Hasta La Creative!

DigitasLBi San Francisco has hired Ben Pfutzenreuter, who previously served as an intern and was co-creator of the popular “Concepting with Convicts” program, which utilized the Federal Bureau of Prison’s pen pal program to allow collaboration with inmates to create speculative ads. Ben created the program with fellow intern Pat Davis, with the goal of proving that “Great ideas can come from anywhere.” Inmates provided either copywriting or art direction for each ad; art directors Marcus Löf and Luis Gonzalez also collaborated on the project.

Pfutzenreuter began work this week as an associate copywriter. The Miami Ad School grad interned with Digitas LBi this past winter.

“We’re incredibly proud of the work that Ben and Pat have done independently with Concepting with Convicts, and we’re thrilled to have Ben join our San Francisco team,” said Dave Marsey, EVP/Managing Director, DigitasLBi San Francisco. “The spirit that good ideas can be born anywhere, is our philosophy here in San Francisco.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

20th Century Fox Film has partnered with Social Rewards, a social loyalty engagement platform, to create Fox Rewards Program. The partnership was announced during the CinemaCon Theatre Exhibition Conference in Las Vegas this week. Social Rewards was founded in 2010 to help companies in the entertainment industry leverage social media to build sales and collect data through a loyalty program.

Basically, the program allows people to earn free movie tickets for sharing movie trailers.

Since November 2013, Social Rewards has created a new distribution channel for movie trailers by partnering with 15 initial movie exhibition circuits including Marcus Theatres, Cobb Theatres, Frank Theatres, Goodrich Quality Theatres, Starplex Cinemas, Premiere Cinema Corporation, Digiplex Destinations, Galaxy Theatres, Dipson Theatres, Tristone Cinemas and others across 4,000 screens.

Members join the Social Rewards program from onscreen promotion, traditional theater loyalty programs and social media engagement. Moviegoers are rewarded for specific activity, including watching movie trailers for theater loyalty points.

The cabinet office has named RKCR/Y&R as lead strategic and creative partner for the GREAT Britain campaign, which “unites government departments in promoting Britain oversees.”

Last summer RKCR/Y&R won a GREAT tourism initiative working with Visit Britain, developing the “Sounds of GREAT Britain” campaign. Apparently the campaign impressed the Cabinet Office, and now the agency will partner with central GREAT Cabinet Office “to grow the brand, develop increased and deeper relationships with supporting brand partners and to evolve the GREAT campaign.” RKCR/Y&R will be tasked with creating an extended multi-disciplinary team to deliver brand and digital strategy, develop and manage partnerships, secure talent and drive PR.

“We are honoured to be supporting the GREAT team in developing this fantastic and ambitious brand and be able to reinforce our commitment to marketing  British brands here and overseas,” said Vicky Jacobs, managing sirector, RKCR/Y&R.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A incrível facilidade de acesso à música nos últimos anos, com arquivos mp3 circulando facilmente pela rede, seja pelos meios legais ou ilegais, pode ter diminuído um pouco o valor da arte musical, transformando os álbuns em quase que commodities do entretenimento.

Por isso que a iniciativa do grupo de hip hop Wu-Tang Clan chama tanto a atenção – eles irão lançar uma única cópia do seu mais novo álbum, ‘The Wu – Once Upon A Time in Shaolin’, que será vendido como item de luxo, com preço estimado ‘na casa dos milhões’. O disco virá dentro de uma caixa feita de prata e níquel, criada pelo artista britânico-marroquino Yahya, com o claro intuito de fazer a experiência ser a mesma da aquisição de um original de Picasso ou Rembrandt. “Será como ter o cetro de um rei Egípcio”, gaba-se Robert ‘RZA’ Diggs, membro do Wu-Tang Chan, em entrevista à Forbes.

O disco irá rodar por museus, galerias e festivais, onde o público poderá pagar ingressos entre 30 e 50 dólares para ouvir as canções.

Antes da venda dessa unidade exclusivíssima, o disco irá rodar por museus, galerias e festivais, onde o público poderá pagar ingressos entre 30 e 50 dólares para ouvir as canções desse álbum único – sempre usando fones de ouvido, como uma forma de garantir que não haverá pirataria (!).

Apesar da ousada iniciativa de manter esse álbum ‘longe’ do alcance do público em geral, o Wu-Tang Chan deve fazer o lançamento simultâneo de outro disco, intitulado ‘A Better Tomorrow’, esse sim feito do jeito tradicional, disponível para compra por apenas algumas dezenas de dólares.

Ou seja, o que a princípio dá a impressão de um manifesto pelo reconhecimento da arte musical passa a parecer um simples PR Stunt, não?

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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I recently met a very promising account candidate who had been downsized at another firm. She had worked on a large account and when that was lost and the music stopped, there were not enough chairs to go around — an all too common occurrence in our business.

This candidate had no digital experience. We offered her an adult internship to job-shadow a team at the agency that was in the throes of a big digital effort. She signed a non-disclosure agreement and became part of the team — sometimes working virtually off-site, sometimes in the office. She was part of the briefing, creative development and execution process.

Being open-minded and creative when seeking top-tier talent is good business and good karma. The advertising/marketing communications game changes at the speed of light, and employees can have a hard time keeping up.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Deutsch L.A. teamed up with production company Moxie Pictures for a new broadcast campaign promoting Taco Bell’s new breakfast menu, coming on the heels of the brand’s digital campaign from Digitas.

Directed by Errol Morris, with editing from Rock Paper Scissors, the spots collect a group of individuals all named Ronald McDonald to share their thoughts on the new Taco Bell breakfast items. The Ronald McDonalds saying they love Taco Bell approach is used across the three spots in the campaign, and necessitates a “These Ronald McDonalds are not affiliated with McDonald’s corporation and were individually selected as paid endorsers of Taco Bell Breakfast, but man, they sure did love it.” disclaimer. That’s pretty much the entire campaign, the Ronald McDonald idea, but it’s a clever one and doesn’t feel especially stretched over the course of the three 30-second spots. It probably doesn’t have all that much more life in it, though, so hopefully it’s just Deutsch’s launch idea. Stick around for the “Waffle Taco” spot and credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In China’s polluted megacities, smoggy gray sky is the new normal. An iPhone app from WWF lets people edit the smog out of their photos and turn the skies back to blue.

The app from OgilvyOne Beijing, and an online campaign from BBH China, are helping WWF generate awareness on air pollution for Saturday’s Earth Hour.

People who download Ogilvy’s iPhone app use their fingertip to color on the screen, turning skies blue. They can share before-and-after photos on Chinese social media networks Sina Weibo and WeChat, and sign a WWF petition.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

McDonald’s will give away coffee at breakfast for the first time, the company said Friday — one day after Taco Bell began a massive marketing campaign for its new breakfast menu.

In recent years, McDonald’s has had a continuing promotion for $1 cold drinks such as iced tea, but this is the chain’s first free national coffee promotion. It will start Monday and last two weeks, the company said. The small coffees will be available during breakfast hours, a part of the day that McDonald’s dominates by a wide margin.

“This event is McDonald’s way of encouraging new guests to try McCafe Coffee while giving our breakfast lovers even more reason to enjoy the great taste of our signature blend,” said Greg Watson, senior VP-McDonald’s U.S. menu innovation, in a statement.

Continue reading at AdAge.com