Nike|Never Too Far Down

Nike's back with another uplifting ad designed to give us the courage to get through the pandemic. This 90-second narration from LeBron James reminds us how sports are the ultimate beacon for hope. No matter how far you might be down, like say three games to one or behind 28-3 in the Super Bowl, there's always hope.

The 90-second spot, “Never Too Far Down,” was created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland. Humanity’s comeback story, featuring world-class athletes, is what one would expect from a Nike ad. Narrated by LeBron James, the film features elite Nike athletes, including Serena Willams, Naomi Osaka, Tiger Woods, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Nadal, Megan Rapinoe and others.

The three-act structure in the minute and a half spot vacillates from struggle and pain, to finding a way through, to, ultimately, triumph. It’s a hopeful, inspiring message that we’re all hoping to experience before too long.

In classic Nike and W+K fashion, the simplicity of impactful imagery, sound (in this case, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ excellent version of David Bowie’s Life on Mars?) and words make a significant impact. The latter is particularly impressive, with obvious metaphors to the current crisis.

CREDITS:

Client: Nike
Campaign: Never Too Far Down

W+K Portland
Executive Creative Directors: Eric Baldwin, Jason Bagley
Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O’Rourke
Art Director: Lee Jenninigs
Copywriter: Kevin Steele
Head of Production: Matt Hunnicutt
Executive Producers: Jake Grand, Krystle Mortimore
Producer: Emily Knight
Associate Producer: Shani Storey
Group Brand Director: Andre Gustavo
Brand Director: Kate Rutkowski
Brand Manager: Steve Smith
Group Strategy Director: Paula Bloodworth
Global Group Media Director: Daniel Sheniak
US Group Media Director: Reme DeBisschop
Associate Media Director: Emily Dalton
Media Supervisor: Graham Wallace
Sr. Business Affairs Managers: Laura Caldwell, Adam Caviezel
Integrated Traffic Managers: Sabrina Reddy, Billy Mucha
Sr. Creative Operations Manager: David Ramirez
Studio Manager: Michael Frediani
Retoucher: Amy Ellars
Designers: Nick Humbel, Mitch Wilson

Production Company
Production Company: Park Pictures
Director: Lance Acord
Executive Producer: Jackie Kelman Bisbee
EP / Producer: Caroline Kousidonis
Production Manager: Joe Faulstich

Editorial
Company: Spot Welders
Editor: Robert Duffy
Assistant Editor: JC Nunez
Assistant Editor: Fatos Marishta
Managing Partner: David Glean
Executive Producer: Carolina Padilla

VFX
VFX Company: Shipping + Handling
Creative Director, Lead VFX: Casey Price
Creative Director, VFX: Jerry Spivack
VFX: James Buongiorno, Johannes Gamble, Evelyn Lee, Rachel Moorer
Managing Partner: David Glean
VFX Executive Producer: Scott Friske, Dustin LaForce

Color
Color Company: A52
Colorist: Daniel De Vue
Color Executive Producer: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer: Jenny Bright

Mix
Mix Company: Joint Editorial
Audio Mixer: Natalie Huizenga
Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy

Music Supervision
Company: Walker
Senior Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Executive Producer: Stephanie Pigott
Producer: Danielle Soury

Music
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross “Life on Mars?” by David Bowie

The Real Heroes Project| LifeBridge Health

Since the global pandemic began, brands continue to determine the best way forward on messaging. The tone of advertising covers a fairly wide range. There’s unity, as exhibited by “The Real Heroes Project.” There are explanations of business shifts to aid society. And, of course, plenty of ads offer endless and deserved thanks to essential workers, from delivery services to retailers and, most crucially, healthcare professionals.
Most of the latter’s messaging has revolved around narratives, explaining how much the public appreciates the hard work of doctors, nurses, and technicians in hospitals around the world. But one ad, from LifeBridge Health of Maryland, captures every possible emotion with a simple, yet stunningly powerful approach.
Created by StrawberryFrog, the 60-second short was shot inside one of the health system’s hospitals in Baltimore with the agency’s partner and ecd, Tyler DeAngelo, and National Geographic photographer, anthropologist and Pulitzer Center grantee Joshua Cogan.
Real caregivers were asked to step inside a Care Booth at the end of their shifts. As each person sheds their masks and protective gear, the raw, overwhelming exhaustion is evident. The powerful vulnerability underscores the monumental task facing hospital staff. The spot, airing in Maryland, honors their sacrifice through restraint and a wise decision to not get in the way of the moments by using only supers and music.

“We wanted to represent the sacrifice, courage and determination of front-line healthcare workers in this moment—in their most raw and stark form. It’s this realness which both honors their work and makes the spot so distinctive,” said Brian Deffaa, CMO of LifeBridge Health.

“The production was much more emotional than I expected,” added DeAngelo. “Watching these healthcare workers in real time, right off their shift, shed their protective gear moved me in a way I hadn’t anticipated. Even though I knew what the message was about, I don’t think I fully understood how important it was until I saw these vulnerable people who only moments earlier had been fighting for other people’s lives.”

CREDITS:

LifeBridge Health
Chief Marketing Officer: Brian Deffaa
Director, Marketing Communications and Execution: Jill Bloom

StrawberryFrog
Founder and Chairman: Scott Goodson
Executive Creative Director / Partner: Tyler DeAngelo
Senior Copywriter: Benjamin Wallin
Writer: Jennie Hayes
Creative Director: Mike Cicale
Producer: Venessa Merrin
Head of Business Partnerships: Shana Bellot
Senior Account Director: Chris Belmore
Account Executive: Emily Nelson
Senior Project Manager: Mark Nikaj

Photography/Video
Photographer: Joshua Cogan
Videographer: Shane Alcock

Union Editorial
Film Editor: Tim Thornton-Allan
Color Mix: Stephen Picano
Senior Producer: Susan Motamed
Assistant Editor: Jean Taylor
Assistant Editor: Chris Walker

Barking Owl
Sound Mix: Dan Florsdorf

Pepsi's Coffee-Infused Soda| Pepsi Café

Choosing the right afternoon pick-me-up can be hard. You can pour a cup of coffee, or opt for soft drinks or one of the many brands of so-called energy drinks that have popped up in the past couple decades. If you're indecisive, or just looking to try something new, Pepsi's coffee-infused soda may be what you've been waiting for.


The Pepsi Café line comes in two flavors—Original and Vanilla—and gets its coffee flavor from arabica bean extract. It's not meant to taste like coffee fully, but rather a mashup of coffee and Pepsi, meaning it's, yes, a carbonated beverage intended to be served cold. (Considering that Starbucks admits over half of its sales are cold beverages, it's sure to pique the interest of some cold brew fans.) As for a caffeine kick, Pepsi Café sports about twice the amount you'd find in a 12-ounce can or bottle of regular soda (which is 37.6 mg), and with a typical eight-ounce cup of coffee coming in at 95 mg, the new product land somewhere in between.

So how does it taste? I was invited to try both flavors in advance of the announcement and found the product certainly delivered on the coffee-meets-cola concept. Coffee is very present on the nose (probably helped by the carbonation bubbles popping up in the glass). The Original flavor has a pleasant coffee aftertaste, more so than the Vanilla which came off as a more complex cream soda (or Pepsi Vanilla, perhaps). If you're used to taking milk in your coffee, this probably isn't a drink that requires you to port that practice over—the sweetness and caramel notes of the cola round out the palate so it's a pleasant reminder of coffee but not akin to drinking black cold brew.
It's an intriguing combination that will be interesting to see in the hands of American consumers who have thus far kept their coffees and colas separate, which may be why Pepsi is rolling it out in April of 2020 for a limited time (which I'm told is about eight weeks).

This isn't Pepsi's first foray in coffee-related colas, either. You may or may not remember a product launched in 1996 called Pepsi Kona, or another in the early 2000s called Pepsiccino. Pepsi's team said that having some prior experience in the category as well following the evolution of consumer tastes has positioned Pepsi Café to meet the market for energy-boosting beverages where it's currently at.

However, Pepsi will have some competition in the name-brand energy cola category soon as earlier this year Coca-Cola announced Coca-Cola Energy would be making its stateside debut in 2020 as well, and it also has a coffee cola in some international markets.
But Pepsi has more than a few innovations up its sleeve. Around the Super Bowl this past January, the brand debuted Pepsi Nitro, the first cola to use nitrogen gas (commonly found in dark beers and cold brew) for "carbonation," creating a cola with the same cascading bubbles seen most famously in Guinness. And just last month, Pepsi released another new creation: Pepsi Rosé. The non-alcoholic pink drink was released in wine bottles around BravoCon with the help of Lisa Vanderpump. While no plans have been announced for a wider release, Pepsi says it's not off the table.

With Pepsi Café and PBR's hard coffee, it sounds like you'll soon have both your afternoon and evening coffee needs covered.

5G Today

Client: ZainKSA
Agency Network: Leo Burnett MEA (Middle East & Africa)
Published/Aired: U/K
Posted: Dec 3, 2019

Qatar 2022 | Passion, dreams and aspirations, infinite possibilities and unity.

The Opportunity 

Qatar 2022 has set out to be a completely new type of World Cup: hosted in the nation bringing together both East and West, a united nation with big dreams and aspirations brimming with sporting passion and potential, truly reflecting the FIFA™ slogan “For the Game; For the World”.


The Qatar 2022 committee wanted to take their existing logo and develop it into a living and breathing brand that would truly reflect those values and show the spirit of this World Cup™ across multiple media and applications.

The Challenge 

Was to develop the brand so it is perfectly in line with the existing logo but takes it a step closer to the values of passion, dreams and aspirations, infinite possibilities and unity.



The Result
Created ‘Infinite Dreams. One Goal’ brand mission that helped retain clarity of the project objective – visualising the ambitions, passion and unity of Qatar and the region. Taking the pentagon inspired logo as our starting point, we built a brand that was both exciting, modern and dynamic, while still incorporating traditional Arabesque patterns and shapes.

The emblem’s design embodies the vision of an event that connects and engages the entire world, while also featuring striking elements of local and regional Arab culture and allusions to the beautiful game.

Ancestry.com: George Washington

Ancestory.com taps into this curiosity with this unique offer. In this Facebook Ad, the online company pulls in a new audience with a unique proposition and builds awareness of its greater product/service.

Their phrasing on this ad is enticing, simple, and doesn’t make it seem like a lot of effort is required to uncover “your history.

Digital Core Measurement and reporting tools

The five metrics that help advertisers prove the success of any native advertising campaign.

Political Branding

Politicians immediately become brands (personal brands) when their campaigns kicks off  and this isn’t a new concept. Running for President of the United States means building a brand that at least 51% of the country is willing to buy on Election Day.

Logos + Taglines = a value proposition that drives voters to 1- differentiate the brands appeal 2- inspire them giving votes 3- and/or a few bucks in campaign contributions. 

"Make America Great Again", was designed to make white, working-class men remember when things were better for them or, at least, they thought they could remember.

Trump used this nostalgia to support his positions and tap into positive emotions in his supporters, further mobilizing them as evangelists.

Brand Engagement

How to stay professional, but still create a personal connection to express your appreciation to B2B clients ?

Challenging isn't it ?

The key word here is Having an Attitude of Gratitude, and following will help :

1) Send a Handwritten Note
2) Invite Your Client to an Industry Event
3) Send a Personalized Gift
4) Make Them Laugh
5) Help Them Learn Something New
6) Pay It Forward with a Great Book
7) Reward the Socially Savvy
8) Remember Your Long Distance Relationships
9) Offer an Upgrade
10) Refer Customers

Filibuster| Three and a half hours TV spot -- and it was all filmed in a single take

Adobe Stock Apparel SS16 Lookbook

If you're a marketer, you've experienced the pain of sorting through seemingly endless pages of bad stock photos in search of one that just isn't too awful. To promote their new stock photo service Adobe Stock, Adobe partnered with Swedish agency Abby Priest to develop a tongue-in-cheek fashion line that features outdated, overused stock photos.

You can see the full Adobe Stock Apparel lookbook here.