Hasta La Creative!

We’ve just received confirmation from sources outside of Saatchi & Saatchi’s New York offices that CCO Con Williamson announced today his plans to leave the agency, reportedly to start a new shop. A toast in his honor was held at the NY agency earlier today.

Williamson joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 2010 after a CCO stint at the agency formerly known as Euro/RSCG NY. Over the past decade he’s also spent time at Fallon, JWT, and his own agency, Lodge212.

No word yet on who’ll be joining Williamson at his as-yet-unnamed new agency, but we’ve heard tips that a few other Saatchi NY colleagues announced their resignations today too. A more official announcement from Williamson and the agency is expected tomorrow. As always, we’ll keep you updated.

Also, as it’s Friday, we’ve embedded a Drake video below.

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What if you could replace the dooming anticipation of your inevitable alarm clock ring with something spontaneous and interactive? We’re not talking about technology from Minority Report, but God Morgon, a Swedish company, linked up with Spotify for “a social wake-up clock” that let’s you choose songs for your friends’ alarms. Imagine if you give over Spotify power of attorney to that friend who wants to ruin your sleep by picking Slipknot. Or if a friend wants to trick you into oversleeping, he/she can throw on some Enya.

God Morgon is actually Sweden’s third largest juice brand – there’s got to be a joke in there somewhere. Sweden’s third tallest midget. But this non-juice product is very cool and seems simple and intuitive. Below, you can see some images of the interface:

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The musical, starring Carrie Underwood, drew 18.5 million viewers, the network’s largest non-sports Thursday night audience since 2009.

Today, Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive and ESPN senior vice president Justin Connolly debuted a new brand campaign celebrating the planned launch of the SEC Network. Both national television spots and previews of print ads “were revealed as part of a series of SEC Network programming announcements made at a press conference prior to the SEC football championship game at the Georgia Dome, in Atlanta.” The new campaign, developed along with North Carolina agency McKinney, is called ”Take It All In,” which may or may not be a reference to butt chugging.

The campaign includes “a series of print, TV and online ads that not only focus on the overarching SEC Network, but also on each of the 14 schools of the SEC.” The full “Take It All In” campaign will roll out next year, leading into the launch of the network in August.

The debut TV spot, called ““Not Just a Casual Fan” (which, come to think of it, would have made a better campaign title), can be viewed above. It, in Justin Connolly‘s words, ”bring fans the grandeur of the SEC in a celebratory, immersive and real way.” As the title of the spot suggests, it features die-hard fans both old and young, many of them ridiculously dressed. This is a solid tactic, since these are the kind of rabid SEC fans who might shell out for the new network. It’s just too bad they didn’t think of all the implications to their tagline/campaign title. Or maybe they did. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Bad news for grinches who still hate ugly holiday sweaters despite their newfound ironic popularity: Budweiser U.K. is adding some charm to the practice of capitalizing on them.

The beer brand has created a "Knitbot"—what it calls a tweet-powered knitting machine—to knit ugly sweaters for designated drivers. Every tweet tagged with the hashtag #jumpersfordes (jumper being British for sweater, and des being short for designated drivers) causes the machine to knit a little more. Everything about this—the grasping for relevance in social media, the uninvited participation in a tradition not directly connected to any brand—should be annoying. But it's hard to argue against celebrating non-drunk-drivers. People always get sloppy wasted during the holidays, after all, so why not foster good will—and look less mercenary—by focusing on the chaperones?

A quick Twitter search for #jumpersfordes returns only a few dozen mentions since Nov. 27. Now, the brand plans to hand out the sweaters to actual designated drivers via a contest on its Facebook page. Sure, it's not the first holiday campaign to tie in Twitter, knitting and wooly giveaways. But the campaign's real problem is that the sweaters aren't near ugly enough. Coke Zero's are way worse.

Via Design Taxi.

5. Todd has a stuffed monkey that rides shotgun in his car. His name is Riff — a gift from his daughter so he wouldn’t get lonely on his long commute in from Lake Forest.

6. Todd recently switched from Calvin Klein to Joe Boxer. No clue, however, as to if he does the jingle dance when no one’s looking.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Après AFP Pictures of the Year 2013, voici le récapitulatif de l’agence Reuters qui récupère et diffuse des milliers de photos chaque année. Des images terrifiantes, touchantes, émouvantes, dont les plus marquantes sont réunies dans une sélection de 93 clichés, à retrouver en intégralité dans la suite de l’article.

RAFAEL MARCHANTE, Portugal

JIM URQUHART, United States

DARRIN ZAMMIT LUPI, Malta

CARLOS BARRIA, China

JORGE CABRERA, Honduras

JOHN KOLESIDIS, Greece

LUCAS JACKSON, United States

MUZAFFAR SALMAN, Syria

SAJID HOSSAIN, Bangladesh

CHEN ZHONGQIU, China

MARKO DJURICA, Serbia

DAMIR SAGOLJ, Myanmar

SIPHIWE SIBEKO, South Africa

DAVID MCNEW, United States

LUCY NICHOLSON, United States

JORGE DAN LOPEZ, Guatemala

IVAN ALVARADO, Chile

STEVE NESIUS, United States

ZOHRA BENSEMRA, Pakistan

ANGEL EDUARDO ALANIS, Mexico

CATHAL MCNAUGHTON, Northern Ireland

KEVIN LAMARQUE, Northern Ireland

NOOR KHAMIS, Kenya

PETER ANDREWS, United States

RONI BINTANG, Indonesia

PETER THOMAS, Germany

CATHAL MCNAUGHTON, Northern Ireland

MOHAMED AL HWAITY, Saudi Arabia

CHEN HAO, North Korea

DANISH SIDDIQUI, India

KAI PFAFFENBACH, Brazil

SUSANA VERA, Spain

ADREES LATIF, United States

TOBY MELVILLE, England

YORGOS KARAHALIS, Greece

MARKO DJURICA, Serbia

JORGE CABRERA, Honduras

LUCAS JACKSON, United States

MIKE BLAKE, United States

ALESSANDRO BIANCHI, Italy

EDGAR SU, Singapore

BRENDAN MCDERMID, United States

YVES HERMAN, Belgium

A A GDE AGUNG, Indonesia

CHRISTOPHER VANEGAS, Mexico

JOE PENNEY, Mali

LUCAS JACKSON, United States

NACHO DOCE, Brazil

BRIAN BLANCO, United States

OSMAN ORSAL, Turke

WANG XIAO, China

OSCAR CORRAL, Spain

KEVIN LAMARQUE, United States

ERIK DE CASTRO, Philippines

YVES HERMAN, Belgium

JIM URQUHART, United States

DARRIN ZAMMIT LUPI, Malta

UMIT BEKTAS, Turkey

MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY, Egypt

GIANNI MANIA, Italy

STEFANO RELLANDINI, Italy

LISI NIESNER, Germany

WANG YIXUAN, BEIJING TIMES, China

SHANNON STAPLETON, United States

JIM URQUHART, United States

GORAN TOMASEVIC, Kenya

ALEXANDER DEMIANCHUK, Russia

LARRY DOWNING, United States

ALEXANDER DEMIANCHUK, Russia

DAMIR SAGOLJ, Japan

WU FANG, China

BASSAM KHABIEH, Syria

CARLOS BARRIA, Mongolia

JOHN GRESS, United States

DAMIR SAGOLJ, Pakistan

JACKY NAEGELEN, Chile

MIKE BLAKE, United States

FEISAL OMAR, Somalia

NIR ELIAS, Israel

GORAN TOMASEVIC, Syria

DANISH SIDDIQUI, India

YANG TAO, China

DAN LAMPARIELLO, United States

JIM YOUNG, United States

NACHO DOCE, Brazil

MOHSIN RAZA, Pakistan

TYRONE SIU, Hong Kong

LUCAS JACKSON, United States

RICARDO MORAES, Brazil

HAMID KHATIB, Syria

IVAN ALVARADO, Chile

MOHAMMED SALEM, Gaza

ERIC GAILLARD, Mali

If you’re looking for ways to “prove” to your young one that Santa is real, you should check out Zulu Alpha Kilo’s free “Kringl” app.

The app allows parents to create their own personal Christmas video scenes, which they can then share on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. Users begin by selecting one of five Santa vignettes, then film a chosen location, and finally insert Santa, adjusting for lighting and size so that he fits seamlessly into the scene. They can then show their children Santa’s magical visit, dispelling any doubts the kids may feel about Saint Nick’s existence. The free app also collects donations for Make-A-Wish Canada, for those in the giving spirit. It’s a cute idea, and hopefully people will be pleased enough with the app that they’ll feel compelled to donate.

Check out the above video to see a preview of the app in action, along with a variety of adorable responses. Credits after the jump.  continued…

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(TrendHunter.com) Getting gifts for your besties can sometimes be a challenge but worry no more. These items are great ideas for Christmas presents for your partner in crime. Whether she’s a tomboy and loves…