we are animals

S’well is the world’s most fashionable reusable water bottle. Chaco was hired to help them grow: from beautiful product into formidable brand.

OBJECTIVE raise awareness of S’well in the face of growing competition from copycats.

CHALLENGE client needed a film on air in less than two months, but having no brand strategy, didn’t know what it should say, how to say it nor whom to say it to.

SOLUTION first, we dissected S’well’s history to understand the basic drivers behind the brand’s expansion from zero to a 20,000 stores presence in just 5 years. From this exercise we identified Desire as the crucial growth-fueling emotion and enshrined it in the Brand DNA. We then studied the semiotics of this emotion: how Desire is elicited and perpetuated in personal relationships as well as between brands -especially luxury brands- and people.

This is how Magic became the strategic direction, giving birth to a body of work including the film below.

But great content needs great distribution: so Chaco planned, negotiated and purchased the media on behalf of S’well, running the film on Popsugar.com and supporting it with native, branded content throughout the publication.

RESULTS awareness grew by over 1,000% (source: Nielsen’s Vizu), Completion and Click Through Rates over 50% above benchmarks (source: Google’s DCP), achieved over 10M impressions (source: Popsugar.com). If strategy without execution is just a dream, execution without strategy can only be a nightmare.

Positioning Puma, the sponsor of half of the African teams to make the most of the FIFA World Cup

OBJECTIVE boost awareness in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup

CHALLENGE Nike and Adidas had famous campaigns, enormous budgets and legendary athletes. Puma did not even have a positioning.

SOLUTION interviewing players we learned that consumers’ perception of Adidas and Nike’s was strikingly similar: the tough American/German coach driven by success with an almost militaristic approach discipline (just do it/impossible is nothing). Puma on the other hand was seen as more easy going, the coach that reminds you to have fun.

Semiotically, Nike and Adidas have both, for years, been using the language of Duty as the path to Glory (much as “the few, the proud, the Marines“). By talking to players we learned that all that hard work is just the cost of entry for any competitive endeavor: after that, what makes the difference is how much you enjoy yourself, how much you love what you do.

Like our competitors, we decided to tap into the Belonging instinct that rules team sports. But instead of insisting on the cost of entry (fulfilling a duty), we claimed Love, its chemical reward,  awarding Puma the emotional high-ground.

RESULTS brilliantly executed by Syrup, the Love strategy became a viral sensation giving Puma more visibility than Adidas -the event’s official sponsor- in the weeks leading up to the World Cup.

Even after agencies changed, the brief kept paying off and lead Droga5 to Cannes Gold.

Imitation is certainly  the highest form of flattery: today there are no fewer than 3 agencies and a dozen portfolios claiming credit for this work. If you encounter them, ask them about it. It’ll be fun.