Hasta La Creative!

This is a unique and dangerous moment in the life of every company.

On the one hand, there is great opportunity. We are in the midst of a major shift in how customers relate to brands. Most of the companies I work with tell me that they now see more traffic to their sites coming from mobile devices than from PCs. Mobile holds out the promise to redefine customer relationships and gain loyalty and market share. Companies that focus on serving customers with valuable and useful apps — companies like Delta Airlines, Starbucks, and the financial services company USAA — are making themselves indispensable.

But even as this opportunity is becoming visible, the mobile change is happening so rapidly that it is catching most firms flatfooted. Over and over again I hear from companies that are scrambling to come to grips with mobile. They have no development expertise, and no concept of what’s required. Just as a previous generation of marketers naively shoveled their brochures onto the web, this generation is shoveling their web sites onto mobile. Someone is developing for mobile in every large company I speak with, but for the most part, there is no overall mobile strategy.

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The companies argue that their proposed union is good for consumers and will foster innovation, though they have stopped short of promising lower prices.

This literally out-of-control 60-second road-safety ad from Northern Ireland is causing an international stir for some intense imagery that begins around the 40-second mark.

As these types of ads go, it’s not particularly graphic. There’s no blood and guts. No flying body parts. No mutilation. Even so, some observers have criticized the country’s Department of the Environment, which produced the spot, for going too far, and some news outlets have posted “trigger warnings” about the strong content. It airs on TV only after 9 p.m., when kids, in theory, aren’t watching. And that’s a bit ironic, because the controversy centers around the horrifying fate of a group of children.

The PSA, by Belfast agency LyleBailie International, opens ominously, with a slowed-down, dirge-y version of Guns ‘n Roses “Sweet Child ‘O Mine”—more or less tipping us off that the primary-schoolers seen laughing, playing and preparing for a class outing are in for trouble. Even so, it’s hard not to jump when the moment of tragedy arrives.

“Since 2000, speeding has killed a classroom of our children,” a voiceover says. “You can never control the consequences if you speed.”

Criticism has run the gamut. On UTV’s coverage of the ad flap, “Unsure in Belfast” questions the strategy: “I’m surprised if these adverts work. People I know won’t watch … Those boy racers who drive fast are never going to be impacted.” Over at Philly Barstool Sports, “Smitty” suggests the approach trivializes the issue: “It’s not even something out of a Michael Bay film but rather a Michael Bay spoof.” Meanwhile, Twitter user @Curljets sums up the anti-PSA sentiment thusly: “I’m thinking of starting a support group for Irish people called ‘DOE Road Safety Advert induced trauma.’ “

The DOE says it used such brutal imagery because it believes the fear of killing kids will influence at least some folks to stop speeding. “The aim of this campaign is to challenge and dispel, once and for all, through this emotional and uncomfortable message, the false perceptions that many road users have as to the truly horrifying consequences of speeding,” says road safety minister Mark Durkan. “People are losing their lives long before they have the chance to fulfill their potential. Families are being destroyed forever.”

While I wasn’t exactly horrified by this spot, I would rate it among the most audacious, unsettling and memorable PSAs I’ve seen. And I’m not the only one taking notice. The YouTube posting is approaching 1.7 million views in a week, and the controversy is driving the anti-speeding message into the public conversation far beyond Ireland.

A agência de publicidade Digitally Inspired criou uma série de pôsteres misturando design, cinema e futebol para celebrar alguns de seus atletas favoritos na Copa do Mundo 2014.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: World Cup 2014 usa o nome de alguns filmes para resumir características de Luis Suarez, do Uruguai, Mesut Ozil, da Alemanha, Cristiano Ronaldo, de Portugal, Wayne Rooney, da Inglaterra, Lionel Messi, da Argentina, Mario Balotelli, da Itália e Andrés Iniesta, da Espanha. O Rei Leão, Velozes e Furiosos, Karatê Kid e O Mágico de Oz são alguns dos títulos recebidos por eles.

Nas legendas, as definições dos criativos da Digitally Inspired para cada jogador selecionado.

Neymar tem um ritmo inacreditável e habilidades surpreendentes para armar jogadas

Luis Suarez é extremamente poderoso, com jogadas aéreas incríveis e agressividade

Lionel Messi é a reencarnação de Diego Maradona. Corre mais rápido com a bola do que sem ela. Indiscutivelmente o melhor jogador de todos os tempos 

Cristiano Ronaldo tem equilíbrio, poder, visão e é o mais rápido no jogo. Especialista no um contra um e no chute livre. E um dos dois melhores jogadores do mundo

Andrés Iniesta é uma lenda tática. O controlador. Um fazedor de reis. E um dos melhores meio-campistas de sua geração

Mario Balotelli é ágil, rápido e espantosamente agressivo. Um dos melhores cobradores de pênalti do futebol

Mesut Ozil é um gênio na arte do futebol. Um jogador com grande imaginação que nunca pode ser copiado

Wayne Rooney é um dos jogadores mais versáteis do mundo

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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At this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity there were ten creative teams that stood out from the crowd, winning converted gongs for their campaigns.

Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News Corp.’s U.K. publishing unit, was found not guilty of phone hacking, bribery and perverting the course of justice by a London jury after an eight-month trial.

Andy Coulson, a former editor of News Corp.’s News of the World who went on to become a media adviser to U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, was found guilty of one count of phone hacking. Ms. Brooks’s husband Charlie and her former personal assistant, Cheryl Carter, were also cleared of charges they destroyed evidence at the height of the phone-hacking scandal in 2011.

Ms. Brooks, 46, who previously edited the News of the World and News Corp.’s daily Sun tabloid, was one of seven people on trial for phone hacking and bribing public officials by journalists at the newspapers. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch closed the News of the World in 2011 in a bid to temper public outrage over the hacking of the phone of Milly Dowler, a murdered schoolgirl.

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Ms. Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper holdings in Britain, was cleared of all charges, but her deputy Andy Coulson was found guilty of at least one charge.

It’s Monday at the Bourbon Street Cafe. On today’s menu is Old Forester marinated flank steak and the Sonoma Crimson Cooler, a cocktail made from Woodford Reserve, Southern Comfort and orange and pineapple juice.

But this isn’t just any caf — it’s the corporate cafeteria at Brown-Forman. Serving booze at lunch is a long-standing tradition at the Louisville, Ky.-based maker of Jack Daniel’s and other liquor brands, just as alcohol is woven into the corporate culture of most brewers and spirits marketers. At Brown-Forman, an internal website includes a message welcoming employees to “enjoy one B-F product drink with their meal” noting that it is “in the spirit of being great brand builders.”

But what if you don’t drink?

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Rizzle Kicks chase tennis star Maria Sharapova down the streets of Wimbledon in a Evian-sponsored music video called “Tell Her” that is a love song to their childhood crush.

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, has been cleared of all counts relating to phone hacking but Andy Coulson, the former head of communications at No 10, has been found guilty of phone hacking.