Hasta La Creative!

TBWAChiatDay launched a new spot for Gatorade, entitled “The Formula to Unleash,” featuring a slew of soccer greats.

The spot imagines different clubs as driven in different ways related to the team be it cannons, the power of sound, gears or hyper-vigilant zebras. All of them have one thing in common, though: they’re fueled by Gatorade. “The Formula to Unleash” intercuts footage of its stars — including Javier Manquillo, Lazar Markovic, Phillipp Coutinho and Lionel Messi with over-the-top CGI, set to the rave-up of Zedd’s “Addicted to a Memory.” Between the EDM music choice and the animation, the spot tries far too hard to be edgy, making it come across as a bit cheesy in the process and the product integration seems like a bit of a stretch, if not a tad nonsensical. While some fans will undoubtedly still be pleased to see their favorites, it’s hard to imagine this convincing anyone to pick up a Gatorade. It’s especially disappointing coming off of the agency’s great “Like Mike” spots celebrating the brand’s 50th anniversary.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles, USA
Executive Creative Director: Brent Anderson
Creative Director: Renato Fernandez
Global Creative Director: Jayanta Jenkins
Creative Director: Mark Peters
Associate Creative Director: Javier Castillo
Executive Producer: Sarah Patterson
Senior Producer: Lacy Plunk
Art Producer: Karishma Singh
Managing Director: Peter Ravailhe
Global Brand Director: Romain Naegelen
Director Branded Content: Marc Johns
Global Brand Manager: Ryan Moore
Global Associate Brand Manager: Kayla McLaughlin
Group Planning Director: Scott MacMaster
Global Planning Director: Martin Ramos
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Laura Drabkin
Talent Payment Manager: Mirielle Smith
Senior Traffic Operations Manager: Judy Brill
Executive Project Manager: Karen Thomas
Project Manager: Mark Diaz
Executive Producer: Adina Sales / Blacklist
Producer: Alex Unick, Hilary Downes
Creative director: Ingi Erlingsson / Golden Wolf
Producers: Ant Baena, Nathalie Le Berre, Anthony Taylor
Production Assistants: Corina Priestley, Emma Copeland, India Bradshaw
Storyboards / Layouts: Pedro Vergani, Jonathan Djob Nkondo
Design: Stefan Falconer, Pedro Vergani, Alex Fernandez, Marie Ecarlat, Wojtek Szklarski, Romain Loubersanes, Tristan Mernard
Animation: Henry Purrington, Thomas Purrington, Stefan Falconer, Tim Whiting, Sam Bell, Sabrina Lecordier, Simon Wottage, Phinn O’ Conner, Anselm von Seherr-Thoss, Rachel Chu, Dan Lane, Dennis Bouyer, Jeremi Boutelet, Sebastien De Oliveira Bispo
Compositing: Alex Fernandez, Max Englehart, Steffano Ottaviano, Mat Landour
Visual Effects: Absolute Post London
Producers: Ian Harland, Dan Bennet
Lead Compositor: Zdravko Stoitchkov
Compositors: Owen Saward, Chris Tobin
CG Lead: Jasper Kidd
CG Artists: Matt Burn, Jesse Baber
Colour Grading: Matt Turner
Editing By Circus Edit London
Producer: Zoe Hockings
Editor: Jono Griffith
Editing Assistant: Adam Buckmaster
Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd
Sports Choreography and Casting: Sports On Screen
Lead Choreographer: Andy Ansah
Project Manager: Tyler Blake
Choreographer: Darren White
Choreographer Assistant: Bohdan Pylypchuk
Music: Zedd
Music Licensing: MEGA, Inc.
Sound Design: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Executive Producer: Kelly Bayett
Sound Mix: Lime Studios
Mixer: Loren Sibler
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan
Production: Howler Magazine
Producer: George Quraishi
Animation: Vranizan Design
Animator: Nick Vranizan
Producer: Mallory Cash
Music Production: Comma Music
Music Producer: Lauren Pecorella
Sound Design: Nate Gowtham

With rival Under Armour going all-in on its “Book of Will” campaign, Adidas is throwing its weight behind a new campaign of its own, courtesy of 180LA.

Entitled “Sport15,” the campaign launches with a 60-second spot called “Take It,” celebrating the mental toughness exhibited by professional athletes of all stripes. “The last goal doesn’t matter,” begins the voiceover, “The last victory, already forgotten.” Going on to feature footage from many star athletes, including DeMarco Murray, Derrick Rose, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez (who really hopes a certain bite is forgotten) the ad elaborates on this philosophy, making it the backbone of the new campaign. The spot will make its debut tomorrow during coverage of NBA All-Star Weekend in New York.

“As a brand that has a legacy with sports more than anybody historically, and across all sports, it’s something that we see. It’s something we wanted to start communicating to our audience,” Simon Atkins, vice president of brand activation at Adidas, explained in Adweek, adding that the best athletes have the “ability to use all of their experiences—good, bad or indifferent—to empower them for the future.”

According to Atkins, “Book of Will” will be the brand’s largest-ever ad spend in the U.S. and its biggest brand campaign since “All In or Nothing” in 2011. It seems that with something of an ad war with rival Under Armour underway, the brand is taking its strategy from the title of that campaign, attempting to go all out to regain ground lost to Under Armour (who overtook Adidas as runner-up to Nike in the athletic apparel market).

“What you’re seeing is Adidas rewriting our playbook about how we want to express our brand, week in, week out,” Atkins said.

After winning the Turkish Airlines business last September, CP+B’s “Selfie Shootout” spot for the brand, starring Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant, went viral, eventually reaching over 138 million views to become the most watched ad of the year on YouTube. CP+B brought back Messi again this year for the follow-up effort, this time pairing him with fellow soccer star Didier Drogba for the third and final spot in a series that began with the 2012 “Legends on Board” spot from Turkish agency Alametifarika, also starring Messi and Bryant.

In the new spot, called “Epic Food,” Drogba travels to different locations around the world for exotic meals (showcasing all the places Turkish Airlines flies to). At each restaurant he visits, however, he finds a photo of Messi, who has already been there. This only strengthens his resolve to find a place Messi has yet to visit, upping the ante with places farther and farther off the beaten path. If you enjoyed the previous spots in the series, chances are you’ll like this one as well. If not, “Epic Food” doesn’t change the formula up enough to change your mind. The spot will be hard pressed to outdo last year’s “Selfie Shootout,” this time without Bryant along for the ride, but should go viral even if it doesn’t reach quite the same level of success.

The 60-second spot is supported by an initiative calling on viewers to upload their own epic travel photos through EpicFoodMap.com with a competition offering a chance to win a trip to the locations featured in the commercial. Drogba and Messia will be kicking it off themselves, on November 18th, with their favorite foods. (more…)

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Continuing a rather ambitious storyline that kicked off late last year, Samsung, with the aid of Cheil Worldwide and Psyop, has unveiled the next installment of its soccer stars vs. aliens saga to promote the Galaxy. While not technically a World Cup tie-in, “The Training” (nearly 42 million views and counting–yeah, we know it’s been out for a bit) features two of the event’s biggest (and best) participants, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who have also been making the rounds in spots for Nike and Adidas, respectively, that are officially attached to the event. In this campaign, though, real-life Ken doll Ronaldo and his archrival Messi, along with other notable footballers like Wayne Rooney,  join forces and evolve from mere athletes to sci-fi superheroes in order to combat an alien invasion…with their Galaxy S5s in tow, of course.

Psyop director Laurent Ledru, who shot this four-minute short in two months across cities including London, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Prague and Manchester, explains the process of working with the stars.  “Because of the athlete’s varying schedules we had to shoot each player separately. It was very important that each performance felt authentic to that athlete yet interacted seamlessly with the others.” Ledru, who met the players in the varying aforementioned locales, where they would execute the acrobatic stunts and moves for the real shot, adds, “Each player was given instructions and guidance but we needed to capture them acting as naturally as possible in front of the green screen despite the CG elements that were to come later.”

Like the previous clips that have encompassed this campaign, the Samsung Galaxy branding is kept to a minimum, save for the occasional highlighting of a feature (heat sensor! fast auto focus!). It’s the stars, story and special effects that take center stage here, and now, with training said and done, we’ve only the big final showdown to look forward to. Consider us involved. Game on.

Credits after the jump.

continued…

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TBWAChiatDay have launched the “All In Or Nothing” World Cup campaign for Adidas — the biggest in the company’s history, according to The Guardian — with a spot starring superstar Lionel Messi and featuring a previously unreleased track from ubiquitous narcissist (and latest Kim Kardashian husband) Kanye West called “God Level.”

The 60-second spot, entitled “The Dream,” takes a look inside the dreams of the Argentinian forward. In a rapid-pace montage, we see in-game footage of Messi (among other stars) interspersed with practice/workout scenes and some more surreal elements (such as German star Bastian Schweinsteiger practicing in a very Game of Thrones-esque frozen forest). Director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) builds towards a mood of anxious anticipation, undoubtedly echoing the feelings of Messi and other World Cup athletes who know that nothing less than perfection will give their team a chance at the Cup. At its conclusion, the spot asks viewers to choose between “all in” or “nothing” with corresponding landing sites.

“Giving anything less than everything will not win the World Cup,”global brand marketing director for Adidas football Tom Ramsden told The Guardian. “We are incredibly proud of this film and the entire ‘all in or nothing’ campaign.”

The Adidas campaign comes considerably later than rival Nike’s World Cup campaign from W+K, which we covered last month. The brand announced a tie-in with rapper Kanye West back in December, but kept the details of the collaboration a secret until the campaign’s launch.

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It’s time to start getting excited about the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. With the opening game about six months away, ESPN is set to debut their first spot in their campaign promoting the event during tomorrow’s telecast of the 2014 Rose Bowl.

Set to “Festival” by Icelandic maestros, Sigur Rós, the spot is, somewhat predictably, a mixture of footage of Brazil and historical World Cup moments. But then, what more could you want to begin stoking anticipation for the world’s biggest sporting event? The spot ends with the crop of current superstars who seek to win thier place in the ranks of World Cup history this summer: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mario Balotelli, Robin van Persie, and Neymar.

For those of you super World Cup buffs, here’s a partial list of the historical moments featured in the spot:

• Pele and his triumphant celebration in 1970

• Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and Dutch captain Johan Cruyff exchanging flags moments before the 1974 Final

• Diego Maradona and his brilliant performance for Argentina in 1986

• Zinedine Zidane, whose epic performance for France led the host country to win the Cup in 1998

• Andres Iniesta, whose beautiful strike sealed Spain’s first World Cup title in 2010

• Cameroonian striker Roger Milla’s famous dance in 1990

• Dutch legend Johan Cruyff’s immortal turn in 1974

• England striker Geoff Hurst’s record-setting three-goal performance in a World Cup title match in 1966

• Dutch striker Dennis Bergkamp’s memorable touch against Argentina in 1998

• Carlos Alberto’s wonder-strike for Brazil in 1970

• Paolo Rossi hoisting the cup for Italy in 1982

ESPN’s full World Cup campaign will roll out gradually over the next couple of months. Stick around for the extended, 90 second online version of the ad, along with credits, after the jump. continued…

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Last year, Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant faced off in an ad for Turkish Airlines, competing for a young fan’s attention. The ad, “Legends on Board,” became a gigantic viral success, now with over 105 million views on YouTube.

For better or for worse (definitely for worse), 2013 might as well be the “Year of the Selfie.” The ubiquitous word found its way into the vocabulary of everyone from grade schoolers to their grandparents and was even named Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year. If you’re sick of hearing people jump at every opportunity to use this word, we’re with you. At any rate, it’s undeniable that the selfie has won itself a lasting position in our culture.

In an attempt to recapture the success of last year’s “Legends on Board” spot, CP+B has brought back the Bryant Vs. Messi formula, this time positioning the two in a “Selfie Shootout” in which each attempts to one-up the other with self-shot photos in exotic locations. The spot is the first ad CP+B put together for Turkish Airlines since winning ad duties for the airline back in September, and it’s a fine first effort. Without giving too much away I can say that Bryant and Messi both jump through hoops to one-up each other, and their photos get more and more exotic and over-the-top as the minute long spot progresses. CP+B manage to work something of a surprise ending into “The Selfie Shootout,” incorporating another Internet photo phenomenon.

Can “The Selfie Shootout” hope to match the success of “Legends on Board”? We would say yes. The entertaining ad incorporates the selfie phenomenon, has a much larger production budget than Alametifarika’s work last year, and is designed to jumpstart conversation. “The Selfie Shootout,” which was uploaded to YouTube yesterday, has already surpassed the 5 million view mark, and is certainly not showing any signs of slowing down. Its combination of star power, humor, and topical references make it just about unstoppable. Make no mistake, people will be talking about this one for some time. Our reservations about the overuse of “selfie” aside, we can’t blame them. “The Selfie Shootout” is just plain fun. Credits after the jump.  continued…

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Question: What would a contemporary soccer-related version of “Les Miserables” look like if we replaced all the singing actors with kids and threw in the craftiest living man in cleats? Answer: This tw0-minute Leo Burnett commercial promoting Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 and accompanying smart watch. When Lionel Messi isn’t dominating the pitch or allegedly evading taxes, he’s also rebuilding cities as an urban developer! For the kids!

From a narrative perspective, this spot is about as corny as it gets – I think it will be very tough to top the new pair of Samsung ads that show the progression of pop-culture smart watches over the years and harp on some brilliantly revealed nostalgia. But “The Developer” is enjoyable on a micro level if you don’t think about it too hard, kind of like every James Cameron movie. Messi on his suit and tie. Kids singing a cute version of Lorde’s single “Royals.” There’s even a building demolition scene if you’re into that. And if you’re not, there’s always Messi, on his suit and tie, smiling, playing soccer with kids. Everybody loves that.  Credits after the jump.

continued…

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Details are hazy at this point, but as mentioned above, sources familiar with the matter confirm that Crispin Porter + Bogusky has taken over ad duties for Turkish Airlines, the carrier that last we recall brought us an amusing campaign starring two of the greatest in their respective sports, Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi. The ad dubbed “Legends on Board” was created by hometown agency Alametifarika, though we haven’t received word if said agency participated in the review for the Turkish global account. We’ll keep you posted if and when we have more info.

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