The U.S. offices of TBWA/ Chiat/Day—New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco—have each produced striking creative in the past 12 months. The Los Angeles office continues to come up with breakthrough work for Apple, spectacular spots for Sony PlayStation, stylish ads for Nissan and Infiniti, and great re-introduction work for the Energizer bunny.
The New York office has been revitalized in the last year and a half—in part due to the presence of executive creative director Gerry Graf, who moved to the office in late 2003 from BBDO New York. New work out of the office includes odd, yet humorous executions for Skittles and Skittles gum, as well as hilarious ads for Nextel. The agency also produced the first-ever U.S. TV ads for Absolut Vodka, to introduce Absolut Raspberri.
The San Francisco office continues to produce funny campaigns for FOX Sports Net, which emphasize the network’s regional sports coverage. And the shop’s adidas work continues to stand out. Global packages, such as the "Impossible is Nothing" campaign, which did well at this year’s award shows, are a joint effort between TBWA Worldwide and 180, Amsterdam.
Part of the success at each office is attributed to strong production departments that work with some of the top directors in the industry—including Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles; Baker Smith of harvest, Santa Monica; Brian Beletic of bicoastal Smuggler; Ulf Johansson of Smith and Jones Films, North Hollywood; and Rupert Sanders of Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica, among others.
Los Angeles
"Great talent is attracted to great work," says Richard O’Neill, who heads up the broadcast department at TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, with Elaine Hinton. O’Neill, who has been with the agency for 24 years, notes, "The agency has had a phenomenal reputation for producing great work. Your primary goal is to have great advertising. I think the suppliers appreciate the material they see from the agency. It looks great on their reel and it attracts more work for them."
O’Neill adds that in addition to high-caliber directors, the shop also works with A-list vendors in other areas as well. "The creatives have a chance of attracting some of the best talent in the world, whether it’s composers, sound designers or directors," he says. "They also have a chance of getting new people that aren’t part of the commercial industry, people who might not consider doing commercials, but will because of our reputation."
The L.A. office has more than 50 people in the production department, and 33 producers and assistant producers work specifically on television projects. O’Neill says putting together just the right combination of people for a job is key to creating top-notch work. "It’s like setting a great table," he says. "I look for collaboration among all the suppliers. It’s like having the perfect dinner party where you know the guests are going to be happy [and] the food’s going to be great. I try to pick producers and business managers and traffic people and editors that work well together with both the right brain and the left brain. It’s a delicate process."
O’Neill says the advertising coming out of his shop doesn’t have any one particular style, but he’s quick to point out the influence of Hollywood and the city’s contemporary pop culture. "There’s a specialness that comes out of being close to the Hollywood environment," he opines. "My producers are all filmmakers; the work coming out of our office has a filmmaking style. You have a movie culture out of here, which you see in the execution of things such as the Sony PlayStation commercials."
A glance at a spot such as PlayStation 2’s "Hong Kong Underworld," directed by Kinka Usher of House of Usher Films, Santa Monica, demonstrates this. The spot, promoting the game "Jet Li: Rise to Honor," plays out like a blockbuster action film. Meanwhile, a new series of PlayStation spots promoting the "Ratchet & Clank" title take a humorous approach, as in "Sheepinator," where a group of boys uses one of the weapons from the game and inadvertently turns one kid’s mom into a sheep.
O’Neill additionally credits the high-level, if eclectic, creative coming out the shop with a design sense. "There’s a newness and a freshness that comes out of here and you see that in the Apple work," he says, referring to spots for the iPod, such as "Break Dance," directed by Dave Meyers of bicoastal/international @radical. media and "Sterio Rock," also helmed by Meyers, which feature black silhouettes dancing against bright colors. "There’s a billboard/pop art culture out of here. I think you see that also."
At the agency, producers contribute a lot to the end creative product. "My producers are phenomenal scroungers," says O’Neill. "They’re great at finding a new resource or an existing resource. In my department, we have people such as myself who have been doing commercials for twenty to thirty years, so we have a wealth of knowledge. Then we have some terrific younger people who are trained [at the film schools] that we nurture.
"They work very hard to keep the creative integrity by explaining things to everybody who might not be involved in the day-to-day process," continues O’Neill. "They explain why we need to do something specific in special effects or why we need to hire this dancer or this band. My producers work in the trenches with the creatives, trying to come up with pieces of music or a lighting look that might be totally unique. [They also] wear the other hat of financial responsibility: trying to fit something that needs to be creative into possibly a very difficult financial situation."
New York
"Where most people zig, we zag," says Ozzie Spenningsby, director of broadcast production at the New York office of TBWA/Chiat/ Day. "We try to approach an idea in a different way that really cuts through."
New York, which has seen a number of account and creative personnel changes, seems to have found its footing in ’04. Two recent examples of the shop’s impressive output are Skittles’ "Nest," helmed by Johansson of Smith & Jones Films, and Nextel’s "Dance Party," directed by Jim Jenkins of bicoastal Hungry Man. In the first spot, a bird feeds Skittles to a man in a nest. The humorous ad has an odd, hard-to-pin-down flavor that intrigues. A more immediate sense of humor informs "Dance Party." In the ad, three office workers boogie to a dance track and manage to do their jobs thanks to Nextel’s walkie-talkie and GPS services. And for the aforementioned Absolut Raspberri launch, the agency had artists from the Barnstormers collective—David Ellis, Kenji Hirata and Maya Hayuk—paint an oversized Absolut bottle with their interpretations of the new flavor.
"There’s been a convergence of clients that invite good work and who also share a common vision on the message and the execution," says Spenningsby of the New York office’s recent triumphs. Spenningsby has been with the shop for five years, and heads a department comprising five producers and two assistants.
"We have an immensely talented group both on the creative and the production side, and we’ve come a long way in the last twelve to eighteen months," he notes. "With [TBWA worldwide creative director] John Hunt’s insights and breadth of experience, coupled with the hire of Gerry Graf, who’s at the helm as our executive creative director, we’ve jump-started New York to a place that we’re all very proud of. Gerry’s got a reel that’s the envy of most people in our business and now that’s reflected on our reel. Both Gerry and John are very decisive and surgical in their review of work. They know what’s right and what’s not. They’re able to quickly identify work that should be pushed forward."
Spenningsby also praises his producers. "[Senior producer] Nathy Aviram is a true craftsman," he says. "Lora Shulson is a consummate producer. Either one can tackle any project, any difficulty, any level. Laura Ferguson gives the department immense support and insight. Laura always seems to come up with new directors. Discovery of new talent who hasn’t broken big is probably the most challenging aspect of a producer’s job."
What does Spenningsby look for in a collaborator? "[They need to] share a common sensibility with us so we can easily achieve a common vision," he says. "Because it is such a collaborative effort—we don’t just hand it over—those directors who are awarded the work have our confidence. That comes about not just in established relationships, but with new directors. Based on the discussions, we have to make sure we’re on the same page. [We need to know] they’re going to take our words on a page or a board and fashion that into a great communication."
San Francisco
"We’re surprisingly small," says Jennifer Golub, head of production/executive producer at TBWA/ Chiat/Day’s San Francisco office. "We’re like the smallest agency with the largest volume of broadcast work." Golub, a senior producer and an assistant comprise the production department.
In the past, the office has grabbed attention with its FOX Sports Net (FSN) campaigns, "Beware of Things Made in October" and "Twins." The shop’s latest effort for FSN focuses on regional basketball coverage. Four new ads, "Sports Bar," "Crossing," "Aim" and "Phone," directed by Smith of harvest, feature a guy in everyday situations with his best buddy—a talking basketball, who is voiced by actor Robert Downey Jr.
Two recent ads for adidas—one featuring Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett, the other starring Houston Rockets guard Tracy McGrady—take different approaches, but underscore the shop’s production prowess. In "Carry," helmed by Murro of Biscuit, Garnett walks through the streets carrying an ever-growing load of people on his shoulders, as a rousing Etta James version of "He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands" backs the action. In "Unstoppable," directed by Beletic of Smuggler, McGrady is something of a modern-day Gulliver. As the basketball player drives to the basket in slow motion, miniature land and air soldiers try to stop him, but the NBA star manages a spectacular dunk despite their efforts.
"I think we’ve really hit our stride with finding the tone for each of our brands," says Golub. "That’s really due to our partnership with our clients. We work with really smart clients and it’s a very collaborative process. If you look at the body of the FOX work, there’s an intelligent irreverence. Adidas is inventive, but there’s a warm human component."
Golub notes that good collaborators—be it a visual effects shop, an editor or a music company—all contribute to the agency’s successes. "You’re looking for an idea to continually get better," says Golub of that collaboration. "I have the privilege of working with incredibly talented writers and art directors. I think it’s a privilege to bring those boards forward to talent."
She points out that producers must be able to shepherd creative through the spotmaking process. "The producer’s job is protecting the delicacy of an idea and seeing it through to realization," she explains. "You rigorously defend every little decision. Production and execution is a set of choices. Each one of those choices and decisions has a cumulative effect. You have to be a perfectionist about each and every choice."a
