Hasta La Creative!

CBS’s new stake in the TVGN basic cable channel could result in a TV network wholly devoted to celebrity gossip, style and red carpet coverage.

CBS Corp. and co-owner Lionsgate said this week that they will introduce a new brand and programming strategy for the channel, until recently called the TV Guide Network, but that it will continue its current focus on entertainment. But the assets and ambitions of each owner suggest noticeable changes are in store.

TVGN could become a network dedicated to celebrity news and women’s fashion, according to David Miller, senior media and advertising analyst at B. Riley & Co. It could get pumped up into an “ESPN for celebrity gossip,” he said.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

UPDATE!: SocialVibe will be live-streaming the Kitten Race finals at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT on Friday, March 29 at socialvibe.com/kittenraces. Four kittens — Fifi, Shadow, Pepe and Flash — will race (more or less) in a benefit for the L.A.-based non-profit group Kitten Rescue.

Late last night I spotted a photo titled “So we held kitten races today at the office” (that’s it on the left) on image-sharing site Imgur, via Reddit.

Naturally, my head just about exploded from the sheer cuteness of it. And from jealousy. (No office I’ve ever worked in has staged kitten races, which is just totally unfair.) A little digging through the comments on the image revealed that the office in question is the Los Angeles headquarters of ad-technology firm SocialVibe, which my colleagues have covered quite a bit.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co has put its $250 million media business into review as it amplifies its media spend.

Nationwide Chief Marketing Officer Matt Jauchius told Ad Age: “It’s been four years since Nationwide [sent out a request for proposal for] media, and a lot has changed over that time period. Media is an area where working dollars can be amplified tremendously based on how and where the buys are placed.”

“We are very satisfied with our current partners, but we owe it to ourselves to continually push and test for the best work and most innovative thinking,” he added. “We are open to a variety of incumbent and new agencies, and we reserve the right to consolidate all traditional and digital planning and buying — or to keep it piecemeal as we deem appropriate.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Here's a fun toy for obsessive baseball geeks: the new "Mission Control" installation at MLB's "Fan Cave" space in downtown New York. There, each year, a selection of the sport's most die-hard fans are paid to watch every game and crank out social-media content about the experience, part of a Lord-of-the-Flies-esque competition to get to the World Series. This year, the space also features a custom multi-screen computer rig, built by Breakfast, that's designed to pull in and display a wide range of data about the upcoming baseball season. The smaller screens on the left and right include video feeds of stadiums from American League and National League teams (even when the games aren't in progress). The toggles on the bottom calls up information like weather conditions and wind speeds at each location, as well as relevantly tagged Instagram and Twitter posts about the ballparks and their home teams. The dashboard meters measure stats like total games played and total number of hits for the season. The central monitor connects to a camera that can be used to record and broadcast video clips of the sports stars and other celebrities who stop by for concerts and other events, and of the "Fan Cave" marketing program's less famous participants. Why? Because all you've ever wanted since you were a little kid was to be a professional baseball commentator and astronaut at the same time. If that doesn't ring true, you're probably not invited.

Advertising Agency: BCube, Milan, Italy
Executive Creative Director: Francesco Bozza
Client Creative Directors: Aureliano Fontana, Bruno Vohwinkel
Art Director: Aureliano Fontana
Copywriter: Bruno Vohwinkel
Account Director: Edi Borrelli
Account Supervisor: Giansimone Graziosi
Account Executive: Giorgia Benetti
Producer TV: Sveva Spalletti
Production Company: K48
Director: Pietro Malegori
Pianification: Vizeum

With the formation of a new content group, Interpublic’s Weber Shandwick is expanding its remit far beyond what’s traditionally been associated with a PR agency.

Called MediaCo, the new unit is attempting to capitalize on content marketing –a channel which advertisers have been increasingly interested in investing but still figuring out how to execute. Among the capabilities Weber Shandwick will market via MediaCo are native advertising and digital media buying.

“There has been a long evolution in the development of this content element of our business,” said Chris Perry, global head of digital at Weber Shandwick. “But over the last 60-90 days, this whole area of the business has caught fire not unlike how we saw social media catch fire four-to-five years ago. When you get into the work it’s a whole new thing bringing together different disparate pieces- from editorial to some newer sexier native advertising, to the social paid side of things. We see this part of the business becoming inevitable for clients to get into.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Don’t we all love a good Twitter screw up? Of course we do! It makes our days more interesting and gives us a bit of schadenfreude in which to wallow. And who doesn’t love feeling better when the other guy is down?

All the classic fails are here in one infographic created by Social Commerce Today. KitchenAid’s comment about Obama’s grandmother; Chrysler’s commentary on Detroit’s drivers; StubHub’s excitement over Friday and American Rifleman’s Good Morning Shooters.

Check them all out below.

If you haven't seen it, see it. It's the jaw-dropping homemade ad—one of the craziest and funniest you'll ever see—that Nate Walsh posted to Craigslist in an attempt to sell his 1999 Toyota Camry. Words cannot describe the ad's awesomeness, but they can describe the process of its creation. In the Q&A below, Walsh—who it turns out is indeed an advertising copywriter—tells us all about his masterpiece, why he went with a collage, whether he's sold the car, and why he is now essentially fearing for his life.

How long did it take you to make this? Did you have help?
This was all a solo labor of love. It took an hour or so to write, and probably around 20 to put together, painstakingly cutting and pasting things by hand. Sometimes it takes way more work to make things look charmingly amateurish.

If I were to take the time I spent on this ad and apply my freelance rate, I'm pretty sure I'd make around $300 on the deal, so, you know, another well-planned financial decision.

You're funnier than 90 percent of copywriters. Do you work in advertising?
I do work in advertising, as a writer. I'll be using the weird virality of this piece the next time a client tries to disagree with my recommendations. "Did you SEE how many repins I got with my shit?"

Actually, the main reason I have to tear myself away from such a sweet ride is that I'm about to leave St. Louis, where I've been working for the past five years, and move out to San Francisco. Right now I'm mostly going to be doing freelance for startups and working on some of my own dumb projects, but … hmm … what is a classy way to say "SO TELL YA FRIENDS" to any agencies that might be looking for a writer? Help me out here, Emily Post.

As far as that other part, well, obviously most funny people use humor to mask deep-seated neuroses and self-esteem problems, so of course I read that question as, "How could you let 10 percent of ad writers be funnier than you?" Then I cried a bit.

What's your favorite part of the ad?
Well, despite the fact that I'm a writer, I'm actually kind of a fan of the look of the thing. I know just enough Photoshop to be dangerous, but when I started laying out content digitally, it just didn't have the right vibe for the tone I was going for. So I asked myself, "What would a drunken, profane second grader do?" And the answer came to me in a flash: COLLAGES.

I think they make every joke a little funnier than it actually is, because you have to imagine some lunatic with a glue stick cackling to himself at 2 in the morning as he pieces his weird little ransom note together.

Have you sold the car yet?
Not yet, but I do have a fair amount of offers. The problem is, despite all the amazing feedback and compliments I've received (Someone sent me a topless photo?), most of the actual offers have come from humorless people with names like "Randy." I'm trying to find the Tanry a loving owner who will appreciate its oddities like I did, but I'm also comically poor, so we'll see how long my scruples hold out.

Are you bummed it's been flagged for removal on Craigslist?
I was at the time, but it's taken on such a weird life of its own at this point—I've seen it on Pinterest, Jezebel, Jalopnik and Reddit, among other places—that I'm not really fussed at this point. I'm just glad people are enjoying it. The Internet can be a pretty snarky place (to put it lightly), but everyone has been amazingly positive and complimentary, which is a miracle in itself.

I am slightly worried, though, that the person who flagged the ad may have been one of the exes from the chart included in the ad, in which case she has to be blowing a gasket about the amount of attention it's managed to get since. So, you know, no darkened alleys for me for a while.

Things are going from bad to worse at JC Penney.

The retailer lost its VP-strategic marketing to Home Depot, marking the third high-profile marketer to exit in the past 10 months. At the same time, the retailer said it would return to a strategy of raising prices on brands it owns and then discounting them as a way to lure back bargain-conscious shoppers and boost profits.

That strategy flies in the face of CEO Ron Johnson’s master plan for the department store. In unveiling his plan in early 2012, Mr. Johnson mocked that approach — one long employed by competitors — as he told investors and media that he’d discovered JC Penney sold only one in 500 items at full price. That strategy entailed some 590 promotions annually.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Basé à Barcelone, le graphiste Yago Partal nous propose des photo-manipulations afin de découvrir des animaux variées sous différentes tenues fashions, du costume le plus chic à la chemise hawaïenne. Un rendu drôle pour des visuels réunis sous le nom de Zoo Portraits à découvrir dans la suite en images.