Hasta La Creative!

Advertising Agency: DDB SA, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Gareth Lessing
Art Director: Flash Mailer
Designer: AMI Collective
Retoucher: Adrian Smallpeice
Copywriter: Phil Mailer

Advertising Agency: DDB SA, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Gareth Lessing
Art Director: Flash Mailer
Designer: AMI Collective
Retoucher: Adrian Smallpeice
Copywriter: Phil Mailer

Remember that Talking Pets campaign for Purina? Probably not — unless you’re from Canada or are just generally way into your animal chums.

To bring holiday color to its ongoing “Hate Late?” campaign for Pizza Hut, BBDO Guerrero Ortega ran this ad for Valentine’s Day.

TBWA\Chiat\Day has found a way for the musicians in its ranks to bypass radio altogether and go straight to the Grammy Awards. The Playa del Rey, Calif., agency, which handled advertising for the 50th Grammy Awards telecast on Sunday, started a program called Disruptunes for its own frustrated musical artists. So far, more than 50 groups from 32 agency offices have contributed over 100 songs to an internal Web site, where iTunes sharing is encouraged and music is colleague-rated. This song (that’s an iTunes link) by production artist (and bass player) Eric Ortega’s rock band The Generators started as a scratch track for a 15-second in-show promo and wound up winning the approval of the Grammy client. It premiered during the telecast itself, and a 30-second version will appear on the merchandising pages of the agency-redesigned Grammy Web site.

—Posted by Gregory Solman

To say that the digital world is evolving would be both an understatement and stating the obvious. However it’s fascinating to observe the shifts and the push and pull from media and viewers alike. “Digital” and “viral” are no longer the marketing catchphrases they were a year or two ago, and many consumers are not pulled in by just any viral or digital marketing tool. With news of Havas planning a digital media arm, Havas Media Lab, and other agencies and holding groups attempting to similarly tackle the beast that is digital media, it’s becoming an interesting time to watch trends.

How does a YouTube video of Spongebob Squarepants clips mixed to Soulja Boy have nearly 27 million views and the evolution of dance video rise to the top YouTube clip with nearly 75 million views? Is there any possible application to branding and marketing at that level or is the “entertainment” vs. “advertising” paradox insurmountable in the YouTube age? I can’t say I have the answers, but it’s interesting to ponder as both the internet culture and the marketing structures are evolving.
It’s also interesting to see the changes in the media being produced. The novelty of “internet video” has all but worn off, so successful media has to be truly tailored. And just for some practical application and a bit of advertising candy, here’s one of the newer viral’s that has caught my eye, done by W+K Amsterdam for EA Sports FifaStreet 3. Interesting? Successful? Effective? Are those even questions that can be answered right now?

The 2008 Yes! Roadster was one of the most exciting cars to make its first appearance at the Chicago Auto Show. The 2,000 pound car has a 3.2 liter V-6 engine that puts out about 255 horse power.

“Transmission choices include a standard equipped 6-speed manual or optional 5-speed automatic. Inside…

According to The New York Times, Michelle Slatalla wanted to keep in touch with her kids via Twitter. But the kids resisted. They said it was spam, pointless and creepy in a surveillance kind of way.

Walter J. Carl, an assistant professor of communications studies at Northeastern University notes:

“The people who I see using it are an older demographic, people in marketing or P.R. or advertising, who use it for work, to present themselves as particular types of people. They’ll twitter, ‘I’m traveling,’ or ‘I’m going to interesting restaurants.’ They’re using it to do identity work.”

In other words they, or us, as the case may be, are using Twitter as a self-promotion tool, not a conversational tool.

There is a lot of linking to one’s blog post of the hour and that does seem misplaced to me. Followers on Twitter most likely already read the blog in question, so they don’t ned to be driven there.

Remember Dogside? Now the pet company, whose mission is to pamper pooches with only the best, has launched a viral video of “the world’s first ever canine boy band.”

The clip, which can be seen above, features a series of dogs in a music video to Falling in Love (Doggy Style) which sees the canine…

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The Oscars will go on, just in time to give broadcast TV a much-needed shot in the arm as marketers question its effectiveness in the aftermath of the writers strike. The Oscars telecast is slated for Feb. 24.