welcome to optimism

Talking Creativity and Risk in the Latest Issue of shots

Our ECDs Tony Davidson and Iain Tait, along with Creative Director Scott Dungate, are featured in this month's issue of shots as part of a round-up of shots Awards winners from 2015. 

The 'Agency of the Year' Q&A with Tony and Iain features the two talking about London as one of the world's creative capitals, attracting fresh talent to advertising, and creating work described as "unformulaic." An excerpt:

W+K's shortlisted work covers quite a broad range — interactive, social, and film — is that mix something the agency specifically aims for?

Tait — I don't think it's a conscious thing. We just look for interesting, appropriate and creatively exciting ways to solve problems for our clients. I think the only type of work we actively discourage is the fakey stuff that's specifically aimed at awards shows.

Davidson — We have a 'Wiedenism' in our lobby that says 'Walk in Stupid.' This points to the fact that whatever business problem walks into the building, there's no set way of solving it. In today's world there are so many options as to how you might solve that problem that it is important you and your clients keep an open mind and don't immediately jump to conclusions about anything, especially media.  


Meanwhile, Scott talked about working on shots' Digital Campaign of the Year: Honda, The Other Side. Scott, on taking creative risks:

Can you tell when you've had a great idea and all the pieces are falling into place? 

I think when you have an idea that contains an element of risk you potentially have something that could be great. Risk is something agencies and clients instinctively try to avoid or play down, but we really should be looking at our work and making sure we have some risk baked in. It should be a key and necessary ingredient. If you don't, then you're probably playing it too safe and not pushing hard enough. With The Other Side, nobody really knew if the storytelling would hold together until we saw the first edits, in the prototype, on set. That was the risk we, and the client, took.

The full features are in the July Cannes Special issue of shot.

Turning Tweets Into Action

#ThoughtsAndPrayers is a project created by a group of W+Kers from W+K Portland in light of the recent shootings in Orlando, Florida.

It is a response to the tragedy and the slew of Tweets from pro-gun lawmakers offering their "Thoughts and Prayers" to victims and their families. Via a Crowdrise page, the fundraising project calls attention to the lawmakers' "hollow" Tweets, and the power of these same individuals to do something real and meaningful to prevent gun violence in America.

Visit www.crowdrise.com/thoughtsandprayers to learn more.

 

10 Years of Millidge and Doig for Orange Romania

This month we celebrate 10 years of Millidge and Doig, the beloved characters created for Orange PrePay in Romania.

Developed alongside Nexus Productions, Millidge and Doig were named after their original animators, Reece Millidge and Stuart Doig. Early designs of the loveable duo were based on misshapen potatoes with a bean bag-like consistency, eventually leading to the now-familiar characters. Sharing one mouth between them, they worked together to communicate, the mouth bouncing off one and onto the other.

Millidge and Doig weren’t about technology, and they didn’t harp on about price. They represented what mattered beyond these things: the friendship and human interaction our mobiles are the gateway to. They stood for the means to talk with, text, email, share news and update others. Together, they illustrated how Orange’s service is ultimately about something bigger: coming together.

In a category which focuses almost solely on deals and prices, this celebration of friendship has continued to engage the hearts of Romanian people — so much so that Romania campaigned for M&D to be brought out of a (short-lived) retirement back in 2012.


Over the years our work has grown from traditional TV and key visuals to multi-channel digital campaigns. “Dance with Millidge and Doig” was a runaway success, becoming the most viewed ad on YouTube Romania in 2014. That’s in addition to our 2015 piano game being played over 900,000 times.

Our ten year anniversary campaign celebrates Millidge and Doig’s lasting friendship and is based on a birthday party. The TVC is accompanied by an online game and competitions rolling out across the month, aiming to get Romanians to join the celebration, too.

By embracing our memorable characters and shifting our focus to the essence of how pre-paid deals benefit people, we’ve found a creative anchor that helps us stand firm in an ever-evolving communications landscape. It’s part of what’s kept the Orange brand number one in Romania.

Orange had this to say about Millidge and Doig on their 10 year anniversary: "Our conclusion is that the popularity of [Millidge and Doig] is increasing with every ad, and we are raising the bar higher and higher with every film. Congratulations to the entire team, and keep up the great work you are doing!"

A special thanks as well to our production partner, Nexus, and sound partner, Brains and Hunch.

#PINSTALLATION

On this rainy first day of summer, we’re happy to at least see the stairwells of our offices looking colourful — moreso than usual. The artist PINS has taken over our halls with brightly painted murals and graphic art prints influenced by a “screen printing aesthetic inherited from his streetwear design background.”

Championed by collaborators, including public art projects such as the Save Brixton Arches campaign and the Arts Council, PINS reconceptualises Pop Art, putting a different spin on mass-consumer imagery. We’re pleased with the new eye-candy, to say the least.

Learn more about PINS on www.pinspired.com.

Two weeks ago we walked for St Joseph's. The walk was the culmination of weeks of fundraising for the hospice, including building our Smileless Selfie window display, money staffed raised by taking park in the Hackney Half and bike riding to Paris, donations from family and friends, a £5K top up from the agency, and an internal auction and raffle in the lead up to the walk.

All auction and raffle items were generously donated by local partners; these prizes ranged from lovely pampering treatments to lunches at local restaurants to concert tickets, among many others. The truly impressive giveaway booty helped us raise almost £3K, and we'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that contributed such fabulous prizes.

So, thank you to everyone who donated, listed below. Thanks in part to them, we've raised just over £16k* for St. Joseph's this year, and we look forward to doing more work for the hospice in the future.

The Ace Hotel

Town Hall Hotel

Hoxton Hotel

Nude Espresso

Frame

Japanika

Nosh Detox

Boom Cycle

Lyle's

Blixen

Brooklyn Coffee

Second Home

Universal Music

Kastner and Ovens

Guys and Dolls Parlour

MW Nails

MP Arts

Three

Sony Music

Domino Publishing

Image

Blink Art

 

 

Big in Berlin

A copy of Germany's PAGE magazine recently made its way across our desks, with a sweet mention of our recent work for Maynards Bassetts ("A Tasty Intermission").

In addition to featuring stills from the "Very British" campaign, PAGE had this to say about our series of intermissions (roughly translated from the original German text):

That a lot of grownups really like fruit gummies is well known. It is exactly this audience that this unusual campaign from Wieden+Kennedy London for Maynards Bassetts speaks to. The [creative] brief to a variety of Directors and Animators read: "Create an intermission full of sweet madness which is as colourful as the sweets themselves." [The campaign consists of] 12 completely different spots lasting 20 seconds featuring fitness scenes and shapeless, elastic shoes, and the rituals of a bizarre tribe offering up fruit gummies. All films are available to watch from the production company blinkink.

Danke, PAGE, for featuring the work.

Data is Beautiful

Author and designer David McCandless of Information is Beautiful fame visited our agency this morning as part of our ongoing series on storytelling. Over breakfast and a series of data visualisation graphics, McCandless showed us how sometimes dry, random seeming raw data can open up compelling narratives. For instance, what periods of the year trend toward breakups, according to Facebook status updates, and why? And what happens when you look at the billions of dollars and pounds spent on military force versus GDP? The connections aren't always obvious and don't always correlate directly, but they can reveal interesting stories.

For more on David McCandless and data visualisation, visit www.informationisbeautiful.net. Thanks to David for stopping by today!

Chain Reaction

The Guardian recently revisited the story behind "Cog," the W+K advert which took months of planning, sixty takes and three days to complete — all leading toward a final product that remains a standout of the past 15 years. Our Tony Davidson on "Cog":

“The idea, the PR story, is that you do it for real. That’s as important as the film itself – the fact that Honda, as an engineering company, took these things to pieces, did this thing and spent months in studios. That’s part of the magic of it.”

Go behind-the-scenes by reading the full feature on the Guardian website.

Creative Leaders 50

Creative Review's "Creative Leaders 50" is a new feature which highlights and brings together "individuals who...are leaders in their field, from advertising and design, to the arts, media" and more. Our Iain Tait is among the first crop of selected creative leaders. Together, at live events and discussions with the 49 others chosen by the magazine, he'll share opinions and insights about "how to manage work and create the best environment for creativity to prosper," among other topics relevant to the creative industries.

You can read Iain's profile on the CL 50 website.

Forever Curious: “Imagining Creative Futures”

Much of W+K recently took a half-day out to volunteer for the latest installment of Forever Curious, the agency programme that sees us working with local kids to nurture their creativity. The latest theme, “My Creative Life,” was all about getting kids to reflect on and look forward to an inspired present and future.

We met kids from Newport School and Millfields School at Chats Palace Arts Centre in Hackney Wick for a session of word games and creative collaging. The curious kids were asked to think of words that represented creativity, themselves, and a word to describe their future with the help of our W+K volunteers. They also reflected on where they’d like to live and what they could see themselves doing years from now.

In the end, it was a day of many smiles and laughs for both the kids and volunteers, all powered by the kids’ infectious energy and imaginations.