Kurt Svoboda,
Associate Athletics Director for External Communications
University of Michigan

 

heavy is a group of experienced creative and production veterans that create emotional, gripping, and heart-stopping content. Targeted and strategic content. Content powerful enough to move millions across the digital stratosphere, every day and every night — rallying many around a few and everything in between.

Below we’ve included a little more information on our agency, what we stand for, and some of the work that has been keeping us busy over the past few years. These are just the tip of the iceberg, we really work in all type of content, so please let us know if you have anything in particular that you’d like to see.

Work that carries weight.

We have worked closely with athletes and celebrities (e.g. Steph Curry, Bradley Cooper, Tom Colicchio, Brian Dawkins, Black Thought, Jim Gaffigan), developed content for professional sports teams in every genre (e.g. Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts, Arizona Coyotes, Baltimore Ravens), consumer brands (e.g. Under Armour, Nike, Bimbo Bakeries, Gore), and countless collegiate athletic programs (e.g. University of Florida, UCLA, University of Virginia, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Atlantic 10, and MAC Conferences ).

We are a full-service studio located in Philadelphia and focused on developing a strong narrative with visually striking imagery that always strives to be genuine and honest.

University of Virginia

Since the inception of their 2030 Strategic Plan, the University of Virginia has spent the past two years developing key initiatives that strengthen its academic influence and connection to its community. UVA has worked diligently to better understand the current and future challenges it faces as a pillar of education and has moved to align its institutional goals with the values most important to those seeking and investing in a college education. At UVA, issues related to social and economic mobility, the impact of research and transformative teaching, and the needs of all university stakeholders are top of mind. We joined UVA in a charge to help illustrate a mission that couples excellence with purposeful action.

In this new PSA, we wanted to help the UVA community celebrate their commitment to the greater good by showcasing just how impactful the work that occurs on UVA’s campus can be. We sought to connect with people doing great work and mirroring important themes found throughout UVA’s strategic plan. If any Cavaliers were uniquely contributing to the Charlottesville community or greater Commonwealth of Virginia—we wanted to talk to them.

The University of Denver

The University of Denver was ready to announce an exciting new expansion—The James C. Kennedy Mountain Campus, 724 acres of abounding natural forest north of their urban campus. The Kennedy Mountain Campus would become an essential aspect of DU’s strategic initiative, the 4D Experience, helping to enhance values found at the core of student life. This expanse would serve as a space where DU could continue to invest in holistic learning, teach students to lead purposeful lives, and illustrate the importance of wellness. But with this new campus came the need to develop strategic messaging that would help DU define its value.

Florida Gators

After struggling to regain the form demonstrated in winning double national titles in both Men’s Football and Basketball, The Gators were ready to make a statement. By tapping into their legacy of champions and reminding the fan base what the Orange and Blue stand for inspired this film that still plays eight minutes before kickoff. And still the students know every word just like the third week when it debuted.

Philadelphia Eagles

For seven years, beginning with Andy Reed and seeing the team through their Super Bowl victory, our team built the creative content for each season from short- and long-form video, advertising, and social activations to digital implementation. Along the way we had the privilege of working with some amazing talent including Bradley Cooper, Black Thought, John Legend, and Brian Dawkins.

Indianapolis Colts

We began working with the Colts just after Peyton left the city and saw them through the retirement of Andrew Luck. We unified a fanbase through multiple full-season narratives pushed across digital, social, and broadcast. To activate the stadium throughout the game we established new traditions of striking the anvil to announce kickoff, and brought in Indianapolis native John Cougar Mellencamp to lead 67,000 fans in “Jack and Diane” at the end of the third quarter. Although John isn’t there for every game, the fans continue to sing as if he was.

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Like most higher education institutions, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is facing some inevitable challenges as the demographics of students continue to shift away from the traditional 18- to 21-year-old that lives on campus. Declining high school graduation rates coupled with financial pressures and the abundance of flexible learning opportunities means more students than ever are selecting alternate educational pathways. Driven by a charge from the Chancellor to triple the number of nontraditional students in five years, we got to work.

Partnering closely with the Division of Continuing Studies and their communications team, we began to reposition their 11 segmented portfolios into a single cohesive brand supporting a lifelong journey of education, from pre-college, international, and summer term, to professional degrees, certificates, and noncredit courses. The university was also planning to launch its first online undergraduate degree, which folded nicely into this new wholistic educational platform. Through careful coordination with university communications and admissions, we developed a strategy to ladder back to the existing university-wide brand, which we had previously developed. With a team on the ground in Madison and one in Philadelphia, we built, focus group tested, and launched a new brand in less than three months.

Rutgers University

When Rutgers launched its Big Ideas initiative in late 2018, the team behind it couldn’t have possibly imagined the relevance it would carry into 2020 and 2021.

What started as a challenge to faculty and staff to “Bring us your most imaginative, disruptive, and visionary proposals for bold initiatives that will positively transform our community and change the world,” quickly turned into a movement in its own right. More than 200 proposals submitted. 40 teams selected. 12 final Big Ideas. 1 school working with its best and brightest to make the world a better place, solving the critical issues of our time.

Let our work do the lifting.