Hasta La Creative!

Last August, W+K New York launched the second year of its “Who’s In?” campaign for ESPN College Football with the vaguely sinister 60-second spot “The Message.”

This year the agency took the campaign into its third year with an effort that tunes down the menace a little bit while still communicating the intensity of college football rivalries with a new spot which made its broadcast debut during the network’s Labor Day Weekend coverage of NCAA football. “Crossraods” sees a variety of teams, represented by mascots all happening to pass through the same roadside gas station en route to each team’s particular path to the College Football Playoffs. “Let me tell you something,” says the gas station attendant to a Tiger mascot, “there isn’t one road to the playoffs, there are many, one for each team. There are leprechauns and gremlins, underdogs and regular dogs.” Only four of these teams, however, will “get in.”

The gas station “crossroads” will serve as the hub of campaign throughout the NCAA Football season, which will run through the end of the College Football Playoffs in January. It will include several more spots, as well as supporting digital, print and social elements. 

Every sane person wishes to go through life with a personalized soundtrack playing out loud—or at least entrance music to punctuate his or her arrival.

The latest addition to ESPN’S long-running “This is SportsCenter” campaign from Wieden + Kennedy New York plays on that theme with “Walk-Up,” a new ad starring Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig—who actually does get his own intro music, at least on the field (though, it’s not the same as what’s played here).

In any case, sportscaster Kenny Mayne explains the phenomenon and its function as a reflection of identity. But the real payoff comes when his colleague, anchor Stan Verrett, rolls up to a tune that’s the perfect self-deprecating choice—especially sure to resonate with any child of the 1990s.

The song, for anyone who doesn’t immediately recognize it, is Hanson’s teen-pop smash “MMMbop.” 

CREDITS

Client: ESPN
Project Name: THIS IS SPORTSCENTER
Spot: Walk Up Music :30
Format: TV
Client Contact: Jeff Gonyo
Launch Date: 8/3/15

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York
Executive Creative Directors: Jaime Robinson, David Kolbusz
Creative Directors: Brandon Henderson, Caleb Jensen
Art Director: NJ Placentra
Sr. Copywriter: Alex Ledford
Producer: Kristen Johnson
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Executive Producer: Temma Shoaf
Account Team: Mike Welch, Alex Scaros, Liz Lindberg

Production Company: O Positive
Director: David Shane
Executive Producer: Marc Grill
Director of Photography: Dave Morabito

Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Nick Divers
Post Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld

VFX Company: Schmigital
Lead Flame Artist/Creative Director: Jim Hayhow
Assist: Joseph Miller

Mix Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer: Sam Shaffer

You didn’t know this, but cheesy commercial actors all know each other, they compete in ESPN fantasy football leagues together, and they all battle to be commissioner—even daydreaming about it while they’re supposed to be working.

That’s the premise of this goofy, meta campaign from Wieden + Kennedy New York, featuring a fake allergy medicine commercial actor, a fake restaurant commercial actor and a fake shampoo commercial actor—idiots, all—who are engaged in a silent war to become commish, lest the others bring their questionable talents to the job.

Critics will complain that these are just ads for ad people. But really, isn’t everyone an ad person these days—particularly ESPN’s young male target?

CREDITS
Client: ESPN

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Jaime Robinson, David Kolbusz
Creative Directors: Brandon Henderson, Caleb Jensen
Art Director: Toliver Roebuck
Copywriter: Howard Finkelstein
Producer: Kristen Johnson
Executive Producer: Temma Shoaf
Account Team: Mike Welch, Alex Scaros, Liz Lindberg
Business Affairs Team: Sara Jagielski, Karen Crossley, Breck Henson, Sonia Bisono

Production Company: Arts and Sciences
Director: Matt Aselton
Executive Producers: Marc Marrie, Mal Ward
Line Producer: Zoe Odlum
Director of Photography: Benn Martenson

Editorial Company: Cosmo Street
Editor: Tiffany Buchard (TV), Zoe Mougin (Web)
Assistant Editor: Chrissy Doughty
Post Producer: Valerie Sachs
Post Executive Producer: Maura Woodward

VFX Company: SwitchFX
Online Editor: Jon Magel
Online Producers: Diana Dayrit, Cara Flynn

Mix Company: Sound Lounge
Mixer: Glen Landrum, Tom Jucarone

Color Company: Company 3 NY
Colorist: Tim Massick

Animation Company: Joint New York
Animator: Yui Uchida

Music Company: APM

Katy Perry may have headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show, but the costumed sharks acting as her backup dancers completely stole the show, (and our hearts in the process). In its latest “This Is SportsCenter” spot for ESPN, entitled “Sharks,” W+K New York unmasks the halftime heroes.

In the spot, Left Shark and Right Shark pull into the ESPN parking lot in Bristol, Connecticut after a long drive. After stepping into the ESPN office, the sharks finally remove their costumes and reveal their true identities before assessing their performance and getting back to work as usual. Capitalizing on the popularity of the Super Bowl’s breakout personalities (and using the real costumes, designed by Katy Perry, Baz Halpin and Marina Toybina) the spot is a fun reminder of the Super Bowl’s breakout personalities.

Do you enjoy looking at adorable animals and singing along to “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the Andrew Gold song whose cover by Cynthia Fee rightfully belongs to Blanche, Rose, Sophia and Dorothy from The Golden Girls?

Then ESPN’s new spot by McKinney is for you.

Well, you and the mascots for Mississippi State (“Bully”), Arkansas (“Tusk”), Texas A&M (“Reveille”), Auburn (“War Eagle”), Louisiana State (“Mike”), Georgia (“Uga”), South Carolina (“Sir Big Spur”) and Tennessee (“Smokey”).

The ad, “Animals,” features the mascots for the Southeastern Conference schools to help launch the SEC Network, a new national sports network from ESPN that debuts Aug. 14.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: ESPN
Spot: “Animals”
Agency: McKinney
Chief Creative Officer: Jonathan Cude
Associate Creative Director: Matt Trego
Art Director: Jordan Eakin
Copywriters: Roger Fish, David Sloan
Agency Producer: Naomi Newman
Director: Michael Lawrence

You may have heard there’s a little soccer game being played today. In honor of that game—USA versus Belgium, for those who have somehow avoided World Cup news (to which I ask, how?)—ESPN on Tuesday unleashed the new “I Believe” spot below.

If you need pumping up before the 4 p.m. kickoff—and shouting “USA! USA! USA!” in the mirror somehow isn’t enough—then checking it out. It has everything: slow-motion shots of players, close-ups of spit and snot and blood, enraged faces, the glory of vistory and the fear of defeat, all to the tune of an epic soundtrack.

To top it off, the in-house team at ESPN ended the spot by bringing back the “I Believe” chant. “The chant has caught fire in bars, fan clubs, public viewing events and social media and has become the unifying narrative for this U.S. World Cup journey,” said Seth Ader, senior director of sports marketing for ESPN.

Oh, and now that you’re pumped up and practically ready to explode, let’s put things in perspective: FiveThirtyEight says the USA has a 0.6 percent chance of winning the World Cup. Underdogs!

We’re only 16 days away from the start of the World Cup. And ESPN—which will present all 64 matches of the quadrennial tournament across the ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC networks—released its latest teaser commercial on Tuesday, this one devoted to the time warp that happens for viewers around the world every four years.

The spot, by Wieden + Kennedy in New York, feels like the beginning of an action movie, where the team is getting together before a big heist—except here, we’re seeing how different people around the world are getting ready for the World Cup. And wherever they are in the world, day or night, they’ll be setting their countdown clocks to Brazil time.

The spot moves seamlessly from metropolis to metropolis, with business executives, children, fisherman, etc., getting ready for the event. It opens on a favela rooftop in Rio and goes around the world—to a pub in England, a social club in Ghana, a fishing boat off Spain, an apartment in Russia, a car heading to Tehran, a bar about open at dawn in Japan, an office in Seattle, a family barbecue in Mexico and a research station in the Andes—before returning to Brazil.

“Every 4 years the world has one time zone,” says the end line. (That follows a spot earlier this month that said, “Every 4 years the conversation starts again.”)

Thanks to our longitudinal proximity to Brazil, Americans will see the matches at exceedingly humane hours, with kickoffs generally scheduled for noon, 3 p.m. or 6 p.m. ET. That’s a lot better than other recent World Cups—in particular, the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea, whose daily slate of matches began at 2:30 a.m. and wrapped up shortly after breakfast.

CREDITS
Client: ESPN

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Creative Directors: Brandon Henderson, Stuart Jennings, Gary Van Dzura, Caleb Jensen
Art Director: Mathieu Zarbatany
Copywriter: Andrew Jasperson
Producer: Luiza Naritomi
Executive Producer: Temma Shoaf
Account Team: Casey Bernard, Katie Hoak, Alex Scaros

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer: Doug Halbert
Line Producer: Terry Shafirov
Director of Photography: Corey Walter

Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor: Jeff Buchanan
Assistant Editor: Geoff Hastings
Post Producer: Beth Fitzpatrick

VFX Company: MPC
Senior Producer: Matthew Loranger
Production Asst.:
Lead Flame Artist/Creative Director: Gigi Ng

Mix Company: Heard City
Mixer: Philip Loeb
Producer: Sasha Awn

Music Company: Travis + Maude
Creative director: David Wittman
Producer: Kala Sherman

The hiring of Jamie Horowitz reflects the intense competition in the morning between NBC and ESPN’s sister network, ABC.

If World Cup fever is getting to you, well, you're not alone.

This new 30-second spot from Wieden + Kennedy in New York, shot mostly in New York, shows American soccer fans talking obsessively about their team—and not just the American team, but their national teams of their ancestral homelands. The tagline is: "Every 4 years the conversation starts again."

The ad uses real U.S.-based soccer fans, including a German butcher, an Italian barber and a cabbie from the Ivory Coast. These guys are passionate.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the pessimistic Englishman, who feels like a punch line (of course this guy's a downer) as he mentions penalty kicks toward the end of the spot.

ESPN has also unveiled the first posters from what will be a series of 32—one for each team—designed by Brazilian artist and graphic designer Cristiano Siqueira. Check those out below, too, and get excited for the tournament, which runs from June 12 to July 13.

Ian Darke, a Briton who grabbed American fans by calling their team’s victory over Algeria at the last World Cup, will be calling big games in this year’s round. ESPN is trying to raise his profile.