Pereira & O’Dell

...Time For A Change

San Francisco-based Pereira & O’Dell offer a new agency structure far from the madding crowd of Madison – one shaped by digital culture and crossdisciplinary campaigns. Their goal? Dynamic advertising for progressive-thinking marketers.

Launched in 2008, the San Francisco-based agency is the brainchild of PJ Pereira and Andrew O’Dell. Since opening its doors the agency has shaped innovative campaigns for clients including LEGO, Ubisoft, Corona, Muscle Milk and University of Phoenix. “We knew we needed to be different,” says Pereira. “We needed to combine a number of disciplines; the storytelling abilities of classical advertising, the on-demand discipline of digital, the long-lasting ideas of design and a real-time response to culture. An amazing amount of potential comes from combining these things.”

LEGO was the agency’s first client and also a roaring success for the company. It heralded the birth of a progressive agency utilising its own unique approach. Indeed, their creative work for LEGO helped found the agency philosophy. The brief was to excite former LEGO kids to rediscover the brand and connect it to a new generation.

CL!CK to success

“When LEGO came to us we weren’t exactly sure what our mission was,” reveals Pereira. “They wanted to create content to celebrate their birthday.” What resulted was the immensely successful CL!CK campaign. It was LEGO’s first official iPhone app and allowed users to turn their favorite images into LEGO form; tap the image on the screen and a masterpiece would build. Additional screen taps revealed nine different colour options plus opportunities to email, print, tweet or upload images to social networking sites.

When launched, CL!CK became the fourth most popular free app in the US, second in the UK and first in Japan. In one month it attracted more than 2m unique downloads and was ranked as the 32nd most downloaded application in the US.

The Brick Thief soon followed, a hypnotic sequel to the CL!CK short, directed by Blue Source through MJZ. We follow a mischievous old timer, a problem-solver and man of good intentions – if only he can nab a few LEGO bricks. The playful stop-motion short has the moustachioed eccentric reaching into different worlds and nabbing bricks from LEGO kids for his own creation.

Responding to consumer change

It’s a film that recalls a time when play fostered imagination and invention. In many ways it epitomises the agency’s dynamic approach to advertising. “The key to our success was designing an agency as if it was invented today,” Pereira says. “We were tired of the classic agency model, bored of all the assumptions of how an agency should operate, because most of that was an evolution of something established a very long time ago. It doesn’t make sense anymore because consumers have changed so much.”

Defying traditional advertising assumptions has been a key element to the company’s success. Another notable campaign went viral for client Muscle Milk. Its message of a protein product that transforms you into a fitter, sexier version of yourself is illustrated in the Sexy Pilgrim video that follows a rapping Pilgrim Father superstar, replete with gyrating dance moves and gorgeous women.The video launched in the US a week before Thanksgiving and received more than 3.5m views in just five days and was featured on high-profile outlets such as CNN. It also seized a unique PR and sampling opportunity by allowing users to begin their own transformation by downloading a discount coupon from the site, which 18 per cent of viewers did.

A number of live stunts were also targeted at LA celebrities to raise brand recognition. Sexy pilgrims and Indians collided with the likes of ‘The Governator’ Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver. “When you tap into something that is culturally relevant, something worth experiencing on-demand and you do it right, with care and love, it becomes universal in appeal,” says Pereira of Muscle Milk. “The way consumers are using entertainment today is more and more on-demand so you need to be prepared for that. They have total control so you need to attract them.”

An intriguing agency model

Pereira openly reveals that the company’s success isn’t hinged on the ‘Big Idea’ – a concept he feels is inconsequential. “Who said that the size of the idea matters that much?” he quips. “Let’s stop talking about ‘Big Ideas’ – it’s an archaic term. When you look at how consumers play and react with content now you find that they enjoy the small ideas. Don’t look at the size of the idea anymore; if the idea is interesting enough it will work no matter what the platform.”

Pereira is excited by advertising’s potential today, noting the agency is no longer seeking early digital adaptors, as more conservative clients reach out for their services. “New clients realise that digital is a way to put ideas out there for people to have experiences,” he says.

“When you don’t create interesting ideas you don’t have an audience. It’s all about creating content to be distributed on different platforms, thinking loosely about formats and going deeper into stories and ideas and working out how to distribute them."

“I’m super excited about the road ahead,” he concludes. “It feels good to have an agency model that is very intriguing for both marketers and people in the industry.”