Hasta La Creative!

Campbell Soup Co. this winter and spring shifted money from advertising to support promotional programs for retailers, including giving price discounts to a wider set of stores. But the move failed to boost demand as expected and at least one analyst has begun to question the company’s turnaround strategy.

“We’ve been saying for quite some time that promotions are not a sustainable strategy to drive long-term profitable top-line growth, and are disappointed by management’s actions particularly as the firm has been spending to reignite its brand portfolio,” Morningstar analyst Erin Lash wrote in a note to investors. “It is possible this suggests the firm’s new offerings, especially in the soup aisle, aren’t winning consumers over at this juncture.”

The company on Monday lowered its net sales guidance for its 2014 fiscal year to 3% growth from the previous estimate of 4% to 5% growth. The revision came after the company reported disappointing results for its third quarter, which ended on April 27.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The New Releases ran on TV for the first time over the weekend. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained social heat, ranked by SpotShare scores reflecting the percent of digital activity associated with each one over the past week. See the methodology here.

Among the new releases, Samsung promotes both its curved ultra-high-def TV and the Samsung Galaxy S5 (here positioned as a fitness device) with “The Next Big Thing is Here” tagline, HP positions itself as a cyber-security expert, and Pizza Hut, which last week announced it was partnering with Blake Shelton, rolls out another spot featuring the country star and “The Voice” coach talking about what he looks for in a pizza.

As always, you can find out more about the making of the best commercials on TV at Ad Age’s Creativity.

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No longer can you have it your way at Burger King.

The company is changing its tagline to “Be Your Way,” which the burger giant said is a spin on the 40-year-old “Have it Your Way” tagline. (The company since 2001 had been using “Taste is King,” though some markets still continued with the classic tag.)

According to the press release, the new tagline “reminds people that no matter who they are, they can order how they want to in Burger King restaurants and that they can and should live how they want anytime. It’s OK to not be perfect. Self-expression is most important and it’s our differences that make us individuals instead of robots.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

At one time or another, I think we've all wished that air travel was less like being crammed into a cattle car and more like being crammed into a one-bedroom apartment.

Well, Etihad Airways has made the latter a reality with The Residence, a three-room premium cabin (with shower!) on its Airbus A380 that costs something like $43,000 per trip to reserve. A personal butler and chef are factored into that price, by the way, which is why it's roughly the down payment on a nice house. But that's the price one must pay for that high-roller Elvis lifestyle. Minus the shag carpeting and drugs, I mean.

If you can stand listening to Dannii Minogue for three whole minutes, she gives a video tour of the suite and details its various amenities below.

Via BloombergBusinessweek.

L.A.-based “full service Brand Response ad agency” Hawthorne Direct has named Jessica Hawthorne-Castro its new chief executive officer.

Hawthorne-Castro was promoted from VP of operations and client services to COO in June 2013; this move marks her second executive jump in less than a year.

The press release names the agency’s new chief officer as a member of the “‘next generation’ of brand marketing experts”; earlier this month she moderated a “Women in Advertising” panel sponsored by Digital Hollywood that included execs from Adobe, WongDoody, SapientNitro and others.

Hawthorne-Castro is the daughter of agency founder Tim Hawthorne, who was inducted into the Direct Response Hall of Fame in March.

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AMC will premiere its new drama, “Halt and Catch Fire,” on Tumblr ahead of its TV debut.

This will mark the first TV premiere on Tumblr and the first time AMC has partnered with a social-media platform to debut a new show, the network said.

“Halt and Catch Fire,” which is set in the world of technology during early days of the personal computer, will be available to viewers beginning on May 19 through May 31 on Tumblr as well as on video-on-demand and TV Everywhere services. The series will air on AMC on June 1.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

If you've been settling into a slower pace of life with Kona beers but want to move on to something stronger, Cruzan Rum might be right for you.

Building on last year's campaign, themed "The Don't Hurry," the brand illustrates that its version of relaxation isn't constricted to the kooky metaphorical island from which it hails. Nope, it's all about a state of mind—and whether you're speed dating or playing chess, you've got to kick back and savor life (and rum).

The five new spots by ad agency Walton Isaacson are similar to last year's, which highlighted the eccentric air that came with drinking the rum. This time, though, they've swapped spokesmen, promoting the soothing Barry White-esque voiced parrot.

CREDITS
Client: Beam Suntory
Vice President, General Manager, Mixables Category Business Team: Jared Fix
Senior Director, Rum and Cordials: Brendan Lynch
Senior Brand Manager, Rum: Nabil Wanna
Global Manager, Consumer and Market Insights: Janu Lakshmanan
Brand Assistant, Rum and Cordials: Corine Reed

Agency: Walton Isaacson
Co-Owners: Cory Isaacson, Aaron Walton
Executive Producer: Dana Offenbach
Group Creative Director: Miguel Garcia Castillo
Creative Director: Mark Westman
Associate Creative Director: Jose Martinez
Senior Designer: Laurent Varlet
Senior Account Director: Nick Vitellaro
Account Executive: Kelly Clark

Production Company: Tool of North America
Executive Producer: Oliver Fuselier
Director: J.J. Adler

Editing Company: Beast
Executive Producer: Peter Hulliger
Editor: Angelo Valencia

Music: Ramblin Man
Executive Producer: Yupa Wathanasin
Composer: Daniel Belardinelli

Last week during TV broadcasters’ upfront pitches to ad buyers, one media agency was doing more than just eyeing prime-time ad slots to buy. It was working to create its own prime-time programming.

Mindshare Entertainment, the branded entertainment arm of WPP’s media-buying agency Mindshare, has optioned “The Rise of Superman,” a best-selling book exploring the performance of action-sports athletes, to develop a TV series called “Rise.”

“Rise” will be Mindshare’s first project intended specifically for prime-time TV. Mindshare doesn’t have a deal with a network, but it’s in talks with two cable networks about a 60- to 90-minute documentary or a six- to eight-episode series, said North America Chief Content Officer David Lang. He declined to comment on what the option cost.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Outdoor, Print
Gsk

Advertising Agency:Grey, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Creative Director:Daniel Pérez Pallares
Art Director:Lucas Heck, Linus Oura
Illustrator:Studio Mutato

AMV BBDO mourns the passing of David Abbott, our co-founder and friend. May he rest in peace. #DavidAbbott pic.twitter.com/voetwEI18o

— Abbott Mead Vickers (@AMV_BBDO) May 18, 2014
Ad legend and AMV BBDO co-founder David Abbott passed away this weekend at the age of 75. He launched the agency in 1977 after years of copywriting success and

Fellow founder Peter Mead paid tribute in a statement released to The Drum blog, writing:
“He meant more to me than I can possibly express in words…His talent catapulted AMV into the advertising stratosphere.”
Current BBDO Worldwide CEO Andrew Robertson had some words of his own–and this morning, Campaign Live shared some of Abbot’s most memorable creative work (pics after the jump)…

continued…

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