Hasta La Creative!

Nothing beats winning at home is the takeaway from this inspiring spot from the Instituto Ayrton Senna. If you’re not familiar, Senna was one of the greatest F1 drivers ever, whose life was sadly cut short in a horrible crash. This story recounts in Senna’s own words one of his most difficult races he ever won in 1991.

Even cooler, they are distributing the story through an augmented reality app attached to a charm bracelet that is being distributed to the Brazilian delegation with 32,000 more bracelets now in production. “Our goal was to show athletes the excitement and pride that Ayrton Senna always had about being Brazilian and competing for something for his country,” says Gustavo Soares, Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson. He says that in addition to the values that motivated Senna, printed on the inside of the bracelet, the charm carries the driver’s unique message, that only after the eighth attempt was he able to realize his dream of winning at home. “What ended up being his most epic win,” he adds.

It’s a great way of linking one sport with multiple sports. Also the animation looks pretty sweet, too.

Mostly wordless spot featuring Olympic hopeful and Dick’s employee Josh Dangel who, when he’s not fitting shoes for other people, is training is butt off. This is part of Dick’s “contenders” series featuring employees who are all trying to go for gold. I like how they let the visceral aspects speak louder than the words. Dick’s seems like the perfect place to work in that aspect. If you don’t have a sponsor, at least you get (I assume) a discount on gear.

Publicis Seattle unveiled the new visual identity for the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games. The agency was tapped as the sole agency to create the identity and corresponding tagline – Rise With Us. The games will be held in Seattle in 2018. The mark took its cue from the Olympic torch shape, but it also represents the water around Seattle as well as the sweat and tears from the athletes, family, and volunteers alike. The colors invoke the water surrounding the area.

Treehouse editor John McStravick helped capture the spirit of team sport in editing a new campaign for sporting apparel innovator Russell Athletic®. Conceived by Dallas agency The Richards Group, the campaign includes broadcast and online ads and features high school football players discussing values that bind their teams and lead them to excel.

Each of the ads weaves scenes of football games and practices with close-ups of young players describing what motivates them. “While we are all created equal, teams are not,” declares one young athlete. “Teams venture into uncharted waters, challenge the laws of physics…” Players in the practice footage wear uniforms embroidered with words that echo the copy: declaration…teammate…brothers. Online ads end with a hashtag that consumers can use to join the conversation through social media sites.

All of the athletes are either current or recent high school football players and that gives the spots a sense of realism lacking in other sports advertising. “They’re not million dollar athletes, they’re just kids,” says McStravick. “That helps viewers identify with them.”

McStravick poured through more than eight hours of source material to produce six ads. (A seventh ad was edited by Treehouse’s Peter Tarter.) “The stories were open to interpretation; there weren’t strict boards,” McStravick says. “We were able to go in whatever direction felt right. It came together very organically with the script.”

The campaign was McStravick’s first for Treehouse, which launched last month. “I am thrilled with how well the campaign has been received,” he says. “It was great working with the team from The Richards Group. They were very collaborative and open to ideas. The whole project flowed very well and that shows in the end product.”

Back in March, Under Armour introduced its E39 compression shirt during the NFL Scouting Combine, and Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Cam Newton and Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones are among those who made headlines as their vital stats were assessed in real-time for viewers using this innovative new athletic evaluation improvement tool. At that time, Under Armour released a :30 teaser spot entitled “Julio Jones: UA E39,” representing the latest collaborations between Under Armour, director Andre Stringer and his colleagues at Shilo and creative think tank WMIG — and we promised to share more amazing results from this ongoing creative collaboration.

At last, this :60 spot has just debuted on ESPN, and it will continue to air widely across the U.S. during all the NFL Draft-related television programming set for the days to come. As you can see, this film adds Shilo’s extraordinary design, animation and visual effects talents into the mix.

By featuring Julio’s authentic performance — and Shilo’s design-infused storytelling approach, guided by ideation from WMIG — Under Armour’s E39 technology is shown to be a phenomenal new way for athletes to maximize their full potential. In the words of Andre Stringer, “This piece continues our trajectory of pioneering a storytelling technique that mixes both live-action and design at the highest of levels.”

Full credits for this spot follow below.

More information is available online at http://www.underarmour.com/e39 and http://www.shilo.tv .