Los Angeles-based Australians John McKelvey and Luke McKelvey are at Super Bowl 2021 with The Four Quarter-Sized Cowboys starring American actress Maya Rudolph for Sweden-based global shopping and payment service Klarna.
This is their first Super Bowl with their new agency, Mirimar. Previously, through agency JohnXHannes New York, John McKelvey had big game success with Squarespace and John Malkovich (which won an Emmy), and Expensify Th!$ with rapper 2 Chainz.
This year, the brothers approached the brief from Klarna -- letting you pay for anything in four smaller payments -- as entertainment with clarity.
They wanted to combine Klarna’s bold look against the iconic American old west with the comedic and harmony-filled adventures of four unlikely cowboys.
“The task was to simply tell people the clear product benefit, on the world’s biggest stage,” they told AdNews.
“It’s a single, simple proposition, that can be easily understood. There’s no difficult brain-pretzels to sort out.
“So let’s shrink down the beloved Maya Rudolph and have The four quarter-sized cowboys, on their four quarter sized ponies, buy one magnificent pair of boots in four payments.”
Production was profoundly harder due to COVID, they say.
“Not having access to all the production infrastructure in LA made preparation a lot more challenging,” they say.
“Fortunately we had great production partners with director Andreas Nilsson as well as a very dedicated and trusting team at Klarna.
“The Super Bowl is the biggest stage there is. Klarna’s presence in the big game comes on the heels of a year of remarkable growth, and speaks to their rise to be in a position to participate in this iconic cultural moment.
“There’s a lot of eyeballs, competition, expectations, celebrity talent. It's a big milestone for brands, and we are always excited and motivated to create a real breakthrough moment. We recently partnered with Klarna for their US launch and to already be doing Super Bowl together is incredible.
“It’s a big moment for our team and of course there’s an extra push when you know it’s going to be seen - by hundreds of millions of people.”
The commercial will air in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
The teaser:
The Four Quarter-Sized Cowboys integrated campaign will come to life after the Super Bowl with extended cuts and behind-the-scenes content, surprise and delight social activations, unexpected partnerships and more, with paid media extending the creative into linear TV, OTT and paid social.
David Sandström, Klarna’s CMO: “As a brand and business we’ve always stood at the crossroads of culture and commerce. This event represents one of the biggest cultural and sporting moments of the year, and our involvement is an exciting milestone for Klarna.”
Andreas Nilsson, the director: “It's been a very exciting project, a fun journey, and always a pleasure to work with the Mirimar and Klarna teams. True advertising wizards. Getting Maya on board for Klarna was wonderful. We were pleasantly surprised that she liked the premise and agreed to travel to the Cloning Institute in Zurich, Switzerland to be cloned into 4 versions of herself and be shrunk to 4 quarter-sized Mayas. The doctors guarantee she will be back to normal size before 2021 is over.”
CREDITS - Four Quarter Sized Cowboys Super Bowl Campaign
Brand: Klarna
Agency: Mirimar
Client: Klarna
CMO: David Sandstrom
VP of Marketing: Daniel Jontén
Head of Marketing, U.S: Megan Gokey
Brand Lead: Joel Sussman
Marketing Manager: Jana Bertram
Social Lead: Mary Manzo
PR Lead: Sarah Ponthieu
Strategy: Olivia Butter
Design Leads: Camilla Birkström & Matthew Wenger
Copywriter: Camille Muson
Production Lead: Leo Holte
Head of Brand Studio US: Liz Beebe
Agency: Mirimar - Los Angeles
Founder & Chief Creative Officer: John McKelvey
Co-founder & Managing Director: Luke McKelvey
Creative Director: Jon Marshall
Creative Director: Johan Arlig
Design Director: Mariola Bruszewska
Head of Production: Kristine Ling
Executive Producer, Stills: Miranda Kendrick
Group Account Director: Lily Waters
Group Account Director: Alyssa Ramsey
Business Affairs: Nancy Espinal
Production: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Partner / Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Head of Production: Sean Moody
Producers: Karen O’Brien / Jay Veal
Production Supervisor: Jen Berry
DP: Alexis Zabe
Production Designer: Alexis Ross
Costume Designer: Christina Blackaller
Editorial: Cabin
Editor: Chan Hatcher
Assistant Editor: Connie Chuang
Managing Partner: Carr Schilling
Head of Production: Liz Lydecker
Executive Producer: Adam Becht
Senior Producer: Michelle Dorsch
Visual Effects: Kevin
Tim Davies - Executive Creative Director/Partner
Mike Dalzell - Head of CG
Sue Troyan - Sr. Executive Producer / Partner
Jami Schakel - Sr. VFX Producer
Andrew Cowderoy - VFX Producer
3D
Carl Harders
Matt Longwell
Bryan Repka
2D
Robert Murdock
Susanne Scharping
Tim Bird
Audio Finishing + Additional Sound Design: Barking Owl
Creative Director: Kelly Bayett
Executive Creative Producer: Ashley Benton
Sound Design + Mix: Mike Franklin
Music + Sound Design: Walker
Executive Producers: Sara Matarazzo / Stephanie Pigott
Music Producer: Danielle Soury
Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Sofie Borup
Producer: Alexandra Lubrano
Stills Photography
Photographer: Zach Gold
Producer: Michael ‘Skiny’ Power, Cowboys An Indians
Production Designer: Michael Sturgeon
Media Agency: Noble People
Digital and Social Agency: Movement Strategy
PR Agency: 160/90
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