Some pretty good agencies are getting swept out in Kraft's move to consolidate creative responsibilities on its brands at four main roster shops.

Gone are Droga5, Wieden + Kennedy, The Martin Agency and TBWA's Being, which handled brands such as Cracker Barrel, Velveeta, Stove Top and Planters Nuts. Also eliminated were Ogilvy & Mather, Roberts + Langer DDB, VSA Partners and Lopez Negrete Communications, which created multicultural ads.

Many of those shops were hired before Kraft spun off its snacks business into Mondelez International and when current Mondelez chief marketing officer Dana Anderson was a top marketer at Kraft. Under Anderson, a former agency leader, Kraft diversified its agency roster in a bid to get new blood on legacy brands.

Managing that many shops, however, can be unwieldy, particularly when each handled just a few assignments. Ogilvy, for example, worked on Nabob and Tassimo in Canada and Roberts + Langer handled Philadephia Cream Cheese in the U.S.

Also, two years after the spinoff, Kraft is a "more focused company," said a company representative, who added that the consolidation was about "fewer, deeper relationships." And, needless to say, there's a significant cost savings in employing fewer shops.

The rep also emphasized that "none of these agencies are exiting due to poor performance." That, of course, is small consolation to anyone losing business, particularly from a major marketer like Kraft.

The big winners in the consolidation are MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Dentsu's mcgarrybowen, Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett and WPP Group's Taxi, current roster players who will take on the dozen or so brands that the outgoing agencies are shedding.

Where each brand lands, however, won't be revealed until next week. But now, instead of employing a dozen creative agencies, Kraft will have a core four.

Diageo’s $40 million global creative review of its marquee Johnnie Walker brand has caught many by surprise, given the sales growth the brand has enjoyed under longtime lead agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty and its "Keep Walking" campaign.

In fact, agency rivals and a search consultant—who typically are cynical and critical of agencies and their work—can’t fathom why the world’s No. 1 scotch whisky is looking around. In addition to BBH, sources identified the finalists as BBDO, Anomaly, Ogilvy & Mather and Wieden + Kennedy.

Observers see "Keep Walking" as a gold standard in spirits advertising and a driver of Johnnie Walker’s growth. When the campaign began in 2000, brand sales represented 13 percent of the global market; at the end of 2013, that figure exceeded 20 percent, according to the IWSR.

"It’s one of the world’s greatest brands. And you know what? BBH made it one of the world’s greatest brands," said a leader at one rival shop, adding, "I don’t like seeing agencies that really built something getting dusted off."

Russel Wohlwerth of External View Consulting Group is equally puzzled by the search. "You never know what goes on behind closed doors," he said. "But on its face, it seems strange they would place the account in review, given the success of the product and the success of the campaign."

Perhaps Diageo is just doing due diligence after 15 years with BBH. After all, even global brand director Guy Escolme admitted that the relationship has been "hugely successful." Nevertheless, Escolme added that "the time is right to invited selected agencies, including BBH to look at how we take the brand forward into the future."

The annual British Christmas ad wars are heating up, and Tesco wants people to know it's armed with lots of the obligatory bright lights and endearingly ridiculous ornaments.

A new TV commercial from the supermarket chain and Wieden + Kennedy London dramatizes everyman preparations for the holiday—pulling tangled string lights out of the dusty attic, scaling a ladder with a wobbly reindeer, and grinning slack-jawed as a two-story inflatable Santa reaches full stature.

It aims to build toward that wondrous moment when the electricity flips on—another in a string of familiar visual cues that are appropriate, if not particularly risky. And it has some pretty fierce competition in the the quiet charisma of this year's penguin-as-childhood-best-friend ad from department store John Lewis.



But the real gem in Tesco's campaign is the insane outdoor light show it put on at a store in Wigan, outside Manchester (with some of the resulting footage edited into the TV spot). See below for that.

Spurred by a local journalist's Twitter gripe last year that the location's sign didn't have a Christmas hat, Tesco responded with a Christmas rock spectacular that includes a guitar-shredding Santa, turkey Rockettes and a brain-melting bass drop into a Elven electronica dance routine. In the grand finale, Saint Nick basically Hadoukens a neon green crown out of his guitar through the air, onto the "O" in Tesco.

In other words, be careful what you wish for at Christmas—you might get it, and then some.

A few years ago, out-of-home advertising was still primarily used by either big, traditional brands or local businesses. But as technology becomes more engrained in everyday life, companies like Facebook, Foursquare and a crop of startups are putting new twists on old-school advertising to build brand recognition and drive app downloads.

Boxed, an app that sells and delivers wholesale packaged-goods, is one such startup enlisting subway ads in New York to drive app downloads. The marketer launched a new subway campaign last week, taking over all ad placements on one side of subway cars. It's the second time Boxed has run underground ads; here's a look at one of them:

"We've tried a lot of ROI-based ad networks, and [out-of-home] averages out if you do it right," said Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed. "Even though it is more expensive, we can recoup the costs."

Huang acknowledged out-of-home ads are tougher to track than digital, in terms of how many downloads an ad drove, but both tactics are effective in acquiring loyal users, defined as people who keep an app on their phones for a long period of time. 

The CEO said the public transit promos work for his company because Boxed is set up to drive sales. While download numbers are important, so is teaching people to shop from their smartphones, which requires a brand-building campaign. The company declined to provide stats but said people who see the out-of-home ads spend more money than those who see the digital ones. 

"Because we do drive revenue, we're able to make bigger bets—you don't see a lot of games being advertised in out-of-home yet," Huang noted.

The creative on the Boxed ads are also meant to show off the advantages of shopping online, specifically for New Yorkers who buy in bulk.

Other payment players like Seamless, Venmo and PayPal have all recently leaned on out-of-home to build brand awareness.

In fact, online food takeout company GrubHub Inc.—made up of GrubHub and Seamless—has used out-of-home and subway ads since launching more than 10 years ago in all of its major markets. And with 50 percent of all orders coming from mobile, the ads seem to be getting attention.

"We're capturing people when they're on the way home from work, when they're hungry, so it's natural to drive them to download the app," said Abby Hunt, a rep for GrubHub Seamless.

East Coast healthcare startup Oscar has also made a big bet on out-of-home ads within the past year. Oscar started advertising on the subway in October 2013 with small placements.

"It was a bit of an experiment given that we are a startup with small budgets compared to all the other health insurance companies out there," said Veronica Parker-Hahn, vp of marketing at Oscar. "We knew we needed a way to drive awareness of Oscar, but we didn't have the money and we weren't quite ready to dive into the pool of TV."

Anecdotally, the ads built buzz and are now being expanded to include more placements and to reach New Jersey.

Traditional, Tech-Driven Creative Goes National
New York's subway has an obvious advantage for tech brands over most markets since it's the primary way people get around. But the out-of-home trend is hitting other major cities, too.

This week, Facebook launched its first out-of-home campaign in Los Angeles and Chicago to promote Messenger, its mobile messaging app.

"By using a variety of [out-of-home] creative in our 'Say Anything Better' brand campaign, we could be a part of the city landscapes while simultaneously showcasing different messaging for Chicago and L.A.," said Rebecca Van Dyck, head of Facebook's brand marketing.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is running billboards in Chicago and L.A.'s airports, freeways and trains with graphic visuals that aim to position Messenger as a mobile app that does more than text messaging. A digital ad buy also includes more traditional app-install ads.

"With all of the features, it allows for a very visual form of communication. We wanted to look at the conversations that people are likely to be having using an app like Messenger," said Matt Skibiak, copywriter at Wieden + Kennedy Portland, Facebook's agency of record behind the campaign.

To help do that, Facebook cast 25 to 30 real people (although not all of them were used) to be the faces of the campaign.

"At their core, Facebook is a product that's composed of real people, and they're not shying away from talking about real things and showing real people in their ads," Skibiak said.

Winter is here, people. And unless you're a baseball player passed out somewhere in the Caribbean sun, you're going to have to deal with it.

Or rather, enjoy it.

Wieden + Kennedy's new Nike campaign is all about how painful it can be for athletes dealing with the harshness of winter weather—unless you happen to be wearing the brand's Hyperwarm baselayer of workout apparel, in which case you're impervious and awesome.

Chris O'Dowd amusingly stars as a weatherman of sorts, who hyperbolically describes the effects of the cold on the human body. It's not pretty. And yet his dire warnings are at completely at odds with what's on the screen, as we see cold-weather athletes going about their business—with their brains and extremities in full working order.

O'Dowd is a likable guy and an unexpected choice, and the whole spot has some of the wry, freewheeling atmosphere of the Bradley Cooper-voiced "Possibilities" spot from last year—though it's more cartoony with the faux-weather-show setup.



The film is the first in a multi-part series, Nike says, with this first installment featuring football stars Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson, soccer players Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans, distance runner Mary Cain, figure skater Gracie Gold and snowboarder Johnnie Paxson.

Among those to be featured later in the campaign are hockey's Dion Phaneuf and baseball's Yasiel Puig—who must be playing in a winter league in Iceland.

CREDITS
Client: Nike
Project: Choose Your Winter

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Stuart Brown, Chris Groom
Copywriter: Nathaniel Friedman
Art Director: Sara Phillips
2D Artists: Tim O’Brien, Edgar Morales
Global Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Agency Senior Producer: Erika Madison
Production Intern: J.R. Celski
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz
Account Team: Marisa Weber, Molly Rugg, Jordan Muse
Business Affairs Manager: Karen Crossley
Broadcast Traffic: Tobin Kittoe
Project Manager: Lauren Walker
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff

Production Company: Reset
Director: Adam Hashemi
Managing Director: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Line Producer: Andrew Travelstead
Director of Photography: Ben Seresin
Production Designer: Jeremy Hindle

Editorial Company: Exile
Editor - 60: Kirk Baxter
Editor – 30s: Nate Gross
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Post Producer: Toby Louie
Assistant Editor: Grant Hull

Finishing: The Mill LA
Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Producer: Leighton Greer
Creative Director/2D Lead: James Allen
3D Lead Artist: Tom Graham
2D Artists: Jale Parsons / Brad Scott / Jake Maymudes / Nick Tayler / Jason Bergman / Chris Payne
3D Artists: Robert Chapman / Josh Hatton / Martin Rivera / Matt Longwell / Milton Ramierz
Matte Painting: Thom Price / Rasha Shalaby
Motion Graphics: Andrew Marks
Colorist: Adam Scott
Color Producer: Natalie Westerfield

Music Company: Walker
Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Composer: Michael Picton
Arranger: Judson Crane
Track: “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” by Edvard Grieg

Sound Design: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Executive Producer: Kelly Bayett

Mix Company: Lime
Engineer: Rohan Young
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will honor Heineken its Creative Marketer of the Year at the festival in June.

Past honorees include McDonald’s last year, Coca-Cola in 2013 and Mars in 2012.

The honor recognizes Heineken's past success at the festival. In the past three years, six of its brands have collectively won 41 Lions, including a Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness. 

"[Heineken] has a superb framework that allows its marketing teams the freedom to experiment while retaining the core essence of their many brands,” said Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals.

And experiment it has. Throughout 2014, the Dutch beer giant made a 15-second film based on a tweet, ran an Instagram campaign for Gay Pride month, and trialed a mobile-only campaign for a new beer-tequila brand.

“This prestigious award is recognition of the great creative work our people and agencies are delivering,” said Alexis Nasard, Heineken's president of Western Europe and global chief marketing officer.

The brand's lead global agency is Wieden + Kennedy, which created this year’s “Cities of the World” campaign.

Heineken is the second-largest brewer globally by revenue, and claims to be the No. 1 beer brand on Facebook, according to a company fact sheet. It posted group revenue growth of 4.6 percent in the first half of the year, with beer volume up 3.1 percent.

Distraught mothers became psychotic stalkers in Old Spice's epic "Momsong" musical, following their sons around and weeping about how they've grown into men too soon, thanks to the brand's female-luring body sprays.

Now, it's time for fathers to weigh in. And naturally, they couldn't be happier that their boys are turning into men.

The 60-second sequel, "Dadsong," from Wieden + Kennedy, tries to pack in a lot more than the original, which won a slew of awards, including gold at the Clios and in Cannes. It opens with one of the moms from the first spot, still bereaved as she watches her son slow-dance with a girl at a high school dance.



"Where's my little boy, I miss him so/Who's this man living in our home?/My special guy has turned into a man," she sings. Then, back at home, Dad comes roaring in on a sit-down lawnmower, and sings: "At least he won't be living in a driveway in a van!"

The rest of the spot is a showdown between mothers and fathers, with amusing lyrics—music company Walker worked on the spot, with music and words by Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords—and increasingly outlandish visuals, echoing the first ad. (The mom under the ice is the best bit here.)

Of course, the moms and dads are actually both right. As the lyrics cleverly hint at, about halfway through, he's not a man or a child—he's a manchild. And he'll certainly get a kick out of the commercial.

CREDITS
Client: OId Spice
Spot: "Dadsong"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Jason Bagley | Craig Allen
Copywriters: Jason Kreher | Nathaniel Lawlor
Art Directors: Matt Sorrell | Ruth Bellotti
Senior Producer: Lindsay Reed
Account Team: Georgina Gooley | Nick Pirtle | Michael Dalton | Jessica Monsey
Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman | Joe Staples
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Colleen O’Donnell
Line Producer: Jay Veal
Director of Photography: Fredrik Backar

Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler
Assistant Editor: Pamela Petruski
Post Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Producer: Adam Reeb
Coordinator: Kris Drenzek
Creative Director: Tim Davies
Senior Visual Effects Artist: Becky Porter
Visual Effects Artists: Alex Candlish | Patrick Munoz | John Price | Timothy Crabtree | Adam Lambert | Anthony Petitti | Yukiko Ishiwata | Phil Mayer
Computer Graphics Visual Effects Artist: Jason Jansky

Music Company: Walker
Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Assistant Producer: Abbey Hickman

Composer: Bret McKenzie
Arranger: Mickey Petralia

Music Record and Final Mix
Studio: HEARby
Engineer: John Buroker
Executive Producer: Nannette Buroker

Color Transfer Company: The Mill
Artist: Adam Scott
Executive Producer: Thatcher Peterson
Producer: Natalie Westerfield

Wieden + Kennedy recently created a pretty incredible out-of-home tourism installation for Travel Portland: the tallest freestanding cuckoo clock in the U.S.

Chainsaw sculptor J. Chester Armstrong carved the clock, made from a single Oregon maple, in the national forest just outside Portland. It took three months to make—with help from metal sculptor Nicolas Gros, clock designer/gear consultant Laurent Worme, electronics consultant Mark Keppinger and local illustrator Patrick Long (who did the illustrations for the clock face). The clock features references to a number of Portland icons—Mt. Hood, Portlandia, beer, wine, bikers, farmers markets, roses, rivers, bridges and even Sasquatch.

W+K recently took the clock—which thematically ties into the "Portland Is Happening Now" campaign—to Seattle and Vancouver for tourism events in those cities. Every hour on the hour, hand-painted, wood-carved miniatures appear when the clock chimes. The events also featured "Portland-themed surprises, like coffee and donuts, a poet reading, a comedian performance, a tax-free tea party and naked bike riders," the agency says.

The clock is 24.1 feet tall by 9.5 feet wide and weighs more than three tons. W+K is now looking for an indoor location in Portland to house the clock through the winter months. Check out more images below, all courtesy of the Portland Oregon Visitors Association/Travel Portland.

CREDITS
Client: Travel Portland
Project: "Portland Is Happening Now"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Hal Curtis / Antony Goldstein / Jeff Gillete
Copywriters: Becca Wadlinger / Jared Elms / Ian Fairbrother
Art Director: Nate Nowinowski
Designers: Patrick Nistler / Cassandra Swan
Media Team: Wieden + Kennedy
Interactive Strategy: Jocelin Shalom
Media, Communications Planning: Stephanie Ehui
Strategic Planning: Lisa Prince
Account Team: Ken Smith / Kristin Postill
Production: Byron Oshiro / Kristin Holder / Heather Hanrahan
Project Managers: Danna Dolich / Shannon Hutchinson
Studio Manager: Abby Marten
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff

Event Partners
Social Agency: Edelman Digital
Public Relations Agency: Lane PR
Digital Agency: Rally Group
Event Producer: Sue Cool

Design, Construction Team
Project Leader, Metal Sculptor: Nicolas Gros
Chainsaw Carving: J. Chester Armstrong
Clock and Gears Design Development, Consultant: Laurent Worme
Microprocessor and Pneumatic Consultant: David Butts
Electronic Consultant: Mark Keppinger
Welder: Cameron Visconty
Lead Carpenter: Matt Sykes
Fabricator: James Harrison
Lighting, Carpentry Assistant: Julia Zell
Carpenter: Dave Laubenthal
Sign Painting: Ardis Defreece
Miniatures and Clock Face Painting: José Solis

Old Spice this week unveiled "Dadsong," its second lunatic 60-second musical via Wieden + Kennedy—the sequel to the award-winning "Momsong" from a year ago. Clearly, the music on a commercial like this isn't just an important component—it's the main component, around which everything revolves.

AdFreak caught up with Sara Matarazzo, owner of music company Walker, which coordinated the scoring and recording of the music, to ask how it all came together.

AdFreak: What was the brief for "Dadsong"?
Sara Matarazzo: We worked on the "Momsong" campaign, so the idea for this one was to create the second single off the "album." The challenge was to create a track as good as the first while keeping the campaign consistent and cohesive.

Sara Matarazzo

How is "Dadsong" different from "Momsong," creatively?
The key difference with "Dadsong" is that we introduced a new perspective to the story. We needed to juxtapose the moms' feelings with the dads' through the music. The main melody of "Momsong" was written in an unusually low female vocal range, which contributed to our purposefully homely performances. However, "Dadsong" utilizes a more traditional female range in order to allow the full male register to shine through. The new arrangement of voices helped accentuate that back and forth and allowed us to build the song up to a bigger climactic moment with voices hitting notes all over the pitch spectrum.

Walk us through the creative process.
We worked with Bret McKenzie and Mickey Petralia from Flight of the Conchords on board to compose the music. We have worked with Bret and Mickey on several ads over the years, so this was a nice reunion. We actually wanted to work with him on the first Old Spice spot but he was busy writing music for Muppets Most Wanted [following his Oscar-winning work on 2011's The Muppets]. I told him, "We have the perfect campaign for you," and he was available. Of course, he nailed it.

The process started with Bret and I going back and forth with the creatives at the agency to refine the music, melody, chords and arc. When we got to a place where the team was happy, Old Spice gave us the green light and production on the spot began in Prague with director Andreas Nilsson. Once we had rough picture, our music producer Abbey Hickman worked on [voice] casting with the agency to match our actors. Walker engineer Graeme Gibson oversaw working with our casting and creating demos to show all the possibilities and different directions our vocals could be, which helped to choose our favorite takes and piece together the elements. After the singers and musicians were selected, we went to Vancouver to direct and final record with them.



Musically, the spot feels a bit like the end of a big musical, when the entire cast does the last song. Is that something that was mentioned?
Yes, that was a reference. Mainstream musical theater nowadays is largely based off the past century of popular music (except for Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown musicals). Take Spring Awakening or Mama Mia, for instance. Both infuse contemporary rock and pop styles with dramatic content to be more relevant to the modern musical watcher … and sell more tickets. Furthermore, the most passionate songs in a musical are the numbers that bookend the acts and those songs usually utilize the entire cast. "Dadsong" is like the end of one of these musical numbers because it's passionate, dramatic, musically modern and features a large ensemble.

Which particular musical styles or genres is the spot based on?
Classic rock ballads and operatic recitative.

How is working on a project like this different from other ads you do?
These spots are special because we are involved not just in post but from the beginning of the job and throughout the process. You collaborate on ideas that end up in the campaign. Music can be subjective and go through many mutations, but with this campaign, the song and the spot are one and the same.

Nine months after Facebook debuted auto-play video ads, one major brand utilizing them is willing to put the social media platform on par with YouTube when it comes to video ad performance.

"YouTube and Facebook are equal players now, or at least close to it," Ron Amram, senior media director of marketing, Heineken USA, told Adweek. "What we're finding is that we have to consider Facebook as the key video partner going forward because not only does it have the reach but the effectiveness."

Here's why he's bullish on Facebook's nascent promos: While pushing Heineken Light to 21 to 34 year olds in the United States in October, the brand's digital spots—in three days—were exposed to the newfeeds of 35 million Facebook users, producing 5.5 million views, according to Amram. That means 16 percent of the people reached watched the spot.

"This is the first time we've looked at [Facebook] as part of our digital video strategy overall," he said. "It complements television very well but also goes beyond it."

To Amram's last point, the 15-second auto-play ads featured the same Neil Patrick Harris work from Wieden + Kennedy that broke on TV in July. One minute and 48-second commercials were also pushed on the platform.

"Putting it on Facebook re-accelerated it for us," Amram said. "August and September were good, but October was even better."

The marketing executive didn't reveal how much Heineken Light spent on the social videos, but said the cost-per-view rate made for a good return on the brand's investment. "Facebook over-delivered on what we anticipated," he said.

Additionally, he had postive data when it came to still promos on Facebook. Amram said sister brand Dos Equis got a $3.35 back for every dollar spent during the weeks leading up to Cinco de Mayo last spring, which helped the brand lift sales by 6.6 percent year over year.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has reached inside Wieden + Kennedy to fill its top creative role in Los Angeles.

Kevin Jones, a creative director at Wieden in Portland, Ore., is joining the L.A. office as executive creative director, starting in February. He succeeds Sue Anderson, who leaving to write a book through she'll remain with the shop until Jones arrives.

At Wieden, Jones worked on brands like Dodge, Coke, Nike and Target and won Emmys for his work on Chrysler and Procter & Gamble. In his new job, he'll lead creative development on accounts such as Charles Schwab, NBA2K, Applebee's, A1 Sauce and Grey Poupon.

"We've been hoping to consolidate our creative leadership in this office," said Mason Reed, managing director at Crispin L.A., which employs about 100 staffers. "The office has grown over the last few years and over time we haven't had a singular creative leader in place. We felt the time was right to find that person." 

Jones is a veteran of Wieden, having worked for the agency on-and-off since 1994. 

CP+B recently added Infiniti's global account and Kraft brands Velveeta, Miracle Whip and Stove Top. 

Diageo has awarded Johnnie Walker, its global marquee creative account, to Anomaly after a pitch that included 15-year incumbent Bartle Bogle Hegarty as well as BBDO, Ogilvy & Mather and Wieden + Kennedy.

Agencies met this week with the client in Amsterdam for final meetings on the Scotch brand, which spent $40 million in measured media in 2013.

The review initially came as a surprise to some industry observers who saw BBH's "Keep Walking" strategy as one of the best in spirits marketing. When the campaign broke in 2000, brand sales represented 13 percent of the global market; at the end of 2013, that figure exceeded 20 percent, according to IWSR.

"This is obviously disappointing news but we will keep walking," said BBH co-founder Nigel Bogle.

The decision follows the launch of Johnnie Walker's new BBH spot, "The Next Step," using a year-end scenario that looks forward, rather than back, with a man walking through a dreamlike vision of 2015.

Nonetheless, the brand decided it was time to move on and determined the best way forward was with Anomaly.

"We were hugely impressed by the far-reaching creative vision which Anomaly proposed for our brand and with the strategic thinking that lies behind its development," Guy Escolme, Johnnie Walker global brand director said in a statement.

TurboTax aired a surprisingly entertaining ad on last year's Super Bowl, with Wieden + Kennedy and director Bryan Buckley teaming up for an amusing metaphor about how the game—for most fans—is like high-school prom. Now, client and agency are getting dolled up for a second date at the big dance.

The Intuit-owned online tax preparation service just launched its 2015 brand campaign, again through W+K. It will feature a 60-second spot on the Feb. 1 Super Bowl telecast. But before heading to Arizona, the campaign creative is taking an early trip to New Orleans—for Mardi Gras.

The 60-second "Mardi Gras" spot below broke during the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. It uses one long, absurd, interconnected scene to show how TurboTax guides you step by step through all the tax-relevant milestones that happen during your year. Two other Mardi Gras spots, "Statues" (:30) and "Loud Noise" (:15), have also rolled out.



The Super Bowl spot will not be the "Mardi Gras" execution but something entirely new.

Last year's TurboTax Super Bowl spot used the voice of John C. Reilly. This new campaign subs in William H. Macy as the voiceover.

TurboTax Online sales were up 14 percent in 2014, the company says, while the do-it-yourself tax category itself grew 6 percent. TurboTax is choosing high-profile telecasts to get its message heard. It's also planning to advertise on the Goldes Globe Awards this Sunday.

The TV work is supported by radio, digital and social advertising throughout tax season.

TurboTax's 2014 Super Bowl spot:

CREDITS (Mardi Gras spots)
Client: Intuit TurboTax

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Dan Kroeger / Max Stinson
Copywriter: Darcie Burrell /Brooke Barker
Art Director: Chris Taylor
Producer/ Assistant Producer: Endy Hedman / Julie Gursha
Account Team: Courtney Nelson / Vanessa Miller / Alexina Shaber
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz
Strategic Planning: Amber Higgins / Nathan Goldberg
Project Management: Liza Robbins

Production Company: Biscuit
Director: Noam Murro
Executive Producer: Colleen O'Donnell
Line Producer: Jay Veal
Director of Photography: Simon Duggan

Editorial Company: Rock/Paper/Scissors
Editor: Stewart Reeves
Post Producer: Leah Carnahan
Post Executive Producer: Dave Sellars

VFX Company: The Mill
2D Lead: John Shirley
3D Lead: Robert Sethi
VFX Producer: Chris Harlowe
VFX Coordinator: Karina Ford
Flame: Brad Scott / Trent Shumway
Nuke: Becky Porter / Anthony Petitti / Mike Simons
CG: Steven Olson / Mike DiNocco / Carl Harders / Nathaniel Morgan / Danny Yoon / Matt Neopolitan / Margaux Huneau / Anthony Northman / Alberto Lara
DMP: Jiyoung Lee

Sound Company: Barking Owl
Songs: "Statue" (Original Music)
"Noise" (Original Music)
"Shrimp" (Original Music)
"Wedding" ("Le Tourbillon" by Jeanne Moreau)
"Mardi Gras" ("Mack the Knife")
Producer: Kelly Bayett

Sound Company: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Producer: Kelly Bayett

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Loren Silber/Zach Fisher

The New York office of DDB has found its new creative chief in Brazil.

Icaro Doria, a native of Brazil and an executive creative director at Wieden + Kennedy in Sao Paulo, fills a vacancy left by the July 2013 exit of Matt Eastwood, who became global chief creative officer at JWT.

At DDB, Doria will partner with new office CEO Chris Brown, who started in September. In a statement, Brown described Doria as a modern creative leader and "global citizen," having worked in Brazil, Portugal and the U.S.

Doria's brand experience ranges from Coca-Cola, Heineken and Nike to Hewett-Packard, Sprint, Dell and Bacardi. He spent the past four years at Wieden. Before that, he was a group cd at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, a global cd at Young & Rubicam in New York and a cd at Saatchi & Saatchi in New York.

At both Saatchi and Y&R, Doria worked under creative leader Tony Granger. He starts his new job in March.

The London office of Bartle Bogle Hegarty is the new creative lead for Tesco, the U.K.'s largest retailer and one of the country's biggest ad spenders, at nearly $170 million a year.

The Publicis Groupe agency replaces Wieden + Kennedy, London, which won the business in 2012 after a highly competitive review. 

As a result of the Tesco win, BBH London issued a statement saying it has resigned Tesco's U.K. competitor, Waitrose.

"A unique opportunity has presented itself with Tesco, and we are looking forward to working with [new Tesco CEO] Dave Lewis and his team," said Neil Munn, CEO of BBH Group.

Tesco has always been one of the U.K.'s most coveted ad accounts, but in the past year or so, the retailer has been plagued with an accounting scandal, declines in sales, profits and share price, and top executive departures. Tesco is also losing market share to discount chains like Aldi and Lidl.

Tesco was long a mainstay client at IPG's Lowe before moving to startup London shop The Red Brick Road, which Frank Lowe launched to service the business, before moving on to Wieden.

Wieden & Kennedy is the newest agency to join Verizon's roster, after being given brand and strategy work for the telecommunications giant. The assignment had previously been handled by Verizon shop mcgarrybowen, sources said.

Verizon spent nearly $978 million in measured media in the first nine months of 2014, according to Kantar Media. Of that, $85 million went toward Verizon brand advertising.

Wieden reps declined comment, referring inquiries to Verizon execs, who did not respond to Adweek's requests.

Dentsu's mcgarrybowen is still on the client roster, handling the company's wireless business. And Interpublic's McCann remains the creative lead on Verizon's Fios marketing, according to sources.

Last October, Diego Scotti joined Verizon in the new role of chief marketing officer. He was previously CMO of J. Crew and before that oversaw 20 print and digital media brands at Condé Nast. Scotti also worked as the head of global advertising and brand management at American Express.

Netflix is so good, it can even make a sullen teenager smile.

The streaming content service is out with a new European ad created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam. At first blush, the existential voiceover makes the commercial seem the slightest bit like DirecTV's warnings against the many dangers of having cable instead of satellite. But Netflix takes it in the opposite direction, focusing on the various ways its original shows will make your life better. Mostly, it does so by giving you something to care about, that other people might, too—i.e., creating common ground.



Arrested Development, House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black all make cameos (alas, no BoJack Horseman). Overall, it's an easy sell, given the product is entertainment—something people actually do enjoy in its own right (as opposed to, say, toothpaste). But the tagline—"Because great things start with Netflix"—is a little misleading. The only great things that start with Netflix are Netflix binges. Once you're locked in the grip of that auto-play-next-episode feature, good luck getting anything else done.

Plus, let's be real. There's no way that sullen teenager would actually laugh … at least not in front of her parents.

CREDITS
Client: Netflix
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam
Production Co.: Biscuit Filmworks U.K.
Director: Aaron Stoller

Ready for more screaming, twitchy muscles, explosions and horrifying hallucinations? Good, because Terry Crews just made another Old Spice commercial.

The ad, by Wieden + Kennedy and directors Fatal Farm, continues the brand's "Get Shaved in the Face" campaign for its electric shavers, which Crews helped to introduce early last year in a murderous spot with Little Terry Crews. This time around, we catch Terry right in the middle of a nightmare—and when he wakes up, it only gets worse.

We caught up with Kate DiCarlo, Procter & Gamble's communications manager for beauty care, and Jason Bagley, creative director at Wieden + Kennedy, to chat about the spot and Terry's popularity as an Old Spice spokesman. Check out that Q&A below.



AdFreak: How does this spot evolve last year's "Get Shaved in the Face" campaign?
Kate DiCarlo: "Nightmare Face" brings back Terry Crews to continue the "Get Shaved in the Face" story. This time around, we wake up in Terry's nightmare, which revolves around unruly face hair and a familiar face as his wife. Even if it takes a lot of yelling, we're here to remind guys about the importance of keeping their scraggly hairs in check by using Old Spice Electric Shavers. We want them to know that we have a variety of options that they can choose from, depending on their shaving needs.

Why do you think Terry has such longevity as an Old Spice spokesman?
DiCarlo: Terry is a long-time fan favorite, and we're always thrilled when we find another opportunity to work together. There's no one else out there like him—with that explosive personality, impressive yelling power and manly chest muscles. Our fans are always asking what's next for Terry and Old Spice, and so we're excited to give them more of what they're wanting, while also helping them shaverize their beards, which results in more handsome face parts.

Fatal Farm handled the direction, editing and visual effects. What do they bring to the table?
Jason Bagley: We love Fatal Farm and have worked with them in the past on various projects. We love them because they take absurdly ridiculous and ultimately profoundly stupid humor as seriously as we do. Stupid humor is serious business, and they are seriously smart about stupid things.

If you've spent more than three seconds on the Internet, you know it can be a pretty horrible place, swarming with cyberbullies and trolls who've turned comment sections into rotting hate-fests and people's own personal social pages into sources of despair.

Coca-Cola hopes to change all that—or at least, steer things in a different direction—with its 2015 Super Bowl campaign.

The soft drink company revealed Monday that it won't be unveiling its 60-second in-game spot, by Wieden + Kennedy, until it airs nationally on the game. But there will be plenty of teasers released this week—starting with the four below—as the brand preps a message of "optimism, uplift and inclusion" for Sunday.

Three short teasers airing on TV and in cinemas will feature snippets from the :60 and introduce the #MakeItHappy hashtag. You can see those teasers here:

In addition, four longer online videos will roll out this week starring teens and celebs who've experienced online negativity (racecar driver Danica Patrick and football player Michael Sam will star in two of these) or who are devoted to spreading happiness online (Kid President stars in the one of these, which is posted below—the only one released so far). UPDATE: The Patrick ad has now been released, too.

"It's bold and brave, and intended to disrupt the complacency that's set in around online negativity," Jennifer Healan, Coca-Cola's group director of integrated marketing content, said in a statement about the campaign. "Our goal is to inspire America to become a collective force for positivity."

"Coca-Cola has always stood for optimism, uplift and inclusion… and these core values have been a common thread in our advertising through the years," added Andy McMillin, vp and general manager for Coca-Cola Trademark Brands.

Targeting online hate is an interesting evolution of Coke's "Open happiness" idea. And interestingly, it's a space in which McDonald's is also starting to play. The fast-food marketer, which is also expected to advertised in some capacity on Sunday, recently mentioned online negativity as one topic it's planning to address in its current refresh of "I'm lovin' it."

For Coke, focusing on anything negative—even while positioning itself as the antidote—isn't without its risks. It makes for some pretty dark, un-Coke-like broadcast teasers. And it begs the question: Can a 60-second spot really have any impact on hater culture online?

Coke says it's invested in the issue, though, and is taking real-world steps to address it. The campaign includes a partnership with DoSomething.org before and after the Big Game to spread the message of making the Internet a happier place.

"We're all surrounded by stories of online negativity, and it's a concern that only continues to grow within society," said McMillin. "We hope this campaign inspires people across the country and around the world to show more positivity in their online actions, and to stop and think before posting a negative comment."

The 60-second in-game spot—Coke's ninth consecutive appearance on the Super Bowl—was shot in Los Angeles, Mexico City and Shanghai.

Kia may have James Bond in its Super Bowl ad, but Squarespace has the Dude.

Yes, Jeff Bridges, the Oscar winner and star of cult classic The Big Lebowski, is featured in Squarespace's 30-second ad, from Wieden + Kennedy in New York. But rather than flash his acting chops, Bridges is making music—specfically, an album of 15 sounds, meditations and stories that will help you fall asleep. The ad, which will air in the first half, also benefits a cause close to Bridges' heart: childhood hunger.

"We wanted to create a campaign to illustrate that any idea, no matter how wild or weird, can be presented beautifully and meaningfully through Squarespace," said Anthony Casalena, the company's founder and CEO.

Sales of the album, titled Jeff Bridges Sleeping Tapes, will fund the childhood hunger campaign known as "No Kid Hungry" from Share Our Strength, a nonprofit for which Bridges is the national spokesman. The record will be available digitally and on limited-edition vinyl and cassettes. And to promote the project, Bridges has created his own Squarespace page.

Squarespace, which is returning after its Super Bowl debut last year, is not releasing the ad (which was directed by Tim Godsall) before the game. Instead, the company is rolling out some teasers, including a 30-second ad and a 90-second tutorial on how to create a Squarespace page. Both went online today.

Below is a look at the teaser ad. Learn more at DreamingWithJeff.com.