By: Daniel Sattelmeyer

One of the highlights of the year so far was producing two original longform series for two brands around the World Cup on YouTube.

Caddie & the Kid w/ State Farm brought together soccer icons Landon Donovan, Carli Llloyd, the Seattle Sounders and Reign teams, along with Seahawks Kicker Jason Myers and the Bryan Bros. of YT Golf fame to join Ken Griffey Jr. and Michael Collins for an unforgettable bucket list golf trip around Seattle. We played golf at legendary courses Chambers Bay and Sahalee, took photos on the field during a Sounders game, played footgolf with the Seattle Reign women’s players, and had a special visit from Jake from State Farm himself.

Foster Retakes the Field w/ Verizon saw retired EPL and UK Goalkeeper Ben Foster travel to the U.S. ahead of the big tournament to get a firsthand look at soccer culture in America. We toured Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, filled Ben with some local southern breakfast and soccer pub pints, and caught up with football legends like Brad Guzan and Miguel Almiron.

They were insanely packed shoot days with tight talent schedules and juggling the restrictions of pro sports team facilities around game days and clearances, but the resulting content was something you couldn’t see anywhere else.

These big tentpole cultural events are a huge target for brands because it brings all of us together around a moment, and then explodes in a million tiny different directions across the internet, where there’s endless opportunity to participate in the action.

State Farm and Verizon led the way by letting their brand take a backseat to the content and trusting us to create real shows with big stars, deep stories, and actual engagement, allowing them to get in on the World Cup in a way that audiences seek out.

Caddie & the Kid Ep. 4 (Seattle World Cup) – 3.9M views
https://lnkd.in/ehppeRQG

Foster Retakes the Field Ep. 1 (Atlanta World Cup) – 3.5M views
https://lnkd.in/eXVyx7w3

And the ancillary content – :60 trailers, YT shorts, and ad cutdowns – received millions more views.

Thank you to the entire Google team, too many to mention, but especially Lori Schak Brittany B. Erin O’Keefe Ian Szetho, our partners at State Farm and Verizon, and everyone on the team at BARK BARK that brought this to life. Dustin Frissell Tabitha Mason- Elliott Ann Daykin Jason Sheedy Ben Trickey Jeremiah Prescott Nick Rood Austin Keeling Lora Kaminsky Karen Zeitlin-Brand David Brand Brad Low Keachia Greenidge Callie Beebe Tatiana Lee Warren Desireé Taylor

See the full campaigns here:
barkbark.com