Campaign Trail is our evaluation of a few of the most effective latest creative efforts from the marketing world. View past columns in the archives here.
Anthony Edwards was a late scratch from last weekend’s NBA All-Star Championship tournament, but basketball fans have been capable of see the Minnesota Timberwolves star on their TVs recently — and not only in games. The 23-year-old talent appeared alongside Hall of Famer and Timberwolves legend Kevin Garnett in a Sprite spot focused on a true-to-life conversation between the 2 stars in which the brand isn’t mentioned and barely appears.
“Lock In” is built on a protracted shot of Edwards and Garnett in a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon because the pair discuss the truth of life in the league — the sport tape, the cash, the practice, the club and beyond. While Sprite isn’t seen in the ad, aside from an unremarked bottle in the cup holder, the brand and its wordmark-less logo ties back to Garnett’s advice: “Keep that very same spark and you will be a’ight.”
The decision to not give attention to the brand was a part of Sprite’s quest to make promoting that feels more like a movie or social content relatively than a industrial, explained A.P. Chaney, senior creative director at Sprite.
“If we intend to make a mark on culture, if we would like these items to be shared and to resonate with our consumers in a possible way, it needs to be authentic,” Chaney said.
“Lock In” is the centerpiece of a social-first series of ad content that features Edwards, who first teamed with Sprite in 2022 for its “New Bottle, Same Sprite” campaign before working with the brand on a refresh of its iconic 1994 “Obey Your Thirst” creative and a seasonal remix of “The Night Before Christmas.”
Since first linking with Sprite, the three-time All-Star has seen his public profile rise as a consequence of his appearances in the Olympics, on a Netflix docu-series and in an Adam Sandler movie (one other thing he has in common with Garnett). He also has a habit of going viral for his brash personality — a characteristic that drove creative for a campaign by one other brand that he reps, Adidas.
“I rarely get jealous of labor,” Chaney said of Adidas’ “Believe That” campaign. “As a basketball fan, as an AE partner and an AE fan, I used to be so jealous of the work, and I used to be like, ‘Who is the agency behind this? They understand Ant. I would like them on the road.’”
That agency was Johannes Leonardo, which was tapped by Sprite to create an entire world around what Edwards faces on and off the court, and the way he shows up for the brand, especially on social, where the trouble included a few teasers and a post ahead of All-Star weekend. The agency’s scripts featured an “OG” character, and considering Edwards’ team (and Chaney’s Minnesota roots), the team knew the OG needed to be KG. On set, the scripts were treated as road maps, not exact blueprints, explained Noah Bramme, associate creative director at Johannes Leonardo.
“Anthony Edwards and Kevin Garnett are just like the funniest people in the world, so us trying to jot down something higher than they’d freestyle up on set can be inconceivable, so we actually gave them lots of creative freedom,” said Bramme. “Props to them for bringing this to life and having a lot fun with it on set, too.”
The fun was limited by rainstorms throughout the shoot, forcing the crew to pivot from using a convertible to an SUV. But the pair of ballers were undeterred: The conversational tone captured in the spots doesn’t feel like ad copy, and it includes loads of slang and a number of four-letter words.
“I give JL lots of credit for pushing us out of our comfort zone and ensuring that these guys really stay authentic to themselves, the creative and the concept that they created,” Chaney explained.
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