Remember when the customer service desk was just a euphemism for a complaint bureau? Back then, customers ranted on the phone or in person about returns, wrong sizes, and overcharges. The idea was a good one, but the end result was frustrated shoppers.
Fast-forward to today. Imagine you're out house-hunting, and using a mobile phone, you can find out immediately from the bank whether you can really afford that dream house. Or instantly find out specific flights that can be booked with your frequent flier miles.
The explosion of social media has changed the notion of customer service across all industries. A service once restricted to phones and then email has been opened through social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Yesterday, the marketing world was up in arms over Nutella sending a cease and desist to the brand’s biggest fan, Sara Rosso. Seven years ago, Rosso created World Nutella Day which now has 40,000 followers on Facebook. Nutella claimed the page was an unauthorized use of their intellectual property and trademarks.
Oh how quickly the tide turns for brands when they realize lawyers are clueless and consumers run the show. Following the kerfuffle, Nutella has dropped its cease and desist order and issued an apologetic statement to Italian news site Corriere della Sera which the Huffington Post translated:
“A positive contact between Ferrero [Nutella’s parent company] and Sara Rosso, owner of the non-official fan page called World Nutella Day, closed the case. Ferrero wishes to express its sincere gratitude to Sara Rosso for her passion for Nutella, a gratitude it extends to all the fans of the Nutella World Day.”
Corriere della Sara explains the initial issue stemmed from a “routine procedure in defense of trademarks, activated following improper use of the Nutella trademark within the fan page.”
Hmm. Sounds like the brand has a bunch of robots running things. In any case, the kerfuffle is over.
Everyone good now? Can we go back to business as usual? And could all the seemingly social media-illiterate lawyers in the world please attend a Social Media 101 class so we can avoid any further idiocy?
No wait, don’t! Otherwise we wouldn’t have anything fun like this to write about.
86% of sex workers are mothers. We need a law to regulate our work.
AMMAR. Argentina’s Sex Workers’ Association. www.ammar.org.ar
AMMAR is a non-profit organization, fighting for human rights and labor laws for sex workers in Argentina. More than 85% of these women are mothers seeking for a law to protect them from exploitation and police violence in order to support their families and work freely. But society and justice are still unnoticed to this controversial subject, that is why they needed to call for attention.
86% of sex workers are mothers. We need a law to regulate our work.
AMMAR. Argentina’s Sex Workers’ Association. www.ammar.org.ar
AMMAR is a non-profit organization, fighting for human rights and labor laws for sex workers in Argentina. More than 85% of these women are mothers seeking for a law to protect them from exploitation and police violence in order to support their families and work freely. But society and justice are still unnoticed to this controversial subject, that is why they needed to call for attention.
86% of sex workers are mothers. We need a law to regulate our work.
AMMAR. Argentina’s Sex Workers’ Association. www.ammar.org.ar
AMMAR is a non-profit organization, fighting for human rights and labor laws for sex workers in Argentina. More than 85% of these women are mothers seeking for a law to protect them from exploitation and police violence in order to support their families and work freely. But society and justice are still unnoticed to this controversial subject, that is why they needed to call for attention.
Here is Geico's latest commercial from The Martin Agency. Uploaded on hump day, it's all about hump day. And it stars a certain mammal that hails from the Middle East and Africa. You can see where this is going. Part of the insurance company's ongoing "Happier Than" campaign. Silliness at its best. Credits below.
CREDITS Client: Geico
Agency: The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va. Chief Creative Officer: Joe Alexander Group Creative Director: Steve Bassett Creative Director: Wade Alger Creative Director, Art Director: Sean Riley Senior Copywriter: Ken Marcus Executive Broadcast Producer: Molly Souter Producer: Samantha Tucker Junior Producer: Emily Taylor Strategic Planner: Melissa Cabral Group Account Director: Chris Mumford Account Director: Liz Toms Account Supervisor Parker Collins Account Coordinator: Carter Crenshaw Project Manager: Susan Karns
Group Talent Director: Suzanne Wieringo Production Business Manager: Amy Trenz
Production Company: Hungry Man Director: Wayne McClammy Director of Photography: Tim Ives Executive Producer, Managing Partner: Kevin Byrne Producer: Nate Young Production Supervisor: Steve Ruggieri
Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler Editor: Ian MacKenzie Editor: Dave Koza Assistant Editor: Carmen Hu Editorial Producer: Evan Meeker Director of Operations: Biz Lunskey
Visual Effects: The Mill Executive Producer: Jo Arghiris Producer: Colin Blaney Shoot Supervisor: Tony Robins 2-D Lead Artist: Randy McEntee 2-D Artists: Tony Robins, Paul Downes, Jamin Clutcher Art Support: Rob Meade 3-D Lead Artist: Kevin Ives 3-D Artists: Billy Dangyoon Jang, Olivier Varteressian, Laurent Giaume, Justin Diamond, Sean Dooley, Joshua Merck, Hassan Taimur, Wyatt Savarese, Samuel Crees, Ross Scroble
Audio Post, Sound Design: Rainmaker Studios Engineer: Jeff McManus Music: "Happier Than" theme song by Adam Schlesinger
Principal Actors in Spot: "Ronny" – Alex Harvey "Jimmy" – Timothy Cole Musical Duo in all spots
"Hump Day" "Mike" – Michael Clark "Julie" – Lindsay Stoddart "Leslie" – Leslie Tsina "Camel VO" – Chris Sulivan Voiceover announcer: Andrew Anthony
Credit reporting company Equifax has named Dentsu’s 360i its lead agency as it reevaluates its approach to data and analytics.
The shift comes after Equifax selected Publicis Groupe’s Digitas as its lead agency in August 2011. 360i will focus on direct-to-consumer integrated marketing efforts for the brand’s credit and identity protection services.
Said Digitas in a statement: “We have mutually agreed to part ways after two years of partnership. We have high hopes that success will continue to follow both companies and we wish each other the very best.”
The Puma Dance Dictionary, created by Grey London to push the brand's new Sync fragrances (yes, Puma makes fragrances), allows users to select words and phrases which are then translated into dance moves by freestyle performers. These "moving" messages can be shared via social media or emailed to friends. You start with various templates and then shift a few words in and out to create sentences. The pre-set "I love women with heart," for example, can be changed to "I love women with popcorn." Or "I love guys with muscles." Or even "I love women with nuts," if you're into that. Manipulating other templates yields sentiments like "Money makes me want to get naked," "Hey bro, your face is crazy" and "Will you stroke my girlfriend?" This can be amusing, but not very, as the vocabulary is too limited. I understand the dancers could interpret only so many words, and Puma naturally wants to avoid potential hate speech or outright vulgarity. But the enterprise seems hamstrung by a lack of true interaction. The dancing on display is self-consciously goofy: "Women" is signified by hip wiggles and boob gestures, and "nuts" is communicated by pointing to one's head with accompanying eye rolls. Plus, the brand message is ill defined. Maybe Puma should've sat this one out.
Advertising Agency: dim&canzian, São Paulo, Brasil
Chief Creative Officer: Michele Dim D’Ippolito
Chief Media Officer: Marcio Canzian
Creative Director: Michele Dim D’Ippolito, Gabriel Araujo, Bruno Salgueiro
Art Director: Thiago Nabisco, Wanslez Quaresma, Bruno Salgueiro
Copywrite: Samuel Segatelli
Diretor: Marcos Alberti
Sound Design: Shuffle Áudio
Producer: Murilo Moura
Planner: Samantha Barbiere
Editor: David Donato
Editor: Teisson Froes
This new ad for Samsung televisions is precipitating foul rumblings across the cyberverse for depicting men as gassy, unkempt, couch-bound louts. Sounds like truth in advertising to me. Especially the flatulence. The spot touts the Evolution Kit, which turns any Samsung television into a smart TV. A young wife saddled with a sorry spouse decides he needs a similar upgrade, and plugs the kits into his back. Suddenly the dude's cooking, cleaning and styling her hair with a vacuum. (Don't try that last one at home! But if you do, let me know how it works out.) The complaints generally follow this example from Reddit: "I find this advert quite sexist. The idea of an 'evolved man' is basically making him the stereotype of a woman. This isn't evolution rather than devolution. If this advert had the women being attached to some machine to make her better equipped to clean/cook/look after children/make her loving to her spouse/partner, there would be an outcry from feminists about equality." Sure, Samsung squeezed out some questionable material. But the clip is nearing 10 million YouTube views in just a week, and generating gobs of attention for the product, so I'd hardly call it a total stinker. Agency: To be determined; CHI & Partners, global agency for Samsung TVs, says it wasn't them.
(TrendHunter.com) The June 2013 edition of Harper’s Bazaar features a lively editorial with the stunning Spanish model Shelia Marquez. This funky editorial is full of wacky graffiti, brightly patterned apparel and…
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