Hasta La Creative!

Earlier this week, Minneapolis agency mono announced a big account win: rising Boulder-based “fast casual” chain Smashburger, or “The Starbucks of Burgers.”

The review originally involved a dozen agencies including local shop Grenadier. According to the Denver Egotist, the account had “bounced among a number of Denver agencies over the last few years,” and mono is the chain’s first AOR not located in its home state of Colorado.

Some readers took issue with that fact, and the client’s CMO Josh Kern (allegedly) fought back…in the comments, of course.

Thoughts from readers:

“Don’t let the client anywhere near the concept.”

Was this commentor the real Kern? We can’t confirm at the moment, but his passion does seem real — as does Ryan’s chest hair.

Minneapolis-based agency mono launched a rebrand for Sperry with the new 60-second spot “Odysseys Await,” which also represent the agency’s first work since winning the account in October following a review.

For the rebrand, mono decided to go back to the roots of the 80-year-old company, founded by naval officer Paul Sperry. “We started to look at what the brand had always represented,” Karen Pitts, vice president of marketing, told Adweek. “We were inspired by the spirit of our founder, Paul Sperry, and sort of took stock of the core DNA of the brand and how that remains incredibly relevant today.”

The result? A bunch of hipsters having nautical adventures, jumping off of boats, sailing and diving off of cliffs, all set to a catchy-in-an-irritating-way irritating soundtrack, ending with the “Odysseys Await” tagline. As part of the rebrand, Sperry’s logo was also redesigned for the first time in 20 years.

This is just the beginning of mono’s rebranding campaign, though. Print and digital initiatives will support the effort throughout the year and next month the agency will launch an experiential/content creation initiative called “Odyssey Project.” The effort will “activate 80 ambassadors around the world with a challenge to discover new people, places and experiences and, ultimately, bring back unforgettable stories.” Each ambassador will be given a new pair of Sperrys and an itinerary and will be responsible for documenting their adventures, creating new content for the brand in the process.

How do you deal with holiday stress? Activewear maker Lucy is humorously urging women to try something unconventional this year. Try dropping to the floor and adopting the "child's pose" from yoga—with your legs tucked under you, your head down and your arms outstretched in front. That should calm your nerves in line at Macy's, as long as security doesn't come running.

The tongue-in-cheek spot below from ad agency Mono, directed by the actress Elizabeth Banks, shows the strategy in action. Give it a shot, and let us know how it goes.