The Media Chart For August 19: Olympics Continue to Dominate


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Infosys Doubles With ATP World Tour to Serve Up Stats for Tennis Fans


Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The New Releases here ran on TV for the first time over the weekend. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained social heat, ranked by SpotShare scores reflecting the percent of digital activity associated with each one over the past week. See the methodology here.

Among the new releases, Jim Gaffigan touts the convenience of the Pacifica’s in-car vacuum cleaner in his latest ad for Chrysler; a father boasts to his friends — and strangers — about the high speed internet service of AT&T; and the greatness of the Little League baseball players of the 2016 World Series is on show in a new spot from sponsor Frosted Flakes.

A man on the street is challenged to pick out the JoS. A. Bank suit among designer outfits from Armani, Hugo Boss and others in an ad for the men’s retailer.

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Lochte 'Radioactive' for Sponsors — at Least for Now


In an apology posted on social media on Friday, Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte tried to control the damage caused by his discredited tale of getting robbed at gunpoint in Rio. But his image as an endorser might be irreparable, at least in the short term. And for most Olympians, time is of the essence when trying to strike deals in the wake of the games.

“Olympians in general have a shelf life of a couple of months, pre and post the Olympics, and then everyone forgets all about them until the next Olympics,” said Darren Marshall, executive VP at sports marketing agency Revolution. “Lochte just blew his window. He’s radioactive now.”

That said, “In four years’ time, if he wins multiple golds, all this will be forgotten and someone will use him,” noted Mr. Marshall.

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National TV 'News' Scores an Epic Fail for an Epic Flood in Louisiana


That was a compelling and harrowing narrative. Just the sort of thing that national news outlets would pick up and run with until we were desensitized. But even there, you guys were slow to pick it up.

I saw that clip on Facebook. In fact, I saw everything on Facebook.

Twitter fancies itself a news medium, but it’s become almost as bad as you.

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Creatives use #PokemonGoHome to raise awareness for EU citizen rights

This weekend, some posters went up around London questioning the status of Pokemon and calling for their deportation. Actually they are using Pokemon Go, and everyone’s preoccupation with the game to raise awareness about t he fate of EU nationals in the wake of Brexit. There is some concern about what will happen if Article 50 passes which could jeopardize the status of more than half a million people.

The parody posters are a cheeky take on the issue, with lines like Just because your Pokemon is here doesn’t mean it can stay,” leading to the website Pokemon Go Home. Once there the rug is pulled for good.

The government aren’t sending your Pokemon away.
But for 590,000 EU Nationals in the UK, it isn’t looking so good.
Following Britain’s decision to leave the EU, more than half a million people won’t meet the residency requirements needed to stay if Article 50 is triggered next year.
We decided to make this campaign to draw attention to the uncertainty surrounding the fate of EU Nationals in the UK, who may lose their right to live and work here.
Imagine being here right now, but knowing you might be thrown out in the future.
Imagine knowing you might be parted from your job, family and friends.
For many in the UK, that’s a worrying reality they wake up to every day.
It’s time for our government to end the uncertainty.
Sign the petition to guarantee EU Nationals a right to remain in the UK and show that people are just as important as Pokemon. Thank you

It is the creative teams’ hope that the petition

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Don't Panic London poaches creatives for CD position with "flatmate wanted" style ads

Disguised as couriers infiltrators from Don’t Panic in London toured competing agencies and snuck in posters advertising the Creative Director position at Don’t Panic, in the style of a “new housemates wanted” poster, complete with a tear-off number. Yes, since it’s just p the wall “we offered all their creatives to break the ‘glass ceiling’ and join us.” Will juniors be ballsy enough to apply? Silly me, of course they will, ballsy and London juniors is sort of a given.

Armed with GoPro cameras on their helmets, the spies from Don’t Panic managed to make a video of it all as well. Here’s a peek of their visits to Saatchi & Saatchi, Lucky Generals, Grey London and Wieden+Kennedy.

If you think you are their next Creative Director, email recruitment@dontpaniclondon.com to get a more detailed job description and alert them to your interest in the job.

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Young and Vojta Elevated to ECDs at McCann; Preacher and Rokkan Add Talent


McCann New York has expanded its creative leadership with the promotions of Susan Young and Daniela Vojta to executive creative directors.

Young and Vojta were hired as group creative directors in 2013 to McCann XBC, the shop’s MasterCard dedicated unit, by XBC Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Joyce King Thomas. They most recently worked on Microsoft and Windows 10.

The pair worked on Microsoft’s “Make What’s Next” campaign, which challenged gender stereotypes in the tech and science fields and also included an initiative that helps young female inventors to get patents.

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Annie's Homegrown Sets Bunnies Loose in a Grocery Store for Shamelessly Cute Ad

Annie’s Homegrown hops online with a campaign featuring bunnies. So many bunnies.

Created by the Bell Shop, in-house agency for Annie’s parent General Mills, the Facebook and Instagram push consists of cottony tales anchored by 30 seconds of mind-melting adorbs. 

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"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" The New Musical – New York City Gets Wonka-fied – (2016) :30 (USA)

Willy Wonka is coming to Broadway and it must be believed to be seen.

A mouth-watering new advertising campaign from AKA NYC promotes next year’s premiere of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY The New Musical as bringing a special excitement to New York City. In the first of three teaser spots breaking online this week, the show’s arrival in Manhattan is heralded by a thick bank of purple clouds that spreads over the city, and the appearance of a mysterious figure in white spats and a purple coat.

Rolling out over the next several weeks, additional spots depict a city increasingly electrified by Wonka magic. The campaign’s climactic ad is a visual effects tour de force as the eccentric candy maker works his magic on some of New York’s most familiar landmarks…with spectacularly sweet results.

“We want people to know that a big event is coming to New York, a landmark for New Yorkers and tourists,” says AKA NYC Content Director Jamaal Parham.
The familiarity audiences already have with the CHARLIE story, through the Roald Dahl books and movie versions, allowed AKA’s creative team the freedom to take the campaign in an innovative direction. “People love CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY,” says Creative Director Ryan Cunningham. “The education you have to do with most new shows is already built in. That allowed us to focus on the excitement of this beloved story coming to our city as a musical.”

Written and directed by AKA’s in-house creative team, Jamaal + Bashan, the campaign involved shoots at 22 sites across the city, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Dumbo, the Staten Island Ferry, Times Square, Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain and Grand Central Station. The campaign’s climactic ad features more than 30 visual effects shots.

“We romanticize New York,” Parham observes. “Our city is a little more fantastical than what you experience in daily life, but it’s also very authentic. The Bethesda Garden is a magical place; the Flat Iron Building is an icon. We picked the city’s best locations and we transform them.”

The concept for the campaign was born out of extensive research conducted by AKA’s Show & Tell Research. The broadcast campaign will be accompanied by print, outdoor and online advertising and marketing elements, as well as a number of surprises. “It’s uncommon to use teasers in the rollout of a new Broadway musical,” notes Cunningham. “We took this approach because it gave us the opportunity to capitalize on the built-in anticipation and convey the emotion and magic of CHARLIE coming to New York.”

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Are Brands Optimizing Their Marketing to Death?


Data has been hailed as marketing’s holy grail for decades, a means to pinpoint even the smallest of audiences and efficiently deliver a message to those most likely to buy. But the news last week that Procter & Gamble is scaling back targeted Facebook ads — though not Facebook ads overall — raises a question over whether marketers might be optimizing marketing to death.

Key trends in marketing efficiency present a veritable recipe for diminishing media returns by increasing the risk of pummeling the same consumers too often with the same message. Major marketers have been looking to cut so-called nonworking creative costs by making fewer ads, using the savings to buy more media, targeting those media buys to heavy buyers and increasing spending on mobile to reach them.

But that cycle can burn out buyers. Though it wasn’t looking at Facebook, an Advertising Research Foundation study released earlier this year found that once a digital banner ad reaches the same person 40 times or more in a month, sales actually decline. The value of each additional impression starts to decline well before entering that negative territory, of course. This overkill actually rendered about a quarter of the viewable impressions in the study entirely worthless or counterproductive.

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SFDE "Real foodies Compost" (2016) :40 (USA)

Catchy little ditty from School of Thought for the San Francisco Department of the Environment reminds you to compost all your food stuff because it’s better for the environment. Speaking of food, the song itself is very, well, sugary.
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Under Armour Goes Above and Beyond in New Video


The video, which will air online and be pushed out through the brand’s social channels, follows the campaign’s first spot, which ran in July and featured Washington Nationals pro baseball player Bryce Harper. Under Armour is also putting out a social call to arms for participants of its next event, UA Run Camp-Desert, taking place in October. The brand is asking runners to post photos and share runs socially through special apps, using hashtag #earnyourspot.

Mr. Offutt noted that the new video coincides with the release of Under Armour’s new sneaker, the UA Charged Bandit 2, which will retail online for $100.

Next month, the brand, which spent $20.6 million on measured media in the U.S. last year according to Ad Age’s Datacenter, will debut a third and final spot featuring Carolina Panthers football player Cam Newton. Under Armour worked with event management specialist Human Movement, Ironclad Marketing, and its in-house team to put its experiential event together.

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These Ads Show Beautiful Views of Connecticut, but It's Not a Tourism Campaign

Don’t you just love a room with a view?

Connecticut’s licensed realtors are betting you do in this soft-sell pitch that subtly promotes their services, but plays more like an upscale tourism campaign. Crafted by ad shop Sleek Machine, the commercials employ a distinctive visual device that kicks in about halfway through each spot.

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duplo "Smartest candy on the planet" (2016) :30 (Germany)

This charming ad skirts Mentos camp territory by adding some social commentary to the mix. On the subway everyone is so wrapped up in themselves and their smart phones, except for hot girl and hot guy who notice each other from afar, so to speak. The guy comes over and is about to chat her up when his phone buzzes– and then– instead of pulling out his smart phone he pulls out Duplo candy “It’s for you,” he says, and then offers it to her. This is why duplo’s tagline is “Probably the smartest praline on the planet.” I’ll say. That guy’s riding the subway express to Bone Town thanks to that candy, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

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NBC Makes Up for Rio Ratings


Having missed its ratings guarantees in Rio, NBC in the coming weeks may be on the hook for some holdover Olympics make-goods, but for the most part media buyers say they are satisfied with how the network has handled its Summer Games shortfall.

According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, NBC through the first 13 days of its Olympics coverage has averaged 28.1 million viewers and a 16.0 household rating, two full ratings points shy of the 18.0 it had guaranteed advertisers in the run-up to Rio. (The “total audience delivery” data includes NBC’s primetime broadcasts, coverage on six cable networks and digital streaming.) That marks a decline of 13% compared with the analogous period during the 2012 Summer Olympics and a 12% drop from London’s 18.1 household rating.

Since the games began on Aug. 5, NBC has hit its guarantees on just three nights, which coincided with big wins in the pool by Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team’s gold medal performance. By comparison, the Peacock Network exceeded its London ratings targets 14 nights out of 17.

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Churchill Insurance "Depend on the dog" (2016) :30 (UK)

Churchill Insurance’s new campaign launch features a talking dog. And a talking soft-top convertible car who doesn’t have time to be broke down you see, because she’s got a hot date with a 4×4 rover later. The rover drives past and oh, now she looks a right fool, but the good news is, Churchie and his insurance mates will have her back on the road in no time.
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Watch Peyton Manning Decorate Cupcakes for Papa John's


For Papa John’s, football season still means Peyton Manning.

The retired quarterback stars in the pizza chain’s newest commercial debuting Monday. The spot begins by paying tribute to Mr. Manning’s career, then shows him at a party where guests include Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt and Papa John’s founder John Schnatter. Mr. Manning, rather than relaxing and eating pizza, is busy perfecting cupcakes featuring the three men’s faces. Apparently he has been working on his cake decorating skills when he’s not too busy calling Eli Manning or going grocery shopping in spots for DirecTV.

While the cupcakes are not for sale, Papa John’s is using the spot to help sell a new dessert, a $6 Cinnamon Pull-Aparts. It is also promoting a two medium two-topping pizza for $6.99 each offer.

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Bavaria "Stylish since 1719" (2016) :42 (The Netherlands)

Not everything from 1719 is worth keeping around. Definitely not the hair style. but the beer is another story. Although I would argue that the hipster rat nest or the freaking pony tail on the barber isn’t exactly high fashion either.
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Watch the Voiceover Recording for an Ice Cream Ad Go Horrendously, Comically Wrong

Comic short films about the absurdity of the ad business have a proud history going back to Tim Hamilton’s brilliant Truth in Advertising. Here’s the latest one—director Tim Mason’s No Other Way to Say It, about an amusingly bleak voiceover recording session for an ice-cream commercial.

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Marks & Spencer Goes to Grey London After 16 Years with RKCR/Y&R

British retail behemoth Marks & Spencer awarded its integrated creative account — valued at £60MM or approximately $80 million, according to The Drum — to Grey London. The appointment concludes a closed review of WPP shops launched in May and marks the first time the client has awarded traditional creative and digital duties to the same agency.

The appointment also marks the end of the brand’s relationship with 16-year incumbent RKCR/Y&R, which defended in the review. RKCR/Y&R’s recent work for the client includes 2015 food porn holiday effort “Adventures in Surprises” and last September’s 40-second spot promoting the brand’s fashion offerings.

“It’s undoubtedly sad to have to part ways with M&S after a glorious 16-year creative partnership. Our iconic work for M&S defined an era, but we’re also excited to move forward with a raft of new wins, such as TUI, Chanel and Premier League, and brilliant new talent,” said RKCR/Y&R CEO Jon Sharpe.

For Grey London, the appointment follows the resignations of CCO Nils Leonard, CEO Lucy Jameson and managing director Natalie Graeme early this summer. Chief strategy officer Leo Rayman became the agency’s new CEO in the wake of the departures, and head of planning Matt Tanter was promoted to the role of chief strategy officer last month, along with the promotion of Wayne Brown to chief operating officer. 

“This is a defining moment in the Grey London story. We’ve been after a marquee retailer for a number of years, and they don’t come more famed, more loved and bursting with opportunity than M&S,” Rayman said in a statement. “We’ve championed integration across our clients for a long time but in many ways this win is the zenith of it. To bring advertising and digital together under one roof for one of the biggest retailers in the country sets a new benchmark, not just for us but for the industry.”

“I’ve been waiting for the chance to work on M&S for years. Seriously. It’s just one of the biggest, best-loved brands in the country,” added Vicki Maguire, who leads the creative department along with fellow executive creative director Dominic Goldman following Leonard’s departure. “It’s a proper institution; somewhere I’ve been shopping for more years than I care to remember. They asked us to push them, and we really, really did – and it became obvious very early on that we shared the same ambition and the same vision.”

Winning such an iconic brand marks a quick comeback for the Grey Group, which recently saw its portion of the multibillion-dollar AT&T/DirecTV business go to Omnicom and BBDO.