Turning the tables on 2024 Ad judge Rena Menkes Hula

2024 Applied Arts Advertising judge Rena Menkes Hula is an almost 20-year veteran in the creative industry and recently joined SaltXC. Rena shares a little—It was the Adidas Spot "Impossible is Silly" SaltXC created for International Women's Day that swayed her toward joining the agency. Rena shares a bit of background on how the spot came to fruition.

Background

It’s Salt’s philosophy that lured me in. No matter what medium they are asked to work in, they are in the business of finding the right way to connect with the consumer. So when I learned that Adidas came to them with a simple social ask and a small budget for International Women's Day that evolved into a broadcast piece, I was piqued. Salts POV was that showing a real story about the challenges women have to overcome to compete felt like a more authentic way to meet the moment over a quick hype piece on social. The brand took that to heart, and they worked together to compile three unique stories to tell, with the “Impossible Is Silly" concept being chosen to go from scrappy social to TVC production.

What were some unique features of the campaign?

What pops the most for me is the line "Impossible is a super silly idea" because the brand allowed the creative team to stretch how they define "Impossible is Nothing" in service of feeling authentic in context. "Impossible is a super silly idea" is simply how a mother might explain the lofty ambition of "Impossible is Nothing" to her child. The fact that they allowed their global platform to adapt like that, I knew there was a lot of trust in the client/agency relationship.

What were the success stats or indicators?

Moving from low-budget social to TVC was, of course, a great creative result, but being asked to work on the Women’s World Cup TVC shortly after showcased Adidas’s new-found trust in Salt as their agency of more. Great work breeds more work and that's really the philosophy on how to grow our clients and the kind of work we put in the world for them.

Can you give us some "peeks" behind-the-scenes?

Using Salt Studios and Media Mob (a proprietary platform that is a closed marketplace of vetted production freelancers), we were able to produce an emotional spot in record time and get it trafficked onto TV in time to make its debut for IWD. 

Why is this particular project a fave?

It really demonstrated Salt's capabilities as a creative agency – they understood the client's ask, worked with them to find the best solution, and on top of that, they were able to produce it quickly and flawlessly which has made the partnership between Adidas and Salt continue to flourish. After learning about this I understood how and why we have such an amazing roster of clients with such a seemingly ever-growing integrated offering.

We look forward to seeing more work coming from Salt and Rena. Rena congratulations on the new position.