Hasta La Creative!

Airbnb is no stranger to controversy in its marketing efforts.

The home sharing service recently teamed up with Strother Nuckels Strategies for a political campaign which claimed that the company helps middle class families. That work came in response to an effort launched last summer by lobbying group the Share Better Coalition which criticized the company, claiming that forty percent of Airbnb revenue in New York went to real estate moguls.

Last fall, the company angered some in San Francisco with an OOH campaign advocating against Proposition F, a proposed law that would have required Airbnb to be classified as a hotel chain, by lightly shaming libraries and other such organizations for the tax money they receive from the hotel industry and businesses like Airbnb. In the fallout from that campaign, CEO Brian Chesky essentially laid the blame on TBWAChiatDay, claiming the agency had “embarrassed” his company.

Airbnb’s latest move might not sit well with its agency partners, either.

The company is using content-sourcing company MoFilm to crowd-source ideas for its holiday campaign with an “Airbnb Holiday Ideas Contest.”

The call for entries, which was written by MoFilm, reads in part, “It’s a pitch situation, where we’ll put forward the best-of-the-best from our global network in an effort to gain the business.” It then calls members of its community to “Think big and think local. Infuse your ideas with knowledge of your own city, or cities you’ve been to in the past. And remember it’s not just Christmas, it’s any holiday worthy of a trip via Airbnb.”

The person running this contest is Carter Hahn, who spent several years as an account manager at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and served as lead on the HP, Adobe and Nintendo accounts.

The deadline for submissions is October 3, so if you want to participate you’ll have to hurry over to MoFilm and sign the NDA to get the brief. The top five concepts will be awarded a $500 cash prize!

TBWAChiatDay launched a new digital campaign with a series of online spots starring Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper and 2016 NBA Rookie of the Year Karl-Anthony Towns Jr.

In the spots, announcers point out an individual casually enjoying a Gatorade without breaking a sweat. Then one of the athletes pops up to make the person “burn it to earn it.” In “D Up with Karl-Anthony Towns,” for example, he slaps a man’s Gatorade out of his hand. Then he gives him a basketball and once he’s broken a sweat, and been thoroughly humiliated by the 7 foot tall Timberwolves center, he’s allowed to have his drink back.

The approach is very similar to a digital campaign from two years ago featuring Rob Belushi, Peyton Manning and Cam Newton. It’s essentially a defensive approach, staving off criticism of the company for peddling sugar water with the concept that the drink is meant for athletes who have “earned” the sugar by burning calories.

“With sugar being such a hot topic of conversation, especially in the beverage space, we wanted to talk about it head on — that our product is for athletes, the sugar is functional. It’s in there for a reason, to help fuel athletes and we are actually proud of it,” Gatorade head of consumer engagement Kenny Mitchell explained to AdAge. “We just want to make sure folks are earning it [and] we wanted to make sure that message is clear.”

It also calls to mind a bit by the late comedian Mitch Hedberg, who said, “I’m thirsty for absolutely no reason, other than the fact that liquid has not touched my lips for some time. Can I have a Gatorade too, or does that lightning bolt mean no?”

With these spots and the similarly-minded earlier effort, the brand seems to be saying that no, you can’t. That approach is at least a little unusual in that it risks alienating a segment of the brand’s audience (namely, just thirsty dudes). But then that may be taking the ads a bit too seriously.

TBWAChiatDay teamed up with Moonbot Studios (who you may remember from such animated spots as “The Scarecrow” for Chipotle) to create a Gatorade short telling the origin story of Jamaican runner Usain Bolt. 

The spot, entitled “The Boy Who Learned to Fly,” opens with Bolt’s mother telling him he’s going to be late for school. For a boy of normal speed, she would probably be right, but Bolt sprints off, scoring a goal in a pickup soccer game and impressing a track coach on his way to class, sliding into his desk just before the bell rings. Said track coach becomes Bolt’s mentor, providing him with lunch (which he forgot in his haste to leave his house in the morning) in exchange for winning a race and then informing him of his potential for greatness and what it will take to get to that point.

From there, the spot flashes forward to the 2002 Junior Championships and the increasing pressure put on Bolt to win.

It’s a fun approach, with the imaginative and colorful animation matching its tone.

Aside from a Gatorade poster as Bolt walks down the tunnel into a track field at the beginning of the spot, the Gatorade brand doesn’t make an appearance until almost the five minute mark, when a modern day Bolt is handed a Gatorade bottle by a water boy. The spot really plays more like a branded short than an ad, with Gatorade aligning itself with the likable Jamaican track legend.

Maybe that’s for the best, as the lack of more overt branding certainly helps keep things light, enjoyable and shareable for both kids and adults while still gelling nicely with the larger “For the Love of Sport” campaign. As proponents of brevity, we do wonder if this story could have been told in a slightly shorter format (the spot runs almost six minutes long). That being said, it doesn’t drag nearly as much as you’d expect given the run time. Check out the making of short below for more on how “The Boy Who Learned to Fly” came together.

Credits:
Client: Gatorade
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles
Production Company: Moonbot Studios
Senior Vice President, General Manager: Brett O’Brien
Senior Director, Consumer Engagement: Kenny Mitchell
Director of Digital Strategy: Jeff Miller
Manager, Digital Media: Abhishek Jadon
Senior Director Sport and Athletic Services: Jeff Kearney
Sports Marketing: Kyle Grote
Sports Marketing: Aminah Charles
Chief Creative Officer: Brent Anderson
Executive Creative Director: Renato Fernandez
Creative Director: Mark Peters
Senior Copywriter: Cyrus Coulter
Senior Art Director: Paulo Cruz
Director of Production: Brian O’Rourke
Executive Producer: Guia Iacomin
Senior Producer: Stephanie Dziczek
Producer: Cristina Martinez
Print Producer: Gabriella Nourse
Art Producer: Gabrielle Sirkin
Managing Director: Jerico Cabaysa
Brand Director: Robyn Morris
Brand Manager: Erika Buder
Associate Brand Manager: Theo Kirkham-Lewitt

TBWAChiatDay L.A. launched a new spot for Gatorade featuring Serena Williams, Usain Bolt, April Ross and Paul George training hard with some help from their younger selves.

The spot opens with Williams waking up to an alarm and Young Serena saying “It’s time to play” before heading for the court. Viewers are then introduced to young versions of the other stars, who continue to push their respective older selves through rigorous training throughout the spot, set to Jimmy Durante‘s “Young at Heart.”

The message is underscored with the line “The Best Never Lose That Love” at the ad’s conclusion, gelling nicely with the overall “For the Love of Sports” brand message. In addition to the 60-second spot, the campaign also includes “Fuel the Love Forward” spots featuring Bolt, Williams and Ross telling their own stories. Additionally, Gatorade is furthering the youth sports connection by asking visitors to the campaign landing site to vote for which youth athletic charities the brand should donate to.

TBWAChiatDay appointed Erin Riley as president of its Los Angeles office, succeeding 14-year TBWA vet Luis DeAnda. She will begin the position in June and report directly to TBWAWorldwide president and CEO Troy Ruhanen.

Riley joins TBWA from Old Navy, where she has served as VP of marketing, brand engagement since last September. Before joining Old Navy, she served as vice president, global marketing for footwear brand Cole Haan, leading marketing communications and debuting new social campaigns, brand partnerships and ecommerce strategies.

Riley began her career agency-side as an account executive with McCann and D’Arcy, focusing on L’Oreal and P&G’s Always. She then joined BBH, serving as deputy head of account management and brand and communications director for BBH brand invention and its in-house consulting company ZAG. During her more than nine years with BBH, she worked with brands including Axe, Johnnie Walker, Ally Bank, Levi’s, Google and Sony PlayStation, moving up to lead the accoun team before leaving to go client-side with Cole Haan in February of 2012. 

“I’ve been hoping to recruit Erin for the last five years, as she was one of the standout brand thinkers in the New York market,” Ruhanen told Adweek. “I’m even more pleased to have her join now with her additional years of client experience. Erin’s appointment is another example of how we have assembled diverse skill sets to serve 21st century brands. And, in a time where many in the agency world are focused on efficiency, we are continuing to build the deepest senior bench, ensuring that we always provide a different perspective at the top and remain focused on critical creative thinking.”

Riley said TBWA chairman Jean-Marie Dru has been one of her key influences. “Early in my career, I came upon Disruption Stories and it profoundly shaped how I thought about brand building,”she said. “It is an unbelievable privilege to be joining the agency that birthed that philosophy, and a part of the team that is applying it in a distinctly 21st century way. My true passion, whether client or agency side, is building brands that become part of the cultural conversation and reap the resulting commercial rewards. That’s why I instantly connected with TBWAChiatDay’s mission to leverage data, culture, and cultural events to disrupt with relevant and provocative work that drives business.”

The agency announced that DeAnda, who served in the role for the past two years, would be leaving last month. That news preceded MillerCoors’ decision to move its creative business from TBWA to 180LA without a review.

Riley’s hire also fits into “2020,” the TBWA network’s plan to increase its internal female leadership by 20 percent before the year 2020. It follows the hire of GS&P’s Nancy Reyes to be managing director of TBWAChiatDay New York and the promotion of Lauren Niemcewicz to the same position at Chicago’s Engage.

Peyton Manning is back to shame more lazy people into earning their Gatorade with sweat, and this time he’s brought his brother with him.

In a new reality-style ad series from TBWAChiatDay, Peyton, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, and Eli, quarterback of the New York Giants, play coach to college students who are foolishly trying to use money to get drinks out of a Gatorade vending machine. Rob Belushi, who starred as the convenience store clerk in a similar series last year, returns here as a deadpan janitor.

Despite the possibility that everything is staged, the reactions of the kids, when it dawns on them that the two adults hovering over him are actually football stars, are pretty priceless. And it’s refreshing to see an automated dispenser that refuses to comply, no matter what you do. (The kids are advised that they have to “Sweat it to get it,” but that doesn’t seem to work, either.)

Some other spots show Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt putting other students through the wringer in various ways.

The concept first launched last August. The “Sweat it to get it” tagline is still charmingly snide, but seems to cut out a significant portion of the population who drink Gatorade only to recover from hangovers—unless that counts as hard work, which it should.

Regardless, the Mannings can’t easily beat their ridiculous rap bit for DirecTV—at least not by sitting back and letting everyone else do the heavy lifting.

TBWAChiatDay New York launched its first campaign for Travelers Insurance since winning lead creative duties for the Hartford-based company back in February.

The campaign is made up of three spots, with the 60-second “Growing Up” (featured above) as its centerpiece. “Growing Up” shows a father’s relationship with his daughter as she cries through various growing pains, then leaves for college and gets married in the backyard. It’s the kind of emotional plea more typical for a brand like Subaru, but TBWAChiatDay New York ties it to the brand fairly well with the line, “You make it a home, we help you protect it.” The other spots trade in emotion as well, with the 45-second “Charging Station” showing a girl calling her worried parents thanks to a Travelers charging station after a disaster and “Bakery” showing a community bakery recovering from catastrophe. Each of the ads ends with the tagline, “It’s better under the umbrella.”

“The campaign targets existing and prospective customers, independent insurance agents, and employees,” Lisa Caputo, executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at The Travelers Companies, Inc. explained to MediaPost. “We want to reinforce that Travelers is there to help people protect the things they care most about.”

“The convention in the insurance category is to use humor to gain awareness,” added TBWAChiatDay New York CEO Rob Schwartz. “We went in a different direction and delivered emotion. Travelers is a company that truly cares about its customers, so we tried to frame that feeling.”

Silver Man—a dude in a top hat and glasses, every inch of him coated in silver paint—really shines in TBWAChiatDay’s new campaign for Miller Lite.

But he’s just one of many characters, oddball and otherwise, who visit a typical neighborhood bodega to pick up some suds and chat with wise, friendly Fred, the bilingual owner of the store. Other customers include a pair of muscular twins who say the same things at the same time; One Tripper (he doesn’t need help, dammit, toting a mountain of snacks and brewskies out the door); and a karaoke singer whose rendition of “Carry On Wayward Son” doesn’t quite match the sonic impact of the original.

Tagged “As long as you are you, it’s Miller Time,” the campaign includes ads in English and Spanish, targeting millennial and Hispanic audiences at a time when craft brews have eroded the sales of big-name beers. These eight spots have a relaxed, indie-film feel, inspired by the convenience-store settings in movies by Jim Jarmusch and the team of Wayne Wang and Paul Auster.

“The market seems to be rich with plenty of, let’s just say, less subtle beer advertising,” Arts & Sciences director Matt Aselton tells Fast Company, “so it seemed like a nice way of telling personal stories and not jock-rock archetypal stories. It’s like Sesame Street—the people in your neighborhood—except with a light beer.”

In real life, all sorts of people drop in and out of bodegas, so “anything is possible,” says Aselton. This makes the stream of strange customers in the commercials seem plausible, with the low-key and slightly askew humor hitting home every time. (The Silver Man, presumably a street performer, is a highlight, particularly when he’s joined by a glittery sidekick for an impromptu pose-down.)

Through it all, Fred serves as a calm, all-knowing foil, doling out advice and yakking it up with the clientele. Smartly underplayed by Eastbound & Down actor Marco Rodriguez, he keeps the proceedings firmly centered. The silver men may steal the show, but Fred is pure gold, one of the most welcome pitch-characters to hit screens in recent memory.

CREDITS
Client: Miller Lite
Campaign: “Bodega”
Andy England: Chief Marketing Officer
Gannon Jones: VP of Brand Marketing, Miller Family of Brands
Ryan Reis: Senior Director, Miller Family of Brands
Greg Butler: Director, Miller Lite
Jeanne-­ette Boshoff: Senior Marketing Manager, Miller Lite
Julia Watson: Marketing Manager, Miller Lite Multicultural

Agency: TBWAChiatDay LA
Stephen Butler: Chief Creative Officer
Fabio Costa: Executive Creative Director
Mark Peters: Creative Director
Jason Karley: Creative Director
Rick Utzinger: Creative Director
Bob Rayburn: Creative Director
Matthew Woodhams-­Roberts: Creative Director
David Horton: Creative Director
Jeff Dryer: Senior Art Director
Chris Rodriguez: Senior Art Director (Last Minute Gift)
Guy Helm: Senior Copywriter (Last Minute Gift)
Harris Wilkinson: Creative Director (Twins)
John Stobie: Art Director (Twins)
Brian O’Rourke: Director of Production
Anh-­Thu Le: Executive Producer
Stephanie Dziczek: Producer
Jill Nykoliation: Business Lead
Chris Hunter: Group Account Director
Scott McMaster: Group Planning Director
Bryan Reugebrink: Account Director
Alice Pavlisko: Project Manager
Linda Daubson: Director of Business Affairs
Nora Cicuto: Business Affairs Manager
Dorn Reppert: Business Affairs Manager
Dessiah Maxwell: Director, Traffic Operations
Judy Brill: Senior Traffic Operations Manager

Agency: Team Ignition
Erick Rodriguez: Senior Art Director
Raul Mendez: Senior Copywriter
Giovanni Chiappardi: Account Director
Elsa Gonzalez: Account Planner

Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Matt Aselton: Director
Mal Ward: Managing Director/Partner
Marc Marrie: Executive Producer/Managing Partner
Zoe Odlum: Producer
Sal Totino: Director of Photography
David Wilson: Production Designer

Editorial: Spot Welders
Haines Hall: Editor (Advice, Silverman)
Kevin Zimmerman: Editor (One Tripper ENG, Twins, Karaoke)
JC Nunez: Editor (Rivals, One Tripper SPAN)
Oli Hecks: Editor (Last Minute Gift, Present)
Carolina Sanborn: Executive Producer
Evan Cunningham: Producer

VFX: MPC
Karen Anderson: Executive Producer
Abisayo Adejare: Producer
Mark Gethin: Colorist
Mark Holden: VFX Lead
Benji Davidson, Dylan Brown, William Cox, Sandra Ross: VFX

Music Supervision: Good Ear Music Supervision

SFX: Barking Owl
Michael Anastasi: Sound Designer
Kelly Bayett: Creative Director
Whitney Fromholtz: Head of Production

Mix: Lime Studios
Mark Meyuhas: Mixer
Matt Miller: Assistant Mixer
Executive Producer: Jessica Locke