Hasta La Creative!

Chobani appointed Leland Maschmeyer as its first chief creative officer, following the announcement last May that the brand was moving away from the AOR model to pursue “more in-house and project-based agency partners” following its parting ways with former AOR Droga5 that March. Maschmeyer will oversee all creative work for Chobani, as the brand seeks to find a balance between in-house work and working with agencies on a project basis, reporting to Chobani chief marketing and brand officer Peter McGuinness.

“He’s a very sound strategic thinker, which I like,” McGuiness told Adweek. “He’s an amazing creative person and creative thinker. He’s got great design instincts. These are all qualities and traits that we love at Chobani and hold in high regard.”

Maschmeyer describes himself on his website as “the chief creative officer and founding partner of Collins,” writing, “Through a systems thinking lens, he redesigns brands and their customer experiences.”

He co-founded the brand consultancy, whose clients include Coca-Cola, Facebook, Spotify, Instagram and Target, at the beginning of 2008, originally serving as creative director. He was elevated to executive creative director in September of 2011 and CCO this past December. Prior to Collins, he spent nearly three and a half years as a senior strategist with McKinney, working with clients including Travelocity, Virgin Atlantic, NASDAQ and Qwest. He also teaches MFA-level design classes at New York’s School of Visual Arts and spent the past two years serving on the board of directors for professional design association AIGA. 

“Chobani stands in a rare class of companies that has the ambition to impact culture, the craftsmanship to produce admired products, the proven ability to fearlessly innovate, and the foresight to put design at the heart of all it does,” Maschmeyer said in a statement. “That’s why it’s iconic and beloved by millions. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help a company of this stature transform into a leading natural food company.”

Maschmeyer’s appointment follows Sprint, which also decided to take more of its advertising in-house last year, tasking PR veteran Christopher Ian Bennett with leading its in-house agency, Yellow Fan Studios, as executive creative director in May.

Last month, Chobani became one of a series of clients to announce that it would be moving away from the AOR model in favor of “more in-house and project-based agency partners.” The most recent was Best Buy this week.

Today, via Stuart Elliott’s replacement Sydney Ember, the company publicized its first campaign after the breakup with Droga5 in The New York Times.

CMO Peter McGuinness explains his company’s strategy:

“We’re going to have one foot squarely in the Greek yogurt space…and we’re going to have one foot leaning into a more aspirational lifestyle space.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The first ad “Love This Life” is heavy on the indie-folk and light on anything remotely related to yogurt:

The second, “Kids,” hits a bit closer to home with the “brothers being dicks” theme while relaying a bit of the story behind the client’s product:

The most interesting part of the interview concerns the 2014 lawsuit filed over the use of the word “how” in the company’s ads:

Mr. McGuinness said the decision to introduce a new campaign had “nothing to do with the pending litigation.” He added that the company was no longer working with Droga5.

McGuiness never gets around to explaining who actually made the new campaign, though. (It was Opperman Weiss.)

CREDITS
Client: Chobani
Chief Marketing and Brand Officer: Pater McGuiness

Agency: Opperman Weiss
Art Director: Jeff Weiss
Copywriter: Paul Opperman
Executive Producer: Mark Johnston
Managing Director: Julian Shiff

Production company: RSA Films
Director: Laurence Dunmore
Executive Producer: Marjie Abrahams
President: Jules Daly
Line Producer: Michele Abbott
DOP: Brendan Galvin

Editorial: Bug Editorial
Editor: Andre Betz
Executive Producer: Caitlin Grady

Music: Duotone
Executive Producer: David Leinheardt
Creative Director: Jack Livesey
Producer: Giovanni Lobato
Musical Talent: Eef Barzelay
Songwriter: Paul Opperman

Telecine: The Mill
Head of Production: Sean Costelloe
Colorist: Fergus McCall
Color Producer: Natalie Westerfield

Audio Post: Heard City
Executive Producer: Gloria Pitagorsky
Mixer: Cory Melious

VFX: Blacksmith
Executive Producer: Charlotte Arnold
2D Lead: Daniel Morris
2D Artist: Iwan Zwarts

Marketers are officially obsessed with trying to frighten the world-weary populace of New York City. Following the recent devil baby and zombie stunts, here's footage of the Chobani bear—an animatronic version of the real bear in the Super Bowl commercial—ambushing people in Manhattan, knocking over a hot dog stand and generally hamming it up. These videos are pretty funny, but I'd like to see New Yorkers fight instead of just whipping out their phones to take a picture.