Squarespace in-house team smashes Super Bowl

Its Sally Seashells spot was one of the best received ads this year

One of the standout ads shown during this year’s Super Bowl was from an in-house agency. Squarespace’s Sally Seashells, starring Zendaya and André 3000, was the work of its in-house team working with director Edgar Wright. 

In the ad, Zendaya stars as a beach-based seller of shell-based accessories (as in the limerick) who sees her business take off with the help of a Squarespace website and ecommerce services.

Meklit Gebre-Mariam, the art director on the spot, took to Twitter to reveal some of the ideas behind the ad, how it was made and how the idea was extended beyond TV.

According to Meklit, the team realised that Sally would need a logo for her fictional business. “Truth is it’s damn near impossible to build brand equity in a 30 second commercial,” she said. “Logos become recognizable after much repetition (think Nike + McDonalds). So we relied heavily on a visual motif. Director Edgar Wright had this idea of creating a spiral conch shell that would show up repeatedly throughout the spot to help viewers make the connection. It was in Zendaya’s hairdo, the mediation layout, the seafood platter, and a number of clever transitions.”

Designer Albert Chang then created a logo for Sally using the same motif. “He combined several different typefaces to create the Sally logo. The mismatched fonts worked because he embraced the spirit of the creative,” Meklit says. “The funky typefaces all have an element that feel nautical, the apostrophe in Sally’s is a custom rotated conch, the details on the Ss look like anchor hooks, the negative space in some of the As was created to mirror a water drop. (She sold those seashells by the sea after all!)”

The accompanying website illustrates how Sally supposedly used Squarespace’s functions to boost her business, with products, subscription videos and ‘serenity sessions’

It’s so rare to see in-house creatives talk about their work publicly (something we highlighted in a previous post), so it was great to see the Squarespace campaign getting to much exposure and taking the plaudits alongside the external agency heavy-hitters. Also great to see a female person of colour as one of the creatives behind it.

Meklit Gebre-Mariam wasn’t the only in-house creative making the news this week. The Drum carried a great piece from Ainhoa Robles, global brand experience and service design lead at Reckitt, on the advantages of moving in-house (read it here).

In the piece Ainhoa examines two of the enduring myths about moving in-house - that you may stagnate creatively and that in-house teams have limited scope. She stresses the creative opportunities that being close to a business and developing a deep understanding of its needs brings: “The fact that you’re under the same roof as the marketing head, working with different stakeholders and people that are involved at different stages, means you get to know and understand each other better. It fosters a feeling of camaraderie rather than ‘client versus designer,’ where communication becomes more open and makes for a smoother and richer output. You have informal day-to-day interactions and fewer compromises. Often you can affect or create the briefs yourself, because you’re a trusted member of the team and have an intimate understanding of the brand, its footprint and its vision, and this allows you to contribute in shaping that perfect brief that we all long for.”

UPCOMING

Last November we ran our very first one-day summit for in-house leaders. The response was fantastic - as one of our 30 attendees (who came from brands such as Camelot, Three, BT, LEGO, Specsavers, Disney and The Body Shop) said, “I thoroughly enjoyed the day from end-to-end and I came away feeling inspired, energised and full of joy”.

I can now reveal that we will be running our next summit on March 30 at Fora, Clerkenwell in London. While the emphasis at our first event was very much around the challenges faced by teams, for this one, we will be concentrating on the In-House Advantage and how to maximise it.

You will leave with a deep understanding of:

• The competitive advantages of the in-house agency

• Evidence of how these advantages are used in practice at other IHAs

• The barriers to exploiting IHA advantages

• Communicating the value of your IHA to the business

• A plan of action to make the most of the in-house opportunity at your IHA

This is not a conference. No decks. No chinos and headsets. 

Our emphasis is on mutual support, learning and sharing in a safe space where IHA leaders can share information, ask and answer questions, open up about problems, support each other, learn from each other and inspire each other. Conversations will be led by expert facilitators from consultancy WDC. This will be an intimate event, limited to no more than 30 senior in-house leaders. 

We hope to see you there. Register for tickets here