W+K London

December 19, 2011

W+K goes Off the Grid for Honda

Clients

To support the launch of the 2012 Honda Civic, Wieden + Kennedy London has created a unique 360º video experience that lets viewers venture into the unknown. Inspired by the Street View experience, ‘Off the Grid’ is an interactive film that explores incredible environments.

The Civic design team threw out what they knew and started afresh, exploring every path. Off the Grid reflects how rewarding a journey into the unknown can be.The experience takes users to places they’d never get a chance to see otherwise, or lets them experience familiar locations in an entirely new way. From a previously unexplored Alaskan ice cave to an underwater art museum where growing reef means the sculptures won’t be visible in a few months’ time.

From the afternoon of December 19^th, Off the Grid will be live at www.youtube.com/hondacivicUK

Find out more about the locations and filming at http://hondaoffthegriduk.posterous.com/

W+K worked with Partizan and film director Michael Geoghegan to capture the stunning imagery, TTX for the filming and yellowBird for the 360º player.

Off the Grid is the final of three interactive experiences Wieden + Kennedy London have created to support ‘The Great Unknown’ pan-European marketing campaign. Like this latest experience, the web film ‘Happy Dog’ and HTML5 game ‘The Experiment’ each relayed part of the journey the Honda engineers undertook- how they got to the final design of the Civic and the lessons learned along the way.

The first phase broke online with the launch of a destination hub on YouTube www.youtube.com/hondacivicUK.This phase introduced the campaign idea and was car-specific: the content relates to the various improvements and enhancements of the Civic. The Civic launch television spots will air in January 2012.

December 14, 2011

Wieden + Kennedy wins Stride gum account

Clients

Great news! We have been awarded STRIDE gum’s advertising business in the US. Our responsibilities will cover the U.S. market and include digital and social media activity. The account will be led from Wieden + Kennedy’s London office. (That's us.)

Stephanie Wilkes, vice president US Confections at Kraft Foods, which owns Stride, says she is eager to partner with us. “(W+K's) understanding of the STRIDE brand and gum category is exceptional and we’re eager to see its creative be taken to the next level of success.”

For our part, we’re absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to work with Kraft Foods on the STRIDE business. And we’re looking forward to doing some great work together. We were gutted not to win the pitch for their Trident gum account, but we're chuffed about this appointment.

STRIDE, The Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum was launched in 2006 to give gum chewers a fun, unique and long lasting chewing experience. STRIDE comes in 11 flavors – Winterblue, Spearmint, Sweet Peppermint, Forever Fruit, Sweet Berry, Sweet Cinnamon, Nonstop Mint, Uber Bubble, Stride Spark and Whitemint. To find out more about STRIDE gum, its friends and what the brand is up to, visit: www.facebook.com/stride-gum

It's a nice bit of new biz news to see out the old year.