Hasta La Creative!

And now, a little shout out to the number crunchers. We’ve received confirmation that as of yesterday, Greg Corso has assumed the role of EVP,  director of data/analytics for MRM’s New York and Princeton operations. From what we gather, Corso essentially replaces David Hohman, who served as SVP/data & analytics at MRM. As for Corso, the new EVP arrives from  “customer science” company dunnhumbyUSA, where he served as VP/media solutions. During his career, Corso also spent three years at R/GA, last serving as director of analytics/CRM and has also worked at the likes of  what was formerly Rapp Collins.

In his new role, Corso will Greg will be responsible for overseeing MRM’s Performance practice in the East – “providing segmentation, predictive modeling, data analysis, campaign tracking and database marketing operations support for our clients.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For the first time, Burt’s Bees is promoting its seven mainstay, “classic” products as a group. These “classics” include Beeswax Lip Balm, Coconut Foot Cream, Shea Butter Hand Repair Cream, Hand Salve, Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Cream and Res-Q Ointment. To promote their classic lineup, Burt’s Bees is reinterpreting a few classics in a new format. Burt’s Bees and agency Baldwin& are using 6-second stop motion animated Vines interpreting seven classics of literature: Little Women, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Gulliver’s Travels, Metamorphosis, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, and Julius Caesar.

The humorous Vines highlight the time-tested nature of Burt’s Bees products, suggesting they will last as long as the classic literature they pay homage to. Of course, Burt’s Bees products are actually featured in the Vines, such as the lip balm in “Little Women” who declare “We really are quite little. And each of us women.” These classic vines are staged by Vine animator Jethro Ames of San Francisco, using in-camera stop-motion shooting for each Vine. The process takes about four hours to complete, with no post-production possible.

The first two “Classic Vines” to roll out are Little Women (featured above) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (featured after the jump).” In a small, prequel campaign that marries the new and the classic in a different way, founder Burt Shavitz will post about his backwoods Maine life on Instagram. This “Classic Burts” campaign contrasts a classic, traditional lifestyle with the hustle and bustle of modern social media, such as a photo of Burt splitting logs with the caption “Innovative home heating system.” This campaign from Baldwin& is refreshingly non self-serious and makes sense for a company whose selling point is that they make a no-frills, quality product out of classic materials. We’re guessing it didn’t exactly break the bank either. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Tenho uma confissão a fazer: eu simplesmente detesto comerciais de produtos de higiene bucal. A vida inteira eu me perguntei por que  eles eram todos iguais, mas este sentimento piorou bastante depois que eu passei a escrever aqui para o B9. De repente, todas aquelas trilhas sonoras terríveis, falas e imagens centradas na ideia de dentes brancos e hálito refrescante tornaram-se insuportáveis e eu simplesmente desisti. Até hoje de manhã, quando o título de um filme feito pela italiana ebolaindustries para a Oral-B chamou a minha atenção e resolvi dar uma nova chance ao assunto: O Poder de um Sorriso.

Sem abrir mão dos dentes brancos, o comercial traz, em menos de 80 segundos, quatro histórias de pessoas que estão prestes a descobrir algo que será revelado a seguir: o cara que vai conseguir um emprego, a menina que descobrirá aquele que será o seu melhor amigo, a moça que conhecerá seu novo amor, o executivo que terá um novo começo… A ideia é mostrar como tudo isso pode se tornar realidade graças a um sorriso, que tem o poder de mudar nossas vidas.

Se fosse um filme para qualquer outro produto, poderia até ser um conceito banal. Mas para uma marca de higiene bucal, ficou perfeito, sensível. E restaurou a minha fé de que ainda iremos ver algo assim sendo feito aqui no Brasil, também. Quem sabe.

PS: Impressão minha ou conseguiram mesmo achar um ator que é a cara de Mark Hamill jovem?

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
Twitter | Facebook | Contato | Anuncie

Channel 4 will be able to measure Facebook engagement around its programmes in real-time after signing up to be the social network’s second UK partner for its API tools.

Artificial sweeteners are on the outs with consumers, as evidenced by a drop in sales of Splenda, Equal and Sweet’N Low and share declines among diet-soda brands. Now, Truvia, a natural sweetener made from the stevia plant, is looking to press its advantage with a series of spots going directly after its sugar-substitute rivals.

Consumers’ backlash against artificial sweeteners has led food and beverage giants such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Smuckers, Kraft and Pernod Ricard to introduce products that use stevia, raising the ingredient’s profile (a cameo in the series finale of “Breaking Bad” didn’t hurt, either).

“Being natural is key for consumers,” said Bill Pecoriello, CEO at Consumer Edge Research. “They are increasingly trying to avoid artificial sweeteners.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Volvo Cars’ global agency search has taken as many hairpin turns as a racetrack.

What started in June as a review aimed at consolidating the automaker’s agency relationships around the globe but was explicitly stated to not include the U.S., could now expand to include the $50 million U.S. creative account held by Havas’ Arnold Worldwide.

It’s a sign that the 86-year old Swedish auto brand, now owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, continues to look for efficiences. The automaker had earlier used a “Team Volvo” structure — a popular approach for car advertising — that was an alliance between three agencies: Arnold Worldwide, SapientNitro and what was then called Euro RSCG 4D. But in 2011 it consolidated that approach and moved all of its business in the U.S. to Arnold.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The social/mobile video space is focused on a simple premise — easy creation and easy sharing. The big players are completely dedicated to these principles. Vine, Instagram and YouTube make it as easy as possible to create, post and share content. Marketing success on these platforms is tied to these principles as well. We measure impact entirely on views, pass-alongs and earned impressions, all of which are governed by how fast something can go viral.

But hovering on the fringes of the social/mobile-video app world is a host of innovative tools that threaten the hegemony of the current order. They introduce a level of engagement that is based not entirely on view counts. Instead, they are focused on creating engagement through collaboration. And it’s a world coming faster than many in the marketing world might believe.

As part of the comprehensive monitoring of the tech-startup space my team and I do on behalf of clients, we recently identified a pattern emerging among the latest social-video apps. SwitchCam, MixBit, JumpCam and other video startups are beginning to focus on new ways to connect mobile video shot from many different cameras into a viewer-defined whole.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The Government is set to reject the Royal Charter on press regulation proposed by newspaper and magazine publishers, in favour of exploring a version of the Parliament-backed plan, according to reports.

Advertising Agency: The Monkeys, Sydney, Australia

Details are a bit vague at the moment on this, but yesterday, we received a tip that McCann was awarded integrated ad duties for Lockheed Martin. We inquired throughout the day and were left in the dark until last night when we finally received this reply from a Lockheed spokesperson that confirms the integrated win: “We recently conducted a review of our advertising and media agencies and selected McCann to be our agency of record beginning in early 2014.” No word from Lockheed on who the incumbent was (if there was one, though we’re digging) but we’re hearing that the Bethesda, MD-based defense contractor, which is also furloughing approximately 20 percent less workers than planned due to the government shutdown, actually made its decision last week.

By our count, this marks the third notable account win for McCann in the last six months following the USPS and Cuervo. We’ll keep you posted if and when we find out more about its latest.

Update: Well, to fill in the blanks a bit, folks on the Spy tell us CT-based Keiler & Company was the incumbent on Lockheed. As for the review, we’re being told other agency finalists included Arnold and Doremus.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.