The idea started with the product benefit in mind. Knowing the “problem” is a more powerful way to get attention and to create the urgency needs.
But we all know that is not attractive and the brand will not want to be associated with “Ugly” images. So we started to look at the “pretty” side of the problem and realized wrinkles, facial hollows and flat cheek can be very sexy, pretty and attractive…on our pets.
Inspired by The TELUS Health Brain Project’s collaboration with 100 international artists, which arrived in Toronto on July 11. Art that changes lives, one brain at a time.
Real Drawing by Toni/Ester. When you report a pedophile, it’s no longer just a drawing.
Real Drawing by Toni/Ester. When you report a pedophile, it’s no longer just a drawing.
Internet advertising accounted for half of the UK’s adspend for the first time in the first three months of 2017, according to the Advertising Association and Warc’s expenditure report.
Women-owned/led, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified agency The PIA Agency, which counts Sony, Pepsi and HP among its clients, has opened a new office in Portland, Oregon.
The new 9300 square foot office will occupy two floors at the New Market Theater building in Portland’s historic Old Town-Chinatown district.
The PIA Agency welcomed creative director Marie Murphy as one of its first hires for the new location. Murphy joins the PIA Agency following a period as a freelance creative director in the Portland area. Before that she spent around eleven years with Razorfish in Portland, most recently as a lead creative director. During her time with Razorfish she worked with clients including MillerCoors, Nike, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Best Buy and Expedia.
The agency is also actively recruiting to fill the office.
“We are always looking for world-class creative and technical talent to support the work we do for our clients,” PIA Agency CEO Cheryl Pia said in a statement. “Portland is renowned for its independent spirit, talented workforce and outstanding quality of life and we are looking forward to being a part of this community.”
In the United States, 1 in 15 children are exposed to violence between intimate partners each year.
A new ad far from the usual humor and product pitches dives a bit deeper into that tragic statistic by illustrating the tale of a young boy caught between real life and fantasy.
“Hero,” a PSA for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, dramatically intersperses this child’s day-to-day struggles with his desire to escape into outer space.
The work was created by production company Chirp Films and directed by Noah Conopask, who said, “The film is autobiographical. The boy is me. I had to make it. Children look up to their parents. Even if they don’t want to. I hope that I can inspire action in those who may be broken or hurt and are acting in this way. I hope I can stir them to look at themselves and recognize what it is doing to their child, their family and themselves.”
Unfortunately, a child doesn’t even have to be directly abused to be affected by domestic violence. Here are some related statistics from the NCADV.
CREDITS
Title: ‘Hero’
Client: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Production Company: Chirp Films
Director: Noah Conopask
Executive Producer: Laura Thoel
Producer: John Malina
PM: Mario D’Amici
DP: Garrett Hardy Davis
Sound Designer: Gavin Little
Editor: James Dierx (Whitehouse Post)
Production Designer: Alex Choate
Wardrobe Stylist: Marissa Adele
Organic and natural foods company Hain Celestial Group selected independent New York agency Burns Group as agency of record for its Terra Chips and Earth’s Best Organic Infant Toddler Foods brands, following a review.
The Burns Group will be responsible for creating a cross-platform campaign for both brands, including digital and social initiatives.
“Burns Group is the ideal mix of smart strategic thinking and creative ingenuity,” Hain Celestial Group director of marketing Brett Hartmann said in a statement. “Their vision for transforming our brands in the consumer conversation is completely consistent with our aspirations.”
“Hain has assembled a marketing team of ambitious, highly skilled professionals with big dreams for their brands,” added Burns Group founding partner Michael Burns. “We’re thrilled to be on the team helping them to realize those ambitions. Their portfolio of brands is right on trend and there is so much potential for growth.”
The assignment follows Burns Group winning lead creative duties on Pfizer’s Centrum brand last December. Burns Group’s other clients include Chap Stick, Ricola, Columbia Business School, Yellow Tail and Disaronno.
-Partners & Spade launched this “Better Beings” for Casper, featuring a series of being that look an awful lot like Muppets (video above).
-Director and photographer Glen Luchford gets weird in a new ad for Gucci.
-Adweek explains “Why Ogilvy Is Helping Clients Like Brand USA Transform in the Digital Era.”
-WPP invested in San Francisco and Los Angeles based AR and VR company Within.
-Sony and Warner Bros. hyped summer blockbusters last week as spending on national broadcast ad placement fell.
-Coca-Cola is rebranding Coke Zero.
The HomeGoods review that launched in May has ended with the discount home decor chain picking McCann as its creative and strategic agency of record.
McCann’s New York office will run the account moving forward.
From the chain’s VP, marketing director Emily Trent: “McCann brings proven strategic and integrated marketing expertise that will help us build a strong communications platform to deliver innovative, creative work that will resonate with our customers and help us stand apart in the marketplace.”
Incumbent KBS sat out the review, and it’s not clear at this time which shops competed for the business. The chain is owned by Boston-based TJX, whose roster also includes T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s and Sierra Trading Post. TJX has been a rare success story in the retail field in recent years, and a couple of months ago it announced plans to open a brand new chain called HomeSense that will have “big category and design differences” when compared to HomeGoods.
The first location of this new chain is expected to open by the end of the summer. At this time, McCann is not scheduled to complete any work on the HomeSense brand.
The parent company spent approximately $77 million promoting HomeGoods in the U.S. in both 2015 and 2016, according to Kantar Media. KBS had the business since 2009, when it beat out DDB, Energy BBDO and Lowe.
It is unclear why the MDC Partners shop did not participate in this review.
4. I’d like to take a moment to point out to American journalists that things could be worse. “The trial of 17 staff members from Turkey’s Cumhuriyet newspaper — one of the country’s last remaining opposition publications — began on Monday in what many are calling a crucial test of press freedom,” CNN’s Gul Tuysuz and Lauren Said-Moorhouse report. “Charged with terror-related offenses in the wake of last year’s failed coup, the defendants — journalists, executives and lawyers — made their first appearance in court since they were put in pre-trial detention nearly nine months ago. Each faces lengthy prison sentences of up to 43 years if convicted.”
5. BTW, for a second, after reading the following tweet, I thought I somehow missed the news that POTUS had named Sean Hannity to be the new attorney general, replacing Jeff Sessions:
6. Good job, Gizmodo! You made me click! “Trivial Pursuit Predicted Donald Trump Profiting From the Destruction of America.”
The online TV market went from zero customers to almost 3 million in a couple years, but it still isn’t enough to make up for cord-cutting.
Sling TV, which went live with the first service in January 2015, has emerged as the leader with 1.7 million users, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The Dish Network Corp. offering, which starts with about 30 channels for $20 a month, is ahead of AT&T’s DirecTV Now and Sony’s PlayStation Vue — which had about 400,000 and 450,000 subscribers as of early April, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the numbers aren’t public.
For all their success, these skinny bundles of live channels delivered over the internet are looking more like a patch than a panacea for what ails pay TV. About 6 million subscribers have shut off their cable or satellite service since 2010, dropping their $80- or $90-a-month packages. New subscribers aren’t fully replacing the old ones and they’re paying less, meaning media companies will lose $13 billion in revenue over the next decade, according to Barclays. They’re probably not profitable for the companies selling them either.
President Donald Trump will announce Wednesday that Foxconn Technology Group plans a new factory in Wisconsin, fulfilling the Taiwanese manufacturing giant’s promise to invest in the U.S.
The factory will open in the home district of House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, who personally lobbied Trump and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus to help secure the plant. It’s expected to employ about 3,000 people at first and, after an initial $10 billion investment, the facility is scheduled to expand over a 2 1/2-year period, according to a person familiar with the plans who requested anonymity to discuss the announcement before it was made.
Foxconn chairman Terry Gou plans to join Trump, Ryan, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House to make the announcement.
Facebook’s version of TV is coming online in mid-August after several false starts, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company has been asking its partners to turn in the first episodes of their spotlight shows, the people said. Some already have finished these short-form, inexpensive programs. Facebook is also funding higher-end TV-style shows, which will be launched later on the site, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public.
Facebook originally expected the project to be ready about a month ago, but it has taken longer than anticipated and further delays could occur, the people said. The company is funding a set of original programs, expected to be displayed outside of a user’s news feed in a new video section that’s intended to give the company a greater cut of the $70 billion television advertising market.
Coca-Cola Co. is killing Coke Zero in favor of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. It’s hard to tell what’s different, however, beyond a significant design and branding overhaul.
The ingredient list remains largely the same, including the use of aspartame as a sweetener. “We optimized the blend of flavors that gave Coke Zero its real Coca-Cola taste,” a Coca-Cola spokeswoman said when asked to explain the difference in the formula. She pointed to changes in the natural flavor composition. New packaging plugs a “new improved taste.”
But the alterations seem as much about marketing as the liquid. By putting “Zero Sugar” in the name, rather than just “Zero,” the brand more clearly communicates that it does not contain sugar. The negative publicity around sugar’s link to obesity has emerged as a major threat to soda makers in recent years, which has only intensified as more local governments enact taxes on sugary drinks. PepsiCo made a similar change last year when it rebranded its Pepsi Max product as Pepsi Zero Sugar. It promoted the shift by making Pepsi Zero Sugar, not regular Pepsi, the sponsor of the Super Bowl halftime show.
Despite sweet Easter, Hershey predicts weak year
Hershey had a better-than-expected second quarter, with a 1.6-point market share gain during Easter, but slashed its sales forecast for 2017 as it expects retail-industry challenges to persist. Shopping trips “continue to be choppy” and that’s hurting non-seasonal candy, mint and gum, CEO Michele Buck said in a statement. Hershey still plans to spend more on advertising and related consumer marketing expenses this year, including an uptick in the second half. It now expects its full-year sales to increase about 1%, down from an earlier forecast of sales growth at the low end of a 2%-to-3% range. Second-quarter sales rose 2.2% in North America and fell 3.6% in international markets, weighed down by weak chocolate sales in China.
This tequila is so expensive, it’s scary
HomeGoods, the retail chain that belongs to The TJX Companies along with brands such as Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, has named Interpublic Group’s McCann New York to handle its creative account following a review.
MDC Partners’ KBS had handled the account since 2009 but declined to participate in the review.
“McCann brings proven strategic and integrated marketing expertise that will help us build a strong communications platform to deliver innovative, creative work that will resonate with our customers and help us stand apart in the marketplace,” said Emily Trent, VP and marketing director of HomeGoods in a statement.
Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from 10 million smart TVs. The ads here ran on national TV for the first time yesterday.
A few highlights: Nintendo hypes Nintendo Switch gameplay — specifically the rather messy world of Splatoon 2, where “it’s time to sling ink.” Men’s Wearhouse promotes a BOGO sale while also plugging its “expert stylists who can help you find your best look.” And Kohl’s wants you to stop by to “shop for your home” — and apparently a college dorm qualifies as “home.”
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