Wieden + Kennedy New York won the Lyft account in May, when the ride-sharing company began to get serious about marketing what it sees as the “third transportation revolution”.
The agency’s first “campaign” appeared to be part awareness and partly a driver recruitment initiative. W+K took over the La Cienega car wash in Los Angeles and gave it a makeover in Lyft’s colours – which happen to be you-can’t-miss-it pink. The agency redesigned everything – even the car-wash menus – and erected a huge, unmissable pink neon, Lyft Car Wash sign. The car wash offered Lyft drivers $1 washes. A hand written sign, gasped, “Have we gone mad?! Mad about our drivers!” All proceeds from the stunt were donated to the L.A. Regional Food Bank.
Now Wieden + Kennedy has returned to more conventional advertising for Lyft. It is, in fact, Lyft’s first fully integrated campaign for the five year old company – covering television, social media and OOH.
Ride-sharing may be the future of travel but the campaign is set in 1836. The core spot stars Jeff Bridges as a US pioneer on the Oregon trail, discussing the importance of choosing to ride with the right people and have a great experience. The campaign tagline is It matters how you get there.
The aim of the campaign is to build on Lyft’s growth (helped along this year by rival, Uber’s problems) by introducing it to new people and getting others to reconsider it as a mode of transportation.
There is also a series of shorter social ads.
Making its appearance towards the end of September is a second spot, Riding Shotgun, with Tilda Swinton and Jordan Peele, which will feature a journey to the moon in 1971.
And while the job of the videos is to communicate Lyft’s raison d’etre, a series of OOH ads communicates more specific benefits of ride-sharing.
Credits:
Client: Lyft
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York
Executive Creative Director: Karl Lieberman
Creative Directors: Stuart Jennings & Laddie Peterson
Copywriters: Matt Simpson & Pepe Hernandez
Art Director: Alison Joseph & Blair Warren
Head of Integrated Production: Nick Setounski
Creative Services Director: Chris Whalley
Head of Art Production: Deb Rosen
Broadcast Producers: Alison Hill & Alexey Novikov
Art Producers: Deb Rosen & Yukino Moore
Head of Strategy: Dan Hill
Strategy Director: Tass Tsitsopoulous
Account Team: Samantha Wagner, Jasmine Cogdell & Lee Ford
Communications Planners: Karlo Cordova, Neil Sawhney
Production Company: Biscuit
Director: Noam Murro
Executive Producers: Shawn Lacy & Holly Vega
Line Producer: Jay Veal
Production Supervisor: Jen Berry
DoP: Phedon Papamichael
Editing company: Arcade Edit NY
Editor: Jeff Ferruzzo
Editor (Social Videos): Laurel Smoliar
Senior Post Producer: Gavin Carroll
VFX Company (Riding West): Arcade Edit NY
VFX Company (Riding Shotgun): The Mill
Colour: Company 3
Mix Company: Sonic Union
Music House: Future Perfect
Photographer: Joao Canziani
Out of home & Digital:
Executive Creative Director: Karl Lieberman
Creative Directors: Stuart Jennings & Laddie Peterson
Copywriter: Matt Simpson & Pepe Hernandez
Art Director: Alison Joseph & Blair Warren
Creative Services Director: Chris Whalley
Head of Art Production: Deb Rosen
Art Producers: Deb Rosen, Yukino Moore
Digital Producer: Laura Paulino
Lead Print Producer: Stephen Brady
Account Team: Samantha Wagner, Jasmine Cogdell & Lee Ford
Communications Planners: Karlo Cordova & Neil Sawhney
Lead Studio Designer: Mike Nesi
Print Producer: Heather Kehoe
Retouching: Chris McClelland
Production Company: Joint
Senior Producer: Michelle Carman
Assistant Producer: Brian Schimpf
Producer: Francess Tom-Sahr
