Hasta La Creative!

For all the talk about shopper marketing in recent years, much of the impact remained shrouded in mystery for marketers — including how people really responded to their offers, how well retailers implemented their promotional plans, and even basic sales results.

Thanks to the increasingly ubiquitous smartphone, that’s changing fast, and with it, the stranglehold conventional retailers had on shopper data and analytics. A host of startups and conventional research players have assembled big, six-figure panels of consumers to track the intricacies of the in-store experience, from what they buy to what products are on the shelves, how they’re merchandised, and how shoppers respond to what they see.

Big retailers themselves are also supplementing their own conventional loyalty or customer-relationship management programs with mobile shopper panels, too, said Michael Stich, chief innovation officer of WPP’s Rockfish. He said at least four major U.S. retailers, which he declined to name but include players in the club, mass and drug channels, are building such panels.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

One of the great deceptions foisted on our society is that people around the world are anxious to embrace democracy and our way of life if only they are given the opportunity.

That line of thinking has gotten us into a lot of trouble over the years, and now we are at it again, naively thinking that we need to tell our story in fresh new ways to counter the ISIS terrorists who are spreading such violence and mayhem throughout the world.

It’s easy to postulate that ad guys, who are so adept at telling brand stories, can turn the tide against the evil forces of chaos and repression. And it’s not like we haven’t tried.

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Marketers are expected to spend $540 billion globally on advertising this year, a 4.6% increase over 2014, according to a report by media-agency Carat.

The year-over-year increase comes despite a relative lack of tent-pole media events. In 2014, by comparison, a trifecta of major events — Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup and U.S. mid-term elections — helped boost advertising outlays.

“Carat’s latest advertising forecast gives us increased optimism for the outlook for global advertising spending,” Jerry Buhlmann, CEO of Carat’s parent company Dentsu Aegis Network, said in a statement. “With harder times behind us, negative growth markets are pleasingly now a minority, and collectively we can look ahead to 2016 with positive growth predicted for all key markets.”

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L’emblématique marque de sport Nike a collaboré avec le studio de mode japonais Sacai pour lancer une collection capsule conçue spécialement pour la performance sportive chez les femmes. Le fondateur de Sacai, Chitose Abe, a utilisé des archives de Nike pour créer les huit pièces de la collection à laquelle il a intégré des formes plus féminines comme des plis ou de la dentelle.

Taco Bell is tapping into Cold War-era propaganda imagery along with Orwellian and “Hunger Games” themes to launch Taco Bell’s next big breakfast campaign.

In one of the most unusual breakfast campaigns ever, Taco Bell’s TV campaign breaking March 24 begins with a 60-second highly stylized spot that shows two young people breaking away from an oppressive, dystopian prison-camp-like setting in a world called the “Routine Republic.” There, people eat only small, round breakfast sandwiches. As a young man waits in line to receive his routine breakfast, he pulls a sheet of paper out of his pocket that has a hexagon shape on it — a reference to the chain’s A.M. Crunchwrap — and the word “defect.”

He and a young woman, run away, but guards in Soviet-era military garb and a dictator in grim face paint eerily reminiscent of Ronald McDonald try to stop them. As they run, Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” plays. The duo becomes known as “breakfast defectors.” (Look for other subtle McDonald’s references in the film, including McDonaldland-style burgers and ball pits.)

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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Mr. Schechter was an author, filmmaker and award-winning television producer who infused almost all his work with his deep-rooted advocacy, whether it was for alternative or mainstream media.