Hasta La Creative!

Habitant à Hong-Kong depuis près d’une décennie, Javin Lau a voulu rendre un hommage avec cette vidéo appelée « Hong Kong is Home ». Sur la musique Waking Up de M83, cette vidéo en time-lapse s’inspire du film Oblivion, lui rappelant à quel point nous sommes si petit par rapport à ce qui nous entoure.

WPP’s Mindshare has won the TGI Friday’s media buying and planning business.

The selection is a move to unbundle the media account from the creative, as both were handled by Dallas-based agency The Richards Group. Executives familiar with the matter said that the review should not affect the shop’s creative business.

Mindshare referred calls to the client. The marketer and incumbent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Nail care membership service LUXECOAT is out with an Entegrate-created video featuring actor, writer and rapper Andy Milonakis and a bevy of nail-wagging ladies who aim to convince us proper nail care can get you vary far in life.

You don’t need a Bentley, you don’t need a Jaguar. Because when you’re nails look good, there’s no need to brag.

Milonakis, who’s best known for creating and starring in The Andy Milonakis Show on MTV and MTV2, frolics with the ladies as he waxes eloquently about the importance and power of perfect nails.

To promote Mercedes Smart cars to Russians (who like driving big cars), BBDO Russia actively proved to potential customers the benefits of having a smaller vehicle.

Many Russians get towed on weekend shopping trips for parking illegally; and the traffic is also notoriously bad in the city. So in March Smart offered free rides to those stranded by having their vehicles towed — getting them to take a test drive without requesting one, and see what a difference having a small car makes when parking is scarce and traffic heavy.

623 car-less drivers were rescued during three days. The agency encouraged people to thank the Smart brand on social media, while blogs and news portals picked up on the stories and test drives increased 10 fold. Sales increased by 300% in the two weeks following the event.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

NBC kicked off the upfronts’ biggest week this morning with a pitch at Radio City Music Hall. Now it’s Fox’s turn, with a lavish presentation at The Beacon Theatre. Fox is trying to get ad buyers enthusiastic about a slate including four new dramas and five new comedies.

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Two weeks ago — in the wake of Ron Johnson’s ouster as JC Penney CEO and Myron Ullman’s return — JC Penney apologized to customers. The apology ad it released marked a bold admission that the retailer had failed in its turnaround efforts and went too far afield from its heritage. But now the retailer is declaring victory with a spot thanking consumers for returning to stores.

The spot, from JC Penney’s new agency of record, Y&R, began making the rounds Monday after it was posted to the company’s Facebook page. But it was first posted on YouTube on Mother’s Day, and seems aimed directly at moms.

The spot depicts pretty, muted images of moms spending time with their kids, and families enjoying each others company. A voice-over declares: “At JCPenney, we never stop being amazed by you. How you work so hard without looking like you do. How you make every dollar stretch so far and keep your family so close.” It closes with: “We’re happy to say you’ve come back to us. Thank you.”

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Just days after cleaning house by cancelling a bevy of shows, NBC announced its new slate of comedies and dramas at its upfront pitch on Monday morning, with a focus on cops and procedurals.

NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said he has no illusions about the challenges that are ahead for the network. While the peacock network started off last season strong, buoyed by “Sunday Night Football” and “The Voice,” ratings fell off mid-season after both went on hiatus. In a first for broadcast, Univision topped NBC in February sweeps.

NBC had few new hits coming out of last year’s upfront — namely “Revolution” and “Chicago Fire.” Last week, NBC axed a swath of its other new entries, including comedies “Go On,” “The New Normal” and “1600 Penn” and the drama “Deception.” It also canceled “Smash,” the lavish musical series that just finished its second season.

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É improvável que repita o sucesso da recente ação “The Candidate”, mas a Heineken aplicou uma nova pegadinha, dessa vez relacionada a final da Champions League.

Em “The Negotiation”, homens devem tentar convencer a parceira a comprar um par de cadeiras vermelhas – dessas iguais de estádio de futebol – por nada menos que US$ 1899. Aquele que conseguir a façanha, leva dois ingressos para assistir a final entre Bayern e Borussia no Wembley Stadium, em Londres.

Os argumentos são pouco convincentes, como “são duráveis” e “eu adoro vermelho!”, mas alguém vai acreditar. Tem até um com a coragem de dizer: “É um investimento, assim como aquela sua bolsa cara”.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Lucky, once so successful a shopping magazine that it spawned imitators from Vitals to Shop Etc. to Cargo, is now striving to get its mojo back.

Amid rising digital competition and a steep decline in ad pages last year, Conde Nast in January named Gillian Gorman Round to oversee both Lucky’s editorial and its business operations — a management structure new to Conde magazines. Once the company had named Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour to the additional post of artistic director across its titles, Lucky became one of the first areas she was asked to examine. And Conde has now invested serious money in redesigning the print product.

The first iteration of Lucky’s resulting evolution is reaching newsstands this month in a redesigned June/July issue that puts a premium on visuals. “There’s the same amount of product in the magazine, but the presentation has completely evolved,” said Ms. Round, who was previously Conde’s VP of brand development. “It’s more aesthetically stimulating. It’s eye candy.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com