Last month, Goodby Silverstein & Partners officially hired the creative duo of Matt Edwards and Wes Phelan to lead its BMW business. They had previously led Adidas Originals for Johannes Leonardo before leaving that agency last summer to launch MWWM.co and later heading to San Francisco.
Of course, GS&P has already created some work for the account, which it won nearly a year ago. There was the January “certified” campaign that cleverly repurposed Forsman & Bodenfors spots with new voiceovers.
The new team’s first official campaign went live last week, and it focuses on Italian racing legend Alex Zanardi, who has been unable to move without a wheelchair since losing both his legs in a crash at 2001’s American Memorial event in Germany.
Holy crap, that crash footage was brutal. To state the obvious, Zanardi is extremely fortunate to be alive today.
The ad, which is running on BMW’s social and digital channels, obviously positions the BMW line as a fusion of man and machine by focusing on his participation in last month’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.
As impressive as the work of BMW’s engineers may be, we’re stuck asking ourselves, can you imagine returning to a race track after that?
CREDITS
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Client: BMW of North America
Campaign: “Zanardi Human Meets Machine”
Client BMW of North America
VP of Marketing: Trudy Hardy
Brand Management and Communications: Wolfgang Gross
Motorsports Manager: Victor Leleu
Co-Chairman: Rich Silverstein
Co-Chairman: Jeff Goodby
Chief Creative Officer: Margaret Johnson
Creative Director: Matt Edwards
Creative Director: Wes Phelan
Junior Copywriter: John Dillon
Director of Production: Tod Puckett
Executive Producer: Benton Roman
Producer: Lily Durston
Group Account Director: Theo Abel
Account Director: Britta Savik
Senior Brand Strategist: Mackenzie Beer
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Chrissy Shearer
Editorial Company: Elevel
Director: Michael Damiani
Post Producer: Jennifer DeLeon
Editor: Graham Wilcox
Assistant Editor: Liz Norris
Audio Engineer: Nic Dematteo
Telecine
Company name: Company 3
Color Executive Producer: Ashley McKim
Color Producer: Alexandra Lubrano
Colorist: Tom Poole
VFX/Finishing
Company name: Company 3
Color Executive Producer: Ashley McKim
Color Producer: Alexandra Lubrano
Colorist: Tom Poole
Mix
Company name: elevel
Executive Producer: Luke Dillon
Producer: Lily Durston
Mixer: Nic Dematteo
End Treatment / Graphics: Elevel
Director: Michael Damiani
Post Producer: Jennifer DeLeon
Creative Director: Mike Landry
Motion Artist: Zach Seidner