Sprite has shifted its creative business in the U.S. again—this time to the New York office of Wieden + Kennedy, according to sources involved in the decision.

W+K, a Coca-Cola roster shop that already works on Coke and Powerade, becomes the fourth agency in three years to handle the brand domestically. Sprite's media spending totaled nearly $14 million last year, up from just $7 million in 2013, according to Kantar Media.

The shift came after a pitch that also involved R/GA (another Coca-Cola roster shop) and the incumbent, Translation, sources said. Representatives for Sprite and W+K declined to comment on the move.  

The brand had worked with Translation since fall 2013. Since 2012, Sprite has used Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Leo Burnett, Translation and, now, W+K. Before BBH, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Ogilvy & Mather also had cracks at the business.

With the frequent changes in agencies, Sprite has tried a series of different strategies. As such, the brand arguably hasn't had a stable or distinct positioning since its "Obey Your Thirst" campaign, which came out of Lowe & Partners in the 1990s.

Recently, the brand has gone back to that tagline on Twitter and in spots with LeBron James, which seems to be in an effort to stablize the brand's ever-shifting identity. 

Before that, the brand tried the tag "There's Nothing Soft About It" from Leo Burnett. 

In 2010, the brand tapped Drake for its "The Spark" campaign from BBH. 

Your life might not be quite like Game of Thrones, but you can still feel like a boss power broker if you drive a Chrysler, says a new ad from the automaker.

"Kings and Queens of America," voiced by actor Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister on the hit HBO show, is launching just ahead of the fifth-season premiere this Sunday.

The commercial, created by Wieden + Kennedy, builds on the great American myth that wealth and power are not a birthright, but rather simply there for the taking. That may be true, insofar as Justin Bieber, the Joffrey Baratheon of our time, didn't inherit his fortune from his dad (even if both of them invaded from the North).

The 60-second spot even sports a soundtrack that references the theme music from the Game of Thrones' opening credits.



On screen, a series of modern-day, ostensibly self-made warriors gird themselves for battle in designer glasses, high heels and blazers, and climb on their horses … or rather, into their Chrysler 300s. (Ron Burgundy can offer some wisdom on how many horses it would take to equal a Chrysler engine.) The faces featured include San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon; Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian; pro poker player Phil Ivey; photographer Kwaku Alston; and Los Angeles restaurateur Caroline Styne. They, and others, will appear in 30-second spots airing later this month.

Nobody, though, is shown viscously murdering his or her father, son-in-law, wife, brother or random stranger, for that matter.

CREDITS
Client: Chrysler
Spot: "The Kings & Queens of America"
Chief Marketing Officer, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Global: Olivier Francois
President, CEO, Chrysler Brand: Al Gardner
Director, Head of Global Advertising, Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram: Marissa Hunter
Head of Advertising, Chrysler Brand: Melissa Garlick
Chrysler Brand Advertising Specialist: Danielle DePerro

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Aaron Allen, Kevin Jones
Copywriter: Alex Romans
Art Director: John Dwight
Broadcast Producer: Endy Hedman
Art Producers: Grace Petrenka, Amy Berriochoa
Strategic Planning: Cat Wilson, Sarah Biedak
Media, Communications Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Cheryl Markley, Lani Reichenbach, Stephanie Montoya
Business Affairs: Karen Murillo
Project Management: Jane Monaghan, Annie Quach
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: HSI
Director: Samuel Bayer
Executive Producer: Roger Zorovich
Line Producer: William Green
Director of Photography: Samuel Bayer
Photographers: Samuel Bayer, John Clark

Editing Company: Joint
Editor: Nicholas Davis
Assistant Editor: Kristy Faris
Post Producer: Leslie Carthy
Executive Post Producer: Patty Brebner

Visual Effects Company: Joint
Lead Flame Artist: Katrina Salicrup
Flame Artist: David Stern
Smoke Artist: David Jahns
Visual Effects Producer: Alex Thiesen

Song: "Blood and Stone"

Mix Company: Joint
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Producer: Sarah Fink

Old Spice is tapping into the gamer community, which clearly overlaps with its own target, with an interesting campaign on Twitch—the live social video platform for gamers—in which viewers get to control a real human being dropping in a forest for three days.

Beginning Thursday at 10 a.m. PT, visitors to twitch.tv/oldspice will use the site's chat feature to send commands to the man to perform. Users will work together to unlock achievements or activities for Nature Man. ("Arm wrestle an obviously fake bear? Hear stories from a wise tree? Stumble across interesting and good smelling characters? The scenarios are endless—and completely up to the participating gamers," says Wieden + Kennedy, which built the experience.)

Beyond that, well, we'll just have to see how it unfolds.



"Old Spice is thrilled to bring an outdoor gaming experience like no other to our fans and the Twitch community," Kate DiCarlo, communications manager for P&G beauty care, tells AdFreak. "We're always looking for new ways to entertain and build brand loyalty with our fans, and Twitch is the perfect partner to help us reach the gaming and live streaming culture in an authentic way. Plus, with scent names like Timber, Amber and Citron, we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our new nature-inspired Fresher Collection."

The stream will run from 10 a.m. to sundown PT on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Nike's newest commercial captures the inner dialogue of a woman stuck behind a row of models during spin class; a runner through a half-marathon; and a beginner yogi unsure of her surroundings.

The spot, by Wieden + Kennedy, launches a campaign called #betterforit, which Nike says is its largest initiative yet in supporting and motivating women's athletic journeys. It's about "powering [women] to be better through services, product innovation and athlete inspiration, motivating each other to push to the next level," the company says.



It's a light, fun approach in contrast to more motivational Nike spots of the past, and it seems to be resonating with the average athlete. From the YouTube comments: "It's not often I love commercials. But this one reminds us that everyone has insecurities and that we can accomplish anything, and I think that's a really special thing to focus on in an ad."

This first spot, "Inner Thoughts," aired during the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday night. It looks like Nike is positioning "Better for it" as the less aggressive (but maybe equally motivating) alternative to "Just do it."

More videos and images below, plus credits.

CREDITS
Client: Nike
Project: "Better for It"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte / Ryan O'Rourke / Dan Viens
Copywriters: Heather Ryder / Darcie Burrell
Art Director: Patty Orlando
Producers: Molly Tait / Julie Gursha
Executive Agency Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Interactive Strategy: Jocelin Shalom
Strategic Planning: Tom Suharto / Irina Tone
Media / Communications Planning: Emily Dalton / Destinee Scott / Emily Graham
Account Team: Karrelle Dixon / Alyssa Ramsey / Marisa Weber / Jim Zhou
Business Affairs: Anna Beth Nagel
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff / Joe Staples

Production Company: Iconoclast
Director: Matthew Frost
Executive Producer: Charles-Marie Anthonioz
Line Producer: Caroline Pham
Directors of Photography: Darren Lew / Joost Van Gelder

Editing Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Angus Wall ("Inner Thoughts" :60, :30) / Grant Surmi (:30, :15s)
Post Producer: Jared Thomas
Executive Post Producer: Angela Dorian

Visual Effects Company: A52
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jesse Monsour
Flame Artists: Brendan Crockett / Matt Sousa / Steve Wolf / Dan Ellis / Richard Hirst
Visual Effects Producer: Jamie McBriety
Color: Paul Yacono

Music Supervision: Nylon Studios
Artist: Apollo 100
Track: Joy
Sound Designer: Barking Owl

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixers: Matt Miller / Dave Wagg
Producers: Jessica Locke / Susie Boyajan

Cooking with Lurpak is a full body-and-soul experience.

A new ad from Wieden + Kennedy London continues the butter brand's tradition of quick-cut, hi-res food porn. In the voiceover, Rutger Hauer raps about cutting loose, while a sizzling jazz soundtrack crescendoes and a series of home cooks work themselves up into spiritual frenzy, dancing while they fly.



Titled "Freestyle," it is, like the agency's past work for Lurpak, gorgeously shot (this time by MJZ director Juan Cabral—with stunning colors, produce that looks so good it's unreal, and a surprising amount of action, including a healthy dash of psychedelia.

It's also trying pretty hard—some might say too hard—to be exciting. But the build and pacing are perfectly arced, and anyone who loves cooking as a form of self-expression seems likely to particularly appreciate it.

The less ambitious can just slather some butter on their toast.

Print work and credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Lurpak
Project: "Freestyle"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creative Directors: Sam Heath, Kim Papworth
Creatives: Gustavo Kopit, Barnaby Blackburn
Designer: Bruce Usher
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Rachel Parker
Account Directors: Hannah Gourevitch, Katja Giannella
Account Executive: Stephanie Brooks
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planners: Jennifer Lewis, Theo Izzard-Brown
TV Producers: Gemma Knight, Sahar Bluck
Creative Producer: Rebecca Herbert

TV Production
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Juan Cabral
Production Company Producer: Stephen Johnson
Director of Photography: Anthony Dodd Mantle
Editing Company: Work Post
Editor: Neil Smith
Executive Postproduction Producer: Julian Marshall
Visual Effects Company: MPC
Visual Effects Producer: Anandi Peiris
Music, Sound Company: Soundtree
Composers: Peter Raeburn, Ben Castle, Luis Almau
Sound Designer: Parv Thind
Producer (Soundtree): Jay James
Mix Company: Wave Studios
Mixer: Parv Thind
Producer (Wave Studios): Rebecca Boswell

Print Production
Creatives: Sam Heath, Gustavo Kopit, Barnaby Blackburn
Designer: Bruce Usher
Creative Producer: Rebecca Herbert
Creative Researcher: Laura Barker
Photographer: Gustav Almestål
Agent: Lund Lund
Food Stylist: Katie Giovanni

Director of Relations: Marta Bobic

Somebody get this kid a bike! (And snowshoes, while you're at it.)

Orri, the plucky lad in this fanciful Wieden + Kennedy London spot introducing Arla's Skyr Icelandic yogurt to the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands, really has it rough. Most of the action takes place in 1968, as the boy braves storms and covers vast distances, always on foot, to deliver messages that arrive via his remote village's only telephone. (Often, these communications are of a less-than-urgent nature, such as, "Your trousers are ready for collection.")

Does he even draw a salary? Or get tips?

On the plus side, Orri enjoys heaping bowls of Skyr to power his travels.



The low-key, humorous film, W+K's first work for the brand, is expertly directed by Dougal Wilson, who placed two spots ("Monty the Penguin" for John Lewis and "Adventure Awaits" for Lurpak) among Adweek's top 10 ads of 2014.

This 90-second Skyr ad, "The Messenger," really delivers, subtly touting the brand as a hearty snack or meal while keeping viewers engaged and smiling. W+K's Thom Whitaker, who wrote and art directed the work with Danielle Noël, chatted with us about the commercial:

Where did the idea come from?
Skyr's full of protein, so we wanted to tell a story of extraordinary Icelandic strength, but one which people weren't familiar with or had heard before. We'd heard about young Icelandic kids working as telephone messengers back in the '60s—which we thought could be the perfect story to tell.

Why go this route with the creative?
Because of Iceland's tradition for Viking sagas, it felt right to create our own epic story for this Icelandic yogurt. We wanted to go back to the old tradition of classic storytelling—a bit like the old Stella Artois work.

Skyr has got a pretty wide appeal. It's very much Scandinavia's answer to Greek yogurt, and in Iceland it's part of everyone's daily diet, so we thought the story of the little boy was universal enough for everybody to enjoy.

Why keep the product mostly in the background?
We wanted to weave Skyr into the story in the natural way, while giving as much screen time as possible to the boy's epic journey, so that the final payoff becomes even stronger.

Some have likened the approach to Wes Anderson. Agree or disagree?
It does have a bit of a Wes Anderson vibe to it, but that wasn't really intentional. The brightly colored houses and the retro wardrobe might have something to do with it. We should have set the titles in Futura!

Any amusing anecdotes from the shoot?
The lighthouse scene was pretty interesting—a full-on Icelandic storm was battering the cliffs and it felt like we could be swept away at any second. I don't think we've ever been so happy with a first take.

Skyr's got more work coming out soon?
Short films [not by Dougal Wilson] are out next week on YouTube and Facebook and are called "Skyr Guides." They're also from W+K, but Toby Moore and Selena McKenzie are the brains behind them, not us [Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel].

They're basically two short portraits of modern-day Icelanders who exhibit the same sort of strength as Orri does in our film: Kolla, a cyclist who braves the Icelandic climate every day, and Joi, a modern-day Viking who's a doorman at one of Reykjavik's oldest nightclubs and who's not averse to putting Skyr on his steak. They're all about introducing us Brits to Skyr—the history of it, what it's good with, how it's pronounced.

CREDITS
Client: Arla Foods
Project Name: Arla Skyr
Media Channels: TV, OOH, DOOH, Online Films
Client Lead: Sam Dolan
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creative Directors: Dave Day, Larry Seftel
Copywriters, Art Directors: Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Katherine Napier
Account Director: Will Hunt
Account Manager: Maria Kofoed
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planning Director: Theo Izzard-Brown
Planner: Rachel Hamburger
TV Producer: Matthew Ellingham
Creative Producer: Michael Winek
Production Company: Blink
Director: Dougal Wilson
Executive Producer: James Studholme
Line Producer: Ewen Brown
Director of Photography: Karl Oskarsson
Editing Company: Final Cut
Editor: Joe Guest
Post Producer: Julie Evans
Executive Post Producer: Julie Evans
Visual Effects Company: MPC
Visual Effects Supervisor: Bill McNamara
Flame Artist: Tom Harding
Visual Effects Producer: Julie Evans
Colorist: Jean-Clément Soret
Titles, Graphics: MPC
Music, Composer: Alex Baranowski
Sound Designer: Anthony Moore
Producer: Becs Bell
Mix Company: Factory
Mixer: Anthony Moore
Producer: Becs Bell

Online Films:
Art Directors, Copywriters: Toby Moore, Selena McKenzie
TV Producer: Greg Hemes
Production Company: TrueNorth
Editing Company: WracK

Print Production:
Art Directors: Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel, Kelly Satchell
Copywriters: Thom Whitaker, Danielle Noel
Head of Design: Karen Jane

After years of withering criticism about the dearth of women leading creative departments, the industry finally seems to be listening.

Six women have been named to creative chief positions—at FCB, Young & Rubicam, Wieden + Kennedy, Ogilvy & Mather and Wunderman—in the past six months, with Y&R, for example, recruiting Leslie Sims from McCann Erickson to become chief creative officer in New York and promoting Pam Mufson to co-executive creative director in Chicago.

Award show juries also have become more egalitarian, with the Art Directors Club and the Clios mandating that there be an equal number of male and female jurors. Meanwhile, Cannes Lions will have five female jury presidents this year, which represents a third of the total pool.

The 3% Conference, whose name reflects the tiny percentage of female creative directors listed in the 2004 Communications Arts Advertising Annual, has seen creative chiefs rise to 11 percent.

Agencies acknowledge the imbalance in their upper creative ranks and are trying to address it. DDB in March launched Better by Half, an initiative that seeks to identify and remove obstacles that prevent women from advancing. The goal is to have 50 percent of DDB's creative leaders (cds, ecds, CCOs) be women within five years. Currently, only 10 percent of top creatives inside DDB are female.

Mark O'Brien, DDB North American president, said the agency is working on identifying the hurdles that women face. "Barriers are there that we don't see," he noted. "We expect that if we remove the barriers, the rise will happen naturally."

The obstacles are many: the lack of mentors, male leaders favoring men's work over that of women and little support for mothers, observed Y&R's Sims and Toni Hess, who became CCO at Wunderman last fall. These issues determine whether women stay and rise or leave.

"The emotional pull to have children and families really can't be overlooked," said Hess. "We work in a wonderful, amazing business that is a lot of fun but is incredibly demanding."

With more women steering corporate marketing and an influx of millennials at agencies, Sims expects creative departments to evolve and become more amenable to helping women strike a better work-life balance, which in turn will allow them to compete on a level playing field with their male counterparts.

"Diversity of any kind on an agency leadership team is a real advantage," Sims explained. "And given that there's such a wide array of clients and even a broader diversity of consumers, making sure you have a mixture of perspective is really important."

Industry headhunters predict that the influx of women creative chiefs would grow at a steady clip, given the healthy supply of seasoned midlevel talent. Agencies are "looking for modern leaders," said Debra Sercy of Grace Blue. "And women increasingly are in consideration because they've risen through the ranks, they have proven their ability, they're agile, they're fearless, they're strategic and they're smart."

This Trebor Mints ad from Wieden + Kennedy London has a bit of that 1990s Gushers weirdness to it, either as a tribute to nostalgic thirtysomethings or just for shiggles.

It opens with a teen admitting to his father that he prefers soft mints to their harder contemporaries, which makes his dad go all Malory Archer and crush his whiskey glass out of anger. Weird how that never cuts anyone's hand on TV.

And it only gets stranger from there.



Though the concept is hardly revolutionary, they kept the weirdness to one element of the ad that mostly delivers, so it works. For my own sanity, I won't get into the Punnett square logistics that resulted in minty dad's human son. No sense asking questions I don't want answered.

CREDITS
Client: Trebor
Marketing Manager, Gum, Candy, Mondelez: Elena Germani
Senior Brand Manager, Mondelez: Elena Mallo
Project Name: "Choose Your Trebor"
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creative Director: Kim Papworth
Creative Team: Max Batten, Ben Shaffrey
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Andrew Kay
Account Director: Hanne Haugen
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planning Director: Georgia Challis
TV Producer: Lou Hake
Creative Producer: Danny Wallace
Designer: Michael Bow
Production Company: Hungryman
Director: Taika Waititi
Executive Producer: Matt Buels
Producer: Camilla Cullen
Director of Photography: Bob Pendar-Hughes
Editing Company: Work Post
Editor: Rachel Spann
Post Producer: Josh Robinson, The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: Dan Adams, The Mill
Music, Sound Company: Wave
Sound Designer: Dugal Macdiarmid
Producer: Rebecca Boswell
Mix Company: Wave
Mixer: Dugal Macdiarmid
Producer: Rebecca Boswell

Warren Buffett is known for many things, but singing hasn't been one of them—until now.

Buffett played "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" on a custom ukulele (presented to him recently by Wieden + Kennedy) in a video Wednesday that opened the company's annual meeting as it celebrates its 100th birthday. 

Odd? For sure. But certainly on brand. The billionaire investor and philanthropist does love Coke. Not only does he own $16 billion in Coca-Cola stock, but he told Fortune in February that he's "a quarter Coca-Cola" and drinks five 12-ounce servings of the soda daily.



The custom ukulele, which has a sound hole in the shape of the classic Coke bottle, was made by Portland-based luthier Mark Roberts. Crafted in five weeks out of European Carpathian spruce from Romania, reclaimed Honduran mahogany and Malagasy ebony, the red ukulele was given to Buffett last month at his Berkshire Hathaway office in Omaha.

"He picked it up and practiced the song, changing the key a few times," said Thomas Harvey, account director at W+K. "You can see him tuning up and singing at the start of the film. The whole process only took about 30 minutes."

Lately, Honda drivers have been going nowhere fast. And their strange travels have yielded some memorably unusual advertising.

First, the automaker took us on a CR-V journey that wouldn't end. Now, in "Feeling," Wieden + Kennedy London radically slows down various Civics as they cruise through city and country. In this nearly frozen world, engineers attend to every conceivable aspect of the ride, from arranging raindrops, birds and butterflies outside the cars' windows to manipulating drivers' hands on the steering wheels and gear shifts.

"One of the most important things for Honda engineers when designing a new car is that it feels great to drive," W+K's Max Batten tells Adweek. "We thought this would be a good story to tell for the Civic." Thematically, he adds, "this campaign is about linking the Civic to those split-second moments where driving can be so satisfying."



Impeccably shot by Johnny Hardstaff via RSA Films, with impressive effects from MPC, the ad is initially disorienting, even a tad creepy. (Unhand me, engineer!) Still, it rewards repeat viewings with great details like a magnificent horse romping ridiculously s-l-o-o-o-l-y in a field beside one of the cars.

"We wanted to create a world that draws the viewer in and rewards them for noticing all the details in the storytelling," says Batten. "The surreal quality is something we really liked."

Production was no picnic. "It involved a huge amount of planning," Batten says. "All the action was shot in layers, which were combined at MPC. The frozen elements were created using a combination of slow-motion filming and CGI. The shots had to be incredibly precise, and Johnny did a fantastic job bringing it all together."

Ultimately, "Feeling" and other recent Honda films like "Endless Road," "Illusions" and "The Other Side" follow the roadmap for offbeat, memorable excursions—something the brand established a dozen years ago with its trend-setting "Cog" commercial.

"It's always good to shake things up, especially in a category that's rife with clichés," says Batten. "One of Honda's strengths is that they want to make work which stands out."

CREDITS
Client: Honda Europe
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy London
Creative director: Scott Dungate
Copywriters: Ben Shaffery, Max Batten
Executive creative directors: Tony Davidson, Kim Papworth, Iain Tait
Agency executive producer: Danielle Stewart
Group account director: Nick Owen
Account director: Alex Budenberg
Account manager: Maria Kofoed
Head of planning: Beth Bentley
Planning director: Martin Beverly
TV producer: Michelle Brough
TV production assistant: Tom Dean
Production company: RSA Films
Director: Johnny Hardstaff
Executive producer: Kai Hsiung
Line producer: Annabel Ridley
Director of photography: Martin Ruhe
Editorial company: Work Post
Editor: Art Jones
VFX company: MPC
VFX supervisors: Adam Crocker, Anthony Bloor
Flame artist: Adam Crocker
VFX producer: Dionne Archibald
Lead 3D: Anthony Bloor
Colorist: Jean¬Clément Soret
Music and sound company: Nate Connolly, Mutant Jukebox
Sound designer: Sam Ashwell
Sound studio: 750mph
Producers: Shervin Shaeri, Mutant Jukebox
Mix company: 750mph
Mixer: Sam Ashwell
Producers: Sam Robinson, Mary-Ann D'Cruz

Wieden + Kennedy specializes in oddball characters whose very uncoolness—their out-of-time styles and behaviors—is what makes them cool. The agency perfected this approach for Southern Comfort with the beach guy and then the karate guy. And now, it's created something similar for a very different kind of beverage—Cravendale milk.

W+K London has done plenty of quirky ads for its British dairy client—most notably, 2011's "Cats With Thumbs" campaign. Now, a new 30-second spot introduces us to the Milk Drinker, a mysterious mustachioed character who's never without his cool tall glass of milk.

The ad, shot by Riff Raff directors Canada, broke Saturday during Britain's Got Talent.



The goal is to communicate the premium quality of Cravendale milk and encourage milk drinkers to choose Cravendale as their milk of choice. But the agency admits the character is a departure for the category.

"It's unusual to see a grown man drink milk, so that's why we created The Milk Drinker—a man who's not afraid to make a statement, especially if that statement comes in the form of a long, cold glass of Cravendale," says W+K copywriter Thom Whitaker.

The Milk Drinker is a described in the ad as a "modern-day enigma" and a "connoisseur of the cow." He's also a bit reminiscent of the Dude from The Big Lebowski, another guy known to carry around glasses of white refreshment—though the Dude's preferred drink had more of a kick, of course.

The campaign also includes a giveaway of special milk glasses.

CREDITS
Client: Arla Cravendale
Brand Managers: Vicky Smith, Claire Mackintosh
Project: The Milk Drinker's Milk
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, London
Creative Directors: Larry Seftel, David Day
Copywriter: Thom Whitaker
Art Director: Danielle Noel
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson / Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Katherine Napier
Account Director: Lucy Crook
Account Manager: Alex Allcott
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planner: Tom Lloyd
TV Producer: Emily Rudge / Helen Whiteley
Production Company: Canada London / Riff Raff
Director: Canada
Executive Producer: Oscar Romagosa, Matthew Fone
Line Producer: Cathy Hood
Director of Photography: Arnaud Potier
Editorial Company: Trim
Editor: Dominic Leung
Post Producer: Jemma Daniel, Harriet Cawley
VFX Company: MPC
VFX Producer: Anandi Peiris
Mix Company: 750mph
Mixer: Sam Ashwell
Music Company: Woodwork Music
Composer: Philip Kay

Among the gajillion emoji campaigns out there right now, here's a clever one.

Wieden + Kennedy London creatives Jason Scott and Joris Philippart recently had an idea for how to use emojis to help endangered animals. So, the agency approached the WWF with a proposal. The result is the #EndangeredEmoji campaign, which launches just in time for Endangered Species Day this Friday.

The key insight was that 17 animal emojis that people use every day actually depict endangered species (see the list below). The WWF today tweeted out an image of the 17 animals, and asked people to join the campaign by retweeting the post.

We're using #EndangeredEmoji to save real animals from extinction. Please retweet to sign up and help. pic.twitter.com/hX1p1GEDZ9

— WWF (@WWF) May 12, 2015

Those joining the campaign agree to donate 0.10 euros (about 11 cents) every time they use any of the 17 emojis in a future tweet. (You get a monthly statement, essentially.)

"We're proud to announce the launch of our global social campaign with WWF and Twitter, created with technical partner Cohaesus," the agency says.
 

Now that Alex Leikikh is stepping up to global CEO at the newly merged Mullen Lowe Group, he has named an Ogilvy & Mather leader to run the combined agency's U.S. operations.

Lee Newman, most recently president of Ogilvy in Chicago, becomes U.S. CEO at Mullen Lowe. He'll be based in Los Angeles and manage offices in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Winston-Salem, N.C. He'll start in mid-June.

All told, Mullen Lowe employs about 670 staffers in the U.S., the bulk of whom are in Boston (about 400). The next-biggest office is Winston-Salem (150), followed by Los Angeles (100) and New York (20). Collectively, the offices generate more than $120 million in revenue.

Newman has spent the past three years at Ogilvy. Before that, he was a managing director at Wieden + Kennedy in Amsterdam, and earlier in his career he worked with Leikikh at Fallon.

In making the hire, Leikikh cited Newman's agency pedigree and operational experience, adding that he has more than a decade of "luxury automotive experience on BMW and Audi, which means our Acura clients will benefit immediately from his expertise."

Acura is the biggest account at the Los Angeles office, which Mullen opened in 2013 after it won the business.

Beyond Mullen Lowe, the Mullen Lowe Group includes Lowe Profero, Campbell-Ewald and shopper marketing unit Lowe Open.

Boy, howdy, have things changed."

That's Colonel Harland Sanders, 35 years after his death at age 90—but reincarnated in the form of ex-SNL star Darrell Hammond—weighing in on modern culture in Wieden + Kennedy's first advertising for KFC, on its 75th anniversary.

The Colonel, the face of the chicken chain and always a valuable asset, is front and center in the major new campaign. He places the needle on an old LP in the introductory spot, which tells you exactly where this is going: The old Colonel is here to riff on the differences between the old days and this crazy new world of millennials—in ads frequently punctuated by an exaggerated chuckle that Hammond has come up with.



It's an interesting approach, getting a comedic actor to play your most classic icon. And the first spots are notable not just because of the Colonel's return but because of the concerted oddness of the execution.

In the minute-long "Bucket in My Hand," the Colonel walks down a clogged highway, around an empty baseball stadium and up to a swimming pool lifeguard—handing out chicken and singing an off-kilter anthem with lyrics that frequently don't rhyme. In the 15-second "America's Favorite Music" ad, he raves about mandolin music.



The goofy humor is clearly meant to drag the Colonel into the modern age, without completely sacrificing his legacy. Even Hammond's stock quotes are a mix of reverent and tongue-in-cheek.

"In my line of work I've been able to do impressions of a lot of interesting people. But Colonel Sanders? He was a really fascinating guy," Hammond says in a statement. "His lifelong entrepreneurial spirit and integrity are two things that drew me to him. He never gave up. It's an honor to bring to life such an iconic figure … and it doesn't hurt that KFC is paying me in chicken (which, at the time sounded like a good idea, because I was very hungry that day)."



The TV spots will break next Monday. The campaign extends to web, social media and in-store experiences. The digital work includes a new KFC.com and ColonelSanders.com (the latter includes the Hall of Colonels, an interactive digital experience that tells Sanders' life story). There will also be new menu items, packaging and store designs.

"The Colonel has always been at the core of everything we do here at Kentucky Fried Chicken," says Kevin Hochman, KFC's U.S. CMO. "The 75th anniversary is the perfect time to give him back to the people and remind everyone of what we're all about."

Packaging:

 
Store design, exterior:

 
Store design, interior:

 
CREDITS
Client: KFC
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.

—Spot: "State of Kentucky Fried Chicken Address" :45

Agency: W+K Portland
Creative Directors: Karl Liberman, Eric Baldwin
Copywriter: Karl Liberman
Art Director: Eric Baldwin
Producer: Hayley Goggin,
Production Assistant: Nicole Kaptur
Interactive Strategy: Mike Davidson, Teresa Lai
Social Strategy: Matt Hisamoto
Strategic Planning: Britton Taylor, Lizzie Hanner
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Jess Monsey, Jesse Johnson, Kristin Postill, Alexina Shaber
Business Affaires: Alicia Willet/Karen Crossley
Project Management: Chenney Gruber
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Joint
Director: Karl Lieberman + Eric Baldwin
Executive Producer: Patty Brebner
Line Producer: Shelli Jury
Director of Photography: Eric Edwards

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Nick Davis
Post Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy

VFX Company: Joint
Exec Producer, VFX: Alex Thiesen
Nuke Artist : Zack Jacobs
Smoke Artist: David Jahns
Executive Producer, Color: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer : Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Colorist: David Ludlum

Music+Sound Company: Walker
Composer: N/A
Sound Designer: Noah Woodburn
Song (if applicable):  'Keep on the Sunny Side'
Producer: Abbey Hickman + Sara Matarazzo

Mix Company: Joint
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Producer: Sarah Fink

—Spots: "Bucket in My Hand" :60, "Pool Dip" :15, "Traffic" :30, "Baseball No Hitter" :30, "Baseball-Talkin About" :15

Agency: W+K Portland
Creative Directors: Karl Liberman, Eric Baldwin
Copywriter: Matt Mulvey
Art Director: Lawrence Melilli
Producer: Hayley Goggin,
Production Assistant: Nicole Kaptur
Interactive Strategy: Mike Davidson, Teresa Lai
Social Strategy: Matt Hisamoto
Strategic Planning: Britton Taylor, Lizzie Hanner
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Jess Monsey, Ken Smith, Jesse Johnson, Kristin Postill, Alexina Shaber
Business Affaires: Karen Crossley
Project Management: Chenney Gruber
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer: Doug Halbert
Line Producer: Andrew Travelstead
Director of Photography: Tim Hudson

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Steve Sprinkel
Post Producer: Lauren Pullano
Post Executive Producer: Alex Thiesen

VFX Company: The Mill
Exec Producer, VFX: Sue Troyan
Sr. VFX Producer: Dan Roberts
Production Coordinator: Mary Hayden
VFX Supervisor: Phil Crowe
Lead Flame Artist : James Allen
2D Artists: Tim Davies, Jason Bergman, Steve Cokonis, Andy Dill, Kevin Flores, Gareth Parr, Tim Robbins, Lisa Ryan, Stefan Smith, Glyn Tebbutt
Matte Painters: Gillian George, Itai Muller, Lynn Yang
Executive Producer, Color: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer : Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Colorist: David Ludlum

Music+Sound Company: Walker Music
Composer: N/A
Sound Designer: Walker Music  on Bucket In My Hand :60/:30 ONLY
Song (if applicable): Bucket In My Hand (re-record of Ivor Cutler 'Donut in my hand') All other spots, 'Keep on the Sunny Side' production performance from Mandolin Band on set day of shoot
Producer: Abbey Hickman + Sara Matarazzo

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Sam Casas + Matt Miller
Producer: Susie Boyajan

—Spot: Mandolin Spots

Agency: W+K Portland
Creative Directors: Karl Liberman, Eric Baldwin
Copywriter: Matt Mulvey
Art Director: Lawrence Melilli
Producer: Hayley Goggin,
Production Assistant: Nicole Kaptur
Interactive Strategy: Mike Davidson, Teresa Lai
Social Strategy: Matt Hisamoto
Strategic Planning: Britton Taylor, Lizzie Hanner
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Jess Monsey, Ken Smith, Jesse Johnson, Kristin Postill, Alexina Shaber
Business Affaires: Karen Crossley
Project Management: Chenney Gruber
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer: Doug Halbert
Line Producer: Andrew Travelstead
Director of Photography: Tim Hudson

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Steve Sprinkel
Post Producer: Lauren Pullano
Post Executive Producer: Alex Thiesen

VFX Company: The Mill
Exec Producer, VFX:: Sue Troyan
Sr. VFX Producer: Dan Roberts
Production Coordinator : Mary Hayden
VFX Supervisor: Phil Crowe
Lead Flame Artist : James Allen
2D Artists: Tim Davies, Jason Bergman, Steve Cokonis, Andy Dill, Kevin Flores, Gareth Parr, Tim Robbins, Lisa Ryan, Stefan Smith, Glyn Tebbutt
Matte Painters: Gillian George, Itai Muller, Lynn Yang
Executive Producer, Color: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer : Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Colorist: David Ludlum

Music+Sound Company: Walker Music
Composer: N/A
Sound Designer: Walker Music  on $5 Dollar Phillip  :30 + :15
Song (if applicable): Down By the Bay  ($5 Dollar Phillip :30 + :15)
Producer: Abbey Hickman + Sara Matarazzo

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Sam Casas + Matt Miller
Producer: Susie Boyajan

Delta claims to have made the "Internetest inflight safety video on the Internet." And by Keyboard Cat, I think they're right. Where else, after all, will you see a cat in a shark suit on a Roomba on a plane?

The video, from Wieden + Kennedy in New York, will begin running on Delta's fleet starting May 25, but you can already witness this meme-sterpiece online with an impressive array of additional remixed content with the "Will It Blend?" guy from Blendtec.

In case you're worried you didn't catch all the cameos from Internet stars, there's a time-coded list in the comments on YouTube. And you can see even more uncredited faces at 1:43 when they all get up to do the meme-iest Harlem Shake ever filmed on a plane.

They even included Deltalina, the famous flight attendant from the 2008 Delta safety video who started this whole trend of goofy safety videos with nothing more than some sassy finger wagging and a carefully placed smile ding.



I can only imagine what future civilizations will think when they look back on these videos and wonder, in particular, what is happening with the Internetest one. In fact, I imagine there will be a number of present-day Delta flyers who will view this inexplicable collection of references to other references—divorced entirely from their original contexts and remade into a postmodern bricolage—as a strange and otherworldly piece of surrealist art that would have given Dali pause.

But for those of us who love the Internet in all its Internety goodness, this is the best thing we've seen today. It's like a double rainbow, all the way across the sky. So intense.

CREDITS
Client: Delta Air Lines

—Project: "Pay Attention": The Internetest Safety Video

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman, David Kolbusz, Jaime Robinson
Creative Directors: Sean McLaughlin, John Parker
Copywriter: Ian Hart
Art Director: Perry Morton
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Broadcast Producer: Cheryl Warbook, Luiza Naritomi
Interactive Producer: Jen Vladimirsky
Brand Strategist: Sam Matthews, Meranne Behrends
Account Team: Liz Taylor, Meghan Mullen, Lauren Smith
Project Manager: Lauren Amato
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Keri Rommel
Traffic: Sonia Bisono, Rylee Millerd

Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director: Matt Aselton
Managing Director: Mal Ward
Executive Producer: Marc Marrie
Producer: Zoe Odlum
Director of photography: Corey Walter

Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor: JD Smyth and Jeff Buchanan
Post Producer: Mackenzie Alexander
Post Executive Producer: Lauren Bleiweiss
Editorial Assistant: Betty Jo

VFX Company: MPC
VFX Lead Flame: Marcus Wood
VFX Supervisors: Marcus Wood
Compositor: Jonathan McKee, Eric Conception, Carl Fong, Marcus White
VFX CG Artists: Bill Dorais, Andres Weber, Angela Carafas, Charlotte Bae, Grae Revell, Jacob Fradkin, Michael Nieves, Ty Coyle
Art Director: Diana Park
Designers & Animators: Colin Hess, Denis Moran, Leland Goodman, Tyler Gibb, Kim Dulane
Senior Producer: Matthew Loranger

Telecine Company: Company 3
Colorist: Tim Masick

Mix Company: Heard City
Mixer: Cory Melious
Producer: Natasha Alden

Music Company: Black Iris
Song: Clean Teef

—Project: "Pay Attention": The Internetest Safety Video – "Will It Blend" videos

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: David Kolbusz, Jaime Robinson
Creative Directors: Sean McLaughlin, John Parker
Copywriter: Ian Hart
Art Director: Perry Morton
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Broadcast Producer: Luiza Naritomi
Interactive Producer: Jen Vladimirsky
Brand Strategist: Sam Matthews
Account Team: Liz Taylor, Meghan Mullen, Lauren Smith, Cait Collette
Project Manager: Lauren Amato
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Keri Rommel

Production Company: Joint
Director of Photography: Chris Teague
2nd Camera: Zelmira Gainz
Line Producer: Mahalia Cohen

Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor: Betty Jo Moore

VFX Company: Significant Others
Motion Graphic Designer: Phil Brooks
Flame Artist: Betty Cameron

Mix Company: Significant Others
Mixer: Terressa Tate

Yoplait taps into its French roots to celebrate that it's now made with 25 percent less sugar—hurray!

Two 30-second spots—Wieden + Kennedy's first work for the General Mills brand—use an unexpected but welcome voiceover with a playful French accent. It's a fitting choice, as Yoplait was founded by two French farmers in the 1960s. It also explains the fun '60s vibe that comes through.

The ads use bright pops of color tied to the yogurt flavor—reds and pinks for strawberry and blues and greens for blueberry. Two more spots, featuring two additional flavors, are forthcoming. "The four work together in harmony—each showcasing a different flavor and aspect of this magical Yoplait world," said Susan Pitt, marketing manager for Yoplait.

The work is delightfully surprising, and that French accent is just downright charming. We caught up with Karl Lieberman, creative director at W+K in Portland, Ore., to hear a little more about what it tooke to find the perfect French accent and more.

Why use a voiceover? And one with a French accent?
As a nod to Yoplait's French heritage, we wanted a real French voice to narrate the work. We didn't want an American pretending to do a funny French voice. We wanted it to be authentic.

We were actually struggling to find this truly authentic French voice that we all loved through the casting agencies, when our ecd Joe Staples saw the rough cuts and said, "I know exactly who would be perfect for this: her name is Julie, she's French, and she owns a sock shop up the street."

We brought Julie in, talked socks, talked yogurt, then she got into the booth and was perfect. Julie's French accent, along with the subtitles, made us feel like we could deliver these very simple and straightforward messages around Yoplait having 25 percent less sugar in a pretty unique way that was true to the brand's history.

How did you find the on-screen talent?
We went down to L.A. and saw a lot of casting with our director Autumn de Wilde. Phoebe Neidhardt was probably the second-to-last person to come in at the very last hour of casting before we had to rush back to Portland.

She was perfect. Completely charming and funny and likeable and had a seemingly endless inventory of energy. Phoebe's an actress, but she also writes and does comedy, so she had a really good grasp of what we were trying to do on the shoot. It's probably the single best shoot I've ever been on.

The spots have a quirky, retro feel to them. How did you land on that direction?
We actually never set out to make anything intentionally quirky or retro. We just wanted the spots to look great and not take themselves too seriously. There's a lot of what I would call "worthy" advertising out there right now, and I think messaging around something as significant as "25 percent less sugar" could have gone that way, but we didn't want it to.

Eating Yoplait is a fun and enjoyable experience, and we just wanted to make spots that elicited those same feelings.

My partner Eric Baldwin and I really liked the tonality of the work the director, Autumn de Wilde, had done for artists like Beck and the Decemberists. There's this eclectic mix of fashion, beauty and humor she brings to the work, and we wanted to see what that might look like for Yoplait.

CREDITS
Client: Yoplait

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Eric Baldwin, Karl Lieberman
Producer: Molly Tait
Strategic Planning: Angela Jones
Media, Communications Planning, TV: Zenith Optimedia
Digital: John Rowan, Jaclyn VanSloten
Account Team: Ken Smith, Kelly Quinn
Business Affairs: Laura Caldwell
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Joe Staples

Production Company: Anonymous
Director: Autumn de Wilde
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Line Producer: Paul Ure
Director of Photography: Chris Soos

Editing Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Steve Sprinkle
Post Producer: Mike Early
Executive Post Producer: Leslie Carthy

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: Kathy Siegel
Flame Artist: Nick Taylor
Visual Effects Producer: Kait Boehm
Color: Adam Scott

Music Supervision: Jon Huck
Artist: Dawn Landes
Tracks: Strawberry, "Picture Show"; Blueberry, "La Vie au Lasso"
Sound Designer: Joint Editorial, Autumn de Wilde

Mix Company: Joint Editorial
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Producer: Michael Early

Men who drink Heineken are still going on wild romps through the world's most colorful cities, but now one is leading a gaggle of clueless tourists as well.

In this new ad from Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, a dapper young man hijacks a tour guide's authority and takes his charges to see the better, deeper secrets of Paris. Those include, naturally, a masquerade hidden in crypts beneath the city, with guests wearing plague doctor masks.

It's a familiar formula for the brewer: A gregarious charmer, who could easily be the Most Interesting Man in the World in his prime, dances his way through a retro-hip wonderland, slugging Heinekens along the way. The twist here is perhaps that the hero is a little more gracious—less concerned with his his own appetite for chasing thrills and beautiful women (or, in that one instance, for finding his pet goat) and instead more eager to show the guests of his city a good time, as a sort of random act of benevolence.



The best moment, though, is probably the silliest—when the tour group is waylaid by a gang of mimes. Probably because after a parade of slick feel-good partying, nothing is more refreshing than a bunch of creepy overblown clowns making fools of themselves.

CREDITS
Client: Heineken
Global Brand Director: Gianluca di Tondo
Global Communications Director: Anuraag Trikha
Global Communications Manager: Diana Agudelo Hernandez

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative Directors: Thierry Albert, Faustin Claverie
Art Director: Kia Heinnen
Copywriter: Zoe Hawkins
Head of Broadcast Production: Joe Togneri
Broadcast Producer: Elissa Singstock
Planner: Nick Docherty
Group Account Director: Jordi Pont
Account Manager: Amber Martin
Project Manager: Stacey Prudden
Business Affairs: Emilie Douque

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Dante Ariola
Director of Photography: Philippe Le Sourd
Producer: Natalie Hill
Executive Producer: Debbie Turner

Editing Company: Peep Show Post
Editor: Andrea MacArthur

Audio Post: Grand Central Recording Studios
Sound Designer, Mixer: Raja Sehgal

Music: Schmooze
Artist, Title: Feu Chatterton, J'aime Regarder les Filles
Music Company: Schmooze

Postproduction: Method Studios, Co.3
Flame: Tom McCullough
3-D: Rick Walia
Telecine: Stefan Sonnenfeld (Co.3)
Producers: Matthew Engel (Method), Rhubie Jovanov (Co.3)

Finlandia is gunning hard for the title of most inspirational vodka commercial ever.

A new two-and-half-minute ad, "1,000 years of less ordinary wisdom," features offbeat heroes like a drag wrestler and reindeer racer offering tips on how to make it in the world, like "Be nobody's bitch but your own" and "You're only as fast as your reindeer." In other words, a lot of the advice is, in spirit, not really that different from standard motivational fare, even if it comes from unusual sources and their unconventional contexts (though fashion icon Iris Apfel is not exactly out of the spotlight these days).

As for the title, the 1,000 years refers to the sum of the ages of the people in the commercial. A number of them are long in the tooth, which is cool, because listening to one's elders is generally a good thing—they're often less boring and clueless than young people. But the spot also makes sure to feature more sprightly accomplished types, too, like a prima ballerina and volcanic scientist (because it can't really exclude representing the money demo, too).



Created by Wieden + Kennedy London, the spot relies heavily on a driving (mostly) instrumental version of the song "Undeniable," by Donnie Daydream featuring Richie Sosa. That strings together the disparate footage from director Siri Bunford (though it might be worth mentioning that Adidas also just used the record as a soundtrack for its own sports-themed montage-qua-anthem).

Game of Thrones fans might enjoy that, as Fast Company notes, the strong man—Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson—is also a actor on the show. (He's the latest in a string to play "The Mountain" Gregor Clegane, largely absent this season but for the occasional twitch from under a blanket on a laboratory table, the pseudo-zombie experiment of some sinister wizard. P.S.: If that's where drinking Finlandia leads, no thanks.)

In all seriousness, though, the concept is pretty moving—a nice snapshot of various walks of life, with some clever and charming moments. Overall, it might even be convincing, except what drinking vodka really makes people want to do is drink more vodka and then pass out hard and sleep in the next day—not a great way to tear through that bucket list.

CREDITS
Client: Finlandia
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creative directors: Scott Dungate, Graeme Douglas
Copywriter: Paddy Treacy
Art director: Mark Shanley
Executive creative directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait
Executive producer: Danielle Stewart
Group account director: Paulo Salomao
Account director: Matt Owen
Account manager: Sophie Lake
Head of planning: Beth Bentley
Planning director: Martin Beverley
TV producer: Michelle Brough
Production company: Knucklehead
Director: Siri Bunford
Executive producer: Matthew Brown
Director of photography: Ben Smithard
Editorial companies: Lucky Cat, Whitehouse Post
Editors: Xavier Perkins, Lucky Cat; Adam Marshall, Whitehouse Post
Post producer: Anandi Peiris
VFX company: MPC
VFX supervisor: Bill McNamara
Flame artist: Bill McNamara
VFX producer: Anandi Peiris
Grade: MPC
Colorist: Matthieu Toullet
Titles/graphics: Ryan Teixeira
Music/sound company: Factory
Sound designers: Anthony Moore, Phil Bollard
Song: Undeniable, Richie Sosa
Interactive producer: Dom Felton
Director of relations: Marta Bobic
PR manager: Charlotte Corbett

Most marketers are thrilled when they get top recognition once at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, never mind taking the Marketer of the Year award home twice in the past decade, as Heineken has. In the last three years, six of Heineken's ad efforts have won 41 Lions, including the coveted Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness for "Heineken's Legendary Journey: Justifying a Premium the World Over" in 2013, from Wieden + Kennedy, that sought to position the beer as a global brand. W+K is the creative lead among a roster of shops that have also produced Cannes award-winning work: Saatchi working for Tecate; Havas, Dos Equis; and Droga5, Strongbow and Newcastle Brown Ale. (W+K's "The Odyssey" Heineken ad also won a Clio gold in the Direction category for production house MJZ in 2014.)

How will those agencies fare this year in the South of France? Heineken USA's CMO Nuno Teles explains how science and storytelling successfully drive sales and win awards.

Heineken's marketing model is about creativity as well as consumer understanding, Teles says. 

Why do you think Heineken advertising resonates so well with consumers?
We deliver outstanding creativity because we are convinced a marketing model that starts with science, insight and understanding of all that data will grow our business. But then you need to deliver it through a storytelling mystique. We call this the three-act approach, and it's not just about creativity; it has to be rooted in consumer understanding, too.

What business results can you share to measure effectiveness?
Heineken Light was declining by 18 percent, so we went to the science. We understood consumers would change behavior and start drinking a premium light beer if they were convinced it was indeed the best out there, which Heineken Light is—and we have the awards to prove it. [Heineken Light was named Best Tasting Low Calorie Lager twice at the World Beer Championships.] That's the science part. The storytelling happened when Wieden + Kennedy came up with the idea that if you're truly the best, we'll make a celebrity [actor Neil Patrick Harris] go off camera to drink it because he can't resist the taste. [It's illegal for a spokesperson to drink on camera in a TV ad.] Between TV and digital, we reached 35 million consumers in just three days. Now the brand's growth is up 7 percent.

Other recent success stories?
Our four priority brands are growing significantly faster than the marketplace. If you look at Heineken Lager, with the "Legends" campaign, it's growing 2.3 percent when the overall beer market is declining by 0.8 percent. "Legends" is seen and perceived by the U.S. consumer as completely differentiated, one of a kind, and that is driving brand reappraisal. With Strongbow, we think we will be significantly awarded this year for both the ad "Slow-Motion Horse" as well as the Patrick Stewart campaign. We were struggling with the brand and were the fourth brand in the marketplace. Now we are growing by 117 percent, five times more than the overall cider category.

Another example is Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign. The insight of the consumer is they are afraid to be perceived as boring and they feel "I would rather be dead than dull." It gives them a reason to talk to their friends in the bar about those interesting stories and it's become one of the most awarded campaigns. This is another example of how an awarded campaign gives us results: Dos Equis is growing, to date, 9 percent in a [declining] market. Another important part contributing to the campaign's success obviously is the "Mexification" of America, which is a very important trend. We see general-market consumers adopting Mexican culture, so it's not just a demographic—it's not just Hispanics moving to the U.S. and growing in population and drinking more. So, again, it's creativity—but it's rooted in insights.

What other trends are impacting your consumers and how you reach them in messaging?
Mexification is the biggest trend. Maybe as strong is the industry's "Beer Renaissance" trend with craft beer, which is about local beers. Another important one is flavor promiscuity, with seven out of 10 beer consumers keen to try new flavors. That's the reason we are investing in [Strongbow] cider and why we are also targeting females who are looking for new tastes. Another trend is the importance of wellness, which is also the reason why Heineken Light has grown so much. Consumers are increasingly concerned about their health.

You're putting an emphasis on Major League Soccer in the U.S. this year, in addition to your pre-existing UEFA relationship with the game in Europe. Are we going to see a lot of soccer-related advertising?
That's another important example of creativity in ads we are trying to bring that will allow us to be bold. Soccer is a great platform for us to reach out to 90 million millennial consumers in the U.S., including Mexican-American millennials. How can we, from a creative angle, look at soccer from a strong passion point and leverage our credentials of support for the UEFA Champions League?

Soccer is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. We are not just surfing a well-established sports platform, we're creating a new cultural trend about sport.

What are your other big priorities currently in the U.S.? What are you doing with digital?  
We've been conducting several studies linking digital and cultural exposure to retail sales. So now we know exactly what sales niche we can generate through TV as well as through digital channels—and we know Facebook, Twitter in comparison with TV. TV will continue to be important, but after looking at five different age groups, we see digital is by far more effective with young adults. We obviously still need TV to reach out to more adult age groups. But digital will always drive hyper-fragmentation. I truly believe as a marketer that the future will be one of hyper-fragmentation. It's my personal battle to really be able to change the way we do marketing and to really deliver the right message to the right segment because nowadays all those digital partners allow us to have this type of marketing.

How involved do Heineken executives get in the creative process?
You do it in collaboration. I strongly believe great ideas are the consequence of a great client/agency relationship. There's no such thing as me giving you the brief and you give me the response to it and that's it. Things get messy—life is not a straight line. Some days you get great work, some other days you get not-so-great work. How can we keep collaborating in a way that both parties will improve their ability to develop great work? This is a challenge and this will continue to be a challenge. But that's the secret of a good client and agency collaboration.

Tell us about Heineken's Global Commerce University and how it contributes to creativity, problem solving and communications?
We need the best people to deliver the best work, and the Global Commerce University is a very important starting point. How can we have the best people always with the best thinking and the best ultimate training? We see it as a way to step up the capacity of our team to keep delivering good work. Every single Monday, we hold what we call the "Creative Ladder" where we share what we believe is the advertising's great creative work. We continually benchmark because being creative in an absolute vacuum does not make any sense. Rather, how creative are you in comparison with your peers? I want to excel in creativity, but that is in relative terms to my competition. And Global Commerce University is a way to not only train us but to also share among ourselves what is good work.

How are mobile and social changing your marketing efforts and how do you ensure brand consistency across all channels?
Here's an example: We have an annual [national distributor] convention with 3,000 people and I can do my presentation using my phone. That gives you a sense of how important the global improvised world is. With our Desperados [a Heineken beer blended with tequila], which is the first of its kind in the U.S. and one where we are targeting millennials, we are developing the marketing in the Southeastern U.S., with some regions using just TV and some other areas using digital. We reached 23 percent consumer awareness in the regions where we used mobile, digital and social and close to zero [1-2 percent] where we used only TV.

Design is a high priority at Heineken. Can you bring us up to date with product packaging and innovations?
Design is how you show off. It's as important as you showing up well dressed in a meeting. So that makes it quite important for us. A good example would be our "Cities" campaign. If you go to an outlet in the U.S., you can find a can with the locations Miami, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco—up to nine U.S. cities—displayed on it. That's a design manifestation. You have a big red star displayed with "Heineken" and a city. This is a city summer edition and we use design to show how we see the importance we have about design. It's crucial for us. Not every brand is bold enough to move away from its traditional packaging design for a period of time and switch dress for the occasion.

What can new Heineken ad agency partners expect in working with you?
We truly believe that creativity drives results and creativity needs to be delivered with bold moves. We are serious about that. They need to agree that … creativity will drive people forward, and therefore I will ask for and buy good creativity. I will not tolerate average creativity from any partners.

The hirsute, rotund free spirit from Southern Comfort's famous "Beach" ad in 2012 may have been harboring a dirty secret—his famous tan might have been at least partly self-inflicted—judging by the brand's new spot, which goes to great lengths (and widths) to celebrate artificial bronzing.

The latest spot in the "Whatever's Comfortable" campaign, from Wieden + Kennedy New York, shows three blokes in hairnets—and what frankly look like diapers—lacquering their pasty exterior Britishness in a golden hue. This is because the weather in Britain is terrible, and they can't achieve a more natural summer glow by natural means.

Not that they'd want to. This spray-tanning business is borderline orgasmic, judging by their quivering reaction to the spray gun's feathery touch. Comfortable is putting it mildly.



Tanning oneself is only part of the story, though. Viewers are also encouraged to "tan" their lemonade this summer by spiking it with Southern Comfort & Lime.

"Following the popularity of our previous ads, we've leveraged that momentum into a new chapter, one that not only heroes our 'Whatever's Comfortable' attitude but also the drink itself," says client marketing manager Gwen Ridsdale. "Southern Comfort lemonade and fresh lime, the brand's recommended serve, is integral to the story in a unique way, which adds a whole new dimension to the campaign by encouraging consumers to 'tan your lemonade' this summer.

The spot breaks today online and will appear in cinemas and video on demand through the summer in the U.K.

CREDITS
Client: Southern Comfort

Spot: "Spray Tan"
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Jaime Robinson & David Kolbusz
Creative Directors: Jimm Lasser, Caleb Jensen, Mike Giepert
Copywriters: Laddie Peterson & Rajeev Basu
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Producer: Cheryl Warbrook
Strategist: Tom Gibby
Account Team: Toby Hussey, Katie Hoak, Kerry O'Connell
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Justine Lowe

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Executive Producer/COO: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Colleen O'Donnell
Line Producer: Mirka Taylor / Jay Veal
Director of Photography: Sebastian Wintero Hansen

Editorial Company: Arcade NYC
Editor: Geoff Hounsell
Post Producer: Cecilia Melton
Post Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Editorial Assistant: Sam Barden

VFX Company: The Mill
VFX Lead Flame: N/A
VFX Supervisors: N/A
VFX Compositors: Tomas Wall, Rob Meade
VFX CG Artists: Andrew Bartholomew
Producer: Colin Moneymaker

Telecine Company: CO3
Colorist: Tim Masick

Mix Company: Heard City
Mixer: Phillip Loeb
Sound Designer: N/A
Producer: Natasha Alden & Sasha Awn

Song: All Gold Everything
Artist: Soulja Boy