This project began with a simple idea — let’s show people just how fast US marathoner and ASICS athlete Ryan Hall’s marathon pace is. Since each stride he takes is 6’10″, one can imagine he covers a lot of ground in a little time. Then we had to figure out how to get people involved, so we set up a race – in the Columbus Circle subway station in New York City – on a 60 foot screen in the subway’s longest corridor.

The result was astounding. Thousands of people ran with Ryan, but none could beat him; not even Ryan Hall himself, who showed up to check the experience out. In case you hadn’t seen it we’ve pasted a video below.

Ever felt the urge to stride into a shoe store and say “I’ll take them all!”? This summer, ALDO will give one lucky winner 3 incredible minutes to grab as many pairs of ALDO shoes as they can.

This enticing free shopping spree is part of the latest effort we created on behalf of our client ALDO shoes to promote their new S/S 12 collection of shoes.

The price of entry into the contest to win this real-life shoe paradise? Just a quick trip to ALDO’s new virtual “Shoe Paradise” (www.aldoshoeparadise.com) – an immersive, engaging digital experience and on-line game that lets users guide their sartorial avatar through ALDO’s summer-inspired world, racking up points and trying on shoes from ALDO’s Spring-Summer 2012 collection. Master the ALDO obstacle course, collect all the shoes in the time allotted, and you’ll be eligible for the 3 minute shopping spree. Players who use Facebook or Twitter to share the game win bonus time to complete the challenge.

This new interactive site, created by VITRO and produced together with our friends at the interactive production shop Kokokaka, is part of a larger initiative on behalf of ALDO’s 2102 Spring-Summer collection. The vibrant digital execution features imagery that directly connects to ALDO’s print and in-store advertising from legendary fashion photographer Terry Richardson. The digital experience promotes multiple shoes, enables users to get more product information and encourages purchase.

So, stay cool this summer and check out ALDO Shoe Paradise.

What do you do when you make the best athletic shoes in the world and want to have some fun telling people about it? If you’re ASICS, you build an experience that brings technology and innovation to life in unexpected ways. Welcome to StopAtNever.com, our latest project for the world’s best shoe maker. Come along and levitate with us – it’s easier than you’d think.

We created this site in collaboration with Kokokaka to demonstrate ASICS’ superior products and how they use technology to improve performance. Not boring third period science class stuff. But 10 “did I just see that?” web videos, made together with 13 keys and Dave Friz, that involve ASICS’ own Olympic hopefuls running on water, taking a jackhammer to their own shoes, playing tennis upside down, and catapulting people into a lake.

A parallax scrolling site, StopAtNever.com has two main content areas. The first thing you’ll see is a film. Scroll down and you’ll see another film — there are 10 total, each demonstrating a different ASICS product and a different piece of their world-leading technology.

After watching each clip you can click to the right for an interactive demo about how the technology within that product is working to help you, like the midsole geometry of the Gel-NEO33, which has lower profile decoupled slits that help you stay flexible when pushing off to the right or the left. The interactive demos explains it all, and all you have to do is slide your mouse.

We are incredibly happy with this project, and as Agency of Record for ASICS America, you can expect a lot more where this came from. Check back soon for whatever comes next.

Since smell-o-vision isn’t a reality yet, we went for a different approach, instead focusing on the product’s emotional resonance. Each scent carries with it a particular state of mind; sensuality, style, free-spiritedness and sportiness. In order to determine which scent best matches your mood, we created an interactive quiz that aims to find out which of these four attributes match your personality. Within the quiz we ask a series of questions about how you would do certain things (we can’t give away all the fun here!), and quickly process the information to provide your answer.

To make the experience more engaging, we included a beautifully shot short film from famed photographer Bruce Weber. Tying in the film set the mood for a fun, personalized experience that can be shared with friends faster than you can say Big Pony. Try the quiz for yourself by clicking here.

2. The Ego Profile: Vitro NY Rocks
“We kind of like black,” began the interview with Chief Creative Officer Liron Reznik. Speaking with the New York Egotist, Liron tells the story of VITRO New York’s comeuppance, and the story of how he and Jonas Hallberg (our other Chief Creative Officer) plan to achieve world domination. “The credo is on the wall,” he said. “We’re not hiding it.” Read the full interview here.

3. The Ego Tour: Vitro’s New York Hotspot
Wonder what our New York space looks like? Take a tour by clicking here.

4. We’re in the finals for Cablevision. 
And that’s just the tip of the new business iceberg. Click here for more.

ASICS Gel-NEO33 is the lightest shoe we’ve ever seen, so telling its story required some special visuals. Previously we demonstrated the ‘light’ effect by going all scientific with a bunch of ping pong balls and a huge fan. This time we turned to helium, balloons and a gaggle of athletes.

Shot in Bulgaria with Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Conan the Barbarian director Marcus Nispel, this spot harnesses live action and special effects from UNION Editorial (the team behind VW’s Star Wars theme-song barking dogs. So yes, we cheated and used special effects, but c’mon, getting a giant shoe balloon to float straight up is no easy task.

That song, by the way, is “The Temporary Blues” by The Features and the spot was produced by our friends at MJZ.

Click here to see more of our work with ASICS.

SKINNY and VITRO merged, and if you’re here for that reason, you’re probably wondering what made us think this was a good idea. First and foremost, we’re kindred spirits, especially with our approach to work.

We’ll let it speak for itself. See more of it by clicking here.

We dare you to race this ad. Hint: you’ll lose. For the 2011 New York City Marathon, Vitro and ASICS asked a surprising question: are you faster than our advertising? The answer for everyone who took us up on the challenge was, No.

To demonstrate exactly how fast champion marathoners have to run in order to win the 26.2 mile race, Vitro and ASICS installed a 60 foot long video wall underground in the Columbus Circle Subway Station. Along the video wall, US Olympic marathoner, and ASICS athlete, Ryan Hall, demonstrated his marathon race pace, a 4:46 mile. A countdown on the video let bystanders get into position to race against Ryan for 60 feet. No one could beat him, including Ryan Hall himself who stopped by our installation to race against his virtual self.  After the race, fans were presented with a humbling fact: Ryan Hall runs this fast for 26.2 miles.

Run With Ryan was an instant hit with both race fans and news media, earning the editors Pick of the Day at Creativity. Run with Ryan was also featured in Fast Company Design, Ad Week and Japan’s Nikkei Marketing Journal.

SKINNY and VITRO are both on a tear. And in the midst of all the new work we’re joining forces to bring our offering and our craft to the next level.

Our offices are located in New York and San Diego, and we plan to expand even further. Together we are more than 100 creatives, strategists, designers, producers, developers, and business people. But moreover we are craftsmen. Our clients include Alaska Communications, ALDO, ASICS, Centerplate, Clarisonic, Diageo (Jose Cuervo Light Margarita, Zacapa, Freeze and Shake Cocktails (Smirnoff, Godiva, Myer’s), Ready to Serve Cocktails (Jose Cuervo, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal, Cacique, Pampero), Kwikset, Lysol, Newcastle Brown Ale, No Longer Empty, Nokia, PF Chang’s, Ralph Lauren, Serengeti, Target, Wired.

John Vitro is Creative Chairman. Our CEO is Tom Sullivan. Jonas Hallberg and Liron Reznik are Chief Creative Officers. We’ll spare you the canned quotes, but rest assured they are all quite ecstatic about this new venture.

SKINNY and VITRO share a kindred spirit. We are ‘serial problem solvers’ i.e. thought leaders and chief creative architects whose role is to provide our clients with innovative business solutions. We help them dominate their industries and change the world in ways big and small.

We seek the new, unchartered, never been done before. We solve the toughest issues with new and forward thinking and craft. We are not defined by one mode of output, but are fluent in many. We believe that you should treat your product as your best marketing. Treat marketing as a product extension. Add value to your users, turning them into ‘brand volunteers’ that act as your best marketing channel.

We look forward to showing you the work. Stay tuned. Or see what the Times has to say.

Things aren’t always what they appear. This thought holds true for Newcastle Brown Ale: it’s a beer that’s dark in color, but surprisingly smooth to drink. “Taste the Lighter Side of Dark” was the theme of our advertising campaign for Newcastle Brown Ale in 2011, and our outdoor executions embodied the same sense of surprise, discovery and uniqueness.

For this “Shadow Art” billboard, Vitro and Newcastle Brown Ale started with 3,000 real Newcastle Brown Ale bottle caps and a 256 square foot outdoor board. Stacking, bending and gluing the bottle caps into precisely the right position, we created a billboard that looked like a random assortment of bottle caps by day. But at night, as the sun went down and the lights came on, everything changed. The billboard became a shadow sculpture: a human face, and shadow arm reaching for a pint of Newcastle. Like Newcastle Brown Ale, this installation wasn’t what it first appeared to be. And like the beer, it quickly became a hit, drawing night time crowds that stopped to appreciate the work and take pictures.

The billboard also became an international media sensation, appearing in a leading creative journals from the US to Japan to France. The Shadow Art billboard was featured in Forbes Magazine, Yahoo News, the Huffington Post, Beer Business Daily, and was named one of the 24 “Coolest Billboards We’ve Ever Seen” by Business Insider Magazine.