The spots connected a lot of disparate elements—the active teams, the ominous music, the surrealist fan expressions, the face paint, the outfits, famous athletes, the pain of loss, the joy of victory—with two ends of a free throw. How did your creative team link it all together?
On every second Thursday, I have a routine with my creative teams called goosebumps. The four creative directors come in [and] we look at creativity: ours, outside, in the market, thought leaders. Everything comes into play, just to learn.
In last week’s creativity, we were talking about photography, and how to get the Coca-Cola photography right. I’ve been with the company for 28 years, and part of the longevity is understanding the brand deeply—its history, its context. What I’m sharing with them is that word “surreal”: That Coke is a real brand, but it is always surreal because it brings an element of not fantasy but a possibility. A moment that you would want to be in versus the moment you were in.
Fan passion seemed to be another key element of this campaign, and Coca-Cola addressed it in both the men’s and women’s game. How did Coca-Cola and Cartwright assess the benefits of addressing those audiences separately and ensuring each spot could stand on its own?
Historically, I don’t think we ever used female basketball players in our campaigns.
We hope that one day women’s basketball is going to be as big as men’s, and can we play a role in this? I obsess a lot on creativity, but one of the dangers that I see is that even with the best of intentions sometimes we don’t get the path right.
