Hasta La Creative!

Sid Lee promoted Will Travis, who has served as senior partner and CEO of its New York and Los Angeles offices for the past four years, as U.S. executive chairman and global head growth officer, The Drum reports. In the role, Travis will be tasked with formulating the agency’s expansion strategy while collaborating with other members of kyu, the “strategic operating unit” of Japan’s Hakuhodo DY Holdings, which purchased Sid Lee last July. 

“The expansion that we have requires somebody to oversee at the high level internationally, because the brands are more international. It’s a good role for me to be able to help elevate our larger global client base,” Travis told The Drum, adding the agency is looking at Seoul, South Korea and Shanghai, China as possible locations for expansions into the Asian market. 

Before joining Sid Lee in 2012 following a sabbatical, Travis spent nearly a year and a half as CEO of Dentsu America, leading the agency whose accounts included Toyota, Canon and Philips. Before that he spent over a year and a half in a senior vice president position with the agency, leading all new business and marketing activities in New York and San Francisco. Before joining Dentsu he spent over a decade with ATTIK, serving as president. 

Travis’ appointment follows Sid Lee’s announcement last week that it would close its Amsterdam office to consolidate its European operations at Sid Lee Paris. At the time we posted that story, agency reps told us they hadn’t determined what to do with the employees of that office. Multiple sources now claim that they’ve all lost their jobs.

The Sid Lee Collective, an agency incubator for Sid Lee’s non-commercial creative projects, took a few choice Donald Trump quotes and transformed them into an unofficial Cards Against Humanity expansion pack—Trump Against Humanity: A Party Game About a Horrible Person.

Seriously. You couldn’t make this shit up, and neither did they. 

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Sid Lee’s Amsterdam and New York offices teamed up on a new campaign for Absolut, including a 30-second broadcast spot and online ad featuring new music by electronic duo Empire of the Sun.

The 30s-econd anthem ad, which launches today, collects footage from “Absolut Nights” events last year in cities such as New York, Berlin, Sao Paolo and Johannesburg. Directed by Melina Matsoukas, the nightlife footage is paired to a fairly run of the mill anthem voicover saying, “Every night we’re searching for something…something different…something unforgettable.” The spot sees Sid Lee targeting a millenial crowd for the brand (some may say too transparently), but ultimately comes across as forgettable. Absolut’s online “short film,” meanwhile is essentially a branded music video for Empire of the Sun’s new track (following a brief narrative intro tying it to campaign themes). More memorable is the brand’s limited edition Absolut Spark bottle, a clever gimmick which “gives consumers the ability to shine a new light on their nightlife rituals for up to eight hours” via pressing a switch on the bottom of the bottle turning on a light.

“At Absolut, we believe in a world where there’s no such thing as a ‘standard’ night out,” Joao Rozario, vice president of marketing at Absolut, told Adweek. “By infusing the unexpected into the ordinary, ‘Absolut Nights’ aims to inspire nightlife lovers to use the night as their canvas to explore what the future of nightlife looks like.”

Credits:

Client: Absolut Vodka, Pernod Ricard USA
Agency: Sid Lee Amsterdam & Sid Lee New York
Managing Partner: Eric Alper
Executive Creative Director: Daniel Chandler & James Yeats-Smith
Creative Team: Maclean Jackson, Roeben Beddeleem, Eoin Mclaughlin & Thomas Glover
Group Account Director: Emily Creek
Account Director: Amy Manganiello
Production Management Director: Melanie Bruneau and Dave Isaac
Head of Strategy: Simon Wassef
Strategy Director: Nicola Davies
Editor: Thomas Schenk
Director:  Melina Matsoukas
Production Team: Jimmy Lee & Sid Lee Entertainment
Production Partners: Prettybird, Vice, O’mage, StudioNOW
Public Relations: Weber Shandwick

But wait, there’s more!

W+K Portland and Ogilvy & Mather Paris may have been the principle agencies involved in celebrating the 100th anniversary of Coca-Cola’s iconic bottle, but they weren’t alone. McCann Madrid and Sid Lee Canada got in on the action, too, crafting their own salutes to the ubiquitous bottle.

In McCann Madrid’s “Kiss Happiness” (featured above), the agency claims “It all started in 1915 with one refreshing kiss” before showing an early 20th century American enjoying a Coca-Cola. From here, the spot traces American history alongside the bottle, from a Vietnam War protest in the sixties, to New York in the eighties, all the way to the present day. “It’s been a long time since the first kiss,” the ad concludes, “But it lasts forever.” It’s a nice approach to celebrating the brand’s long history, doing more than other spots in the campaign to emphasize the brand’s ubiquity throughout the changing decades.

Sid Lee’s “Taste” takes a more direct approach. The 30-second spot features a close-up of the bottle and a slow pour into an ice-filled glass. It manages to work in a quick surprise, however, before the “Irresistible for over 100 years” line ending the spot.

Coca-Cola’s celebration doesn’t end with the video ads, however. The spots will be supported by a “Kissed by” OOH and print campaign featuring historic celebrities who were fans of the brand, an interactive app and a Kiss The Past Hello book. There’s also a “The Coca-Cola Bottle: An American Icon at 100? exhibit at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and another traveling exhibit entitled “The Coca-Cola Bottle: Inspiring Pop Culture for 100 Years.” Since the actual anniversary of the bottle is on November 16th, expect plenty more from the brand leading up to that date.

The New York office of Sid Lee announced today the addition of four creatives to its full-time team, effective immediately: Design Director Verena Michelitsch, Co-Creative Director Cecilia Azcarate, Senior Creative Andre Gidoin and Copywriter Dana Tiel.

Michelitsch arrives from boutique design agency RoAndCo, where she has served as a senior designer since January of 2013. She established herself as a founding member of Graz, Austria-based design studio En Garde before moving back to New York in 2011 to pursue freelance work for Sagmeister & Walsh and Pentagram Design, where she was responsible for “handling a variety of branding, illustration and art direction projects over the years.”

Azcarate arrives from M&C Saatchi, where she served as an associate creative director. Her work has been recognized with a variety of awards, including Webby Awards, D&AD, Eurobest and Epica. She has also held art director positions with Johannes Leonardo in New York, and Happiness Brussels and Anouk & Company in Belgium.

Gidoin joins Sid Lee from Leo Burnett New York, where he arrived in early 2013 as a senior art director. Prior to that he spent around four years serving as an interactive art director for Leo Burnett in Milan. A 2009 graduate of Oslo’s Westerdals School of Communication, Gidoin has been named to one of the top 16 young creatives in the world by Young Guns for two consecutive years.

Tiel joins Sid Lee from Grey New York, where she has served as a copywriter since arriving in 2012. She previously served as a copywriter at SapientNitro. A 2011 graduate of New York’s School of Visual Arts, she has earned a Cannes Young Lion Award, in addition to multiple One Show awards, a Clio, an international Andy and an ADC Young Gun Award.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Sid Lee has announced the promotions of Tom Koukodimos and Jeffrey DaSilva to the positions of executive creative directors, jointly taking creative leadership of the agency’s Toronto office. Koukodimos and DaSilva have served as creative directors at Sid Lee since arriving in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Executive Creative Director Dave Roberts is leaving Sid Lee Toronto after four years, in order to return to Sid Lee Montreal for a new global assignment.

Tom and Jeffrey were behind such recent work as the “We the North” campaign for the Toronto Raptors and “It’s a Bloody Big Deal” for Toronto FC. In their new positions, the pair will oversee creative leadership on all Toronto accounts, including Coca Cola Canada, Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, Post Media, Google Canada, Marks, Sport Chek, PC Financial and TJX Canada.

Prior to joining Sid Lee, Tom was a creative director at Cossette, working on McDonald’s. Jeffrey worked on Google at Mullen in Boston before returning to Canada to join Sid Lee in 2013. (more…)

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Just in time for the playoffs, Sid Lee has launched a new spot for the Toronto Raptors which the Starks could totally get behind (there’s even a wolf). The new spot stokes fans’ anticipation of the upcoming games and northern pride with the tagline, “#WeTheNorth.”

The 60-second, Stark-approved spot starts with the line “We the north: In many ways we’re in a league of our own; one step removed; just beyond the boundaries…” and uses the Raptors’ distance from other NBA teams as a point of pride, a rallying call. “If that makes us outsiders, we’re in,” concludes the voiceover before a “Let’s go Raptors” chant emerges from the background. “#WeTheNorth,” which just launched yesterday, is part of a larger rebranding effort for the Raptors. If fans weren’t already excited for the Raptors’ bid in the NBA playoffs (starting tomorrow, against the Nets), the well-produced spot, which mixes game footage with stylized shots of a snowy Canada, should do its part to psyche them up. Credits after the jump.  continued…

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Toronto FC has partnered with Sid Lee Toronto for a campaign highlighting their signing of star English striker Jermain Defoe (formerly of English Premier League’s Totenham Hotspur).

Working under the assumption that “soccer isn’t seen as big news in North America until it has become ‘footie news’ across the pond,” Sid Lee crafted a spot documenting the perceived shocked reaction to the news in England. “Our idea for the campaign came pretty early on – let’s elevate the magnitude of Jermain Defoe swapping Tottenham for TFC by having a bit of fun with how people might react to the news in Great Britain,” explains Jeffery DaSilva, creative director at Sid Lee.

Set in the London boroughs where Defoe has been front page news since the beginning of his career, the 30-second spot manages to depict shocked Londoners’ reactions in a clever and funny way (to say anything more would give too much away).  The “It’s a Bloody Big Deal” tagline acts as the perfect ending to the spot, emphasizing the importance of the deal and the connection to how the news is perceived in England.

The integrated campaign launched earlier this week with :10 and :15 second teaser spots appearing in high rotation on major sports networks; the full 30 second spot (featured above) debuts today. In addition to television ads, the campaign includes “a variety of print, online, and OOH executions that will blanket the city for the next five weeks.” Each of the campaign elements feature “a specially commissioned illustration” of Defoe outfitted in his new Toronto FC uniform.

Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

From Sid Lee NY comes this spot for Dewar’s Whiskey, featuring a hulk of a man who greatly resembles U.K. murderer and mass criminal Charles Bronson, even sporting Bronson’s trademark mustache. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that director Isaiah Seret seems to borrow a lot of filming technique for this ad from the 2008 biopic Bronson, which starred actor Tom Hardy as the deranged but lovable psychopath.

Of course, it’s hard to advertise your brand of scotch as the choice of crazy violent people, so Sid Lee aims to give their “Drinking Man” character an incongruous tender side. Nothing drives the ladies crazy like a man who routinely pets doves between beating people to death in bare-knuckle boxing matches. While the spot goes very out of its way to portray the character’s tender side, it also discredits his believability. What, the man I’m supposed to admire chases people on bicycles and has a peace tattoo on his chest? It’s this sort of hypocritical hyperbole that made the  peace sign/”Born to kill” helmet-wearing protagonist of Full Metal Jacket a walking punchline.

As the sexy lady at the end argues, it’s “the most interesting blends that make for the strongest character.” So remember, if you want to appeal to your local tavern’s supermodel clientele, say one thing but do the other. Credits after the jump.

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Adidas and Sid Lee are framing the new “Unite All Originals” as Run DMC vs. DJ A-Trak, but the versus bit comes on too strong. The campaign is much more affable than combative, think of it as a buddy cop combo where there are three buddies instead of two and the buddies like to wear black felt hats.

Run DMC’s famed history with Adidas dates back to the 1980s, and they’ve been lending their benign street cred to the three stripes ever since. A-Trak may not be comparable as a household name, but he’s a worthy spokesman for the next generation, as you can see in some coverage from early March. For this new campaign, the two acts are combining for a fan-controlled music video that will be dictated user voice commands. A true embodiment of “My Adidas.”

Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.