Gino Cantalini, Labatt’s director of partner brands (Budweiser, Bud Light and Carlsberg), has tremendous respect for Palmer Jarvis DDB’s associate creative director team of Dave Chiavegato and Rich Pryce-Jones. ‘They are probably one of our biggest competitive advantages right now on Bud Light,’ Cantalini says.

Chiavegato’s and Pryce-Jones’ involvement with Labatt’s partner brands was neither arbitrary nor coincidence. Because ‘Bud Light was the big, big project last year,’ Cantalini felt they needed to improve on a previous campaign, which was ‘pretty good but could be better.’

‘What we did was give it to [PJ DDB Downtown] as their biggest creative challenge last year. And they came back with a really unique way of doing it. Usually, they only give it to one team. But they actually gave it to three different teams to come up with some copy. And they came in and presented all three campaigns. And they were all really good. But when we heard Dave and Rich’s campaign and all the different ways they were going to roll it out – all the different media and stuff – I was just blown away. From the very first script they read, you could tell – ‘Oh yeah.’ When you hear it you know it’s right. It’s one of those things where you just go, ‘Yeah, these guys got it.’

What makes Chiavegato and Pryce-Jones so good for Bud Light? Cantalini says it’s because ‘they really understand guys.’

‘They have a good sense of keeping the story really simple. And how to take an insight and make it really funny. They’ve got a good edge in terms of humor and they know how to walk the line between humor for the sake of humor and actually taking it to the other level where it sells a lot of beer and actually says something great about your product,’ Cantalini explains.

As well, Cantalini feels Chiavegato’s background as a client helps him ‘really understand the whole process.’

Recently returned from San Francisco, the Labatt executive was with the team at the Anheuser-Busch convention, and clearly had a great time. No question, Cantalini finds Chiavegato and Pryce-Jones a lot of fun.

‘They’re incredibly funny. Just standing next to Dave, particularly. It’s funny just sitting across the table from him. And he and Rich make such a good team. Rich is kind of quiet, a little edgier guy. And then you’ve got Dave, who’s just kind of whacked-out, but then totally buttoned down. He’ll be the guy pulling out the Palm and setting the appointment up before the account executive gets a chance. It’s really bizarre,’ he says.

Cantalini sees finding ‘solutions to challenges [as the team’s] greatest strength. They are totally whacked-out, totally creative, but totally professional. They know the objective, too. They know they’re writing ads to sell, but they take that opportunity to really come out with some astounding stuff and they always push the limit.’

Cantalini jokes that ‘unless they

f— up’ he intends to keep his campaigns in Chiavegato’s and Pryce-Jones’ hands for the foreseeable future.

‘The plan is to take advantage of those guys as long as we can,’ he says. *

-www.pjddb.com

-www.labatt.com