Hasta La Creative!

The latest spot advertising Sony’s newest smartphone goes well beyond your standard product demo.

The ad, created by adam&eveDDB as part of the brand’s “demand great” campaign, shows us an (almost certainly exaggerated) sequence starring several well-lit skiiers and the best cover of Kavinsky’s “Night Call” to date:

The spot looks like an attempt to position the phone itself — which has not been released yet in the U.S. and will probably make its first appearance stateside in October a mere six-plus months after its predecessor’s debut — as a superior alternative to better-known competitors.

We’re not sure about all that, but the visuals are impressive.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Federal Trade Commission has a prominent presence at Advertising Week in New York, giving the agency a forum to remind an audience of advertisers, marketers and their lawyers that it’s keeping a watchful eye on them.

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez kicked off the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division conference today in lower Manhattan with a keynote stressing that marketers must back health claims with sound research.

FTC Commissioner Julie Brill will speak later today at an Advertising Week panel on privacy issues.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

You’ve surely heard of breakout YouTube stars Bethany Mota (that’s her on the covers of both Seventeen and Fast Company right now) and Michelle Phan (one of our 2014 Media Mavens). But who’s next to break big? Or, rather, who has already broken big in the vlogosphere and is destined for wider fame? Here, the Ad Age staff picks five rising DIY YouTube stars (make that six, since one channel below features identical twins) who marketers should know about now.

JACKSGAP

Continue reading at AdAge.com

mcgarrybowen launched a spot for Verzion, entitled “Mr. Amazing,” which celebrates the company’s XLTE service and football season.

In the spot, some rather fantastical football leads into a man screaming “Yeah” at a field day type event, accompanied by the voiceover, “Don’t just dream about being the hero, make it happen.” The man, it is revealed, is streaming a football game at his daughter’s event, much to the relief of another father present. “So be that guy,” Verizon implores at the end of the spot, “with Verizon XLTE.” It’s a bit of an odd sendoff, as the phrasing of “that guy’ the way they use it usually has a negative connotation. It’s almost as if they can’t decide whether they want to make fun of the protagonist (who screams “Yeah!” after the initial fantasy segment) or celebrate him as “Mr. Amazing” and instead the spot attempts to do both. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In its first global campaign for Volvo, Grey London strives for a “quietly epic” tone to position the Swedish nameplate more firmly in the premium auto space. Director Marcus Söderlund, working through Academy Films, delivers the goods with a visually compelling minute-long film called “The Swell.”

We open on a moonlit beach, where a Volvo XC60 sits in the sand, the hum of its radio melding with the sounds of the sea. “To feel, to really feel, is a rare thing these days,” a voiceover says. We watch a woman paddle her surfboard through dark, choppy water as a huge wave rises with thunderous force … and the tagline, “Seek feeling,” flashes on screen.

“The Swell” weaves its tale in moody hues, offering glimpses of the car as it focuses on the lonely surfer and approaching wave. (Söderlund also directed Grey London’s fiery Vodafone ad about the emergency responders.)

It’s an unexpected approach, and the first campaign from global creative director Hollie Newton, who joined Grey last year from Wieden + Kennedy, where she contributed to award-winning efforts for Lurpak butter. For Lurpak, she designed sensory experiences with cheeky, playful subtexts that reminded viewers not to take the ads too seriously.

“The Swell” shares this “sensory” sensibility, but ratchets up the intensity to a point where I imagine some viewers might be put off. Even so, Grey deserves credit for making a commercial that ripples with energy without drowning in car-ad clichés.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Volvo
Vice President Brand Marketing: Tomás Caetano
Director, Marketing Communication: Ingela D’Angelo
Marketing Content Director: Magnus Brodd
Project Leader: Anna Wirsen
Spot: “The Swell”
Agency: Grey London
Executive Creative Director: Nils Leonard
Global Creative Director: Hollie Newton
Creative Team: Hollie Newton/Jamie Starbuck/Howard Green
Managing Partner: Nick Dutton
Business Director: Camilla Ashenhurst
Account Manager: Mel Caplan
Agency producer: Harriette Larder
Creative producer: Glen McLeod
Planning Director: Matt Buttrick
Planner: Hayley Cannon
Production company: Academy Films
Director: Marcus Söderlund
Editor: Tom Lindsay @ Trim
Producer: Medb Riordan
Exec Producer: Lizie Gower
DOP: André Chémétoff / Allan “Willy” Wilson
Colourist: Aubrey Woodiwiss
Post-production: Yourick Van Impe (Flame) & Aubrey Woodiwiss (grade) @Electric Theatre Collective
Audio post-production: Aaron Reynolds @ Wave
Photographer: Gian Paul Lozza