Hasta La Creative!

Power transfusion between smartphones promotes blood donation.

Leo Burnett Tailor Made launches The Donor Cable, an accessory for smartphones on behalf of Club SangueBom.

After months of work involving creative designers and engineers, the first version of the gadget named “The Donor Cable” was born. It’s a way to transfer power between smartphones: just connect a fully charged cell phone (donor) to a receiver that needs charging, symbolizing the relationship between the blood donor and the patient.

The goal of the project is to make blood donation part of everyday life. “We offer a way to solve an everyday problem and at the same time, remind the population about blood donation. Our biggest challenge is to encourage regular blood donation” says Frederico Dutra, director of Club SangueBom.

For its launch, the Donor Cable has been made available for experimentation in all Outback Steakhouse restaurants and other spots since April. Every time someone makes a power transfusion, he knows how and where to donate blood as well.

The expectation is to increase the number of regular blood donors, and to find partners interested in producing the new gadget on a larger scale, in partnership with the Club SangueBom. All profits reverted to help Brazilian blood banks.

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Tailor Made, Brazil
Creative Vice President: Marcelo Reis
Executive Creative Director: Guilherme Jahara
Creative Director: Rodrigo Jatene
Copywriter: Fernando Calvache
Art Director: Marcelo Bruzzesi, Marcio Bento
Account: Marcelo Martirani
Technology: Cricket Design

“Main Street Matters,” The Martin Agency’s first campaign for Benjamin Moore since winning creative/media duties for the paint brand back in February, celebrates local businesses in the US and Canada. From today until June 30, users can visit paintwhatmatters.com and vote for a town to receive a Benjamin Moore makeover. Painting and renovations will then take place in 20 cities from July until May 2014.

Brad Pitt lends his simpering voiceover (can’t help but think of his Chanel ad) and star power to Benjamin Moore’s video spot, with lines like, “Drug stores that still make milkshakes with real ice cream…matter.” The video–a slideshow of old-timey American storefronts–isn’t exactly scintillating, but of course the idea of supporting local communities hits a soft spot in my small-town girl heart. Using digital outreach to revitalize mom and pop places is a smart, noble idea. I just wish the campaign’s design sense didn’t also need a makeover.

Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Deep cleaning for fine clothes.”

Advertising Agency: JWT, Sao Paulo, Brazil
CCO: Ricardo John
Creative Director: Erick Rosa, Ricardo John
Copywriterr: Pedro Furtado
Art Director: Fabio Santoro, André Marques
Head Of Art: Fabio Simões
Planning: Fernand Alphen
Art Buyer: Marcia Lacaze, Paula Ferrari
Photographer: Gustavo Lacerda
Producer: Flavio Schaefer, Flávio Colella
Client: Alaor Chiodin

Lizanne Falsetto is not your typical underdog. She is a great cook, lives in sunny Malibu and is drop-dead gorgeous.

Yet the former fashion model — who stands 6 feet tall in heels — is staring up at some of the biggest players in the food industry as she tries to propel her ThinkThin snack bar to new growth at big-box retailers.

The brand, marketed as a “weight wellness” bar packed with protein and free of gluten and sugar, has already made a name for itself in the natural-foods channel. Sales grew 50% in 2012, reaching $22.4 million in the meal-replacement-bar category, putting it fifth, just ahead of Slim-Fast bars, according to Packaged Facts. And that figure likely severely understates the size of the brand because it does not include Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, where ThinkThin gets a large chunk of its distribution. (Forbes has estimated the brand’s revenue at more than $70 million.)

Continue reading at AdAge.com

“To stop is to fail.”

Advertising Agency: DLV BBDO, Milan, Italy
Executive Creative Directors: Federico Pepe, Stefania Siani
Client Creative Directors: Andrea Jaccarino, Emanuele Viora
Art director: Vittorio Perotti
Copywriter: Dario Lo Nardo
Photographer: Winkler + Noah

Virginia Alber-Glanstaetten, group director of planning at Huge, has returned with her monthly column for this here site, this time discussing among other things, the mobile web, couponing, digital performance and how a certain well-known retail chain is playing into it all. Why say any more, let her take it away.

I was recently reminiscing about the early days of .com: an era where big ideas came first and the business model came later, if at all. We can look back now at what were essentially large scale experiments in digital: Kozmo.com, brought down by its free shipping on any order; Pets.com, the founding fathers of cute overload but otherwise useless for pet owners; and WebVan, whose razor thin margins couldn’t support their vision resulting in 2000 people out of work.  We didn’t really know what we were getting into and, at the time, few people were thinking about things like the user journey, the consumer experience, or basic usability for that matter.

Fast forward to 2013 and we’ve made strides in technology but we continue to make the same mistakes. Perhaps not with the same pageantry as with Webvan or Pets.com, but every day agencies produce work where good user experiences and viable business results take a back seat to a big idea, or at least something that will generate a cycle of good press. As digital has become more sophisticated and extended to multiple platforms, so have our audiences and their expectations.  The gap between great idea and another failure is getting smaller and smaller.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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RTE, Ireland’s biggest commercial broadcaster, has appointed the independent media sales house Axiom Media to handle its UK media sales.