KANSAS CITY—Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and 2019 Super Bowl MVP, has shot a new commercial for CommunityAmerica Credit Union.
But the new spot reflects the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. What had originally been scheduled to be a live-action commercial shoot was forced to pivot to animation, according to Cactus, a Denver-based agency.
In changing the creative, Cactus said it brought in Los Angeles/London-based Nexus Studios and director Robertino Zambrano to help “reimagine their creative concept as an elegantly illustrated look at the evolution of Mahomes as a player and the Kansas City region writ large.”
The resulting spot, entitled “Rising Into Something Greater,” will be airing throughout the NFL season.
According to the agency, the new approach was inspired by the look of the Academy Award-winning short “Dear Basketball,” directed by Kobe Bryant. The 30-second Mahomes ad uses a black and white 2D, pencil sketch animation style, imbued only with red (the Chiefs’ color) and the CommunityAmerica logo, and “communicates elegance, beauty and power all at once.”
The copy, voiced by Mahomes, connects the narrative dots between his rise with the Chiefs to the rise of the people and community of Kansas City.
Completely ‘Reimagined’
“We were already at the point where we had our original batch of live-action concepts ready to present the client when Covid-19 shutdown hit,” said Brian Watson, Cactus’ executive creative director. “At that point, no one knew what the next few months would hold, but we knew we needed to develop a contingency plan. We created an entirely new batch of concepts but ultimately ended up going with the same script from our original idea, but with a completely reimagined way to bring it to life visually. As much as we liked the original vision for the spot, we ended up feeling like the animated version of the spot was even stronger.
“It’s about the power of what can happen when people come together and support one another through life's changes and challenges because that’s exactly what CommunityAmerica exists to do for their members and their community,” Watson continued. “I can’t imagine a more powerful and important message to be putting out into the world right now.”
The spot can be viewed on YouTube here.