Hasta La Creative!

Leo Burnett Sydney showed off the capabilities of the Samsung Gear VR by offering residents of landlocked Alice Springs the chance to go shark diving.

Working with surf director Taylor Steele of Rapid VR, the agency created a video using footage of great white sharks in Port Lincoln, including a shot of one of the sharks attempting to eat the camera rig. They then established a “Dive Shop” in Alice Springs offering locals the chance to experience a shark dive with the Samsung Gear VR and recorded their reactions. Most people were in awe of the immersive technology, while others found the experience so realistic as to be frightened when they were “eaten” by the shark at the end.

“Beyond the technology itself, what really excites us about the Gear VR is that it’s enabling completely new kinds of experiences, and putting them directly in the hands of our customers,” Arno Lenior, chief marketing officer at Samsung Electronics Australia, told mUmBRELLA. “The potential for this platform is huge – and we wanted to create something that would bring some of that potential to life.”

Cottonelle wants you to “go commando.” That’s right, the toilet paper brand says you should walk around without underwear because its CleanRipple texture imparts a superior clean.

In fact, they’ve hired documentary filmmaker and British accent possessor Cherry Healey to intercept random people who’ve just used the toilet and ask them to go commando.  Whereupon they hide in a little popup tent, take off their underpants and receive an undies storage baggie and some Cottonelle—in stunts that are both bizarre and amusing.

I can only surmise that part of the reason they picked Healey is because Poo-Pourri’s success taught marketers that Americans like it when potty humor is delivered via a British accent. In fact, Time Out recently found that British accents are considered the most sexy.

Speaking of sexy, Cottonelle isn’t just doing this commando stuff to hawk its product. It’s doing it for the good of musicians everywhere. Musicians who have been much maligned by the odious habit women have of throwing our undergarments on stage. Musicians like New Kids on the Block, who kicked off the Cottonelle campaign on Feb. 15 with an intimate concert that didn’t get intimate enough for underwear throwing.

The Kimberly-Clark brand will be joining the first leg of the NKOTB summer tour to offer “an elevated bathroom experience,” and surprise meets and greets with the boys—which presumably only happen if you agree to remove your underwear ahead of time. Meow.

So, if you want to trust your butt to clean ripple, challenge a friend with a free sample, or just want to browse a lot of pictures of people showing side-hip to prove their not wearing underwear, head over to Cottonelle’s website. And take a moment to wonder about this new trend in bathroom humor that’s sweeping marketing.

CREDITS
—TV
Director: Fred Goss
Production Company: Company Films
Editor: Matt Walsh
Editorial Company: Cutters
Sound: John Binder
Sound Studio: Another Country
Agency: Trisect
CCO: Chris Cancel
CSO: Gabe Misarti
ECD: Kevin Hughes
GCD: Mel Routhier
Sr. CW: Dan Lewis
Sr. AD: Garrett Fleming
CW: Aaron Vick
Group Acct Director: Soraya Faber
Acct Director: Meg Graeff
Strategic Planning Director: Danielle Simon
Producer: Corrine Serritella

—Print
Photographer: Liz Von Hoene
Studio: Stockland Martel
Retoucher: Kellie Kulton
Agency: Trisect
CCO: Chris Cancilla
CSO: Gabe Misarti
ECD: Kevin Hughes
GCD: Mel Routhier
Sr. CW: Dan Lewis
Sr. AD: Garrett Fleming
CW: Aaron Vick
Group Acct Director: Soraya Faber
Account Director: Meg Graeff
Strategic Planning Director: Danielle Simon
Producer: Corrine Serritella

The business world has a crippling lack of technology skills, and the cost to the U.S. economy is staggering. According to a Harris Poll commissioned by learning company Grovo last year, only one in 10 U.S. workers consider themselves proficient with the digital tools they use every day at work. And when you consider that “challenges related to working with documents” cost businesses 21.3% in total productivity, according to IDC, the lack of digital skills may drain over $1.3 trillion per year from the U.S. economy.

This penalty could be significantly higher in companies where employees are uncomfortable with social technology. Companies see social networks as the future “office” — a setting where teams can communicate, share documents, collaborate and work more productively, no matter where they are. The big tech companies recognize this demand and are racing to capture the enterprise market. Facebook, for example, is preparing to launch an enterprise social network called Facebook at Work, and LinkedIn, too, is piloting an internal social network for businesses.

At the same time, businesses view social networks as the future of marketing, selling and recruiting — the place where workers across all departments connect with leads, share content and generate awareness of their companies. So employees have to be equally comfortable on both internal and public-facing social media, yet it seems clear that the U.S. workforce doesn’t have the skills to use social technology effectively — yet. The question is, how should businesses respond to this dilemma?

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) If you haven’t been paying attention to the auto industry then you might have missed the many, many examples of Buick’s reinvention. The luxury car company is hugely popular in China (…

The Wall Street Journal has launched a global campaign, urging readers to “Make Time” for the paper.

Enlisting will.i.am for its initial effort, the campaign aims to show how even the busiest of readers make time for the paper in order to stay on top of the business community. In the spot, a busy will.i.am tells an associate he’ll be right back as he escapes to a quiet room and reads The Wall Street Jounral on a tablet. “I don’t have time to read The Wall Street Journal,” he says. Text appears on screen reading, “People who don’t have time make time to read The Wall Street Journal. If will.i.am can “make time” for the paper, the spot seems to suggest, surely you can too. The campaign will run through June and will feature such other celebrities as designer and philanthropist Tory Burch and SAP CEO Bill McDermott.

“This campaign highlights the value of making time to read the Journal, no matter how busy people are,” Suzi Watford, chief marketing officer of Dow Jones, told The Drum. “It also confirms that subscribing to the Journal puts you in a community with other ambitious people who prioritize being at the top of their game. Our subscribers are in very good company.”

Le vidéaste Rob Whitworth a réalisé cette incroyable plan séquence en timelapse au coeur de Dubai. Le film tourné à la première personne donne l’impression au spectateur de visiter spectaculairement la ville dans ses moindres recoins. A découvrir.

Banks aren’t generally known for risk-taking marketing campaigns, but ANZ bank scored a hit in Australia last year by turning ordinary ATMs into “GAYTMs,” decking them out in rainbows, fur, sequins and studs to celebrate a famous LGBT festival in Sydney. The campaign from ANZ and Whybin TBWA Group Melbourne went viral globally and won the Grand Prix for the outdoor category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. (Ad Age’s Creativity also named GAYTMs the best 2014 campaign in the print/outdoor/design area).

The diversity campaign started up again in Australia this month and also jumped to neighboring New Zealand but there it ran into some trouble. Last week, vandals splashed paint on a rainbow-colored GAYTM in Auckland, just before an LGBT pride parade. It was quickly cleaned up. But the same branch was targeted again this week, with pink paint dumped on the bank’s windows.

Pinkwashing

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) Art House Moscow mixes art and cuisine in the most industrial way possible. The reincarnated club features locally sourced products and home grown chefs. The pop-up restaurant and gallery pay homage…

Leo Burnett took quite the minimalist route with its Oscar campaign for McDonald’s, using nothing but text to evoke classic movies.

The 60-second spot likens movies such as Jaws, Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and King Kong to McDonald’s iconic Big Mac, an audacious claim to be sure, ending with the line “Lovin’ takes the right ingredients.” Aside from any qualms about the comparison, the ad does mostly succeed at conveying movies with just a few lines of text, at its best (fava beans + chianti + people…for dinner) mixing in some humor. There’s also something oddly satisfying about how well the text synced up with Debussy’s “Claire de Lune.” Still, how you feel about the approach will largely come down to whether or not you think a fast-food chain should be comparing itself to the classics, and we’re guessing McDonald’s won itself plenty of haters with this one.

The World Photography Organization vient d’annoncer la sélection des participants retenus pour les Sony World Photography Awards 2015. Pour les 3 catégories « Open », « Professional » et « Youth », un tri a été fait parmi 173 444 photographies soumises émanant de 171 pays : un record. Les gagnants seront annoncés le 23 avril ; en attendant les candidats seront affichés au Somerset House, à Londres du 24 avril au 10 mai.

Photo by Ramil Gilvanov/Rimma Gilvanova, Russia, Shortlist, Lifestyle, Professional Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards.

Photo by Saeed Barikani, Iran, Shortlist, Smile, Open, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards.

Photo by Vladyslav Musiienko / UNIAN, Ukraine, Shortlist, Current Affairs, Professional Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards. Ukrainian protester plays piano on a barricade in front of the riot police line during the continuing protest in Kiev, Ukraine on October 2, 2014.

Photo by Simon Morris, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Smile, Open, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards.

Photo by Melissa Little, Australia, Shortlist, Nature & Wildlife, Open, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards.

Photo by Simon Butterworth, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Landscape, Professional Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Award. The images were shot from a light aircraft flying at between 4,000 & 5,000ft. The height was crucial in order to flatten perspective by using long focal lengths. Time of day and cloud cover were also critical, the abstract effect being heightened by complete lack of signifying shadow.

Photo by Jonathan Yeap Chin Tiong, Singapore, Shortlist, Sport, Professional Competition, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards.

Photo by Alexander Klebe, Germany, Shortlist, Panormaic, Open, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards.

Photo by Brent Stirton, South Africa, Shortlist, Contemporary Issues, Professional, 2015 Sony World Photography Awards. West Bengal, India. October 21, 2013. Blind girls Sonia, 12, and Anita Singh, 5, are born into poverty with congenital cataract blindness. They must accompany their parents everywhere as they cannot be left alone without risk. The surgery to cure this is simple and takes 15 minutes but because of the level of poverty in this family they have been unable to pursue the necessary operation.