The last goal? Doesn’t matter. The last victory? Already forgotten. Yesterday is gone. Lost in the record books. But today is up for grabs. Unpredictable. Unwritten. Undecided. Now is ours. Do something, and be remembered. Or do nothing, and be forgotten.
Leonard Nimoy, who is known globally as “Mr. Spock” from Star Trek and his most famous role, died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.
Leonard Nimoy, the actor known to generations of TV viewers and moviegoers as Mr. Spock on “Star Trek,” died Friday, his wife told The New York Times.
He was also a familiar face in commercials, which almost always traded on the Spock thing for a joke.
Snapchat is well-known as the disappearing-message platform with growing users, a huge valuation and very little revenue. But a particular group of users has figured out how to use Snapchat to generate revenue of their own, offering particular videos or pictures in exchange for the company’s new Snapcash money-sending feature.
The New York Times pulled the curtains on what Snapcash has wrought:
Strippers and porn stars have started to use Snapchat to send videos and photos of themselves naked for a small fee. Some transactions are as inexpensive as $1 to $5 for a few personalized photos. The prices can reach double digits for personalized sex shows.
(TrendHunter.com) Rainbow-colored items have exploded in recent years. Rainbows have been infused in everything from food, fashion and art. Art installations are incorporating the use of rainbow pragmatic coloring in…
Today in We Saw This Coming news, an educational technology company called Instructure wants to be known as the first to create a real ad poking fun at the Nationwide Super Bowl campaign that got more exposure than the llamas OR the dress. You know the one.
Here is the ad, which was produced entirely in-house. Its purpose is to promote the company’s “move into the corporate learning space” or, more accurately, to sell a product called Bridge:
Do you have any idea what Bridge actually does after watching this spot? Does software have anything to do with personal job satisfaction? More importantly, who killed the cat? And why?
This is what people in the PR industry call “newsjacking” — and the client is ready for some blowback, because they just raised $40 million from some venture capitalists in preparation for an eventual IPO (and the press release includes more indecipherable jargon than your average chief digital officer on any given day).
Now which art director will write a thinkpiece exploring what #TheDress says about the state of modern design?
Agency 22squared teamed up with production company Tool and director Geordie Stephens to launch a new campaign for Atlanta-based burger chain Krystal with the 30-second “Cheese Lovers Death Metal Minibike Jump.”
The spot launches features some suburban kids blasting some metal and setting up a bike jump over a pyramid of Krystal burgers. Their resident Evel Knievel sets out to clear the jump and everything seems to be going according to plan, until suddenly it isn’t. Ending with the tagline “Stupid Good,” it’s evident the spot was built around the line with its (intentionally) stupid humor. “Cheese Lovers Death Metal Minibike Jump” is just the beginning of the campaign, as a handful of spots will roll out throughout 2015, presumably featuring similarly lowbrow humor.
Credits:
Client: Krystal
Chief Marketing Officer: Jason Abelkop
Director of Marketing Communication: Angela Johnson
Agency: 22squared
Chief Creative Director: John Stapleton
Creative Director: Curt Mueller
Copywriter: Bobby O’Neill
Art Director: Peter Kehr
Director of Integrated Production: Matt Silliman
Executive Producer: Bryan Jameson
Executive Group Director: Ed Klein
Account Supervisor: Katie Hunter
Production Company: Tool
Director: Geordie Stephens
Managing Director – Live Action/EP: Oliver Fuselier
Managing Director – Digital: Dustin Callif
Executive Producer: Rob Helphand
Producer: Jeff Tanner
Editorial Co.: Cosmo Street
Editor: Tessa Davis
Rhett & Link will slake your thirst for goofy, brand-inspired comedy in the “Ultimate Water Taste Test,” a wonderfully wet episode of their “Good Mythical Morning” YouTube show.
The guys, best known for their brilliantly bad local commercials, compete against each other to identify seven varieties of water. They sample five brands: Dasani, Evian, Fiji, Smart Water and Blk Water. (“It’s not from a river in Alabama,” Rhett quips, but infused with fulvic powder, “whatever that is.”) There’s also pond water from Echo Park in Los Angeles and H2O straight from the tap.
The duo don a dual-action water-tasting apparatus—basically hardhats and two hoses for drinking—that actually connects their heads, making them look, Link notes, “like two construction workers talked into doing some kind of scuba trust exercise.”
Once the blind water taste test begins, the snark pours forth.
“It’s got a flowed-down-through-snow-in-the-Alps kind of a feel to it.”
“There’s an elevation in this taste—this is from up high, not from down below.”
“Tastes like clouds.”
“I can taste vapor distillation.”
“If somebody’s selling this, they need to stop immediately.”
You’ll have to watch the 15-minute segment—streaming rapidly toward 1 million YouTube views in just two days—to see how many of the seven they correctly identify. Be sure to hang in for the refreshingly honest “Neither Water” spoof commercial at the end, which drives home the point that, when you’re truly parched, branding doesn’t matter.
Brands are obsessed with space, getting to space, and anything that’s been to space. This week, it was Jose Cuervo’s chance to boldly go where no tequila brand had gone before—and hopefully make it home safely.
In honor of National Margarita Day last Sunday, Cuervo and its agency, McCann New York—using aerospace technology and GPS tracking—launched a container of margarita ingredients heavenward, hoping to mix a cocktail in space and parachute it back to Earth.
See how that went in this video:
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The agency teamed up with independent space program JP Aerospace, along with scientists who led the Phoenix Mission to Mars, to build and launch the spacecraft. The launch site was Pinal County Park, about an hour north of Tucson, Ariz.
Severe buffeting of winds at high altitude shook the margarita, and the extreme cold froze it. When the capsule reached about 100,000 feet into space, the weather balloons shattered and the capsule parachuted down.
The margarita landed in a ravine 100 miles from the launch site. It reportedly tasted good.
A travers son projet Euro Banknotes Bombing, l’artiste grec Stefanos ajoute aux billets d’euros des petites silhouettes humaines dessinées à l’encre noire afin de transformer les monuments figurants sur les billets en des scènes dramatiques et emblématiques de la crise économique de son pays. Des scans qui témoignent de l’instabilité sociale de la Grèce, à découvrir.
It never ceases to amaze me when companies at the top of their industries actively fail to innovate. This is especially troublesome because, as leaders, it is not that they lack the means to innovate. Rather, they usually have the means, and unequalled resources, but make active decisions to block innovation.
Whether it was General Motors in the 1970s deciding that there was not enough profit in small cars (enter the Japanese car companies), or Kodak deciding not to leverage its vast research into digital imaging technology and mountains of digital patents (enter digital companies right and left), or Sports Illustrated deciding that its once-a-year swimsuit issue extravaganza was the future of sports multimedia (enter ESPN) — the road is littered with leaders whose hubris led to downfall.
Perhaps the most shocking example of a leader that fails to innovate is the television industry.
Oreo
Train travel isn’t arduous in Oreo and FCB Shanghai’s spot, it’s transformed into a child’s cute fantasy. Andy Chan, executive creative director of FCB Shanghai, said in a statement that by “combining live action with 2D animation, we created a distinctive-looking piece of film that we hope will stand out in the crowded media space during this time of the year.”
McDonald’s
It doesn’t matter whether you think the dress is blue and black, or white and gold, because the BuzzFeed post that launched thousands of arguments — it’s white and gold, by the way (editor’s note: No, it’s black and blue) — really serves as a viral promotion for the strength of BuzzFeed’s native-advertising department.
The post, which you’ve most certainly seen by now, is not a native ad. It repurposes a Tumblr asking readers the color of a dress. And thanks to a trick of the eye, some people see blue and black; others see white and gold.
By midnight on Thursday, more than 10 million people had looked at it, according to a BuzzFeed spokeswoman. The post is now closing in on 26 million. At one point, the spokeswoman said, there were more than 670,000 readers on BuzzFeed at the same time — 500,000 of them coming from mobile devices. Half of these visitors were reading the dress post. It became the top trending topic on Twitter in the U.S. and on Friday the morning TV shows wouldn’t let it go.
Retailers are refreshing their marketing strategies to build on solid fourth-quarter earnings that were helped by improved consumer confidence and lower gas prices over the holidays. Kohl’s is focusing on data-driven personalization and national brands, while Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Gap are expanding and tweaking their omni-channel marketing.
Kohl’s
Fourth-quarter sales at Kohl’s were $6.3 billion, up 3.9% from the previous year, while sales for the year were flat at $19 billion, the company said in a statement on Thursday. Comparable-store sales also rose 3.7% during the quarter,the largest increase since the fourth quarter of 2010.
Category: Career Oxygen
Summary: If you find yourself in this kind of situation (it happens a lot more than most of us would like to think), the best tactic is to proactively reinforce your desire to meet/exceed the performance expectations and ask for help from the supervisors on formulating a plan on how to get there.
W+K Portland launched a 30-second, celebrity-filled new spot for Nike Golf’s Vapor driver.
Entitled “Why Change?” the ad promotes the Nike Vapor’s improved technology as being able to improve your game, no matter how good you are. It features appearances from athletes Tiger Woods, Charles Barkley, Rory McIlroy, Michelle Wie and Bo Jackson. Even the voiceover has star power, provided by comedian Keegan-Michael Key (of Key and Peele), who seems to be making the rounds in advertising lately. Key informs each athlete that, with the Vapor, they can improve their game, even if Barkley insists his swing is perfect. The approach is handled well, with Key’s expert comedic timing helping W+K to pull off the humorous spot. Plus, it’s really nice to see Bo Jackson getting some love.
“Why Change?” launched yesterday and will run on broadcast for two weeks. It is supported by a digital/interactive initiative, running until March 8th.
Credits:
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Directors: Chris Groom / Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Art Director: Derrick Ho
Producer: Jeff Selis
Interactive Strategy: Reid Schilperoort
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade/Brandon Thornton
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Dobson/Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey/Rob Archibald/Heather Morba/Ramiro Del-Cid
Business Affaires: Dusty Slowik
Project Management: Nancy Rea
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples/Mark Fizloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz
PRODUCTION
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Line Producer: Vincent Landay
Director of Photography: Nicolas Karakatsanis
EDITORIAL
Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Matthew Hilber
Post Producer: Leslie Carthy
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner
VFX
VFX Company: The Mill
VFX Supervisor: Tim Davies
VFX Producer: Will Lemmon
MUSIC + SOUND DESIGN
Music+Sound Company: Barking Owl
DIGITAL / INTERACTIVE
W+K PORTLAND
Creative Director: Chris Groom/Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Art Director: Derrick Ho
Producer: Jeff Selis
Interactive Strategy: Reid Schilperoort
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade/Brandon Thornton
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Dobson/Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey/Rob Archibald/Heather Morba/Ramiro Del-Cid
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples/Mark Fitzloff
Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz
Digital Designer: Rob Mumford
Exec Interactive Producer: Patrick Marzullo
Content Producer: Byron Oshiro/Sarah Gamazo
Broadcast: Jeff Selis
Art Buying: Amy Berriochoa
Photographer: Henrique Plantikow
Interactive Studio Artist: Adam Sirkin, Oliver Rokoff
Tiger Woods has been having a rough time for about half a decade. He’s been stuck on 14 major championships since 2008, but it’s good to know he can poke a little fun at himself.
Tiger gives his pursuit of No. 15 a quick, humorous mention in this very entertaining Nike Golf spot from Wieden + Kennedy, which also stars Rory McIlroy, Michelle Wie, Charles Barkley and Bo Jackson (who utters a certain familiar phrase from an old, old, old W+K campaign for Nike). Comedian Keegan-Michael Key provides the voiceover.
The ad, for Nike’s Vapor driver, takes a humorous look at why golfers of all skill levels might want to change their driver.
CREDITS
Client: Nike Golf
Project: There’s Always Better
—TV
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Chris Groom / Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Art Director: Derrick Ho
Producer: Jeff Selis
Interactive Strategy: Reid Schilperoort
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade / Brandon Thornton
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Dobson / Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey / Rob Archibald / Heather Morba / Ramiro Del-Cid
Business Affaires: Dusty Slowik
Project Management: Nancy Rea
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fizloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Line Producer: Vincent Landay
Director of Photography: Nicolas Karakatsanis
Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Matthew Hilber,
Post Producer: Leslie Carthy
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner
VFX Company: The Mill
VFX Supervisor: Tim Davies
VFX Producer: Will Lemmon
Music+Sound Company: Barking Owl
—Digital/Interactive
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Director: Chris Groom / Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Art Director: Derrick Ho
Producer: Jeff Selis
Interactive Strategy: Reid Schilperoort
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade / Brandon Thornton
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Dobson / Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey / Rob Archibald / Heather Morba / Ramiro Del-Cid
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz
Digital Designer: Rob Mumford
Exec Interactive Producer: Patrick Marzullo
Content Producer : Byron Oshiro / Sarah Gamazo
Broadcast: Jeff Selis
Art Buying: Amy Berriochoa
Photographer: Henrique Plantikow
Interactive Studio Artist: Adam Sirkin, Oliver Rokoff
Le photographe Robin Cerutti, basé à Montréal, a commencé en 2011 une série intitulée « Parallels ». Sans utiliser de retouche-photo, il a divisé les plans de ses photos de nageuses en deux parties : à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur d’une piscine. Il crée deux mondes parallèles avec la ligne de la surface de l’eau comme seule séparation.
A few months ago, Shaun McBride, a prolific and popular Snapchat user, went to Bangkok courtesy of Marriott. He let his fans dictate his agenda, sending collages of visual messages, or snaps, at each tourist stop. “At the end of the day,” he said, “I’d give a shout-out to Marriott for hooking me up with the hotels.”
That kind of brand marketing thrives on the platform, explained the 27-year old, who was commissioned for similar work by Disney and has worked for AT&T and Samsung. To demonstrate what he won’t do on Snapchat, he adopts a salesman patois: “Ten dollars off at your next stay!”
Brands must be hands-off, giving social-media savants like him one brief: “be true to yourself.”
White and gold, or blue and black? The debate over the colors of a dress set off a social-media conflagration that few were able to resist.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
