Hasta La Creative!

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi conceded on Monday that cola has lost some of its “cool factor,” but plugged the company’s new “craft” cola brand as one way to restore luster to the sagging category.

Pepsi launched the new brand, called Caleb’s Kola, in late 2014 using a formula that includes cane sugar, kola nuts from Africa, spices and a hint of citrus. Ms. Nooyi, who spoke at Beverage Digest’s “Future Smarts” conference in New York, did not share early sales results. But she said “I think there is actually a huge potential for craft cola.” She added that “people still love the cola taste — it’s just lost some of its cool factor and I think products like Caleb’s are bringing back some of the cool factor.”

Ms. Nooyi made the comments during a question-and-answer session with Beverage Digest editor and publisher John Sicher, who pressed her on a range of issues. She said PepsiCo was “rolling the dice on a lot of new ideas right now,” but is not “taking foolish risks.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Le studio hollandais Wieki Somers a conçu « The Bathboat » : une baignoire originale en forme de barque en bois. L’idée est venue des bateaux de pêcheurs qui flottent et « se baignent » dans l’eau. Ce meuble a été révélé au musée Boijmans van Beuningen de Rotterdam. A découvrir en images.

Photos by Elian Somers.

Publicis London turns to beeped out cursing in its irreverent holiday ad for Oral-B, entitled, “Merry Beeping Christmas from Oral-B.”

The spot opens on a woman stepping on an angel ornament while tip-toeing around the house barefoot carrying presents. She lets out a few bleeped out choice words, and quickly we’re on our way to the next profanity-inducing situation. These scenarios run the gamut from ugly sweaters to cooking accidents and trouble with the lights but each result in an expected torrent of profanity. The ad ends with the tagline “At least you don’t have to worry about your smile,” accompanied by the Oral-B logo. It may be a bit of a stretch, but tying oral care to the holidays isn’t the easiest proposition in the world and the spot is fun and clever enough to fit in with other cheeky holiday ads we’ve seen this year from brands in the UK. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Havas Worldwide has promoted Helen Pak to president and chief creative officer for its Canadian team. Ms. Pak was formerly the global creative strategist at Facebook Canada and prior to that was executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada. She has also worked at Taxi, Ogilvy and JWT in Canada, as well as StrawberryFrog in Amsterdam. Her promotion is part of a management restructuring that also sees Ann Bouthillier promoted to CEO of Havas Worldwide Canada. She was formerly the CEO of Palm + Havas.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Nielsen’s TV measurement first faced a major crisis of confidence more than 20 years ago, amid growing skepticism from networks and surprising ratings fluctuations. “When those numbers became unreliable, inconsistent, inaccurate, unexplainable,” a TV researcher said in 1992, “they just threw into chaos almost everything we did, because they were the basis on which the business was built.”

There were other challenges before and since, including the controversial introduction of “people meters” in 1987 and audience fragmentation stemming from the cable boom and the arrival of the VCR. Challengers arose, like AGB, a company that pioneered people meters in the U.S, as well as broadcasters themselves, which invested in an alternative form of measurement in the mid-90s.

Remarkably, the company survived all of those tribulations and remains the primary measure by which TV advertising is bought and sold. But this status, which it has held since the 1950s, is once again in jeopardy, and this time its reigning dominance isn’t a sure thing. For the methodical research company, the accelerating pace of change in media may finally be getting out of hand.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Deutsch LA announces Verizon’s latest price offering in the new 30-second broadcast spot, “Cut Your Plan in Half.”

In the spot, Sprint promises customers who bring in an old Verizon or AT&T bill and turn in their phone that Sprint will cut their rate in half. It’s an ambitious (and/or desperate) offering from the struggling company, and Deutsch LA keeps the message simple and focused, while also following through on President/CEO Maurcelo Claure‘s promise that the company would be “more aggressive” in its advertising by directly calling out its competitors. Customers talk about their troublesome bills with AT&T and Verizon before announcing they’re switching to Sprint and (literally) cutting their old bills in half. The spot debuted this past Friday on national networks and cable during primetime, and will be supported by a Spanish-language spot and print ads.

Despite the launch of this spot by Deutsch LA, the agency’s preceding ad for the brand, and heavy rumors that Deutsch has already won the account, Sprint maintains that the creative review is still in progress, according to AdAge. Sprint spokesman Dave Mellin told that publication, “Deutsch L.A. did the creative work on this campaign.They are doing some work for us on a project basis.”

Sprint’s review was initially announced back in September, with the field narrowing to five agencies a month later. According to some sources, it then came down to a race between Deutsch LA and Arnold. Despite claims that Deutsch has been awarded the account, including a linked internal memo from Arnold  (which we reported on last month), Sprint continues to avoid making an official decision.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Baidu, la firme chinoise des moteurs de recherche, a révélé la conception de son projet de vélo intelligent. Intitulé « DuBike », il dispose d’un système d’application intégrée qui fonctionne simultanément avec différents capteurs, capables ainsi d’analyser et de mesurer des paramètres de santé. Le vélo intégrera également un GPS sur le guidon et un laser indicateur alertera le pilote quand et vers où tourner. A découvrir.

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Alka Seltzer

Advertising Agency:Miami Ad School, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Creative Director:Toni Rodrigues
Art Director:Eduardo Basque
Illustrator:Eduardo Basque

(TrendHunter.com) This collection of gifts for the sport enthusiast will inspire people to think outside of the box when it comes to getting something special for athletically-inclined individuals. Whether they like…