Hasta La Creative!

First round bids for the IMG, which represents athletes and entertainers including Peyton Manning and Justin Timberlake, are due on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy in New York revisit the concept of unscheduled trips in this sequel to their popular Departure Roulette stunt. That effort, from the summer, dared JFK travelers to ditch their plans and immediately fly to more exotic locales chosen at random by pushing a button. For the follow-up, the brand made surprise visits to people who had tweeted during the earlier campaign that they would want to try Departure Roulette—and let them do so.

In the sequel video, camera crews confront unsuspecting tweeters at their front doors, at work and on the sidewalk, with the big green Departure Roulette board in tow. The board becomes something of an actor in the drama, popping up behind tweeters during interviews and suddenly appearing around street corners. It's creepy and goofy at the same time, keeping the subjects off balance but generally adding to the fun. And there's an amusing bit halfway through the three-minute clip in which a brand ambassador knocks on a person's apartment door and calls out, "You're totally gonna miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" A neighbor steps into the hall to see what the commotion is about, takes in the scene with the lights and cameras, and quickly retreats back inside.

One guy who wins a trip to Bucharest seems less than stoked. "Romania … OK. I'll go to Romania. I guess." Maybe he was hoping for Budapest. Other destinations include Marrakesh, Morocco; Reykjavík, Iceland; Seoul, South Korea; and Panama City. As with the original Departure Roulette, the sequel is designed to capture Heineken's bold, adventurous spirit. Personally, I prefer Tui Brewery's approach to stunt marketing. They pump beer through your pipes so you can take off without ever leaving home.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Heineken
Project: Departure Roulette

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Vitrone, Ian Reichenthal, Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy
Creative Directors: Erik Norin, Eric Steele
Copywriter: Will Binder
Art Director: Jared White
Executive Producer: Nick Setounski
Assistant Producer: Kristen Johnson
Account Team: Patrick Cahill, Jacqueline Ventura, Sydney Lopes
Social Strategist: Jessica Abercrombie
Project Manager: Rayna Lucier
Community Managers: Mike Vitiello, Rocio Urena
Director of Interactive Production: Brandon Kaplan
Head of Integrated Production: Lora Schulson
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski, Lisa Quintela, Quentin Perry
Global Travel Director: Colleen Baker
Lead, Senior Travel Consultant: Angela Wootan
Senior Travel Consultant: Joelle Wainwright

Production Company: Legs Media
Director: Dan Levin
Executive Producer: Tom Berendsen
Line Producer: Sara Greco
Postproduction Company: Joint Editorial
Senior Producer: Michelle Carman
Editor: Jon Steffanson
Assistant Editors: Stephen Nelson, Noah Poole, Brian Schimpf
Motion Graphics Director: Yui Uchida
Information Display System Fabricator: Solari Corp.
Design and Build Team: The Guild
Audio Company: The Lodge
Audio Mixer: John Northcraft
Color: Nice Shoes
Colorist: Danny Boccia
Producer: Melissa Dupre

Media agencies are generally dealing directly with fewer media sellers, as they increasingly try to use programmatic buying to procure premium inventory, according to an Advertising Week panel on the evolution of the practice. The discussion was moderated by Rubicon Project senior VP Jay Sears and revealed that the shift to include more premium inventory in programmatic deals can create wrinkles in the buying process.

“Programmatic is critical,” said Michael Brunick, senior VP-programmatic at IPG’s Magna Global. “We are starting to spend more money with fewer bigger and better partners. That gives us leverage.”

That doesn’t mean their clients’ ads are showing up on fewer sites, however. “Ads will show up in more places. We need to use programmatic and technology to do that,” he said.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Battersea Power Station, the grade II listed building, appeared to go up in flames at the launch of Discovery Network International’s new TV series “Bear Grylls: Escape From Hell” last night.

A internet é terreno fértil e ideal para a criação de lendas urbanas. Produtos de megacorporações, aliás, são alvos preferidos das mentes “criativas” do apocalipse.

Depois da polêmica do rato encontrado na garrafa, e que, como todo hoax, se espalhou feito fogo, a Coca-Cola respondeu com um sugestivo vídeo intitulado “Conheça a verdade…”.

É um vídeo corporativo coxinha, que não faz menção ao suposto rato, é claro, mas que gera interesse pela tentativa de controle de danos da empresa.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Warning: excessive slow-mo alert. Three-and-a-half-minutes of mood music. The latest promo for Mercedes South Africa, “Silver Slipstreams,” is meant to highlight the sleek features of the A 45 AMG, but the clip really turns into a glossy skateboarding mixtape. Where’s Jon Hamm’s throaty lullaby voice when you need it? And shouldn’t the car be in the foreground, while the skateboard is in the background? This spot is beautifully filmed, the black-and-white adding interesting texture to the visual stunts, but it all drags on like a bad middle-school video project. Editing matters. Less is more. This would be better served as magazine art.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Npower has hired former Nationwide head of brands and marketing Alastair Pegg as its head of engagement marketing, as it seeks to position itself as the energy firm best for customer service.

We present the shortlist of brands that have stood out in this tumultuous year. Now, it’s over to you, our readers, to help choose the finalists by casting your Brand of the Year vote.

Mercedes-Benz’s light-hearted new ad featuring a chicken keeping its head still while its body is moved around, has entered the Campaign Viral Chart this week.