“Without wishing to sound blasé, awards are nice. But I truly believe that if we had written any of these Honda ads with awards in mind, we wouldn’t have ended up making nearly as interesting commercials,” says Tony Davidson, who with Kim Papworth serves as co-creative director of the London office of Wieden + Kennedy (W+K). “As long as we continue to innovate and tell the truth in compelling ways, I will be happy. If we win awards in the process that’s great. But the reason we are doing this is to improve our client’s business.”
Davidson, along with Papworth, has overseen some of the more creative–and award-winning–car ads seen in recent years. A category more known for running footage than great creative ideas, automotive advertising does have its occasional creative highlights–Volkswagen, Saturn and Mini Cooper come to mind. And, in the past few years, Honda and W+K have added to the shortlist of great car work–that’s both award winning and effective.
In the midst of another season of awards shows, a spot for Honda out of Wieden + Kennedy (W+K), London, is sweeping the top prizes. “Grrr,” for the Honda VTEC engine, won best of show at both the One Show and the Clio Awards, the GRANDY at the ANDY awards, two Golds–a.k.a. Black Pencils–at the British Design & Art Direction (D&AD) Awards, and will likely score a Gold Lion–if not the Grand Prix–at this month’s Cannes International Advertising Festival.
“Grrr” is a fanciful, animated tale that asks the question, can hate be good?, and tells the story of how Kenichi Nagahiro, an engineer at Honda who hated what were then the standard diesel engines. So, he wound up creating a new, more efficient diesel engine, the VTEC. The spot features diesel engines flying through a colorful landscape filled with bunnies and rainbows while a catchy tune, performed by Garrison Keillor, asks: “Can hate be good?” The answer, in the form of the new engine, is yes. The team of Smith and Foulkes–Allan and Adam–of Nexus Productions, London, directed the spot.
This isn’t the first time a Honda spot from W+K, London has swept the awards circuit–“Cog,” the Rube Goldberg-esque extravaganza that features the sum of a Honda Accord’s parts coming together to form the car began its juggernaut awards procession in 2003. The spot, directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet of bicoastal/international Partizan, won a Gold Lion at Cannes, and in 2004, scored best of show at the One Show, the GRANDY at the ANDYs, the Grand Clio, and an honor in the international category at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show. Two other Honda spots, “Everyday” and “Senses,” directed by Ivan Zacharias of Stink, London, and Peter Thwaites of Gorgeous Enterprises, London, respectively, also scored numerous awards during the ’04 season. (Thwaites is repped stateside via bicoastal Anonymous Content, and Zacharias is handled in the U.S. by bicoastal Smuggler.)
Davidson notes that Honda and W+K have been able to team on such great work because of shared company philosophies. “We are both independent,” states Davidson of W+K and Honda. “We are both slightly crazy and slightly sensible. Both brave. Both take a long-term view. Both passionate. Both honest. Both don’t believe in researching ads. And both have an amazing respect for what each other do.
“In order to do great ideas you need a great relationship and a huge amount of trust,” continues Davidson. “Often Honda will question our work, but if they truly believe that we are doing something we truly believe is right, they will listen. I would personally like to thank them for believing in us for the past three years–it has been a truly amazing journey. Long may it continue.”
The goal for Honda’s advertising in the U.K. is not to just create good work, notes Davidson; its goal is to “tell the truth in compelling ways.” For instance, “Cog” came about because the Accord had been completely re-engineered, and the spot illustrated how much attention and detail went into the redesign. “Grrr,” explains Davidson, came out of a true story. “Honda’s first ever diesel engine was designed by Kenichi Nagahiro, whose first words at the press conference were ‘I hate diesels,'” explains Davidson. “He only agreed to build the engine if he could start from scratch and design a far more efficient diesel.”
Davidson notes that he and the agency team “hope to make to make people realize what an amazing company Honda really are by telling the truth,” he remarks. “The closer you get to them, the more you fall in love. Ask anyone at Wieden who has worked on Honda what they are like as a company and you will feel the passion–they literally bleed Honda. We need the public to do the same.”
If sales are any indication, the strategy appears to be working: Davidson reports that Honda’s sales in the U.K. have gone up 35 percent, even though spending for marketing has decreased by about three percent. He also says that “the type of traffic through their showrooms has also changed dramatically–younger people are learning about Honda’s passion and love of engineering.”
“GRRR”EAT SPOT
Davidson and Papworth oversaw the creative team behind “Grrr,” which includes copywriters/art directors Sean Thompson, Michael Russoff, and Richard Russell, and producers Rob Steiner, Charlie Tinson and Julia Partiff. Davison relates that animation was selected for the spot because “we also had to be true to the idea and create a positive world of hate–something that was much easier to do in animation.”
The agency opted to work with Smith and Foulkes based on prior experience. “We spoke to a few great animation teams, all of whom would have done an amazing job, but we loved Allan and Adam’s symmetrical vision for the piece,” relates Davidson, who praises the pair’s production company, Nexus, for its high standards. “It felt like nothing we had seen before. We had also worked on an amazing Aiwa project with them and knew how versatile they were. I don’t like it when directors and animators get pigeon-holed–surely like us they want to do something different too.”
Davidson and his team are by no means resting on their “Grrr” laurels. “We plan to, and indeed already are, getting into other areas of Honda’s business,” says Davidson. “There is no point in having great advertising if the other consumer touch points fail to deliver. How can we improve and help dealerships? What role will should the Web play? I am very interested in the business side–how will cars be sold in the future? Will culture cause us to downgrade the number of vehicles we own?”
Davidson and Papworth have known each other for 20 years, and been a creative team for 17. The pair first began working together at what’s now BMP DDB, London, splitting up briefly, then reuniting at Leagas Delaney, London, and eventually shifting to Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London, where they created the “Flat Eric” campaign for Levi’s. Davidson and Papworth were appointed co-creative directors of W+K in 2000. At the shop, the pair oversees work on a number of accounts, including Nike, Aiwa, Revlon and Pizza Hut, in addition to Honda. “When we joined Wieden as creative directors, we made a decision not to do the work ourselves,” relates Davidson. “Dan Wieden told us that his mission was to help other people do the best work of their lives, whether they are agency or client side. Collaboration is a large part of this office and I like to think that people who do great work here realize that it is down to more than just them.”