David J Smith

Blaise Matuidi was inspired by Jay-Jay Okocha. Now he is the inspiration. Not just on the pitch, but through out French popular culture. Known as The Charo (the vulture), he has sparked a cultural phenomenon called Charo Life.

The campaign for France, host nation of the Euro Champs 2016.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Australia’s first bespoke kit in the FIFA video game.

FIFA sells approximately 150 million copies per season. It is a global blockbuster. So it was a real privilege for FIFA to approach Blood UTD to design their new Aussie kit.

Our kit was a nostalgic throw back to the classic Australian milk bar. We wanted something that was fun and very Australian, but not kangaroos and koalas.

Fast-paced, raw, and explosive, modern football is a spectacle beyond belief. And FIFA 15 puts you right in the middle of it. In short, it lets you FEEL THE GAME.

This was our global positioning for FIFA 15. A campaign that helped FIFA to become the highest selling sports video game of the year, and the second highest overall video game just behind Call of Duty.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Rousseau said, "Man is born free, but everywhere he lives in chains". Need For Speed says, "Fuck the chains, let's get off the hook".

This is the reboot of a seminal street racing game. It is a campaign that gets under the skin of that culture. it puts you in the driver's seat so to speak. Everyone featured in the work is a legitimate street racer, some legal, some not so legal, and others just straight criminal...

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

The monks of Affligem have been making beer for centuries. When we went to meet them it was a genuine spiritual experience, it could have been the booze or maybe it was the Yoda-like vibes of the old monks, but you could feel a sense of "god" in their small monastery, and you can taste it in their brew.

ROLE: Writer | Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

The boxer fights not only his opponent but his fear.

Standing in contrast to the usual bluster you hear from fighters, this is a very candid and real story. It is the story of Michael Zerafa and the battle between his faith and his fear. Michael is often wracked with fear, terrified that he isn’t training hard enough, that somehow his opponent will find a way through his armour. But countering that is his faith, this crazy strong belief that he is destined for greatness.

Role: Creative Partner
Agency: Blood UTD

Blood UTD was an agency of just 3 people when we took on several multinationals to win the women’s portfolio for Cricket Australia. This was the pitch winning idea.

Watch Me was a platform for women’s cricket that challenged the bias against women’s cricket as an inferior product. It said, if you don’t think I can swing a bat, just watch me.

Watch Me ran for three seasons and covered both the professional game and grassroots, driving both ticket sales and participation. Which all laddered up to a world record crowd at the MCG to see the Australian Women’s team beat India in the final.

Most Australians don’t really get football, but they do get mates. And there is nothing better than sitting on the couch playing FIFA with your closest friends. In this series, we hung out with some famous Australians and their best mates to play FIFA and talk shit.

Role: Creative Partner
Agency: Blood UTD

“Arda Turan's amazing half-time speech will make you want to play football IMMEDIATELY” - The Mirror

We made this one for the Turkish fans. And they loved it. Its engagement metrics were higher than any previous work done by Nike for Turkey. The film was accompanied by a 360 VR piece that put fans in the middle of the change room with the national team.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

"One of the most innovative and ambitious web projects of 2013" - Fast Company

The world's first life-size avatar online. Leo was 5'7" inches tall, intelligent, and responsive. He felt like a living being. Giving gamers an up-close and personal encounter with a football hero, while also showing them the future of gaming.

The site is no longer live, but here is a link to it at THE FWA

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

They think New Zealand is crap. Boring, rainy, and full of hobbits. A place they wouldn’t visit in a million years. They are the Kiwi Sceptics. If we could change their minds about New Zealand, we could change anyone’s mind.

The films were voiced by Rhys Darby (Murray from Flight of the Conchords)

ROLE: Writer | Director
AGENCY: Host Sydney

A series of street football tournaments that formed part of our Nike Risk Everything campaign for the World Cup.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Global relaunch. For many years, Onitsuka Tiger focused on their sport heritage. But in the world of Nike and Adidas, this was hardly unique. We got them to refocus on their Japanese origins.

We launched the campaign with a giant shoe built from Japanese toys. The shoe was exhibited at sneaker shows and featured in our print, film and instore. While online we created a shoe that was generated in real time from images tagged "Japan". These were hyperlinked back to their source, turning the shoe into a portal to all things Japanese. 

The campaign ran for four seasons. The site is no longer live, but here is a link to it at THE FWA.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: StrawberryFrog

Beer is to rugby, what peace is to war. We may damage you on the field, but afterwards, we will honour you with a hand of friendship and a cold lager.

Heineken's global campaign for the Rugby World Cup 2011.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Moscow girls are often seen as plastic and doll-like. But there is a group of girls punching holes in that stereotype. Swapping high heels for sneakers and hand bags for punch bags, they are the Real Girls. The perfect heroes to inspire Russian girls to get into sport.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Part of our Moscow Real Girls Campaign.

To recognize the sporting efforts of everyday girls in Russia, we searched instagram for their best work-out or sport photos, and turned them into posters. We then geo-tagged them and reposted them for the girls to see and share. We did around 60 or so of these posters in total.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam | Instinct Moscow

Vogue loved our "Real Girls" campaign for Nike. So they did a cover feature on the real girls and how sport is changing the mindset of girls in Russia. This was a massive coup for us. It is not often you get your campaign on the cover of Vogue magazine.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam | Vogue Sport

A tactical campaign to celebrate Zenit FC winning their first championship star. It started with a single social post on a Saturday and by the Sunday afternoon it had gone global.

SKY SPORTS called it the best team photo ever. ESPN thought it was brilliant. The Mirror called it weird. FOX SPORT said it was stylish. And both CNN and the BBC dedicated articles to it.

Even fans from other football clubs started to create their own versions

Who knew a print ad could win the internet?

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Can a mere mortal become a god of speed? We decided to find out.

We took an everyday bloke and tried to turn him into the 3rd driver for Vodafone McLaren. A local activation for the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: Host Sydney

How do you sell a football game to an audience (AKA the USA) who don't really care for football? You let them deep dive into that world first hand. 

Shot by Derek Cianfrance - director of "Place beyond the Pines" - the spot follows the journey of player from the change room to the stadium, from rookie to the player an entire stadium sings for.

Go big, go loud on this one.

Role: Creative Director
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

They are the super-ballers of Europe so we did some comic style posters for them.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Greece is a country in crisis. But in her athletes, we find an indomitable spirit, a refusal to defined by their surroundings. An almost Herculean desire to triumph over circumstance.

Filmed in the abandoned stadiums of the Greek Olympics, "The Herculeans" was a tribute to these athletes, who stand like ancient heroes among the ruins, refusing to give in.

Campaign comprised of film, social posters and a Nike+ digital activation

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

The Super Netball is Australia's first truly professional netball league. Which means more money, more sponsors, bigger broadcast deals, but with that comes added pressure. The teams, the players, the coaches have everything to play for, but they also have everything to lose. 

This season, it is all on the line in the Super Netball.

Written and directed by Blood UTD.

Music by TKAY Maizda.

Lewandowski scored 5 goals in 9 minutes in a Bundasliga game, so we banged out this tactical ad the next day.

We also turned it into a T-shirt. Anna Lewandowski posted a photo of her wearing it on facebook. Hashtag proud wag.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Fifa immerses people in the emotional roller coaster of football. To give people a taste of that, we created a chocolate bar from the tears of Lionel Messi. The bitter tears of defeat and the sweet tears of victory.

We made over five thousand bars (200 kg of chocolate) to send out to bloggers and gamers. But the legal department shut it down. So now there are boxes and boxes of them in the basement of W+K Amsterdam. At least the film was a sweet victory.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Coaches call them "the difference". Players who can turn a game around. But it is more than just natural talent that makes these players.

A Champions League campaign that we did featuring three play-makers. Andre Arshavin, Wayne Rooney, and Franck Ribery.

ROLE: Co-writer with Mike Farr
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

A tactical campaign for the French rugby team.

The occasion was the final match of the Six Nations, and the 100th anniversary match between two "best of enemies" - England and France.

To welcome England to the Stade de France, we created a greeting poster with ominous overtones. The copy translates to: France welcomes her English friends. We look forward to a nice 100th anniversary match.

After France won, we did a farewell ad.

Copy translates to: Thanks for the Grand Slam. We hope you enjoy the souvenirs we gave you.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

In the summer of 2014, Nike were on the hunt for the baddest basketballers out there. (Bad, as in good). The hunt was spearheaded by Kevin Durant (NBA MVP).

In the film, he laid down the challenge to the kids of Europe & North America to come show him their badass skills.

This was followed by a recruitment campaign (executed by Nike, House of Hoops & R/GA) where kids uploaded their moves to score an invite to an exclusive pick-up game in Barcelona.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam | R/GA

Every January FIFA (the organization) release their Team Of The Year. The list is always contentious and causes massive debate among the fans.

This was our contribution to the mud-slinging. A 24-minute documentary that first aired on Sky Sports in the half hour slot before Champions League games.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

We set out to discover the origin of vodka and discovered a history of bad blood between Poland and Russia. This is the Wodka Wars. 

A documentary written and produced with Vice magazine

ROLE: Writer | Director
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam | Vice NYC

An All-American Eleven goes to the world cup and totally dominates.

NO, this is not going to happen in real life, but it can happen with EA SPORTS FIFA WORLD CUP video game. Come on, America, let's kick some balls!

The track on the spot is the run-on song for Hulk Hogan in the WWF

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

People see Blake Griffin as a dunk man. But over the last few years, he has been working hard to prove there is more to his game. Finally people are starting to take notice, starting to see him as the full house.

We wanted to use Blake's story to encourage other kids to rise above the expectations or limitations that are placed on them.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Team Vodafone is Australia's leading V8 supercar team.

This was an event-led campaign where fans could pit their racing skills against their heroes. To give them a sporting chance, we did the races in anything but V8 super cars.

We did four events. This was the first one. The Titanic Tank Race.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: Host Sydney

Coca Cola's global spot for the Beijing Olympics.

Wall Street Journal cited it as the most-liked and best-remembered commercial during the US Olympic coverage.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

The world high jump record has stood for 22 years. It is one of those records that feels like it will never be broken. But Mutaz Essa Barshim is not the type of guy to let "never" stand in his way.

A series of social posts we released in the lead up to his attempt to break the record at world champs in Beijing. He came 4th. Doh!

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: Kennedys (W+K incubator programme)

Arda Turan. The fans call him "The Turkish Magician". He wears a boot called the Magista. We had to do this. Two short films, a vine trick and a social poster to bring the magic alive.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Aussies don’t believe ads that say New Zealand’s ski slopes are on par with Europe’s. So we tried to present this campaign in a way that didn’t look like ads.

We created an exhibition of winter photography in two major train stations, featuring three of the world’s leading snow-sportphotographers.

Provocatively titled, “Just 3 Hours Away”, the exhibition delivered a truthfulness that an ad campaign would have struggled to achieve.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: Host Sydney

The global launch for FIFA 16. An operatic tribute to the players, the gamers, and the fans who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of beauty with a ball.

It was the most watched ad in the world on youtube in September 2015.

And rather randomly, a Dutch variety show (De Wereld Draait Door) invited our opera singer to do a live rendition of the track on their show.

ROLE: Creative Direction
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

Before he shot his girlfriend and became an international pariah, he was an inspiration. Oscar Pistorius pushed the realm of human possibility. He was a man who never listened to doubt.

A TV spot and a short documentary we did for the Beijing Games as part of the Nike "Courage" campaign.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

The launch of Just Do It in South Africa.

South Africa is a violent place where many people turn to violence to try bring about change in their lives. We wanted to encourage people to use sport as a weapon for change. This spot was called: My body is a weapon.

The MoMA in New York added it to their permanent collection for cinematography.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam

In a complicated life, a cheese burger is a simple pleasure. Old now, but still nice.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: Leo Burnett Sydney

Fifa is an absolute scene! It is twelve million gamers coming together to play the world's biggest sport. It is like the gathering of the Spanish Armada, but on couches, and with Lionel Messi at the front, in a van, with a dog, and a big screen attached to the back...

Maybe the strangest FIFA campaign ever made.

Off the back of the launch film, fans could do an online tour of the world of FIFA. As part of the tour, we gave away the van from the commercial. It turned into a legal nightmare and the van is still sitting in a storage unit in Malaga.

ROLE: Writer
AGENCY: W+K Amsterdam