Dan Viens

Absolute dream project. We launched MLB’s brand campaign, Baseball Is Something Else on Opening Day 2023. It was an incredible season that included phenomenal ballplayers like Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge. We launched with a series of films that brought all of those “only in baseball” moments and phenomena to life.

Creative Team: Hal Curtis, Jim Riswold, Nick Stoner, Nick Howard & Jacobi Mehringer.

Design Director: Patrick Nistler

Production: Nicole Kaptur & Jen Hundis

Design Production: Amy Kirby

Creative Directors: Dan Viens and Josh Bogdan

On the 7th anniversary of his historic 81 point game, Kobe Bryant live tweeted the rebroadcast of the game. It was the first time he'd every watch the game. 

The event was part of Nike's 2013 campaign, Count on Kobe, which launched the athletes eighth signature shoe.

As a result of the live tweet event, the broadcast became NBA TV's top rated archival broadcast of all time and #countonkobe trended globally on Twitter.

The effort was one of the ways Kobe defined his social strategy and was heralded as a new way to relive old classics.

Interactive Strategist: Dan Viens
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte

Corona is committed to removing plastic from the environment and its company. It has become plastic neutral by removing thousands of tons of plastic from its production process and beaches around the world.

For World Oceans Day 2022 we took that effort to beaches around the world to send an SOS. We cleaned beaches from Mexico to Brazil and Italy to China. We used that plastic to create an open letter to other companies and the world.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens and Josh Bogdan

Creative Team: Brad Trost, Grant Thomas, Marni Hanel

Producer: Zach Zutler

Executive Producer: Chris Capretto

Strategy: Scott Woodhouse and Rachita Vasan

Account Management: Jesse Johnson, Madeline Parker, Leila Chee, Hope Barker

Production Partners: Sketch Events and Konyo Factory

For World Oceans Day 2021 Corona announced it was the first major corporation that was recycling and removing as much plastic from the environment as it used. It was plastic neutral and taking more plastic out of its production every day.

To announce this we created 77 Earths. A film that reminds us all that we are living like we have earths to spare.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens, Josh Bogdan & Pedro Izique

Creative Team: Brad Trost, Gus Solis and Mariah Mercier

Producer: Danielle Magee

Executive Producer: Chris Capretto

Strategy: Scott Woodhouse and Rachita Vasan

Account Management: Jesse Johnson, Madeline Parker, Leila Chee,

Director: Douglas Bernhardt

Production Partners: Stink

They say Duane “The Rock” Johnson is the nicest guy in the business and my gosh they are right. We worked with him for a day just as the world was opening back up after the pandemic and he was great.

This was a truly wild campaign. In the fall of 2022, Netflix launched the caper film Red Notice starring The Rock. Samsung did a collab with Netflix and Duane Johnson to promote the film and the best way to watch it, on brand's Neo QLED. Wieden+Kennedy orchestrated a wild event where Samsung TVs showed up on streets in New York and LA. Anyone brave enough to steal them was able to get away.

When we shot with The Rock we wore masks and visors, but he was happy to listen and collaborate from a safe distance.

When we shot the TVs in New York, my partner and I actually got COVID. What a time to be alive and set up experiences or people to steal TVs!

Creative Team: Vlad Ivangorodsky and Sergio Alonso

Producer: Jennifer Smith

Account Team: Kimmy Cunningham & Heather Morba

Creative Directors: Dan Viens and Matt Sorrell

The election was coming down to the wire and with a few weeks to spare, the Biden campaign and Wieden+Kennedy came together to make an ad.

We made something that captured the spirit of American’s who had been counted out and underestimated for the previous four years and for many; their entire lives.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens, Josh Bogdan and Pedro Izique

Producer: Mauricio Granado

Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt

Strategy: Angela Jones

Account Management: Raquel Castro

Editor: Lauren Dellara

If you want to tell people there’s a Facebook for them then why not start with one of the smallest and most passionate groups there is - The International Kazoo Players. And when you bring them all together why not have that energy turn into a wild Big Freedia show. We asked those questions and we answered them with this ad.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens + Ashley Davis Marshall

Copywriter: Adam Tetreault

Art Director: James Moslander

Producer: Jeff Selis

Director: Traktor

Editor: Lauren Dellara

Samsung Dreamground was a digital physical playground installed at the opening of Hollywood Park and SoFi Stadium. Oversized playful sculptures drew you in and then became centerpieces of wild AR experiences. The sculputres are gone now, but the AR selfies all exist on our phones.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens and Matt Sorrell

Creative Team: Kyle Chin and Mariah Mercier

Producer: Eloise Murphy

Account Leadership: Kimmy Cunningham

Production Partner: Media Monks

For one of the biggest spectacle in advertising we chose one of the simplest things on the planet to show how it connects people: rock. We found real Facebook Groups connected by rocks; rocking chairs, rockets, rock skippers and most importantly rock music. It’s a wild one and I got to tell my mom I made a Super Bowl ad.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens + Ashley Davis Marshall

Copywriter: Adam Tetreault

Art Director: James Moslander

Producer: Antonio Burnett & Eunice Pang

Director: Megaforce

Editor: Charlie Harvey

Corona is made with 100% Natural Ingredients. So we launched a global campaign called Made From The Natural World.

We kept saying “we’ve got to make part of the campaign all natural.” We did. We made a billboard from natural, compostable, recyclable material. And we hired the sun as an art director. Then we put it in England, a sometimes sunny place.

The Natural Billboard became a spectacle on the boardwalk in Brighton, England. Meticulous math was done so the perfect angle of the sun at golden hour would refveal a silhouette and the campaign message on the board.

On sunny days it was glorious. On not sunny days it was an excuse to have a Corona under the clouds.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens and Josh Bogdan

Creative Team: Caio Mattoso & Rodrigo Mendes

Producer: Devin Brown

Strategy: Scott Woodhouse

Account Management: Madeline Parker and Hope Barker

Production Partners: Sketch Events and Konyo Factory

Nike Live Design started as a brief from Nike to Wieden+Kennedy for a new NikeID campaign. Years later it became an immersive shoe customization experience created out of an unprecedented partnership between Nike and Wieden+Kennedy Lodge.

My work was in the early stage, identifying the opportunity for an engaging experience in addition to a brand campaign. As a creative director, I worked closely with a design and engineering team to develop the experience at its early stages. We went through rounds of prototypes that used different inputs for design from clapping, to Kinect and eventually landed on the experience that went live in 2017.

Dan Viens: Creative Direction and Strategy
Design and Development: Nike and WK Lodge

We were on a mission to introduce Anki's robot Cozmo to as many new people as possible. One group wanted to introduce him to was Reddit. Reddit's super interested in robots, gaming and technology. So we made Cozmo Lost in Reddit, a massive multi-player game where we created new technology to play with a robot. 

Creative Direction: Dan Viens and Nick Morrisey
Creatives: Grant Thomas, Ryan Hartsfield, Ryan Wesley Peterson, Keith Hamilton, Claire Thomas, Jenna Simon, Patrick Nistler
Design Direction: Jon Minori
Tech Direction: Max Folley
Producers: Lily Darby, Dennis Hanley
 

The Military Mamas Network Facebook Group is a collection of women who go to great lengths to support each other. We told their story in a 2019 holiday spot that shows how a group of women came to one mom’s aid while she was deployed during the holidays.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens + Ashley Davis Marshall
Copywriter: Sarah Menacho
Art Director: Trinh Pham
Producer: Helen Park
Director: Frederik Bond
Director of Photography: Rachel Morrison
Editor: Katie Turinski

Soylent is one of the most successful online food retailers. Their meal replacement products have a hardcore fanbase. When Wieden+Kennedy began working with Soylent we knew we wanted to come out with something special that core fans would appreciate.

When it comes to that core fan base, the weirder the better. 

Welcome to Soy Route, the first branded e-commerce site on the dark web. We launched it in early 2017 and sold all sorts of crazy Soylent product and paraphernalia from a giant Soylent bottle to bags of the original Soylent mixture. The site was initially only available to the oldest customers in Soylent's database.

To take things all the way you need a TOR browser to access the site and products could only be purchased with Bitcoin. 

W+K’s first project for Magic Leap was a campaign for their Game of Thrones encounter. Game of Thrones and mindblowing spatial computing is a good way to start any relationship.

We named the encounter The Dead Must Die and had a great time developing the campaign.

Creative Director - Dan Viens
Art Director - Derrick Ho
Copywriter - Shaine Edwards
Producer - Emily Knight

Anki launched its second robot, Vector, on Kickstarter in August 2018. Vector is a curious little autonomous robot sidekick that lives in your house. He tripled his funding goal and became the most funded robotic project in Kickstarter's history.

This video was the main piece of content on the Kickstarter page. It told the story of Vector, his personality, his technology and his development process. The Kickstarter community also looks to understand the creators of products on the platform so the page and video also told the story of Anki as a company.

Content Strategy, Copywriting and Creative Direction: Dan Viens, Wieden+Kennedy
Directed by Quentin van den Bossche

A lot of toy and even more tech: We had the chance to do some holiday spots for Anki’s Cozmo. It’s not kids or animals, but working with a mischievous, diva, AI can be tough too. We had a lot of fun working with the little guy.

Creative Direction: Dan Viens and Nick Morrisey
Copywriters: Darcie Burrell and Damian Fitzgerald
Art Director: Liz Malenfant
Producer: Hayley Goggin

The world of women's fitness is a crowded marketplace. For their part Nike offers incredible apparel, footwear, events and training apps. They were looking for a new way to connect women to all the brand offers.

So we dove headfirst into the world of branded content and YouTube vloggers. The result is an 8-part branded content series called Margot vs Lily. 

The series is the next step in the brand's Better For It campaign that encourages and empowers women to stay active while taking a very honest look at what it takes to do so.

In addition to the original series we created companion content in several forms including an actual fitness vlog from one of the main characters and ongoing editorial content.

Creative Team: Patty Orlando, Heather Ryder, Darcie Burrell
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Director: Dan Viens

The initial campaign for Nike's Hypervenom Football boot showed kids what it was like to play like Brazilian hero Neymar Jr. For the launch of the Hypervenom II we wanted them to actually feel what it was like.

To do that we created Nike's first virtual reality experience. The Neymar Jr Effect put fans on the pitch as Brazil's number ten as he mercilessly defeats the oppososition in classic Neymar Jr. style.

The experience launched just after YouTube launched Youtube360°. It could be seen in 360 as well as virtual reality by using a Google Cardboard headset or in select Nike stores with the Samsung Gear VR.  

Creative Team: Emma Barnett and Mario Garza
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Director: Dan Viens

Every four years Nike aims to connect with footballers by delivering its point of view on football with the World Cup as its backdrop. In 2014, its message was “Risk Everything.” In the biggest moments even the best tend to play it safe. Nike wanted to inspire athletes to play with fun and excitement.

Nike wanted to be a part of conversation throughout the tournament. To do this we took the riskiest player not in Brazil and made him Nike’s correspondent for risky football.

An animated Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Nike Football’s animated film The Last Game was rigged as a CGI puppet to be controlled like a video game or a human. So every day he could comment on the biggest stories and talk directly to footballers via social media in Zlatan’s Risk Taking Take on The Day.

We also used our animated characters in still imagery to capture each moment as it happened throughout the month.

Creative Team: Al Merry, Jason Karley, John Battle, Jeff Salomonsson
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Director: Dan Viens

I had never been to China.

A few days before the 2012 Olympics I got a call asking me to head to Shanghai to help W+K Shanghai and Nike China execute a massive social campaign through the Games. I happily jumped on a plane and before I returned we created the most prolific social media campaign China had ever seen and I experienced my first Pacific typhoon.

Here's a bit of background. Find Your Greatness was Nike's global campaign for the 2012 Olympics. Nike China was tasked with delivering a locally relevant version. 

To do it, the team at W+K Shanghai decided to hijack key moments during the Games and redefine how the country defined greatness. 

Creative Director: Terence Leong
Interactive Strategist: Dan Viens 

During the 2014 World Cup we executed a massive campaign that included huge brand films, real time response and coordination with production, media and strategy around the world.

One element of that was Nike's Phenomenal Shot. It was produced as partnership between Nike, Google and Wieden+Kennedy. Working with production companies Grow and Goo we created a mobile and desktop application that allowed kids around the world to reimagine the biggest moments of the tournament using our animated football heroes.

To make it work we turned the Google display network into a real time tool that pumped animations out just after key moments in the tournament. Then people could experience a 360 webGL world on their phone and create a personalized iconic image to share.

Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Director: Dan Viens

Nike shifted the launch of Kevin Durant's sixth signature shoe to hit stores during the summer of 2013. To launch the shoe we decided to put a swoosh on all of summer basketball.

The campaign began with a commercial that launched during the NBA Draft and culminated 8 weeks later with the biggest pickup game of the summer in New York City.

Along the way we used the hashtag #summerisserious to execute an online talent search and draft of the most serious pickup players around the nation. Many doubted whether ballers would adopt the behavior of sharing their game the way other athletes like skateboarders do.  

The basketball community responded with thousands of submissions. A draftboard of the best 100 submissions were created on Nike.com with each player receiving their own custom basketball card.  Then Kevin Durant and James Harden chose teams from that pool of 100 to play the biggest pickup game of the summer in New York City. 

Creative Team: Jason Campbell and Nathaniel Friedman
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Director: Dan Viens

The KobeSystem gave me a chance to direct Kanye West, build a social campaign that became an early blueprint for all of Nike's engagement efforts and spend a week in a war room with a group of strategists, writers and designers before war rooms were really a thing.

The idea was simple; Kobe Bryant teaching a new level of success to the most successful people on earth. In the campaign Kobe instructed and inspired the likes of Richard Branson, Serena Williams and Kanye West. In the social effort anyone who had achieved any level of success could become more successful with Kobe's help.

We took over Nike Basketball's social channels for a week and brought people through one level per day. We ended with one of Nike's most successful social campaigns to date and created a blue print for engagement they brand has evolved since then.

Creative Team: Brock Kirby and Sezay Altinok
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Strategy: Dan Viens

This 2016 Nike campaign was about as much fun as anyone can have at work. We had basketball players jumping off cars. We destroyed the Just Do It logo. We even had an 80 year old woman sprinting into the ocean. And we did it with the Daniels, two of the most dynamic filmmakers out there.

Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte + Ryan O’Rourke

Interactive Director: Dan Viens

Copywriter: Ed Harrison

Art Director: Susan Land

Senior Producer: Ross Plummer

Producer: Mauricio Granado

Directors: Daniels

Project Management: Christina Kim

Studio Design Manager: Alicia Kuna

If you want to feel inspired (or really bad about what you’ve accomplished in life) watch these films. For the 2016 Summer Olympics we created the Unlimited Campaign. Instead of telling the story of elite Olympians we told stories of inspiring athletes you may not have heard of.

Sister Madonna Buder, The Iron Nun, at 82 she became the oldest woman to ever finish a marathon.

Chris Mosier, a biathlete and the first trans athlete on Team USA.

Kyle Maynard, first person to scale Mount Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua without limbs or prosthetics.

Creative Directors: Alberto Ponte + Ryan O’Rourke

Interactive Director: Dan Viens

Copywriter: Adam Tetreault

Art Director: Sara Phillips

Senior Producer: Ross Plummer

Producer: Mauricio Granado

Director: Max Malkin

Project Management: Christina Kim

Studio Design Manager: Alicia Kuna

As part of its Better For It brand campaign, W+K launched the Nike Women tumblr. The W+K and Nike strategy teams agreed they should have a presence on tumblr, but that it shouldn't look like the brand's other channels.

Thus was born Better For It vibes. We worked with dozens of designers, sculptors and artists to create content for the tumblr. It's given women a fresh fun look at the brand and provided people around the world with new ways to express themselves on their fitness journeys.

Creative Team: Patty Orlando, Heather Ryder, Darcie Burrell
Design Lead: Rehanah Spence
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Director: Dan Viens

When Kobe went down with an achilles injury in 2013 Nike wanted to send a message to the Black Mamba that would help him in on his journey back and in turn motivate basketball players around the world.

Working with copywriter Brock Kirby we developed an idea called Show Us Again. We used Kobe's mindset to inspire the work and to create a campaign around the idea that he had done so much but he was nowhere near finished.

Creative Team: Brock Kirby, Dan Viens and Sezay Altinok
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte

Coming off its massive 2014 World Cup campaign, Nike Football was looking for smaller nimble ways to share its point of view.

We created a series of Vines that put the cut throat world of the small sided game on display. 

Creative Team: Jeff Salomonsson and Bertrand
Creative Directors: Ryan O'Rourke and Alberto Ponte
Interactive Director: Dan Viens

At Wieden+Kennedy we're always trying to get the most interesting creative technology into the hands of our most talented people. I wanted to do that by putting VR design tools into the hands of our most talented artists. To do it we created a day-long live-streamed event called No Paper.

No Paper put Tilt Brush’s VR creation tools into the hands of W+K’s most talented illustrators, designers and art directors.

We wanted to see what they'd make and how they'd surprise themselves. Each of the artists had 30 minutes to create a 360 VR installation within Tilt Brush. Their work was broadcast live in the agency and on YouTube. You can watch the entire live stream here.

The artists were Cass Swan, Brandon Viney, Adam Sirkin, Lloyd Winter, Danielle McCoy, Rafael Nunes, Seth Shelman and Leo Zarosinski.

Creative Direction - Dan Viens
Visual Design - Cassandra Swan
Production - Lily Darby
Technical Advisor - Stephen Schieberl

I moved to Portland in 2006. That year I observed the month-long residency of Vaux Swifts at Chapman Elementary School.

In 2007 I spent the birds’ entire residency filming them and interviewing people to make the documentary On The Wing.

On The Wing tells the complete story of Portland's Chapman Swifts. From the phenomenon itself to the crowds that show up to watch it and the bird's initial discovery to a view inside the chimney. These birds have captivated Portland for decades.

Each fall they make their home in the chimney of NW Portland's Chapman Elementary school, putting on a beautiful show each night. I filmed each night of their stay during the fall of 2007 and interviewed hundreds of onlookers. The film also features interviews with some of the most important authorities and personalities surrounding the birds to give an understanding to how the birds impact our city and we impact their lives.

Film Direction + Editing - Dan Viens
Music Composition - Justin Casinghino
Visual Design - Damien Webb, Thomas Wilson

When Facebook Groups are good, they’re really good. This campaign is made up of real comments from real groups. And instead of actors we worked with real group members. It was so fun bringing the pizza lovers, wig slayers and wrestling lovers together.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens + Ashley Davis Marshall

Copywriters: Mariah Mercier + Michael Brandes

Art Director: DeAndra Stokes

Senior Art Director: Brad Trost

Producers: Monica Ranes + Teresa Lai

Director: Amir Farhang

Anki was an AI and robotics company. Their toy Overdrive was incredible. It was like slot car racing without the slots. There was AI built into the cars and code programmed into the code.

We created a series where Josh challenged himself every week to push his Overdrive jumping skills as far as they could go.

Every week we created a new jump and filmed until we made it work. It was so much fun and people loved it. Each of our ten episodes was viewed over 100,000 times.

If you’re here reading this, at least hit play to see the incredible opening animation.

Creative Directors: Dan Viens and Nick Morrisey

Director: Quentin van den Bossche

Lead talent: Josh Weinstein

Producer: Lizzy Harris

Editor: Zoe Schrepel

Design: Patrick Nistler

Opening Animation: Daniel Ortiz