Hasta La Creative!

San Francisco agency Heat is adding an office in New York, its first expansion since being acquired by Deloitte Digital in late February.

For now the New York outpost, which launches in June, will be run out of the agency’s San Francisco headquarters; a permanent location for the New York office will be announced later this year. To lead the new office, the agency is bringing on industry veteran Tim Maleeny as general manager and chief strategy officer and tasking him with injecting the agency’s culture into the Manhattan ad world.

Maleeny joins the agency from Havas New York, where he has served as managing partner and CSO for the past three years. Prior to joining Havas, he spent over three and a half years at Ogilvy & Mather as head of strategic planning. Before that he spent eight years as director of strategy for Puclicis & Hal Riney, following four as senior vice president, group account director with Hal Riney & Partners, during which time he worked with Heat’s principals, John Elder, Steve Stone and Mike Barrett.

“We have to bring our culture to New York as best we can but use a truly New York City-centric approach,” Barrett, who serves as Heat’s managing director, told Adweek. “I think the difference is the San Francisco ad environment feels like a more collaborative partnership which I think New York clients will like.”

“With West Coast agencies, it’s about creative first and it’s very idea driven. New York is more process oriented,” added Maleeny. 

“You could argue the last thing this industry needs is another new ad agency,” he said. “What it is yearning for is a new kind of agency.”

“As we go into New York, it’s not just Heat—it’s Heat plus Deloitte Digital,” added Elder,who serves as president of Heat.

Heat recently launched a 30-second online spot for EA Sport’s Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 15 entitled “Shots” which celebrates the game allowing players to take more shots than ever before thanks to enhanced gameplay and no load times between holes.

Set to the LMFAO track “Shots” featuring Lil’ Jon, the spot shows gamers taking shots on a variety of courses both true to life and fantastical. While not explicitly addressing the game changes, the ad makes it clear that the franchise is making an attempt to appeal to more casual golf fans. Voiceover near the end of the spots tells viewers, “Play any way you want,” followed by the text “Golf without limits.” Of course, that song selection in itself, beyond being a pun somebody working on the spot couldn’t resist, also attests to the fact that Heat are targeting a broader audience for EA Sports, attempting to appeal to gamers who normally wouldn’t pick up a golf simulation. Of course by doing so, they risk alienating longtime fans, something they attempt to address by opening with more traditional shots before showing the wilder side of the game. The game is slated for a July 14 release, a handful of days before the beginning of the U.S. Open, which Rory McIlroy will miss this year with an ankle injury.

Credits:

Chairman/Executive Creative Director:  Steve Stone
Creative Directors: Anna Rowland & Warren Cockrel
Art Director: Jenna Moeller
Copywriter: Will Knox
Executive Content Producer: Brian Coate
Business Affairs: Julie Petruzzo
Content Producer: Kami Shallenberger
Account Director: JT Pierce
Account Manger: Kevin John
Assistant Account Manger: Molly Reynolds
Editorial Company: Freelance
Editor: Nikki Winig
Assistant Editor: Dustin Leary
Conform/Color/Finish: Beast, San Francisco
Producer:  Tracy Coleman
Colorist: Dave Burghardt
Audio Facility: One Union Recording, San Francisco
Engineer: Joaby Deal
Producer: Lauren Mask
Music Track: “Shots”
Artist: LMFAO featuring Lil John

Heat and their production partner Hungry Man have released a new spot for Xbox One crown jewel exclusive and E3 critical darling Titanfall, which just had its North American release yesterday.

The new, 60 second spot (there’s also a 30 second version), entitled “Shadow,” imagines what it would be like to constantly be shadowed by a 25-foot Titan that obeys your every command. Following in the recent trend of inserting gamers into the real world, the spot attempts “to capture the ear-to-ear grinning invincibility you feel when you first climb into your very own Titan and start dominating the world.” “Shadow” follows a man with a shit-eating grin walking through a city trailed by his own personal Titan. Everything is just peachy until he runs into another Titan owner, at which time, as you might expect, shit goes down.

The spot manages to capture the overall “Life is Better with a Titan” theme of the campaign, while also demonstrating Titanfall‘s unique features, like verticality. What really makes the spot work, though, is the perfect transition to gameplay footage during the final 15 seconds. While there’s nothing revolutionary about Heat’s approach here, they find a balance between live action and gameplay footage that a lot of similarly minded ads miss. And they certainly succeed at making the game look like a lot of fun. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Tiger Woods is a golf nerd, right? Right. But in fantasy video-game land, he destroys you and all your hoodlum friends, fake kung-fu style, because you're trying to steal his trophies. His charming geezer of a sidekick, Arnold Palmer, meanwhile, manages to seem much more badass, rocking his tournament hardware inside his blazer like he's fencing gold watches. Because while Woods is busy being all "intense," ice-cold Palmer clearly just couldn't, you know, care less. For EA Sports's new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14. Agency: Heat.