(TrendHunter.com) When it comes to choosing a new hairstyle, there’s nothing more bold for women than going extremely short, and these lovely pixie cut-inspired styles wonderfully showcases how cutting off your…
The best performance by a cat in a TV commercial this week goes to the fluffy mess in this new British spot for eyewear maker Specsavers. Not that the veterinarian here would know—he's not clear on what a cat is anymore. Specsavers, of course, has a long and proud history of offbeat commercials. The best mistaken-animal-identity spot, though, remains the brilliant raccoon commercial from Sears Optical.
Like a host of other brands, Yahoo has a millennial problem, and its potential acquisition of Tumblr could be a step toward fixing it. But could new ownership help Tumblr with one of its biggest problems — drawing major advertisers?
The companies are in talks about an alliance, some kind of investment or even an outright purchase of Tumblr by Yahoo, according to reports that began with AllThingsD on Thursday night. For CEO Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo, a deal with Tumblr would check many boxes: social, mobile, content and buzzed-about native ads, which Yahoo recently introduced to its home page.
A deal or sale also makes sense for Tumblr, a six-year-old company that’s raised $125 million to date but just began building out an ad platform last year, with an emphasis on formats that blend with the aesthetic of a platform that’s about beautiful visuals and animated GIFs. Tumblr’s sales team is still small and its products still deemed experimental, though its head of sales, Lee Brown (a 10-year veteran of Yahoo himself), has said that he expects the company to become profitable this year. Yahoo’s relationships with ad agencies and marketers could certainly help Tumblr’s business along.
What a week it's been. As Friday draws to a close, I see your defecating man in the exercise video and your threesome-inducing Sexual Chocolate wine, and I raise you one talking butt crack in this British advert for something called Polycell. It's some sort of spray product that promises "No more unsightly cracks" in your walls. Unfortunately, there's one major unsightly crack in the commercial. And it talks. David Ogilvy would be proud. Agency: 18 Feet & Rising. Full list of perpetrators below.
CREDITS Client: Polycell Agency: 18 Feet & Rising Creative Director: Stephen de Wolf Creatives: Alex Delaney & Oli O'Neill Agency Producer: Emily Hodgson Julia Methold Account Director: Adrienne Little Strategic Business Lead Rob Ward Director: Simon Willows Production Company: Blink Production Company Producer: Tiernan Hanby Executive Production Company Producer: James Bretton Editor: Mark Aarons Post Production Company: The Electric Theatre Company Post Production Company Producer: Helen Sutermeister VFX Supervisor: Andrew Stewart Colourist: Steffan Perry @ Framestore Sound Engineer: Tony @ Wave Studios
Brandon Allen, CEO and one of the twenty-something co-founders of Santa Barbara-based vineyard Slo Down wines, bares his buns in a thong and cheekless chaps in a new online campaign to promote the vintner’s “Sexual Chocolate” wine.
The wine’s name pays homage to Eddie Murphy’s band from “Coming to America.” It also provides lots of fodder for the three ads, which all turn on risque themes. In the first, Allen, dressed in a tuxedo jacket and thong and with Sexual Chocolate in hand, steps into a menage-a-trois — and turns it into a menage-a-quatre.
In another execution, he carries his glass into a marijuana-filled room while a third spot finds him chained up in an S&M den. The point being, that Sexual Chocolate is the perfect partner for all your good times. The spots were created in-house and directed by Baker Smith of Harvest Films.
There are now even more "Dumb Ways to Die"—and smart ways to live—as McCann Australia has made a video game out of its beloved, superviral train-safety ad from last year. "Starring all the characters from the viral hit Dumb Ways to Die for Metro Trains Melbourne, the game allows players to flick piranhas away from a character's private parts and defend another from a snake attack among other ways to avoid being dumb," the agency says. "Players can also pledge to 'not do dumb stuff around trains' at the click of a button." The game, developed by McCann in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries. John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann Australia, said: "With the main Dumb Ways to Die video now close to 46 million views, we wanted to give young people another platform on which to enjoy the characters and, more importantly, to continue to remind them that being dumb around trains can and should be avoided."
Leo Burnett Colombia created “Cancer Tweets” for the Colombia’s League against Cancer to raise awareness about the importance of addressing the signs our bodies give us. The prevention campaign created awareness on Twitter so people could feel the silent way in which cancer acts and how easy it is to ignore it.
Seven accounts for the most lethal cancer types (breast, colon, prostate, cervical, lung and stomach) were opened on Twitter. The virtual cancers followed thousands of common people and sent subtle messages that were initially ignored, but as time passed, the cancer grew stronger and got tougher. Those who detected the messages early were able to control it and the virtual cancer stopped following them. But those who ignored the messages received final awareness advisories about how ignoring the symptoms could result in the progression towards terminal stages of cancer.
The act reached millions of people and got the entire country talking about cancer awareness. More than 9,733 social media users and even political leaders like Barack Obama suffered a virtual cancer.
Using the #CancerTweets hashtag, the campaign raised awareness about the importance of early detection because the best way to control cancer is to stop ignoring it.
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Bogota, Colombia
Global Chief Creative Officer: Mark Tutssel
Executive Creative Director: Fernando Hernández, Mauricio Sarmiento
Creative Director: Carlos Oviedo, Alexis Ospina, Rafael Reina
Managing Director: Fernando Hernández, Mauricio Sarmiento
Account Director: Natalia Valencia
Art Director: Rafael Reina, Andres Lopez
Copywriter: Andrés Salamanca, Alexis Ospina
Imagine se tudo o que compartilhássemos no Instagram tivesse o botão “comprar”. Com uma boa apresentação visual, Osom é basicamente isso, um aplicativo que se posiciona como um “mobile commerce de lindos objetos’’.
O aplicativo permite que você navegue em um feed global de itens que os usuários estão vendendo, ou de usuários que você está seguindo, ou vendedores de um mesmo país que você. É possível procurar os itens mais populares na tab “Most Osom’d”.
Inspirados no Instagram, desenvolveram uma interface para um mercado de estreita conexão com a câmera, amor por filtros e necessidade de ver o que seus amigos estão postando.
Ao encontrar algo que queira comprar, é preciso apertar o botão “buy” e, em seguida, fazer contato com o vendedor. Não há pagamento direto pelo aplicativo. As vendas são feitas de forma similar ao Craiglist e eBay, onde a ferramenta funciona como simples vitrine e ponto de encontro. Ao saber o que se quer comprar, fica na mão do vendedor e do comprador combinarem a melhor forma de dar continuidade à compra.
Para postar um produto que queira vender, a interface é bastante familiar: adicionar uma foto, escolher filtros e colocar uma descrição junto ao preço. Além de ir ao ar no aplicativo, é possível compartilhar o post nas redes sociais.
Osom é uma startup sueca fundada por Anton Johansson (ex-Twingly), Marcus Svensson (ex-Twingly) e Björn Fant (ex-Videoplaza). Explorando interesses do mercado mobile e social, os três fundadores foram inspirados pelo Instagram para desenvolver o Osom, pensando em ideias de interação e interface que se encaixassem no contexto de um mobile commerce.
Apesar de ter sido lançado globalmente, o aplicativo está inicialmente focando esforços para se tornar o maior e melhor aplicativo mobile de comércio do Reino Unido, Alemanha e Suécia.
The concept behind Kidzania — essentially a theme park that’s about work — is growing like a weed abroad, with 12 existing locations and openings scheduled this year in Kuwait City, Cairo, Sao Paulo, Mumbai and Istanbul. The first U.S. location is due in 2015 in a city to be determined, and it’s up to Cammie Dunaway, U.S. president and global CMO, to explain the concept to American children and their parents.
Started in Mexico in 1999, Kidzania exposes children to the working world and money management by letting them earn a virtual currency. Kids apply themselves in various career paths, all courtesy of brand sponsors. They can perform surgeries in a Johnson & Johnson hospital in Portugal and work in a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Dubai. Their earnings could go toward renting a car in an Avis rental office, or kids could do the prudent thing and deposit their hard-earned cash in a bank to earn interest.
The brand accomplishes an unusual trifecta of appealing to children, their parents and global marketers who are already looking for ways to talk to the next generation of consumers. Ms. Dunaway — a speaker at Ad Age’s CMO Strategy Summit in San Francisco next month — gave some insight into the strategy behind where to set up shop and how to promote such an unusual brand.
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.
