Last fall Dennis Ryan was given the chance to do something that one rarely gets to do in advertising: something new. The Omincom Group launched a new advertising agency in Chicago to handle PepsiCo’s portfolio of products, including everything from Tropicana and Dole Juice Drinks to Quaker Oats, Gatorade and Aquafina. Ryan, who was then an executive VP/executive creative director at J. Walter Thompson (JWT), Chicago, was approached to head up the new venture’s creative department as chief creative officer. The agency is known as Element 79 Partners.
Not that Ryan wasn’t suited for the new role. At DDB Worldwide, Chicago, for 13 years before spending four years at JWT, Ryan developed a reputation for making packaged-goods advertising interesting. While at DDB as a group creative director on Budweiser, he worked on the highly successful "I Love You, Man" campaign for Bud. At JWT he helped contemporize ads for Miracle Whip products, working on such notable spots for the brand as "Man’s Best Friend," directed by Craig Gillespie—who was then with bicoastal Coppos Films and has since joined bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ). There are countless other examples of Ryan’s ability to make packaged-goods advertising more exciting. He attributes his unique skill to the fact that he’s married to Mom. Not to his mom, but to a mom: his wife. "Many advertisers view Mom as this sensible-shoes-wearing woman who turns down the music when it’s too loud and tells you to wear a coat," says Ryan. "But I’m married to Mom, and Mom in my view is a reasonably sexy woman who’s got great taste, who’s funny, who likes cool design, and who gets it. To put her in some backwater, lackluster, smells-as-good-as-it-works kind of advertising is irresponsible at best."
New Ideas
The decision to leave JWT was difficult for Ryan, yet the lure of a new agency that was small enough to be nimble, but had the backing of Omnicom, proved to be the right combination. "It was an opportunity to reinvent an agency culture and to create a new way of working," Ryan explains. "That I would have a big hand in that reinvention would be so cool."
What that reinvention has come to mean to Ryan and Brian Williams, president/CEO of Element 79, is that they’re figuring things out as they go along. And the fact that there are no "rules" per se has added a refreshing dimension to the agency’s culture. For instance, there is no head of production. There will be, but there just hasn’t been time to find one; currently the agency is working with some freelance producers. The new shop is handling an estimated $400 million worth of billings, and has roughly 130 people on staff, 30 of whom are in the creative department.
Element 79 has brought new meaning to the phrase, "hit the ground running." And so far the adrenaline rush is working. Consider the laundry list of top-level directors with whom the shop has worked over the past few months: Marcus Nispel (MJZ), Phil Joanou (bicoastal Villains), Erich Joiner (bicoastal Tool of North America) and Michel Gondry (bicoastal/international Partizan). Ryan notes that quite a few premium directors have been attracted to the Gatorade brand, and he hopes that spots for PepsiCo’s other brands will prove equally attractive. "It’s incumbent on us now to make sure the work merits the director, which we’ve been able to do so far," notes Ryan. "But we’ve also got cereal advertising to do, and there are going to be unique pressures there. ‘Yeah, cool, Gatorade, but what can you do with oatmeal?’ "
Element 79’s early success can be partially attributed to the creative mix in Ryan’s department. He had a direct hand in hiring only two of the 30 art directors and copywriters at the agency. The rest he inherited when he joined Element 79. While this kind of setup could have equaled disaster, Ryan says it’s given the shop a tremendous advantage. "We’ve got a guy in from Wieden+ Kennedy; a team from Vigilante, New York; a woman from DeVito/ Verdi, New York; and a guy from Leo Burnett, Chicago," relates Ryan. "Plus the two I brought over from J. Walter Thompson. There’s such a nice diversity of viewpoints and experience here that it’s something I’d like to continue."
According to Ryan, the agency was shooting like crazy in January and those spots are now starting to air. One windfall was having two Aquafina commercials—"Thank the Academy" and "All Over You"—air during the Academy Awards telecast. The two spots featured the voiceover work of Robin Leach and were animated by Bermuda Shorts, London. In each ad, Leach playfully notes that water—Aquafina included—is essentially nothing. A third spot, "Riding the Pine," which was animated by Fuel, Santa Monica, broke during the NCAA Basketball tournament.
At press time the agency had just finished four commercials for various Gatorade products. A :30 for Gatorade Propel (the beverage retailer’s new line of water), called "Drip," helmed by Gondry, features an oversized water bottle with athletes swimming inside. When the bottle is turned over, each drip of water releases an athlete onto a platform where he begins doing whatever sport he is known for. Joiner directed the humorous Gatorade Energy Bar spot called "Rhino," which depicts what happens when you don’t eat the right food before playing competitive sports. "Defining Mia," an ad for Gatorade Ice that uses the long-running "Is It in You?" tag and was directed by Joanou, features soccer star Mia Hamm in action on the field. A second spot in the same series, directed by Nispel, has yet to be released.
As chief creative director, Ryan takes a combination hands-on, hands-off approach. He says he likes to give his creatives room because he thinks it’s critical that people feel responsible—that "they’re driving their own destinies." That’s the hands-off part. The hands-on part stems from the fact that Ryan simply likes to create. "You get into this business because you like to make things," he points out, "and, frankly, I took this job because I wanted to do more making. Obviously there is a ton of management, but making stuff is the rewarding part, so I’ve been kind of involved."
His involvement is also prompted by the shop’s workload. Lately Ryan has been giving thanks to the geniuses who have made it possible for him to have a DSL line at home. "We have people in all these far-flung places, so I’m looking at edits all the time," he says. "We had a shoot going on in South Africa, and we’re working with Michel Gondry and an effects group in Paris, so much of it has been handled online."
But Ryan’s approach also ties in with Element 79’s overall philosophy—which is to do everything that is done in the industry, but in a better way. "If we can take everyone here and empower them to do their jobs in the best way that they can imagine, then we can be something unique in our industry," he states. "Then we can do something that will lead to a better product and, if nothing else, just lead to more job satisfaction."
