Hasta La Creative!

Kingsford Charcoal cooks up some strawmen in this ad from DDB California mocking the high-tech features of today’s newest gas grills, which it dismisses as the playthings of lonely cyberchefs. 

“The Social Grill” centers on the X4 Platinum, a fictional example of voice-activated, selfie-taking, photo-sharing patio gear. As the grill owner fumbles with the machine, his neighbor’s guests look on judgmentally, despite the fact that lighting a grill with a smartphone app would actually be pretty cool.   

Making fun of neighbors who put too much stock in costly gadgets is a trusty old saw in the advertising world, but surely there’s something Kingsford could have done to make its “heroes” a bit more likable? Maybe at least offer the guy a beer and a burger?

Who’s being antisocial now?

CREDITS
Client: Kingsford Charcoal
Agency: DDB California
Group Creative Director: Jim Bosiljevac
Art Director: Tim Stier
Copywriter: Todd Taber
Producer: Bryan Holt
Director: Rick LeMoine
Prod. Comp: Moxie Pictures
Editor: Chan Hacher
Music: Stock Music, N/A

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Last summer, TBWA Paris unveiled a bold campaign for McDonald’s that consisted entirely of classic menu items photographed up close—with no branding at all. (Did somebody say McDonald’s? Not in those ads.)

Now, agency and client are back with a follow-up campaign that, in a way, is even more minimalist. Instead of the actual products, now we get clean, simple drawings of the products—turning them into actual icons. There is a bit more explicit branding on these, though, but it’s still very subtle—a tiny Golden Arches next to the illustrations.

The ads feature McDonald’s “Big 6” menu items—Big Mac, cheeseburger, fries, sundae, Chicken Nuggets and Filet-o-Fish—and will appear on more than 2,700 outdoor displays in France, with the major rollout beginning June 2. The agency calls the work “unique and modern, in the McDonald’s brand image,” “exclusive, simple and universal, just like the six iconic products” and “a fun and intriguing addition to our cities.”

More images, plus a new McDonald’s TV spot from TBWA Paris, below.

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Up for grabbing some Arby’s? No? Would a 13-hour TV commercial change your mind?

The fast-food chain is cooking up a record-breaking TV buy promoting its Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich, which viewers will be able to watch prepared in real time as the brisket cooks low and slow in a Texas smoker for more than a dozen hours.

The spot will only air on one station in Duluth, Minnesota.

According to The New York Times, the ad begins with the brisket being loaded into a smoker equipped with an internal light. Then it just sits there and cooks. Finally, half a day later, any viewers still tuned in will see the arms of Arby’s chef Neville Craw as he removes the brisket, slices it and compiles it into a sandwich with some gouda, fried onions and barbecue sauce.

The ad will reportedly begin at 1 p.m. Central this Saturday on MyNetworkTV affiliate My9, but those of us outside Duluth will also have a one-time-only chance to watch the meaty magic when it’s streamed on 13HourBrisket.com from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, May 28.

Once complete, the ad will have secured a Guinness World Record currently held by Nivea, which ran a (now paltry in comparison) 60-minute ad in Switzerland in 2011.

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Google’s Screenwise research project announced back in February is designed to collect data on more than just Internet behavior. In addition to custom wireless routers that gather information on participants’ browsing and downloading habits, the recently mailed recruiting brochure describes a device “a little bigger than a smartphone” called Screenwise TV Tab. TV Tab “captures audio signals that enables the study to identify which TV programs are being viewed.”

The information TV Tab collects includes:

• Identity of person logging into the Screenwise TV Tab
• Timestamps indicating time of log-in and log-out
• Duration of television usage per session
• The total amount of time a television is used in the household

[source: Screenwise Select privacy policy]

I haven’t seen the device, but I think it could be based on Android and powered by this TV Tab app developed by Mobile Research Labs.  Android market lists the number of installs for this app at between 10 and 50.

In addition, a different Screenwise app (which looks like a version of Lumi’s AnalyzeMe) captures participants’ smartphone habits. Among the more interesting things the app collects are:

• Frequency of use of device calendar
• Battery status
• Whether you are using your smartphone inside or outside your home
• How long music is played, and the title and artist for each song
• Timestamp and duration of any video viewed on smartphone
• all URL’s and advertisements viewed
• When a Panelist opens or closes an application

[source: Screenwise Select privacy policy]

Google, who is conducting this research together with GfK, is offering a sign-up incentive of $100 with up to an additional $50 for each month the participating household stays in the study.

Some people who were randomly selected to receive a recruiting mailer (accompanied with a crispy two-dollar bill), are concerned it might be a scam, or worse: “The money is real too! A $2 Dollar bill? SO weird man… never heard of anything like this.”

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Having worked with many b-to-b brands over the years — from medical device providers to investment banks — I’ve heard the following types of questions at the beginning of an assignment: “We know brand matters for the likes of Coca-Cola and Heinz, but why should brand matter to us?” or “All of our buyers follow rigorous procurement processes, so what is a brand going to do for us?” The answer: Brand should matter to b-to-b organizations. Aligning a b-to-b organization around one story and expressing it in a consistent manner throughout every touch point is key to generating more business.

Blurring the line between b-to-c and b-to-b

A newer question has come up of late: “Should b-to-b brands pay attention to consumers?” A few b-to-b marketers, such as Cisco and Intel, have made great efforts in reaching out to consumers, but what is the value of doing this? According to our new B2BNow study, having strong consumer relevance gives b-to-b brands a 10% increased chance of being in a business decision-maker’s consideration set. Also, pure b-to-b brands that business decision-makers feel most connected to see a 12% increase in consideration compared with brands decision-makers are not connected to.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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All’s quiet in the TV upfront marketplace. Following last year’s relatively slow pacing for upfront deal-making — the time when networks look to secure ad commitments for the fall season — this year’s marketplace is expected to once again be drawn out through the summer months.

Upfront negotiations traditionally don’t truly get underway until the week following Memorial Day, but media buyers often said in years past that they had done some early deals by this point. That doesn’t seem to be happening this year, at least not yet.

“No network has been aggressively pushing,” one media buyer said.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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Think its impossible to tell a story in 15 seconds? Well, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just proved you wrong.

The NHTSA video takes a browser-friendly 15 seconds to show just what’s possible when you spend 3 seconds fastening a seat belt, a message that garnered 2.6 million views last week. In an effort to reach millennials, the NHTSA also hired YouTube talents Rhett and Link for an anti-texting and driving campaign, and is planning an aggressive $8.5 million effort to reach the younger demographic via TV, social media and Buzzfeed, among other channels.

Another brand that debuts on the chart this week is Orbit with its famous “Break Up” campaign featuring comedian Sarah Silverman and a clingy walking-and-talking coffee cup that highlights the split with lingering food. While the spot was launched back in March, in just the last week, it attracted over 1.9 million views, according to Visible Measures.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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Google wants to cozy up to brand advertisers. So it’s hiring them.

The search giant has poached L’Oreal global CMO Marc Speichert to join its global client and agency solutions division. Mr. Speichert will report to Kirk Perry, whom Google snagged from Procter & Gamble last November, a Google spokesperson confirmed.

Re/code had earlier reported Mr. Speichert’s hire.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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When it comes to the evolving media landscape, advertisers have more choices than ever before with new formats, devices, platforms and data. They also require more specialized expertise from media agencies to help them navigate this rapidly changing media landscape. Often, there’s a temptation to switch agencies in order to get more specialized services, or a different relationship with a new partner.

But pulling the plug on a media agency relationship involves much more than just switching providers — it’s more like pulling out the plumbing, ripping out the circuit board, and then trying to put it back together with incomplete instructions.

Is media really any more complex than creative? With its varied web of technologies and ecosystems, combined with a relatively limited choice of agencies, the media account is increasingly less portable. Conversely, in the creative world — where there has been an exponential increase in high-caliber (and low-cost) creative and content providers, the prospect of change is potentially less daunting.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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L’Oreal Ombre hair color products — born last year from a project that mined YouTube data to tap into a hair-highlighting trend — have become the first brand to use a technology that places ads on publisher sites based on the hair color of women in photos.

The ad-targeting technology from “in-image ad platform” GumGum earlier this month began placing ads for L’Oreal Freia and Preference Ombre products within photos across its network of 1,000 news and entertainment sites from such publishers as Tribune Co., New York Times Co., and E.W. Scripps Co. Different products are featured based on the hair color of the women in the photos. The ads themselves appear at the bottom of the photo within editorial content, and in some cases within a “canvas” ad unit that temporarily takes over the image shown.

The Ombre lineup, expanded earlier this year, was the product of a brand research and innovation team that had noticed a trend toward celebrities using highlights from the jawline down to the ends. The team then turned to a Google research team to analyze the trend in a “social listening” project focused on YouTube, said Malena Higuera, senior VP-marketing for L’Oreal Paris. At-home kits were launched to help consumers recreate the look.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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