Wieden & Kennedy's New York office once again topped itself in delivering the industry's freshest ideas -- even for clients already known for raising the creative bar. The agency's work for Delta ranged from laugh-out-loud funny to outright blissful. "The Internetest Safety Video on the Internet" brought everyone and their mom's favorite meme into one spectacular video, while the "Take Off" ad was pure poetry. Voiced by Donald Sutherland, it was shot in one-take, from the perspective of a plane leaving the runway and turned an otherwise mundane moment into a thing of beauty.
ESPN efforts remained top notch. The agency extended the "It's Not Crazy, It's Sports" campaign into a fulll-blown short film series. Directed by Errol Morris, the films aired on ESPN and on Grantland.com, during the online publication's week celebrating the director's career.
Also for ESPN, W&K riffed off the sharks that danced alongside Katie Perry during the Super Bowl to bring some (close to) real time fun to the antics of ESPN staffers at the office. The agency also added a new dimension to the laughs with spots starring unlikely spokesdudes from other types of advertising, including the shampoo commercial guy, the neighborhood chain restaurant patron and the allergy medicine ad actor.
Other innovative ideas included The Gap's "Spring Is Weird" love story, which unfolded over a series of Instagram films and more Southern Comfort craziness, this time, starring Danny McBride in a bizarre videogame-style music video.
The shop saw the departure of ECDs Jaime Robinson and Dave Kolbusz (who moved on to become CCO at Droga5 London), but it quickly welcomed W&K Portland vet Karl Lieberman as its new ECD to keep the creative momentum going in 2016.