Arts & Entertainment, Business, Science & Tech
Working With Brands
Lesson time 08:23 min
With Saturn and Budweiser as examples, Jeff and Rich talk through their strategies for engaging clients, including how to listen and when to challenge them. GS&P’s head of strategy, Bonnie Wan, breaks down their recent E.T. spot for Comcast.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Take the Best of the Past and Bring It Forward • Case Study: Saturn - Sheet Metal • Case Study: Budweiser - Born a Donkey • Bonnie Wan on Brand Strategy
Teach Advertising and Creativity
Advertising icons Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein teach you how to break rules, change minds, and create the best work of your life.
Sign UpPreview
[UPBEAT MUSIC] - You know, brands are very often big, inarticulate giants, and they-- even the most powerful ones. And they come here, and we have to give them a voice. You have to think about who they could be. What do people really think of them? Is there a way into people's heads that can make them care about these brands? - I think a brand is a living, breathing organism. It really is. This is the way we look at it. And it has a brain. It has heart. It has soul. A consumer could go to many brands. We think they should go to the brand that they connect with best, and we try to feed that brand with emotion and truth. So we don't start a project without thinking about, what does the brand stand for? Why do I want to buy it? And then we-- I want to see exploit it, but I don't mean in an ugly way. I mean we want to make it larger than life so we can push and pull and play with it. - It is really interesting to think about what a brand is. I think that it's kind of a collection of knowledge that we all share. And our job is to kind of take that river of knowledge and form it into something a little simpler and a little more narrow so that it's easier to remember. It's more likeable. It has a voice. It has mass. It has power to it. People have said, brands make beer tastes better. They make cars go faster. I think that's true. A great brand does that, you know? [UPBEAT MUSIC] We took over Saturn, I think, in the early 2000s. A different kind of car, a different kind of car company was their tag line. And I remember, when we were pitching the business, Rich and I were like, that's too many words. We shortened it to "It's different in a Saturn." The thing that made it different was that they cared about the people inside. They didn't care about the cars. They cared about the cars only in so far as they served the people inside. And so we wanted to make a commercial or communication that would somehow get that across. And Jamie Barrett had this idea of, what if there were no cars and you just saw the people on the street? MAN 1: It's a crazily bold idea for a car company to not show the cars. MAN 2: No cars in the commercial. And so people are walking on the street like they're cars-- MAN 1: As cars. MAN 2: --as they're cars. I remember the director teaching people how to walk like a car. - Yeah. - So they sort of do this little car waddle. Well, you saw people, like, in traffic. You saw people with flashlights like it was nighttime and they had their headlights on. You saw kids getting a ride to school in a bus, trailing behind the bus driver. - But it was all about the DNA of Saturn, which was people first. - Yeah. - And we just exploited that. - And at the end of it, it says, you know, when we make our cars, we don't see sheet metal. NARRATOR: We see the people who may one day drive them. Introducing the redesigned L, the Vue, and the all-new Ion. It's different in a Saturn. - A...
About the Instructor
As the minds behind the “got milk?” campaign, the Budweiser lizards, and countless other ads that have permeated pop culture, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein never stop reimagining the possibilities of advertising. Now they’re sharing how they make the beautiful and edgy work that’s seen by millions. Learn how to come up with great ideas, tell funny and compelling stories, and dazzle at your next pitch or presentation.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Jeff Goodby & Rich Silverstein
Advertising icons Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein teach you how to break rules, change minds, and create the best work of your life.
Explore the Class