LONDON – Record label Polydor, part of the giant Universal Music Group, is launching a peak broadcast sponsorship campaign on pay-TV channel Trouble to promote new band the Jonas Brothers.
– Repeating its successes at One Show and the Clios, Uniqlo’s “Uniqlock” (agency: Projector) won the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix.
Boy, the Internet never gets tired of ranking the best movie posters. TCCandler.com’s selection is pretty good, though, with more of an eye for aesthetics than celebrity or indie nerd cred. That said, we can think of two reasons for his No. 1 pick right off the bat. Actually, the same two reasons work for many of his picks. We should have expected as much—guys with this much free time need all the … titillation they can get.
—Posted by David Kiefaber
IHateHimSoMuch.com doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to marriage. There’s an interactive groom “voodoo doll†on the site and the suggestion “Stick him where he deserves it,†along with several banners showing wives who appear to be at wit’s end. There’s also this video clip, suggesting the trouble often begins during the wedding-planning phase. (The actor looks like Chip Esten, who used to be on Whose Line Is It Anyway, but this guy’s a more limited performer.) Believe it or not, the campaign is actually a healthy-marriage initiative from the Tampa Bay area, created by Salter > Mitchell / Marketing for Change. The agency explains: “Marriages are frequently not well planned, not well executed, and subsequently discarded. Here’s where women are—angry. This site empathizes with that reality, lets them play with that feeling a bit, and then offers tips and, for the inspired, a path to a lot more help.†The whole enterprise suggests that women are raging harpies (and poor planners out of touch with reality!) who like to “stick it†to the long-suffering men in their lives. Why don’t all you married guys run that insight past your wives the next time you hit a rough patch. I’m sure it’ll smooth things over.
—Posted by David Gianatasio
Spore is a massively single-player online (MSO) game that simulates real life, like Will Wright’s previous titles SimCity and The Sims. Only this time, you start as an amoeba and simulate the evolution of a whole new species. You wouldn’t know this from seeing the trailer, posted above. A friend of mine thought it was for a new children’s movie. (Can you blame him?) And Spore’s Internet campaign, “Inner Feelings from Outer Space,†(which is remarkably reminiscent of SNL’s Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy) also requires you to already know what Spore is. They do have a cool banner running on GameSpot. And they’re offering a free download of the game’s Creature Creator, which you can use to create a critter and enter it in a YouTube dance-off competition. But this is all food for the faithful. If you’re part of Spore’s cult following (and lots of people been waiting years for the game), the ads make total sense. If not, there will hopefully be another campaign out before the game’s launch in September.
—Posted by Rebecca Cullers
LONDON – The Mail Online has overtaken Telegraph.co.uk and Guardian.co.uk to become the UK’s most popular newspaper website with 18.7m unique users in May, according to the latest ABCe results.
To promote its all-music TV network, Fuse.tv launched “Music Is,” a $15 million ad campaign that taps into emotional connections with music.
LONDON – StrawberryFrog Amsterdam, the full-service advertising and branding agency, has rebranded as Amsterdam Worldwide.
LONDON – Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams are turned into superheroes in a ‘Charlie’s Angels’ -style global ad campaign for the Sony Ericsson Women’s Tennis Association Tour.
To promote the Secret touchscreen and 5-mp camera phone, LG puts it in the hands of a stalker who uses it to “interact” with a sleeping woman in another apartment.
LONDON – Online advertising firm Eyeconomy|Nash is to open new offices in Europe and the US as part of global expansion plans.
LONDON – Online marketers are not using social networks properly to promote their brands, according to a report from JupiterResearch.
R&R Partners sent me some colorful print work for the Rio Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas that introduces a motley cast of characters. The Princess of Passion dances in an ice-bucket filled with flames. She looks like Medusa, but maybe those are just bad hair extensions. The Thief of Hearts has his shirt untucked and is about to shoot an arrow, Cupid-style, in his quest for love. Reminds me of my freshman roommate in college—that guy was always urging me to “loosen up and experiment.†And there’s the Queen of the Night, who rides a swing suspended from a disco ball. She also reminds me of my freshman roommate in college. That’s a semester I’d like to forget. R&R also crafted the “What happens here stays here†campaign for Vegas. Hopefully that will be true for these three.
—Posted by David Gianatasio
LONDON – TNT Post has launched a personalised stamp service after a DM trial saw nearly a 5 per cent increase in response after using its own design of stamps.
LONDON – Yahoo has appointed Mark Rabe as vice-president and managing director of Yahoo UK sales, replacing Blake Chandlee, who left last autumn to become Facebook’s UK sales director.
LONDON – Specialist luxury and travel publisher Illustrated London News is to launch a quarterly, high-end lifestyle magazine that will be distributed at exclusive hotels around the world.
LONDON – The Economist Group has predicted it will outperform the press ad market this year, despite the fact that many of its publishing rivals forecast a gloomy end to 2008.
LONDON – Dixons has become the latest retailer to venture onto Facebook, with the launch of a sponsored group on the social networking site.
LONDON – ITV1’s live coverage of Russia’s 2-0 win over Sweden netted a solid 4.2m viewers last night, according to unofficial overnight figures, as Euro 2008 continues to pull in more than respectable numbers.
LONDON – The COI has shortlisted three agencies including DLKW to pitch for the £8m ad account for the Children’s Workforce Development Council.
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