M ss ng p eces has a penchant for doing what’s never been done before

Last fall, a block behind the Las Vegas Strip, a towering multipurpose venue that had been under construction for years finally opened its doors to a closely watching public: The Sphere, a one-of-a-kind globular arena featuring wraparound screens on its interior and exterior surfaces. While the impressive structure has since become a favorite of über-famous musicians on the inside and advertisers looking for a dazzling (if pricey) out-of-home opportunity on the outside, prior to its launch, The Sphere's display capabilities at first presented an unprecedented technical challenge. A display of this type on this enormous scale had simply never been seen before, and few creative studios were likely up to the task of pioneering its usage. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here But m ss ng p eces was. Two years before the venue's debut, the Brooklyn-based production company, led by executive creative director Mike Woods, set to work plotting “Postcard from Earth,” a 4-D epic by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky that served as one of The Sphere’s two launch attractions, alongside U2’s five-month “Achtung Baby Live” residency. Working between the real deal in Las Vegas and a purpose-built “practice Sphere” in Burbank, California, the m ss ng p eces team had to meticulously craft the film to get the most out of the host venue’s 160,000-square-foot screen, advanced Holoplot audio system and simulated wind, smells and other physical effects. In the course of exploring uncharted audiovisual territory, the company was tasked with not only perfecting “Postcard from Earth,” but laying out a detailed road map of the hows, whats and whys for creators to leverage in all future Sphere projects. “This is a creative cocktail like nothing ever seen, so it demanded a launch like nothing ever seen,” Woods said of the Sphere effort, calling it a “landmark moment in culture and entertainment.” But even though it was a years-long undertaking for the 23-person production company—one that sometimes required them to work on location through the night, according to Ralph Winter, Sphere Entertainment’s head of creative—m ss ng p eces still had the bandwidth to develop a number of other top-tier ad campaigns last year. Ad Age A-List and Creativity Gala Buy your ticket to the in-person event Click here For Coca-Cola, director Josh Nussbaum worked with agency Cartwright to build out the soda giant’s “Billboard to Table” activation in New York City. It involved tapping chef and restaurateur Sohla El-Waylly to design a menu for a community meal event, which was then promoted via a massive billboard toted all around the borough of Queens—only for the billboard itself to transform into a massive 300-seat table when the time came to chow down. In total, the effort garnered 227 million media impressions for Coke. M ss ng p eces also teamed up with Nicolas Heller (better known on social media as New York Nico) for a couple of different campaigns. In one, he was seen in a video drinking a beer through a hot dog straw at a Yankees game in promotion for Oscar Mayer; in another, done with Gut Los Angeles, Heller and food critic Lil Mo Mozzarella hit the streets of the Big Apple in a custom “Vans van” to give out pairs of the brand’s new MTE-3 shoe. Last year, the production company’s alignment with Tribeca Studios—whose parent, Tribeca Enterprises, acquired m ss ng p eces a few years ago—reached new heights as well, including the launch of a campaign for software company ServiceNow called “One Good Reason.” A documentary-style film timed to last June’s World Refugee Day, the work highlights a platform the company created for Welcome.US, which connects American sponsors with families looking to flee war-torn areas of the world and resettle here. Other joint ventures between Tribeca Studios and m ss ng p eces included the creation of at least four Oscar-qualifying short films in 2023 and the launch of the Future Gold Filmmaker Fellowship, offered with support from Netflix and AAPI nonprofit Gold House. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Agency A-List winners here

M ss ng p eces has a penchant for doing what’s never been done before

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