Hasta La Creative!

W+K Amsterdam launches a new campaign for FIFA 15 today, entitled “Feel The Game.”

In a 2:15 broadcast spot, W+K Amsterdam immerses fans into the on-pitch action as they experience what players in the game do. When it begins to rain, players are suddenly drenched in their apartments, when heavily tackled, they feel the hurt. It’s not exactly a new approach in gaming advertising, but it’s pulled off well. The agency also got Lionel Messi to join in on the action, both on the field and wielding a controller. The campaign airs globally beginning today, across broadcast and digital channels, with the full-length spot also broadcasting in the U.S. during the Manchester United match this Sunday.

“Fast-paced, raw, and explosive, modern football is a spectacle beyond belief. And FIFA 15 puts you right in the  middle of it. We wanted our film to do the same thing, to put you right in the thick of the
action, said David Smith, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam’s creative director. “With the help of Mark Zibert, and the awesome studio at EA SPORTS, we believe we have created a football film that can live up to the best sport action sequences ever filmed.” (more…)

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W+K New York has a new campaign for ESPN, promoting the network’s coverage of college football and stoking fans’ excitement for the first year of the college football playoffs.

The campaign, entitled “Who’s In?” will run from the start of the season until a National Champion is crowned in January. “Different Ways In” (featured above), the campaign’s debut spot, launches today across ESPN’s networks and digital properties. Narrated by Burt Reynolds, the 60-second spot manages to cram in references to 20 different schools, as well as cameos from Jerry Jones, Jimmy Kimmel, Urban Meyer, Les Miles, Sam Bradford and JJ Watt. That’s not a bad way to stoke excitement from fans of different schools for the FBS College Football Season on ESPN, which begins Wednesday, August 27. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Wieden + Kennedy New York’s latest World Cup spot is a welcome departure from their previous World Cup work, foregoing focusing directly on the on-field action in lieu of the conversations and connections among fans sparked by the World Cup, leading into the “Every Four Years” tagline.

The new 30-second spot, called “Global Issues,” follows a linear conversation between soccer fans from diverse backgrounds. “Global Issues” stars real soccer enthusiasts — including a German butcher, an Italian barber, and a cab driver from the Ivory Coast, who support a vast array of teams, but all reside in the U.S. It’s a clever direction, executed well thanks largely to the precision editing, from editorial company Final Cut, necessary to pull off such an approach, and illustrates the excitement leading up to the World Cup well.

Wieden + Kennedy New York also debuted eight of its 32 original World Cup posters for ESPN, designed by Brazilian artist and graphic designer Cristiano Siqueira. Each features a likeness of key players and stories from the featured country competing in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Stick around after the jump for a look at several of these posters, as well as campaign credits. continued…

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On the field, Calvin Johnson earns his “Megatron” nickname by dominating defenses with a robotic efficiency. He’s bigger, faster, stronger, and at times, it looks like a Transformer is playing against humans. However, off the field, and more specifically, in the ESPN offices, Johnson uses his transforming powers to trick a different kind of opponent (for anyone who cares and watches too much ESPN, it’s Kevin Negandhi).

The latest “This is Sportscenter” ad is par for the course: short, funny, and off-beat. The work comes once again from W+K New York (which has been handling SportsCenter work for nearly two decades), an agency that has no problem taking sports material and making it accessible to audiences. And for Megatron, he may want to think about outsourcing his Transformer duties over to Diddy, or Johnson, or whatever Nike wants to call him.

Credits after the jump.

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