(TrendHunter.com) This elevated beach house is both beautiful and was designed in a way that reduces its impact on the environment.
Vacation homes are a luxury for most people but the process of building them does…
(TrendHunter.com) Georgia-based ‘Replantable’ has designed a new home garden appliance, the Nanofarm. The Nanofarm lets users easily grow produce in their own kitchen.
Nanofarm is a tiny farm made up of…
(TrendHunter.com) Black Tomato has added a new service to its luxury tour offerings with the Drone the World service.
Consumers can pay for the Drone the World service and are paired with a professional cameraman…
(TrendHunter.com) These August 2016 furniture trends range from photo-finished seating solutions to flexible standing desks that allow office workers to customize their workstation according to mood or time of day….
In “How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything,” Rosa Brooks says the police have become more like soldiers, and soldiers more like the police.
With a social media presence that includes more than 5 million Twitter followers and 10 times as many podcast subscribers, Bill Simmons would seem to have a built-in audience for his new HBO show “Any Given Wednesday.” Trouble is, it would appear that only a fraction of those digital devotees are tuning in to watch on TV every week, although the overall turnout improves dramatically when the network’s various alternative platforms are factored in.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, through its first six installments, “Any Given Wednesday” is averaging just south of a quarter-million viewers — 249,833, to be precise. And while demographics aren’t entirely germane to HBO, which as a premium cable network does not court the favor of advertisers, Mr. Simmons’ chat show is drawing a paltry 0.12 rating, which means that slightly more than half (152,172) of those tuning in are members of the adults 18-to-49 set.
But live-same-day ratings only tell about 10% of this particular ratings story. HBO insiders say “Any Given Wednesday” improves on its original live deliveries by a factor of 10 when DVR playback, encore telecasts, on-demand views and HBO Now streams are baked into the mix, bringing the average weekly total audience to around 2.4 million viewers — a lift that is nothing short of remarkable.
Subway has been working to relaunch its marketing efforts and polish its public image since parting ways with both its spokesperson and its longtime agency of record MMB last year.
New AOR BBDO’s first ads for the chain focused on its history, with last December’s debut profiling Subway’s founders. The chain’s latest campaign, which launched this week, is all about self-improvement on the part of both Subway and its customers.
The hashthag is #SearchForBetter, and the new anthem-like spot is actually titled “Clean Slate.” You get it.
The press release tells us that “some of the people featured in the ad are real people with real stories, continuing the trend of using authentic Sandwich Artists™ in previous brand campaigns.” We’re not sure at the moment what those stories might be, but we assume we’ll learn more later.
The chain also has a new logo, a new symbol and a new sandwich.
…and the accompanying symbol.
The design is definitely cleaner without the outlines, but we are glad to see that they kept the arrows.
About those fresher ingredients mentioned above … the chain will soon introduce a Chicken Caesar Melt sandwich, available for a limited time at the Subway near you.
“Everyone” is a product promo with no antibiotics!
Hard to argue with the fact that the best way to stay fresh truly is to never get stale. We do wonder how they keep their guacamole from turning brown, though. What is the secret?!
Subway will continue rolling out more aspects of its refresh/rebrand effort into 2017.
W+K Portland launched a new spot for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, starring Christoph Waltz, entitled “Busy, Busy, Busy.”
“Americans, I don’t understand you,” says the Vienna-born actor, who has both Austrian and German citizenship, at the opening of the spot. “Always working, all the time, busy, busy, busy. Now you have this Galaxy Note 7 so you can do even more.”
Waltz takes the place of a multi-tasking mom, man working while on vacation and overachieving student, saying he just doesn’t get it. “You’re never happy just winning something,” he says while running a track event and reading the paper (and setting a world record in the process). “You’re only happy winning everything.”
What has all this gotten Americans, he asks — but by the end of the ad, he’s a convert.
Waltz may initially seem like an odd choice for the patriotic spot, but his take on American stereotypes and his eventual conversion (complete with American flags draped over his house) is entertaining. In fact, it’s hard to imagine anyone else displaying the acting chops to pull it off quite as convincingly.
“What we liked about Christoph is that he’s able to convey the perspective outside the U.S.,” Samsung chief creative officer Jesse Coulter explained to Adweek. “He’s such a great actor that he’s able to take on these relatable characters throughout the ad.”
The spot will make its broadcast debut, appropriately enough, tonight during NBC’s coverage of the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremonies. Samsung’s new device, meanwhile, will make its debut on the 19th of the month, two days before the closing ceremony.
Credits:
Client: Samsung
Agency: W+K Portland
Group Creative Director: Craig Allen
Creative Directors: Brandon Mugar / Tim Roan
Copywriter: Jonathan Marshall
Art Director: Helen Rhodes
Integrated Executive Producer: Erika Madison
Senior Producer: Erin Goodsell
Account Team: Phil Williams / Drew Widell
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff/Susan Hoffman
Production
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Noam Murro
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Rick Jarjoura
Producer: Kathy Rhodes
Heads of Production: Mercedes Allen Sarria / Rachel Glaub
Director of Photography: Simon Duggan
Production Designer: Bruce McCloskey
Editorial
Editorial Company: Arcade
Editor: Geoff Hounsell
Managing Partner: Damian Stevens
Executive Producer: Crissy DeSimone
Head of Production: Kirsten Thon-Webb
Senior Producer: Adam Becht
Assistant Editors: Dean Miyahira / Andy Trecki
VFX
VFX Company: The Mill
Executive Producer: Enca Kaul
VFX Producer: Anastasia von Rahl
Creative Directors/Set Supervisors: Robert Sethi / Chris Knight
2D Lead: Chris Knight
3D Lead: Gawain Liddiard
2D Artists: Tim Bird, Ed Black, Krysten Richardson, Joy Tiernan, Don Kim, Yukiko Ishiwata
3D Artists: Blake Sullivan, Jason Monroe, Ed Laag, Itai Muller, Jason Kim, Dave Vander Pol
Production Coordinator: Alana Giordano
Grade
Company: Company 3
Colorist: Siggy Ferstl
Executive Producer: Ashley McKim
Producer: Matt Moran
Music
Music Company: Mutato Muzika
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Engineer: Bradley Denniston
Producer: Natalie P. Montgomery
Mix
Mix: Company Lime
Engineer / Sound Designer: Rohan Young
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan
The media industry responded predictably to an announcement from Facebook Thursday that articles using so-called “clickbait” headline tropes will get lower billing in the social giant’s all-important News Feed product, which publishers rely on for sweet, sweet referral traffic. (Sponsored posts will not be affected by Facebook’s efforts to target clickbait, a spokeswoman confirmed.)
There was hand-wringing, there was snarkiness and there were plenty of reports that poked fun by using some of the clickbait tactics being targeted by Facebook. Newsweek, for example, went with “You won’t BELIEVE what Facebook is trying to do!”
But how big of a deal is the announcement? How big of a problem is clickbait, really, in 2016? And how will the new rules change the way publishers operate? Ad Age got answers via email from some of the media companies that have made their names by becoming ubiquitous in many people’s Facebook feeds.
Digital music has eaten into the record industry’s profits from album sales, but it also gives artists something appealing: more creative control.
NBCUniversal’s broadcast strategy for the Rio Games will show a media giant more than ever straddling two approaches to attract viewers to is prized sports property.
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 yesterday. 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, a Nike spot reveals superstar athletes like Serena Williams, Mo Farah and Neymar Jr. are literally born and bred for sports; Samsung Mobile users have their work cut out for them as new devices feature “more” of pretty much everything; there’s nothing like a medieval wench to get the party started with Booking.com; a spot for Hillary Clinton calls out the effect of Donald Trump’s messaging on children and, on the opposite extreme, Carl’s Jr. pairs a bacon and a bikini.
Finally, Coca-Cola spotlights the everyday people going for the gold.
The Ad Age Presidential Campaign Ad Scorecard is sponsored by The Trade Desk
Editor’s note: Here’s the 25th installment of the 2016 Presidential Campaign Ad Scorecard. The chart below represents a collaboration between the Ad Age Datacenter — specifically, Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Catherine Wolf — and Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG). Some context from Simon Dumenco follows. –Ken Wheaton
As Donald Trump’s terrible week limps to a close, a reminder about some Trump news that seems to have already slipped through the cracks: His campaign suddenly has money to burn. Lots of it. (See CNBC’s report: “Donald Trump raises $80 million in July, has $37 million war chest.”)
In case you missed it, yesterday we posted a story that was really a question: race and gender issues aside, does the ad industry discriminate against older people??
The post inspired quite a few comments, and the conclusion was pretty much universal: Yes, it does.
Here are the anonymous takes we received in response to that post.
“I’m a 45 year old woman with 20 years agency experience who was laid off from my senior media position. I have been unable to secure even an interview, let alone a job, for four months.”
*
“Totally agree with age discrimination in the agency world of females over 50. I am a female, mid career, have worked for all of the four big holding companies and could not find one senior level, over 50 female mentor in any of them.”
*
“Re: Agency discrimination against people over 50. The recently ex-chief creative officer at [a New York agency] was notorious for only wanting young people. In other words, fawning admirers (or sycophants) who would stay until 2am while he opined for hours over scotch.”
*
“The phrase 60 is the new 50, 50 is the new 40 etc, there’s real truth to that. This includes intellectual depth, rigor, hunger (how many folks have lost their retirement or simply can’t?), and effectiveness. This is one of the few industries where wisdom counts for nothing. Shameful, really. Hope this shifts in the same direction as gender bias.”
*
“In 2014, [agency], part of [major holding company], had layoffs. The majority were in their 50’s or approaching 50. Oh they threw in a couple of younger folks, but make no mistake, the layoffs were to eliminate ‘tenured’ employees.”
This one was particularly illuminating:
“As a 50+ female creative, I say when people don’t work hard or keep up with trends, they SHOULD be left behind.
This business is about knowing the (constantly changing) culture and participating it! The problem is too many people just assume that if you’re over 50 you don’t get it and you don’t work hard. That’s why it’s called discrimination. I do leave work early-ish sometime to see family, but I pull out my laptop after dinner and get back to work. Strangely, the same people who insist they can work at Starbucks, the park or whatever are often the first to assume if you’re not sitting at your desk you’re not working.
Discrimination to older creatives, especially older female creatives, is VERY REAL. Before you jump to the conclusion that someone must not get it because they’re older than you are, or assume someone is doing nothing if they’re not at the office, take a minute to find out if that’s accurate.”
Only one person really pushed back against the central idea, writing:
“I’ve worked at smaller agencies all over the US and they were all staffed primarily by ‘older’ creatives. The agencies still did award-winning work comparable to the big places. There is an advertising world outside of NYC, LA, San Fran, and Chicago.”
That’s a pretty interesting take too, no?
In summary, older people in creative and accounts departments do seem to face a greater risk of termination, especially if they’re not in executive-level positions.
That said, many agencies do continue to employ such individuals — and sometimes their concerns about the relative value of employees in different age groups may be based on something other than a tendency to dismiss those 45 and over for no other reason than the fact that they are a little older.
Now we have a good idea for a trend piece.
Figliulo & Partners launched its first campaign for luxury cruise line Seabourn since being named AOR last November, entitled “Extraordinary Worlds.”
A 60-second anthem ad uses a split-screen approach to explore what Seabourn has to offer, both onboard and off.
Opening with a cresting wave and a scoop digging into gently curling ice cream, the images on each side of the screen play off each other. A cascading waterfall, for example, is shown alongside a glass of champagne being poured. Stones along the shore are paired with hot massage stones being placed on a woman’s back at the spa onboard.
The approach manages to show off the onboard luxuries of Seabourn and some the excursions the cruise line offers simultaneously. It also helps the ad stand apart from competitors, with the eye-catching comparisons of different amenitites and activities offered onboard and off.
“People don’t think in black-and-white terms,” Figliulo & Partners CEO Mark Figliulo told AdFreak. “They’re considering where to go and where to stay at the same time. That’s why we show this unique experience in those terms—the exquisite detail of the on-ship and on-shore experiences.”
As embarrassing as some of the recent controversies surrounding women and people of color in American ad agencies have been, a story from Australia this week pretty much takes the fucking cake.
Dana McCauley of The News rightly asks, “WHAT is it with advertising agencies this week?” in reporting on an incident that occurred at Banjo, an independent agency based in Sydney that scored coverage in Adweek back in 2009 for a PSA that compared bowel cancer to a terrorist attack.
Freelance account director Surungi Emily Hohol was interviewing for a job at Banjo when, according to a Facebook post quoted by The News, an unnamed senior executive said the following:
“The client might be alarmed by having three brown skin people attend a meeting.”
This executive meant to say that, because the agency already employed two other “Indian” staffers, it would not be offering Hohol a job. (She is Sri Lankan.) It’s unclear whether this individual was referencing a specific client.
After seeing the post, agency managing partner Andrew Varasdi called an emergency meeting and spoke directly to Hohol. The agency now claims—again according to The News—that this was a “light-hearted” joke that led to “an unfortunate misunderstanding.” The agency offered a formal apology and stated that, while the executive in question has not been disciplined, he/she is “deeply upset” and is currently receiving some form of counseling.
The statement also read:
“The senior staff member, who conducted what was a very positive interview, made a casual remark at the end of the interview, which was intended to set the person at ease. Unfortunately it was taken out of context and has since gained some notoriety on social media.”
It’s unclear how this comment could have possibly been intended to make Hohol feel “at ease” given that it meant she would not be getting the job.
Banjo went on to say that it employs a diverse array of talent, adding: “We hope that we will be judged on our record, and that all candidates who consider joining us at Banjo will do so too.”
We have reached out to Hohol on Facebook and will update this post if we hear back from her.
Grey has acquired a majority stake in Maruri Publicidad, “the leading full-service communications firm in Ecuador” and a Grey partner since the early nineties.
CEO/COO Eduardo Maruri, who founded the agency with his father, Jimmy Maruri, in 1991, and general manager Fausto Maruri will continue to oversee the company, which will now operate under the name Maruri Grey. The agency, which employs some 130 employees in Guayaquil and Quito, has been awarded 30 Cannes Lions in the past five years and named agency of the year by the local industry trade association a dozen times. Its client roster includes DIRECTV, SABMiller and La Fabril and the agency brought in nearly $10 million in revenue last year.
“We are delighted to conclude this agreement with Eduardo Maruri and his stellar management team,” Grey Group chairman and CEO James R. Heekin III said in a statement. “Maruri is a premier total communications company, renowned for its creativity and represents another step forward in expanding our capabilities in the fast-growing Latin American region.”
“This change from being Maruri to Maruri Grey is simply a consolidation of the strong relationship and mutual benefits we have enjoyed for over two decades,” added Eduardo. “We are confident Ecuador can play an even more important role in the region in the years ahead.”
The acquisition follows a series of similar moves from Grey as it looks to strengthen its international network. Last month, Grey acquired a majority stake in Brussels-based agency Famous, one of the largest independent agencies in the country, to create Famous Grey. It also expanded its capabilities in Greater China by purchasing a majority stake in Shanghai-based PR and social media agency Easycom.
[Image via]
“Candidate rejected by agency due to colour of skin” declared the HR Grapevine. Soon SBS news reported: “Apology after woman told in interview her ‘brown skin’ would make clients uncomfortable” and News.com.au headlined the incident Advertising executive tells job seeker the agency already has enough ‘brown skin people’.
Pippa Chambers at Adnews.com has an apology from the agency, who wants to get in front of this, in “Sydney creative shop Banjo apologises for alleged ‘racial’ incident”, quoting Banjo managing director Andrew Varasdi who stated that the feedback he received on the interview was a very positive one,
“Our position on this remains unchanged. When I learned of the situation I immediately contacted both the candidate and our staff member to offer my empathy and support. I have arranged to meet with the candidate first thing in the morning 5 August) to reassure her of our policies on recruitment.”
He added that in Banjo’s seven-year history, the agency’s recruitment policy has always encompassed not only hiring the best possible talent, but also ensuring that the staff spans all ages, genders and ethnicities.
“We couldn’t possibly deliver on our promise that our clients come first, if our own staff did not reflect the Australian community. We are always prepared to offer our clients the best advice to connect with their customers”
Banjo has also said that staff includes 50% women in senior management and 50% women overall, and half of the staff are from ethnic backgrounds including India, Asia, UK and South America. In other words it’s a very diverse agency. In a statement they said ”
“Needless to say, the Banjo staff member is deeply upset by the incident, which occurred yesterday. There has been a lot of media attention on the issue of equality – including race, gender and sexual orientation, and age – in recent times and we acknowledge that emotions can run high.”
Now I hope this summation of events suffices without getting me in trouble.
@Dana_Adele Why was your article on Banjo Advertising 80% their apology and 20% nothing really else…?— Jason Singh (@jason_singh) August 5, 2016
Her tweet, which currently has 127 hearts and 174 retweets started a chain of heated debate, where people are lobbying insults and insults at each other and Laura is standing her ground.
Dominos Pizza. #rapeculture pic.twitter.com/kfByPiLBe1— Laura Dravland (@LauraDravland) August 4, 2016
The line “No is the new yes” brings the reader into body copy explaining that artisan pizzas are no substitution or additional topping pizzas, as the chef’s have found the perfect topping combinations for you. Now, I’m well aware of advertising and fast food making it all about sex like so many Carl’s Jr and McDonald’s ads have done, but I sincerely doubt that this was what the copywriter had in mind here. This won’t stop the buzz about it, as we all know gender issues is a hot topic right now – see headlines already: “Yikes: Domino’s Pizza Ad Says “No Is The New Yes” at XO jane, ‘No Is The New Yes’ Domino’s Pizza Ad Offends Some With Apparent Rape Innuendo at HuffPo and Bain Capital-owned Domino’s Pizza makes a hah-hah rape joke with its new “NO IS THE NEW YES” campaign at Eclectablog. The photo of the pizza box originally appeared at Shakesville under the headline: “Today in Rape Culture”. To quote Eclectablog:
Apparently Domino’s, currently owned by Bain Capital and owned founded by the very conservative Tom Monaghan, founder of the far-right Thomas More Law Center and other Catholic organizations aimed at promoting his religious views throughout society, doesn’t have any women on their marketing team. This new campaign is clearly a mash-up of “_______ is the new black” and “No means no”.
The latter references unwanted sexual advances made on women.
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.
