Hasta La Creative!

Droga5 launched a new spot for Under Armour starring Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton entitled “Prince WIth 1,000 Enemies” which makes a couple of unusual decisions for the sporting goods brand.

The voiceover, provided by Cam’s mother, Jackie Newton, quotes Richard Adams‘ 1972 debut novel Watership Down. That voiceover is set to a dark scene of Newton running through the woods as if something is chasing him, literally tearing through trees as he plows forward at full speed. He finally stops to catch his breath as he makes it out of the woods to a nearby road. 

It’s an odd approach for the brand, undoubtedly, but a captivating one. Adams’ words somehow fit the new context, and Jackie Newton does a fine job of delivering them. While something of an anomaly for the category, the spot is not entirely without precedent, as the agency’s March spot starring Michael Phelps and July effort with Bryce Harper also included some intriguing stylistic choices, but nothing so out of ordinary as borrowing from Watership Down.

“Our two creative leads at Droga—Alex [Nowak] and Felix [Richter], who are awesome—they came up with this idea,” Under Armour senior vice president,  global brand development Adrienne Lofton explained to Adweek. “…it was all about these rabbits breaking out from their tribe in order to bring their crew to safety. They experienced all of these temptations and perils along the way, but kept their heads down until they got to a place of safety.”

“We wanted to tell this story around footwork, and footwear, as you see in the spot, but we wanted to tell it differently,” she added. “We took him off the field, we took the ball out of his hands, and we created this metaphorical environment that is about crushing through your challenges. Those trees represent barriers he’s broken through every step of the way through his career.”

Cam Newton’s involvement with the spot was such that “we almost called him a creative director with this spot,” Lofton said. “He chose his wardrobe, he added flair.”

Indeed. Turns out Newton isn’t just a guy who performs badly in the clutch, loses the Super Bowl and then acts like a kid who got his candy stolen!

Credits:
Client: Under Armour
Campaign: “It Comes From Below”
Spot: “Prince With 1000 Enemies”
Agency: Droga5
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Group Creative Directors: Felix Richter, Alex Nowak
Senior Copywriter: Thom Glover
Senior Art Director: Eoin McLaughlin
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Executive Producers: David Cardinali, Ross Plummer
Senior Broadcast Producer: Bill Berg
Associate Producer: Troy Smith
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Head of Strategy: Harry Roman
Strategy Director: Sam Matthews
Head of Communications Strategy: Colleen Leddy
Communications Strategy Director: Hillary Heath
Communications Strategist: Kathryn Ruocco
Data Strategist: Kaveri Gautam
Executive Group Director: Julian Cheevers
Group Account Director: Shane Chastang
Account Supervisor: Lucy Santilli
Project Manager: Connor Hall
Client: Under Armour
Chief Executive Officer, Founder: Kevin Plank
Chief Marketing Officer: Kip Fulks
Senior Vice President, Global Brand Management: Adrienne Lofton
Senior Vice President, Global Communications: Diane Pelkey
Vice President, Global Creative: Brian Boring
Vice President, Global Consumer Engagement: Jim Mollica
Senior Director, Global Brand Management: Leon Duncan
Senior Director, Integrated Brand Communications: Jack Daley
Director, Campaign Integration: Teresa Oles
Manager, Campaign Integration: Bené Eaton
Production Company: Somesuch / Anonymous Content
Director: Aoife McArdle
Partners, Somesuch: Sally Campbell, Tim Nash
Managing Director, Anonymous: Eric Stern
Executive Producer, Anonymous: SueEllen Clair
Producer: Laurie Boccaccio
Director of Photography: Steve Annis
Production Manager: Yianni Papadopoulos
Editing: Final Cut
Editor: Dan Sherwen:
Assistant Editors: Geoff Hastings, Dan Berk
Executive Producer: Sarah Roebuck
Head of Production: Jen Sienkwicz
Producer: Jamie Nagler
Postproduction: BlackSmith
Executive Producer: Charlotte Arnold
Producer: Megan Sweet
Visual Effects Supervisor: Iwan Zwarts
Color Transfer: Company 3
Artist: Tom Poole
Coloring Assitant: Kath Raisch
Producer: Clare Movshon
Sound Design: Factory U.K.
Final Mix: Sound Lounge
Engineers: Tom Jucarone, Justin Kooy, Seth Phillips
Producer: Liana Rosenberg
Executive Producer: Mike Gullo

Stats might be a big deal in baseball, but four-time all-star Bryce Harper wants young players to know there’s something more important—their feet.

Under Armour is out with a new campaign from Droga5 titled “It Comes from Below,” promoting the brand’s shoes. It launches this week with an ad for the Washinton Nationals’ new namesake Harper One cleats (which, naturally, the Nats’ right fielder will be wearing at Tuesday night’s All-Star Game).

In the commercial, Harper stands at the plate in an empty field, practicing his swing. The voiceover rattles off his impressive accomplishments by the numbers—precocious gains as a teenager, impressive averages, a unanimous MVP selection—all while his bat cracks against the ball again and agin, punctuating each data point.

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Under Armour couldn’t sit idly by on Tuesday when Misty Copeland was named the first African American principal dancer in American Ballet Theatre’s 75-year history—not after the famous TV spot that helped burnish both dancer and brand.

The sports apparel brand organized a social congratulations campaign, beginning with this simple tweet:

Thousands of tweets later—including love notes from UA NFL star Eddie Lacy and Zappos—and the brand had an SUV full of flowers to deliver to Copeland, who was clearly thrilled by the gift.

More pics below.

Mass Appeal recently launched a series of online ads for Under Armour, entitled “Charged By Belief” (also the name of a spot in Tight Shirt Production’s recent “Book of Will” effort for the brand).

Inspired by Golden State Warriors point guard (and Under Armour brand spokesperson) Stephen Curry, the series chronicles stories from the Bay Area of  “individuals and artists whose own drive and ambition has transformed their city.” Its initial effort follows the story of graphic designer Benny Gold. Gold began his career working for a series of design firms before deciding he was tired of working for other people and launching what eventually became a signature clothing brand with an international fanbase. Mass Appeal worked with production company Deacon and director Marcus A. Clarke on the series, which will see its second release this Friday and run for around six weeks. The initial effort, meanwhile, may run a little long (clocking in at almost four minutes) to appeal to anyone but diehard fans of Benny Gold and could have benefited from better establishing its connection to Curry and the Under Armour brand.

Credits:

Agency: Mass Appeal
CEO: Peter Bittenbender
CD: Alma Geddy-Romero
Account Director: Jon Colclough

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Decon
Director: Marcus A. Clarke
Executive Producer: Misha Louy
Line Producer: Ron Marrazzo
Director of Photography: Ricardo Sarmiento
Production Manager: Molly Salz

EDITORIAL
Editorial Company: Mass Appeal/Decon
Editor: Ryosuke Tanzawa/Nick Briggs
Producer: M. Shane Dolly

TELECINE
Colorist: Alex Berman

MIX

Mix Company: Sound Lounge
Mixer: Justin Kooy

MUSIC
Composers: Lyrics Born/HBK

Leon Sandcastle isn't real, but that doesn't mean he's not going places. In fact, the imaginary Hall of Fame cornerback, played by Deion Sanders in Grey New York's amusing Super Bowl spot for the NFL Network, just signed an endorsement deal with Under Armour. There's even real photos from the fake signing. (Although of course, you hardly have to be a real person to have real marketing value.)

"A talent like Leon doesn't come around very often," says Matt Mirchin, senior vice president of global brand and sports marketing at Under Armour. "Leon is the type of athlete we can't pass up because he plays the game with the experience of someone twice his age, and his trademark Afro and moustache look great on a graphic T-shirt."

"There is a ton of buzz on Sandcastle," adds NFL Network's Mike Mayock.

What does Sandcastle himself say? "I, for one, know my partnership with Under Armour is a match as good as peanut butter and jelly. The only company in the entire world who could keep up with Leon on and off the field is Under Armour. We're both ready for the Prime-Time, baby."

All this is leading up to the 2013 NFL Draft, to be broadcast on the NFL Network on April 25. Sandcastle is expected to be the No. 1 overall pick at the draft, according to NFL insiders who should not be believed. But in all seriousness, Sarah M. Swanson, vice president of marketing for NFL Network, says: "Leon's deal with Under Armour is the latest extension of the positive buzz and viral nature of this ad campaign … it's been a tremendous vehicle across all platforms for our partners to engage with the millions of NFL fans following the Combine and Draft on NFL Network."

In today’s environment, with technological advances, marketing strategies and celebrity endorsements, shoes have become much more than just footwear. Brands are scrambling to assert their top-dog status, and today finds Nike is in the midst of launching one of their broadest multimedia campaigns to date, including a :60 spot to air on American Idol and college basketball tournaments asserting that “my better is better than your better”:

The emerging Nike campaign is in direct response to the Under Armour Superbowl spot proclaiming “The Future is Ours,” announcing their entrance into the cross-trainer marketplace. Under Armour quickly rose to dominance in the “compression fitting apparel” category, and after entering the market less than a year ago, has taken a 1/5 market share of football cleats. An interesting article in today’s Oregonian has some interesting info and quotes regarding the Nike campaign and the shoe/athletic apparel battle:

“This was definitely an all-out attempt to stop Under Armour in its tracks,” said John Horan, publisher of trade newsletter Sporting Goods Intelligence. “They want to make sure they don’t get surprised on this category.”

Follow the jump for the Under Armour spot, a bit of Adidas, and some Pony action