Volkswagen Up: Women

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Cape Town, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Chris Gotz
Creative Directors: Nicholas Wittenberg, Tseliso Rangaka
Copywriters: Taryn Scher, Neil White
Art Directors: Ross Nieuwenhuizen, Martine Hazell
Director: Robin Goode
Editors: Saki Bergh, Joe de Ornelas

Volkswagen Up: Corporate

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Cape Town, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Chris Gotz
Creative Directors: Nicholas Wittenberg, Tseliso Rangaka
Copywriters: Taryn Scher, Neil White
Art Directors: Ross Nieuwenhuizen, Martine Hazell
Director: Robin Goode
Editors: Saki Bergh, Joe de Ornelas

Lidl Finland: Eau de Grill

Advertising Agency: Folk Finland, Helsinki, Finland
Art Director: Kimi Issakainen
Copywriter: Lasse Paasto
Digital Creative Director: Samuli Ollikainen
Creative Director: Tommi Laiho
Account Director: Pia Dahlman
Photographer: Miika Hyvärinen
Executive Producer: Ville Varesvuo
Producer: Juha-Matti Nieminen
Director: Otso Tiainen
Digital Producer: Markku Aittola
Perfumer: Max Perttula
Managing Director Buying Department: Timo Hansio
Marketing Director: Seppo Niemelä
Advertising Manager: Christian Saukkola
Published: April 2015

Saham Assurance: Whatever it takes

Production Company: Image Factory, Morocco

Mercedes-Benz: Urban Hunt

Over 3000 participants transformed Zurich into a virtual game on a gigantic scale. Each player had the same goal: to hide from the hunter and stay in the game as long as possible. Using the “Gross. Stadt. Jagd.” (Urban. Hunt.) smartphone app devised specially for the game, the players swarmed through the city, searching for good hiding places. It took the hunter over three hours to catch the most determined of them. The efforts of the last man standing were amply rewarded: he won no less than the hunter himself – the Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake.

Advertising Agency: Jeff Communications, Zurich, Switzerland

ALDI: Pasta sauce

Advertising Agency: BMF, Australia
Executive Creative Director: Cam Blackley
Creative Directors: Cam Blackley, Alex Booker
Art Director: Dantie Van Der Merwe
Copywriter: David Fraser
Planning: Ali Tilling
Managing Director: Steve McArdle
Group Account Director: Jonny Bucknall
Account Director: Aisling Salmaggi
Account Manager: Hayley Basham
Agency Producer: Jenny Lee-Archer
Director: Jeff Low
Producer: Alex Hay
Production Company: Rabbit Content
Post production: Method & White Chocolate
Music & Sound: Rumble
DoP: Pete Eastgate

Instagram's Ads Are About to Get More Facebook-y


Instagram’s ads aren’t just for brand building anymore. They’re also for business building.

Instagram is tweaking its ads and the ways advertisers can buy them to make them as suitable for pushing product to likely customers as for promoting a brand to just about anyone.

In short, Instagram’s ads and ad-buying process are becoming more on par with those of its parent company Facebook. For example, by the end of this year a retailer would be able to set up an Instagram ad targeted to its existing customers that includes a link to the retailer’s e-commerce site and run the ad without calling up an Instagram sales rep — just like it would for a Facebook ad.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Instagram Announces Plans to Expand Advertising

The mobile photo sharing service, which has been mostly ad-free, is opening its feed to all advertisers and allowing them to target its users demographically.




Disney Unveils Playmation, Toys That Play Back

Disney’s new Playmation uses wireless systems, motion sensors and wearable technology to engage children with interactive missions.




Resource/Ammirati Launches ‘There’s a Better Way’ for Birchbox

Resource/Ammirati launched a new campaign for beauty sample subscription service Birchbox called “There’s a Better Way” with the 30-second spot “A Better Way to Beautiful.”

The ad follows a woman as she is harassed by a barrage of people selling beauty products, from perfume, to eyeliner to “self tanner, so natural.” As she flees the army of tacky salespeople she arrives at her apartment to find a small box, which she clutches as she goes inside. “There’s a better way to beautiful,” says the voiceover, “Say hello to Birchbox.” If it’s a bit hard to watch for the first 15 or so seconds, that’s pretty much the point, as the ad contrasts the ease of Birchbox with more stressful shopping experiences. The broadcast ad will run from June-November on cable networks including Bravo, HGTV, MTV, E! and VH1.

Birchbox is also announcing a new partnership with Gap, which will bring the brand to seven locations across the U.S. including three in New York, as part of the brand’s offline strategy beginning June 5th.

Credits:

Advertised brand: Birchbox

Advert title(s): “There’s a Better Way”

Creative Chairman: Matthew Ammirati, Resource/Ammirati
President: Gabriel Miller, Resource/Ammirati
EVP, Brand Strategy: Kristen Rumble, Resource/Ammirati
Executive Creative Director: Todd Wender, Resource/Ammirati
Executive Producer: Kate Treacy
Producer: Sean Sullivan
Creative Director: Steven Zizila
Creative Director: Nicole Zizila
Account Supervisor: Ola Abayomi
Production Company: M ss ng P eces
Director: Bridget Palardy
Line Producer: Mike Prall
Head of Production: Dave Saltzman
Executive Producer: Brian Latt
Executive Producer: Ari Kuschnir
Executive Producer: Kate Oppenheim
Published/Released (Month, Year): June 2015

Put Your Finger on the Screen, and This Music Video Becomes Delightfully Fun

If you want to see all the clever things your fingertip can do, check out this cool new interactive music video from Japanese pop star Namie Amuro.

The video offers a pop-art cornucopia of wit and silliness based on one simple instruction—you’re asked to put your finger on the screen and leave it there as the video plays. It’s an apt concept for the song, which is called “Golden Touch,” and it’s reminiscent of the classic Canadian campaign from Skittles that played around with the same idea.

Keep your finger at the center of the video, and let the camera do the heavy lifting—scratch a vinyl record, light up a chill dachshund’s touch-sensitive LED jacket, trap a monster under its manhole cover, and much more. The clip rewards you for sticking it out to the end, with a range of unexpected applications—some abstract, some literal, some cheeky.

But maybe the credit should go to Ze Frank for pioneering the gag, even if his take wasn’t as refined.



Geometric Tile-Like Patterns Sprayed on Floors in Abandoned Buildings

Javier De Riba est un artiste espagnol qui tient une collection impressionnante de ce qu’il appelle « floor installations ». Pour apporter quelques couleurs aux lieux abandonnés et désaffectés, il dessine au sol des motifs géométriques qui ressemblent à du carrelage, à l’aide de sprays et de pochoirs.

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Allstate Marketing Chief Lisa Cochrane Retires


Allstate Senior VP-Marketing Lisa Cochrane is retiring from her post on July 2, 2015, she announced today. After more than 15 years at the insurer, Ms. Cochrane is stepping down to pursue other goals.

“My gut’s telling me it’s a good time to explore the next chapter in my life,” Ms. Cochrane wrote in an email. “I don’t know what lies ahead, but I know something’s out there and I’m open to ideas.”

Allstate will open an external search to fill Ms. Cochrane’s soon-to-be vacant senior VP-integrated marketing communications role, said a company spokeswoman.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

YouTube's 10th Birthday Video Montage Will Make You Feel Old


Skip the candles (maybe not the cake) and celebrate YouTube’s 10th birthday with “#HappyBirthdayYouTube,” an accelerating montage of videos and memes that went viral in the last decade, from “Charlie Bit my Finger” to Rickrolling. You remember them all, because you’re a lot older than YouTube. “#HappyBirthdayYouTube” has itself gone viral now, debuting at No. 4 on our latest ranking, covering the week through Sunday.

But YouTube’s look back couldn’t top perennial Viral Video Chart power Samsung, which scored the top spot for a second consecutive week with an “Avengers”-themed campaign promoting the Galaxy S6. The ad, whose views grew 18% from last week, features Green Bay Packers linebacker Eddy Lacy and FC Barcelona’s forward Lionel Messi. Samsung also took the No. 2 spot with a new “Avengers” tie-in, an unboxing video for an Iron Man-themed phone.

Other new viral campaigns include a Maybelline effort that starts a bit like an affirming Dove “Real Beauty” clip — “We’ve all come face to face with doubt, eye to eye with uncertainty, one on one with ourselves,” it says — but essentially argues that confidence comes from wearing makeup.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

"Nice ad you got. Be a shame if no one saw it."

Last month, after six months of hard work and multiple presentations with the client, and endless production and post-production nightmares, our “film,” went live on youtube and racked up eight million views in a week. The following week added an extra million. The two teams I manage, one junior, one mid-level, were ecstatic. And who wouldn’t be? It’s a lot of eyeballs, right?

Too bad the first week wasn’t organic but paid. I didn’t tell them that though. An account person did, explaining that the first week they want to ensure views, and “start the conversation,” and then they stop paying. This means our “film,” had a million and a half real views at most. Still not bad, but the look one my teams’ faces when they heard that was akin to showing them how the sausage gets made.

More experienced people know this is regular practice, but really, to what end? In 2012, GM stopped advertising on Facebook. It took its 40 million dollars elsewhere. Smart move. When Facebook started reducing organic reach it became even clearer that social media is not the bargain, or effective juggernaut it was purported to be.

Consider that analog media print for a moment. You spent money to place an ad in GQ, and it was in GQ’s across the country. There was no guarantee someone would buy the magazine, of course, but if they did, there was a good chance they’d see your ad. If Facebook owned GQ, you’d place an ad in it, and then Facebook would hide 90% of the magazines unless you paid them to put the magazine featuring your ad on the magazine stands.

So we live in the digital age where media channels like Youtube seem only effective if you pay for views to inflate your numbers (and likes if you’re smarmy). And remember, a vast majority of Youtube videos do not go viral. Then in Facebook’s case you’re dealing with a a quasi-Mafia-style practice of paying them to “boost” your post to an audience you worked hard to cultivate. If GM spent a year or two getting a million plus people to like its page, the expectation was that their posts would reach that audience. By Facebook ensuring the opposite, why would you want to do business with them?

Brands are starting to realize it doesn’t pay. Or rather, these media channels are just as flawed as the analog ones, if not more so. HighSnobiety has an article today called Why Brands don’t need Instagram to succeed. While they specifically talk about fashion brands, their position holds true for all branding, in that they posit Instagram is vastly overrated. They concede like most people that it is merely one of many advertising strategies, but you know what? So is sky writing and direct mail, neither of which people are jizzing in their pants to create or insist it be part of the 360 campaign. There are no Sky Writing influencers, or Direct Mail Gurus with millions of fake followers. And yet I’d argue those three communication channels are just as effective as Facebook and Instagram.

Or just as flawed. Perhaps even more so, because unlike sky writing, there is no helpful button to make me dismiss the ad like there is on Instagram and Twitter. I can dismiss the ad faster than you can spit, and there’s an extension to hide all Facebook ads.

It isn’t all bad news for your social media campaign. You are always ensured some eyeballs and press from most advertising sites who never tire of trying to convince us social media is worth more than any other media. Since Adland is not one of those sites and we are still silly enough to judge an execution by an idea, you won’t see much of that gushing here. We’re more interested in what people outside the industry think. As well as the brands who pay attention to effectiveness over what’s “trending.”

While Adweek calls Ballantines Instagram zine the ad of the day, I first question why they’d want to call their zine “W” when there’s already W Magazine everyone knows, that is also on Instagram. And while I know the majority of people will not “engage,” with it in any meaningful way, I also know numbers will be spun to ensure the success.

So don’t worry junior teams, you can still put this advertorial (that’s what it is, you know) in your book, confident that a few “enthusiasts” saw it. And maybe a few of those views were organic, too.

SS+K Enlists ‘Serious Baby’ for Smile Train

SS+K launched a new campaign targeting millenials for international children’s charity Smile Train, entitled “Serious Baby.”

Inspired by baby memes, the campaign tells the story of Walter, a nine-month old who goes on a smile strike. “There’s kids who have trouble smiling because of their unrepaired clefts,” he explains in an online spot (through a gruff, serious voiceover, “If they’re not smiling, I’m not smiling.” He encourages viewers to donate if they want to see him smile.

It’s a big change in approach for SS+K and Smile Train, whose last spot for the charity, “Dreaming of Midnight,” featured an interactive story allowing viewers to change the fate of a young girl by donating. The baby’s demeanor aside, it’s a far less serious approach than what viewers typically associate with Smile Train, as many remember when its ads featured shot after shot of children suffering from cleft palate to garner viewers’ sympathy and encourage donations. SS+K began changing things up by focusing instead on a single child, as in its previous spot and last April’s “Power of a Smile.” This is a far more drastic departure, however, as the spot attempts a more light-hearted approach without making light of an important cause. The video, along with various memes featuring Walter are hosted on Smile Train’s  Tumblr microsite for the campaign.

“We wanted to take a bit of a risk and try something different,” Shari Mason, senior director of integrated marketing at Smile Train, told Digiday. “We realized that if we are able to put a humorous spin on a serious issue like this, it will have a bigger impact rather than shouting facts and figures and attract a younger audience, including millennials. Millennials like to support causes where they can see the impact they’re making.”

“We’re trying to build their audience base and reach out to a younger demographic,” added Armando Flores, creative director at SS+K. “They have their core audience, but what we’re really moving toward is figuring out interesting ways to get more people to make micro donations instead of just big charity amounts.”

Politics and Practices of Secrecy (part 1)

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In the wake of the Snowden revelations about the surveillance capabilities of intelligence agencies, this interdisciplinary symposium gathers experts to discuss the place and implications of secrecy in contemporary culture and politics continue

Interactive Illustrations on Instagram

À travers ce projet ingénieux, l’illustrateur londonien Carl Storey a voulu rendre l’expérience Instagram plus interactive encore. Artbeats consiste donc à utiliser le « Like » Instagram pour compléter des illustrations comprenant un coeur comme le ventre d’un Bisounours ou encore le légendaire logo I ? NY.

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How KFC Is Fighting Rumors of Scary Mutant Chickens in China


In case you saw any strange rumors circulating on Chinese social media, KFC wants to clarify something: No, it did not bio-engineer chickens with eight legs and six wings.

“If there were such a chicken, KFC would certainly be qualified to apply for a Nobel Prize in biology,” KFC China President Qu Cuirong said in a statement in Chinese.

The brand used a touch of wit and sarcasm as it addressed how it’s tackling rumors shared on Chinese social platform WeChat. But it also got serious. KFC said it had filed lawsuits against three local companies that operated WeChat content accounts it accused of spreading defamatory rumors about the brand, sometimes accompanied by photoshopped images of mutated chickens. (It has debunked similar rumors before.)

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Madhulika Sikka Leaving NPR News to Join Mic, a News Site

Ms. Sikka, executive editor at the radio organization NPR News, will oversee newsroom operations at Mic, which is aimed at the so-called millennial generation.