We Hear: Did W+K Win Some Cherokee Work for Jeep?

jeepcherokee

We have no idea, but we’ve received several tips about this and contacted Wieden+Kennedy on this, which referred to the client for inquires. Here’s what sources familiar with the matter tell us: “There are no details on the 2014 Jeep Cherokee advertising campaign at this time.  Global Hue remains the Jeep brand’s agency of record.”As far as we know, this is W+K’s win but if you know more, please let us know. We’re told it’s for the 2014 Jeep Cherokee 2014 model launch biz. We’ll keep you posted if we hear more. 

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Coca-Cola Greenwashes Concrete City Square in W+K’s ‘Roll Out The Happiness’

Coca-Cola takes greenwashing to a literal level with “Roll Out The Happiness,” the latest global installment by W+K for the brand’s “Where Will Happiness Strike Next” campaign.

In the spot, Coca-Cola and W+K roll out a lush green carpet of grass sod onto a city square and invite people to remove their shoes, grab a soda and “experience a little unexpected happiness.” Not stopping at the grass, they also transplant trees, loaded with fun stuff for people to enjoy. People are pictured reclining on the grass sipping a Coke, kicking a ball around, and just relaxing and having a good time. They all seem to be having so much fun, it’s as if whatever job, class, or event they were rushing to doesn’t exist anymore. Or they’re paid actors.

At the end of the spot, the camera pans out and Coca-Cola’s makeshift urban green area is revealed to be in the shape of — you guessed it — a Coke bottle. So relax, smile, and take a sip from a soft drink that can also be used to clean clogged drains (Try it, it works!). Credits after the jump.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Heineken, W+K Amsterdam Drop the Ball with ‘Best of Heineken Dropped’

For the past four months Heineken and W+K Amsterdam have been giving men (because apparently if women drink Heineken, they really don’t give a shit) the opportunity to test their resourcefulness and wits in a reality-style web series by dropping them, blindfolded, in select locations.

To conclude this self-described “brand experiment” Heineken and W+K have put together the “Best of Heineken Dropped.” Unfortunately, the presentation wasn’t so well thought through.

I understand the need to want to narrate the adventures in “Best of Heineken Dropped,” but they really could have found a better way to do it than the annoying song telling the stories of the “Dropped” participants. The song is by one of “Dropped” participants, Murray, an Irishman from the Phillipines double drop, although that’s not mentioned in “Best of Heineken Dropped.” It’s basically just a repetitive verse with lyrics (including lots of cringe-worthy rhyming) changed for each “Dropped” participant’s story. The song is so uninteresting and obnoxious that it makes you want to zone it out, defeating the purpose of it narrating the “Dropped” men’s stories, and taking away from the occasionally interesting footage. By not mentioning the connection to the “Dropped” series they lose out on any gain from using Murray’s music (Do they really assume we’ve seen every “Dropped” episode?), so what’s the point? Simple voice-over narration explaining where each participant went and what they did would be much more effective, and not make me want to kill Heineken.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Heineken Plays Second Game of Departure Roulette With People Who Tweeted About the First One

Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy in New York revisit the concept of unscheduled trips in this sequel to their popular Departure Roulette stunt. That effort, from the summer, dared JFK travelers to ditch their plans and immediately fly to more exotic locales chosen at random by pushing a button. For the follow-up, the brand made surprise visits to people who had tweeted during the earlier campaign that they would want to try Departure Roulette—and let them do so.

In the sequel video, camera crews confront unsuspecting tweeters at their front doors, at work and on the sidewalk, with the big green Departure Roulette board in tow. The board becomes something of an actor in the drama, popping up behind tweeters during interviews and suddenly appearing around street corners. It's creepy and goofy at the same time, keeping the subjects off balance but generally adding to the fun. And there's an amusing bit halfway through the three-minute clip in which a brand ambassador knocks on a person's apartment door and calls out, "You're totally gonna miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" A neighbor steps into the hall to see what the commotion is about, takes in the scene with the lights and cameras, and quickly retreats back inside.

One guy who wins a trip to Bucharest seems less than stoked. "Romania … OK. I'll go to Romania. I guess." Maybe he was hoping for Budapest. Other destinations include Marrakesh, Morocco; Reykjavík, Iceland; Seoul, South Korea; and Panama City. As with the original Departure Roulette, the sequel is designed to capture Heineken's bold, adventurous spirit. Personally, I prefer Tui Brewery's approach to stunt marketing. They pump beer through your pipes so you can take off without ever leaving home.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Heineken
Project: Departure Roulette

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative Directors: Erik Norin, Eric Steele
Copywriter: Will Binder
Art Director: Jared White
Executive Producer: Nick Setounski
Assistant Producer: Kristen Johnson
Account Team: Patrick Cahill, Jacqueline Ventura, Sydney Lopes
Social Strategist: Jessica Abercrombie
Project Manager: Rayna Lucier
Community Managers: Mike Vitiello, Rocio Urena
Director of Interactive Production: Brandon Kaplan
Head of Integrated Production: Lora Schulson
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Lisa Quintela, Quentin Perry
Global Travel Director: Colleen Baker
Lead, Senior Travel Consultant: Angela Wootan
Senior Travel Consultant: Joelle Wainwright

Production Company: Legs Media
Director: Dan Levin
Executive Producer: Tom Berendsen
Line Producer: Sara Greco
Postproduction Company: Joint Editorial
Senior Producer: Michelle Carman
Editor: Jon Steffanson
Assistant Editors: Stephen Nelson, Noah Poole, Brian Schimpf
Motion Graphics Director: Yui Uchida
Information Display System Fabricator: Solari Corp.
Design and Build Team: The Guild
Audio Company: The Lodge
Audio Mixer: John Northcraft
Color: Nice Shoes
Colorist: Danny Boccia
Producer: Melissa Dupre


    

W+K, Heineken’s ‘Departure Roulette’ Ends in Wasted Sandwich (Among Other Things)

W+K and Heineken’s initial “social experiment” (sorry guys, no, this is a marketing campaign) “Departure Roulette” set about to send travelers at JFK Airport on a free trip to a new destination — one that they didn’t know of in advance.

Operating under the assumption that “Heineken consumers are especially open to adventure and the unknown” (and pissy-tasting beer), Heineken and W+K chose to follow-up by finding enthusiastic fans of the initial campaign in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York and bring the Departure Roulette board to them with “Departure Roulette En Route.” These were fans who tweeted that they would love to be given the opportunity to play Departure Roulette, so it was a fair assumption that they would accept the challenge.

Surprised but delighted to be given the opportunity to press the red button and set off for destinations unknown, most seemed excited at their travel prospects. One dude didn’t know where Reykjavik is, which is kind of lame, since I would club baby seals to be given the opportunity to travel to Iceland. Someone else appears to not have been home. (They must be kicking themselves for that one.) Another guy seemed less than elated to be going to Romania, with a reaction something along the lines of “Romania? Okay, I guess I’m going to Romania.” I guess he would have preferred Disney World or something. Maybe that “open to adventure and the unknown” assumption wasn’t so accurate.

This is a really interesting campaign from W+K. The original premise was a cool idea, and the follow-up engaging fans who claimed they’d love to participate makes a lot of sense; and taking things outside of the airport really raises the bar on the spontaneity factor. Wasting a perfectly good chicken parm, though? Not so cool. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New W+K NY ‘DaDaDa’ Spot Combines New with Familiar for ‘SportsCenter’

ESPN’s latest W+K New York-created spot for SportsCenter is a bit of a departure from their usual advertising style. In the 1:01 spot, ESPN spotlights their trade mark “da da da” (you’ll know it when you hear it) spoken by a wide range of athletes (such as Maria Sharapova, Bubba Watson, RG III, Clayton Kershaw and Patrick Kane) in different situations.

Not centered around a comic premise, “DaDaDa DaDaDa” lets the highlights from many different sports, including ones you don’t care about (lacrosse, anyone?), do the talking for a majority of the spot — perhaps not a bad strategy (except for the lacrosse), considering that is why most people tune in to SportsCenter.

“Da Da Da” is also a departure in that it’s the first ESPN commercial in ten years to be shown on other networks, such as during NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Presumably a response to SportsCenter’s declining audience — and perhaps a reaction to new competitor Fox Sports 1 — the spot attempts to bring in new viewers by running on DirectTV, Adult Swim, Spike and Comedy Central. Whether or not the expensive spot can help SportsCenter fight the declining viewership brought on by the increased ease of finding sports highlights online remains to be seen. But lacrosse players everywhere are cheering. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

ESPN Anchors Envy Rafa Nadal’s Swag in Latest Spot

Love it or hate it, Sportscenter has always been good at maintaining a certain tone across its ad campaigns. They’ve been running with the “star athletes in the ESPN office” schtick for what seems like forever, and it seems to be an infinitely adaptable formula. The latest in this long line of ads is the new 30-second spot “Candy Dish,” from Wieden + Kennedy New York, featuring U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal, fresh off his defeat of Novak Djokovic last night.

In the spot, Sportscenter host John Anderson and ESPNNews anchor Bram Weinstein wonder what makes Nadal so popular in the ESPN office (especially with the ladies). Is it his good looks? His tan? His accent? Or could it be that U.S. Open trophy he’s using as a candy dish? If you ask me, I think it’s the sweatband. Who doesn’t love a good sweatband?

This is the second This is Sportscenter spot to be released in both English and Spanish, following the clever Robinson Cano “Handshakes” spot. The Spanish-language version swaps out Anderson and Weinstein for ESPN Deportes anchors Alvaro Morales, Jorge Eduardo Sánchez and Carolina Padrón. Personally, I prefer the Spanish version (featured below). Because, well, everything sounds better in Spanish.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Calvin ‘Megatron’ Johnson Goes Undercover at ESPN

On the field, Calvin Johnson earns his “Megatron” nickname by dominating defenses with a robotic efficiency. He’s bigger, faster, stronger, and at times, it looks like a Transformer is playing against humans. However, off the field, and more specifically, in the ESPN offices, Johnson uses his transforming powers to trick a different kind of opponent (for anyone who cares and watches too much ESPN, it’s Kevin Negandhi).

The latest “This is Sportscenter” ad is par for the course: short, funny, and off-beat. The work comes once again from W+K New York (which has been handling SportsCenter work for nearly two decades), an agency that has no problem taking sports material and making it accessible to audiences. And for Megatron, he may want to think about outsourcing his Transformer duties over to Diddy, or Johnson, or whatever Nike wants to call him.

Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Dodge Goes From Zero to 100 in W+K’s Latest Comical Dart Spot

Dodge Dart hits the bull's-eye with this spot from Wieden + Kennedy and Caviar director Keith Schofield that demonstrates how to make the vehicle in "100 Easy Steps." "Step 1: Study the competition," says the voiceover. "Step 2: Get angry—they're boring. 3: Make a car from scratch, the Dodge way." The remaining tongue-in-cheek instructions include driving the vehicle through a brick wall and putting pictures of it on schlocky promotional calendars, preferably surrounded by bikini gals and hunky firefighters rather than cuddly puppies—woof! (Those preferring a single step can take their cue from a previous Dodge spot and travel ahead in time to a date when the Dart of their choosing has already been made by somebody else.) W+K's campaigns for Dodge are underrated. The work's been consistently amusing and offbeat for the category, while staying on-brand and avoiding the kind of full-throttle, pedal-to-floor tomfoolery that could easily go off track. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Dodge Dart
Spot: "100 Steps"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Aaron Allen, Michael Tabtabai, Kevin Jones
Copywriters: Justine Armour, Matt Rivitz
Art Directors: Matt Moore, Gianmaria Schonlieb, Tyler Magnusson
Producer: Erika Madison
Account Team: Lani Reichenbach, Cheryl Markley, Jourdan Merkow
Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman, Joe Staples
Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Caviar
Director: Keith Schofield
Executive Producers: Jasper Thomlinson, Michael Sagol
Line Producer: Eric Escott
Director of Photography: Jeff Cutter

Editing Company: Joint
Editor: Tommy Harden
Post Producer: Ryan Shanholtzer
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner
Assistant Editor: Steve Sprinkel

Visual Effects Company: Method Studios
Lead Flame Artist: Claus Hansen
Flame Artist Assist: Sergio Crego
Visual Effects Producer: Ananda Reavis

Music, Sound Company: Joint
Sound Designer: Tommy Harden
Song (if applicable): "Atlas" by Battles

Mix Company: Eleven
Mixer: Jeff Payne
Assistant Mixer: Ben Freer
Producer: Caroline O'Sullivan


    

NFL Season: Another Reason for Old Spice to Do Old Spice Things

There’s a very fine line between stupid funny and annoying, a line that Old Spice is willing to tightrope for miles and miles. Their “Unnecessary Freshness” campaign, created by W+K Portland, will hit screens starting Thursday night for the season opener. As you might expect, there will be plenty of shenanigans that don’t make sense. But, at least that’s the point.

Three new spots starring Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker might make you shake your head, laugh, or both (there’s also a fourth spot featuring New England Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo, possibly a pity commercial since Welker darted for Denver). However, since each ad is less than 20 seconds, it’s easy to stomach the goofy jokes and images of lizards eating Welker’s legs. If commenters take to the site to rip W+K, Welker, football, me, AgencySpy itself, or a number of other things that exist, and therefore, should be ridiculed incessantly, they can hopefully agree that the running time is a plus. And, if you believe that a majority of people in America are stupid and these spots are stupid funny, then maybe W+K is onto something brilliant. Maybe.

Credits and some more unnecessary freshness after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Barton F. Graf 9000 Denies Involvement in Horse Stunt Outside Wieden + Kennedy

Barton F. Graf 9000 says it wasn't involved in a stunt early Thursday when a guy in a horse suit appeared to be trying to poach staff for the agency outside Wieden + Kennedy in New York. W+K's Kevin Wang snapped this photo outside his agency's offices this morning, writing on Twitter: "Dude. BFG just took poaching to a whole new level." The message is pretty blunt, too. "I have no idea who it is or why they'd be doing it," Barton F. Graf's Eric Kallman tells AdFreak.

Barton F. Graf 9000 has been in major growth mode recently. As Gerry Graf told me in April: "We're bringing in creative technologists, people who know the social space. It's a chicken-and-egg thing. If we bring in the talent before we get certain assignments, then we end up getting those assignments. It's always a little bit of a risk, but it's worked out for us."


    

Nike Taps LeBron, Piqué, Bradley Cooper’s Voice for ‘Just Do It’ 25th Anniversary

At this point, Nike and AOR W+K are just showing off. Their latest spot, “Possibilities,” is a fat, splashy kick-off to the 25th anniversary of its ubiquitous slogan, “Just Do It.” These type of Nike ads have always had a mythical quality, compared to other sports brands – like certain BBDO Foot Locker commercials – that are solid and funny. Nike is serious. W+K Portland is serious. Nike, Inc. is set to earn $25 billion in revenue this year, meaning we must be serious, too, when it comes to our purchases.

Being serious does not preclude Nike from a certain playfulness if you look hard enough. For “Possibilities,” the lightness comes from some Bradley Cooper voiceover that makes the viewer want to just do it, even though said viewer knows he/she can’t do it as well as professional athletes. That’s where stars like footballer Gerard Piqué and basketballer LeBron James come in, cameos that are almost taking the money out of your wallet before you know it.

For LeBron, the unofficial king of the summer, Nike has been creatively pumping out his spots for a few years now. This one may be a joint venture, but he subtly dominates the end with some clever winking done in the form of a fake dunk content. LeBron has never entered the NBA dunk contest. Maybe this is a hint for 2014? Or maybe it’s just smart marketing? Plenty of possibilities to choose from.

Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

W+K NY, SoCo Do Barbershop Karate

It takes a comfortable man to perform karate in a barber’s robe and tinfoil, not to mention skintight jeans and snakeskin boots. Meet the face of Southern Comfort, a moustachioed man we’ve met once before in “Shampoo,” one of the previous spots in W+K’s SoCo “Whatever’s Comfortable” campaign.

Then, he was meditating amidst soft suds, opening his eyes only to check out the woman across the barbershop. Now, he’s showing off for all the ladies.

Director Tim Godsall and the W+K creative team wrote the spot after seeing our protagonist’s casting tape for “Shampoo,” in which he did karate – he’s actually skilled in the martial art, and owns a few dojos. Given the nature of the campaign, they wanted to play to his natural skills. It was a good choice, because this is the best spot yet. While “Beach” and “Shampoo” play to the relaxed side of comfort, “Karate” has more personality and ease. Especially when backed by “I’m a Fool to Care,” by Les Paul and Mary Ford, this barbershop guy paints a poignant picture, and will probably ascend to be your new role model.

Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Nike, Foot Locker, W+K Introduce Kevin ‘Kevin’ Durant

Hot Sauce. Skip to My Lou. Main Event. Kevin. The park league nickname has always been a valued tradition in the realm of streetball, meaningful monikers passed down from the basketball gods that can become legend, a la Dr. J or Pee Wee Kirkland. Kevin Durant, for all of his NBA greatness, has yet to merge his skills with an equally skillful nickname. Yes, there’s KD and the Durantula (and perhaps the best one via Jalen Rose, who resurrected the name Iceberg Slim), but it just doesn’t feel right yet.

For the latest Nike effort from W+K Portland, which was created in partnership with Foot Locker, the agency decided to take Durant’s lack of nicknameness and build an ad around it. The sixty-second spot, which features comedian Hannibal Buress as MC, is the coming-out party for Kevin “Kevin” Durant. Buress runs through pre-game introductions and calls out intricate nicknames for random guys like Don Juan Have a Picnic by the Pond, but when he gets to Durant, the crowd goes silent. Kevin Kevin: It’s funny because it’s true. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

ESPN Calls on Kennys, J.J Watt for ‘Monday Night Football’ Spot

The end of August means football season, and football season means ads for football audiences, which eventually leads to Super Bowl commercials. But before we go down the rabbit hole of beer spots, Subway ads, and…twins, we have an ESPN commercial promoting the actual games.

W+K New York handled the creative legwork for “It All Comes Down to Monday Night,” which shows Houston Texans defensive end/athletic monster picking up a fumble and thinking about how everyone is watching him on television. For comic relief, he starts to run down a checklist of some people named Kenny who could be watching: Ken Norton Jr., Ken Griffey Jr., Kenny Loggins (who makes a quality cameo). According to ESPN, there will be two more similar spots on the way as the regular season draws closer, so start thinking of celebrities with the same first name who might like to watch football.

Unfortunately, as much as ESPN would like you to believe that it all comes down to Monday night, the truth is that MNF has taken some hits in the ratings over the past few years. These goofy thirty-second spots always play with the same stringy background music, and even if a few of the quips make you smile, they always feel a little dated. Maybe the program could use a tune-up before “It All Comes Down to Monday Night” turns into “Ratings Come Down on Monday Night.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Where in the World is Tyler Whisnand?

It all started yesterday when a simple, yet vague tip came in saying, “Tyler Whisnand to Apple,” and the road has been long and winding since. If you don’t know the name, Whisnand spent the last six years at W+K Portland, serving as creative director on Levi’s and Nike, helping lead efforts on the “Go Forth” campaign for the former brand and spots like Tiger vs. Rory for Nike Golf from the beginning of the year. Well, we checked with W+K, which told us that Whisnand, much to our surprise, actually left the agency earlier this year to assume a creative director position at TBWA\Media Arts Lab on, what else, Apple–though you wouldn’t know it judging from the bio on his site.

Anyhow, we’ve checked in with both Apple PR and \MAL on Whisnand’s status and are awaiting some clarification. During his time at W+K, meanwhile, the senior creative also served as co-director alongside Hal Curtis of W+K’s in-house ad school/”League of Shadows,” W+K12. The W+K camp tells us, “we [were] very sad to see him go—he was definitely beloved here.” During his career, Whisnand also held creative roles at the likes of KesselsKramer, Ground Zero and Y&R NY. Hopefully we’ll get some updates on this shortly and try to sort this out. Stay tuned.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

ESPN Picks Its 10 Favorite SportsCenter Commercials

ESPN's "This Is SportsCenter" is among the handful of classic sports ad campaigns of all time. Launched in 1995 by Wieden + Kennedy in New York, the campaign—originally inspired by the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap—hasn't changed much over the years. And why would it? You don't mess with a winning formula.

The premise of the ads, as we've noted before, is that ESPN's Bristol, Conn., offices are the center of the sports universe—a surreal yet mundane fantasy world where athletes and mascots live and work together with anchors and journalists. Where other marketers portray athletes as superhuman, "This Is SportsCenter" presents them as comically, relatably human. Eighteen years and more than 400 spots later, the campaign continues.

As part of the Adweek story linked above, W+K drew up a list of its 10 favorite SportsCenter ads. Now, ESPN has one-upped its agency—devoting a whole special to its 50 favorite SportsCenter spots of all time. The show, airing this Thursday at 8 p.m. ET and hosted by Jason Sudeikis, will feature anecdotes and stories about the top 50, and fans are encouraged to vote for their favorite spot over on Facebook. Sudeikis will announce the winning spot on the show. (More than 1 million votes have been cast so far.)

Check out the program on Thursday, and click the link below for a sneak peek at ESPN's official top 10 favorite "This Is SportsCenter" commercials.

Video Gallery: ESPN's 10 Favorite 'This Is SportsCenter' Ads

    

ESPN, Jason Sudeikis Count Down Best of ‘This is Sportscenter’ Spots

I was just a kid when Charley Steiner yelled “Follow me! Follow me to freedom!” at the end of the “Y2K” This is Sportscenter ad. ESPN was a much simpler network then, before screaming heads led by Messers Bayless and A. Smith really damaged the reputation of everyone’s go-to sports network. Back then, the anchors of Sportscenter, like Steiner, were the stars, and the audience got to see anchor personalities shine through during these 30-second spots. Sometimes the spots featured professional athletes; sometimes they didn’t. But the spots were almost always funny and ripe with self-deprecation.

More than a decade later, Steiner is gone from the network. ESPN has chosen to count down the 50 greatest “This is Sportscenter” commercials from the past 18 years on August 1, with irrelevant host/SNL member Jason Sudeikis. As always, W+K New York ran point on this project with “the worldwide leader in sports.” I’m not sure why the network has chosen to unroll the countdown now, but we’re told that there will be bonus footage and interviews with the actors, athletes, and producers who helped shape the commercials. So for one last day, we can all follow Charley Steiner to freedom.

You can watch a few of the top spots after the jump, including a great bit featuring the entire Manning family from a few years ago.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here Are the Crazy Ones Who Dropped Everything and Flew Off to Oblivion With Heineken

Last week we wrote about Heineken's JFK airport stunt, in which the brand dared travelers to drop their existing plans and go somewhere new and exotic with the push of a button—without knowing where. Today, we have video of some of the gameplay from the campaign, by Wieden + Kennedy in New York. It's pretty amusing. It begins, fittingly enough, with people who won't play the game—i.e., the sane ones to whom we can most easily relate. Then we get to the nutjobs—those outliers who are willing to make that call to friends and family and say they won't be visiting after all, but will be boarding a flight to who-knows-where at the request of people who've clearly been drinking. Most of the folks who take the plunge seem pretty happy with their new destination, although the guy going to Laos—he looks more than a little ambivalent.

CREDITS
Client: Heineken
Project: Departure Roulette

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative Directors: Erik Norin, Eric Steele
Copywriter: Will Binder
Art Director: Jared White
Interactive Producer: Victoria Krueger
Executive Producer: Nick Setounski
Assistant Producer: Kristen Johnson
Account Team: Patrick Cahill, Jacqueline Ventura, Sydney Lopes
Social Strategist: Jessica Abercrombie
Project Manager: Rayna Lucier
Sr. Community Manager: Mike Vitiello
Director of Interactive Production: Brandon Kaplan
Head of Integrated Production: Lora Schulson
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Lisa Quintela, Quentin Perry
Global Travel Director: Colleen Baker
Lead/Sr. Travel Consultant: Angela Wootan
Sr. Travel Consultant: Joelle Wainwright

Production Company: Legs Media
Director: Dan Levin
Post-Production Company: Legs Media In Collaboration with BrehmLabs

Editors: Frederic T. Brehm, Ian Park, Gabriela Tessitore
Sound Designer: Eric Hoffman
Colorists: Frederic T. Brehm, M. Scott Vogel
Information Display System Fabricator: Solari Corp.
Design & Build Team: The Guild

 

    

W+K Takes Over on TurboTax

Suffice it to say that it’s been a busy day on the account front. We first started hearing about this last Friday and though the Wieden + Kennedy camp confirmed that its Portland HQ was still in the pitch for tax preparation/filing service TurboTax, the agency referred any other inquiries to the brand’s parent company, Intuit. Well, we didn’t hear back from the latter but it’s now hit the wire that W+K has indeed been named AOR for TurboTax following a three-month review. Beginning August 1, W+K will take over on creative and media planning duties for TT, which were previously handled by L.A.-based agency, Dailey. According to earlier reports, W+K beat out the likes of CP+B, goodness Mfg. and Campbell Ewald for the TurboTax business.

In a statement, TurboTax VP of marketing Greg Johnson says, “From our first meeting, the chemistry between our two teams was clear. The Wieden+Kennedy team understands that TurboTax is central to the financial lives of millions of Americans. They share our belief that TurboTax exists to empower people to do their taxes and get their biggest refund. With their long history of developing great work that transforms brands, we are thrilled about the prospects for this partnership.”

Now, one can only wonder if W+K continues with the tax prep ad war between TurboTax and H&R Block in their upcoming efforts.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.