Advertising creatives don’t often get a chance to try things outside their traditional lanes. But Doner and Wolfgang spread their wings recently with an extensive, colorful and experimental branding project for the musician Jon Batiste—who, it turns out, has struggled himself with many of the same issues of being pigeonholed by genres and labels while trying to expand into a more holistic approach to music.
The project arrived through Colin Jeffery, chief creative officer of both Stagwell agencies. (Stagwell acquired Wolfgang last fall and housed it in the Doner network.) Jeffery, who has long traveled in music circles and was a driving force behind Kia’s music-centered hamster ads years ago, met Batiste in 2019—and they immediately hit it off.