MANILA, PHILIPPINES — HS Ad, the long-running in-house agency for LG Electronics, brings something special to the madness this March with the launch of “The Rivalries”, a compelling six-part original TV series telling the inside stories behind some of the most competitive head-to-head team contests across the spectrum of college sports.
“The Rivalries” can be viewed on NCAA Championships Channel, the new streaming channel available exclusively on LG Smart TVs.
The series looks at some of the less well-known but longest-running and more competitive rivalries in college sports. The authentic and inspirational stories combine historical and new original footage with unique human stories told through the voices of players, coaches, athletic directors, fans, and students behind the schools.
The uplifting stories reflect the LG ethos “Life’s Good.”
For every famous Duke-North Carolina or Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, there are hundreds of others between smaller NCAA Division II and Division III schools that are just as hard fought and legendary. “The Rivalries” focuses on a diverse collection of these matchups in men’s and women’s sports, even delving into less-commonly watched competitions such as riflery, bowling, water polo, and others.
The first episode, airing during the wave of March Madness, tells the story of the “Black Hills Brawl” fought annually between Black Hills State University and the South Dakota School of Mines in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the oldest Division II rivalry dating back to 1885.
The episode features behind-the-scenes prep for big head-to-head matchups between the contrasting schools – larger city versus smaller, liberal arts college versus engineering school – in football and men’s and women’s basketball, bringing to life the passions and emotions that have swept the neighboring communities in western South Dakota for almost 140 years.
“Instead of taking the easy route and simply running ads during March Madness, we looked at the LG ecosystem and reach, and found a way to leverage it for something more innovative and interesting”, said John Long, executive creative director, HS Ad, based in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. “What we created is compelling original content, offered exclusively on LG Smart TVs.”
He added how the intensity of college sports rivalries are old as the games themselves, and bring out the best in us. “That ties in well to the LG ethos ‘Life’s Good’, as the series identifies and explores the passionate, uplifting human stories behind these great rivalries,” said Long.
HS Ad developed the program concept, name, and treatments, and worked with Brooklyn-based production company Shoot to Kill NYC to create the episodes.
“Passions run high on the gridiron and hardwood, and this spirited competition brings out the emotions of the athletes, coaches, and the fans who enthusiastically support them,” said Kellen Dengler, executive producer, Shoot To Kill NYC. “This series captures that energy and tells the inside story of great, relatively unknown college sports rivalries to a broader audience.”
NCAA Championships Channel is one part of the major marketing initiatives on tap for 2022 in LG Electronics USA’s three-year partnership with the NCAA, Turner Sports, and CBS Sports for category exclusive marketing and distribution rights to NCAA Championship competitions. The partnership is designed to expand the reach of college sports to legions of current fans and generations of new ones.
HS Ad is a forerunner among in-house ad agencies, founded in Seoul in 1984 to provide LG Electronics with strategy, creative, branding, experiential, media, and analytics. The agency now has 33 network offices around the world. HS Ad USA was established in 1996, with offices in Englewood Cliffs and Los Angeles celebrating its 25th anniversary last year.
CREDITS:
Client: LG Electronics USA, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Agency: HS Ad USA, part of LG Electronics USA, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Chief Marketing Officer, Executive Producer: Peggy Ang
Executive Producers: Chulho Huh, Jeannie Lee, Lee Martin, Scott Zaretsky
Senior Project Manager: Jon Fruman
Chief Operating Officer: Louis Giagrande
Executive Creative Director: John Long
Executive Design Director: Nicklaus Deyring
Director of Studio Operations: Joe Nebres
Line Producer, Project Manager: Elizabeth Shilling
Production Company: Shoot to Kill NYC, Brooklyn
Executive Producer: Kellen Dengler
Producers: Kellen Dengler, Max Grater
Archival Producer: Andrew Dawson Smith
Writer: Max Grater
Cinematography: Eric Durkin Jon Waldman Destyn Humann Kellen Dengler
Audio: Michael Solomon, Randal Iverson
Production Assistants: Destyn Humann, Jaycen Tichi
Editors: Dan Altuz, Chris Myers
Assistant Editor: Patrick Badescu
Motion Graphics: Chris Myers
Color: Patrick Badescu
