Hasta La Creative!

Is Verizon trying to take a page out of Apple’s playbook? The telecom company is launching multi-thousand square-foot destination superstores, where you can hang out, test devices, and maybe even go on a run.

The stores were announced in a webcast and news conference by Verizon Chief Operating Officer Marni Walden, from the first redesigned Verizon superstore in Bloomington, Minn.’s Mall of America. Chicago is the next U.S. city slated to get one of these stores, and more will be rolling out across the country in “high-traffic” locations.

The impetus for creating these superstores was the finding that while the device ecosystem had matured, customers still weren’t doing as much as they could with their phones and tablets. “As much as people know about technology, there’s a huge opportunity to help educate customers,” Brian Angiolet, VP-marketing for Verizon, told AdAge. He added that he thinks Verizon is straying “outside the category” toward what other retailers, like clothing stores and sports stores, are doing.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

BBDO’s solid streak for Foot Locker continues with a new spot promoting the chain’s annual “Week of Greatness” event, “the one time each year when the most premium kicks come out.”

Entitled “All Is Right,” this latest effort is part of the agency’s ongoing “Foot Locker Approved” campaign for the brand and features the talents of Kyrie Irving, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Dennis Rodman, Brett Favre, Craig Sager, and Craig Sager‘s suits. Directed by Jim Jenkins, “All Is Right” opens with Kyrie Irving stating that with Foot Locker’s “Week of Greatness” it “feels like all is right with the world.” Irving then daydreams about what else would happen if all were suddenly right with the world. This daydream sequence features all the aforementioned stars. We see a lot of ads here at AgencySpy that attempt to be funny. Most of them miss; a few elicit a chuckle or two. Few of them are as genuinely funny as the daydream segment in this spot. I won’t give away too much, but the part featuring Mike Tyson (almost always comedic gold) made me laugh out loud. If the whole spot ended there it would still be classic, but the portions featuring Dennis Rodman and Craig Sager are almost as funny. We hope BBDO continues to make laugh-worthy work for Foot Locker in the future. Credits after the jump. continued…

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