Jonny McKemey

Virgin Active wanted (and still do, I’m sure) to position themselves as the only gym that can make you feel quite as good as they do. Not through any magic voodoo stuff, but because they have the superior coaches, classes, equipment and spaces. Moving away from the very linear approach that most gyms have of either being buff & skinny with a ‘witty’ line or looking like a Butlins family break, Virgin decided to get a little bit more emotive.

Asking the question “How will Virgin Active make you feel?”, what started as a UK based campaign evolved into a global piece of work that ran over multiple media channels from TV and OOH then onto Instagram and Facebook posts including carousels and canvas ads. In addition, we decided that gifs were a great way to express emotions, so we created a series of gym-related gifs that lived on their very own Giphy channel for Virgin and Virgin members to use as they wished. Emotional!

For the Rio Olympics 2016, we were tasked with launching Team Speedo - a group of the world’s most elite swimmers all vying for gold.

We looked into what it was that makes a winner, a gold medalist, a legend.

And like an athlete in the pool, there’s a lot more to it than appears on the surface. It’s what lies beneath that matters. The crushing early starts, the regimented training regime, the endless need for calories to burn along with the sacrifice of family time and socializing.

It's the sum of the parts that equate to winning elements.

We created a series of infographic posters and social posts for each athlete that spelled out what made them a winning element.

We then created a launch film and key visual that showed our athletes reacting to water and having a place in our very own Winning Elements periodic table. Snazzy.

Their individual elements even emblazoned their Speedo kit that was taken to the Olympics… not bad, if only to train in.

Next, we kicked off the whole campaign in New York, where we projected the film onto a giant mesh screen before revealing the periodic table built for real with our actual athletes there, in their element, as it were.

After winning the gruelling pitch process, we were tasked with launching Robinsons SQUASH’D – a highly condensed, portable squash for people on the go. Robinsons was no longer chained to the kitchen sink. It was now set free, so you could enjoy it absolutely anywhere!

Anywhere? Even in outer space?!

Yup. Even in outer space!

When I say outer space, what I mean is in the Vomit Comet that trainee astronauts use as a means to get used to weightlessness.  Nonetheless, it’s zero gravity, which is a pretty big deal.

We enlisted the help of the guys from Framestore that actually worked on the film Gravity to create our piece of launch content. This showed us making a glass/globule of Robinsons SQUASH’D at zero gravity with the hashtag #GETSQUASHD.

After that, we contacted some of the world’s most popular vloggers, sent them our new product with a brief and encouraged them to #GETSQUASHD, before opening it up to the public to get involved and rewarding the best entries. We received some great content, which really bolstered the campaign. Along with our clear in store launch it became a very rounded campaign.

We were tasked with creating a global toolkit for the on- and off-trade markets to put Guinness back at the heart of St Patrick’s Weekend.

‘Let's Get Together’ was the overarching thought and renowned artist McBess was commissioned to bring this to life. He created a quirky mix of characters from bikers to hipsters to jockeys as well as referencing Guinness’s heritage with the Surfers, Sapeurs and of course the Toucan, all coming together around a pint.

The beautifully designed posters featured in every spot you could purchase Guinness… as well as on specially created two berth beer mats, T-shirts, back of bar displays and in-store FSDU’s.

This positioned Guinness as the authentic way to celebrate St Patrick’s Weekend 2017. It was also the first step into helping them carry on the mantle for creating some of the most iconic illustrations in the history of advertising!

Water. It’s a wonderful thing and essential to, well, staying alive.

We didn’t quite position it like that with Robinsons. We wanted to get the whole nation to actually enjoy drinking more water. None of that guilt tripping stuff!

So, with the jovial tones of Adam Buxton, we created a series of stop frame animated content that brought to life some of the facts about why we should drink more water. They also gave consumers the chance to get their hydrated little hands on one of the bespoke smiley glasses designed by us.  Added to that, you could call upon our mobile thirst quenching teams to rock up at your office and make those water cooler moments that little bit, ahem, cooler. It was also endorsed by a number of A (maybe C) -list celebrities. Tres bon!

What do you do when your Cineworld client comes to you with a brief to launch their new deluxe cinema experience? Oh and by the way, they don’t have a name, a logo or even a brand... alongside a minimal budget. 

Well, we jumped at the chance. Creating a whole look and feel from scratch that translated across their cinema ad, posters, menus and website, as well as creating all of the brochures, not to mention coming up with the name and logo and all the bits in between. Not bad for a week's work!

The constant launch of new pizzas, crust stuffings and dessert offerings mixed with an ability as a brand not to take its self too seriously made Domino's a dream client to work with.  

So together across TV, radio and social, we raced dodgems around the streets of London, got children to starve birds, ate a lot of pizza and created some memorable campaigns along the way.

As one of the main sponsors of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Auto Trader often played second fiddle to a lot of the more shiny stands. People were unaware that they were more than a second hand car company. They in fact offered brand new box fresh cars.

So, we came up with the genius solution to create three stands shaped like oversized model car boxes to house our different experiences.

Consumers could pick a car off the wall and scan it to find out all of its stats using NFC technology.  They could have an AR race around the Goodwood track and also select their favourite cars throughout the ages to have their very own a pic with. Oh, and they also had the chance to win an Alfa Romeo! Why not?!

It gave the Auto Trader stand something that none of the others could offer.

Lucozade came to us looking for a simple promotion… what came out of it was a complete new look and feel for the brand along with a new end line… as well as a promotion!

We ditched its role as the drink for builders and repositioned it as the drink for those with a thirst for life, as well as for Lucozade. This allowed them to play in Red Bull territory, which is far more exciting.

With the new end line “Do More” we encouraged people to rally their friends together and win the adventure of a lifetime.  The campaign ran across OOH as well as radio. It was also documented on their website and across social media with our roving reporter covering all of the adventures as they happened… not a bad gig, if you can get it.

Here's a selection of random musical/doodling/noodling projects. Enjoy. Or not. I don't care.

Here are a few smaller projects that still have a squidgy place in my heart.