EVB/San Francisco’s MLS Represent campaign for Adidas, featuring 13 original songs aligned with the MLS teams, is being promoted by “Rock the Pitch,” a :30 video playing at www.adidas.com/MLS.
The spot features colorful soccer highlights interspersed with graphic calls to action that promote the songs and encourage viewers to create their own team videos.
“It’s part of a bigger campaign for Adidas and MLS,” said Jason Zada, EVB’s executive creative director and co-founder. “We created an original song for each team and partnered with bands in the 13 team cities.”
The goal of the campaign is to “give fans original music from their local teams and let them do what they want with it,” he said. “The music lets fans represent their team in a powerful way. They can go to the site and take the track and make their own video remix and play it before a game.” Fans go to Jumpcut.com/San Francisco, a division of Yahoo, to make their videos.
Among the bands participating are Bad Brains, Barenaked Ladies, The Rapture and Blackpool Lights. Rock River Music (RRM)/San Francisco managed the musical elements of the campaign.
The spot was produced with soccer footage provided by MLS. “We didn’t have to shoot it, it was done in post with After Effects and motion graphics work done in-house,” Zada said. The animated intro showing three players in action was created by the agency’s animators.
The soundtrack for the spot features clips from three of the team songs, according to Jeff Daniels, RRM’s president.
The spot is currently playing exclusively at the Adidas site, Zada said.
The goal of the campaign is to “get people excited about major league soccer and pull people in who have never seen a game. People are interested in the bands and the heart of the campaign is the songs. People can take the songs and play them and use them in their videos. It becomes part of the culture of soccer.”
Director Angie Bird Joins Scheme Engine For U.S. Representation
Scheme Engine has added director/photographer Angie Bird to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials and original content.
Bird crafts deeply human and charismatic portrayals of community, empowerment and the rituals of celebration across commercials, elevated documentary and short film. A former agency creative, Bird has a body of brand work consisting of cinematic lifestyle campaigns for Nike, Dove, Allstate, Procter & Gamble and the YMCA, among others. Prior to joining Scheme Engine, Bird was most recently represented in the U.S. for commercials by production house Curfew.
Two years into her career, Bird back in 2016 won a Cannes Young Director Award for “Mean Tweets,” a provocative campaign for Raising the Roof, that challenged stereotypes of unhoused individuals with striking humanizing portraits. The project earned honors at the Clios, and Webbys and was shortlisted at Cannes.
Her Gillette campaign, “First Shave”--a heartfelt examination of masculinity in the trans community--earned three Cannes prizes and won honors at the Clios and The One Show.
As a director invested in films that ignite conversation, and inspire action, Bird embraces challenging, overlooked stories, bringing to light complex, authentically heroic characters faced with cultural stigmatization and gender-based discrimination. She co-wrote and directed "Short Life Stories" for White Ribbon and Canadian agency Bensimon Byrne--a shattering call to dismantle transphobia, following the journey of a transgender woman as she steps into her authentic life. The campaign won six awards at One SCREEN 2024, including Best in Region: North America and Best in Show
“I’m inspired,” affirmed Bird, “to create stories that champion the... Read More