Shots 156 Taster

156 MAy 2015

shots

turning up the heat‌

Steve Stone Martin Stirling

Portrait of the artist

StĂŠphane Xiberras game changer

Brazil Special

from boom to gloom and back again

Leader 03

“But while there are obvious problems, the country’s advertising elite are still at the forefront of creative marketing and are embracing Brazil’s changing landscape – the rise of the middle classes, the growing influence of digital and mobile – to produce powerful and creative work.”

PHOTOGRAPHS: DAN ESCOBAR, LINDA BLACKER

W

hen you think of Brazil you probably think of a few key things. Football, of course, would be one of them; the Brazilian national team has a long and distinguished history as one of the best, most entertaining, successful and skillful teams in the sport. Ebullience is another word that springs to mind; the Carnival, the colour, the seemingly unwavering exuberance of the Brazilian way of life.

Then there’s the economic achievement of the country; the ‘B’ in the BRIC quadruplet that has dominated business pages and garnered jealous looks from other, less financially high-flying countries across the globe. But, as our special report in this issue shows, those heady days seem to be drifting all-too-quickly into the past.

Last year’s World Cup, held in Brazil, was seen by many as a nailed-on Brazil victory, but an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Germany quashed those hopes, and the spirit of many. The economy too, far from being buoyant, is stagnating, with the country’s president embroiled in a US$8.9 billion corruption scandal. Add to that a drought and growing power shortages, and it seems like the Brazilian bubble may have well and truly burst.

But while there are obvious problems, the country’s advertising elite are still at the forefront of creative marketing and are embracing Brazil’s changing landscape – the rise of the middle classes, the growing influence of digital and mobile – to produce powerful and creative work.

From page 48, shots’ contributing editor, Carol Cooper, explores the challenges faced by Brazil’s advertising industry and talks to some of the people and companies facing those challenges head on, including NEOGAMA/BBH’s Alexandre Gama, who tells us the way he sees it [page 68].

Elsewhere in this issue we speak to BETC Paris’ creative chief, Stéphane Xiberras, about regenerating an area of Paris and reimagining how brands and agencies approach their business to become more about talking and less about stalking [page 34]. We clap along with music video visionaries, We Are From LA, who discuss

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Above Danny by illustrator Chris Ede, who also depicts the creative chaos of the country for our Brazil special (page 48) 1 Heat’s Steve Stone gets under the hood of advertising on page 30 2 Partizan director Martin Stirling earns his stripes on page 18

working with Pharrell Williams to create the most successful interactive video of all time for the insanely catch track, Happy [page 24], and on page 74 our new features editor, Selena Schleh, talks to editor extraordinaire Jonnie Scarlett (a moniker the entire shots office is jealous of) who reveals why editing is less about kit and more about contemplation.

We also take some time to talk to Martin Stirling, a director who, in a relatively short space of time, has created a number of affecting and effective campaigns for charities such as Save the Children and Greenpeace, and who talks to us about being disruptive, but making people care [page 18]. And then we have our cover star, Steve Stone. From page 30, Heat San Francisco’s creative founder talks about founding his agency, not because the industry needed another one, but because it needed better ideas…

Danny Edwards Editor @shotsmag_dan

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04 Contents | magazine shots 156

May 2015 News Inspiration Insight shots.net

shots 156 front cover

60

Steve Stone was photographed for shots by Dan Escobar. The Heat head honcho talks to Iain Blair on page 30.

MaY ����

156

18

MaY ����

shots 156

shots

24

shots.net

42 TURNING UP THE HEAT…

We Are From LA Jonnie Scarlett Alexandre Gama

Steve Stone Martin Stirling

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Stéphane Xiberras GAME CHANGER

Brazil Special

FROM BOOM TO GLOOM AND BACK AGAIN

shots 156 contributors

Words: Iain Blair, Carol Cooper, Tim Cumming, David Knight Illustration & photography: Romain Bernardie-James, Linda Blacker, Vasilly Bobylev, Leão Branco, Christian Castanho, Chris Ede, Dan Escobar, Chris Madden, Mauro Moura, Mauricio Nahas, Georgia Pendlebury, James Sheehy, Karina Vallesi, Parker Whipple, Leo Williams

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shots 157 / July 2015

Here we go again; it’s time to gear up for Cannes. Issue 157 of shots will be our annual Cannes Special in which we’ll be talking to a host of jury presidents, predicting what will come away with a tower of trophies and asking the industry to reflect on the 12 months past, and forecast the year ahead. We’ll also be talking to adam&eveDDB’s Ben Priest about the way he sees it, delving into the world of political advertising and focussing our creative spotlight on New York City.

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A subscription to shots provides you with all the creative connections you need: online, in print and on DVD. For more information and to subscribe turn to page 6.

Key to symbols

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Inspired

Insight

Places

Al MacCuish, co-founder and chief creative officer at Sunshine London, insists on only the most fine of high-design comestibles

08 new work

essages in a bottle, M at the Super Bowl and on the high seas offer inspiration this month

12 going global

pots with a lighter touch S from around the world, with wet weather men, parodic odes to the poor toilet brush and wi-fi-ready wee ’uns

14 opinion

KQA’s chief technology A officer Ben Jones, on not judging an awards show by its cover

16 the source

48 Brazil

39 creative spaces

aked London has a N suitably stripped-back space for collaborative creativity

76 favourite tech

Alex Hesz of adam&eveDDB London would love to be Belgian underneath

ax Geraldo & Joanna M Monteiro of FCB Brazil urge you to only connect; director Vellas can’t stop telling stories; AlmapBBDO’s Luiz Sanches wants everyone to get happier (and faster); and Marcelo Reis of Leo Burnett is excited by the power of change

66 GOING NATIVE

Y our Mama’s Mayra Auad offers her guide to the 20,000-piece jigsaw puzzle that is São Paulo

| Contents 05

magazine

48

34

39

79 People

People

Pictures

Spanish iPad artist Jaime Sanjuan demonstrates the joys of anytime, anyplace, anywhere artistry

18 director Profile

hings started going well T for Partizan director Martin Stirling when he started pissing the ‘wrong’ people off, and campaigning for what’s right

34 ad icon

68 the way I see it

24 promo Profile

e Are From LA aren’t.

W But the Parisian duo have a US-style can-do attitude that saw them through a 24-hour promo shoot, eventually making everybody Happy

30 creative Profile

eat San Francisco’s H Steve Stone shares his life-in-the-industry lessons

ETC Paris’ Stéphane B Xiberras on sex, animals and underwear EOGAMA/BBH’s N Alexandre Gama talks brushes with death, dreams of speed and advertising as a weapon

74 post profile

Jonnie Scarlett contemplates editing

79 new directors

pair of duos, Parabella A and ZEUGL, get animated

42 digital mobile art

82 SNAPSHOTS

Marianna Souza of Film Brazil takes a tour of Brazil’s tastiest treats

62 54

06 Information | DVD / SHOTS CONTACTS shots

shots 156 May 2015

This issue’s top work on the accompanying DVD

shots 156

May 2015 News | Insight | Inspiration shots.net

Creative Showcase 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Heineken The Match Honda HR-V Dream Run Honda Keep Up Audi Service Mechanics Tena Men Tips; Control GEICO Unskippable: Cleaning Crew; Family; High Five AICP Rob Reilly; Tiffany Rolfe; Ted Royer Parisian Gentleman Ladies Laminex Peacock and Diamond; Midnight and Moose Viacom Velocity The Social Influence Mentos NOWMints Tiny Fresh Things MTS India Baby in Heaven Carlsberg If Carlsberg Did Supermarkets Coca-Cola Tale of Contour KFC Family IKEA Everyday Heroes Facebook Our Friends; Friend Request; Girl Friends McDonald’s Forever Young Interflora Odd Love Evolve Ready or Not The Prince’s Trust Learn the Hard Way

Promos 22 Royal Blood Out of the Black 23 Jungle Julia

New Directors 24 Twinings Drink the Day 25 Amarillo Breaches

Brazil 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Leica 100 Kiss FM Exorcism TNT Energy Drink Rhino Budweiser The Greatest Show On Earth Budweiser #BeSpider Coca-Cola Signs Mix Festival Brasil Everyone’s Gay Itaú Bank The Great Transformation Global Commission on Drug Policy War on Drugo Brazilian Ministry of Transport Collision Samsung Ballet John Frusicante Sat-JF14 National Organ Donation Bury My Bentley NIVEA Sun Kids Protection Ad CCSP The Fall and Rise of the Mole

shots facebook.com/shots.net @shotscreative Editorial material to be submitted to shots on DVD or emailed to spots@shots.net Post to: Ryan Watson, shots Zetland House 5-25 Scrutton Street London EC2A 4HJ Many thanks to those companies that submitted material for consideration on shots 156. If your work didn’t make it this time, please do not be discouraged from sending work in again. If you feel that your company has produced anything that would complement the Creative Showcase please let us know. © shots.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted, either by conventional means or electronically, without written permission of the publisher.

All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of facts and figures, which to the best of our knowledge were correct at time of going to press. shots accepts no responsibility for loss or damage to material submitted for publication.

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Contributing Editors Carol Cooper Tim Cumming Sub Editors Carol Cooper Kirsten Foster Art Director Sarah Watson art@shots.net Designer Cath Mackenzie Group Commercial Director Alison Pitchford alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com (44 20) 3033 2949 International Accounts Manager, Advertising Luke Heywood luke.heywood@shots.net (44 20) 3033 2934

Senior Marketing Executive Andrea Petrides andrea.petrides@mb-insight.com (44 20) 7391 4511 Production Manager Jon Cooke (44 20) 3033 4926 jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com Chief Executive Officer Conor Dignam conor.dignam@mb-insight.com

DVD programme credits Post production Envy, London Graphics Why Not/Clear, London

Sales Executive, Advertising Lucy Tibbitts lucy.tibbits@mb-insight.com (44 20) 3033 2924

Super Bowl 41 mophie The Phone Upstairs 42 Weight Watchers All You Can Eat 43 T- Mobile Save The Data 44 Kia Sorento Perfect Getaway 45 Skittles Settle It 46 Avocados From Mexico Draft Day 47 NBC Sports/Nascar America Start Your Engines 48 Nissan With Dad 49 Coca-Cola #MakeItHappy 50 Bud Light Coin

SH156_p6_Flannel_1.indd 6

19/03/2015 14:03

08 Inspired | new work 1

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shots dips into a selection box of tasty treats, including charming tales of Coca-Cola’s cool bottle, a blind girl’s re-imagining of The Wizard Of Oz, a seafaring story of champions on the high seas, superb spots from Super Bowl 2015 and a wee bit of silliness over male seepage 6

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Coke’s message in a bottle TV & ONliNe Coca-Cola Tale of Contour; Together To celebrate 100 years since Coca-Cola’s iconic bottle design was introduced in november 1915, the brand is launching a year-long haul of advertising campaigns and content throughout 2015. To begin the onslaught, Parisian agency ogilvy & Mather released two new pieces of work at the end of February – a beautiful animated film, Tale Of Contour, directed

by Passion’s Jon Saunders, and an integrated campaign, Together, shot by David LaChappelle. with the charm of a Disney classic, Tale Of Contour offers an amusing, fictitious look at how the brand’s bottle shape was formed and travels land and sea to tell the story with the familiar red theme and logos present along the way.

The LaChappelle-shot Together, however, takes a more minimal approach, stop-frame-animating hands of different communities and colours coming together to form the iconic bottle shape, in a message of peace and love to the world. “we want people to remember how iconic this amazing piece of design is,” says eCD Baptiste Clinet. “At ogilvy Paris we are really proud of having the opportunity to do an ad as simple as this for one of the best brands on earth.” RW

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1 Coca-Cola, Together 2 Super Bowl XLIX 3/4/5/6 TENA Men, Keep Control

Having a laugh over male leakage TV & ONliNe TeNA men Keep Control Personal sanitary products. Apart from Always’ #LikeAGirl campaign, it’s safe to say they don’t generally inspire brilliance. raising the bar from stock ‘absorbency’ shots (who produces blue body fluids, anyway?) is Keep Control, the latest campaign from TenA Men, which tackles the issue of male incontinence with wit and advice from a ‘man of a certain age’.

Created by AMV BBDo, the campaign introduces Stirling Gravitas – a smoothtalker with a tip of the hat to old Spice’s Isaiah Mustafa. exercising supreme control

over every aspect of his life, Stirling won’t let leaks get in the way of Thai massages and yoga, as shown in two droll spots directed

by Jeff Low through Biscuit Filmworks.

Creative team Jeremy Tribe and Prabs wignarajah knew that humour was the only way to address men about the issue: “once we’d got the jokes about ‘manpons’ and ‘manitary towels’ out of our system, we knew it was going to be a challenge,” they admit. “we aimed to take the stigma out of urine leakage and position TenA Men as the solution to a common problem.” ss

Top touchdowns in shots pick of spots TV

super bowl XliX Various

The passes have been thrown, the tackles made and the foam fingers retired to the back of the wardrobe, but the 2015 Super Bowl isn’t forgotten about that easily. You will hopefully have seen our extensive coverage of the oscars of US advertising on shots.net, which was published in the run-up to, and immediately after the game, with interviews, insight, analysis and our own choice of what impressed across the commercial breaks (if not, just head to the site and search for ‘Super Bowl XLIX’). But as this is our first printed issue since the event, we felt it only right to bring the best of the Big Game’s ads to you on shots 156’s accompanying DVD. we have the highlights of the broadcast, including work for alcohol brands (Budweiser and Bud Light), automotive manufacturers (kia and nissan) and, slightly more randomly, avocados. De

| Inspired 09

new work

Juicy couture-made spots examine big blend theory Web Films J2O J2O Blends

“The schedule has been intense. James [Massiah] has been through choreography and performance coaching so that when he turns up on the day he nails it every time.”

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o promote the joyful blend of ingredients in soft drink J2O, the brand teamed up with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and spoken word artist James Massiah, combining their respective talents in 20 web films released throughout February.

Created by digital agency TH_NK and shot by director Zaiba Jabbar through production partner Partizan, the ambitious project saw a new film uploaded to YouTube each working day. For lead man Massiah, it was an exciting opportunity: “This was 20 pieces, so it was a challenge, but one I’ve risen to and I think it’s definitely enabled me to step my game up as a poet, writer and artist all round.”

The wordsmith spent most of the Christmas break working on the project, and his talent and commitment impressed TH_NK creative director Phil Wilce. “The schedule has been intense.

James has been through choreography and performance coaching so that when he turns up on the day, and we have our tight window of shooting, he nails it every time. He’s turned it on like he’s been doing it for years,” says Wilce.

The campaign concept sees spoken word mixed with classical music to form a new mash-up and TH_NK was charged with the job of communicating the concept of blending in the digital realm.

“We arrived at this concept through lots of rigorous brainstorming and trying different things. It’s one of those [ideas] where you don’t know if it’s going to work until you really start putting it together,” comments Wilce. “First, we took a piece of YouTube footage of a poet and put it together with some classical music on Spotify. That’s what we sold to the client.

It took a leap of imagination for them to buy into it and we’re so grateful they got it and saw the potential.”

The campaign’s clips were plugged

“We arrived at this concept through lots of rigorous brainstorming… It’s one of those [ideas] where you don’t know if it’s going to work until you start putting it together.”

throughout February on the brand’s YouTube channel. Each spot’s lyrics focussed on current events to add resonance for consumers.

“If we were going to create 20 films over 20 days, the campaign needed to feel fresh and we had to give people a real reason to want to watch the next one. There are lots of roads into the campaign, so if anyone joins us halfway through our run, then they’ve got a whole back catalogue that they can go and take a look at,” adds Wilce.

“We’ve been aiming for a mass appeal,

like talking to Hull City Football Club for one video. There’s a poem for Valentine’s Day, the BRITS, the BAFTAs and London Fashion Week. We’ve also got key pieces written for celebrities like Derren Brown and Professor Green.”

Wilce recalls that the atmosphere on set was progressively boosted by the fact that the artists and production team could see the fruits of their labour emerging online. shots was invited along for the second day of filming to see the last 10 clips come together and you can view the final films at youtube.com/j2ojuicedrink. RW

10 Inspired | NEW WORK 1

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“We try to start with an insightful idea and then we work our asses off to make it the most crafted work around and the most entertaining to watch. And we don’t give up till it’s done” 1/2/3/4/5 Heineken, The Match 6/7/8/9/10 XFINITY, Emily’s Oz

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Andreas and Emily’s wizard ad TV & WEB FILMS XFINITY Emily’s Oz Andreas Nilsson is behind a host of memorable spots, but he can’t take all the credit for directing the latest one for Comcast’s XFINITY. The ad is the result of a beautiful collaboration between the Biscuit Filmworks director and Emily, a seven-year-old girl who was born blind, and it’s all to promote the brand’s innovative TV service for people with disabilities.

Taking inspiration from American musical fantasy The Wizard of Oz, and recreating the classic film through the youngster’s imagination via Goodby Silverstein & Partners New York, the result is a colourful spot featuring The Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion as you’ve never seen them before.

“We promised to watch out for each other and not to add stuff that wasn’t Emily’s vision just because we perhaps thought it ‘made more sense’,” explains Nilsson, who worked with production designer KK Barrett and Legacy Effects.

“We wanted this to be 100 per cent true to her vision and make sure we had a lot of fun when working together. I honestly feel that Emily is the auteur of this film.”

Nilsson says that the chance to break away from the usual production model for the unique project was part of the appeal.

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9 “We have all experienced political, analytical, overly processed marketing discussions when creating commercials and very often they damage a project’s creative potential. On a project like this everyone had to calibrate their way of thinking a lot, which I think was a refreshing, educational and emotional experience for everyone.”

Working with the young girl to decide on the materials, colours and designs for everything from what would be used for the characters’ various features down to the set design, the result is a wonderful commercial that was aired during this year’s Oscars ceremony. RW

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Yo ho ho and a bottle of Heineken TV & CINEMA Heineken The Match Heineken’s recent TV spot, The Match, launched to celebrate the return of the Champions League, is an epic tale of the lengths to which some people will go to make sure they don’t miss the big game.

Following a handsome and resourceful ship’s captain and his band of eclectic men who have pulled out of the harbour just before the match is due to kick-off, the 90 second film is a beautifully manic tale of how they engineer the vessel to pick up a TV signal and enjoy the contest. With an ice-cold Heineken or three, naturally.

Created by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, the ad was shot by Sonny’s Fredrik Bond, who has helmed his fair share of Heineken spots, as W+K creative director, Thierry Albert, attests: “Fredrik’s shot so many of those Heineken ads that we’re always surprised he still wants to read the script. But he’s not one of the best directors in the world by accident and he always manages to re-invent the wheel.”

Albert and his creative partner, Faustin Claverie, have been working on the Heineken account for more than two years and, when creating something new for the brand, believe they have a head start. “It’s always a challenge to come up with fresh and noticeable work in such a cluttered world,” says Albert, “but Faustin and I have a pretty good understanding of the brand. We always try to start with an insightful idea and then we work our asses off to make it the most crafted work around and the most entertaining to watch. And we don’t give up till it’s done.” DE

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12 Inspired | NEW WORK

GOING GLOBAL US

Memories… of the way we were WEB FILMS AICP 2015 Awards Craft Your Legacy

ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS MADDEN

Everyone wants to be remembered for something. For advertising creatives, what could be a better memorial than getting your best campaign into New York’s MoMA? And when you’re a sad old has-been you can rest smugly on your laurels knowing your early brilliance will be preserved for all eternity.

That’s the premise behind AICP’s 2015 Awards campaign, a savagely funny quintet of web shorts promoting the fact that winners’ work is permanently archived by MoMA’s Department of Film. Set in 2050, the doc-style interviews feature today’s top CDs in 35 years’ time, and needless to say the years haven’t been kind.

We see McCann’s Rob Reilly reduced to flogging off his trophies to fund a double hip replacement. Gerry Graf has had to sell Barton F. Graf 9000, but got a ‘sweet deal’ by keeping an office in the building – the janitor’s closet. Unluckiest of all is jumpsuit-clad Tor Myhren, CCO of Grey, jailed for kidnapping the E*trade baby who launched his career. Yet despite their current lots, all take comfort in knowing that their legacy has been protected.

While the shorts were scripted by the subjects themselves, the overall concept was by Reilly and Graf together with AICP president and CEO Matt Miller. “These films remind all sectors of the industry that now is the time to shape how they’re remembered.” SS

“Making Sexton explode into butterflies was our greatest challenge. We had to balance what’s technically correct and what’s visually suggestive.”

AUSTRALIA

Shake your tailfeathers TV & ONLINE Laminex Peacock & Diamond Some products naturally lend themselves to advertising. Fast cars.

Cool gadgets. But kitchen counters and work surfaces? Not so much. In fact, the watchability of a campaign about ‘new and unexpected colour combinations’ from Australia’s premier surface provider could have been on par with paint drying. Hats off, then, to Ogilvy Melbourne, and its genuinely witty campaign for Laminex, its first since winning the account last year.

The two spots, Midnight and Moose and Peacock and Diamond (named after new shades in the Laminex palette) were directed by The Sweet Shop’s James Haworth, who was tickled by the unusual subject matter. “You don’t often get scripts that include a moose and a peacock,” he says. “The idea was to tell simple, comedic stories with a touch of absurdity.” While both ads are comic gold, Peacock gets our vote for playing on the modern-day meaning of the word. The spot opens on two men making small talk at a house party. As an attractive woman sashays by them, both burst into unanimous, stunning displays of plumage – only for their feathery fans to shrivel away when it transpires she’s engaged. So far, so funny, but the real kicker comes when an attractive passing male inspires a similar reaction in one of the guys. SS

INDIA

Baby basics: a womb and wi-fi TV & ONLINE MTS Homespot Internet Baby From gorging on pineapple and braving an off-the-scale hot curry to a last-ditch session of rumpy pumpy, there’s a wealth of old wives’ folklore on how to encourage a baby to make its long-awaited entrance into the world. If all those methods have failed, then it might be time to reassess your wi-fi situation, according to Creativeland Asia’s latest ad for Indian telco giant MTS. Directed by Ayappa through Early Man Films, Internet Baby is a prequel to last year’s Born For The Internet, which featured a smartphone-savvy newborn snapping selfies and uploading them to social media from the minute he pops out. Set a little further back in time, the new spot has a similarly cute-butunnerving premise and sees our precocious protagonist refusing to exit the womb unless the household he is bound for is granted mobile internet access: “No wi-fi, no go!” It’s down to God, who transforms himself into a fast-talking MTS salesperson, to save the day.

With the original spot garnering more than 30 million YouTube views and global media attention, the MTS Baby clearly struck a chord with the new generation of digital natives, says Sajan Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairman of the agency. ‘[He] personifies the ever-demanding internet generation that sees wi-fi as a basic necessity, just like food and shelter.” SS

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GLOBAL ROUND-UP

IRELAND

Johnny gets the butterfly effect TV & CINEMA Three All It Takes Is Everything

SWEDEN

Time to laud the loo roll holder TV & ONLINE IKEA Everyday Heroes As a proportion of one’s life, how long does the average person spend sitting on the lavatory? Apparently, it’s a bum-numbing three years, making the humble toilet-roll holder one of the hardest working items of furnishing and fittings in your home. So isn’t it about time you gave it the respect and appreciation it deserves?

That’s the premise behind IKEA’s latest campaign, which is one long paean to the homeware giant’s more prosaic household wares. Created by Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg, the spot is a humorous departure from the poetic flight of fantasy that characterised Mother’s recent offering for IKEA, the flamboyant tale of homing T-shirts that is The Joy of Storage, but it is no less beautifully crafted. Directed by Anonymous Content’s Joachim Back, who did extensive character research (“To really get under the skin of these everyday heroes, I lived with them for 42 years.

I’m full of admiration and it feels good to be part of this tribute.”) the ad tells a story of epic resilience and scant thanks for years of servitude: taps are spat on; bath mats are crushed underfoot; coat hooks nobly bear their heavy burdens in silence.

A dramatic voice-over from venerable British actor Terence Stamp (best known for playing arch-villain General Zod in Superman) adds to the feature film visuals, with lines such as “Here’s to… the fearless soldiers who serve in the trenches,” delivered in tandem with a cut to a forlorn loo brush, standing in a dank bathroom corner. Go home and give your coathanger a hug. SS

SPAIN

Toyota’s fun with faulty forecasts TV & ONLINE Toyota Aygo The Weather Challenge When it came to announcing Toyota Aygo’s new carbon sunroof, Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi Madrid CCOs Maxi Itzkoff and Mariano Serkin had their work cut out. “The truth is there was nothing terribly interesting to say, so we had to try to find a way of turning something that wasn’t newsworthy into something that was,” explain the pair.

“We gave the new Aygo to three famous weather forecasters in three different European cities [Paris, Milan and Madrid] for a month. The roof of the car was synchronised to each forecaster’s weather prediction and if they predicted rain, the canvas roof would stay closed. But if they predicted sun, the roof would remain open, no matter what the weather.”

After the experiment an amusing Weather Challenge campaign film was put together and backs up the ad’s thesis that the weather man isn’t always right. The broadcasters were also given clothes to match their predictions, so incorrect reports of cold weather saw them boiling in hot, padded clothes, and failure to forecast rain saw them soaked and shivering in summer gear.

“We chose cities of some meteorological contrast, in order to get different types of climate and different forecasts,” add Itzkoff and Serkin. “It was really difficult to find forecasters who were up for the challenge.

Especially because they knew they were putting their reputations on the line. But, at the same time, there was a little performer in each of them.” RW

When mobile phone company Three Ireland tasked Dublin-based agency Boys and Girls with the inaugural campaign to raise awareness of their sponsorship of the Irish national rugby team, the 2015 Six Nations tournament was an obvious place in which to ground the concept. All It Takes Is Everything is a stunning, VFX-heavy spot which features Irish players Johnny Sexton, Paul O’Connell and Robbie Henshaw variously bursting into flames, exploding into butterflies and even tackling a rhinoceros, all accompanied by a stirring voice-over from Ireland head coach, Joe Schmidt. The spot is stylishly shot by Brett Foraker through RSA Films. Inspiration came from the players themselves, says copywriter Kris Clarkin: “Everyone is familiar with what [the players] do on the pitch, but little is known of the huge efforts it took to get there. We did a lot of research to ensure the campaign was grounded in ‘reality’. This gave us licence to create something visually intriguing that felt true.” The effects were created by London’s Electric Theatre Collective. “Making Sexton explode into butterflies was our greatest challenge,” says Giles Cheetham, lead flame artist. “We had to balance what’s technically correct and what’s visually suggestive. We worked on realistic sims for butterfly movement but weren’t conveying [Sexton’s] pain or determination. So we made the butterfly movements more frantic, like disturbed bats. Having a great relationship with the agency and director enabled this to be a truly collaborative and creative process.” DE

Sweden gives a big hand to the bog brush, there’s some meteorological mirth from Spain and from the USA, five wicked little films for the AICP Awards feature potty predictions of ad industry celebs 35 years from now

14 Inspired | opinion Judge not lest ye be judged opinion Ben Jones

AKQA’s chief technology officer Ben Jones was surprised to get the call to be a British Arrows juror, assuming a tech guru such as himself wouldn’t be welcomed by an old-school TV ad crowd. Thinking he’d be teaching these old dogs new tech tricks, instead he found an industry keen to get their teeth into the opportunities offered by new technology…

B

ack in early January, I received a request to become a jury member for the British Arrows. Surely a random, misaddressed email, I thought. Probably a case of mistaken identity. What possible value could the chief technology officer of a digitally-focussed company like AKQA bring to an organisation devoted to an industry that has been disrupted by the very thing I’ve championed for so many years?

Technology has changed the way we act, the habits we form, the devices we use and the social scenarios we love and enjoy. It has moved us away from our living rooms and the boxes we used to stare at. Want proof? A study by Enders Analysis reported that between 2010 and 2014 TV viewing by four-to-15 year olds declined by 22 per cent and viewing among 16-to-34 year olds went down 15 per cent. I see it in my own children, who only really know Netflix and their iPads.

Out of the box In my opinion, television advertising has simply been (for the most part) pointless – a convention we’ve had to endure. It’s been a format that was forced upon us, and now we’re in a world that has dramatically changed: where people expect everything just the way they want it, when they want it, where they want it.

Today, an ad has to be exceptional and completely original to do what it’s meant to do – resonate with the audience, be shared with loved ones and gain brand affinity.

Do you really watch every ad on TV and enjoy it? The answer is no. Does

each ad make you want to run out and buy the product? (I say ‘run out’ in the old-fashioned sense of ‘popping to the shops’, which is not quite the case any more). The answer again is no.

TV advertising is being left in a potentially desolate landscape. The family at home is simply fast-forwarding through an agency’s labour of love and a brand’s marketing budget.

The future’s bright

“The family at home is simply fast-forwarding through an agency’s labour of love and a brand’s marketing budget.”

I know this naysaying is going to piss a lot of you off. You might think I’m ridiculing your very existence. You might want to hunt me down on the Cannes Croisette in June and punch me in the face.

But wait. Before you resort to violence, read on – I might just have seen the light. I believe the future is an exciting one, full of fresh thinking.

It occurred to me that perhaps the legendary British Arrows hadn’t made a mistake; they weren’t frightened, but excited about technology and how it can contribute to today’s resonant formats and ideas. How technology, if harnessed properly, can make things bigger, better and more interactive.

So I accepted jury duty because, like so many millions of people, I used to love TV advertising and hoped I could bring a different perspective to it. In my naive and arrogant world view, I thought I could help move it forward.

The truth is it didn’t need me. I came away from the judging with the realisation the industry gets it already – big time.

From the executive producers to the creative directors, the lack of acceptance

of mediocrity is rife – and the desire for the industry to capture new thinking and formats abundant. The thinking about how to harness technology within the ads of today, and especially tomorrow, is really exciting.

Tweaking TV I have always believed in reimagining experiences for different digital channels.

For example you don’t just take an iPhone app and put it on the iPad. It’s clear the leaders of the advertising industry believe that formats don’t transcend from channel to channel either.

They realise changes in technology also mean changes in context, which need to be taken account of.

The industry is not holding on to the past, in fact it’s doing the very opposite.

This acknowledgement of change, this new wave of thinkers, mean the ad will reappear as a topic of conversation down the pub. People will be saying ‘Have you seen this new ad?’ not just ‘Have you seen this new app?’

For many years I have been saying that advertising needs to add value; it needs to entertain. Generic TV advertising, which the traditional marketing director commissioned to push a product, needs to go. The new breed of advertising executive with their new way of thinking and their new understanding of the differences and opportunities that technology brings, offer hope that the ‘ad’ will entertain once more. S This article first appeared on shots.net, where Jones writes a monthly column.

OPEN FOR ENTRIES

INSPIRED 5 November 2015 | The Brewery, London

Entry deadline: 14 August 2015

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@shotscreative #shotsawards

16 Inspired | the source

the WONDER STUFF Al MacCuish, co-founder and chief creative officer, Sunshine London, can’t get enough of the carefully curated and crafted, whether it’s the background story of Bowie at the V&A, Mark Rylance’s Cromwell, Chipotle’s history-making The Scarecrow, Shinola’s lovingly engineered timepieces, or Perry Haydn Taylor-inspired designer groceries in his kitchen cupboards

What show/exhibition has most inspired you recently?

What’s the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen in the last few months?

Chipotle’s The Scarecrow by CAA Marketing blew my mind. It’s a perfect piece of work. From the script and grade on the film, to the beautifully engineered app, and how it was activated socially – wow! There are very few brand campaigns that have won an Emmy – it’s the only one that I know of that won an award in the Entertainment category rather than the Marketing slot.

What’s your favourite website?

Acontinuouslean.com. I love finding out the stories behind how products and objects are made, their history. This is the ultimate geek site for that. Warning: you can get completely lost on their blog roll. It’s like going through the looking glass.

What website do you use most regularly?

The Guardian: national treasure.

Mac or PC? Mac. What’s your favourite magazine?

Wallpaper.

What product could you not live without?

My Shinola watch. Kit [Hawkins, Sunshine CEO] and I went to their factory in Detroit last year and we were blown away by what they’re doing. The attention to detail that goes into their products is incredible.

What product hasn’t been invented yet that would make your life/job better?

An electronic twin who is much better than me at all the things I’m terrible at (which is a great many).

What track/artist would you listen to for inspiration?

That changes by the hour! It’s totally driven by how I’m feeling or what the task is.

My top five at the moment are: Exile by Hurts, Love Will Never Tear Us Apart by Paloma Faith, the soundtrack to Waltz With Bashir by Max Richter, Fever To The Form by Nick Mulvey, and Ice Cold Daydream by Shuggie Otis.

What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?

I’m watching more television than films at the moment. I’m obsessed with Wolf Hall – from Mark Rylance’s performance to the cinematography, it’s extraordinary.

The David Bowie exhibition at the V&A. I know the music backwards, but being able to see the history behind that and understand how all the chapters of his life stitched together was transformative, especially the circumstances around his time in Berlin.

If you could live in one city, where would it be?

Tokyo. I mean LA. I mean Paris. Oh, okay then, London. Yes. London.

What fictitious character do you most relate to?

Sherlock. I wish. Probably Tom Hanks in Big would be more honest.

“I love finding out the stories behind how products and objects are made, their history.

Acontinuouslean.com is the ultimate geek site for that. It’s like going through the looking glass.”

Who’s your favourite photographer?

Jane Bown, whom I was lucky enough to meet. Her story is an inspiration. Simplicity, humility, humanity.

Who’s your favourite designer?

I can’t pick one. I have favourites, plural.

When I think about the designers that mean the most to me, I think about the people who have designed things we have in our house or lives. Anthony Burrill – who my wife introduced me to – is a genius.

Never has one man done so much to reintroduce us to the wonders of typography in a digital age. Michael Mast – one half of the Mast Brothers – is responsible for their insanely good packaging. Talking of packaging, Perry Haydn Taylor at Big Fish is another big favourite. He’s created more beautifully designed household brands than any man I know. Our cupboards are full of his work.

The list goes on and on. The team at Partners & Spade in NYC are also heroes of mine – the care and craft they put into their projects is inspiring.

If you could have been in a band, what band would you choose?

The Monkees. S

| Inspired 17

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What inspires Al MacCuish: 1 Tom Hanks in Big 2 Shinola watches 3 Artist/designer Anthony Burrill’s work 4 The Monkees 5 Michael Mast’s chocolate design 6 Photographer Jane Bown 7 Wolf Hall

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18 People | director profile

“I remember my first meeting at a big agency…

I started making stuff up… I could see them smiling and nodding their heads and I realised they were dumber than I was.”

| People 19

martin stirling

Once the class clown, charities’ director-of-choice Martin Stirling now uses his cheeky creative chops to make people cry – and think – rather than laugh.

Tim Cumming follows the mixed-up career of this maverick storyteller from the West End stage to the Syrian border

Martin Stirling

20 People | director profile

T

he viral mechanics that dictate whether your short film is seen by a handful of people or a global audience of millions is about as hard to read and predict as the movement of particles in quantum mechanics. Take it from one who knows – a master of hard-hitting, eye-opening viral charity ads for Reprieve and Save the Children, Martin Stirling. “It’s really unpredictable,” he says. “There’s no formula. You have to go by your instincts.”

He’s talking about his 2013 Mos Def spot for Reprieve, out of digital agency Unit9 and socio-political guerrilla agency and specialist in ‘contagious ideas’ Don’t Panic. As it turns out, pretty well everything about it was happenstance. If you could derive a formula from the experience it would be: take the most direct route to the heart of a story and stay there.

Oh, and get a famous rapper to be your star.

“I was at the agency for something else,” recalls Stirling, “and their clients burst in and said ‘We’ve got Mos Def, he wants to do something about Guantanamo but he’s only here tomorrow, what shall we do?’ They’d recently sneaked out this document, Standard Operating Procedure, basically a manual for force-feeding at Guantanamo. It’s horrific. It’s meant to be a medical document for doctors, but it reads like a military handbook, the language they use. So I piped up with the idea of using that as a script.

Ask Mos Def if he wants to be force-fed, follow each step, and you have your story there. You don’t have to make a comment, you don’t have to force it down anyone’s throat… no pun intended.”

photographs: linda blacker

Making it up as you go along Stirling has recently signed to Partizan, and we meet in its Soho offices, where, with the beaming expression of a schoolboy prankster, he talks about the pitfalls and pick-me-ups of short-form storytelling and of his route into the industry. Born and raised in Northampton, Stirling had no template or direct route to follow into the world of film, advertising or media. “I always knew I wanted to be a filmmaker but had no contacts and no idea how I could do it,” he says. “The closest I got to production was elaborate pranks at school.” These weren’t simple water-bucket-over-the-door japes. “I had this idea that we could steal school science equipment, one piece at a time, over the course of a school year.” He laughs. “So it was a very drawn-out, sustained prank, and at the end of the year we took a photo and wrote a ransom note to one of the teachers.”

Luckily for Stirling, the staff appreciated the boy’s sole creative outlet.

Another prank had the 13 year old recreating an old Twiglet advert by persuading schoolgirls to give him the odd unused tampon so that he could super-glue 200 of them above the teacher’s desk in class. “We were there sniggering for a long time before he realised.”

Luckily, he soon got a camera in his hand, which led him, in 2004, to film school – in Kansas, slap bang in the heart of Middle America. “I was obsessed with Pixar and wanted to do live action and animation, and they had a really good school for 3D animation.” After a year he transferred to university in Bournemouth, found that unchallenging, and completed his third year in Toronto. “Which was amazing,” he says. “We worked on loads of film sets and proper sound stages. Hollywood shoots there for the tax breaks, and because our campus was downtown, we had these action scenes going on outside our classroom. We started running and volunteering on set, and made our own short films.”

They were, he says, “mostly crap” but the lessons he learnt were invaluable building blocks for the work to come. “I was fascinated by telling stories in different ways and dissecting the anatomy of stories,” he says. “I was interested in how your choices and decisions in filmmaking can affect the way it’s read by an audience. I wasn’t academic, so I learnt by doing things, by making as many mistakes as possible, as soon as possible.” He laughs.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to see them but I learnt a lot from doing them.”

While studying he had also been painting, regularly taking portrait commissions (he still paints). He’d also enrolled in the National Youth

Theatre, when he was still back in Northampton, and he started working there, after returning from Toronto, as an actor, writer, and director, ADing on numerous West End shows. “That’s where I honed the craft of storytelling,” he says, “by being around directors and theatre people.”

The biggest lesson he learnt there, he says, was to think about the audience and what they’re going through. “In theatre, you get feedback as it’s happening, and that’s great. You see what works and what doesn’t.

I put a lot of time into listening to the audience. That was a turning point for me.”

His move from theatre to advertising came when he entered a competition mounted by M&C Saatchi and HypTV to produce a 60-second cinema ad for the ICA in just 24 hours. Stirling’s spot, The Staring Man, filmed at night with a long lens across Piccadilly Circus, won the prize, and he was asked to pitch on a Doritos spot featuring youth TV presenter Mequita Oliver. Here, he learnt more invaluable lessons: “I remember at the meeting the agency asked me how I was actually gonna do it, and I started making stuff up because I was quite nervous, it was a big agency and my first big meeting, round a boardroom table with 12 people looking at me, asking me how I was going to do this. So I started bullshitting, and I remember the moment I knew I was going to get away with this, because I could see them smiling and nodding their heads. And I realised they were dumber than I was…”

There followed a plethora of TVCs, “some pretty bad ones, too” while freelancing in the industry, before joining Unit9’s roster to do live action executions for their interactive work. “I’d figure out how to shoot a story with 158 different endings so they’d look seamless,” says Stirling. “It was really interesting to break away from that very linear way of storytelling so that, as an audience, you’re in two worlds running parallel. You get to influence where the story goes, and you can get the audience – their name or picture or character – to be part of the story.”

“We’ve got Mos Def, he wants to do something about Guantanamo.

He’s only here tomorrow.

What shall we do?”

Career progress through pissing people off The most ambitious production was UP2U for Mentos Gum, featuring eight genre-specific stories filmed across eight huge sound stages with a crew of hundreds and a cast of 40 or so in each film. The rookie director trying to fool the board prior to his first shoot had come a long way. “You have to take command, as a director,” he says, “but my goal is to know as much as possible about all the different processes and departments of filmmaking, and then to be the stupidest person on set, because you want to be surrounded by people who are better than you. It’s all about decisions, the right ones, figuring out which decisions are the best, and that means working out what ideas are the best and listening to people.”

Come the summer of 2013, he moved into charity work, with the Mos Def spot for Reprieve first off the block. It’s a tough film to watch and, in its simplicity of purpose, magnificently effective.

“I had one picture in my head,” recalls Stirling, “which was a tweet saying ‘Mos Def being force-fed’ – and who’s not going to pick up on that? What the fuck! You’re going to look.” Those who did look included the Pentagon and President Obama, who had reneged on campaign promises to shut down