim Braybrooks

Associate Creative Director: Matt Bogan

Associate Creative Director: Richard Bess

Producer: Hank Zakroff

UBER CONTENT:

Director: Cole Webley

DP: Travis Cline

Line Producer: Christopher Cho

Executive Producer: Phyllis Koenig

Executive Producer: Preston Lee

MISSION:

Lead Flame Artist: Joey Brattesani

Creative Director: Rob Trent

Flame Artist: Chris Moore

Flame Artist: Trent Shumway

Flame Artist: Edward Black

Flame Artist: Michael Vaglienty

VFX Producer: Ryan Meredith

VFX Coordinator: Kristina Thoegersen

Managing Director: Michael Pardee

18/365 PRINT CREDITS:

KASTNER & PARTNERS:

Chief Creative Officer: Jamie Reilly

Creative Director: Tim Braybrooks

Associate Creative Director: Matt Bogan

Associate Creative Director: Richard Bess

Copywriter: Chris Guichard

Producer: Jill Lundin

BRAD HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHY:

Photographer: Brad Harris

Producer: John Cogan

Fresh off of his series of Turkish Airlines spots, soccer superstar Lionel Messi moonlights with another air carrier — namely Qatar Airways, the state-owned carrier for Qatar, the nation set to (controversially) host the 2022 World Cup.

In the meantime, we’re privy to the globe-trotting, Qatar-based adventures of Messi along with Neymar, Pique and Suarez, his teammates from FC Barcelona. These lads’ skills play a central role in the action no matter where they travel — be it a Paris cafe, a Texas desert, or a tropical beach.

The :60 ad dubbed “FCB Holiday” comes to us from 180 Amsterdam, which recently landed Barton F. Graf 9000 creative duo Dan Treichel and Dave Canning–aka “the most awarded US creative team in 2014? according to the initial release–just last month.

While the creative pair were not involved with this spot, 180 Amsterdam does still manage to highlight the impressive talent at hand — though it’s hard to compete with Messi squaring off against Drogba and Kobe.

Agency: 180 Amsterdam

Client: Qatar Airways

President & Chief Creative Officer Al Moseley

Creative Director Martin Terhart

Creative Director Martin Beswick

Art Director Ed Ryder

Copy Writer Luke Stone

Producer Susan Cook

MD/Account Director Stephen Corlett

Account Manager Jim O’Regan

Planner Ben Armistead

Project Manager Jo Borton/Eleanor Fitzgerald

Business Affairs Director Sarah Gough

PRODUCTION CO. Stink

Director Agustin Alberdi

DOP Dan Bronks

Producer Annie Hart

Executive Producer Blake Powell

LOCAL PRODUCTION CO. Twenty-Four Seven

Editorial/OFF-LINE EDIT The Circus London

Editor Alex Hagon

Assistant Editor Adam Buckmaster

ONLINE MPC AMSTERDAM

VFX Supervisor Jonathan Box

Colorist George K

Producer Gwenn Hardouin

MUSIC I Get Around – Beach Boys

Composer Brian Wilson/Mike Love

SOUND DESIGN Wave Amsterdam and Adelphoi

Final Mix Alex Nichols

Trojan released a 50 Shades of Grey parody ad entitled “50 Shades of Pleasure” in anticipation of the upcoming film adaptation of the trashy novel.

In the online spot, apparently produced in-house, a couple describes their sexual misadventures while in couples therapy. Since the guy never actually read the book, he “wings it,” but that’s really the beginning of the couples’ troubles, which include self-injury at the hands of a whip, a very poorly chosen safe word, and the man equating “dark and mysterious” with ninja. It’s essentially variations on the same joke stretched out over two minutes or so, with a very abrupt force resolution tacked on which positions the brand as a “comfortable” alternative to poor decisions. The spot ends with the tagline, “Get out of the grey area, into 50 shades of real pleasure.”  It all boils down to a very obvious attempt to get in on the hoopla surrounding the film’s release, and, unsurprisingly, a 15-second teaser of the ad will run in cinemas.