Twitter has been reaching out to ad agencies in recent weeks with an interesting brief: It’s looking for ideas on creative ways to market the service and build the Twitter brand.
It wouldn’t be surprising for Twitter to seek agency help. Facebook made its famous (or infamous) “Chair” video spot two years ago and just recently released three new video ads created by Wieden + Kennedy.
Now Twitter has been inviting agencies to pitch concepts. It’s not clear whether the work will include TV, but it is understood that the media spend will be low. No surprise there: As the Oscars Twitterpalooza showed once again, Twitter gets plenty of free exposure on TV, but it could distribute video across its own considerable network, not to mention Vine.
Amsterdam creative agency Fitzroy changes its interior every year. This accomplishes two goals. First, it reinforces their philosophy that “It is not the strongest brand that survives nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Secondly, it provides an excuse to throw a party.
Until recently the walls at Fitzroy were still covered with RGB wallpaper courtesy of Italian artist duo Carnovsky. To change things up for the new year, Fitzroy left their interior in the hands of Some Quality Meat: “a directory for high quality tattoo inspiration.” According to Fitzroy, “SQM got into our ship with captain Kim Papanatos Rense because of his astonishing style of tattooing: Etching & Pointtillism.” So, Fitzroy asked Kim to create re-designs of six traditional nautical icons and combine them with graphic geometric shapes. The graphic art not only adorned the walls, but also was used for a set of tableware now on sale at Fitzroy.
To celebrate the redesign, Fitzroy invited over 600 friends, customers and partners to their offices for what seems like a pretty sweet party where the agency served Bacardi, Heineken, Ben & Jerry’s and Doritos (all of which are clients of the agency). For more on the redesign and subsequent party, check out the video above.
Target Corp., still reeling from a security breach that exposed the personal information of tens of millions of customers, is seeking a new top technology executive as part of an overhaul of its operations. The company is searching for a candidate to replace Beth Jacob, who had held the chief information officer post since 2008.
Her resignation was reported earlier today by the Associated Press. The new executive will help revamp Target’s information-security and compliance operations, CEO Gregg Steinhafel said today in an e-mailed statement.
Mr. Steinhafel has been has been working to keep customers coming into stores after hackers stole card data and personal information from millions of shoppers. The second-largest U.S. discount retailer last month posted fourth-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates, signaling it’s regaining shoppers’ loyalty.
I’m talking to brand managers, brand, stewards, consultants — anyone who is responsible for maximizing your company ad agency’s efforts on behalf of your brands. Don’t let your agency have an academic relationship with the product you are selling.
We all know the academic relationship. It revolves around sexy charts, research, case studies, infographics, word clouds, focus groups. The client says to the agency, “Make consumers understand the full, comprehensive robust experience of our brand and if the agency people get a chance to have that experience on their own time, that’d be kind of neat.”
The problem is that a consumer’s relationship with a product should not, cannot, be understood at such a distance. You can’t have your agency successfully selling consumers on the idea of sky diving if the creative team has experienced it themselves only on TV. Picture the agency developing concepts and saying, “It’s the most memorable, visceral experience you’ll ever have. Or at least it looks like it.” Not the strongest position for your brand’s biggest advocates to be in.
OK this is a little cheesy but you have to admit, these bathroom prankvertising stunts are pretty funny. This one’s far milder than the one that scared the shit out of people for a drunk driving campaign.
OK so Spanish agency Shackleton created a bathroom prank for its client Henkel whereby women where encouraged to flush a toilet before using it. When flushed, the walls of the fake bathroom would slide back revealing a tropical paradise filled with shirtless men, members of the Balls Dream Band, who serenaded the women about…a cleansing foam with anti-limescale formula, dirt protection and…ooo…extra freshness
Just what a woman wants to be reminded of when she looking for a moment of peace: that she really should be back home cleaning her kitchen and scrubbing her toilet.
Apparently, the stunt is being conducted in 28 countries.
And don’t think we didn’t notice that phallic foam ejaculation either.
Flipboard, an app that displays digital media in magazine-like form on tablets, is acquiring one of its smaller competitors, Zite, for a reported $60 million.
As part of the deal, Flipboard will get direct access to all CNN content, including video, as well as CNN personalities like Fareed Zakaria, John King and Jake Tapper will create their own magazines on the platform.
Flipboard did not confirm the purchase price, reported by CNNMoney, and CNN disputed it, but didn’t provide any further information. CNNMoney later revised its post to say the deal “could be valued as high as $60 million over time.”
Hey bros, you already get your razors and pomade through a monthly subscription service. Now you can get right to the point and buy your rubbers through one too.
A new startup called The Cocksman Club will mail members condoms in discreet packages, sparing you the awkwardness of making a responsible purchase in public.
The service and its promo video owe a lot to Dollar Shave Club which, sadly for The Cocksman Club, already laid claim to billing its own wares as "f***ing great." Instead, the newcomer's sales pitch, which naturally includes a rooster in a top hat, focuses on promoting safe sex. Or, in its final summary of why you should join, "Do it for your d*ck."
The service even has different price levels—and fratty monikers—for light and heavy users. Though anyone who actually calls himself "The Legend" is probably going to end up with a lot of product somewhere collecting dust.
Greenpeace released what they’re calling a “parody video of Procter & Gamble’s ‘Thank You Mom’ advertisement showing how P&G’s supply chain is contributing to the orphaning of orangutans.” The video (which I really don’t think qualifies as a “parody”) uses that commercial to point out the hypocrisy in P&G’s maintenance of a wholesome image while the company continues a dubious environmental record. Greenpeace’s video ends with the message: “Destroying forests for palm oil plantations means some of us no longer have a mom. Thank you, P&G.” (before directing viewers to their campaign site).
Specifically, Greenpeace is maintaining that Procter & Gamble — like Unilever, whom the organization targeted back in 2007 and who just happened to team up with P&G in a European washing powder price-fixing scheme in 2011 — is obtaining its palm oil from sources contributing to vast deforestation in Indonesia. The company’s palm oil sourcing practices, Greenpeace says they found in a yearlong report, are not only orphaning orangutans but also contributing to the extinction of the Sumatran tiger.
Greenpeace also organized a protest at Procter & Gamble’s downtown Cincinnati headquarters yesterday, where nine activists somehow got into the building, “rappelled down the 17-story twin towers of the…headquarters…and unfurled two enormous banners to protest deforestation linked to palm oil,” reports the Cincinnati Business Courier. The banners — which read (each accompanied by a Head and Shoulders logo) “Stop Putting Tiger Survival on the Line” and “Wipes Out Dandruff and Rainforests” — were “strung on wires between the two towers by the climbers, one of whom was wearing a tiger costume.” (You can view images from the protest here.)
Greenpeace is hoping the protest, along with the video and campaign site, will cause Procter & Gamble to reevaluate their palm oil sourcing methods. “While Procter & Gamble were advertising about motherhood, companies that produce palm oil for P&G have been making orphans out of orangutans. Together, we can get P&G to commit to only using forest-friendly palm oil,” said Greenpeace’s Areeba Hamid.
“We have already begun a full investigation of all claims made in the report,” P&G spokeswoman Lisa Popyk said, adding, “…we have committed to 100 percent sustainable sourcing of palm oil by 2015. We are working with our suppliers to ensure we deliver this commitment.”
If you want to slide down a ski slope in your car, Porsche suggests the 911 Carrera 4S.
This new video for the brand, filmed at the Sugarbush Resort in Vermont, melds car porn with snow porn. Filled with explanation from instructors at the Porsche Driving School, it mostly consists of luxury sports cars drifting around slaloms, spraying powder. It's gorgeously shot. It's also surprisingly entertaining, as informational videos go.
"We're actually on the trail Cracker Jack, which has a lot of undulating terrain," says one teacher. "Just like you would carve a turn on your skis, you can do that with a 911 very effectively."
For anyone who's ever been stuck on a snowy New England road, that's probably an appealing proposition. In fact, it's actually refreshing to see a car ad that manages to be both engaging and straightforward (as opposed to totally fantastical).
Après le projet New York, l’illustrateur estonien Eiko Ojala a décidé de représenter la marque Intel pour une campagne publicitaire avec des illustrations minimalistes aux couleurs d’Intel et qui reprennent le slogan « It’s what’s inside that counts ». A découvrir sur Fubiz dans la suite de l’article.
This week Bob Wootton, director of media and advertising at ISBA, The Voice of British Advertisers, joins WFA in Paris to talk global media issues, is disappointed by the shadow culture minister’s views and reveals why his unofficial title is head of lunch
Does emotion work well in business-to-business marketing? Maybe not, many people would say. Making an organizational purchase has different considerations than buying a new shaving cream. And a bad decision for shaving cream may produce minor skin irritation, but a bad decision with third-party vendors could cost someone his job.
So, the thinking traditionally goes, the organization needs information, not emotion. Let’s not bother with the larger benefits, just stick to the features — as in our brochures. Our b-to-b target is an industry veteran who came up through the ranks, likely sales or marketing, so don’t try to sell a seller. Play it straight.
(TrendHunter.com) Taking us behind bars and into the world of prison, photographer Alyse Emdur takes us into the visitation rooms of penitentiaries with his ‘Prison Landscaped’ series of prisoner portraits….
MDC Partners has merged RJ Palmer and TargetCast to create a new media agency called Assembly, led by former Carat vet Martin Cass.
The Toronto-based holding company will also rebrand Maxxcom, its two-year-old media agency umbrella group, as MDC Media Partners. The network will house Assembly and MDC’s other media outfits such as digital media operation Varick Media Management.
Mr. Cass, most recently president of Dentsu’s Carat U.S. and the lead on the massive General Motors account, will serve as CEO of both Assembly and the agency network.
Prankvertising shifts into high gear for this elaborate X-Files-esque stunt from Crispin Porter + Bogusky promoting Scania's 2014 competition for professional truck and bus drivers.
Daniel Olsson, who has five years of experience behind the wheel, must come through in the clutch after he picks up a mysterious shipment and passenger at a warehouse. Horrifying sounds and visuals suggest that a hostile creature has been loaded aboard his truck as he navigates around crates in the cramped space.
"He did not expect anything strange would happen, and the whole setup was pretty normal," Gustav Martner, ecd at CP+B in Gothenburg, Sweden, tells AdFreak. "Then, he obviously thought it was a bit unusual that his passenger was an old, well-dressed English gentleman who insisted on riding with him down to the harbor to see that the crate was safely delivered."
In fact, Olsson looks fairly freaked out, but he still keeps his cool, as the weirdness intensifies, with his jittery cab-mate "Dr. Sullivan" (a professional actor) gesturing back toward the noisy payload and ominously muttering, "I think actually you've woken him up."
"I became increasingly nervous and stressed, but I had no thoughts of quitting," Olsson says.
The three-minute "Cargo Madness" clip serves as an entertaining invite to the competition, where drivers must "handle more than their trucks" as they test their skills to overcome various obstacles.
"The production was much more complicated than we thought," recalls Martner. Instead of switching Olsson's ordinary side-view mirror with LCD-implanted units as planned, "We had to project the monster onto the ordinary mirror from behind. It was extremely stressful to create this solution in a matter of hours, but we managed to pull it off."
Folks love debating if such stunts are genuine or if the participants were in on the gag. "We did the stunt with three different drivers, all of them being totally unaware," Martner says. "Daniel was the best."
Given prankvertising's continued popularity, Martner doesn't expect agencies or clients to slam on the brakes any time soon. "It seems like people love this kind of advertising, and what people love, they share," he says. "I choose prankvertising over a standard commercial any day … at least if everyone involved can laugh about it in the end."
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