It’s Ryder Cup time! And Wieden + Kennedy London has created a portfolio of campaign materials for The Welsh Assembly Government to celebrate Wales hosting The Ryder Cup for the first time in the tournament’s history.

'Golf as it Should Be' spot

It's Ryder Cup time! And Wieden + Kennedy London has created a portfolio of campaign materials for The Welsh Assembly Government to celebrate Wales hosting The Ryder Cup for the first time in the tournament’s history.  The integrated campaign is made up of many elements, including films, TV idents, print and branding on the road to the tournament, at the host city Newport and at the course itself at Celtic Manor.

The campaign delivers a complete Ryder Cup experience, and features the people of Wales, highlighting what it means to them to host the world’s biggest golfing event.

The TV spot above, ‘Golf As It Should Be’, presents Wales’ unstuffy take on the game of golf. It was shot on the rather splendid coastal course at Nefyn. This film will run on NBC America and on Sky Sports in the UK for the duration of the tournament.

We have also created a three minute doc called, ‘Our First Ryder Cup’, featuring a range of people, young and old, who are involved with the sport. This was filmed around the many beautiful courses In Wales. The film also features Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales; Matthew Rhys, the actor who currently appears in the American series ‘Brothers and Sisters’; Lions rugby legend Gareth Edwards; and comedian Rhod Gilbert, who has been the voice of Visit Wales’ advertising in the past.  They all speculate on the significance of Wales being the host nation of this event for the very first time. The film is running at the opening ceremony at the Millennium stadium, on S4C and around the Twenty Ten Course during the Tournament.

'Our First Ryder Cup' film

We also created 42 (phew!) TV idents for Sky Sports, which again feature people from all over the country. And Goldie Lookin' Chain. The idents can be viewed here on the Visit Wales Facebook page.

The print element of the campaign includes posters on the Hammersmith flyover on the way out of London and an outdoor campaign by Newport City Council. On the way to Newport on the approach to the toll booths on the M4 there are huge branded flags for the European and US teams, as well as flags bearing the Welsh Ryder Cup logo.  Even the Severn Bridge itself has been branded, together with messages at the tollbooths, with barriers being dressed as golf flags that lift up and down.

Finally, The Welsh Assembly has created branded supplements showcasing Newport’s heritage which will run in The Times and The Financial Times.  The supplements include press ads created by W+K.

Yesterday Alex Conaway and I met with a bunch of super-smart, mature students who are currently studying for their MBA masters at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

They were keen to find out how we operate as a global creative business, what emerging trends we have observed and what innovations we have deployed in the past few years, how our campaigns engage through social media and influence culture.

So, we shared a bit about who we are, what we believe and case studies for Nike – Write the Future, Honda – Power of Dreams, Old Spice and WK Platform and they were blown away.

They asked tons of insightful questions and left feeling (apparently) really inspired by how Wieden + Kennedy does business.

"Thank you very much for an outstanding presentation this morning. All my best to Alex as well. Please visit us in Nashville soon."  Turney Stevens, Dean, The College of Business, Lipscomb University.

Made me feel very proud to work here.

Sam B.