MGM Resorts

MGM Resorts Universal Love Campaign Launch

Context

Partner with MGM Resorts’ ad agency McCann to create compelling campaigns that position properties as desirable destinations for the LGBTQ and business communities.

Strategy

Translate campaign design into motion through expressive animations and editing that create compelling and artful visual narratives for all media touchpoints.

Solution

Our campaign film for Universal Love helped the initiative earn over 2.5 billion impressions, win honors at Cannes, D&AD Impact, and the Clio Awards, and spark a 39% rise in LGBTQ wedding inquiries for the resort.

MGM Resorts UL CaseStudy Thumbnail Landscape

MGM Resorts Universal Love

MGM Resorts "You Had To Be Here"

MGM Resorts Universal Love

Love, Re-imagined

Love is universal.
Shouldn’t love songs be too?

McCann and MGM Resorts in Las Vegas had the inspired idea to re-create an album of classic wedding songs for LGBTQ couples. Six artists came together to turn that dream into a reality, swapping out he’s for she’s and guys for girls in a six-song EP of boldly romantic tracks. Our task was to create a short, animated film introducing the campaign, its aesthetic, and its culture-defining purpose.

Campaign Video

Our animation style brings to life the hand-drawn feel of the album cover’s illustrators Craig & Karl.

Each vignette plays with ideas of modern love and gender in a way that feels both retro and refreshingly modern, taking the MGM Resorts brand into a more colorful and more diverse future. The result? A moving, award-winning brand campaign that Pitchfork called “a case study in how to get brand
activism right.”

MGM Resorts "You Had To Be Here"

Creative Context

MGM Resorts knows that the most meaningful professional connections still happen when we meet in person.

With a steady return to IRL conferences, the brand’s in-demand properties in Las Vegas offer business leaders far more than a conference venue. This campaign highlights the moments of serendipity that lead to business deals, realizing professional goals, and having fun at the same time.

As each spot unfolds, we use a clean graphic device with a single word – HERE – to magnify moments. This frame becomes a transformative device to feature all of the emotional experiences that MGM Resorts’ properties offer.

Editing + Animation

Our team focused on amplifying the personal connections and emotions captured by the director on location.

Working in close collaboration with McCann, our editors, designers, and animators began with rough cuts that helped MGM Resorts imagine how we might magnify each emotional moment. From there, we quickly and iteratively combined the best ideas to arrive at the simplest and most artful solution that unifies each narrative into a single, seamless visual journey.