Hasta La Creative!

Back in March of 2015, Chobani dropped Droga5 as its agency of record, stating at the time that it planned to focus on “more in-house and project-based agency partners.” While the brand won’t be returning to the agency of record model, it has selected a lead creative agency in Weiden+Kennedy Portland. The appointment follows the arrival of Leland Maschmeyer as Chobani’s first chief creative officer in July.

Additionally, Chobani hired longtime consultant Lisa Gralnek as vice president of emerging platforms and Kwame Taylor-Hayford as managing director and head of creative technology and integrated production. She will report to chief marketing and brand officer Peter McGuinness while he will work under Maschmeyer.

Taylor-Hayford has worked in the accounts and production departments of several agencies; he was most recently partner and director of integrated production at Sid Lee in New York.

“This is an exciting time of high growth for us,” McGuinness said in a statement. “We’re proud to be evolving our internal team and our tech and creative capabilities, and proud to be partnering with the best agencies in the world to help tell our story.”

“It’s a dream come true when you find a client who is known for making bold moves, shares your independent spirit and values, and most importantly, believes in the power of creativity. Chobani is all that and more,” added W+K Portland managing director Tom Blessington. 

This is only the most recent in a series of changes for Chobani, which named Horizon Media as its new media agency of record in August and hired Galvea Kelly of L’Oreal as senior director of digital/content/social strategy and Danielle Cherry, formerly with Starcom, as senior director of media investment and connections planning.

W+K Portland’s first ads for Chobani are expected to debut in Q1 of 2017. Chobani spent $30 million on measured media last year and $20 million in the first half of 2016, according to Kantar Media. With sales growth up 20 percent year over year and the company’s plans for expansion with its Chobani Meze Dips and Drink Chobani lines, that number could continue to rise. 

W+K London launched a new campaign for Lurpak, telling people who enjoy preparing and eating food (we refuse to use the word “foodie”) that it’s “Game On, Cooks.”

Like the agency’s April, 2015 “Freestyle” spot, the ad celebrates home cooking. This time around, though, the message is less purely celebratory. It’s more of a challenge for the food-obsessed but somewhat kitchen-averse, who watch cooking shows, follow and like obsessively on social media but haven’t made a home cooked meal in awhile. You know who you are!

“It”s time to get your hands dirty again, ” says the voiceover (presumably with some Lurpak butter), “smell the magic, hear the crackle.”

“So what are you going to be, spectator or player?” the voiceover asks at the conclusion of the spot, challenging viewers to get to know their kitchens again and devote themselves to home cooking.

The foodie challenging tone makes the spot a call to action and something of a wake-up call to foodies who have come to neglect their own kitchens. It was motivated, Adweek points out, by the insight that people are consuming more media surrounding food and cooking than ever, but actually cooking less.

It seems a fair assumption that at least some of those people will be motivated by being called out for their behavior and the spot does a good job of inspiring such viewers, showing the rewards inherent in a home cooked meal, while not shying away from the difficult tasks that are part of the job.

When W+K Portland introduced George Hamilton as KFC’s new “Extra Crispy Colonel” back in June it was obvious that he wouldn’t be around for long. Now that the summer is winding down and football season has arrived, the brand has tapped yet another actor to portray the character, this time turning to comedian (and retired United States Marine Corps Reserve Lt. Colonel) Rob Riggle.

In W+K’s latest for the client, The Daily Show vet plays the part of the Colonel as he introduces Kentucky’s first professional football team, the Kentucky Buckets.

In the 30-second “Real Team,” Riggle introduces himself as “owner, head coach and marketing director” of the team, which he assures viewers is a “real team and not just a marketing gimmick to get buckets of delicious chicken in front of football fans” while strolling through the locker room. The team’s “starting quarterback” confirms the “real team” status, albeit quite unconvincingly.

Other spots see the new Colonel giving a “Speech” to hype the team up for a photo shoot, reviving a player with an “Injury” via the magic of fried chicken and introducing the team’s (kind of creepy) “Mascot.”

At this point both the self-referential style of the ads and the revolving door of actors playing Colonel Sanders shtick feel tired, though the fake football team idea at least injects something different into the campaign.

The question now is whether the brand will stick with Riggle throughout the football season, as it’s a matter of when, not if, there’s a new Colonel. Our guesses for the next person to tackle the role: Rob Schneider, the recently retired Jonathan Goldsmith, Jay Pharoah (he did just leave SNL), Melissa McCarthy and big advertising fan Donald Trump.

Any other ideas?

Is it time for football again already?? Yes, it is.

That means it’s time for a new W+K campaign promoting Bud Light’s NFL team branded cans.

The launch spot “This Is Your Can’s Year” opens with voiceover courtesy of actor Michael K. Williams (aka Omar Little), who asks,”Will this can repeat? Will this can make it back?” over shots of a hand reaching into a cooler full of ice to pull out a Bud Light can with the Broncos logo on it and a Carolina Panthers can awaiting a drinker at a tailgating party.

“Or is this your can’s year?” the voiceover adds, as someone opens a fridge full of New England Patriots cans. The spot plays up both the brand’s legacy and the legacy of individual teams with the line “You root for this can, your father roots for this can, your father’s father rooted for this can.”

“This Is Your Can’s Year” also manages to work in cameos from former NFL stars Bo Jackson, Justin Tuck and Tim Couch. The approach is almost a given for the brand and NFL sponsor, as cans branded with fans favorite teams is an obvious selling point for a beer long associated with football. The spot, directed by Mark Romanek, manages to work in references to a wide variety of teams in ways that speak to either the teams’ recent history or location (a man struggling to open a frozen Buffalo Bills can, for example) and the brisk pacing keeps things from getting boring. It makes its broadcast debut this Thursday during Thursday Night Football. The campaign also includes local OOH executions targeting fans of individual teams. 

“Just like wearing your favorite player’s jersey or team colors is a badge of honor, so is drinking from your Bud Light team can,”  Mark Goldman, senior marketing director, Bud Light, said in a statement. “Our mission with our new film was to pay tribute to the passion fans feel for their team, and capture the optimism that we all feel as NFL fans at the beginning of the season, when it truly can be your team’s year.”

“The game wouldn’t be the same for us players without the fans who put their heart and soul into game day,” added Tuck. “The Bud Light ad honors each and every one of these fans and their passion for the sport.”

That’s cool. We are just glad to report that Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen were nowhere near this spot.

Here’s a notable ad we didn’t get to last week: W+K Shanghai launched a new 90-second spot for Nike China entitled “The Next Wave” that takes a fresh look at the “Just Do It” tagline.

The spot opens with young boy who handles a soccer ball with some impressive footwork. “You don’t have to do it for the glory,” begins the voiceover as he opens the front door to his school by kicking the ball at it and deftly slides down the railing. As the spot continues, the action quickly but smoothly shifts from athlete to athlete, each offering up a different ending to “You don’t have to do it…” line, from “to be famous” to “the boys” to “for the attention.” At the end of the spot, the action returns to the boy from the beginning, who concludes “All we said was, ‘Just Do It.’”

In between amateur and professional athletes of all kinds are represented, from a group of acrobatic parkour enthusiasts to women playing basketball to a roller hockey squad and an elderly marathon runner.

In the wrong hands, the approach could easily become disorienting and fall apart. Instead W+K Shanghai, Stink Films Shanghai and director Martin Krejci created a captivating spot that injects some new life into the well-worn tagline. Credit the epic scope, perfect pacing, impressive choreography and, of course, some talented athletes. The broadcast spot will be supported by digital and OOH  components. 

“We shot this film in a single-take style, and it took a lot of long shots with very complicated choreography to pull it off,” W+K Shanghai creative director Shaun Sundholm explained to Adweek. “That meant we had everyday athletes playing side by side with famous athletes, balls flying everywhere, people crashing into each other. It was near chaos at times. But in the end, we combined all of their energy into one infectious massive wave of sport.”

“Growing up in China, I was surrounded by people who simply used the English words ‘Just Do It’ as a punch line without knowing what it really means,” added W+K Shangai business director Dino Xu. “It’s great that in this campaign, the provocative voiceover lines help to define what it is, by saying what it isn’t.”

The campaign is the latest attention-grabbing spot from Wieden+Kennedy outside the U.S. market, following on the heels of W+K Tokyo’s “Don’t Know Your Place” earlier this month.

Credits: 
Client: Nike China
Campaign Name: 2016 Nike JDI campaign
Main Anthem: “The Next Wave”
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai
Executive Creative Director: Yang Yeo
Creative Director: Terence Leong, Azsa West, Shaun Sundholm
Art Directors: Christian Laniosz, Marc Garreta
Copywriters: TJ Walthall, Liu Wei, Max Pilwat
Director of Integrated Production: Angie Wong
Head of Content: Bernice Wong
Producer: Fang Yuan
Art Producer: Xuan Ong
Planning Director: Paula Bloodworth
Senior Planner: Leon Lin
Digital Strategist: Bill Tang
Business Director: Dino Xu
Associate Account Director: Jim Zhou
Sr. Account Executive: Shawn Kai
Project Manager: Nicole Bee
Business Affairs: Jessica Deng, Kathy Zhan
Senior Designer: Patrick Rockwell
Designers: Wendy Yu, Deer CL
Production Manager: Vic Zhang
Digital Imaging Artist: Changqing Lee
FA Artist: Bin Liu
Campaign Summary Sheet
Production Company: Stink Films Shanghai
Director: Martin Krejci
Director’s Producer: Justine Madero
1st Assistant Director: James Skotchdopole
1st Assistant Director (Local): Hank Zeng
Director of Photography: Dimitri Karakatsanis
CAM A Operator / Gimbal Ninja: Florian Hatwagner
Executive Producer: Desmond Loh
Executive Producer: Brenda Tham
Producer: Juliana Chung
Production Manager: Charles Renard
Production Manager: Evie Yeo
Beijing Line Producer: Xiao Yu
Production Assistant: Haze Zhu
Celebrity Handler/Fixer: Emma Sun
CAM A Focus Puller/1st AC: Albert Wang
Drone operator: Zhang Teng Sen
Q Take: Marcus Peh
Taipei Production Support: Episode Films
Hong Kong Production Support: Spur Link
Beijing & Hong Kong Art Director: Yao Jun
Taiwan Art Director: Daymon Wu
Wardrobe Stylist: Julian Mei
Postproduction: Lost Planet Editorial, L.A.
Editorials: Hank Corwin, Federico Brusilovsky
Post Executive Producer: Gary Ward
Post Producer: Aimee Crook
Assistant Editor: Jason Dopko
VFX Artist/Supervisor: Glenn Teel
Color: The Mill, London
Colorist: Seamus O’Kane
Producer: Dan Kreeger
Campaign Summary Sheet
Music: Barking Owl, L.A.
Composer: Seth Olinsky
Sound Design (L.A.):
Sound Designer: Eugene Gearty
Mixing (L.A.):
Mixer: Chris Jenkins
Audio VO Production: TZ Studio, Shanghai
Producer: Joyce Chen
Engineer: Hu Yuan

Weiden + Kennedy continues its full-court press for Nike with W+K New York’s collaboration with Chance the Rapper, “Unlimited Together.”

The spot, essentially a branded music video for Nike promoting Team USA basketball, features the new Chance the Rapper track “We the People,” inspired by the Star Spangled Banner. Shot in black and white, the spot features Chance the Rapper delivering lines from the somewhat somber song, along with shots of Team USA men’s and women’s basketball teams. Both the song and ad act as a call for unity as the teams aim for gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

In addition to the spot, Nike Basketball shot the men’s and women’s teams together for the official Olympics USA Basketball team photo, taken by photographer Danny Clinch. The shot is being promoted across  Nike Basketball’s social channels. Additionally, “We The People” will be available for download on iTunes and SoundCloud beginning tomorrow and will stream on Spotify beginning this Friday. 

Credits:
W+K NEW YORK
Executive Creative Director: Karl Lieberman
Creatives: Caleb Jensen + Jimm Lasser
Project Manager: Kristin Daly
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Producer: Dominic Tunon
Director of Art Production: Deb Rosen
Art Producer: Pietro Clemente
Strategist: Brandon Thornton
Account Team: Jordan Muse + Liz Lindberg
Business Affairs Team: Sara Jagielski + Lindsey Timko + Tana Prosper
Media Team: Karlo Cordova, Branden Bouvia, Chad Muratev
Traffic Team: Sonia Bisono

PHOTOGRAPHY PRODUCTION
Production Company: Urban NYC
Photographer: Danny Clinch
Executive Producer: Miyazu Sato
Production Designer: Tom McMillan @ Bednark Studio

PHOTOGRAPHY RETOUCHING
Retouching Company: 150 Proof
Retouching Manager: Chris McClelland
Retouchers: Jesse Corinella, Kevin Walker
Print Producer: David Niblick

FILM PRODUCTION
Production Company: Doomsday
Director: Hiro Murai
Executive Producer: Danielle Hinde
Line Producer: Jason Colon
Director of Photography: Larkin Seiple
Production Designer: Eric Archer

FILM EDITORIAL
Editorial: Company Parallax
Editor: Luke Lynch
Executive Producer: Graham Zeller
Editorial Assistant: Kyle Gilbertson, Rene Vargas­Madrigal
Colorist: Bossi Baker
Sound Mix: Unbridled Sound
Compositing: Graham Zeller
Clean up artist: Jared Abel
Sound Mix: Unbridled Sound
Projection editing: Luke Lynch, Taylor Ward, Laith Majali

MUSIC
Song: “We The People”
Artist: Chance The Rapper

With the 2016 Rio Olympics opening today, W+K Portland launched a new spot for Nike as the latest in its “Unlimited” campaign for the brand.

The spot, entitled “Unlimited You” starts out familiarly enough, with a voiceover introducing a baby who will “win a state championship one day.” Things get unusual fairly quickly, however, as the voiceover’s next subject asks, “Who will? Me?” when he hears that he’ll run a marathon. “All of these athletes are terrible now,” he continues, over footage of a father lifting a young toddler to slam dunk a basket, “but they’ll all do great things one day.” Aside from the voiceover interacting with its subjects, this is still a pretty standard message for a sports brand. But things take an unexpected turn when the voiceover’s subjects ambition’s eclipse what he’s comfortable with. While the voiceover keeps trying to wrap things up, athletes keep pushing boundaries.

Directed by The Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), the spot features celebrity athletes including Kevin Durant, Neymar Jr., Mo Farah, Aaron Gordon, Nyjah Huston, Serena Williams and Giancarlo Stanton. Williams and Stanton can be seen swatting tennis balls back and forth at ridiculous speeds with their chosen equipment (racket and baseball bat) as the voiceover asks “What kind of training is that!?” as he’s in the middle of losing composure over the various ridiculous stunts athletes are pulling off.

Clearly the idea is to illustrate the “Unlimited” possibilities of both professional and amateur athletes, with the spot taking the idea to comic extremes. In addition to the full-length online spot (above), “Unlimited You” will also run as a 60-second broadcast spot, debuting during NBC’s coverage of the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremonies tonight. 

Credits:
Client: Nike
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Global Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O’Rourke
Interactive Director: Dan Viens
Copywriter: Edward Harrison
Art Director: Susan Land
Global Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Senior Agency Producer: Ross Plummer
Agency Post Producer: Shelley Eisner
Agency Production Assistant: Emily Knight
Digital Producer: Keith Rice
Art Production: Amy Berriochoa, Krystle Mortimore, Jennifer Spillers
Project Management: Christina Kim
Studio Design Manager: Alicia Kuna
Studio Designer: Edgar Morales
Retoucher: Frazer Goodbody
Motion Production, Design: Tori Herbst, Carlos Enciso
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Nathan Goldberg, Brandon Thornton, Reid Schilperoort
Media, Communications Planning: Danny Sheniak, John Furnari, Brian Goldstein, Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Chris Willingham, Alyssa Ramsey, Corey Woodson, Anna Boteva, Carly Williamson
Production Company: Prettybird
Director: The Daniels
Executive Producers: Ali Brown, Suzanne Hargrove
Line Producer: Jonathan Wang
Director of Photography: Larkin Seiple
Production Designer: Mark Snelgrove
Editing Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Angus Wall
Assistant Editor: Lauren Dellara
Post Producer: Chris Noviello
Executive Post Producer: Helena Lee
Visual Effects, Color: Mill, Los Angeles
2-D Lead Artist: John Leonti
2-D Artists: Brad Scott, Alex Candish, Peter Sidoriak, Rob Winfield, Joseph Zaki, Tommy Smith, Daniel Thurreson, Glyn Tebbutt, Greg VanZyl, Tim Bird, Jake Albers, Sam Evenson, Don Kim, Jake Albers, Adam Lambert
Matte Painting: Andy Wheater, Jie Zhou
Art Support: Dylan Streiff, Gary Marschka
Visual Effects Supervisor: Will Lemmon
Colorists: Greg Reese, Adam Scott
Color Producer: Thatcher Peterson
Music
Artist: FNDTY
Track Title: “Never Die”
Music, Sound, Mix: Lime Studios
Audio Mixers: Rohan Young, Jeff Malen
Audio Assistants: Ben Tomastik, Lisa Mermelstein
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan

Back in February, W+K launched “The Bud Light Party” campaign with a Super Bowl spot starring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen, promising the campaign’s light-hearted satire of American politics would continue through November. At the beginning of the month, the campaign continued with Rogen and Schumer proclaiming their support for gay weddings, which they say are “just like any wedding.” Now the pair are back to tackle “Equal Pay” in a new, 30-second spot, which, like its predecessors, never quite finds its comedic voice. 

Like its predecessor, the spot sees the brand taking a popular stance on a relatively non-divisive issue. When Rogen says “Women don’t get paid as much as men and that is wrong,” Schumer adds, “And we have to pay more for the same stuff.” An alarmed Rogen then calls his mother, yelling about she has to pay more for a car than dad.

The approach, which seems to be a pattern now, is a different one than the Super Bowl spot at the campaign’s inception, which was a more generic parody of the American political process. We could see a return to the former as the general election approaches and dominates news headlines. Whatever approach W+K chooses to take going forward, we hope the agency and the “Bud Light Party” comedians can find the humor in it going forward. Given the talent involved, this campaign has had a disheartening lack of laughs thus far.

“The Bud Light Party is about bringing people together and sparking national conversations around timely topics,” Alex Lambrecht, vice president, Bud Light at Anheuser-Busch said, in a statement. “In our newest spot, Seth and Amy have a colorful banter surrounding the matter of equal pay—which the Bud Light Party proudly supports.”

To the brand’s credit, it is to some degree putting its money where its mouth is, donating a dollar to workplace equality organization Catalyst for every time someone uses the #CheersToEqualPay hashtag on social media.  

W+K Portland launched a new spot for the Samsung Galaxy S7 starring Danny Glover, entitled, “Time.”

“Time is the most valuable thing there is,” begins the voiceover, accompanied by footage of a cuckoo clock. “Since the beginning of time, there never seems to be enough of it,” he goes on, as two dinosaurs look up to see a comet headed their way. Continuing to wax philosophical about the chronological, the spot gets self-referential with the line, “Our greatest fear is running out of time…and you just spent 34 seconds of it watching this commercial.” Glover comes into the picture in a parody pointing out how time is involved inthe plots of most action movies.

The point of all this time talk? It arrives with the question “So if time is the most valuable thing there is why would you waste more than you have to charging your phone?” Well, they certainly took their time with that one. Joking aside, the spot is fairly entertaining, with Glover’s self-effacing performance the clear highlight. And while the delivery could have been a little quicker (to be fair, there are also 30 and 15-second versions) it does convincingly sell the phone’s wireless charging feature and longest-lasting battery.

The spot made its broadcast debut last Sunday during game seven of the NBA Finals. Additional ads in the campaign will follow shortly.

Credits:
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Directors: Craig Allen/Jason Bagley
Copywriter: Derek Syznal
Art Director: Brandon Mugar/Croix Gagnon
Executive Producer: Erika Madison
Producer: Shannon Worley
Account Director: Mimi Kim
Account Supervisor: Phil Williams
Executive Creative Directors” Mark Fitzloff/Joe Staples
Strategist: Renny Gleeson/Bruno Frankel
Project Management: Laurie Holtz/Amanda Rudolph
Business Affairs: Teresa Lutz/Amber Lavender
Director of Integrated Production: Patty Brebner

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer: Doug Halbert
Producer: Anita Wetterstedt

Editorial Company: Whitehouse Post
Editor: Lisa Gunning
Asst Editor: Sam Perkins
Post Producer: Jennifer Mersis
Post Executive Producer: Joni Williamson

VFX Company: MPC LA
Creative Director: Paul O’Shea
Visual Effects Supervisor: Michael Gregory
VFX Executive Producer: Elexis Stearn
VFX Color Producer: Meghan Lang
VFX Producers: Brian Friel/Deepanjali Signh
Color Producer: Rebecca Boorsma
Colorist: Mark Gethin
VFX Team: Andre Arevalo,Oliver Caiden, Rodrigo Jimenez, Ryan Taylor, Tim Kafka, Steward Burris, Patrick Manning, Yuichiro Yamashita, George Saavedra, Kunal Sarkar, Anbarasu E, Inigo Vimal Roy, Sugumar S, Sabanayagam V, M. Vijaya Kumar, Mithun Alex

MUSIC + SOUND DESIGN
Sound Company: Lime
Sound Designer: Rohan Young

MIX
Mix Company: LIME
Mixer: Rohan Young
Producer: Susie Boyajan
Audio Assistant: Ben Tomastik

After signing the professional golfer to an endorsement deal in January, Coca-Cola wanted W+K Portland to make an ad with Jordan Spieth reaching for an ice cold bottle of Coke during a hot day on a Texas golf course. They ran into one big problem though: rain. Lots of it. When they tried to reschedule the shoot, the forecast once again called for lots and lots of rain. So W+K Portland and Coca-Cola rolled with the punches, changing the creative concept on the fly, with the spot’s new framework imitating the real life impediments to their original plan.

“Rain” depicts Spieth in his RV while waiting for the rain to stop to film a commercial. So how does a pro golfer like Spieth kill an hour? By reaching for a cold Coke and sinking a bunch of trick shots, naturally. Set to the Missy Elliott classic ” The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” the results are rather charming and fun, all the more so knowing the story behind the ad.

“It was a very high stress environment,” Peggy Loos, vice president of connections activation for Coca-Cola North America, told AdAge in an interview discussing the shoot. “We literally walked in on that shoot day not sure which concept we were shooting. Everyone was monitoring the weather hour-by-hour. Since it was very dark and gloomy we decided to go with the second concept that had just been created within the last 36 hours.”

Funnily enough, once W+K and Coca-Cola committed to the new concept and began filming, the rain stopped. “Wieden & Kennedy had to bring in rain towers to create the rain for that part of the shot,” Loos added. 

The spot made its first appearance on the brand’s social channels today and will make its broadcast debut Saturday during Fox’s coverage of the U.S. Open.