Tying into college basketball fever and building on its long running Visigoths campaign while stepping up its branded entertainment push, Capital One, a corporate partner for the NCAA, introduces us to The Ivan Brothers, two larger than life Viking-like characters who are recruited by fictional East Western State University’s basketball team and then take a perennially losing program into the Big Dance, a.k.a. the NCAA College Basketball Tournament.
Agency DDB Chicago not only called on the make believe Ivan Brothers but also another, this time real-world brother duo to bring their creation to life–directorial team The Hoffman Brothers (Matt and Mark) of harvest, Santa Monica.
A pair of tongue-firmly-in-cheek TV spots set the stage. “Coaches” features famous college basketball coaches–from Roy Williams to Tubby Smith, Tom Izzo and Danny Manning–praising the overpowering, scary basketball talents of The Ivan Brothers.
In “Selection Show,” CBS Sports anchor Set Davis announces West Eastern State’s bid to the NCAA Tournament–mimicking the actual Selection Sunday show. A camera shows us “live” the celebratory reaction of the East Western team and its coaching staff.
Both commercials drive us to the web (theivanbrothers.com) for the humorous yet somehow charming, authentic-feeling backstory–East Western’s track record of futility (65 consecutive losses), the coach’s offbeat recruiting trip made possible by Capital One’s Venture Card air mileage points, and the sojourn’s payoff, the discovery of The Ivan Brothers in a remote backwoods community. The coach and his assistant teach The Ivan Brothers how to play basketball, turning their raw athletic talent into on-the-court dominance.
The Ivan Brothers campaign–including the backstory short titled The Ivans–debuted around the time tournament bracketology madness began and is running into the NCAA tournament, which opened Thursday (3/18).
The campaign is already generating considerable buzz and audience. As coach (and former NCAA championship player) Manning observed in the “Coaches” spot, “It’s hard to defend guys who are used to storming castles.”
An excerpt from the short accompanies this story. Log onto theivanbrothers.com to see the entire film.
Cinematographer Pepe Avila del Pino Discusses Residente’s “313,” Winning An ASC Award
Pepe Avila del Pinoโs second career nomination for an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award earned him his first win earlier this week in Los Angeles--for outstanding achievement in music videos on the strength of the Residente-directed โ313โ featuring performances by Residente, Sรญlvia Pรฉrez Cruz and Penelope Cruz. The cinematic, stirringly beautiful โ313โ opens with Penelope Cruz narrating in Spanish, reflecting on the meaning of life and the passage of time. She is joined by ballet dancers who are said to represent time while Cruz represents life itself. The ethereal music video brings us the essence of time in our lives. Residenteโs life and time are seemingly controlled, respectively, by Cruz and the dancers from the outset. But towards the end of the video, Residente starts to orchestrate his own time and life. What canโt be denied, though, is that time is fleeting as Cruz and Residente begin to disappear before our eyes. Avila del Pino, AMC, is best known for his work in television and features. In fact, his alluded to first ASC Award nomination came in 2018 on the basis of the TV pilot for The Deuce, directed by Michelle MacLaren. Over the past seven years, Avila del Pino has lensed select music videos--all for his friend, Residente (a.k.a. Rene Perez Joglar). The Residente videos have thus become passion projects, done out of โpure loveโ with the same close-knit team. The โ313โ song and video were especially personal to Residente in that they were both inspired by a friend who had died about a year earlier. To win an ASC Award for this particular project is most gratifying for Avila del Pino--not only because of the videoโs significance to Residente, but also the deep feelings the DP has for the ASC.... Read More