HTTP://SFAWARDS.COM/AWD01/MUSIC/PHARRELL.HTML
To compete with digital-music giant iTunes, Yahoo! Music needed to launch with a big splash. Yahoo asked its agency, OgilvyOne in San Francisco, to figure out how to compete with Apple’s media weight. “We needed to build up Yahoo’s music credibility,” says creative director Aaron Griffiths. The design team decided leveraging well-known artists—everyone from Missy Elliott to Trick Daddy—was the quickest way to curry favor with 18- to 24-year-old music lovers.

Even with star power, however, these online ads still needed to be memorable and unique. Designers solved the problem when they discovered the miniature pixelated drawings of pop stars and other famous people by artist Craig Robinson. In the final ads, these off- beat portraits become the perfect symbols for digital music. This Pharrell ad, for example, starts with a photograph of the famous rapper that transforms into two separate Pharrells. These characters represent the two sides of the artist, and viewers can control the floor by using a slide bar to play either a party track or a more romantic one. The rapper’s adoring fans move across the screen with these music choices, alternately swooning to the love track or getting down to the dance song. “The more you get people to interact with your brand, as long as it’s compelling, the greater your results will be,” Griffiths says.
Michelle Taute

OgilvyOne
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Arthur Ceria, Aaron Griffiths
ART DIRECTOR: Jason Koxvold
COPYWRITER: Larry Johnson
DEVELOPERS: Matt Hoover, Devin Gillespie
MINIPOPS: Craig Robinson
DESIGNER: Gillespie (additional minipop art)
PRODUCER: Elizabeth Scarborough
ACCOUNT MANAGER: Tom Conner
CLIENT: Julie Campistron, Yahoo!
CONTACT: www.ogilvy.com