After a thrilling contest, a film featuring football player Jude Bellingham and England fans during this summer’s Euros has scored for Adidas and its agency Johannes Leonardo. The ad has been voted the winner of the May/June Thinkboxes award for TV creativity.
Set to The Beatles’ Hey Jude, the two-minute film encapsulates the mood swings of the England team’s fans - anxiously watching, then lamenting, before ultimately cheering their players’ success. Former England footballers David Beckham and Frank Lampard also feature, along with famous fans such as Stormzy.
“During such a summer of sport, TV gives the brand a great platform to reach multi-generations and audience groups,” says Steve Marks, Adidas’ senior director, brand communications.
Broadcasts during major sporting events create crucial moments to connect with fans. “The viewing figures available from the broadcast partners show how the nation gathers around the TV to consume the sporting events,” he adds, “ and therefore (TV) becomes a critical platform to bring campaigns to life.”
In addition, Adidas prides itself on its big-tournament football ads being an industry benchmark for great creativity – a standard all involved wanted to live up to.
The starting point for the winning idea was the need for the brand to build athlete association and attribution at times of major tournaments. Adidas-sponsored Jude Bellingham, one of the world’s best athletes, was an ideal choice, Marks says.
Good fortune, however, also had a role to play – not least as the track chosen, Hey Jude, is the song Bellingham was named after. Also, its “take a sad song and make it better” theme was a perfect fit for the desired mood.
“It was one of the rare moments where everything lined up – the Hey Jude lyrics spoke to England’s past pain, (and) Jude had established himself as a legitimate difference maker,” remembers Leo Premutico, founder and chief creative officer at New York-based agency Johannes Leonardo.
“Perhaps most importantly, we were partnering with clients who not only moved mountains to make it happen, but also helped craft it from concept to storyboard to edit, and undoubtedly made it better. “Where an idea comes from is irrelevant if you don’t have clients like that.”
Authenticity was key from the outset.
“We all knew, going into it, that the memories of historical sporting moments were etched deep into our collective psyches very viscerally,” Premutico says. “We couldn’t fake them, otherwise the audience wouldn’t come along on the emotional journey.”
“Once again, we were fortunate to be doing it with clients who took the ambition to the next level for who would feature in the story. It was amazing to see how much momentum was built during production and how many special people wanted to be part of it.”
Choosing British director Greg Hackett was a critical decision.
“We wanted to go with a British director who has actually lived the story of the spot,” says Johannes Leonardo creative director Alfonso Ruiz. “It was clear that Greg Hackett knew where the emotional gravity in this spot lies, and (he) put forward a production plan that just blew us away.”
“Casting the right faces was make or break for such an emotion-driven piece that relied heavily on close ups,” adds fellow creative director at the agency, Laszlo Szloboda. “It was clear this needed to be street-cast and we wanted to work with non-actors to show faces that watch football.”
Recreating decades of specific moments people remember was not without its challenges, however and huge effort also went into ensuring the accuracy of even the tiniest detail.
“It was a whirlwind shoot,” Ruiz reveals, “ and we had a hard deadline due to the start date of the tournament. This was one of the fastest productions we have been a part of; however the energy of the entire operation carried it through.”
In the edit, an important focus was on how best to employ a world-famous song – which runs to eight minutes – into a commercial while still doing it justice.
“How does the song build emotion and how can we best match it with action that pulls the story forward (were key considerations),” says Szloboda. “We had a great editor, Tim Swaby, who got to the core emotion quickly and guided this project beautifully.”
The commercial made its TV debut during live broadcast coverage of the first England game. The day before, it had appeared online to widespread acclaim.
“There were extremely positive comments online, lots of PR and fan chatter. But what was the best part was hearing fans sing Hey Jude during the games, echoing the scenes in our spot,” says Ruiz. “Beyond England fans, it was special to see football fans at large react so positively to the film - a story that, while not theirs, resonated so deeply and emotionally with them.”
The film is “a testament to great team collaboration and an idea that many rallied behind,” Szloboda adds. “And we would be remiss to not shout out our production partners and especially Greg Hackett’s team at Spindle who move mountains to make this happen.”
And their top tip for getting a great idea from script to screen?
“Don’t be intimidated about how crazy or unbelievable something on the page can sound.” The right group of clients and production partners can “make magic happen,” says Ruiz.
Second in the May/June Thinkboxes was "Europe’s Favourites” by BBH London for Paddy Power. “Warden” by VCCP for Tango was third. Also shortlisted were “This is me. This is my space” by T&Pm for E45 and “For humans and other social beings” by Like Minded Individuals for Beavertown.
WINNING AD
Agency: Johannes Leonardo
Creative team: Leo Premutico, chief creative officer; Hunter Hampton, global creative director; Jeph Burton, global creative director; Alfonso Ruiz, creative director; Laszlo Szloboda, creative director; Hannah Lo Bello, associate design director; Karan Kumar, senior designer
Client: Steve Marks, senior director, brand communications
Production company: Spindle
Director: Greg Hackett
The Thinkboxes, in association with Campaign, are the only bi-monthly awards that celebrate the UK’s world-beating TV ad creativity, in all its forms. They are judged by the Thinkbox Academy – advertising and marketing luminaries who have been involved in award-winning creative work for TV.
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Thinkbox is the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, in all its forms. Its shareholders are Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media and UKTV. Thinkbox works with the marketing community with a single ambition: to help advertisers get the best out of today’s TV. 
