Browsing: Wieden + Kennedy

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‘These ad guys, those are the real heroes’
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While many agencies are completely addicted to winning awards and use them as evidence of their ability to change the commercial fortunes of clients and attract staff, many of the call for entires campaigns for the awards take a much less serious approach. Axis had its brilliant Share the Love campaign, Strategy in Canada got a host of local agencies to take the proverbial out of the industry and now the ANDY’s have added to the strain of self-awareness—and self-flaggelation—with a very funny campaign via Wieden + Kennedy that shows ad folk being praised for their unceasing bravery and commitment by an explosive ordnance disposal specialist, a surgeon and a firefighter.

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Fatherly pride vs. motherly pain
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Kiwi Steve Ayson won plenty of awards for his role directing Old Spice’s completely mad Momsong ad, including gold at Cannes and Clio and, most recently, TV commercial of the year at Shots. Now another Kiwi, Bret McKenzie, has got involved in the follow-up by writing the music for Dad Song.

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Hot in the city
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Heineken has been trying to inspire men to explore the world through its Legends series, which has resulted in some brilliant ads and increased sales around the world. But it’s gone down the domestic road in its latest spot and is tapping into the power of FOMO by showing them what they could be missing out on in their own cities.

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Mum’s the word
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P&G has been beating its ‘Proud Sponsor of Mums’ drum for a few years now, largely in support of its Olympics sponsorship. And, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day, it’s launched another heart-string tugger that’s already clocked up six million views. But not everybody appreciates the sentiment, with Mia Frazier laying into the patronising, regressive stereotypes in the New Republic.

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The power of one
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Big sporting events bring them a flood of commercial messages and advertisers are starting to release their work for this year’s Football World Cup in Brazil. But Powerade’s short documentary on Nico Calabria, who hasn’t let the fact that he only has one leg stop him from becoming an amazing footballer, will be hard to beat.

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Thorn and Trubridge put Heineken posters through their paces for global charity campaign
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Over the past few years, Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy’s Legends brand platform has resulted in some brilliant ads and increased sales around the world. For its latest trick, it’s managed to convince more than 40 legends from the world of sport, art and entertainment to create a unique poster that will be auctioned off to support Reporters Without Borders, a global non-profit organisation that protects journalists and ensures freedom of information worldwide. And there’s a Kiwi connection to this one, with ex-All Black Brad Thorn and double world record holding freediver William Trubridge enlisted for the campaign.

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Taste, the final frontier
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Lurpak has a rich heritage when it comes to creating quality food porn. And now, to launch its new Cooks Range, Wieden + Kennedy has created another stunner, with the adventure-themed spot imploring home cooks to ’embrace the unknown in wide-eyed wonder’.

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Nike’s 2014 football push shows that pressure makes diamonds
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Nike isn’t an official Football World Cup sponsor. But when has that ever mattered? Back in 2010, it certainly didn’t stop it from riding on the coattails of the tournament and creating one of the best sporting ads ever made with Write the Future. Now it’s aiming to do the same for the upcoming tournament in Brazil with its Risk Everything campaign.

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Hands on with Honda
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Honda’s ‘The Cog’ is renowned as one of the world’s great ads (in fact, it’s still getting love letters from ten-year-olds). And Wieden + Kennedy has done it again, with another amazing two-minute ad that shows off the full array of the Japanese company’s creations. Not a mountain road, smug looking driver or sweeping bend in sight.

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Chew the future … and beyond
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There are plenty of motion-controlled games out there, from Nintendo’s Wii to Resn’s Face Arcade. Now US gum brand Stride and Wieden + Kennedy have embraced that technology for its latest campaign, “the most amazing chewing-based game we’re aware of”.

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How’s the water, Dad? —UPDATED
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There’s absolutely nothing better than a dad joke. Nothing. And in honour of (un)hilarious dads everywhere, Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy have decided to crowd-source a few gems for father’s day with a social media-fuelled campaign using the #dadjokes hashtag.

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A man walks into a bar…
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We’re suckers for Old Spice ads. So much so that the various campaigns by Wieden + Kennedy have almost removed the stigma of dadness surrounding the brand. Its most recent campaign, Mr Wolfdog, stuck the boot into marketing in completely absurd fashion, but the products remained at the centre. And the latest work for its new bar soaps do much the same, with some magnificent songs that poke fun at old school soap ads.

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Old Spice dances with wolves (and marketing)
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It’s become something of a tradition to post the latest Old Spice ad, and while there have been a few misses, there have many been more hits in recent years. And Mr Wolfdog, Old Spice’s new predatory director of marketing, is definitely in the latter.

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Branded Bond mission ‘The Express’ nets Heineken Ad Impact Award
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There was plenty of discussion about James Bond adding Heineken to his list of favoured tipples in Skyfall. But product placement/branded content/integration/cap in handing is an accepted part of the film and TV business these days (as Daniel Craig told Moviefone: “The simple fact is that, without them, we couldn’t do it. It’s unfortunate but that’s how it is. This movie costs a lot of money to make, it costs as nearly as much again if not more to promote, so we go where we can”). And the tie-in appears to be working for the brand because Heineken’s ‘The Express’ ad, which features the raspy tones of own Gin Wigmore, has won Colmar Brunton’s Ad Impact Award for October.

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An impressive body of music
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While most think of Isaiah Mustafa on a horse when they think of the Old Spice guy, Terry Crews was there earlier on, flexing his pecks and yelling a lot. And he’s back for more with a brilliant—and suitably surreal—interactive Vimeo clip made by Wieden + Kennedy called ‘muscle music’, where different instruments—including a “flame sax”—are played through Crews’ rather rhythmical flexing. Pfff, V Motion Project. But wait. There’s more. After the vid is finished users can perform and record their own song with the keyboard.

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Nike goes deep with My Time is Now
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The last time Nike and Wieden + Kennedy got together for a massive advertising push was for the Football World Cup and most would agree the end result, ‘Write the Future’, was one of the best sporting commercials of all time. But it’s taken things up a notch for the launch of the 2012 European Championship with the brilliant and multi-layered My Time is Now.

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Heineken toasts Ad Impact victory as ‘The Entrance’ keeps RWC rhythm going
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The dust has largely settled after the glorious Rugby World Cup shindig. But Heineken has kept up the momentum of the 46 percent increase in total sales it recorded in September/October when compared to the year prior after being awarded the Ad Impact Award for October for its new ad ‘The Entrance’, which was launched Super Bowl style at half-time during the final.

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New—and hopefully improved
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Part 143 in an occasional series, this time starring Tenfold Creative and Jennian Homes, Mission Hall and Arthritis New Zealand, JustONE and the Topp Twins, Levi’s and Wieden + Kennedy and a ‘social-film’ by Toshiba and Intel. 

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The gospel according to Cannes: the world’s 25 best TV ads?
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Despite continuing media fragmentation and the rise of digital, TV remains the undoubted glamourpuss of advertising. And the boffins on the Film jury at Cannes, an awards ceremony widely regarded as the gold standard for the creative industries, chose what they deemed to be the best TV ads in the world recently. So here they are, in all their glory. 

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Old Spice guy gets off horse, mounts Twitter, makes social media crowd go wild
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Everyone loves the Old Spice guy. His musk is like the bottled essence of man. His rich, dulcet tones have made ladies all around the world instantly fall pregnant. And his ability to be on a horse is unparalleled. The first ad went crazy online and rightfully took the Film Grand Prix at Cannes recently, the second was a reasonable follow up and he’s also done plenty of others, including this moustache spot. But the agency responsible for creating the ‘man your man could smell like’ meme, Wieden + Kennedy, has taken ‘conversations with the brand’ up a big notch with its latest effort.

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Gratuitous football post shows awesome murals and annoyingly clever 3D ad
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Here’s a few visual treats to ease you back into the short working week, honour the birth of our Dear Queen and also prepare you for the start of the FIFA World Cup this weekend: to promote its coverage of the football fest ESPN’s agency Wieden & Kennedy, New York, commissioned a group of Capetown artists by the name of Am I Collective to paint 32 fairly outstanding murals of each of the countries participating in the tournament.