72andSunny

At LA shop 72andSunny, creative team Rob Teague and Cody Osborne use interesting working methods to produce campaigns that are bright and shiny enough to attract awards. Isobel Roberts learns about hat-sharing and one-upping.

Surfing in Bali and backcountry snowboarding; as first projects go for getting to know your new creative partner, they surely don’t get much better than that. And since creative duo Rob Teague and Cody Osborne first paired up on Nike’s epic, extreme sports-focused Chosen campaign almost two years ago, the duo have been going strong at agency 72andSunny in Los Angeles, lending their craft to clients including K-Swiss and Activision.

For California native Teague, the gig at 72andSunny was his first job out of college after a successful internship at the shop. Disillusioned with logo designs and brochure layouts after graduating with a more formal graphic design education, Teague turned to advertising for its scope and opportunity. “Advertising is really varied,” says the art director, “and it’s more about the ideas and the creative process as opposed to a really good-looking website navigation, which is important, but I think that the idea sits at the top of the pyramid and everything comes out underneath that and that’s the exciting part.”

Osborne on the other hand had embarked on a college course with ambitions to become a journalist, but after a change of heart he stumbled across an ad programme given by the school and decided to give it a go. “I took this class where they were showing us the old Miller High Life ads that Wieden + Kennedy did back in the day, and I thought I can’t believe people get to do this for a living. And here I am.”

Team players

After stints at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco and Seattle agency, Wexley School for Girls, Osborne made his way south to the City of Angels and it was off the back of a freelance project that the agency played matchmaker for him and Teague.

Osborne is technically the copywriting brain on the team, but in fact started out his agency life on the design side at Goodbys as an art director, and today the duo continue to share creative duties rather than divide the roles.

“We sit together and come up with the idea,” explains Osborne. “I’ll start on the script, he’ll start on the design and then we switch chairs, make notes, switch back again, and then just kind of go until we’re happy with everything. He’ll add something to the script while I’m comping somebody’s face on a photo. We co-exist well, specifically with me having the art direction background and Rob having a passion for writing.”

That sharing of hats is also something Teague and Osborne say is at the heart of the 72andSunny culture itself, with parts of the agency’s walls plastered with work in progress so that anyone in the office can offer suggestions to help collectively improve the output.

“I think the worst way to start a meeting is to say who the creatives are,” believes Teague. “Creating those silos is more of a hindrance than a workflow. I believe everybody is creative and can bring the solutions and that is what sets 72andSunny apart, the optimism and that everyone can get their hands dirty.”

A million dollar 10 per cent

As well as the Nike project, the pair have dabbled in comedy as part of the agency’s award-winning K-Swiss campaign with the launch film for Blades, starring the legendary Kenny Powers. “People often think those scripts came from the Eastbound & Down (US TV comedy) writers, but the campaign was very much in our hands to craft and then Danny McBride (Kenny Powers actor) approved it,” says Teague. “What’s great about someone like Danny is that he brings that last 10 per cent on the day that you couldn’t write, and that’s the million dollar 10 per cent. It’s that intangible thing that a talent like that brings.”

Now the pair are focused on videogame maker Activision, a client that keeps them on their toes with its myriad releases. Executions so far include an emotive, live-action, 90-second film for the launch of Prototype 2 and an off-the-wall comedy spot for Big Game Hunter 12.

“Each project is a different storyline, it’s a different product and it has a different core following and so the business problem and subsequently the solution is always different,” says Teague. “And what I like the most is that it’s something that gets traction in culture – video games are important, they’re seen as entertainment on the same kind of level as movies nowadays and I think its cool to do stuff that people have a vested interest in.”

And although they’ve already stacked up an impressive CV, the pair are always looking ahead to what they can improve on: “We want to keep one-upping ourselves,” says Osborne. “I think both of us look at our work and think our next thing can be better, so it’s always just raising the bar for ourselves. It’s also what everyone does here. You make something and do it better the next year, even if it was the best thing you’ve ever done.”