Hasta La Creative!

The National Football League, already struggling with off-field woes, took another hit as regulators eliminated a 40-year-old federal rule enforcing TV blackouts of games when stadiums don’t sell out.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 to end the government’s ban on cable and satellite providers showing games in markets that lack a sellout, and aren’t shown on local TV because of an agreement between leagues and sports teams. The NFL still could enforce blackouts through contracts with over-the-air broadcasters.

“The federal government should not be party to sports teams keeping their fans from viewing the game,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Period.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Jeter announced he would be the publisher of The Players’ Tribune, saying it would be a way for sports stars “to connect directly with our fans, with no filter.”

Toronto agency Cossette has a new Canadian campaign for Cheerios celebrating togetherness.

The campaign is built around a 15-second broadcast spot, exploring the phenomenon of stray Cheerios attracting each other in the bowl. Cossette likens the phenomenon to “our need to connect,” ending with the lines “We all love to connect. That’s the Cheerios effect.” The emotional approach is extended online, via a series of heartstring-tugging videos telling the stories of connected individuals, such as cousins who are more like sisters, a married couple and a woman and her dog. We’ve included a couple of these, along with credits, after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When Jim Farley was 14, he took a job in Los Angeles far from his family. Rather than use his airline ticket to go home, he cashed it in for an older Mustang, fixed it up and drove it across the country — without a driver’s license and insurance.

It is in this adventurous spirit that Ford, where Mr. Farley today is exec VP-global marketing, sales and service, is positioning the Mustang on its 50th anniversary. Rather than pitch the vehicle on its engine or specs, Ford is focusing on Mustang as an experience — “what it is like to be on a road trip with no agenda, no schedule, just to be free,” Mr. Farley said.

The “Icon Fifty” push will be themed around the idea of passion, exploration and adventure, and for the first marketing wave the automaker is allying with what it’s deemed pop culture experts — Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos, Zagat, Mashable and ESPN the Magazine — to identify “inspirational creatives” in different fields, many of whom have no current connection to the car.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Concu en résine de polyester et fibre de verre, « The Skull » est un fauteuil à mi-chemin entre sculpture et vanité. L’arrière de l’assise, d’un noir jais, représente un crâne à multiples facettes. Une superbe pièce réalisée au nom du confort et de la domination du monde par le studio Harow et son designer Harold Sangouard.

PepsiCo is answering Coke Life with its own stevia-sweetened cola called Pepsi True that will initially launch on Amazon later this month before hitting stores.

The product, first reported by Beverage Digest, will contain a mix of real sugar and stevia-leaf extract, giving it 30% less sugar than regular Pepsi. It will be sold in 24-packs of 7.5-ounce cans that will contain 60 calories each, according to a PepsiCo, spokeswoman, who confirmed the launch to Ad Age. She said the product “will go to brick-and-mortar eventually but no timeline set for that yet.”

The brand plans to post the following explanation on its website later today: “Gone are the days when consumers evaluated beverages solely on calories and taste. Today, a proliferation of beverage products provide consumers a wide range of choices that are driven by taste, sweeteners and calories.” The company will then list recent examples of other lower-calorie beverages it has launched, including other stevia-sweetened beverages such as Sobe Lifewater Tropicana’s Trop50. “And today, PepsiCo announced it is helping consumers get back to the fun and refreshing side of cola with the U.S. launch of Pepsi True.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

While big data outside of Nielsen demographics has been used in the media planning process for some time as a way for agencies to more efficiently decide which TV networks and programs to buy, it hadn’t been part of actual deal-making.

But during this year’s upfront negotiations — when networks look to secure a bulk of their ad commitments for the TV season ahead — Hallmark Channel began to guarantee more than the typical age and sex demographics.

The network struck a deal with Spark for its client ConAgra Foods, whose brands include Chef Boyardee and Swiss Miss, in which ConAgra continued to get guarantees around Nielsen age and sex demos but added secondary guarantees to deliver impressions on more specific targets such as heavy frozen food purchasers. Hallmark will use Nielsen Catalina Solutions data to help gauge its reach among those more specific targets.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

L’agence d’architecture coréenne Moon Hoon a construit une maison dont la façade est directement inspirée de l’univers Star Wars. Située à Yongin-Si, en Corée, l’intérieur est fait de bois, avec des rangements et de grands espaces épurés et fonctionnels. A découvrir à travers les photos de Namgoong Sun.

Quando a gente é criança, imagina que algumas das coisas que amamos nesta fase vão durar para sempre: brincar com insetos, de super-herói, jogar vídeo-game… Ah, e todos aqueles brinquedos incríveis… Mas daí a gente cresce e se esquece de muitas dessas coisas.

Ainda assim, muitos de nós tenta manter a promessa de continuar brincando e salvando o dia. E é com essas pessoas que a Toys“R”Us do Canadá escolheu comemorar seus 30 anos de atividades, celebrando a criança que existe em cada um de nós.

Com criação da agência Open, de Toronto, e produção da Descendants, 30 Years of Never Growing Up é um lembrete de que parte da felicidade está em dedicar algum tempo à sua criança interior – seja brincando com seus filhos ou jogando vídeo-game algumas boas horas, sem precisar olhar no relógio.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
Twitter | Facebook | Contato | Anuncie