Nike Korea's new "Just do it" campaign kicks off with "Play Loud," a 90-second short film by Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo. Like past Nike works, it promotes team sports as a way to dodge conformity and express individuality while still wearing matching uniforms.

The spot stars Korean soccer legend Lee Young-Pyo, who appears in an ironic role as a joyless adult telling young athletes in training that they won't make it: "This won't change anything" and "Just do what everyone else does" are themes that resonate, especially for those trying to excel in a culture often defined by strict conformity to social norms.



In the end, the ad encourages athletes to ignore those negative refrains and keep working because that's the only way to win. Underlining that, Lee's voice grows silent and his face shines in quiet pride as his victims gradually overcome their initial frustrations ... and the sound of his own voice.

There's irony in being told to buck authority by a global corporation whose brand defines conformity to many, so videos like this create their own distance even when they mean well. W+K and director AG Rojas did a nice job with it, though, and Lee Young-Pyo was well-cast.

In addition to this video, Nike Korea is soliciting stories of perseverance from kids via KakaoTalk and sharing them on Nike.com, and they'll be sponsoring sports events as well.

This one goes out to all the Ducks fans—but all you really need to appreciate it is to have liked the movie Animal House.

Nike celebrates its deep ties to the University of Oregon in a new, feel-good ad—featuring a horde of notable alumni (mostly sports stars, but also Modern Family actor Ty Burrell and ESPN anchor Neil Everett)—that recreates the famous toga-party scene from the 1978 National Lampoon classic.

Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, now playing as a quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, arguably has the best role, standing in for John Belushi as resident guitar smasher.

But Otis Day and the Knights, who anchored the original scene with a performance of "Shout," reprise that role in the commercial, perfectly setting the tone. (The band, originally a fiction created for Animal House, ultimately ended up touring in the wake of the movie's success, fronted by actor DeWayne Jessie.)



Wieden + Kennedy Portland created the spot, which clocks in at almost five and a half minutes—thanks in large part to the extensive freeze-frame credits, another stylistic nod to the movie (and a necessary exercise for viewers who haven't memorized the history of one college's sports heroes).

Nike released the spot to coincide with Saturday's college football game in Lansing between the Oregon Ducks and the Michigan State Spartans, who edged out the visiting team 31-28. But the ad is anything but a wasted effort, acting as a standalone paean to Nike's long history with the college.

One of the brand's two co-founders, Phil Knight, ran at the University of Oregon. The other, Bill Bowerman, coached track and field there for 24 years (including Knight). Designer Tinker Hatfield—perfectly described in the clip as the guy who created the shoes you're wearing—was a pole-vaulter at the school.

In other words, it's inside baseball, but a nice way for a huge global brand to celebrate its local heritage and make itself seem more down to earth in the process. And while Animal House also happened to be largely filmed in Eugene, where the University of Oregon is located (including scenes at the school itself), the film's pop culture clout is broad enough to draw in a wider audience beyond its cornucopia of parochial trivia.

Or, if you want a shorter route down that rabbit hole, you can start here.

Nike has assembled the same creative partners behind the famous 2012 "Jogger" spot—ad agency Wieden + Kennedy and Park Pictures director Lance Acord—for its latest running ad, which makes a very similar point: that anyone can be a runner if they just start running.

Acord even uses a similar technique—a slow backward tracking shot—in the new ad, titled "Last," which is set on a marathon course where the final stragglers are just jogging through, trampling on a bed of crushed paper water cups and dodging the pedestrians who've already begun to reclaim the road.

"Last" is a very different spot than "Jogger," though—both bigger and smaller in scope. Bigger because it's not just about running but about marathon running. ("You are not a runner," says the female voiceover. "You are especially not a marathon runner. But at the end of this, you will be.") Smaller because "Jogger," starring a very overweight kid, was clearly and starkly provocative, while "Last" is much more lighthearted.

The soundtrack here is "Every Little Bit Hurts" by Aretha Franklin from 1964. The spot points to nike.com/running and promotes the Nike+ Run Club, which democratizes running by serving runners of all ability levels.

CREDITS
Client: Nike
Spot: "Last"
Format: :60/:30
Launch Date: Oct. 11, 2015, North America TV

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Global Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O'Rourke
Interactive Director: Dan Viens
Interactive Producer: Evelyn Loomis
Global Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Writer: Heather Ryder, Darcie Burrell
Art Director: Patty Orlando
Producer: Shelley Eisner
Associate Producer: Julie Gursha
Strategic Planning: Henry Lambert
Business Affairs: Anna Beth Nagel
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey, Marisa Weber, Molly Rugg
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Joe Staples

Production Company: Park Pictures
Director: Lance Acord
Executive Producer: Jackie Kelman Bisbee
Executive Producer: Mary Ann Marino
Line Producer: Caroline Kousidonis
Director of Photography: Lance Acord

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Angus Wall
Post Producer: Angela Dorian
Post Executive Producer: Angela Dorian

VFX Company: A52
VFX Supervisor: Pat Murphy
Flame Artist: Pat Murphy
VFX Producer: Michael Steinmann
Titles/Graphics: Just Do It+ Nike title cards – Artwork from Patty Orlando

Music+Sound Company: Walker Music/Barking Owl
Composer: Edited track
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Song: "Every Little Bit Hurts" – Aretha Franklin Album "Running out of Fools" 1964
Producer: Sara Matarazzo/Abbey Hickman, Walker / Kelly Bayett, Barking Owl

Mix Company: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Jeff Payne
Producer: Dawn Redmann

Six years ago, a little-known U.K. film called Awaydays took a nostalgic walk back to the Thatcher-era world of "the casuals," a pack of working-class English adolescents who smoked, drank, screwed and fought for the love of football, all the while escaping the notice of the police by dressing as dandies in Aquascutum jackets, argyle sweaters, Fred Perry polo shirts—and Adidas Sambas.

Photo: Nick Ferrari

The blokes who popularized the Samba in the early 1980s weren't alive when the shoe first emerged in the 1950s, just like the kids who wear them today weren't around in the 1980s. That's the thing with a classic piece of apparel: It belongs to everyone and no one. And when it comes to classic sneakers, the Adidas Samba is the archetype.

"Some sneakers transcend time, place and style. They just continually exist in a pure form, and let the trivial matters of trends and hype wash over them, leaving them in a pure unaffected state," says Neal Heard, author of the definitive athletic shoe history, Trainers."You could think of the Chuck Taylor, Jack Purcell, the Stan Smith in this guise. Yeah sure, sometimes someone wants to play about with them and reflavor them as the mood takes. But it's just a dalliance, a fad, while the classic shoe stays there and runs on its own way. The Adidas Samba is one of those shoes."

It was company founder Adi Dassler ("Adidas" is a mashup of his first and last names) who crafted the first Samba, a high-tech performance shoe when it debuted in 1950. Its soft leather upper afforded comfort, the trio of stripes added lateral support, and the high-traction gum rubber outsole let players kick around on icy turf without snapping their necks. A spike-soled version helped Germany win the World Cup in 1954.

But it was the Samba's inadvertent attribute of style that would grant it immortality. With its low profile and white-on-black contrast, the Samba was cool enough to wear off the pitch. At first, only footballers knew this, but it didn't take long for everyone else to find out.

They haven't forgotten, either. The Samba is the oldest Adidas shoe in continuous production, and, 65 years after its debut, it "still sells like mad," to quote Adidas' website ("mad" equates to 35 million pairs sold, by some estimates). London culture writer Sam Diss has called the Samba "Europe's equivalent of the Air Jordan."

Adidas has played riffs on the original over the years, introducing the Samba JP (with a tapered toe), the Samba 85 (in tan), and the Samba Super (with a longer tongue and toe cap.) But the company is too smart to take any variation too far, even to please the latest crop of stateside celebs spotted in their Sambas, including Rihanna, Kristen Stewart and Justin Timberlake.

"Fads come and go, but some designs just don't need to play those games," is how Heard puts it. "Some people boast about old school while others just genuinely are. The shoe is like your favorite friendly old uncle, held in esteem and respect. It should be."

 

This story first appeared in the Oct. 12 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

While Adrienne Lofton has worked as a marketer for global brands like Levi's and Target, it's experience from her college years that gives her an edge. In the mid-'90s, Lofton was captain of Howard University's NCAA Division I volleyball team. Marketing, she said in a 2010 interview, "is no different from being an athlete—knowing your path, setting it early and accomplishing it."

Lofton's athletic drive has never served her better than at her current gig as svp of global brand marketing for Under Armour—a position in which she's merited inclusion in 2015's class of Brand Genius honorees. Much like Lofton, the brand was an underdog that worked hard and made it big.

The company got its start in 1996 when founder Kevin Plank began selling his performance gear out of the trunk of his car. In keeping with that theme of determination, Under Armour has achieved its colossal brand recognition by signing up highly driven and inspirational athletes and performers before they make it big, and then accompanying them over the top. Golf wonder kid Jordan Spieth, dancer Misty Copeland and Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry—all were Under Armour's underdogs who became champions.

And thanks to Lofton, the messaging behind these partnerships is confident and inspirational. Under Armour's "I Will What I Want" campaign, for example, brims with determination, especially for women athletes and consumers. "Inside of the words 'I Will' is the motivation that we want to deliver at every single turn," Lofton says. "It's about allowing women to have the platform to show that they can absolutely break barriers, they can absolutely set records, they can absolutely be some of the best in the world."

In one spot, the American Ballet Theatre's Copeland whirls and twirls in a dazzling display as a voiceover, taking the form of a rejection letter from a dance academy, catalogs the criticisms she endured—and ignored.

The "I Will What I Want" campaign won the Cyber Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival in June and a Gold Effie. Under Armour was also honored with the Clio Sports Brand Innovation Award.

Instead of taking marketing's obvious path and talking up its athletic apparel, Under Armour, under Lofton's leadership, has kept the focus on the athlete—the "human spirit which won't allow itself to be denied," observes Boston University marketing professor Judy Austin.

Under Armor won't allow itself to be denied, either. Thanks in part to its inspirational marketing, the brand has already lapped Adidas in U.S. sportswear sales, and is now nipping at the mighty Nike's heels (thanks in part to its launch of the Curry One basketball shoe).

Confident in Under Armour's creative direction, Lofton has demonstrated that the theme of self-empowerment has endless possibilities, perhaps even literally. The most recent effort, "Rule Yourself," features Under Armor stars like Curry, Spieth and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady working out on an infinite landscape featuring mirror images of the athletes as far as the eye can see. The visually arresting spots underscore the idea that great athletes must commit themselves to their goals again and again, every day, for as long as it takes.

"Adrienne chaperoned the integrity of the 'Rule Yourself' idea throughout the process," explains Julian Cheevers, group account director at Under Armour lead agency Droga5. "She pushed for the right creative risks at the right times, which was key to getting the work to where it ended up."

A word on where the brand itself has ended up: The first year Plank sold shorts out of his car trunk, Under Armour sales totaled $17,000. Last year, they spiked to $3 billion.

For Lofton, success for an athlete or for a brand comes from the same place. "It's about emotional determination," she says. "To be your best self, you have to be the sum of every single day's work put in."

This story first appeared in the Oct. 19 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Joining brands like Pepsi, Toyota and Nike, USA Today is the latest brand prominently featured in Back to the Future II to make a fictionalized product from the movie a reality. On Thursday, USA Today's real paper will be wrapped in a fake cover—the one depicted in the 1989 film. 

The newspaper cover played an important role in the film: Doc Brown goes into the future and learns from the paper that Marty McFly's future son, Marty Jr., will be jailed on Oct. 22. When—spoiler alert—they go back to Oct. 21 and change the course of future events, the fictional Oct. 22 cover is shown again, this time saying Marty Jr. won't be going to jail. 

"This movie had some great product placement, so we knew this was a great chance to have some fun with branded content," said Matt Urbanos, vp of brand and creative strategy at Gannett, adding, "This was a moment that was 30 years in the making, and there was no way we were going to let it pass by. We also felt this was the perfect opportunity to show brands how we can effectively partner with them across all our platforms."

An editorial from Bob Gale, co-writer and co-producer of the film, is also part of the USA Today deal. 

"Only the top half of the cover was remade to be featured in the movie," said Urbanos. "The bottom half of the paper was never featured in the movie and was just old content that happened to be left over from an old version of USA Today. We worked with Universal and Bob Gale to update the bottom half and add content that was relevant and cohesive as our way to finish the story and punctuate this moment." 

USA Today is promoting the Back to the Future wrap cover with a full social campaign on Wednesday and Thursday. The company is changing its logos in digital and print to match the logos from the movie. The inside of the wrap cover features an ad for Jaws 19, which was also featured in Back to the Future II. 

Here's a look at the wrap cover:

Now that we've reached Oct. 21, 2015—or Back to the Future Day—the brands featured in the 1989 film have been capitalizing on the film's nostalgia with campaigns showcasing their original integrations in the film.

Brands like Pepsi,Toyota, USA Today and more have been essentially making the future of Back to the Future II a reality.

The film's heavy brand tie-ins were inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey, Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale tells Adweek.

"We thought, how cool is it that the guy goes to the space station and makes a phone call using AT&T and we see the AT&T logo and that Pan Am logo was on the spaceship?" said Gale. "Stanley Kubrick said there's still going to be branding in the future and if there's a space shuttle that goes to the moon on a regular basis it will probably be affiliated with an airline company."

Now famous for its charmingly memorable brand integreations and predictions, Back the Future II could have actually been very different if the creators had (like Marty McFly accidentally creating his own dystopian alternate reality) chosen to pursue some other brand options that were made available to them.   

The DeLorean could have been replaced with a Ford Mustang. 

Universal had hired a product placement coordinator, Robert Helfrich, who tried to convince Gale to ditch the DeLorean in favor of a Ford Mustang. 

"He tried to convince me to change the DeLorean to a Mustang because Ford Motor Company would give us money," Gale said. "I said, 'No, no, no, Doc Brown doesn't drive a fucking Mustang.' It had to be a DeLorean. A DeLorean was cool. I have nothing against Mustangs, but nothing is as cool as a DeLorean. A Ford Mustang? Does Doc Brown look like the kind of guy who would drive a Ford Mustang? I'm sorry, no." 

Nike came about by accident.

Michael J. Fox was not the original Marty McFly, a role initially set aside for Eric Stoltz. But Stotlz, a fine dramatic actor, didn't have the comedic chops the film needed, according to Gale. When Fox quickly stepped into the role, the film's costuming department didn't have shoes for him. 

Getty Images 

"It was such a quick thing getting him into the movie so [Robert] Zemeicks said the shoes that he had on would be fine," said Gale. "Michael happened to be wearing a pair of Nikes and in order to get more pairs of them we had to contact Nike and that's what started the affiliation with Nike. Then when we decided to do 2015, Nike was one of the first calls we made, asking 'what would the shoes of the future look like?'" 

Pepsi's placement was thanks to its evolving logo

Pepsi

Logos were important to the film's visual styling, which is part of the reason the film used a Pepsi integration rather than a Coca-Cola one, according to Gale. 

"We wanted to make a very strong statement about the difference between 1955 and 1985 and we thought one visual way of doing that would be to pick brands whose logos changed over those 30 years," Gale said. "For example, the Coca-Cola logo has never changed since what 1920 or something? It's the same today as it always has been. But the Pepsi logo has changed many times. So we deliberately said we want to be associated with Pepsi because when we're back in the past the Pepsi logo will look very different than the Pepsi logo people are used to seeing in 1985."

The same idea is also what nixed Shell's appearance

The product placement company hired by Universal wanted Shell for the gas featured in the film.

"They could get participation with Shell gasoline and we said, 'No, no, no we don't like Shell because their logo hasn't changed,'" said Gale. "We want Texaco because their logo has radically changed. Who knew that in 2015 Texaco wouldn't be around anymore, of course. But that was always what was in the back of our heads, let's pick out brands that define the period." 

The hoverboard was almost branded as Swatch

In the film, hoverboards are branded from Mattel, but before the toy brand said yes, the creators had wanted to work with Swatch. 

"Originally we thought about using Swatch as the hoverboard company but Swatch wasn't interested in being associated with us," said Gale. "Back in the '80s they were the hip cool company doing all kinds of cool stuff. Are they still around even? I don't even know. Maybe if they'd have been associated with Back to the Future they would be." 

After last year's brutal weather, folks in the Boston area might not be screaming "Snow day!" quite as exuberantly upon the arrival of this winter's first big storm. But New England Patriots hero Rob Gronkowski seems to have no problem with snowflakes as he headlines this epic, two-minute cold-weather commercial from Nike—ushering in the season of flurries, frozen feet and star-studded neighborhood Snow Bowls.

More than 20 pro athletes turn out for the ad, from Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., and Biscuit Filmworks director Steve Rogers. And no matter their actual sport, they all seem to be playing Winter Olympians for the day—if things like snowball fighting, snow-plow jumping and needlessly shattering lots of frosted glass could be Olympic sports.

In the end, they line up for a football game—fittingly, as the ad will get its first airing Thursday night during the Patriots-Dolphins game. (In fact, the pecking order of celebs here seems inspired by that very game, with Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh being the first character Gronkowski encounters in his SportsCenter-like neighborhood, where only pro sportsmen and -women seem to live. Never mind that it's actually 70 degrees right now in Foxborough, Mass., where tonight's game will be played.)



The spot pushes Nike's Hyperwarm baselayer of workout apparel. And in fact, kicking off winter with a tribute to the Hyperwarm line is becoming something of a tradition for Nike. This spot is more straightforward than last year's, though, which was more theatrical and featured Chris O'Dowd as a weatherman of sorts, hyperbolically describing the effects of cold on the human body.

All the typical Nike energy and humor are there in the new spot, although it must be said that the constant falling snow obscures the athletes a bit and maybe dulls the impact somewhat. (These would be first world art director problems.)

Along with Gronk and Suh, the ad serves up Odell Beckham Jr., Le'Veon Bell, Eugenie Bouchard, Antonio Brown, Elena Delle Donne, Marlen Esparza, Paula Findlay, Lauren Fisher, Paul George, A.J. Green, Draymond Green, Luke Kuechly, Sydney Leroux, Carli Lloyd, Marcus Mariota, LeSean McCoy, Ben Roethlisberger, Eric Weddle and Steven Stamkos.

Also check out the behind-the-scenes video, which features many of the athletes reminiscing about their favorite snow day memories.



CREDITS
Client: Nike
Project: North America Cold Weather | "Snow Day"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Chris Groom, Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Art Director: Lee Jennings
Producer: Jeff Selis
Agency Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Designers: Edgar Morales, Seth Shelman
Studio Manager: Alicia Kuna
Motion: Sarah Gamazo, Jeff Ackley, Oliver Rokoff, Adam Sirkin
Color, Retouching: Frazer Goodbody, Saskia Thomson
Art Buyer: Grace Petrenka
Digital Production: Patrick Marzullo, Ben Oh, Evelyn Loomis, Jenna Simon
Digital, Social Strategy: Reid Schilperoort
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Brandon Thornton, Reid Schilperoort
Media, Communications Planning: Daniel Sheniak, Reme DeBisschop, Lisa Feldhusen, Natalie Welch
Account Team: Karrelle Dixon, Corey Woodson, Shinya Kamata
Project Manager: Andrea Nelsen
Business Affairs: Amber Lavender
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Joe Staples

Production Companies: Biscuit Filmworks; Revolver
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producers: Shawn Lacy, Holly Vega, Dana Balkin
Line Producer: Jay Veal
Director of Photography: Alwin Kuchler
First Assistant Director: Craig Owens

Editing Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Peter Wiedensmith
Assistant Editor: Dylan Sylwester
Post Producer: Jen Milano
Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy
Operations Director: Mary Zuleger

Visual Effects Company: The Mission
Lead Flame: Joey Brattesani
Animation Director: Piotr Karwas
On-Set Supervisor: Michael Gibson
Visual Effects Producer: Diana Cheng
Managing Director: Michael Pardee
Executive Producer: Ellen Turner

Music, Sound Company: Joint Editorial
Sound Designer: Noah Woodburn
Song (if applicable): The Payback

Mix Company: Joint Editorial
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Producer: Jen Milano

Production Company: Zach King Vines
Director, Editor: Zach King
Producer: Jadon Gauthier

Photographer: Gary Land
Production Company: Avenue 53
Producer: Greg Broussard

Color: Company 3
Colorist: Siggy Ferstl

Behind the Scenes Video:
Production Company: BLS
Director, Editor: Jacques Slade
Producer, Editor: Matt Melander

We've all become quite comfortable acknowledging what's now a widely adopted common truth—the velocity of change in modern media culture is so fundamentally disruptive that adapting to the shift is no longer a matter of choice but an absolute necessity for marketers' long-term sustainability and survival. Or as Apple eloquently, and succinctly, stated ahead of the iPhone 6s launch: "The only thing that's changed is everything."

Gian LaVecchia Illustration: Alex Fine/Snyder

Of course, that's a moderately daunting concept for some marketers, but there's no doubting that the broader societal impact of this culture shift has been profound. Today, we find ourselves witnessing the emergence of Generation Z, an audience that has been culturally engineered to navigate the dynamics of the new normal, equipped with a mobile-first sensibility, an elevated level of social media fluency that transcends standard forms of communication (e.g., emojis, snaps) and an inherent expectation that content can, and should be, accessible everywhere and at anytime.

It's this sustained depth of media "addiction" that is fueling an optimistic, albeit cautious energy across the broader industry. It's why in this moment of inevitable transition, media agencies are uniquely poised to harness their core strengths of ad tech, data science and content to help brands consistently break through and elevate the strategic caliber, creative distinction and overall effectiveness of their work moving forward. If your media agency isn't, then you've clearly got some questions to ask it.

Modern CMOs have long understood the value of content within their marketing portfolio, and its rapid ascension as one of the most culturally vibrant assets within the broader mix is not surprising at all. As the demand for high-quality content experiences continues to expand, a clear business need has emerged for brands to drive tighter strategic alignment and coordination across their broader marketing ecosystem.

It's in this quickly evolving space where media agencies are best positioned to help brands drive greater connectivity across an increasingly complex world of atomized content experiences that extend across an ever-expanding canvas of social and digital platforms (such as Snapchat, Vine, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Periscope, YouTube) and formats (video, photos, GIFs, cinemagraphs, livestreams).

Today's most recognized and breakthrough marketers, such as Nike, Honda, Chipotle and Red Bull, have long embraced the principles of ecosystem design in crafting diverse, highly engaging and connected brand experiences. For example, Nike's visually provocative storytelling approach is elegantly woven across multiple business units (e.g., @Nike, @nikefootball) and brand initiatives (e.g., #justdoit, #nikewomen), ensuring the distinctive brand ambition and essence are consistently activated regardless of format, screen or point of access. Nike's brilliant creative approach combined with a thoughtful application of audience data (e.g., behavioral, platform, social) helps ensure the company remains at the forefront of modern marketing.

So, how is your media agency delivering on these new emerging priorities?

The reality is that this elevated level of strategic consultation requires new hybrid skill sets and integration models that borrow aspects from content strategy, experience design, data applications and creative storytelling—greatly influencing the type of talent the industry needs to attract in the immediate future. In order to best seize the opportunity at hand, as an industry we need to quickly redefine the core skill sets that are needed and deploy teams with greater precision and purpose to help drive elevated relevance, audience engagement and performance accountability across clients' full spectrum of marketing.

Operating at the speed of culture also requires us to explore new planning models, suggesting adaptive design principles may have a clear role in our future programming efforts. Specifically, your media agency should be equipped to quickly operationalize the real-time capture and application of live data signals across the entire marketing ecosystem, to help your brand further establish and reinforce clear competitive distinction. Emphasizing intelligent, micro-applications of data not only drives more creative risk-taking, but it also can inspire brilliant usage of emerging tech including dynamic creative experiences, interactive video and thoughtful creative sequencing techniques that deliver more tangible relevance for your audiences.

It goes without saying that we are all quite fortunate to be working within one of the most intellectually vibrant and fast-moving industries on the planet. It's in these precise moments of uncertainty that opportunities emerge, and in this new-market reality, the role of the media agency has never been more critical.

—Gian LaVecchia is managing partner, digital content marketing, at MEC North America.

This story first appeared in the Nov. 9 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Global independent ad agency Cummins & Partners today announced it has acquired Brooklyn, N.Y.-based creative agency dc3. The acquisition is part of the agency's strategy to expand its global brand after officially opening in New York, and subsequently Toronto, about six months ago.

As part of the deal, creative veteran Todd Irwin, who founded dc3—which he described as an "edgy" boutique shop—in 2009, was named partner and chief creative officer at Cummins & Partners. He joins founder and global CEO Sean Cummins and chief strategist Arwa Mahdawi on the agency's partnership team.

Cummins, who founded Cummins & Partners in Australia in 2011, came to the U.S. in June 2014 to lay the groundwork for opening the New York office. He said that in looking for small agencies to acquire over the past six months, "it wasn't just the businesses that mattered, it was the quality of the people." He called Irwin "an outstanding creative talent and a great businessman."

Irwin, who has produced work for brands including Verizon, Nikon, Coca-Cola and Remy Martin, told Adweek he was "looking to scale" when he happened to meet Cummins.

"And it was great timing because I was looking for an agency that was global and was creatively led. And Sean's a great creative; he's a great writer," Irwin said. "I had gone up against a bunch of the more known agencies and won business from a creative standpoint. But getting to the bigger stuff was always difficult because I was so small, so scale was really important to me."

Cummins is no stranger to "the bigger stuff." Cummins & Partners has grown to become one of the top independents in Australia, earning Independent Agency of the Year honors at the 2015 Mumbrella Awards. The agency has worked with brands including Nike, Jeep, Fiat Chrysler and Vodafone in Australia. Its early U.S. work includes a music video featuring Heidi Klum for Sia's "Fire Meet Gasoline" made for the launch of Klum's lingerie line, Heidi Klum Intimates. (Watch it below.)

Cummins is also the founder of CumminsNitro, which would ultimately become SapientNitro after its sale to Sapient in 2009. CumminsNitro won three Grand Prix (Direct, PR and Cyber) at Cannes in 2009 for the Tourism Queensland campaign "The Best Job in the World."

Cummins declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal to buy dc3, but he said to expect more acquisitions in the U.S. soon.

"Scale wins here—it's sad, but it's true," he said. "And we're looking to pal up with other people who have commensurate and complementary skills. That means we will be talking about digital chops in the very near future. It means we'll be talking about a complementary media company acquisition as well. We're really doing it with the intention of creating this sort of supergroup, a one-stop shop that we both believe is the future of advertising."

Specs
Who (L. to r.) Chief innovation and strategy officer Arwa Mahdawi, global CEO Sean Cummins and CCO Todd Irwin
What Full-service ad agency
Where New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Toronto

Cummins & Partners is a seasoned agency in its native Australia where it's worked with brands like Nike, Jeep and Vodafone, but it's a newcomer in North America, opening in New York­—and Toronto—this year. "Advertising here seems to value the specialist," said global CEO Sean Cummins, "but what brands need are collaborators."

The agency's first U.S. work was for Heidi Klum Intimates. In collaboration with singer Sia, Klum starred in the music video for "Fire Meet Gasoline," where she showed off her lingerie line. "There are so many fantastic channels, there are so many platforms, but messages out there are vapid," Cummins said . "They're just not using this wonderful intimate connection you can have with consumers. There's such an opportunity."

Also, as part of an aggressive plan to expand globally, Cummins is on the hunt for small agencies, recently acquiring Brooklyn-based creative shop dc3, making its founder, Todd Irwin, a partner and chief creative officer.

"We're a new agency in New York," said Cummins, "practicing what we're calling 'the new advertising.' And we're loving it."

Cummins, who uses the term "the new advertising" a lot when discussing what makes the agency unique, described it as "[bringing] media and creative back together, for real—in the way a writer works with an art director: partners."

This two-minute video about the Heidi Klum Intimates project serves, Cummins pointed out, as a good example of the concept:

Here's Cummins & Partners' "How We Roll" for Woodstock Bourbon:

This is "Reverse Reviews" for Australian boutique hotel chain Art Series Hotels:

This story first appeared in the Nov. 30 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Watching drones in action during commercial shoots tends to bring out the kid in Kevin Buth, creative director of ad agency Zambezi.

"They sound like a huge swarm of bees, and they can travel up hundreds of feet in seconds," said Buth, who has worked on a number of drone-aided spots and short films for clients TaylorMade and Ashworth golf products. "They're going 20 miles an hour and then stopping on a dime. It's impressive."

The physical gymnastics are cool, no doubt, but for Buth and other ad executives who are increasingly using drones to create commercials, it's more important that the vehicles help tell a story.

"You don't want the method to overtake the message," Buth said. "You need to use drones like seasoning."

It's been about a year since the Federal Aviation Administration has allowed the use of drones for films, television shows and commercials, partly to stop runaway production. Previous restrictions in the U.S. had sent producers to Canada, Europe and elsewhere for entertainment and marketing projects.

Since the new FAA rules, commercial producers are leading the way in drone usage, and Aerial MOB, a go-to drone vendor in Southern California, reports that about 60 percent of its business comes from advertising agencies these days, said CMO Tony Carmean.

Automakers have been early adopters of the flying droids, with everyone from Acura to Nissan to Toyota using them to film moving cars, chases and stunts, though brands as varied as Patrón tequila, Nike, Adidas and American Express have used drone footage in ads.

It's cheaper than heavy equipment like cranes and helicopters, ad mavens said, with drones costing as little as a few thousand dollars a day, and it takes a fraction of the time to gather quality footage. (Hiring experienced drone operators is a must, execs said.)

Digital production house Shareability often turns to drones for its brand videos, including those for Pizza Hut, Famous Footwear and Fit Tea, with CEO Tim Staples saying they "add a majestic quality" and "can make a YouTube video look like a feature film."

Los Angeles-based Team One, with partners Furlined and The Mill, used drones to create a popular live-action trailer early this year for 2K's video game, Evolve. The spot features panoramic views of lush scenery and aerial shots of a Lord of the Flies-style battle.

Team One has six of its own drones in-house as part of its mission to keep up with emerging technology. Execs have been experimenting "to see what's possible" for clients including Lexus, said executive creative director Alastair Green, and the footage has ended up in decks and other brand presentations.

"The pressure's on for all of us in advertising to create more content with higher production values on a budget," Green said.

Because "we live in a world of ad blockers," agencies need to use every available technology to snag consumers' attention, said Neal Burns, branding expert at the University of Texas at Austin. "If you give us something we've never seen before, like bird's-eye footage or a sweeping vista, we might take notice."

This story first appeared in the Dec. 7 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Millennials will rally behind causes they care about—and will stand behind a brand that does the same. As Omnicom Group's Cone Communications shows, 70 percent will spend more on brands that support causes—and with millennials representing $2.45 trillion in spending power, the subject of corporate social responsibility carries an unexpected level of clout.

As big brands such as Clif Bar, Nike and Google incorporated CSR into their business models, an agency cottage industry has sprung up to service them, focusing on socially responsible marketing. Even some larger shops took note—72andSunny, for example, launched its brand citizenship initiative this year.

"Brands started saying we can't continue to have this approach to social responsibility … doing something in the margins. We have to embed it deeply into the business," said Kirk Souder, who along with Sebastian Buck, co-founded Enso.

They saw an opportunity for their smaller outfit to work with a big brand like Google if they honed their efforts in the field of CSR. The agency has since worked with Google Fiber, Google News Lab and Google Small Business, creating campaigns to help the brand scale its business while hoping to better the world.

Specialized shops have quickly come to find that as brands increasingly look to give back, there is a sustainable business model for CSR-focused agencies.

"We were tentative about putting [CSR] out there as our key differentiator, but now it has become a viable business opportunity for us," said Rebecca Armstrong, managing director of North. "There is enough to serve a business, and that happened in large part from the advent of millennials and the evolution of social media."

The Portland, Ore.-based shop works with Pacific Foods, Clif Bar and Columbia Sportswear. North creates social-media-driven campaigns targeting millennials, who according to Cone Communications, are 66 percent more likely to engage with brands on social media to discuss social responsibility issues.

For other shops like Boulder, Colo.-based agency School—which counts Nike, Skullcandy and TiVo as clients—a major challenge has been helping brands understand the difference between rallying behind a cause and standing for a purpose. Brands often want to randomly pick a cause even if they don't truly believe in it. Millennials will see right through that, said School CEO Max Lenderman. He believes that if brands let an agency help them find the right mission to back, they'll be able to capture millennial eyeballs and build long-standing relationships.

"Agencies have to be at the forefront of culture; we have to know what's coming before it comes," said Lenderman. "We saw the potential of what purpose can mean and made it work for us."

This story first appeared in the Dec. 14 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

In "Bring Your Game," a five-minute Nike film that debuted during NBA telecasts on Christmas Day, a bunch of kids can't decide on their favorite player. So, like all kids facing this dilemma, they jet around the country to hang out with some of Nike's biggest basketball endorsers in a series of amusing vignettes by Wieden + Kennedy. 

It's exactly like real life! 

First up, they knock on Kevin Durant's door. "Hey, KD," one young fan begins, "there's a lot of great players right now, and that makes it kind of hard for us to pick a favorite. So we're gonna live with you a while to help us decide." 

"That's a little weird," he replies, "but come on in. Close the door behind you."

Instead of a living room, they find themselves in a brick-walled gym. (Hey, it's KD's house. That's how he rolls.) True to form, Durant ferociously dunks on one of them, though the youngster receives a "Sorry-About-That Bag" as a consolation prize (with a cheeky KD poster inside).

More quirky meet-and-greet scenarios follow, with our heroic note-takers encountering Paul George, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis and Elena Delle Donne (with cute cameos from Serena Williams and Future.) 

Some highlights include a 3 a.m. workout session with Bryant as a hoodied sensei-mentor ("Eight hours of training is nothing compared to a second of losing"), George's hot tub book club and fishing sessions (on a yacht), and several unwelcome helpings of King James' secret weapon: spirulina cake. A nod to Irving's math-tastic "Unexpected Move" commercial even factors into the equation.

The antics are anchored in the athletes' real-life playing styles, preparation routines and off-court interests. Bryant, for example, does like to meditate and takes a philosophical approach to the game. George is an avid fisherman. And James famously adjusted his diet to get into better shape.

And KD? Well, he dunks on your ass.

Directed by Rick Famuyiwa, the brisk-paced, immensely likable spot is a big hit on YouTube, approaching 4 million views in three days. It does a fine job of making Nike's superstars more relatable by presenting aspects of their personalities that both inform and transcend statistical achievement and on-court heroics. 

"Basketball is undergoing a renaissance, a return to distinct personalities and vibrant style that mixes skill with originality," Nike explains. "Each member of Nike Basketball's family of athletes embraces this singular creative and competitive spirit, pushing the game to new places and proving that, when it comes to game-time dominance, there is no prescription."

Though spirulina cake helps, apparently.

CREDITS
Client: Nike
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Director: Rick Famuyiwa

With his sandy blond hair, bright blue eyes and shredded physique, Logan Paul could have stepped from Greek lore. The 20-year-old social media megastar who's poised to become a millionaire off goofy videos and silly stunts is, as one might imagine, not short of confidence. "I want to be the biggest entertainer in the world," he says, adding, "I'm a really confident guy."

Hate him yet? Hold up, there's a flip side.

This real-life incarnation of an animated Disney prince is also equal parts wisecracking clown and unaffected boy next door. He takes repeated potshots to that pretty face for his videos, sharing the results with the social world. He works nearly nonstop, leaves the hard-core partying to others, and sticks close to his Midwestern family roots.

Trolls, be warned: slamming Paul would be like punching a puppy. He's just that earnest and adorable. Instead of talking smack, watch where he might go, which, if he has his way, is to mainstream superstardom on the level of his idols, Will Smith and Dwayne Johnson.

Paul maintains a squeaky-clean reputation. Corey Nickols

To call him merely an "Internet star" is woefully inadequate. His pratfall-laden Facebook videos logged more than 300 million views in October alone. For some perspective, that's more than two-and-a-half times the record-breaking number of Super Bowl viewers last year.

Still, Paul's got a lot to prove. While he's already a massively popular digital influencer—with 20 million-plus fans across Vine, where he initially made his mark, as well as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter—and an in-demand marketing partner, with more than a dozen brand deals to his credit, he is a newbie in the broader entertainment landscape. After all, a few commercials and a guest role on Law & Order: SVU make for a rather skimpy IMDb profile. But could he have a shot at ultimately conquering Hollywood, with his unique mix of brotastic physical humor, sweet-as-pie personality, acting chops (untested as they are) and sheer determination?

"I want to be a pioneer," says Paul, after hours of posing for photos for this story in Los Angeles. (Much of that time he spends in his boxer shorts, doing his signature epic splits.) "I want to be one of the first digital stars to make the transition to traditional media."

If that sounds like so much bluster, consider that he's got three movies under his belt, including the forthcoming apocalyptic thriller The Thinning from Legendary Digital Media. He's also written his own starring vehicle, Airplane Mode, now fully financed and heading into preproduction. The adult comedy has been described as an American Pie for Gen Z—or as Paul calls it, "an Expendables with Internet stars."

Brand dude

On the brand-marketing front, Paul's video for Doritos' "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign, dubbed "Paranormal Snacktivity," was the single most-viewed of 4,500 entries in the contest, though it did not make it to the finalist round of voting.

He continues to add to a roster of digital-promo campaigns that includes work for the likes of Hanes,Dunkin' Donuts, Nike, Verizon, Pepsi and HBO. He insists he partners only with those brands he believes in and of which he is already a fan.

Though born and raised in the Midwest, Paul has binge-watched enough Entourage to realize he needs to make strategic decisions—and powerful friends—to reach his lofty goal. To that end, last year he signed with Creative Artists Agency, which so far has fielded offers for everything from television to touring to merchandise. He had already relocated to the epicenter of Hollywood—a hipster apartment complex at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, as it happens—along with his younger brother and fellow social media star Jake Paul. He is training with drama coaches as well as comedy troupes The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade.

Wherever he goes, Paul brings legions of fans who treat him "like the Beatles in the '60s," says Paul Cazers, his agent at CAA, which also reps digital stars like Hayes Grier, Jenna Marbles and Brodie Smith. "He is this generation's teen idol, and every time he presses a button on his phone, millions of people know what he's doing."
 

The athletic Paul is known for his physical comedy, from pratfalls to public splits. Photo: Corey Nickols

 
Others have tried to make the leap from Internet fame to mainstream stardom. Among those starting to emerge are PewDiePie, Rachel Bloom, Grace Helbig and Colleen Ballinger-Evans. PewDiePie has a New York Times best-seller, while Bloom just snagged lead-actress Golden Globe and Critics Choice awards for her critically hailed CW musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Helbig launched her own late-night show on the E! network. (While generating buzz, neither series is a ratings hit.) Meanwhile, Ballinger-Evans, better known as Miranda Sings, just landed a deal with Netflix for a half-hour comedy called Haters Back Off.

Beyond small parts in movies and TV shows, mainstream success has largely eluded Internet stars—except for singers and musicians like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes, notes David Schwab, svp at Octagon First Call and an expert in celebrity endorsements.

Paul's ace in the hole? His handlers point to the fact that he's a digital native who understands his millennial audience, knows marketing-speak, and has the talent and drive to become a multihyphenate. "He's very methodical and he's motivated by accomplishment," explains Jeff Levin, his manager at Collective Digital Studios. "He knows there are so many other people in this industry fighting to get where he wants to go. What separates Logan is his work ethic."

He has also established a squeaky-clean reputation, though he says he's shifting "from PG to PG-13" material as his act evolves.

Paul's best-known work thus far is decidedly slapstick in nature. His three-act mini-movies on Vine include a much-loved skit featuring a banana peel that highlights his back-flipping ability and trip-and-fall shtick. Not surprisingly, perhaps, his audience is 75 percent male.

The close-up

Growing up outside Cleveland, Paul was fascinated with photography, saving his allowance and lawn-mowing money for his first digital camera. Initially, he shot mostly flowers. "I loved the aesthetic," he says.

When he turned 10, Paul graduated to a video camera, which he and his brother used to film the sports teams they played on, uploading content to the nascent YouTube. It wasn't until they turned the camera on themselves—showing off their particular brand of goofball humor, with choreographed stunts and rehearsed sketches—that they began to realize their potential to reach beyond friends and neighbors.

And as soon as the video app Vine launched, the Paul boys were there, making a competition out of who could land more followers for their six-second snippets. Logan entered a Virgin Mobile-sponsored contest—with the fortuitous hashtag #happyaccidents—exponentially growing his Vine audience almost overnight.

Despite having been bitten by the acting bug and getting caught up in social media, Paul entered Ohio University on an engineering scholarship. "It seemed the safer route," he says. And he might've stayed past his freshman year if it weren't for a couple of things. In late 2013, video-game publisher Ubisoft offered him $1,000 to create a Vine for its Just Dance franchise. The video—featuring Paul, a speeding treadmill and a painful-looking face plant—remains the brand content with the greatest engagement on the platform. Around the same time, Paul posted a compilation of his most popular Vines on YouTube. The three-minute video got 4 million views in its first week, establishing Paul as the outrageous college dude who was willing to do almost anything to make people laugh. It would also be his entree to Los Angeles.

Fan craze

Paul has catapulted himself into an elite group of digital influencers who can command real money from the advertising community. "Social stars bring a built-in, young, active fan base," explains Schwab. Paul has proven "that he can help brands achieve their marketing objectives."

Clearly, brands are flocking to digital talent. For the first time last fall, Forbes tracked the top 10 YouTube earners, while its most recent 30 Under 30 list featured more digital influencers than ever before. Talent agencies including CAA have bolstered their digital-talent divisions. And media company Fullscreen and WPP's GroupM just introduced a new influencer-marketing unit to match personalities like Helbig and Viner Nash Grier with major brands.

"Marketers want talent that doesn't feel too polished or too Hollywoodized," explains Adrian Sexton, interim president and COO of Endemol Beyond USA, who helped launch beauty guru Michelle Phan's new Icon digital network. "An A-list movie star would look like a fish out of water on YouTube, and brands wouldn't see the engagement they want."

It goes without saying that it's also cheaper to hire Internet talent than a movie star. Paul has gone from small thousand-dollar payouts to six-figure deals. Levin says the goal is to go deeper with a few brands rather than spreading Paul too thin among scores of advertisers.

One of his higher-profile marketing partnerships has been with Hanes, the underwear brand that hired Paul in mid-2014 for a social campaign to promote its stay-cool X-Temp line. For the brand, Paul attended several well-trafficked summer events, where he churned out digital shorts based on dares from his fans. One of the most popular videos has him dressed as a matador at New Orleans' version of the running of the bulls—which features roller-derby girls rather than livestock—as he shouts "Olé!" and fends off skaters. A twist ending has a huge trash can smacking him in the face.

The response knocked the socks off Hanes executives. The campaign earned 3.8 million impressions on Twitter (a record-breaker at the time), 750,000 Facebook views and nearly 38 million Vine loops (the platform's metric for views), well above the norm for such material, notes Hanes chief branding officer Sidney Falken. "We kept checking the numbers because none of us expected to see that level of engagement," says Falken, who raves about Paul's talent. "He was so creative and inventive. He was a perfect thematic fit, and he delivered on the message in such a fun way."

Dunkin' Donuts had a similarly positive experience after it asked Paul to help boost the profile of its loyalty program and mobile app. (Paul's face is emblazoned on a gift card.) "We immediately saw the power of his brand," says Nick Dunham, the brand's director of media. One of Paul's Vines for Dunkin' snagged 4 million loops. "He kept everything in his tone of voice but married it perfectly with our brand," says Dunham.

Of course, Paul's team touts his digital stats at every turn—yet no one is more up on his impressive data than Paul himself. He mentions that he helped increase ratings for Law & Order: SVU by 20 percent among adults 18-34 when he played a cyber-villain on the NBC series, and that in November he helped spur 25,000 Dunkin' Donuts gift card purchases, 32 percent of the total for the month. Paul carefully tracks his Vine ranking (currently No. 7 in the world) and crows like a proud papa that his beloved pet, Maverick the Parrot, has amassed 103,000 Instagram followers.

Whatever happens in Hollywood, Paul says he will never turn his back on social media—even as he understands its limitations. "Social media has a lifespan; I'm aware of that," he says, stressing that he does not aspire to be a 40-year-old Vine star. "But I started from nothing and built this fan base and they'll follow me to the ends of the Earth. They know we're in this journey together."

This story first appeared in the Jan. 25 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Last April, Nike launched "Better for It," its largest and most integrated women's campaign to date. It was mostly traditional in its format—commercials, print ads, digital, etc.—if not in its message, which refreshingly acknowledged the average athlete's insecurities and other obstacles on her way to self-improvement and empowerment through sport and fitness.

Now, for 2016, the brand is putting that more modern message in a more modern format, rolling out an eight-episode scripted YouTube series—a first for Nike—that follows two sisters who become involved in an unusual competition with each other, with fitness (and Nike products and services) at the center of it. 

The series, Margot vs. Lily—a collaboration between Wieden + Kennedy and the makers of the indie film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl—premieres Thursday night with a screening in New York, and hits YouTube on Monday with the first episode. It stars young actresses Samantha Marie Ware and Brigette Lundy-Paine as adopted sisters—Ware is black, Lundy-Paine is white—who couldn't be more different.



Lily, who lives in Manhattan, is a budding YouTube workout star. Margot, who lives in Brooklyn, is a slacker who has recently lost her social media job at an accounting software company. But in some ways, each wants to be like the other. Lily, despite her growing audience of fans, has no real friends, and envies Margot's social life (if not what seems to be a mild drinking problem). Margot has plenty of friends but doesn't exercise and (grudgingly) envies Lily's discipline and healthy living.

So, they hatch a plan: Margot starts her own (unconventional) online workout show, and they begin to keep score: Can Lily add friends or can Margot add followers the quickest? 

Adweek previewed the first four episodes this week, and as branded content series go, Margot vs. Lily is sure-footed and entertaining. The premise is fun, the actresses are perfect for the roles, and the plot—while cartoony at times—will ring true to the experiences of young single women, particularly those living in major cities. 

It also goes fairly light on the Nike branding. There is plenty of Nike merch on display, from sneakers to workout gear, and also glimpses of Nike digital products in action, like the Nike+ Training Club app (which Margot uses, with somewhat disastrous results, in one of her first workouts). But for the most part the integrations are seamless. 

That's not to say the project isn't pointedly commercial. The episodes point to nike.com/betterforit, which will feature, among other content, vlogs highlighting specific Nike+ workouts seen in the show. The goal is to get women everywhere to ignite their own "Better for It" journeys, using Nike products and services—continuing the brand's ongoing evolution from inspiring athletes to improve to enabling them to do so through a digital ecosystem of engagement, building a worldwide community of users in the process.



The project also uses indie Hollywood talent. Jesse Andrews and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon were co-creators—Andrews wrote the novel Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and Gomez-Rejon directed the film version, which won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The director of Margot vs. Lily is Tricia Brock, whose credits include Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, 30 Rock, Girls, Mozart in the Jungle, Orange Is the New Black and Silicon Valley.

Adweek spoke to Kerri Hoyt-Pack, vp of Nike Women's brand marketing globally, this week about Margot vs. Lily, which she said, while a first for Nike, is a natural evolution for the brand—particularly in talking to the everyday female athlete. 

"We wanted to surprise and inspire her through story, and we knew that longer form would give us something where we could get a little richer in bringing the story to life," she said. "It's also a format that clearly women around the world today value. Connecting to this longer-form original programming just made sense for where she is." 

The heart of the "Better for It" campaign is relatability, Hoyt-Pack said, which means being honest about the realities of embarking on a personal journey through sport and fitness—realities that can include insecurity and self-doubt. Thus, the likable but flawed characters in Margot vs. Lily speak to a universal experience among young women today. 

"It's about identity," she said. "There's a transformation that happens through learning about yourself. Women certainly have that connection to sport, but frankly anyone can have it. It's about strength and power and confidence, and I think you see that in both characters. But it's also about vulnerability and uncertainty. … As a brand, that's something we're really proud to showcase, to invite our consumer into that experience, to be relatable. But it's also just an expectation of this generation today. It's a deeper, richer meaning that obviously resonated really well with [last year's "Better for It" ads], and it's something we've just put more depth in here."



As a mother of teenage daughters herself, Hoyt-Pack said she knew Margot vs. Lily had to feel authentic if it was going to connect with its target. 

"They know if it's true, if it's right, if it's interesting," she said. "We wanted to be sure that we cast women who were relatable, who could fit the character but also have the range of emotion to really go through a transformation. We think they did a fantastic job." 

What kind of metrics will Nike be tracking to gauge the series' success? Yes, it's about Nike+ membership numbers, as well as commerce metrics, Hoyt-Pack said. But it's also about engagement first, which leads to success in those other areas. 

"We're past the days of impressions and reach," she said. "For us it's about connection, and the quality of connection. It's about how the conversation is shaped. We couldn't have been happier about how we came out of the gate last spring and summer with this. So, for us, the true measure is that response, and how this unites a community of athletes in a deeper and better way around the world."

Nike descibes "Better for It," which launched in April 2015, as a global effort to get women to push themselves to see how far they can go, whether it's running a personal best in their next marathon or running an extra block on a weekend job.

The company has said it expects its Nike Women business to reach $11 billion in revenue by the end of 2020, compared to $5.7 billion in 2015. 



CREDITS

Client: Nike
Project: "Margot vs. Lily"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff
Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte, Ryan O'Rourke
Interactive Director: Dan Viens
Creative: Patty Orlando, Heather Ryder, Darcie Burrell
Executive Integrated Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Agency Senior Producer: Shelley Eisner
Interactive Producer: Jenna Simon
Art Producer: Amy Berriochoa
Studio Managers: Simone Takasaki, Alicia Kuna
Studio Designers: Rehanah Spence, Deb Lee
Retouching: Saskia Thomson
Camera/Photographer: Amanda Jasnowski
Motion Producer: Sarah Gamazo
Motion Designers: Adam Sirkin, Jeff Ackley, Oliver Rokoff
Group Strategy Director: Andy Lindblade
Brand Strategy Director: Tom Suharto
Strategic Planner: Irina Tone
Digital Strategy: Jake Sperla
Global Media Director: Danny Sheniak
Associate Media Director: Emily Dalton
Media Supervisor: Emily Graham
Business Affairs: Anna Beth Nagel
Talent Payment Manager: Tara Allender
Project Manager: Shannon Hutchinson
Traffic Manager: Lily Darby
Copyediting: Rachel Miller
Global Account Director: Karrelle Dixon
Account Supervisor: Marisa Weber
Account Executive: Jessica Lo

Company: RSA Films
Director: Tricia Brock
President, Executive Producer: Jules Daly
Executive Producer: Jen Dennis
Executive Producer, Co-creator: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Co-creator: Jesse Andrews
Line Producer: Josh Porter
Production Supervisor: Mark Elliot
Production Designer: Peter Zumba
Director of Photography: Matt Hupfel
Wardrobe Designer: Kasia Walicka-Maimone
Wardrobe Assistant: Jessica Albertson

Company: Jump LA
Editor: David Trachtenberg
Assistant Editor: Eddie Mikasa
Post Executive Producer: Betsy Beale

Company: Jump LA
Flame Artist: Wes Waldron
Titles, Graphics: Nathan O. March
Titles, Graphics: Edward Bursch

Composer: Nico Muhly
Music Editor: Suzana Peric
Music, Sound Design Executive Producer: Zoe Knight

Company: Eleven
Mixer: Jeff Payne
Mixer: Benn Freer

The new Air Jordan XXX sneakers on Russell Westbrook's feet might actually be spaceships, a new commercial suggests—so everyone should probably get out of his way. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder point guard stars in the ad for Nike's subsidiary Jordan Brand, along with a young hype man who delivers a searing introduction as Westbrook walks, in slow motion, onto the court. 

Titled "Make Space," the minute-plus ad, created by Wieden + Kennedy New York, is aimed squarely at basketball fans and packed with game slang praising Westbrook's skill at getting buckets (points), boards (rebounds) and dimes (assists). It even coins a few of its own honorifics, dubbing the NBA player "WestWolf," "The Human TurboButton" and "The New Big Bang." 



The writing is heavy with brio, and the kid's delivery is spectacular. His best line by far declares that Westbrook "ain't had a triple-double since—let me check my watch real quick—yesterday." It's a nod to the player's habit of scoring double-digit stats in three categories, and has the advantage of not being terribly far from the truth.

W+K describes the character as a personification of Westbrook's inner monologue while pumping himself up for a game—"brash, confident and a little unhinged," according to the agency. The miniature imaginary Westbrook puts it a little differently as the ad nears its end, saying of the regular-sized real Westbrook, "He's about to take off." Then the man himself finally speaks ... to offer viewers "a window seat." 

The tagline flashes across the screen—"The Next Frontier of Flight"—while jet engines squeal. After the screen fades to black, a giant shoe powers through outer space. Maybe it's a subtle hint that Westbrook will play a part in a certain upcoming sequel to a Looney Tunes movie about interstellar basketball, starring the Jordan brand's namesake.

Either way, nobody can knock Westbrook—or the marketer—for being too humble.

CREDITS

Client: Jordan Brand

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York
Executive Creative Directors: Karl Lieberman & Colleen DeCourcy
Creative Directors: Caleb Jensen & Jimm Lasser
Creatives: Blair Warren & Pepe Hernandez
Senior Producer: Orlee Tatarka
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Account Team: Jordan Muse, Jonathan Chu, Liz Lindberg

Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Mark Romanek
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Director of Photography: Rob Hardy

Editorial Company: Spotwelders
Editor: Robert Duffy
Assistant Editor: Sophie Kornberg
Post Producer: Amanda Slamin
Post Executive Producer

VFX Company: Method Studios
Executive Producer: Angela Lupo
Senior Producer: Julia Newland
Lead Flame Artist/Creative Director: Randie Swanberg

Music & Sound Design
Song: Blockbuster Night Part 1
Artist: Run The Jewels
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich
Music Supervisor: Maxwell Gosling/Little Ears & Andrew Kahn/GEMS

Mix Company: Sonic Union
Mixer: Steve Rosen

While many advertisers were shelling out millions of dollars for TV slots on the Super Bowl broadcast last Sunday, Nike was on the ground in San Francisco getting much more up close and personal with some of its biggest fans.

The sports marketer, with help from R/GA, sent three Nike-branded luxury sports cars into the streets and got several NFL stars—including Rookie of the Year Todd Gurley and Pro Bowlers Latavius Murray and Chris Ivory—to surprise Nike+ members with epic product drops.



How epic? How about a signed pair of Vapor Untouchable 2 cleats in a golden box? (They are Nike's lightest and most adaptive football cleats to date.) And on top of that, how about an exclusive, limited-edition pair of Air Force 1 Precious Metal sneakers?

Check out the video. The reaction on the recipients' faces says it all.

CREDITS
Client: Nike

Agency: R/GA
Creative Director: Ty Johnson
Executive Creative Director: Sammi Needham
Art Director: Roberto Salas
Design Director: Rasmus Wangelin
Creative Director Experience Design: Xavier Gallego
Experience Designer: Gonzalo Fiorina
Experience Designer: Sam Brewton
Strategy Lead: Donny Jensen
Senior Strategist: Jake Lemkowitz
Storyboard Artist: Steven Conaway
Senior Designer: Andy Wong
Copywriter: Anthony Roberts
Producer: Beckley Mason
Senior Producer: Kira Doyle
Associate Producer: Jessica Clinton

Content Studio:
Executive Producer: Guy Helson
Sr. Editor: Kyle Graffam
Editor: Charlie Porter
Motion Graphics: Garett Johnston
Sound Design: Michael Feuser
Color: Shawn King
Business Affairs: Mairead Murray
Erica Jensen, Director, Content Production R/GA

Production Co: Brain Farm
Director: Sinuhe Xavier
Producer: Clint Cowen
DP: Nic Restrepo

Design and fabrication: tomerbengal

Nike, which has been based in the Portland, Ore., area for the last 40 years, just gifted the hipster-chic city with Biketown, a sleek and super-recognizable take on city bikes. 

In a partnership with the City of Portland and its Bureau of Transportation, Nike will serve as the bike share program's sole sponsor. An investment of $10 million will be spread over five years, extending the number of bikes available from an originally planned 600 to 1,000. The brand will also design Biketown stations, bike identity and digital branding.

The bicycles feature the Nike swoosh and are decked out in the burnt orange that's been Nike's official color since 1989. The baskets are also shaped like the brand's shoeboxes. 



"We're proud of our long history of partnership with the City of Portland and believe that the Biketown bike-share program is one more example of how we can work together to help make Portland an even more active, vibrant and innovative community," says Jorge Casimiro, Nike's vice president of global community Impact.

The program adds Portland to the rapidly expanding list of cities that host bike-sharing systems across North America. In terms of branding, the most well-known is New York's Citi Bikes, sponsored by Citi (but arguably way less beautiful ... although to be fair, Portland's variations will likely take way less abuse than their hard-wheeling sisters at the Big Apple). 

It also builds on Portland's reputation as notoriously bike-friendly. Biking comprises about 7 percent of commute trips across the city's 300 miles of bike lanes and paths. In September, it was estimated (PDF) that the bike economy brings $133.7 million to the city per year.

Expect to see Nike's Biketown riders on the streets in July.

Nike will no longer be endorsing Manny Pacquiao. The brand's decision to cut ties with the boxer follows backlash over homophobic remarks he made on Filipino television, saying people in same-sex relationships are "worse than animals." 

"We find Manny Pacquiao's comments abhorrent," the brand said in a statement today. "Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community. We no longer have a relationship with Manny Pacquiao."

Pacquiao, who serves as a member of the Philippine House of Representatives and is running for a seat in the country's senate, made the controversial remarks during an interview that ran in the Philippines on Monday. 

Brands like Foot Locker, Nestlé and Wonderful Pistachios have also worked with the fighter, whose long-awaited bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year was considered by many to be one of the biggest sporting events of all time. Foot Locker and Nestlé did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

As for Wonderful Pistachios, the brand says the last time it worked with Pacquiao was 2015, when it reaired his 2012 "Get Crackin'" spots.

"Wonderful Pistachios is not currently affiliated with Manny Pacquiao nor do his views align with ours," said the brand's spokeswoman, Jennifer George, in a statement. "Wonderful Pistachios stands firmly for diversity and equality, and we proudly support marriage equality and inclusion around the world."  

Pacquiao apologized for his comments in a Facebook post Tuesday.

"I'm sorry for hurting people by comparing homosexuals to animals," Pacquiao said. "Please forgive me for those I've hurt. I still stand on my belief that I'm against same-sex marriage because of what the Bible says, but I'm not condemning LGBT. I love you all with the love of the Lord. God Bless you all, and I'm praying for you."