Work
Mission
Zambezi is an elite team of ad people with an abiding passion for Sports and a high level of creative problem-solving abilities.
Zambezi’s founders came from Oregon, where we helped craft some of Nike’s most well-known campaigns. Our headquarters are in Los Angeles – home of world-class clients like Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers.
We believe deeply in Sports brands. They represent a consumer choice in the purest sense: a purchase preference that comes from the heart.
Whether it’s your favorite gym, your energy bar, your hometown team, or the TV you watch them on, your snowboard, your surfboard, the marathon you signed up for, the new video game, your go-to ballcap, or your fantasy football site. These are the brands Zambezi brings to life.
Come see for yourself.
Contact
Visit us
Zambezi
615 Hampton Drive
Suite #A311
Venice, CA 90291
Hire us
Chris Raih
Managing Director
Office: 310.450.6800
chris@zambezi-la.com
Work with us
Physics World - Einstein Gets in The Zone 5/1/2008
Entertainment Tonight - Genius Campaign Behind the Scenes 3/24/2008
AdWeek - Site Scores Image Points for Kobe 3/10/2008
Sports Business Radio - Genius Campaign Launches 3/8/2008
Forbes.com - Kobe Bryant Taps Zambezi Ink for Sneaker Campaign 3/3/2008
Sports Business Radio - Zambezi is Here 4/28/2007
Dime Magazine - KB24.com is Bananas 12/1/2006
Sports Shooter - Lakers Lights Out Puts the Light Back on the Court 11/16/2006
Brian worked as a hat for 8 months in Belize before landing a job at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, OR. The year was 1996. Leaving a life as a fedora behind, Brian spent the next decade in four jobs at W+K, the last seven years as a copywriter. Companies like Nike, Miller High Life, Starbucks and Powerade were virtually unknown until Brian stepped in. Now they are some of the largest companies in the world. That is no coincidence. Neither is rolling six straight Yahtzees, but that’s the way Brian works. He’s the creative director and hypothalamus of the company, which means he controls nothing. Brian gets bored of looking at words, so he shoots his Super8 camera and sometimes, on those lonely, bitter cold nights in Los Angeles, he dreams of the glory days when he was a hat.
Chris is from Minnesota, and normally that’s a conversation-stopper, but his 6’5” frame and fluffy blond hair simply won’t allow it. There’s too much more to tell. Like the fact that he could run a company from a cave without air or water and still make the Fortune 500. And the cover of MAD magazine. Would you like to hear about his social capabilities? Diverse. Full of colloquialisms and kindness, but he’s equally liable to blindside you with a knock-knock joke or Trebekish trivia. His sketchy past includes time at Fallon working on United Airlines and BMW, followed by the Wieden + Kennedy years cranking on Nike, most notably on the basketball account. Today, Chris runs the day-to-day operations at Zambezi, and at night he’s with his best gal, Jean, and their lovely, albeit lazy, newborn daughter Madeleine. All business calls should go to Chris, as he is the undisputed Grand Poobah of Zambezi. He insists on dry ice for his entrance to the office every morning.
Josh wants you to know that he’s from New York and Jewish. Now that those are out of the way, let it be known that Josh is actually a devout Presbyterian and has never even been to New York. Weird. Aside from pathological lying, Josh’s past includes producing everything from music videos to South Park to blockbuster films. However, during his hiatus from the Hollywood life, Josh had a revelation. He hated movies. And music videos. So he switched gears and landed a plush little gig at Zambezi. Now Josh works as Zambezi’s Executive Producer, overseeing production irrespective of medium. On a side note, Josh can see through walls. Weird.
Comcast
A Comcast Moment
Comcast needed more customers in the Pacific Northwest. So we borrowed a Portland Trail Blazer to demonstrate that glorious moment when your high-speed Internet, HD cable, and FIOS phone service gets installed. TV, Radio, Web, DM, Print and Outdoor drove acquisitions.
KB24.com
Genius
Comically dressed as history’s greatest minds, Kobe Bryant proves that his game – and his sneakers – are pure genius. Through the eyes of a precocious youngster, the public sees Kobe as they never have: poking fun at himself, wearing the lightest shoe ever made, and dunking in tights and topcoat.
AnthemVideo
Crest
Designed by the subversive art sensation Shepard Fairey (Obey), the KB24 crest is equal parts royal mark and hip-hop street branding. This spot brings the Crest to life in rich, textured, 100% CG – and welcomes visitors to the doorstep of KB24.com.
Web Site
To shorten the bridge between fan and athlete, we built a robust, design-driven site for Kobe Bryant. Results: 14 million visitors in year one. _AdWeek_ calls it “a new form of street/retail culturetisement.” _Sports Business Radio_ calls it “the best athlete web site on the planet, bar none.”
Lakers
Lakers Legion // Lights Out // Preseason // Playoffs
Lakers Legion
It’s the 60th anniversary of Lakers franchise. L.A. has seen 8 MVPs, 14 championships and 28 conference titles. Who better to commemorate the journey than the fans? This piece uses famous fans and regular joes to strike all the notes: laughter to goose bumps. Happy 60th, Purple-and-Gold.
Lights Out
STAPLES Center was about people-watching, not basketball. The Clippers were closing a long-time gap in stature. “Lights Out” put the focus back on the court, literally, and addressed the business problem at every level of the franchise.
Video // Print // Collateral
Video // Print // Collateral
Video // Print // Collateral
Preseason
Each preseason, the Lakers play games in satellite markets. It’s the one chance for fans in Vegas, Honolulu, and San Diego to see the team up close. How do you aggrandize an exhibition game? With a nod to Depression-era boxing flyers of course. Print, TV, Radio, and Outdoor drove the campaign.
Playoffs
The postseason is a time for civic pride. It is not a time for empty seats. And even Lakers fans need a push sometimes. This work sought to galvanize Lakerheads in LA, reminding them of the importance of the Playoffs, and driving them to the box office.
Print // Collateral
Print // Collateral
Make a Wish
Believe
This is one of Zambezi’s first spots, and it remains close to our hearts. The Make-a-Wish Foundation is about making wishes come true for children in need. Featuring those children, and a message of hope, this spot explores the power of a wish, and what it is capable of. As long as we believe.
Teva
Freaks of Nature // Teeva vs. Tevuh
Freaks of Nature
”Freaks of Nature” brand positioning injects crucial youthfulness, while claiming a place for Teva as the left-of-center outdoor performance brand.
Teeva vs. Tevuh
Teva is the Hebrew word for nature. And Teva is a great company. But we had to break the bad news to them: no one knows how to pronounce their name. Then we made this commercial, playfully personifying nature, and addressing the pronunciation debate. (btw, it’s “Tev-uh”).
TNT
8 to 24
TNT covers the NBA like no other. But the season launches during October/November; the loudest time on the sports calendar. To rise above the noise and get fans ready for hoops again, we pulled the curtain back on one of the top off-season mysteries: Kobe’s switch to jersey #24.
Trail Blazers
Upshot
Potency
There are 1,000 brands in the energy drink category, with – on average – one new brand launched each day. Upshot is the smallest, and the strongest. But it needed impactful, memorable creative to break through. Print and outdoor uses minimal design, drawing parallels to tactile, visceral objects.
Trucker Radio
Upshot has 200 mg of caffeine in 2.5 ounces That’s strong. So who really needs to stay awake? Who needs to minimize their bathroom breaks? We thought long-haul truck drivers might be interested. So we created breakthrough spots and ran ‘em on XM Radio’s overnight trucker shows.
vitaminwater
The Great Debate
It’s the most compelling debate in sports: Kobe or LeBron? With the NBA Playoffs in full swing, the debate reached a fever pitch. This campaign – via TV and digital – shined a light on the fans. And whether Kobe is your guy, or LeBron is your guy, one thing’s for sure: They both get their vitamins.
The Great DebateTV
Life
by Kevin SCS 2.0 – BAT FOR LASHES
Zambezi Summer Concert Series continues as we witnessed Natasha Khan bringing it to the El Rey theater. A unique bird in her own right, fighting out of the Red corner from across the pond, weighing in at a Gold sequined unitard and black tights, escaping from the magical forest of some place that rhymes with Wesleyborougham, sounding like a siren from some 1800’s fantasy island, this girl wails and sounds better live. Two LPS, both mindblowing. Buy them both. Do yourself a service and listen twice. Yea I bought a shirt.
by Chris ONE FOR THE PINKY.
Congrats Kob, no one worked harder or earned it more than you. Case in point: the aforementioned pinky has actually been broken all season (so go easy with the new ring, bro!).
by Kevin Summer Concert Series
The Zambezi SCS started last night at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. Metric took the stage, Emily Haines did her thing, and associate member of SCS, Howard Hill, has a crush. Good show. Good show.
To all those who don’t know. Buy Fantasies. Album/Track artwork is ridiculous. Flat out nasty. Straight from the collective Hollywood in Cambodia.
by Kevin Shark Post
by Kevin Uh-oh
Yes this is Dwight Howard. Yes this is Dwight Howard’s form at the free throw line. Yes he is going to make the free throw he is about to take in this picture. And that people, is scary for all Lakers fans alike. Big man’s gonna be a handful if he keeps shooting well from the stripe. Here’s to Thursday...
by Chris The Great Debate.
Quick – name the best ballplayer on the planet. LeBron? Sure, maybe. Kobe? Yep, he’s good too. That’s the beauty of it: there’s no wrong answer.
Be sure to visit facebook.com/vitaminwater to see the spots, become a fan, and debate for yourself.
by Kevin And then there was HOPE
In a great effort to spread HOPE around the world Zambezi and its partners HOPE + the Branding Farm have launched a new HOPE website and store. From Rwanda to Malawi to Los Angeles to Washington to anywhere on God’s green earth, HOPE may now spread its wings and roam. Check it out, buy a shirt or a scarf, volunteer for an event or project, and make sure you pass on the HOPE to your friends. Except Keith. Leave Keith out of it. www.hopecampaign.org.
by Chris Quantum Hoops
On Saturday evening – like most of you – I plopped down to watch the NCAA semifinal games, which were well-contested and hard fought.
But then I watched something even more compelling – a sharp, offbeat documentary called Quantum Hoops.
This marvelous film profiles the men’s basketball program at Cal Tech (California Institute of Technology), a team that has not won a sanctioned NCAA conference game in 24 years! There are eight valedictorians on the team, but only two that played varsity high school basketball.
The beauty of the story is how the young players spirits are never dampened, despite losing every game by an average of 60 points.
Cal Tech is the most academically rigorous college in the world, with 31 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni. Einstein taught there. Heads of NASA studied there. The atom bomb was conceived there. Too bad they can’t run a pick-and-roll.
So what was the net/net of my Saturday night viewings? Which group of ballplayers impressed me more – North Carolina’s thoroughbreds or Cal Tech’s nerds?
That’s easy, I’ll take the nerds any day.
(And not just because David Duchovny did the VO).
by Chris Sportscenter on YouTube
Zambezi noticed this morning that Google’s YouTube just inked a deal with Disney to push more premium content to the video-sharing site. It’s a clear effort to compete with Hulu and other premium video-sites, as we’ll now see ESPN and ABC content at YouTube.
Disney will have to sell ad space accompanying its content, and YouTibe will share in the revenues. But don’t expect a full suite of Disney programming, as that would draw the ire of the cable companies (who have a keen interest in keeping TV subscriptions high).
by Chris Bracketed!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Of course, the Tourney is on. Loving some of the finishes on Friday and Saturday night. Siena’s little man Ronald Moore squished not one but two trey-bombs; one at the end of the 1st OT to tie, and another to beat the 2nd OT clock for a win over Ohio State (in Dayton, Ohio no less).
Great finish between Gonzaga and WKU, with a bucket for each team in the last 10 seconds – plus the added bonus of no time outs being called, so the finish played out in the hands of the young guys balling on the biggest stage.