Hasta La Creative!

A news report that the Israeli defense minister thinks John Kerry’s efforts are naïve and messianic drew criticism from Washington and some Israeli leaders.

Jeez Louise, we’re still awaiting to hear from both parties on the matter, but it doesn’t sound good. As you may have read last week, StrawberryFrog staff has sued D.C.-based PR company APCO, the latter of which acquired the agency in early 2012. Well, things are getting ugly. We’ve received word from very reliable sources, and one has spun a holiday-themed yarn like this:

“Strawberry Frog Amsterdam, a massive PR corporation from DC called Apco Worldwide led by Margery & Evan Kraus, and their made-up entity called the “Dutch Advertising Consortium.” The latter was created to save reputations after Apco attempted to shut down the Amsterdam SF office in October…via email. (Talk about breaking up with someone over a post-it note!) The issue now is that “The Dutch Advertising Consortium” may file bankruptcy in the next few days to avoid paying 20 employees and contractors—a move that could leave many broke from unpaid invoices and salaries.

The best part, is that the amount owed to employees would not even make a small dent in their combined revenues of 200M! Be sure to raise a glass to the Ebeneezers at @apcoworldwide and @frogism and tell them what you think about this kind of behaviour in our industry. Let them know that just like the epic tales of Scrooge or the Grinch, @apcoworldwide and @frogism can still turn it around and #dotherightthing by paying employees and contractors what they are owed. We believe in Christmas miracles. “God bless us, everyone!” Thank you, The Tiny Tims.”

FYI, agency founder Scott Goodson emphasizes that the Amsterdam company is controlled by Apco and is not StrawberryFrog, nor is it connected to StrawberryFrog New York. We’ll update when we hear more.

Update: APCO has sent us this statement:

“Hi Kiran –

StrawberryFrog Amsterdam was a standalone investment for APCO Worldwide, and not part of the operations of either StrawberryFrog or APCO.  As we informed the media in early November, APCO decided to end this investment since the clients that had been serviced there had either moved their marketing in-house or switched to other agencies.

We are appropriately following the process for shutting down a business in which we invested, as we informed StrawberryFrog Amsterdam’s staff in early November. We will continue to act in a responsible manner in accordance with Dutch law as the process continues.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Van Wagner, the outdoor advertising company, has created billboards to advertise advertising on billboards. Catch that? It's kind of meta.

When a billboard doesn't get sold, its owner can keep the old ad up, thus devaluing the space, leave the board blank or put a placeholder on it in the meantime. Van Wagner chose to go with the latter, but didn't want a simple black-on-white "Your Ad Here" sign.

Instead, the company is now into its second round of posting its own curious ads on unsold billboards in New York and Los Angeles. The new ads, featuring bold colors, simple fonts and minimalist headlines (a mix of words and pictures), are fairly cryptic. They say things like, "An Apple a Day," "Cool as a Cucumber," "The Big Cheese" and "Easy as Pie." Prettier and more compelling than "Your Ad Here"? Yes. Confusing as well? Perhaps.

The earlier round of ads was more straightforward, showing animals alongside single-word headlines ("Reach?" next to a giraffe, "Buzz?" next to a bee, etc.) that hinted at the power of outdoor advertising. (Those ads also included Van Wagner's logo and phone number.) The new ads are playful in a pop-art kind of way, but will they get someone to pick up the phone and beg Van Wagner for ad space? Time will tell.

At the very least, they've succeeded in making me kind of hungry.

More images below. Via City Room at The New York Times, which has lots more about the campaign and an interview with the creative director.

The earlier round of ads:

Tushar Lakhanpal a 15 ans et vit à New Delhi en Inde. Ce garçon prétend détenir plus de 14 000 crayons de tailles et de formes différentes. Un véritable record, avec une collection provenant de près de 40 pays différents, avec laquelle il aime être immortalisé. Une passion envahissante à découvrir dans la suite.

Toronto FC has partnered with Sid Lee Toronto for a campaign highlighting their signing of star English striker Jermain Defoe (formerly of English Premier League’s Totenham Hotspur).

Working under the assumption that “soccer isn’t seen as big news in North America until it has become ‘footie news’ across the pond,” Sid Lee crafted a spot documenting the perceived shocked reaction to the news in England. “Our idea for the campaign came pretty early on – let’s elevate the magnitude of Jermain Defoe swapping Tottenham for TFC by having a bit of fun with how people might react to the news in Great Britain,” explains Jeffery DaSilva, creative director at Sid Lee.

Set in the London boroughs where Defoe has been front page news since the beginning of his career, the 30-second spot manages to depict shocked Londoners’ reactions in a clever and funny way (to say anything more would give too much away).  The “It’s a Bloody Big Deal” tagline acts as the perfect ending to the spot, emphasizing the importance of the deal and the connection to how the news is perceived in England.

The integrated campaign launched earlier this week with :10 and :15 second teaser spots appearing in high rotation on major sports networks; the full 30 second spot (featured above) debuts today. In addition to television ads, the campaign includes “a variety of print, online, and OOH executions that will blanket the city for the next five weeks.” Each of the campaign elements feature “a specially commissioned illustration” of Defoe outfitted in his new Toronto FC uniform.

Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

More and more companies are starting to implement strategies and systems to leverage influencers to become marketing and brand allies. And they are doing it with great success. Whether it be content marketing, social media or word of mouth, often times your employees are your best brand advocates. In this article, we will touch on:

1. Why employees make a good sales and marketing channel
2. What employees can do to drive sales and marketing productivity
3. The benefits of activating and automating employees to become brand advocates
4. Why now?

1) There are many reasons why employees have the potential to be a powerful sales and marketing channel for your brand. First, in today’s connected world, employees can reach their social networks on the brands behalf, easily and often. They have a strong voice. In addition, employees are typically very knowledgeable about your products and services and a good percentage of them are passionate about the company. Lastly, their friends listen to them and they can drive your brands message.

More than ever before, buyers look to a trusted source before making a purchase decision. Employees can and will reach out to their social networks and spread a brand’s message, especially if they are encouraged and enabled to do so.

2) Employees do many things that are very important to the brand. They can:

– Refer their friends.
– Recruit new hires and great talent
– Amplify marketing messages
– Forward content about new products and promotions
– Write testimonials

Even better? They can do these things at scale.

3) The benefits are impressive. Leads are the lifeblood of all companies and by enabling and encouraging employees to refer their friends, brands can:

– Build brand awareness and build a highly positive reputation
– Generate the highest quality leads – leads that drive new customer acquisition
– Create higher levels of employee enthusiasm and loyalty to your company
– Save money and lower risk when compared to traditional advertising and marketing initiatives.

4) Why now? Although employee advocacy isn’t a new concept, in the past it has been an operational nightmare to create and manage these programs. But today’s technology has made it easy for administrators to set up, support and manage advocacy programs. Technology makes it easy to:

– Enroll employees into the program
– Provide employees the tools to easily reach out to their networks
– Track and manage all the workflows and controls so brands can measure results
– Automate the process of brands thanking and nurturing employees for their contributions so they continue to advocate on behalf of the brand

This is not a future pipedream. Mobilizing employees, customers and 3rd party influencers to leverage their trusted relationships is happening everywhere because it is smart business: they are a sales and marketing channels of the future.

This guest post was written by Dick Beedon, CEO of Amplifinity.

(TrendHunter.com) Valentine’s Day is almost here, and no date night look is complete without a few Valentine’s Day accessories.

If you’re the festive type who likes to go out for all holidays,…

If you can dream it, someone can steal it.

That could be the moral of the story of Stun Fone, a fictitious attachment that turned your smartphone into a stun gun, devised a few years back by Los Angeles ad agency and production studio Stun Creative. A video demo of this 90,000-volt fake gadget went viral (the original clip was pulled off YouTube, but a copy is posted below), racked up millions of tweets and won an "experimental and weird" Webby honor. Sadistic folks all over the world clamored for one.

Well, the wait's over, and the real version, made by a company called Yellow Jacket, is significantly more muscular than the one cooked up by Stun Creative's Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein as a quirky promotion for their business. Yellow Jacket will sell you a detachable stun-gun case for the iPhone 5 that can shoot 650,000 volts of electricity into a would-be predator (or unfortunate butt-dialer?) for just $149. Bonus: It doubles as a battery charger and makes a noise that's "throaty and intimidating," according to CNET.

The device, launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be available next month, complete with safety switches so you don't fry your ears off. No word on revenue splits or a licensing fee to the original "creators," although they don't seem overly bothered by the new product. In fact, it was Stun Creative's PR team that pointed us to it.

Iglo Group, the umbrella company that owns frozen food brands BirdsEye and Findus, has handed Havas Media its consolidated European media buying account.

(TrendHunter.com) This splashy ADON #6 editorial is just about as colorful as a wearable men’s shoot can be. Photographer Joseph Sinclair might have shot it with a plain grey background, but bright splatterings…