Here Come The World Cup Ads - Adidas, Nike, TAM Airlines & Castrol

Here Come The World Cup Ads

Other Things I Like (But Don't Have The Time To Write Up): ESPN Born Into It & Slap Jamie Oliver

ESPN - Born Into It
In advance of last weekend's Manchester Derby, ESPN released 'Born Into It.'  The commercial, created by W+K, shows the passion and loyalty that two fans feel for their respective Manchester teams through a nice split screen video experience.  I particularly love the companion video which educates Yanks such as myself who may not be familiar with the Brit/Mancurian slang used through the spot.  So good.   Check it out below.

Slap Jamie Oliver
Christmas has come early (at least it has for me!  This interactive video promoting the upcoming launch of Jamie Oliver's new food channel allows you to slap him as well as interact with his kitchen by throwing food at him all via clever usage of YouTube annotations.  Have a play around below.

Pepsi Max - From Youtube To A 30-second Spot

This is a bit old and I meant to post it a month or so ago, but it's still relevant as we see more and more brands working from the inside out.  That is, starting with a digital execution and then translating that to traditional media or into a 30-second spot.  This example comes from Pepsi Max.  In the video, we see Uncle Drew going to attend a pickup basketball game with his nephew.  When one of the other players goes down with an injury, Uncle Drew steps in.  After a slow start Uncle Drew starts dominating and talking trash while the  other players try to figure out how the hell this old guy has such ridiculous game. At the end of the video we see NBA rookie of the year, Kylie Irving, being transformed by Hollywood makeup artists into an old man, 'Uncle Drew.'  The stunt actually relates nicely back to the brand as Pepsi Max is 'the zero calorie cola in disguise.'

The five-minute video is fantastic.  It's compelling enough that 80% of the viewers were still watching at the 4 minute mark.  Pepsi could've considered the 10 million views the video over the course of a month success in it's own right.  This was never intended to be a 30-second spot or to have a presence on TV, but as a Pepsi spokesman says "Once we started looking at the metrics, it became clear that we couldn’t miss the opportunity to bring Uncle Drew to the sport’s biggest stage."  Pepsi decided to run a cut-down version, basically just a teaser for the full video, during the first three games of the NBA finals.  That in turn drove further viewership of the YouTube video, creating a nice virtuous cycle.





Additional Articles: MediaPost | AdAge

Nike Football - My Time Is Now

Apologies that this blog has been radio silent for the past month due to a ridiculous amount of traveling around for work (and pleasure).  By now, most of you have have probably already seen this campaign, but if you haven't please set aside the next 30 minutes to play around with the Nike Football Youtube experience.  It's without a doubt one of my favorite all-time Youtube executions.  Kudos to W+K London & Stink Digital for an amazing piece of work. First a bit of background from the W+K London blog (they can certainly explain it better than I can):

Our innovative new Nike 'My Time Is Now' campaign celebrates this next wave of footballers, whether it's the participants in The Chance, Nike's worldwide hunt for football talent (with previous winners featured in the spot), or elite athletes looking to make an impact on the world stage. 


But more than simply reflecting the defining qualities of hunger and impatience, this new global campaign provokes and rewards these behaviours in the participating audience too.


To achieve this, the campaign flips the traditional AV model: rather than creating a film for TV and running it online, we created a film for the internet, a version of which runs on TV. Launched online first, with the TV edit following up in Saturday's Champions League Final, the film is driven by a variety of different types of content, interactions and experiences, as well as seamless extensions to the overall narrative flow of the campaign.

It all kicks off with another epic 3-minute, star laden spot below.  That's followed by a call to action to 'Follow The Tunnels' which are areas of content/interactive experiences throughout the film similar to easter eggs.  These include Ronaldo's training program, a Sonic video game, Football IQ test, etc.


I love the fact that Nike continues to put digital first and foremost and are committed to creating truly immersive experiences.  Far too many of these ambitious campaigns start with TV and treat digital as an adjunct or bolt on at the end.

Additional Articles: W+K London | Contagious