Hasta La Creative!

W+K Portland went all out in getting celebrity talent for “Winner Stays” the latest iteration of their “Risk Everything”campaign for Nike.

The 4:12 film plays off the idea of pretending to be your favorite star players while playing a pickup game with friends. “Winner stays” says one side of one such pickup game, and soon players are claiming to be famous soccer stars and taking on their unique skill sets. It’s a fun idea, although it’s stretched a bit thin at over four minutes long. W+K is betting that with World Cup fever spreading people will stay around for the star power, which includes the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr. and Wayne Rooney, a host of other soccer stars from around the world, and a few unexpected cameos. During the action, the spot offers the first glimpses of Nike’s new Magista and Mercurial Superfly.

“We connect to players’ passion for the game, whether it is the world’s best in Brasil or players in the park or street, explains Davide Grasso, chief marketing officer for Nike. “‘Winner Stays’ taps into an experience that every young player around the world will recognize – competition with friends and the idea of playing with your heroes or pretending to be them.”

While it may be fun and expertly crafted, it’s pretty hard to get over the run time for the full-length “Winner Stays.” Four minutes is just a really long time to expect people to sit through an advertisement and the new product reveals are relatively deep into the spot. Thankfully, there are abridged versions, with run times of 3 minutes (still pretty long), 90 seconds, 60 seconds, and 30 seconds. Stick around for full credits after the jump. continued…

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Ahh yes, its playoff time in both the NBA and NHL and Arnold Worldwide’s hometown hub is taking the reins on the latter by adding Glenn Fleshler–aka the “Yellow King” from HBO’s True Detective–to its roster. In case you didn’t know, the Bruins are rocking it in hockey this year and Fleshler plays a role in the second spot following “The Calm” up above dubbed “The Wolfpack.” As a sort of semi-casual hockey fan who’s more interested in the NBA playoffs, I can still rejoice in the intensity, etc. Check out credits after the jump.

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Charlotte full-service independent agency BooneOakley created a new campaign for Bojangles’ Restaurants, the first spot of which stars recent Master’s champion Bubba Watson.

The spot, created to promote Bojangles’ breakfast offerings, is meant to give a “a public face to Bojangles’ internal biscuit-quality efforts.” Apparently, every Bojangles location has an official “Biscuit Maker,” who has undergone at least 40 hours of training for the position, on staff. (For some reason, they don’t mention this in the ad.) The 30-second broadcast spot pits one of these biscuit makers against Bubba Watson in a celebrity competition parody (wakka wakka). Watson kneads his dough with his driver before launching the biscuits toward the oven. At the end of the ad, Watson tees off on a completed biscuit, causing it to explode  — according to BooneOakley’s PR team, this was done at Watson’s insistence.

The second spot in the campaign will run in late spring/early summer and feature sportsfisherman Guy Eaker of the Bass Master series (you can’t wait, right?), with future celebrity spots in the campaign undetermined. Brief credits after the jump. continued…

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As you may have gathered, the Boston Marathon is a pretty big deal to natives of the city. So, with the marathon on the horizon, AMP Agency created the #WeRunTogether digital mozaic for John Hancock, who have sponsored the Boston Marathon since 1985.

Designed to bring together the Boston Marathon running community in anticipation of the event on April 21st, the digital mozaic invites marathon enthusiasts to share their reasons for participating in the form of photos, videos and/or text. All of the submitted content is then aggregated into the mozaic visualization. AMP hopes that by “creating a shared space for conversations around the race, John Hancock was able to show its commitment and support for the Boston Marathon, drive national awareness of their sponsorship and promote their non-profit fundraising partnership with CrowdRise.”

AMP also worked with John Hancock to create a suite of eCards featuring the “We Run Together” theme, housed over at www.OpenMe.com/bostonmarathon.

Obviously, the mozaic takes on added significance in the wake of last year’s tragedy, a sign of the marathon community coming together to move forward in the wake of such an event. “It has been an emotional year for this city,” said Gary Colen, CEO at AMP Agency. “Our hope in this effort was to celebrate the perseverance of this city, whether you are running or not.”

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W+K have just unveiled their latest FIFA World Cup 2014 spot for ESPN, raising excitement for the event with just about 2 months left until it kicks off in Brazil on June 12th.

Entitled “I Believe,” the 60-second spot attempts to pump up Americans for the event, which has gained popularity nationally in recent years. Shots of Team USA in action and crowd footage are accompanied by a chant of “I believe that we can win.” Given the odds against the American squad, “I believe that we can make it past group stage” seems a bit more realistic. Around the 53 second mark of the ad, a Nike “Just Do It” stadium billboard is clear in the background of the in-game action. Given that Nike is (of course) a W+K client, we can’t help but wonder if this was an intentional (and rather slick) move on W+K’s part.

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In anticipation of the impending Master’s Tournament, W+K New York has launched two new spots in their long-running “This Is SportsCenter” series, starring 2012 Master’s champion Bubba Watson.

In the first spot, Watson, whose “miracle” shot to get out of a difficult lie helped him win the Master’s, finds himself in another tricky situation in ESPN’s Bristol, Connecticut office, with the Stanford Cardinal mascot blocking their way. Watson and caddy Ted Scott try to decide how to proceed, when SportsCenter anchor Kevin Negandhi shows them the way without really thinking about it. The spot delivers the kind of fun goofiness we’ve come to expect from the “This Is SportsCenter” series and shouldn’t disappoint, especially for fans of Watson.

The 15-second “Pencils” is a little more straightforward, but no less fun, with Watson’s incessant sharpening of scorecard pencils posing a distraction for anchor Jay Harris. First and second round play of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club will be televised on ESPN from 3-7:30 on Thursday and Friday, April 10-11. Stick around to view “Pencils” and credits after the jump. continued…

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Are you ready for some baseball?

ESPN has Major League Baseball's Opening Day covered today with a new "This Is SportsCenter" spot starring the reigning National League MVP, Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The commercial, running online and on ESPN properties, shows a breakfast meeting for the SportsCenter anchors going awry when McCutchen and a band of Pirate mascots (Pittsburgh's Pirate Parrot, East Carolina's Pee Dee, Seton Hall's Pirate and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Captain Fear) break in and loot the breakfast spread.

The ad, by Wieden + Kennedy in New York, breaks this afternoon during ESPN's broadcast of the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Chicago Cubs.

Avec l’aide de quelques enfants très créatifs, Alix Martinez a tirée des portraits d’enfants, non pas sur la terre ferme, mais submergés sous l’eau. L’artiste arrive avec amusement et imagination à recréer des scènes sportives comme le golf, le football et le tennis. Une magnifique série à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Nike running: So easy, a caveman can do it?

Wieden + Kennedy made quite the discovery earlier this month. The agency says it's "pretty damn pumped" to have finally found the first ads it ever made—which happen to be the first national broadcast ads Nike ever aired. The three spots ran during the New York City Marathon in October 1982. Two of the three had been lost for decades.

The agency writes on its blog:

For all you ad geeks out there, we're pretty damn pumped to share something very special with you. We've uncovered the first-ever ads made by Messrs. Wieden and Kennedy, Nike's first-ever nationally broadcast work. Until today, two of these were considered lost and never vaulted. Our digital librarian Phoebe Owens has spent the entire time she's been with W+K searching for them, alongside Nike historian Scott Reames, with the help of David Kennedy. Today, some old, poorly-labeled tapes proved to have what we've been searching for.

These aired during the NYC marathon. They were shot and cut within a couple of weeks, with a skeleton crew. They were a tiny team and they made it happen, and the rest is history.

See the ads below.

With the opening series between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks (finally) kicking off the MLB season this Saturday in Australia, Hub Strategy, AOR for the Oakland Athletics, have just launched the fifth incarnation of their award-winning “Green Collar Baseball” marketing campaign for the A’s.

There’s been reason to celebrate in Oakland the past two years, as the A’s have won back-to-back AL West titles. This year, for their integrated campaign featuring “eight television commercials as well as print, outdoor, digital & social advertisements,” Hub Strategy wanted to up the personality factor. There’s certainly no shortage of personality for the A’s, and Hub had a blast working with the players on the new campaign, with Hub CEO/Creative Director DJ O’Neil calling it “by far my favorite work yet.”

The feeling is mutual, as A’s VP of sales/marketing, Jim Leahey, says, “We feel that this year’s TV commercials may be our best ever and we are confident that our fans will enjoy connecting with the fun personalities of our players.”

So far, two of the eight TV spots have been revealed: “Tunnels of Greatness” and “Tarp Therapy.” “Tunnels of Greatness” — featuring Josh Donaldson, Jarrod Parker, Sonny Gray, Sean Doolittle and Derek Norris — is a lot of fun, built around the idea of extending the “Home Run Tunnel” celebration to other, more mundane aspects of the game. “Tarp Therapy,” which references Donaldson’s spectacular tarp catch from last season, isn’t quite as effective. It’s the kind of concept that might look funny on paper, but doesn’t play out so well on tape (although they deserve bonus points for featuring Mike Gallego). Hopefully the rest of Hub Strategy’s “Green Collar Baseball” spots can build on the momentum of “Home Run Tunnel” and give fans one more reason to cheer on the A’s. Here’s the info we have on the remaining six spots:

• Secrets of the Game: Young players Parker, Gray and Norris turn to veteran Brandon Moss for his secrets to success in the majors.
• Unicorn 2.0: Doolittle and Parker attempt to take the signature unicorn bullpen ?backpack to another level this year.
• Generations: Moss learns that for some fans, being on the field for a fireworks show can fulfill a lifelong dream.
• #winning: Doolittle coaches Bob Melvin, Curt Young and Mike Gallego on social media best practices.
• Holding Him On: Moss is a talkative guy, and his mouth can be as much of a weapon as his bat.
• Pre-Internet: Coaches Young and Gallego both reflect on how much has changed since their 1989 World Championship with the A’s.

You can watch “Home Run Tunnel” above, and stick around for “Tarp Therapy,” along with credits, after the jump continued…

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