Hasta La Creative!

(TrendHunter.com) The work of Fabrizio Corneli plays with light and dark in ways that are truly creative. First of all, although it is true that without light there can be no shadow, Fabrizio Corneli’s…

A se julgar pelos segundos iniciais do video aí em cima, poderia ser mais um trailer de um filme de ação prestes a estrear nos cinemas. Logo, entretanto, o equívoco é desfeito com o aparecimento de duas figuras conhecidas, os M&M’s vermelho e amarelo, que contam com uma importante missão: mostrar ao público como o toque de um celular pode estragar um filme.

Criado pela BBDO de Nova York, com produção do estúdio Traktor, Trailer apela para o humor, suspense e aventura para lembrar os espectadores de desligarem seus celulares antes do início do filme. É possível reconhecer algumas referências a clássicos dos filmes de ação, como por exemplo Velocidade Máxima, entre outros. É diversão pura.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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The market is once again filled with doubts about Lululemon Athletica’s niche in a niche market after it revealed slower-than-expected January sales. That’s left the company scrambling for solutions; Chief Financial Officer John Currie said the brand team is working to “come up with ideas on everything we can do to get the conversation with our guests back to the fact that Lululemon has the best quality.”

The Vancouver-based athletic apparel company’s stock is now trading at a two-year low following what many call “a PR nightmare” of 2013 and slow traffic in January caused the firm’s second reduction in a month’s time of its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings guidance. Product problems, management issues that led to management changes and an increasingly competitive market are weighing on the company. Investors are worried about the first quarter and beyond. Shares of Lululemon closed trading Monday down nearly 17% at $49.70, following its $22 million quarterly sales forecast reduction earlier in the day.

“We remain concerned that this slowdown could be more brand-driven than consumer-driven, as we think the brand has suffered at the expense of product mishaps over the past few years,” wrote Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz in a Monday report.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The final tally on holiday sales is out — and it’s good.

The National Retail Federation said December retail sales rose 0.4% from November and 4.6% year-over- year. For all of November and December, the NRF said sales increased 3.9% to $602.1 billion, matching the group’s expectations. E-commerce sales, the NRF said, increased 9.3% to $95.7 billion.

“Considering that retail sales are an important barometer when measuring the overall health of our national economy, this report provides a level of true optimism that the recovery is picking up steam, and once again, retail leads the way,” said Matthew Shay, NRF president-CEO, in a statement.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

If you’ve ever wondered how NFL’s halftime started, Denver-based agency Motive has the (entirely fictional) answer for you in their new spot for Pepsi, “There Since the First Halftime.”

In the 30-second spot, a group of guys playing football are interrupted when a broken down car full of fetching ladies arrives asking for help. One of the guys tells his team to stay focused, but the girls shout, “We’ve got Pepsi!” Another player says “What if we just take, like, fifteen minutes?” and thus, Motive and Pepsi would have you believe, halftime was born. It may be a bit ridiculous, but, more importantly, it’s fun and memorable.

The spot marks the Hungry Man debut for director Kinka Usher. The former DGA Director of the Year joined the production company, along with EP Nancy Hacohen, last month.

“There Since the First Halftime” started running during the NFL Playoffs this past Saturday as part of a larger campaign supporting the Pepsi-sponsored Super Bowl Halftime Show. Chances are you’ll catch it if you stick around for commercial breaks during the Conference Championships this Sunday. Credits after the jump. continued…

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(TrendHunter.com) It would be difficult to know what to expect from the Solo Remote Access Device until it has been switched on. Taking the relative size and dimensions of a camera lens, this compact contraption…

Facing a threat from Capitol Hill that would hurt the ability of businesses to deduct advertising expenses, the Association of National Advertisers released a study that says the move would badly hurt the U.S. economy.

The study, conducted by IHS Global Insight, said that by 2017 advertising will directly and indirectly foster $6.5 trillion in U.S. economic activity and help support 22.1 million U.S. jobs. It also found that each dollar spent on advertising expenses generates nearly $22 of economic output.

The study is a response to two proposals aimed at cutting the overall corporate tax rate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman David Camp, R-Mich., have each proposed allowing businesses to deduct only 50 percent of their advertising expenses in a tax year and require the balance to be amortized over five years (Senate plan) or 10 years (House plan.)

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Last year, the folks over at Brooklyn-based design agency Hush welcomed 2013 with “100 Wishes”: a visual representation of 100 individuals’ wishes for the new year, “generated by reverberating viscous paint in water.” As a follow up, this year they’ve created “Release 2014,” a similarly inspired project that instead utilizes digital technology in its process.

The new project “paints a portrait of emotional release, using recordings of brief vocal utterances and custom software to generate bursts of color that vary their shape based on timbre, volume, and other unique identifiers.” For “Release 2014,” HUSH asked 100 people to express their feelings about the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 with a brief utterance, acting as a vocal “release.” These vocal utterances were then fed through the software to create unique digital images based on the sounds; the digital images were then transferred to analog to make 200 limited-edition prints.

You can check out the 90 second case study of the project above. It documents HUSH’s intriguing process, as well as some of the end results. This would be easy to dismiss as just a gimmick, if the releases themselves weren’t so aesthetically pleasing and interesting. If you’re interested in checking out a selection of some of the most powerful releases you can do so here. It’s well worth a quick perusal, as you’re not likely to see something like it anywhere else.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.