“Getting lost in the things we love has never felt quite like this.” That’s the parting thought conveyed by the voiceover in a recent Apple iPad 2 commercial, “Love,” in which we see people engage via the iPad 2 in what moves them, whether it be a basketball coach diagramming a play for his team of youngsters during a game timeout, a fledgling teen rock band rehearsing or simply a boy in his bedroom reading about and immersing himself in the subject of dinosaurs.
That sense of wonderment and experiencing it in a new way reflects a big part of the legacy that made the late Steve Jobs and Apple so successful–and it also applies to what makes TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles and New York, and TBWAMedia Arts Lab so relevant in today’s advertising/marketing/branding landscape, a prime dynamic which led to SHOOT selecting them collectively as our Agency of the Year.
Indeed the creative cultures at Apple and the agencies are “simpatico,” reflected Lee Clow, global director, Media Arts TBWA Worldwide, and chairman of TBWAMedia Arts Lab. This dates back to the seminal Super Bowl spot “1984” but is perhaps best exemplified in Apple’s resurrection in 1997 with the “Think Different” campaign marking Jobs’ return to the company.
“Apple was ready to go out of business back then,” recollected Clow. “But Steve re-energized the company. They developed new products, liberated the design people. ‘Think Different’ was a challenge to the creative people who cared about the brand as well as a challenge to Apple itself to rethink what it made and did. Two of the proudest moments of my career were the ‘1984’ spot and then years later the ‘Think different’ campaign. I have a deep feeling for ‘Think different’ and the “Crazy Ones’ commercial. It was a pivotal moment for Apple and it speaks to any creative person, anyone who tries to break the rules, who pushes the boundaries to try to do something that hasn’t been done before. Everybody in our agency kind of looks at that commercial as being a mantra for our belief in creativity just as it was a mantra for Apple wanting to be a company dedicated to people who do creative things. It was a mantra for Apple users as well. It is a mantra that defined Apple, its customers and us as an agency.”
Taking a page from TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles’ “Think Different,” Clow, Jobs and others thought differently, which led to the eventual formation of the now well-entrenched Media Arts Lab, a separate agency unit dedicated exclusively to Apple. “We built this unit for a perfectionist communications genius,” said Clow of Jobs. “We built it to give Steve the security and consistency of talent he demanded. We started doing a lot of shooting and directing internally, experimenting with different ideas and approaches, exploring what would work best. We weren’t waiting for your typical work order, a strategy document, bids, costs and all that crap. Instead we were constantly making stuff, shooting a five to ten-to-one ratio in terms of what ultimately wound up on air. Steve wanted us to constantly explore storytelling, how things looked, felt and sounded. We experimented, for example, with ‘Silhouettes’; Steve saw it in rough form, thought it could be amazing and we went into production–it became iconic globally.
“Steve understood early on that everything a brand does is advertising,” continued Clow. “The ad agency has to be the keeper of the flame–one who understands the core belief and soul of the brand and to make sure everything the brand does and says stays true to that emotional center. And while we work through a separate unit on Apple, the spirit of that brand and our relationship with it and Steve over the years spills over to everyone at TBWAChiatDay. We want our culture to be dedicated to the creative expression of the brands we work for. We are in charge of finding the soul and center of a brand and trying to tell stories that reflect that core, that do in fact resonate in the culture and give people something to tweet about, talk about and relate to in some meaningful way. The center of it is that a brand has to have some kind of passion, a soul.”
The same can be said of an ad agency, particularly in an environment where large holding companies are prevalent. “We have to keep our own internal passion,” affirmed Clow. “TBWA is a huge company. So many companies when they get huge, they stop wanting to come from an emotional place and they become big businesses. They come at work from a left brain, bottom line, profit margin kind of place. Here we try hard not to make that the impetus for coming to work every day. Instead we are about creative people from different disciplines trying to find, define and reflect the magic of a brand, big or small. Every client deserves as big an idea as we can find for them. That at our core has helped us remain creative and entrepreneurial–and I believe it helped us earn this year’s honor from SHOOT.”
Media Arts Lab When Duncan Milner, chief creative officer, TBWAMedia Arts Lab, is asked to reflect on 2011, he immediately gravitates towards the introduction of the iPhone 4S (with its Siri-generated global buzz) and the iPad 2. Compatible with the brand’s soul, the intros brought humanity to technology as exemplified in the aforementioned “Love.” “Steve Jobs once said that Apple stands at the crossroads of technology and liberal arts,” noted Milner. “There are certain moments in Apple’s history where that becomes clearly evident, and this year we saw that with iPad 2 and the new iPhone.”
The message in the spot “We Believe,” for example, as conveyed by the voiceover, is simply that “technology alone is not enough. Faster, thinner, lighter, they’re all good things but when technology gets out of the way, everything becomes more delightful, even magical…That’s when you end up with something like this: iPad 2.”
From a creative standpoint, Milner observed that Media Arts Lab has the incredible advantage of a client who happens to be making innovative products that are changing the world. “This means that a lot of times we develop work that is a process of reduction,” said Milner. “You take away the conceits and anything that feels like it’s embellishing. You strip your message down to the simple, most elegant, most inevitable form because the Apple products are so simple, elegant, intuitive and beautiful. You don’t have to prop up a product or disguise it somehow.”
Helping to pave a path to desired creative simplicity is Media Arts Lab’s hybrid nature. “We’re structured a bit like half agency, half production company,” explained Milner. “When we come up with ideas, we will go out and shoot little tests, edit them. We develop our three or four favorite ideas. It’s an important part of the way we work. We equate it to Apple and the way they develop products. It’s our form of R&D. As soon as Apple builds a model, they understand the product better. Our model takes the form of these little tests we produce, and then spending time tweaking and refining. Once we decide on which concept to go with, we are then in a better position to have productive discussions with directors and production companies about the idea, what we can change, what we need to hold onto. This is something that not many agencies do. It’s something that Apple has supported us doing all along.”
Ripple effect As articulated by Clow, the creative culture at Apple and for that matter Media Arts Lab has had a profoundly positive impact and influence on the culture of TBWA and of course, TBWAChiatDay. Indeed 2011 was a stellar year as TBWAChiatDay earned a pair of primetime Emmy nominations, one for Nissan’s “Polar Bear” out of its L.A. office, the other for McDonald’s “Baby” via the New York shop. Additionally there were Grand Prix honors at The One Show, two Gold Lions and four Bronzes at Cannes, three Yellow Pencils at D&AD, and five AICP Show honors, among other kudos. The AICP Show honors consisted of: two each for Jameson Irish Whiskey’s “Fire” (Production, Production Design) and Gatorade (Music for “Gatorade Has Evolved,” and the Next Award, Product Integration for the lauded REPLAY Season 2 for Fox Sports Net); and one (Production) for Activision Call of Duty’s “There’s A Soldier In All Of Us.” (The latter account has since departed TBWAChiatDay, L.A.).
But what resonated for SHOOT judges was the consistency of engaging big-idea creative for not just the Apples, Nissans, Gatorades, Activisions and Jamesons of the world but also for so-called “lower-profile” clients such as Bare Escentuals and Pacific Standard Time (PST), both out of TBWAChiatDay, L.A.
For PST, consider actor Jason Schwartzman and conceptual artist John Baldessari discussing art but it’s an atypical dialogue in that the former is talking to the latter who’s taken the form of a giant head that appears on buildings, following Schwartzman who is trying to flee not only Baldessari but the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Ultimately, though, in this nearly five minute short for the PST arts initiative, Baldessari convinces Schwartzman–who along the way runs into comedian Jeff Garlin–to not be intimidated and to enter the museum to experience all that art has to offer. By the way, Garlin doesn’t see Baldessari’s visage, leading the comic and exec producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm to believe that Schwartzman is likely hallucinating.
Jesse Dylan, founder of production house Wondros, directed this piece–and another short pairing Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis and pop artist Ed Ruscha–in order to generate buzz for PST, consisting of some 60 exhibits during a six-month stretch at museums throughout Greater Los Angeles, showcasing the work of local artists and designers from 1945-1980 who made the City of Angels a global art center. Both shorts have :30 versions and they drive traffic to a PST website that is both artistic and pragmatic. The practical enables site visitors to identify their artistic likes and to receive feedback on what museum exhibits they might find appealing. Patrick O’Neill, executive creative director at TBWAChiatDay L.A., explained that this online conduit to help make museum art accessible to the public at large comes in the form of an algorithm created in the agency’s Creative Technology Lab. “We’re taking down the ivory tower of the Getty Museum and other institutions, guiding people to exhibits that match their creative interests and inspirations,” said O’Neill, adding that a 2.0 version of this algorithm will be unveiled in January to help make museum art hopefully even more meaningful and relevant to contemporary culture.
At press time, another PST pairing brought together rapper Ice Cube with the Eames House, a remarkable Southland structure built in a couple of days by Charles and Ray Eames in 1949. Unlike his contemporary counterparts Kiedes and Schwartzman in the prior two PST shorts/spots, Ice Cube couldn’t interact with the artists in that the Eames are no longer living. So instead Ice Cube interacted with the house, comparing its meshing of different pre-fabricated elements as being a visionary predecessor to today’s music mash-ups. The Eames House/Ice Cube work was directed by Dave Meyers of @radical.media.
“This small account epitomizes everything we do on all accounts,” observed Richard O’Neill, executive director of integrated production at TBWAChiatDay, L.A. “Everybody dives in to make things work. They love the work, the art of it all, the marketing of it all, and we have phenomenal partners in everything we do. In this case, Pacific Standard Time was challenging because we had limited financial resources but still needed to do iconic work in film and website development. Jesse and Dave pitched in and rolled up their sleeves, helping us bring in celebrities and getting the work done for a reasonable amount of money. There’s been a real bonding on this campaign.”
Some form of “bonding” has become a prerequisite on all projects, related O’Neill. “Everybody’s role in advertising has evolved. We’ve assumed more responsibility. Before we were cardiologists. Now we’re internists. We’ve gone from being specialists to having to know the whole body of work, an array of different and emerging platforms, which means we have to work even more closely with others and tap into their expertise. It’s a team game–partnering with outside directors, editors, talent in all disciplines, as well as partnering with people within your agency. Our producers and creatives work as teams. You need to create a cohesion like I have for example with my digital partner, Matt Bonin [executive director of integration at TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles].”
As for the alluded to Bare Escentuals, the “Be A Force of Beauty” competition/campaign represents a new take on beauty which has given the client a viable, meaningful stake in the social digital conversation. The campaign deployed “blind casting” whereby judges never saw contestants in advance, thus underscoring a definition of beauty that is a dramatic departure from the norm. The “most beautiful” women were sought out based not on their physical appearance but rather on their answers to questions which shed light on their values, concerns, efforts and priorities.
“I was one of the only male members on the creative team,” said executive creative director Patrick O’Neill. “All the women in our office rallied around this creative, which found beauty in intangibles–the beauty of taking action.” The global campaign included print ads and posters with QR codes that Smartphones could read in order to download content.
The initiative spans TV, print, digital and social marketing efforts throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. The campaign, which is still unfolding, features creative designed to elicit a social discussion around beauty and motivate women into action, summarized by such taglines as, “Pretty is what you are. Beauty is what you do with it.”
Handshake agreement Rob Schwartz, chief creative officer of TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles, noted that the Bare Escentuals campaign was inspiring not only for its “beauty is on the inside” orientation but also its integration–“there’s an app, a QR code on the print, all the media is working together. TV needs a handshake with print, which shakes hands with the web. We’re in a world of these kinds of handshake agreements.”
There can even be different media sensibilities involved in a single medium, observed Schwartz, citing Nissan Frontier’s “Landing Gear,” a recent SHOOT Top Spot (10/21). The TV commercial is a fake news report centering on a plane coming in for what seems destined to be a crash landing until a Frontier appears. The truck speeds out onto the airport runway and lines itself in front of the airplane just in time for the pilot to drop the plane’s twisted landing gear into the bed of the pick-up truck. Disaster averted, people ranging from airline employees to passengers on the disabled plane share stories of alarm and awe with a news crew.
“It’s YouTube meet broadcast,” said Schwartz. “We live in this sensationalist, immediacy culture. And capturing this YouTube culture and dynamic was a way for us to give an old-school product demonstration.”
Another “handshake” evolved during a Diet Pepsi beach shoot in which Sofia Vergara and David Beckham starred. The commercial proved successful in tapping into celebrity power and resulting buzz but so too did an impromptu shoot instigated by a pair of ambitious agency creatives who got some down time with Beckham on the beach kicking around a soccer ball. The Beckham viral generated a million hits on YouTube right out of the gate. “Pop culture and celebrity are part of the Pepsi brand and we wound up with a TV spot and a viral supporting both,” related Schwartz.
“Road Trip”
Spanning considerably more platforms, the Nissan Versa “Road Trip” campaign deployed a mix that included atypically executed TV, an iAd, the web and Facebook. Targeting young people in search of an affordable new ride (Versa’s price point is $11,000) and featuring the most legroom and headroom per dollar of any U.S car, as well as a technology package (Bluetooth, navigation, iPod integration) in line with the demographic, Versa needed advertising that was relatable to the youth market.
“They share their lives through still pictures,” observed Tito Melega, TBWAChiatDay, L.A. creative director, Americas, for Nissan. “They live on mobile phones and Facebook, snapping pictures more than videos. So in the TV spot, we told stories through snapshots, showing young people on the town, hanging with friends.”
Promoted in the TV was the “My Versa Road Trip” contest in which people can come to a microsite and write up their dream road trip. A Google app interface then immediately maps out the sojourn, showing a little film of what the road trip would look like. The goal was to generate 10,000 entries. Instead the initiative drew nearly 15,000. Six winners were picked–each getting a Versa to make the trip in as well as expenses for food and lodging. Each winner could invite four friends via Facebook to go along on the trip, an experience that would showcase how the Versa can accommodate all the passengers and their luggage. Each car was equipped with still cameras that shot stills at regular intervals both inside and outside the car–thus a film of stills could be made chronicling each road trip.
People could then cast votes online for their favorite road trip based on the films. An iAd–which iPad and iPhone users can access–was developed by TBWAChiatDay working in concert with its dot-com partner agency Critical Mass. Via the iAd, folks could do first-person tours of the Versa, demonstrating what the vehicle can accommodate and how it performs on a road trip.
This latest TBWAChiatDay iAd had a new wrinkle, according to Melega: the use of a gyroscope. Working closely with Apple, the creatives enabled participants to be placed virtually inside the car via the iPhone or iPad, moving left to right, up and down, seeing the ceiling, instrument panel, the windows. It was like sitting in the Versa and looking all around.
This same experience was replicated on the web for those without an iPhone or iPad. Special films containing hot spots were made for the Nissan website and the iAd. Clicking on a hot spot in the car, for example, triggers further exploration of that designated feature, like a demo film about the vehicle’s Bluetooth integration. My Versa Road Trip registered an average time spent on the website per user of a whopping 27 minutes.
“Baby,” “Zero,” “Everything”
Nissan had other higher profile work which also made a major mark in 2011, including Maxima’s “Baby” where a young man learns his wife is pregnant. He goes to the driveway not to celebrate but to lament over his now needing to relinquish his Nissan Z sports car. But not to worry–he merely tugs on the Z body, extending its cabin to form a Maxima family sedan which has the spirit of a sports car.
But perhaps the most lauded Nissan work this year, following in the creative footsteps of “Polar Bear,” includes two more spots for the all-electric LEAF: “The Value of Zero” and “Gas Powered Everything.” The former showed a rapid series of “zero”-shaped objects in order to promote the concept that the Nissan Leaf has zero emissions. Among the images were a manhole cover, pieces of machinery, a tire hanging from a tree, a pregnant woman’s belly. Everything was shot cleanly in a rich and playful manner.
And LEAF’s “Gas Powered Everything” asks us to imagine a world where everything is gasoline powered. We open on a man waking up to his gas-powered alarm clock from which spews exhaust. Getting ready for work takes us to the kitchen where a gent jump starts the toaster while his wife gases up the microwave oven. In the bathroom, exhaust belches out from a woman’s hair dryer.
Out on the street, we see a female jogger with a gas-powered pedometer; she scampers past a man who’s talking on his petrol-powered cellphone.
Next we’re at the workplace where a man turns the key and puts his foot on the gas pedal to boot up his desktop computer. A repair man reads the oil dipstick on the copier machine. Fueling up the office machinery is as simple as going to the proverbial water cooler–but instead of H20, the cooler contains gasoline.
We’re even taken to a dentist’s waiting room where we hear a drill being revved up like a sports car engine. Inside, a patient says “ahh” as the dentist pulls the cord on his power drill akin to how a gardener would be pulling the cord to start his gasoline-driven lawn mower. The spot then takes us to a gas station where a hybrid car, GM’s Volt, is getting a fill-up.
A voiceover asks, “What if everything ran on gas?”
He continues, “Then again, what if everything didn’t?”
The spot concludes with an eyeful of Nissan’s LEAF.
TBWA/C/D Los Angeles’ Schwartz observed, “It’s nice when your biggest client is doing some of your best work. And I think this work helps to affirm that TV is still here to stay and when used properly has never been stronger. ‘Gas Powered Everything’ is a great concept and story done with great craft. We worked with director Dante Ariola [of MJZ] and sweated every frame, composing the shots and making sure in post that everything felt and played real.”
Craft counts
Indeed the craft cited by Schwartz is also embraced by Mark Figliulo, chairman/chief creative officer, and Robert Valdes, head of production, for TBWAChiatDay, New York.
“We place a major emphasis on craft,” said Figliulo. “There were bigger, better, meticulously crafted projects this year–for clients like Jameson, Absolut and Planters [the latter coming out of TBWA NY agency BEING and giving a voice to Mr. Peanut]. From a full orchestra scoring the Jameson tall tales to using Laika/house for the Planters animation. The crafting of each and every piece was essential to their impact.
“Craft is very important,” continued Figliulo. “The digital age has ushered in a lot of bad behavior when it comes to craft. User-generated content is great but looks like crap. Having it look beautiful, differentiating our work that way, is a tremendous advantage. Craft matters.”
Valdes concurred, noting that a currently unfolding Jameson print campaign is based on actual oil paintings.
Figliulo pointed out that Jameson was originally a print-only client. “For them, television was the new medium. When we first began discussing TV, the notion was to grow the brand with three or four spots. But the scope of the idea called for one epic spot. And so it’s developed that maybe once every eight months or so we deliver a big, beautifully crafted, epic spot. It’s a different way to go to market and that’s part of the charm.”
Two Jameson tall tales this year were directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, with each earning SHOOT “Top Spot” distinction. The first, “Fire,” has already been widely heralded. This period piece tells us how John Jameson saved his village–and just as, if not more importantly his distillery and the whiskey it housed–from a fast spreading fire.
Just when it appeared all would be lost with assorted homes ablaze, Jameson came up with the idea of one catastrophe helping to avoid another as he busted through the town’s dam, causing a flood which put out the fire.
The precious whiskey saved, the narrator quips, “Catastrophe averted.”
And just a couple of months ago, Jameson’s “Hawk of Achill” premiered. A larger than life hawk, at first unseen, strikes fear into a village, having swooped down and carried away a family’s daughter. We only hear about that tall tale but soon we see another act of hawkish pillaging when a cask of Jameson Irish Whiskey is whisked away. Finally John Jameson strikes back, setting a clever trap, leaving an oversized cask unattended outside. Sure enough, we see two huge talons come into screen and abscond with the cask, which in fact is a Trojan horse of sorts as our hero, Mr. Jameson, later emerges from the cask to find himself in an enormous bird’s nest. There he reclaims the original stolen cask and is pleasantly surprised to see a lovely lass–the earlier alluded to kidnapped daughter.
However, a giant shadow envelops him as their winged adversary returns to the nest. Fast forward to a happy ending–the man, woman and cask are back in a celebratory village, which is about to feast on a giant roasted bird.
Another SHOOT “Top Spot,” Absolut’s “Absolut Blank” was part of a campaign also showcasing craft and artistry–and for that matter, a collection of artists themselves. Giving artists a blank canvas is nothing new to Absolut as reflected in past initiatives such as last year’s short film I’m Here, an offbeat story of robotic love directed by Spike Jonze of MJZ. In ’11, however, Absolut leveraged its iconic bottle shape to serve as a catalyst for creativity via the “Absolut Blank” initiative. This time Absolut engaged 20 artists worldwide–representing creative disciplines ranging from drawing to painting, sculpture, filmmaking and digital art–to fill the bottle, designing it with their creations. Among the artworks were UVA’s high intensity, bright and striking light installations, Mario Wagner’s attention-grabbing collage imagery, the colorful and playful graphic design of Aesthetic Apparatus, the bold paintings of Kinsey, and the detailed mural work of Good Wives and Warriors.
The other contributing artists who each shared their individual takes on the art of the Absolut bottle were Thomas Doyle, David Bray, Eduardo Recife, Jeremy Fish, Brett Amory, Morning Breath, Sam Flores, Robert Mars, Fernando Chamirelli, Zac Freeman, Will Barras, Marcus Jansan, Ludovica Gioscia, Alex Trochut and Adhemas Batista.
A taste of this artistry meeting the bottle was captured in a spot titled “Absolut Blank” directed by Floria Sigismondi of Believe Media. The overall campaign was launched in several countries and first went live in the U.K., supported by the TV commercial, print, out of home, digital and experiential. Spearheading the “Blank” campaign were TBWAChiatDay NY creative director/writer Sue Anderson and associate creative director/art director Hoj Jomehri, with Valdes exec producing for the agency.
“I’ve never seen a place where creatives and producers collaborate so well,” said Valdes. “There’s kind of an entrepreneurial spirit when it comes to the work. I think that’s part of the reason we are so consistent.”
This collaboration, chimed in Figliulo, extends from one office to another. “Rob Schwartz and I are working together every day. We have our own projects but there’s room for us to compare notes, to team and contribute to what the other is working on.”
While this is a factor behind the agency’s success, Figliulo affirmed, “You can’t have this conversation about Agency of the Year without talking about Lee Clow. He sets the pace. We’re all trying to live up to his level and high standards. He is an icon who spurs us on to do iconic work.”
Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?
Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.
"When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.
And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.
"Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.
No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."
At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.
After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More