Johannes Leonardo’s First Work for Madden Stars Nicki Minaj, Chris Redd and Some Guy Named Will

By Patrick Coffee 

Do you guys play Madden? We don’t either. Not enough free time.

We do, however care about the fact that the EA Sports franchise recently went to New York’s own Johannes Leonardo, which beat out a couple of other big holding company shops. Longtime agency of record Heat (part of the Deloitte family) split with the company in late 2016.

JL’s first ad for the 2019 edition of the game launched this week, and it is epic in the sense that it’s long and features a bunch of people including real rappers, commercial rappers who used to work at GS&P, and this dude named Will.

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Nicki Minaj, Quavo, Lil Dickey and SNL’s Chris Redd tell the story of the unassuming guy who made football video game history.

Whole lotta stuff going on there.

But then the Madden franchise has always gone long, and it feels like an effort to refresh the brand by fitting many famous people on screen while reminding viewers that it’s people like them who really make the big plays.

He’s a celebrity too, of course.

Expect more to come from EA and JL.

CREDITS

CLIENT: ELECTRONIC ARTS
Chief Marketing Officer: Chris Bruzzo
VP, Global Brand Management: Anthony Stevenson
VP, Content and Digital Strategy: Charles Kha
Senior Director, Global Brand Management: Josh Rabenovets
Global Brand Manager: Jennica Pearson
Head of Video Production: Angelo Ferrugia
Director of Content Strategy: Paul Marr
Content Strategy Lead: Stephen Gibbons
Art Director: Josh Kline
Producer: Jeff Aho

AGENCY: JOHANNES LEONARDO
President: Bryan Yasko
Chief Creative Officer: Jan Jacobs
Chief Creative Officer: Leo Premutico
Associate Creative Director: Omid Amidi
Senior Copywriter: Maclean Jackson
Junior Copywriter: Thomas Woods
Junior Art Director: Jacob Mehringer
Design Director: Charles Watlington
Designer: Ash Mendez
Director of Creative Services: Michelle Moscone
Project Manager: Kate Collings
Head of Integrated Production: Dana May
Executive Producer: Brett Fisher
Senior Producer: Antonio Burnett
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Kacey Kelley
Production Assistant: Cary Wolfe Luecke
Head of Account Management: Emily Wilcox
Management Supervisor: Adam Rubin
Account Executive: Kiana Grant
Head of Strategy: Mark Aronson
Head of Communications Strategy: Meg Piro

FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY: CAVIAR
Director: Neal Brennan
Executive Producer: Michael Sagol
Producer: Tova Dann
Director of Photography: Christian Sprenger

EDITORIAL: ARCADE EDIT
Editor (Lead): Paul Martinez
Editor: Ali Mao
Producer: Alexander Leal
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Social Content Editor: Abbey Chaus
Assistant Editors: Andy Trecki, Sam Barden, Joe Petruccio

VISUAL EFFECTS: METHOD STUDIOS
Lead Flame Artist: Jared Pollack
Flame Artist: Mark Woit
Executive Producer: Angela Lupo
Producer; Kristin Engdahl
VFX Coordinators: Tamriko Barda, Kate Fitzpatrick

COLOR: COMPANY 3
Colorist: Tom Poole
Producer: Alexandra Lubrano

MUSIC: HUMAN MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN
Composer: Sloan Alexander
Executive Producer: James Wells

SOUND DESIGN: FORMOSA
Sound Designer: John Bolen
Executive Producer: Lauren Cascio

SOUND MIX: SONIC UNION
Sound Engineer: Steve Rosen
Sound Engineer: Owen Shearer
Scheduling Producer: Pat Sullivan
Studio Director: Justine Cortale

B-UNIT: VENTURA VISUALS
Videographer & Photography: Thomas Kranzle
Photographer: Scott Draper

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