Johnsonville Employees Wrote More Ads for Droga5, and These Ones Go to 11

Johnsonville employees are back on the creative grind this week, lending their commercial-making expertise for the brand's latest wave of "Made the Johnsonville Way" ads. For those unfamiliar with the brand's past work, Johnsonville–with help from Droga5–created a series of ads last year that starred Johnsonville "members" (the brand's name for its employees). The employees also came up with the concepts for the ads. The first new spot stars ad creator and Johnsonville transportation worker Todd and his cover band Ruben and the Receders. In the ad, which debuts Johnsonville's new flame-grilled chicken product, Todd's band reunites for one pretty epic performance involving some mildly risky and terrifying stunts. [kickout id="1"] "This is the biggest product launch the brand has ever had, so it was important that this feel like a big spot," said Scott Bell, executive creative director at Droga5. "Reuniting the greatest cover band in the Sheboygan area for an arena rock show, with lighting by Rush’s stage guy, did the trick for that." A second spot, delivered by Johnsonville production support member Cole, replicates a '70s game show–the kind of TV program Cole would watch frequently as a kid with his grandfather. Contestants in the ad are attempting to guess the price of, you guessed it, Johnsonville sausage, and boy are the guesses pretty high. [kickout id="2"] "The framework of a '70s game show was a really good framework for us to tell our quality story on the smoked sausage that we make," said Jamie Schmelzer, integrated marketing director for Johnsonville. To bring these latest stories to life, Droga5's team took a trip to Sheboygan Falls, Wis., to visit Johnsonville headquarters. In the course of a few days, the team collected over 70 stories from team members, hunting for the best ones that could be turned into new ads. Droga5 used the same strategy for its first iteration of the campaign, but this time the employees came to the table a bit more prepared, especially seeing the success of the past work. The titular star of the "Jeff and His Forest Friends" ad, which rolled out last August, has become somewhat of a company and Sheboygan Falls celebrity. "They just started running Jeff’s commercial again from last year—and it’s been off the air for a few months—the first day it started running again, they started getting email and actual fan mail, people just love him so much," Bell said. With that kind of stardom up for grabs, Johnsonville employees brought their A game this time, with "ideas and scripts written out" and one employee even showing "a fully produced commercial that he made with his daughter," Bell added. CREDITS Client: Johnsonville Campaign: "Made the Johnsonville Way" Title: “Ruben and the Receders,” “Guess the Price of That Food” Agency: Droga5 Creative Chairman: David Droga Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer Executive Creative Director: Scott Bell Associate Creative Directors: Chris Colliton, Kevin Weir Copywriter: Daniel Litzow Art Director: Max Friedman Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale Co-directors, Film Production: Jesse Brihn, Bryan Litman Senior Producer, Film: Rebecca Wilmer Associate Producer, Film: Jamil McGinnis Music Supervisors: Ryan Barkan, Mike Ladman Associate Director, Business Affairs: Librado Sanchez Business Affairs Manager: Whitney Vose Director, Print Services: Rob Lugo Print Producer: Rick Gutierrez Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer Group Strategy Director: Aaron Wiggan Senior Strategist: Marc Iserlis Group Communications Strategy Director: Brian Nguyen Senior Communications Strategist: Kevin Wilkerson Data Strategy Director: Lily Ng Group Account Director: Julia Albu Account Director: Pat Rowley Account Supervisor: Kate Tyler Monroe Associate Account Manager: Camille Cheeks-Lomax Project Manager: Rayna Lucier Counsel: Sarah Fox Client: Johnsonville Senior Group Marketing Director: Ryan Pociask Integrated Marketing Director: Jamie Schmelzer Creative Director, Brand Communications: Anthony Rammer Senior Brand Manager, Commercialization: Val Zanchettin Senior Brand Manager, Fully Cooked: Kelly Jackson PR, Social Media Manager: Stephanie Dlugopolski Associate Brand Manager: Jesse Ehlen Lead Writers: Todd and Cole Production Company: Arts & Sciences Director: Adam & Dave Executive Producer: Marc Marrie Managing Director: Mal Ward Head of Production: Christa Skotland Producer: Pat Harris Director of Photography: Toby Irvin Editorial: Mack Cut Editor: Ryan Steele Assistant Editor: Zachary Antell Executive Producer: Gina Pagano Producer: Sabina-Elease Utley Postproduction: MPC Executive Producer: Camila de Biaggi Head of Production: Jesse Kurnit VFX Senior Producer: Elissa Norman VFX Producer: Aiste Akelaityte VFX Supervisor: Warren Paleos Color Executive Producer: Dani Zeitlin Color Producer: Jenna Gabriel Colorists: James Tillett, Adrian Seeley Music: Butter Music Chief Creative Officer: Andrew Sherman Executive Producer: Ian Jeffreys Producer: Kristin Kuraishi Sound: Mack Cut Sound Designer, Mixer: Sam Shaffer

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Johnsonville Employees Wrote More Ads for Droga5, and These Ones Go to 11

New stories of an epic cover band and a '70s game show

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Katie Richards