The Sport Focus

Competitive activity in a post-Covid world; the industry speaks on a particularly unusual summer of sport.

Highlighting sport's inbetweeners

Dalia Burde of Avocados & Coconuts talks to Tim Cumming about stepping off sport's "well worn 'champion' path", the future of sports advertising, finding stories in the moments in between the action, and how those stories drive audience engagement.

Craft

How Henry Hobson crafted an Olympic double-decathlon

shots speaks to director Henry Hobson about how he managed to put the viewer into 20+ sports through dazzling first-person photography for Discovery+.

Insight

The World Cup will be a chance to right England’s racist wrongs

Tom McGirr, Head of Strategy at The Wild, reflects on the England football team's recent Euros defeat, the racism that followed it, and what advertising can do to counteract such behaviour.

Talent

Raising the bar

As ex-professional rugby players turned directors, brothers Michel and Nico Arribehaute have parlayed their sporting experience into stories of passion that transcend purely physical achievements. From Muay Thai to Irish football, Formula One to the Winter Olympics, their track record is enviable – and they’re now looking beyond the sports arena for new challenges.

Insight

How to shoot a sailing race

Sebastian Slayter and Chelsea Slayter, a husband-and-wife DP and Director team, were in charge of shooting footage for American Magic, a Challenger for the 36th America’s Cup. Here, Sebastian talks about the lessons they learned on and off the water.

Craft

How Factory Fifteen filled Tokyo with easter eggs

The Nexus collective, made up of Kibwe Tavares, Jonathan Gales and Paul Nichols, tell us how pre- and post-Covid planning, animation, VFX and shoots 1000 miles apart combined to create a disorientating journey through an Olympics-themed Tokyo.

Insight

Tokyo 2020: No fans. No fun. No marketing future?

With the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games officially opening today, Andy Gallagher, Vice President of Client Engagement at Analytic Partners London, looks at how the pandemic-hit event can still end in a podium finish for some brands.

Insight

When is production like a sports team?

Mike Warzin, a director for Arts & Sciences, and a lifelong sports fanatic, takes us back to Chicago in the 90s to tell us why a production crew is like a sports team.

Insight

When a sports commercial goes full length

In 2010, director Matt Ogens filmed a piece for Toyota at the Maryland School for the Deaf. In 2021, his 40-minute special premiered on Netflix, this time following a new deaf student-athlete and his journey into adulthood.

Insight

Why storytellers need to elevate female athletes in the right way

Leah Forsyth-Steel, Managing Director at HarrimanSteel speaks to the responsibility of the industry to stop 'celebrating' women in sport for the wrong reasons.

Insight

Par for the cause: the rise of 'sportivism'

Brands have always sought to harness the godlike power of sports personalities but, these days, sporting partnerships are less about shifting product, more about pushing social change. From the rise of ‘sportivism’ to a new squad of TikTok influencers, Selena Schleh examines how -and why – the goalposts have moved.

The Photography & Cinematography Focus

In a cacophonous digital culture that bombards us with a stream of personal image-sharing and branded visuals, it can be hard for photography to stand out. This month, shots pulls focus on the DPs and photographers whose work sets the optic nerves a-tingle and considers the input of non-human image generators.

The Inspiration Focus

What are the cultural artefacts, random objects, rituals and synaptic sparks that generate fresh ideas? We talk to some of ad land’s most innovative thinkers about creative inspiration. What it is, where they find it and do the AI bots have it too...

The YDA 2024 Focus

The rising stars who won Golds in this year’s Young Director Award share with shots the origins and ideas and behind their films, the production highs and lows and what they’re planning next.

The Music and Sound Focus

With sometimes just seconds to tell a story and set tone, the aurals – as well as the visuals – need to be spot on in ads. This month we sound out the musical maestros and foley funsters worth listening out for.

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