Squarespace: Unavailable
Squarespace needed to drive domain registrations during the Super Bowl. The client wanted to move beyond functional benefits to create an emotional, memorable campaign that highlighted the urgency of securing a personal domain. They targeted creators and professionals who value their online identity, aiming to make the act of domain registration feel like a critical, non-negotiable step in building a brand.
Creative Idea
A celebrity's descent into madness over a taken domain name proves domain urgency.
Squarespace dramatized the existential dread of losing one's digital identity by showing Emma Stone descending into madness after finding her domain name taken, turning a mundane technical frustration into a high-stakes, cinematic cautionary tale about securing your online presence.
The Brutalist Descent into Domain Madness
Crafting the Gothic Island
To capture the claustrophobic tension of the narrative, the team opted for a 100% practical set built at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden. Over 12 days, designers constructed a full-scale brutalist living room with four walls and a functional fireplace, allowing director Yorgos Lanthimos to film in continuous, 360-degree takes. To maintain the stark, high-contrast aesthetic, the crew utilized black-and-white 35mm analogue film paired with an Arri LT camera and Panavision Primo lenses. The lighting setup was exceptionally intense, necessitated by the use of low-sensitivity Kodak 2302 stock.
A Meta Approach to Marketing
The campaign functioned as a multi-part theatrical rollout rather than a standard commercial. Beyond the centerpiece spot, the agency produced "The Negotiation," a mock behind-the-scenes film that blurred the lines between reality and fiction as Emma Stone attempted to reclaim her digital identity. The production team ensured safety during the destruction sequences by removing all lithium-ion batteries from the dozens of laptops Stone smashed and set ablaze.
Cinematic Collaboration
The project reunited Stone with her frequent collaborator Yorgos Lanthimos, bringing a distinct arthouse sensibility to the Super Bowl stage. The visual language was further defined by DP Robbie Ryan and composer Jerskin Fendrix, who provided a haunting score. David Lee, Squarespace’s Chief Brand and Creative Officer, noted that the team intentionally treated the Super Bowl slot as a film premiere to create a fully realized world, moving away from traditional advertising tropes to emphasize the existential stakes of losing one's online domain.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Squarespace provides an all-in-one platform for domain registration and website building, positioning itself as the essential guardian of digital identity.
Category
Domain registrars typically focus on functional, dry utility and price-based messaging rather than emotional storytelling or high-concept cinema.
Customer
Users feel a growing, subconscious anxiety about their digital footprint and the fear of losing their name to someone else.
Culture
The rise of personal branding and the increasing importance of owning one's digital real estate made this fear highly relatable.
Company
Squarespace provides an all-in-one platform for domain registration and website building, positioning itself as the essential guardian of digital identity.
Category
Domain registrars typically focus on functional, dry utility and price-based messaging rather than emotional storytelling or high-concept cinema.
Strategy:
Transform a mundane technical friction into an existential crisis to drive immediate, urgent action.
Customer
Users feel a growing, subconscious anxiety about their digital footprint and the fear of losing their name to someone else.
Culture
The rise of personal branding and the increasing importance of owning one's digital real estate made this fear highly relatable.
Strategy:
Transform a mundane technical friction into an existential crisis to drive immediate, urgent action.
Strategy Technique
Start With a Human Flaw
It taps into the universal, irrational panic of losing one's identity. By anchoring the campaign in Emma Stone's extreme, emotional reaction, it makes the abstract concept of domain ownership feel deeply personal and urgent.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Dramatize the Problem
The campaign takes the common, minor annoyance of a domain being unavailable and elevates it into a cinematic, gothic tragedy. This exaggeration makes a dry technical issue feel visceral and urgent.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign elevates a simple product utility into a cinematic masterpiece through exceptional art direction and a brilliant, self-aware performance by Emma Stone.
The gothic, high-contrast black-and-white aesthetic and stunning brutalist set designs create a visually arresting, cinematic world.
Emma Stone delivers a perfectly pitched, highly expressive, and physically comedic performance that anchors the ad's absurd premise.
“The synergy between the dramatic, film-noir art direction and Emma Stone's over-the-top theatrical performance creates a uniquely hilarious contrast.”
