Our recent campaign for Microsoft Edge Copilot was an exciting journey back to 2008—a year of exploration, youthful exuberance, and unmistakable style. As a nostalgic nod to the late 2000s, we crafted a creative concept that merges the past with the present, showcasing how Microsoft Edge and its new Copilot feature can seamlessly blend into our lives today.
2008 was a year marked by key moments in the lives of many—starting high school, discovering the vastness of the internet, perfecting skateboarding tricks, and embracing the distinctive fashion of skinny jeans, long hair, and the omnipresent scent of Axe Body Spray. This period had a unique look and feel, familiar to all who lived through it.To capture this essence, we cast lead talent who were teenagers or young adults in 2008. The creative twist was to dress these now 30-something actors in their teenage attire, complete with period-appropriate clothing, hairstyles, and makeup. This casting and styling choice allowed us to authentically recreate the vibe of 2008 while humorously juxtaposing it against the advanced features of the new Microsoft Edge Copilot.
We brought this vision to life in a single-day shoot, producing six engaging 15-second spots on location in Los Angeles. Each spot featured dynamic transitions, moving from the nostalgic 2008 scenes to showcasing the innovative capabilities of Microsoft Edge Copilot. This approach highlighted how far we’ve come, emphasizing the ease and efficiency that the new Copilot feature brings to modern internet browsing.
This episode is about Exploration and Curiosity. Bella & Ludwig adventure the open world of Elden Ring before they both meet QTCinderella & a professional archer to become masters of the bow in an IRL Challenge.
This episode is about Celebrating Uniqueness as it can become your superpower! QuarterJade & Bella play Valorant as they master the powers of each agent before Valkyrae & professional chef Nico DeLeon join Bella to cook a Filipino dish IRL.
This episode is about Collaboration vs Competition. Sykkuno helps Bella strike that balance in an assortment of variety games: Party Animals/ Pico Park/ Fall Guys, before they meet Benny Blanco & a professional driver to teach Bella to drive a car IRL.
This episode is about Confidence and Risk. Becoming who you want to be only arrives by taking chances. Dream teaches Bella to find ways to overcome the obstacles of life, by sharing some Minecraft lessons before they meet GeorgeNotFound & a professional stuntwoman to master an IRL obstacle course.
We built the world of Bella Levels Up to represent four compartments of Bella's mind. Each room was designed to reflect the thematic content that took place there - be it Bella's vulnerable monologues, deep conversations with her guests, technical gaming segments, or collaborative physical challenges - each segment of the show had a physical home that represented it's theme.
Where it all begins - with self-reflection. Bella’s personal vanity for a 1-on-1 intro to the show. Each episode begins with her both vulnerable and confident. An open-diary space for her to pull us into her world, an abstractly-styled space based on self reflection.
A soft and warm space for deep conversations. It is rounded with no hard edges. It’s cozy, timeless, and surreal.
Where guests teach Bella techniques for the featured game of the week. It's based off of a brutalist testing facility. A stark contrast to the Room of Comforts, while still maintaining the surrealism of our world.
Each week’s IRL challenge takes place in a deconstructed flex space, in a white void adorned by colorful wall flats and props. We play with scale and texture to symbolize the transitional portal between the surreal spaces we have occupied and the real world.
A real elevator to serve as the gateway between Bella’s World and the IRL, think Severance.
We went to Maimi to meet up with Tyler Herro, point guard / small forward for the Miami Heat. We captured his routine around the house, getting in the zone, enjoying the bright streets of his city, and hitting the gym for some shooting practice. We captured sounds around him house, his car, his serene backyard, and of course, on the court. We passed these field recordings over to music producer Supa Dups to flip them into Tyler's Signature Sound.
We went to Atlanta to meet up with "Ant-Man" Anthony Edwards, shooting guard / small forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves. We captured him hanging out at home, getting lined up, hanging with his dog, and, of course, getting some shooting practice in. We captured the sounds of his world before passing them to music producer Beam and Ant-Man's own brother bdifferent to craft the custom track.
We caught up with Cincinnati Bengals' wide receiver Jamarr Chase. We captured his routine of practicing gratitude, staying goal oriented and staying in shape. Jamarr's sounds were unique to the series in that many of them were delicate and organic to reflect his mindful and poised nature. We sent the sounds off to music producer Kaycyy to craft them into Jamarr's Signature Sound.
We crossed the pond to meet up with Christian Pulisic, then-midfielder for Chelsea F.C. Being an American playing for Chelsea, we had a unique opportunity to capture Christian's story of staying focussed in a foreign place, finding new inspiration on and off the pitch, and never forgetting his roots. We teamed up with Cristian's friend, musician Quinn XCII to compose his anthemic Signature Sound.
We met Minnesota Viking's wide receiver Justin "Jets" Jefferson at his home-away-from-home where he took us through his routine of staying in shape, gaming with his friends, and keeping a positive mental attitude. We even got lucky enough to catch an airplane flying over Jets' head while chillin by the pool. We passed our field records to music producer Kaycyy to build Justin's upbeat Signature Sound.
For their Canadian launch, Rivalry wanted to focus on their primary niche - Esports. We jumped into Unreal Engine to create a slew of wacky game maps and cinematics that captue the same level of energy as winning a massive online bet.
For their Spanish and Brazilian launch, Rivalry wanted to focus on traditional sports. We created two spots that repurposed the popular bar meme into a wonky world of 3D game characters celebrating a game winning moment.
For their Spanish and Brazilian launch, Rivalry wanted to focus on traditional sports. We created two spots that repurposed the popular bar meme into a wonky world of 3D game characters celebrating a game winning moment.
In the United States, 97% of farms are family owned and 64% of all vegetables sales come from very large farms. Kellie is one of the few whose farm falls in neither of those categories. She’s a first-generation vegetable farmer working on just 20 acres of land. Throughout her episode, she highlights the struggles of owning a farm while renting the land and what it takes to run a business by herself that is rooted in nourishing others.
Christina’s farm sits on just half an acre in Chester County, yet its impact is one of outsized proportions. With a focus on growing East Asian heritage crops, Christina provides hundreds of New Yorkers with the right to not just healthy, locally grown foods, but foods with cultural importance – a key factor in true food sovereignty. Her episode outlines the importance of providing choice and what those choices truly mean to a community.
Rock Steady’s business model is rooted in food access, social justice, and farmer training. As a queer, co-operative vegetable farm, they work incredibly hard to offer food to overlooked communities through sliding scale payments, community partnerships, and public food access programs. This episode is all about the power of community both on the farm and off.
Raina Kennedy works hand in hand with local farmers to source fresh produce for Brooklyn Packers – a black-led, worker-owned cooperative based in Bed-stuy. Throughout this episode, we witness the ways in which access to fresh produce is segmented across the city and what Brooklyn Packers is doing to bridge the gap.
Alex Koones is a queer community organizer and chef. She is also the founder of New York’s queer supper club, Babetown. In the final episode of the series, we finally sit down to a meal, now with a deeper appreciation of what it means to be a part of a community, get food to the table, and share a meal.
A live broadcast heavily relies on the talent's ability to carry the show. We developed the Creator Mode to evolve over two hours from comfortable and familiar to zany and chaotic - allowing our talent to ease into the show and give the best performance possible.
Our three “modes” were punctuated by gameplay segments, grounding our creators in their most familiar element, but the magic was in the moments they were forced out of their comfort zone into the world of Creator Mode.
The set of Creator Mode struck a balance between talk show and clubhouse hangout - encouraging interaction and movement within the space and specifically designed to support each programming block.
We looked to 90s tv shows with immersive sets, like Pee Wee’s Playhouse or Sesame Street, and combined that with the laid-back nature of today’s talk shows, like Ridiculousness or The Graham Norton Show. All to give Myth an authentic space to call his own and invite other creators to hang out the old fashioned way – IRL.
Inspired by the Y2K aesthetic, GenX Hackers, and Retro Tech, we crafted a cohesive branding aesthetic that seamlessly blends familiarity with modernity. Our approach involved integrating pivotal elements into the furniture design, incorporating status bars and iconic imagery that not only represented the essence of the show but also paid homage to the golden era of hacking. We embraced the nostalgia of yesteryears by infusing characters reminiscent of rotary dials and graphics reminiscent of the operating systems utilized by hackers in the 90s.
