ESPN College Football Awards Show Open
ElevenO2 was tasked with writing and producing the Show Open for ESPN’s 2020 College Football Awards show (air date January 7th 2021).
The Challenge was two-fold… finding a unique approach to telling the story of the unprecedented 2020 season AND… figuring out a way to shoot what was needed amidst nationwide COVID lockdowns and strict production protocols.
Creatively, EO2 decided to look at College Football as a whole and view the season through the eyes of all those it effected positively. Hence, we created a visual THANK YOU note to the sport from the student athletes and coaches who were able to do what they loved, the millions of fans who were given something to cheer about, and the health care staff and front line workers who looked to college football to provide a welcomed escape.
Without the ability to be on-site or send “traditional” camera crews to campuses, universities, and hospitals to film interviews and gather b-roll, EO2 leveraged university relationships and used in-house resources to film the subjects with COVID-compliant methods. This included tasking college students to use their smartphones to record themselves and their fellow students expressing their appreciation to college football.
The result was hugely successful and helped frame the theme of the entire 2020 College Football Awards broadcast.
Menards Home Improvement Heroes
MENARDS, the third-largest chain of Home Improvement stores in America (behind Lowe’s and Home Depot) hired ElevenO2 to create a national commercial that connected MENARDS’ strong commitment to racing (IndyCar and NASCAR) with their dedication to service and quality.
EO2 took Menard’s three most prominent drivers and literally placed them in consumer’s homes to directly convey the message that Menards is there to support race fans as they tackle do-it-yourself home improvement projects.
As a full-service production company, EO2 handled every aspect of the process from writing and producing through post-production and delivery.
Frito Lay Cheetos
ElevenO2 was approached by global marketing agency United Entertainment Group (UEG) to create and produce a branded entertainment experience for Frito-Lay and the Cheetos snack brand that would appeal to the coveted Hispanic market.
Using data and analytics to inform strategy, we created LOS CHEETAHS… a freestyle soccer team, in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters, that would use Cheetos’ core brand tenets of fun and mischief, to compete against LOS JEFES, a team of rigid and serious traditionalists. The teams consisted of original, larger-than-life characters and personalities created by EO2, and the “match” featured nuanced storylines, mind-blowing skills, over-the-top comedy and exciting fan-interactions.
We built a “pop-up” stadium on the sands of Long Beach, California and turned the game into a full day, marketing and promotional vehicle for the brand. The event attracted over 5,000 spectators and garnered over 500MM PR impressions. The post-game consumer satisfaction intercepts were the highest ever recorded for a Frito-Lay activation, including all SXSW and Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” activations.
LOS CHEETAHS went on to partner with the Mexican National Soccer Team as a fan festival attraction for two seasons.
Glory International
GLORY, a global kickboxing promotion based out of Singapore, enlisted ElevenO2 to create a unique digital promotion for their live Pay-Per-View event in Tokyo, Japan.
The directive was to cross-promote three elements important to the Glory brand:
Bone-crushing action, their two top heavyweights at the time (Rico Verhoeven and Errol Zimmerman), and their most popular brand ambassadors… the Glory Girls.
ElevenO2 used the opportunity to create a hybrid promo that was part clip spot, part ID shoot, part music video and 100% on-brand. Elated with the result, GLORY asked us to expand the piece to 2:00 and ran it across all of their media platforms.