Hasta La Creative!

Le photographe Massimo Margagnoni explore la nature à travers sa photographie tout en noir et blanc. De superbes images réalisées grâce à une technique de longue exposition en Norvège et en Islande permettant de donner un superbe rendu pour les différentes cascades immortalisées. A découvrir en images dans la suite.

Until New Year’s Creativity will be counting down 2013’s best moves in brand creativity.

Of late, it seemed the world of alcohol advertising has been saturated with images of attractive millennials, either having a rollicking good time or in search of a deeper cause. But then, this short film running in Europe for Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey, created out of New York boutique Opperman Weiss and directed by RSA’s Laurence Dunmore came out, leaving the others in the dust with a simple approach: a beautiful story, expertly told.

The film, which comes in at No. 6 in our film category, opens with a crew of young, suited gents meandering through verdant hills to a rainy church graveyard. As they stroll together, shoulder to shoulder, maneuvering their way past headstones, they reflect on good times past and break out the Tullamore to toast one of their mates, who we presume has transitioned to a world beyond — which, he has, but not in the way we’re expecting.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Despite predictions from advertising experts that deploying Ron Burgundy to help sell Dodge Durangos wouldn’t work, we now have compelling evidence (a healthy increase in sales) to the contrary. Upon the launch of the campaign, one of those skeptics, a marketing professor, wrote, “I could not, in good conscience, advise any of my clients to invest their promotion dollars in this type of approach. About the only thing that advertisers can count on to work reliably is communicating the unique benefits of the vehicle, and translating those benefits into time and money savings for the buyer.” Ouch.

It looks like the good professor is wrong, and an idiot like Ron Burgundy is, well, “right on.” Here are eight lessons to learn from this campaign (with some clips from it for good measure).

1. Stop trying to convince your audience that you’re better than the other guy. Instead, be more culturally relevant than your competitors. A brand isn’t so much competing for attention within its category; it’s competing for attention, period. As much as we like to think that people make rational, well-reasoned decisions, especially with durable goods, they’re actually more apt to make decisions non-rationally. Cultural relevance makes your brand current and gives it life. Remember, in most cases, it’s more about how they feel about the brand and how it reflects on them, not what it does for them.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Who says data pros have two left feet? Elise Neel, newly hired VP-data and insights at mobile-data firm PlaceIQ, took a roundabout route to her current position, in which she evaluates data partners and provides the company’s sales strategists with information to help clients understand who’s visiting certain types of businesses.

“What qualifies me for this data-related job the most is the creativity and visual perception strengths that I relied upon as a dancer,” said Ms. Neel. “As a tap dancer, for example, you have four instruments at your disposal: two legs each equipped with a toe and heel piece. After more than 20 years as a tap dancer, you start to learn how to get creative and use those instruments in new ways.”

Getting to this point wasn’t exactly part of a planned career path for Ms. Neel, though. In fact, Pepperdine University was the only school she applied to when she reluctantly decided to give college a try. She got in. “It was literally just shy of a God-made miracle,” she said humbly. She has a bachelor’s degree in advertising.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Google a dévoilé, comme il est désormais coutume chaque année, les termes les plus recherchés en une jolie vidéo appelée Google Zeitgeist. Une création permettant de revivre l’année 2013 passée en moins de deux minutes. L’ensemble est à découvrir en images et en vidéo dans la suite de l’article.

Agency networks based in major Asian countries like Japan, Korea and China are trying to fulfill their global aspirations by turning to Westerners for leadership and entering new regions through acquisitions.

The strategy can be traced back to Dentsu, which grappled for decades with unsuccessful efforts to open agencies under its own name and forge international alliances with other networks, including Havas, Y&R and Publicis. The Japanese giant turned the corner when it made two big moves: it started acquiring Western brands instead of trying to build them, and promoted its first non-Japanese exec, Tim Andree, to a senior role in the company.

Korea’s Cheil Worldwide has faced similar problems trying to escape its reputation as Samsung’s in-house ad agency, with no other real international clients. Following Dentsu’s playbook, Cheil hired former Leo Burnett U.K. exec Bruce Haines in 2008 to move to Seoul as president-global chief operating officer, and Buz Sawyer as CEO for North America in 2010. It was announced last week that Mr. Sawyer is leaving at the end of December to become a consultant and will not be replaced. Mr. Haines retired earlier this year after having moved into a global chief strategy officer role for Cheil several years ago. (Mr. Haines’ LinkedIn profile now reads “Retired and at leisure” in Bath, England).

Continue reading at AdAge.com

As we look back on 2013 to see what popped here on Adrants, we see that interests ranged from the serious (a campaign which used disabled models to ponder the notion of perfection) to the silly (semi-naked teens promote a magazine with hand bras) to the stupid (yet another social media screw up) . But most interestingly, it was our Facebook screed, This is How Facebook is Going to Die, that took top honors, by far. Without further ado, here’s what you loved most on Adrants in 2013.

1. This is How Facebook is Going to Die
2. Kaley Cuoco Makes Super Bowl Debut in Toyota Ad
3. 'Disabled' Mannequins Ponder the Notion of Perfection
4. Semi-Naked Teens With Hand-Bras Promote Swiss Magazine
5. Bookstore Chain Helps You Sleep With Your Favorite Book Characters

6. 'Airplane' Star Julie Hagerty Does Old Navy
7. ‘Made by Apple in California’: Flop or Famous?
8. Agent Provocateur Model Loses Her Pussy
9. This Guy's Gonna Need A Really Big Condom!
10. Domino's Apologizes to Customer Who Praised Product in Yet Another Social Media Screw Up

One of the last items in our holiday coverage (we hope) may also be one of the strangest agency submissions of the season, which comes to us from New York-based Berlin Cameron United.

BCU’s version of the agency video holiday card is a weird one indeed, answering the question “What can Berlin Cameron bring you for the holidays?” with a barrage of gnomes, yeti costumes, dancing, beat boxing, and more yeti costumes, to name a few. Just don’t expect it all to make much sense as it’s more a menagerie of random, goofy ideas. We’ve definitely seen worse holiday cards this year, but I’m not sure we’ve seen a more bizarre one.

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