Hasta La Creative!

Under Armour, the maker of athletic clothing and gear, is acquiring the MyFitnessPal and Endomondo apps in a bid to become the world’s biggest tracker of fitness information.

The two apps will complement the company’s current software — MapMyFitness and UA Record — giving it a total of 120 million users, according to a statement today. Financial terms of the two acquisitions weren’t disclosed.

“They are ideal partners to enable Under Armour to provide data-driven, proactive solutions to help athletes of all levels lead healthier and more active lifestyles,” Kevin Plank, chief executive officer of Baltimore-based Under Armour, said in the statement.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The company reported net profit that almost doubled analysts’ expectations and reduced its loss projections for the year.

The network said its audience should have the option to see the video of a burning pilot, which was posted with a warning that it was extremely graphic.

While many of us are dealing with the usual Arctic blasts of winter, Gap and Wieden+Kennedy New York are already looking ahead to spring (wishful thinking) with a new Instagram campaign tagged with the fitting title #SpringIsWeird.

Essentially a 12-part micro-series starring SNL alum Jenny Slate and actor Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), #SpringIsWeird kicks off on Gap’s Instagram account with a fast-paced :15 glance as to what we can expect from the clothing retailer’s seasonal entry.

All 12 films will be 15 seconds long and showcase Gap’s spring lines via the rapid-fire adventures of their two protagonists.

According to the parties involved, Dano and Slate will “navigate chance encounters, first dates and moody Spring weather in the hope of finding their perfect fit. As they grapple with what is real and what is not, they begin to suspect that their lives may not be theirs alone.”

We’ll have to wait and see where the narrative goes over its three minute total running time.

In a statement, Gap’s head of global consumer engagement and partnerships Tricia Nichols explains:

“In each episode, we bring to life those first days of Spring that can feel a bit surreal as our couple’s real lives and Instagram lives start to merge into one. We think people will relate to the storyline, while also getting some help navigating the tricky territory of the perfect first-date outfit, especially when Spring’s weather can be so unpredictable.”

Along with the Instagram work, which will also live on YouTube as well as various dating sites and apps (smart!), the campaign will include print placements and other online components.

CLIENT Gap

PROJECT NAME Spring is Weird

FORMAT Video

CLIENT CONTACT Grace Wong

LAUNCH DATE February 4, 2015

DURATION OF CAMPAIGN 3 months

W+K NEW YORK

Executive Creative Directors Susan Hoffman + David Kolbusz

Creative Directors Stuart Jennings + Nathaniel Lawlor

Copywriter Mike Vitiello

Art Director Cory Everett

Head of Content Production Nick Setounski

Sr. Producer Jesse Brihn

Brand Strategist Hayley Parker

Interactive Strategist Jordan Schenck

Social Strategist Jessica Abercrombie

Account Team Tamera Geddes, Dipal Shah, Patty Ehinger

Business Affairs Lisa Quintela

Photographer Hopper Stone

PRODUCTION

Production Company Prettybird

Director DANIELS

Executive Producers Kerstin Emhoff, Ali Brown

Head of Production Tracy Hauser

Line Producer Jonathan Wang

Director of Photography Sebastian Wintero

Post Producer Joe Carugati

EDITORIAL

Editorial Company Rock Paper Scissors

Editor Carlos Arias

Post Producer Lisa Barnable

Post Executive Producer Eve Kornblum

Editorial Assistant Joe Rounseville, Christian Oreste, Staley Dietrich

VFX

VFX Company Rock Paper Scissors

VFX Lead Flame Edward Reina

VFX CG Artists Candice Aquino

Producer Charlyn Derrick

TELECINE

Telecine Company Company 3

Colorist Tom Poole

MIX

Mix Company Heard City

Mixer Keith Reynaud, Phil Loeb, Dan Flosdorf

Producer Sasha Awn

MUSIC

Songs Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Artist Alessandro Tabora

TV networks are gearing up for their flashy upfront presentations, which represent the kick-off to negotiations with advertisers over fall prime-time programming.

While some like Discovery are skipping the glitz altogether, others like Turner Broadcasting are combining their network presentations for one massive event.

And as has been the case over the past several years, there’s plenty of other digital media companies and publishers are also vying for marketers’ TV budgets by hostingNewFronts, with new entrants this year like Refinery29.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

PepsiCo’s Pepsi brand notched the highest change in brand buzz thanks to the Super Bowl, but it was McDonald’s that scored best in purchase consideration and word of mouth. That’s according to YouGov BrandIndex’s annual look at pre- and post-Super Bowl metrics.

Thanks to its sponsorship of Katy Perry’s halftime show, Pepsi scored the highest change in buzz. The marketer’s only official ad in the game was a 30-second spot used to introduce the halftime show that immediately followed it.

YouGov BrandIndex, which says it interviews 4,300 people each weekday from an online panel that’s designed to be representative of the U.S. population, crunched the numbers on Super Bowl advertisers before and after the game. It found that Mercedes, Lexus and Toyota got people talking or increased the positive buzz about them more than other Super Bowl advertisers.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Havas Worldwide New York has formed a new leadership team, effective immediately. Global CEO Andrew Benett has appointed New York Chief Strategy Officer Tim Maleeny, Global Chief Digital Officer Sean Lyons and Global Chief Marketing Officer Matt Weiss to newly-formed managing partner roles.

In addition to their current responsibilities, they will run day-to-day operations in the New York office with each exec overseeing a section of the agency’s client roster. Clients include Liberty Mutual Insurance, Keurig Green Mountain, TD Ameritrade and Dos Equis. The trio will also be tasked with reinvigorating the agency’s offering, acquiring new business and creating new sources of revenue.

“They started to be a sort of natural forming team,” said Mr. Benett, who initially looked outside of the network for someone to assume the role of New York head. Following a 20% increase in revenue last year, the agency has won new business from Edible Arrangements and WeddingWire in 2015.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) Mobile technology has made it even easier to work out of the office and these examples of in-car productivity show that anyone can turn their personal vehicle into a professional place of business….

Today we learned, via Doner President/co-CEO David DeMuth, that the agency has lost its second executive creative director in less than a month. Following the January departure of EVP/ECD Justin Smith from the agency’s Detroit office, Rob Palmer will be leaving Doner’s LA office after 18 months.

Before joining Doner September 2013, Palmer held CD roles at some of the industry’s biggest shops, including BBDO, Wieden+Kennedy, TBWA/Chiat/Day GS&P, and Razorfish. Palmer joined the latter agency in Summer 2010 and seems to have spent much of his time there working remotely from “his home turf in Boise.”

Palmer’s own portfolio site offers an amusing summary of his career in the form of snippets like “smoked a cigar with tony danza,” “worked for clow,” “partied with johnny knoxville and paris hilton,” and “heard about the world wide web.”

Here’s the statement from DeMuth:

“Rob has accepted an offer with a fast-growing company that Doner LA has done some project work with over the last few months. It’s an exceptional opportunity for Rob and we’re excited for him. We’re also excited to announce Rob’s replacement, which we anticipate doing very soon.”

What might that fast-growing company be? It’s almost certainly not JC Penney.

Expect more Doner news to come.

R/GA stages an extreme version of Tic-tac-toe in its “Life of the Extreme” spot for the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge.

The ad opens on two men in cars, with one of them choosing a meeting spot by drawing an “x” on a digital map and sending it to the other. In the next scene the men meet up, and the ominous music lends the scene a sense of suspense. But instead of some kind of spy showdown, the men instead jump out of a plane together to play a game of Tic-tac-toe while in freefall. The rather absurd staging of an extreme version of what amounts to just about the least “extreme” game imaginable then meets with an unexpected interruption before its fairly predictable outcome.

This is an odd approach, to say the least, and while its strangeness may make the spot memorable, there’s not a lot here to actually sell the Galaxy Note Edge. It seems more than a little unlikely that people would purchase a phone for its Tic-tac-toe capabilities.