Manuel Urbanke is a Moscow / Miami / Hamburg / New York / Berlin based Executive Creative Director and Art Director.

Manuel currently runs ALDI Germany’s lead agency antoni_99 together with Anna Lichnog.

You should now see a life-sized portrait of him – depending on your device.

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Fun. Now, let’s find out what Manuel was up to lately.

ALDI

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Custom Agency

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ALDI – Custom Agency –

ALDI – one of Germany’s most iconic brands. With over 4,200 stores and a 111-year history, it has shaped German society and invented the “discount” category.

antoni_99 was built as a fully custom lead agency for ALDI Nord & Süd. Since 2020 Manuel is overseeing a team of 45+ people exclusively dedicated to shift ALDI’s brand perception.

#ALDIstory

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#ALDIstory –

Based on true stories: ALDI is part of German society. Anyone you talk to has a story in connection with the brand. #ALDIstory tells these real stories and invites people to share their own.

Agency: antoni_99
Production: LE BERG
Director: Andzej Gavriss

ALDI

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Mother's Day

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ALDI – Mother's Day –

Love hurts, sometimes. This Mother’s Day, ALDI decided to show how life with kids really is. This digital campaign tells mothers and fathers: we feel you.

Agency: antoni_99
Production: Tempomedia
Director: Alex Feil

NBA

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Hands

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NBA – Hands –

To kick off the NBA brand platform “This is why we play” this TVC follows the life of a regular kid who’s willing to sacrifice a lot for his love for the game of basketball.

Agency: Translation LLC
Production: Arts & Science
Director: Matt Aselton

AT&T

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Codes of Culture

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AT&T – Codes of Culture –

Three digits, that encapsulate the pride and culture of an entire city: Area codes. An ongoing brand platform and US wide campaign that unpacks what it means to represent the 212 (NYC), 404 (Atlanta), 312 (LA) and many more.

All ads were shot with local heroes you’d usually not expect in an AT&T ad. But also featured superstars like A$AP Rocky, 21 Savage, Killer Mike, 2 Chainz, the mayor of Atlanta and many more. Fun fact: AT&T invented area codes 80 years ago, so it’s a perfect brand fit.

Agency: Translation LLC
Production: Arts & Science
Director: Allen Hughes

Gucci x Dapper Dan

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Gucci x Dapper Dan –

When Gucci copied a jacket by famous street wear designer Dapper Dan, they were facing cultural appropriation. Luckily, there was a solution which involves him getting his own Gucci sub-label, handmade in Harlem.

Agency: Translation LLC
PR: Steve Stoute

UnitedMasters

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UnitedMasters –

Pharrell Williams came up with the name, Manuel came up with the brand. As employee #3 and Creative Director he helped develop this music startup from pre-launch to a 550M $ evaluation with 1.5M+ artists using this next-gen digital record label.

Agency: UnitedMasters
Roles: Creative direction, branding, artist development

bett1.de

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hate comments

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bett1.de – hate comments –

With bett1 we turned hate into something good.

Germany’s biggest online mattress seller – managed to sell 3 million mattresses with one TV spot. This ad has been running daily on every TV station for 4 years. PEOPLE FUCKING HATED THAT AD. Which made them hate bett1. How to change that? Turn the online hate comments into the script for the new spots. Suddenly people loved bett1. And everyone was able to get a good night’s sleep.

Agency: antoni_heaven
Production: Bubbles Berlin
Director: Caspar Jan Hogerzeil

The original ad that ran for 4 years.

Hate comments everywhere.