The Fulani people of West Africa are the world’s largest nomadic group. Pulaar, their native tongue, existed without an alphabet for generations. They relied on spoken word to pass down traditions, codify their history, and conduct business. Without an alphabet, illiteracy thrives and written records, poems, songs and stories must be cobbled together using various foreign alphabets. Determined to preserve their people’s language, two brothers, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry, created a handwritten alphabet for Pulaar— ADLaM.

We worked with the Barry brothers to rebuild ADLaM for the digital age and put it in the hands of the 40 million Fulani across the globe connecting through technology.

While alphabets usually take hundreds of years to evolve into their final form, we were able to speed the process, using real-time community feedback to revise ADLaM’s outdated letterforms.

This new version of the alphabet is now accessible on over one billion devices around the world, enhancing the Fulani’s access to educational, business and social tools—ensuring both the language and culture ADLaM represents live on for generations.

The combined efforts of the Barry brothers and Microsoft helped ADLaM gain popularity within the Fulani community spread across the globe — helping secure the future of the alphabet and their culture for future generations:

ADLaM is being made accessible on over 1 billion devices worldwide.

The Government of Mali is in the process of recognizing ADLaM as an official alphabet in their constitution.

Guinea’s Minister of Education is taking steps to ensure ADLaM is recognized as Pulaar’s official alphabet.

The alphabet will also be used to preserve the Bambara, Bozo and Dogon languages due to shared phonology and syntax with Pulaar.

The first two ADLaM-focused schools will open this year in Guinea and for the first time, allow Fulani children to study a full curriculum in their native tongue.

The new alphabet is being used on social media to fight illiteracy.The project also sparked the co-creation of the first ADLaM dictionary, through the hashtag #ADLaMRe.

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Recognition:

Cannes Lions: 2 Grand Prix / 2 Gold / 2 Silver / 3 Bronze

Ranked by AdAge as the #1 award-winning campaign of Cannes Lions 2023.

ADLaM also led to McCann New York to rank as the #1 performing New York agency in Cannes.

Fast Company World Changing Ideas 2024 in Advertising

Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards: 1 Winner / 1 Honorable Mention

LIA: 1 GP / 4 Gold / 2 Silver

Campaign US Big Awards: Agency of the year / Best Tech Campaign / Best Purpose Driven Campaign / Best Campaign

Epica Awards: Grand Prix / Gold / Agency of the Year / Network of the Year

Clio Awards: 2 Grand / 2 Silver

Andy Awards: Best in Show / Gold / Network of the Year

Webby Awards: 1 Webby / 1 Nominee

Monocle Design Awards: Best Type Development

ADC Awards: Best of Show / Best of Typography / Design for Good / 2 Golds

One Show: 3 Best of Show / 7 Gold / 2 Silver

D&AD: 1 Graphite / 4 Wood

Effie Awards: 1 Gold / 1 Silver / Grand Effie Contender

Warc Awards: 1 Gold

Anthem Awards: 2 Gold / 1 Silver

New York Festivals: 2 Gold / 1 Silver

The Super Bowl. For ages it’s been seen as marketing’s biggest stage. Where $5 million buys you 100 million eyeballs for 30 seconds. But what if there was an even bigger stage, where you could have even longer and more meaningful engagements? Enter Skittles Commercial: The Broadway Musical. Instead of following 50 years of established Super Bowl wisdom, we skipped the 30 second TV ad and made a full 30-minute Broadway Musical.

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Recognition:

Cannes Lions: 2 Gold / 4 Silver / 1 Bronze

One Show: 1 Best of Discipline / 6 Gold / 6 Silver / 4 Bronze

D&AD: 4 Graphite Pencil / 4 Wood Pencil

ADC: 2 Gold / 3 Silver

Andys: 2 Gold

LIA: 7 Gold / 2 Silver / 8 Bronze

CLIOS: 3 Gold / 4 Silver / 2 Bronze

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Microsoft’s new Windows 11 is designed to provide a calm and creative space where you can pursue your passions through an immersive and seamless experience.

To launch this new OS we wanted to bring to life that moment, that "state of flow," that happens when you are able to seamlessly engage with a new piece of tech. When nothing stands in your way. No barriers, no distractions, helping you focus on what matters most. A dreamlike journey able to take you wherever you want to go.

This film brings us through a surreal, visual trip where our hero explores the new iconic elements and user interface, all representing this unique experience that Windows 11 makes possible.

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Smirnoff’s "We Do We" campaign is all about celebrating the power of the collective, and the energy that’s created when different individuals, ingredients, and flavors come together.

This launch film is a representation of that collective experience. Because, like the atoms we are made of and the ingredients of a cocktail, life tastes better when We Do We.

The creation of the ad involved a global collective of creatives, including choreographers, producers, animators, and 3D modelers. Emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion, the campaign considered these values in casting, selection of creatives, and crew.

The metaphor of life as a cocktail is used, with individuals transforming into bubbles that mix like ingredients in a glass. Each bubble represents a person's unique characteristics, reflecting diversity across age, gender, ethnicity, and ability. The meticulous crafting of each bubble ensures the retention of individuality, reinforcing the spirit of togetherness.

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Recognition:

British Arrows: Silver

ADC Awards: Gold

Cannes Lions: Shortlist

LIA Awards: Silver

On December 11, 2014, Spain’s conservative party used its majority to approve the “Gag Law”. A measure which restricted citizens’ liberties and criminalized their freedom of expression, going as far as banning protests in front of Congress.

In order to show the world the future Spanish citizens would be faced with we organized the first hologram protest in history. People from all over the world joined the demonstration by uploading their shouts, proclamations and faces on the campaign’s website — as well as signing our online petition to repeal the law.

Thousands of holograms protested in front of the Spanish Congress, demonstrating, that despite the trammels, they will never be able to silence the voice of the people.

The "Gag Law" turned into worldwide subject of debate. Media from around the globe echoed the news, denouncing the restriction of liberties the Spanish people would face.

A year later, Amnesty International Korea replicated the protest in front of the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace in order to fight for their right to free speech.

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Recognition:

Cannes Lions: 7 Gold / 6 Silver / 3 Bronze

D&AD: 1 Yellow Pencil / 3 Graphite Pencil / 2 Wood Pencil

One Show: 6 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Merit

LIA: 2 Gold / 4 Silver / 1 Bronze

ADC*E: 2 Gold

Clio: 2 Gold / 1 Silver / 3 Bronze

New York Festivals: 1 Grand Prix / 5 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze

Eurobest: 1 Innovation Award / 6 Gold / 6 Silver / 6 Bronze

El Sol: 2 Grand Prix / 6 Gold / 2 Silver

Adweek Isaac Project: 1 Gold

Epica Awards: 1 Gold

Bill Bernbach Awards: 1 Grand Prix / 7 Gold

LAUS: 1 Grand Prix / 1 Gold / 2 Silver

IAB: 1 Grand Prix / 3 Gold

CdeC: 2 Gold / 1 Silver / 2 Merit

El Ojo de Iberoamérica: 4 Grand Prix / Best Local Idea / 21 Gold / 6 Silver

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“We Do We” is Smirnoff new global campaign, boldly championing the power of the collective and celebrating the magic of “we” that's created when different people, ingredients, and flavors come together.

The new campaign represents the biggest platform shift from Smirnoff in more than a decade and the latest expression of the brand's belief that we're better together.

Infused with a fresh, colorful energy, the campaign rolled out with a digital-first approach in 20+ markets worldwide.

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ADC Awards: 2 Merit

Microsoft Unlocked is an interactive storytelling hub, dedicated to celebrating narratives of innovation and creativity and their profound impact on the world.

Embracing the idea of technology as a catalyst for breaking barriers, driving change, and empowering every person on the planet to achieve more, we've curated a collection of stories that engage users in compelling narratives. These stories aim to foster empathy and convey Microsoft's mission to the world.

Each narrative is the result of a meticulous blend of storytelling and innovative interactivity, providing users with a sensorial and immersive experience as they explore each story.

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To celebrate the timelessness of great storytelling, we reimagined the iconic stories of The Simpsons, Apocalypse Now, This is Spinal Tap and Say Anything (from the Festival’s retrospective series) using one of the world’s oldest forms of storytelling: Egyptian hieroglyphs.

We partnered with an Egyptologist from Brown University to keep us true to the integrity of the 5,000 year-old language and its precise artistic forms.

To properly tell these stories, we developed a new alphabet for each one. By combining iconography from the films with phonograms and classifiers from the ancient language, we created over 270 hybrid glyphs and symbols that retained the shape and phonetics of the original versions. You could even translate it into English with our app simply by taking a photo.

The project was a success, and led to discoveries in the study of the Egyptian language, created awareness of Tribeca’s diverse offerings and gave our audience a chance to experience their favorite stories like never before.

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Recognition:

Cannes Lions: 2 Gold

LIA: 1 Silver / 1 Bronze

CLIOS: 4 Golds

Andys: 2 Golds

D&AD: 2 Wood Pencils

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Microsoft harnessed the power of technology to help injured veterans who are physically unable to participate in this year’s Invictus Games still be a fundamental part of it.

Anthem For All uses bespoke technology to enable injured military personnel to play instruments they would otherwise be unable to play, to create the first truly inclusive anthem for The Games. An anthem for injured military personnel, made by injured military personnel.

Microsoft’s Hands Free Lab leveraged a number of technologies including Xbox Adaptive Controllers and Gaze-eye tracking to assemble an orchestra of instruments that could be played with limited hand mobility or through eye movement.

Then we pushed the boundaries of the browser to create a digital experience that allows people to create music online, using their heads, keyboard or mouse.

Head-Tracking Experience. The in-browser head tracking interaction utilized pose estimation models to capture head position to give a user control of the screen’s cursor to trigger musical notes

Keyboard Experience. In this experience, users were able to play the different notes by using keyboard numbers 1 to 8. The challenge was to create an efficient and easy-use way for users to play the notes with a keyboard without interfering with the standard accessibility functions already assigned to the keys.

Mouse or Trackpad Experience. The use of a mouse is the most common and functional way of interacting with a computer. However, this standard device can pose some difficulties for people with dexterity or cognitive issues. In our music composer, we allow users to play the notes on hover rather than click. This allows for a simpler interaction method.

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Recognition:

CLIO Awards: 1 Silver / 3 Bronze

See Yourself in Others / Tribeca Film Festival

2017 has been a very divisive year all around the globe, and the only way to change that is through empathy. To spark a conversation and inspire people to reflect on it, Tribeca Film Festival wanted to invite people to see themselves in others — reminding us the importance of sharing other people’s feelings, and reinforcing the fact that great stories allow us to do just that.

The film “See Yourself in Others,” directed by Jared Knecht, features people from different religious, cultural and class backgrounds, wearing a five-sided mirrored cube on their heads, venturing into places where they are typically viewed as “the others.” Onlookers who encountered them were confronted with their own reflection on the body of that “other,” forcing them to literally see themselves in others.

The prints, shot by Toby Coulson, were meant to represent the same experiment, but in a more graphic way. Each different execution illustrates some of the most controversial discussions nowadays, such as the refugee crisis, racism, homophobia and religious intolerance.

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Converse has been engrained in skate culture since the sport’s inception nearly 75 years ago. The sport and the brand are not only bonded by history, but by a shared skate mindset that that is fueled by the audacity to push boundaries, which served as inspiration for We Create Next.

Up-and-coming skater Zion Effs, legend Alexis Sablone, musician Tyler, The Creator, and more joined the brand in creating content that would meet the next generation where they are: social and digital media. With refreshed short, social-friendly content featuring rising talent, Converse is bridging their rich legacy to the modern landscape of the sport.

Since its conception in 1883, Kroger offers access to fresh, affordable, delicious food, no matter who you are, how you shop or what you like to eat.

Their iconic logo was a signature asset of their identity, synonym with the principles they stand for. But they needed a new brand identity that reclaimed the company’s strong, food-rich heritage combined with a more accessible and contemporary look.

Appreciating the current love for and recognition of their logo, we retained its personality but evolved its geometry. The result was a simpler, approachable design that retains the shape and movement of the iconic “K” and “G,” loved by generations of Kroger customers.

The new identity was completed by the introduction of the lovable “Kroji” characters that kept Kroger fun and relatable. They are designed to represent their customers, associates, and communities in an inclusive, optimistic, and fun way.

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When Beth ventured out to go shopping, little did she know her husband Gary would embark on a DIY scavenger hunt at home, fashioning his own extraordinary steampunk-style suit.

The mission: to give himself more hands, so he can scratch multiple Xtreme Multiplier Series of Scratch-Off Games tickets from the New York Lottery at once.

The main protagonist’s harness is cleverly assembled with a blow-dryer, desk lamp and makeshift arm handcrafted from wood scraps. The creation symbolizes the heightened excitement and boosted winning odds associated with the new wave of lottery tickets, each with the power to multiply winnings up to 100 times.

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Recognition:

Clio Awards: 1 Gold / 1 Silver

For as long as gamers have walked the Earth they have made excuses. But, with the advent of Verizon 5G and it's incredibly low latency, blaming your low score on lag is no longer a possibility.

This is explained to a giant throng of gamer avatars by Samuel.L.Jackson, the all-time MVP of forceful explanations, in this Super Bowl spot.

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The biggest source of frustration in gaming is laggy internet. Verizon has America’s fastest internet and wanted more gamers to up their connection game. So we trolled the biggest gamers in the world. Hard. And invented the world’s first unbreakable controller.

The harder gamers raged over their laggy internet, the more painfully obvious it became — it was our ridiculous controller, or Verizon Fios.

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Around 1.5 million deer-car accidents occur every year, resulting in approximately 200 fatalities, 10,000 injuries and $1billion in insured losses annually. But with the right tyres, accidents can be avoided.

In this whimsical and unique film, a deer’s day gets gradually worse. From a bird pooing on his nose, to surviving a raging river and a pair of aggressive wolves before leaping into the road in front of a moving car.

With headlights reflected in his eyes, tragedy is avoided at the last moment thanks to the iON evo Hankook tyre.

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In this NFL season, Smirnoff paid tribute to the lifeblood of the game: the fans, through the introduction of their latest campaign, "We Do Game Days."

The campaign films aired nationwide and included custom spots for each of the brand's seven partner teams, created to celebrate the unique cultures that comprise each fan base.

From strange superstitions around calling the season too soon, to showing that fandom is much more than the actual game, the series of local spots showcased the traditions and game day rituals that prove once and for all that football is a "We" thing, and Smirnoff has a drink for every team.

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There’s no doubt California has a lot to offer its 39 million residents, both culturally and naturally. And it offers these gifts freely, on one condition: that Californians promise to preserve and protect their state.

To ignite state pride and remind Californians of their connection to the land, we created '39 Million Heirs'. A cinematic spot that highlights both epic and intimate parts of the state as well as the Californians who stand to inherit them, while underscoring the responsibility they have to preserving their homeland through responsible energy consumption.

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‘Rosie Reborn’, inspired by the iconic Rosie the Riveter, honors the strides women have made in the workforce over the past 75 years pairing the strength and durability of authentic cotton denim.

To champion the indomitable spirit of women, and dress a new generation of ‘Rosies,’ Cotton Incorporated joined forces with designers Emily Current and Meritt Elliott of the womenswear brand, THE GREAT., to reimagine and re-build a new line of modern-day jumpsuits for the barrier breaking Rosies of today. Each limited-edition jumpsuit incorporates authentic denim from an original 40’s era ‘Rosie’ jumpsuit, connecting today’s Rosies with the Rosies of the past, and illustrates how far women have come, while paving the way for future generations.

The campaign showcases denim’s role as a uniform for barrier-breakers throughout American history, particularly women who entered male-dominated industries. ‘Rosie Reborn’ celebrates women who are redefining the workplace by spotlighting six ‘modern day Rosies’ who are breaking boundaries in their often male-dominated fields; including, professional soccer athlete and World Cup Champion, Carli Lloyd, The Great founders, Emily Current and Meritt Elliott, famed YouTube personality and welder, Barbie Parsons, Black Girls Code founder, Kimberly Bryant, and architecture thought-leader, Julia Gamolina.

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September 16th is Mexico’s Independence Day — a day full of significance for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. For that reason, that day, "El Dieciseis," the fight of the year took place: Canelo Vs. Golovkin.

We turned this meaningful number into a social campaign. Promoting the fight by celebrating the stories of 16 Mexican-Americans: “16 Stories of Punch.”

Sixteen days before the fight, we started releasing daily posts of Mexican-American everyday “fighters,” showcasing their unique victories in life alongside a celebratory illustration — made by the Mexican artist Saner — based on each particular story.

These posts encouraged people to watch and celebrate the fight that would become the 50th victory in Canelo’s career. 

The day of the fight we showcased all the artwork and their stories in an art exhibition, alongside a mural of the fighters which Saner painted while spectators filled the venue.

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When you move to a new place is hard to settle in. But knowing someone there can make things easier for you, especially if that person has known the neighborhood for a long, long time.

"Old Friends," is the new State Farm campaign, that through real-people stories help us understand the importance of making some new "old friends" in order to get to know your new neighborhood. Because only they know the tips and tricks that will make your life easier in your new home.

The social media campaign was launched through a film, followed by a series of moving tips taken from actual experiences of our main characters.

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The Volkswagen Golf — Volkswagen Rabbit in the US market — is the most popular car from the German automotive brand. This car model has lived among us for generations, becoming part of our lives and families, consequently developing an emotional connection between the vehicle and its owner.

The film, directed by Sebastien Grousset, showcases this deep connection through a fun story that takes place during a baseball match.

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