Upwork Inc. (Nasdaq: UPWK), the work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent, has released a global campaign to advance how it attracts and engages with the world’s best freelancers and companies of all sizes.
Freelancing is far more the norm than ever before and the pandemic has only accelerated the trend. As companies learn to navigate the new work landscape, Upwork is setting out to solve two core problems businesses face: the constraints of work with limited resources and critical skills gaps.
Directed by Mark Molloy of production house SMUGGLER for ad agency Alto, this film tells the story of freelancers and companies taking a leap forward to create better businesses, better careers, and better lives.
Crafted from a creative platform “Up We Go”, the film was inspired by the real stories of customers experiencing transformation in their work and lives every day via Upwork. Through the three-minute narrative, the film portrays an ambitious CEO working with her Upwork team, made up of a coder based in Hong-Kong, a designer who leaves the UK to be closer to his girlfriend in Italy, and an engineer who has left Silicon Valley and moved his family up the coast to be closer to nature and have a more well-rounded life. With an aligned vision and confidence in Upwork’s solution providing avenues for the new world of work, the CEO and her team ultimately forge ahead to success. By the film’s end, the viewer has experienced each team member’s journey and has felt the freedom that comes with flexible-work solutions.
“Upwork is a pioneer in the space with twenty years of connecting independent talent and companies and continuing to lead the new way of work, which is exactly the kind of perspective the world needs as we all navigate this massive transition,” said Hannes Ciatti, CCO and founder at Alto. “Translating their vision of better human connections and work into a wholly new brand identity and platform, and communicating it at such a vital moment is the kind of challenge we dream of solving.”
CreditsClient Upwork Agency Alto Hannes Ciatti, chief creative officer/founder; Tara Fray, head of strategy/partner; Matt Bonin, head of entertainment & production/partner; Dan Kroeger, Pierre Janneau Houllier, creative directors; Jenny Bahn, copywriter; Julia Menassa Panev, art & production director; Ben Berkon, Josh Litwhiler, exec producers; Amber Wimmer, head of digital; Paul Aaron, digital strategy director. Design Porto Rocha (design partner) Felipe Rocha, Leo Porto, creative direction; Joseph Lebus, Natalia Oledzka, design; Fionn Breen, Habin KIoh, motion design; Giordano Caldas, Rafael Morinaga, animation. Production Company SMUGGLER Mark Molloy, director; Sam Chiplin, DP; Alice Grant, line producer; Sue Yeon Ahn, exec producer. Editorial Work Editorial Neil Smith, Anne Perri, editors; Fatos Marishta, assistant editor. Color Company 3 Tom Poole, colorist. Music/Sound Barking Owl, West Los Angeles Dustin O’Halloran, composer; Kelly Bayett, creative director; Dan Flosdorf, sound designer; Ashley Benton, producer. Audio Post Barking Owl, West Los Angeles Dan Flosdorf, engineer.
Director Gia Coppola Teams With Mejuri For “A New York Minute”; 1st Episode Takes Us To The Grocery Store
Mejuri, known for turning fine jewelry into an everyday luxury, has partnered with director Gia Coppola (The Last Show Girl, Palo Alto) and The Directors Bureau in Los Angeles, for the first time reimagining the brand’s story as episodic content. In a series of microfilms, co-created by Coppola and premiering following New York Fashion Week, Mejuri eschewed a typical celebrity campaign and cast us as voyeurs to a group of aspiring young women--real people, not actors--at the crossroads of their adult lives against the backdrop of New York City.
Titled “A New York Minute,” the series features five real-life friends, who include one perfectly imperfect heroine named Emma. The women celebrate ordinary moments and interactions which reveal, sometimes retrospectively, the extraordinary within the mundane. Adjacent to the brand’s own community, the 30-something year old cast includes Laura Love (Emma), Rebecca Ressler, Natalie Vall-Freed and Rozzi Crane. Mejuri’s jewelry makes an appearance as the best supporting actor.
“When I met with Gia and The Directors Bureau team, there was instant creative and personal chemistry and a natural alignment on the desire to push and blur the lines between marketing, storytelling, and the construct of what a ‘campaign’ could be,” said Jacob Jordan, chief brand officer, Mejuri. “Gia was able to push that idea into something that truly feels new and artful, with a realism and relatability that almost feels jarring. Gia was such a perfect collaborator and partner, someone I had complete trust in to be a catalyst for Mejuri’s values of celebrating women as their truest selves. I can’t wait for us to continue to tell the next chapters of this story.”
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