NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The potential combination of Comcast and NBC Universal has launched what seems like a thousand stories over the last several weeks — and this even though the deal has yet to be consummated and could be derailed by any number of factors. That won't stop us from spilling more ink over this fascinating subject, simply because the ramifications for consumers and advertisers are too great to ignore. Here are some points to keep in mind as the deal moves forward.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — After watching an agency such as Santo win global assignments despite being from far-away Buenos Aires, 15 of Spain's ad agencies, four associations and the Spanish government's trade arm banded together to sponsor an event in New York to display the county's best work.
(TrendHunter.com) Halloween is not the same without creative Jack-o-Lanterns littering your front porch, so here are just a few of the 130 Walyou Pumpkin Carvings available on their website to inspire your creative carving…
LONDON – BBC Magazines is launching a monthly pre-school title called ‘CBeebies Special’ which will include characters from various CBeebies programmes.
LONDON – The Government’s plans for independently-funded consortia to provide regional news in the future must include a national contract for England to ensure “no region is left behind”, ITN warned today (14 October).
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — While headsets may seem as exciting as microwaves when it comes to marketing, Plantronics' Elizabeth Bastiaanse Hamren has seen the potential humdrum-ness of headsets as a marketing challenge and opportunity. In a recent interview with Ad Age, she explained why.
LONDON – Media mogul Sumner Redstone plans to sell some of his stake in CBS Corp, owner of CBS Outdoor, and in MTV owner Viacom, to pay down debts owed by his holding company, National Amusements.
LONDON – Media mogul Sumner Redstone plans to sell some of his stake in CBS Corp, owner of CBS Outdoor, and in MTV owner Viacom, to pay down debts owed by his holding company, National Amusements.
Can one person change the world? Through Project Zambi, Hasbro is working with one of its executives who wants to make a difference for African children orphaned by AIDS.
LONDON – Habbo Hotel, the virtual world for teenagers, has teamed up with the MTV Europe Music Awards to create a branded space in which users can hang out back stage and emulate pop stars by winning a virtual award.
Iniciada no mês passado, a nova campanha da Orange no Reino Unido mostra o poder de uma única palavra, que pode ser usada para explicar diversas situações distintas. O conceito está sendo utilizado para promover os pacotes de Internet domiciliar e móvel da operadora, com base na ideia de que cada internet é diferente, dependendo do ponto de vista de cada pessoa.
A criação da agência francesa Publicis Conseil poderia cair na armadilha da generalidade dessas produções publicitárias dramáticas. Ao mesmo tempo que pode gerar grande impacto, na maioria das vezes soa pouco convincente, forçado. Você já viu esses casos zilhares de vezes. Petrolíferas falando de meio-ambiente, rede de supermercados falando de felicidade, posto de gasolina falando de liberdade, etc.
Mas nesse filme de Orange, a força das imagens e situações fala mais alto. A produção é da Wanda, também da França.
(TrendHunter.com) Upon first glance at these turn of the century photos one might first mistake them for the mock pictures that modern day people take depicting poses in old-school outfits with guns, hats and pitchforks…
LONDON (AdAge.com) — Kellogg Co. makes 67 million boxes of Corn Flakes every year in the U.K., but the company struggles to get across the message that it doesn't make cereals for anyone else, and it has lost ground to private-label imitations in recent years.
For weeks now, my old Creative Director Andrew Schmeling has greeted his IM buddies with the following statement: “Is it compellevant?” (Being a Creative Director, he gets to make statements, not ask questions.) However, each time I sign on, I’m reminded this neologism serves as a portmanteau for two key ingredients of great ads: They’re both compelling and relevant. As we’re all subjected to daily, there are far too many pellets of capitalism that are only one or the other. You’re talking cultural milestone when you find one with both.
This is clear from a quick retrospective of the some of the high points of the last half-century of advertising. Love or hate smoking, Leo Burnett’s Marlboro Man rode for decades because whether you were Daniel Boone seeking “more elbow room” or Chris McCandless going Into the Wild, open space has always been part of the American Dream. That’s compellevant. DDB’s classic “Think Small” campaign? It’s compellevant because in the crowded seascape of land yachts that was the American car industry in 1959, a plain little Beetle with a lot of white space couldn’t have spoken louder to those questioning the Don Drapers of the world.
Wieden’s Just Do It in the ’80s? Compellevant. A few lucky folks out there might still look and feel as good as they did when they were 18, but for the rest of us, the clock’s ticking. Recently, there’s the iPod Silhouettes campaign: iconic art direction (branding the non-color white?) and direct copy plus a simple, non-verbal message (music is fun). These are just a few notable examples, of course, but you can pretty much take it to the awards podium (or bank, if you’re concerned with selling stuff) that the best work is compellevant, right?
Well, it is for the most part. Over the last few decades, as certain categories have drifted free from the moorings of Rosser Reeves-style USP-based claims, a number of notable campaigns and ads have appeared that can’t make any plausible claim to relevance but have compelled their way to sales, awards, and in the age of YouTube, the ultimate tribute, spoofs. What are some of these campaigns?
The Budweiser Frogs come immediately to mind. While Miller was going for compellevant with “Less Filling, Tastes Great,” Goodby had put together this slow-building three-syllable chorus of croaks, and the dramatic timing seems impeccable 14 years later. What relevant message does it have about beer? None.
On a similar note, just a few years later, Leo Burnett came out with the Real American Heroes/Real Men of Genius radio spots, and Mr. Centerfold Retoucher, Mr. Jelly Donut Filler, and their worthy compadres didn’t tell you anything about Bud Light, but these ads help vault Budweiser as the top beer in America and inspired countless web searches to hear the ones you’d missed.
More recently, TBWA/Chiat/Day’s tragicomic Skittles storyof the office worker afflicted with the candy touch swept the interwebs and the awards shows with its unexpected premise and compelling humor, but did it say anything close to relevant about the product? Nah. Ditto Fallon UK’s Cadbury spot. On paper, a formula of Phil Collins plus drumming gorilla equals a straight line from Doobieville to WTF-land, but increased sales don’t lie. My left brain is still outraged every time this is being used to sell chocolate, for it’s the perfect portfolio school case study of what not to do, but both my eyes can’t stop watching and neither could millions of others.
What’s the moral of the story here? Don’t be afraid to venture a little bit off the straight, strategic path, especially if you’re working on one of those fun food or beverage accounts. Sure, it’ll be harder to sell to the client, but gold (and a gold lion) might be in them thar hills.
Nate Davis loves advertising, the interwebs, and social networks, yet looks askance on many of their cultural offspring. Read more at www.natedaviscopywriter.com.
Nouvelle campagne mondiale lancée ce jour par la marque Sony afin de réunir les différentes entités du groupe. Elle met en scène le nouveau slogan publicitaire avec un esprit créatif. Un spot de 60 secondes diffusé dans 170 salles de cinéma à partir d’aujourd’hui.
LONDON – As Spotify gets set to launch in the US, a new monthly subscription music service is preparing to steal its thunder with backing from dot com entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
For weeks now, my old Creative Director Andrew Schmeling has greeted his IM buddies with the following statement: “Is it compellevant?” (Being a Creative Director, he gets to make statements, not ask questions.) However, each time I sign on, I’m reminded this neologism serves as a portmanteau for two key ingredients of great ads: They’re both compelling and relevant. As we’re all subjected to daily, there are far too many pellets of capitalism that are only one or the other. You’re talking cultural milestone when you find one with both.
More recently, TBWA/Chiat/Day’s tragicomic 
