Jul
13
Jul
13
Microteatro GYE: Experimental Art
Posted in: Uncategorized
Jul
13
Wednesday Morning Stir
Posted in: Uncategorized-Creative agency True and production company Assembly recruited Katie Holmes and Cuba Gooding Jr. for Air New Zealand’s latest safety video, entitled “A Fantastical Journey” (video above).
-Facebook is now showing ads on Messenger, displayed between users’ messages.
-Havas London hired former Droga5 creative director Matt Swinburne in the same role.
-LBB talks with Droga5 CCO Ted Royer about his “childhood obsession with TV, why generosity is the trick to the agency’s success and the genius of Jack Kirby.”
-The U.K.’s creative class of 2017 is “Optimistic, open and armed with degrees.”
-72andSunny Amsterdam and UNIT9 London launched an interactive pop-up store in Dublin for Lynx.
-Coca-Cola is introducing an AI-equipped vending machine.
-LBB examines “DDB North America’s Come Back.”
-Ad2Pro Group hired Vikram Menon as president of global operations and promoted Gopal Krishnan to executive chairman and Todd Brownrout to CEO.
Jul
13
Ready to Get Rich? Sell Your Mid-Sized Agency to Accenture for $63 Million
Posted in: Uncategorized
Who wants to sell the agency they’ve worked so hard to build over more than a decade to … an international consultancy?!
Plenty of people. Durrr.
Take, for example, indie Australian agency The Monkeys, which got bought by Accenture Interactive back in May. Today, Australia’s Financial Review revealed how much Accenture paid for this 11-year-old company: $63 million.
The very fact that the total is now public knowledge is very unusual—and Accenture reps’ decision not to answer FR’s questions makes one think that maybe another, somewhat self-interested party leaked the info.
Anyway, seven principals at The Monkeys and its design firm Maud just made a shitload of money. The $63 million total is even more impressive given that the agency, which employed approximately 130 people when the deal was announced, made $2.4 million in after-tax profits last year on $21.6 million in revenue.
FR also reveals that PwC was interested in buying The Monkeys before Accenture outbid them. Yet Sir Martin told Campaign last week that all these deals are “a bit odd” because consultancies and creative agencies are not culturally compatible.
Then there are the inevitable client conflicts and executive departures. This deal, like pretty much every other such acquisition, also reportedly includes “golden handcuffs” benefits packages that discourage executives from leaving after being acquired … because other agencies can’t compete with the bonus system. (The same recently happened to Heat in San Francisco after its acquisition by Deloitte, though some top-level employees decided to leave anyway after the new parent company began asserting greater control over the operation.)
We’ll see how well it works for The Monkeys. In the meantime, at least a few people are pretty happy with the deal.
Jul
13
KBS Poaches New Global Strategy and Production Leads from Huge, DDB
Posted in: UncategorizedKBS has hired Ted Florea as its new global chief strategy officer. His hire follows the departure of agency veteran and former AdAge editor Jonah Bloom last month.
The MDC agency also named Madison Wharton as its first global chief production officer. AdAge first broke the news of both hires yesterday.
Florea arrives at KBS from Huge, where he has served as group vice president, head of planning for the past ten months. Before joining Huge he spent around a year and a half as chief strategy officer for PNYC, where he worked with clients including Lufthansa, Nokia Tech, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and the Singapore Economic Development Board. Prior to that he spent over two and a half years as head of brand strategy for Droga5, followed by a nine month stint as a freelance brand strategy consultant with agencies including W+K New York, 72andSunny L.A., McCann New York and PNYC.
Wharton was previously with DDB New York, where she has served as chief production officer since joining the agency from Barbarian Group in 2015.
In addition to the hires, KBS global chief technology officer Matt Powell also announced that he is leaving the agency at the end of 2017.
A KBS veteran for over a decade, Powell has served in his most recent role since last June. Before being named global chief technology officer he spent around three years as KBS New York president, following five and a half years as chief information officer. He first joined KBS as vice president, director of interactive marketing for KBS’ direct and digital marketing unit, Company C, in January of 2006.
“Matt has been instrumental to KBS’ success over the past 12 years, most recently as our global chief technology officer, and although we’re very sorry to see him go, we understand that he is ready to take on a new challenge,” KBS global CEO Guy Hayward told AdAge.
Jul
13
Carey Hart Gets Heavy Tats from His Own Bike in New Team One Spot
Posted in: UncategorizedSo … do you have any tattoos? Of course you do.
But did those SICK tats come from the wheels of your own kickass motorcycle, bro??
The latest campaign from Saatchi & Saatchi’s “premium and luxury brand agency” Team One somehow combines ink, bikes and a father’s love for his son. So all the bases are covered, really.
In the words of the President of the United States, “My son is a high quality person.”
This is part of a campaign to promote Indian Motorcycle, which claims to be America’s first such company. As you can see from the video above, the carbon for the ink in these tattoos was created from the “burnout” rubber of a bike tire.
That ink will be used for a limited time exclusively at Vescovi’s Vatican Studios in Lake Forest, CA and at four Hart & Huntington Tattoo shops in Las Vegas, Orlando, Niagara Falls and Nashville. And then it will be gone forever. Sad!
The campaign will also include “an advertorial spread” in the July/August issue of Inked Magazine.
Full disclosure: we have never heard of this guy. But then we are quite clearly nowhere near the target audience for this campaign…
CREDITS
Director/DP: Leo Zuckerman
Producer: Andrea Sheffield
Assistant Camera: Kenneth Merrill
Gaffer/Grip: Levi Williams
Production Assistant: Lisa French
Sound Recordist: Kevin Santiago
Agency: Team One
Group Creative Director: Craig Crawford
Creative Director: Johnnie Ingram
Associate Creative Director: Geoff Vreeken
Photographer: Matt Hartz
Producer: Leah Bohl
Associate Producer: Claire Allman
Account Director: Landon Nguyen
Account Supervisor: Justin West
Editor: Leo Zuckerman
Colourist: Clinton Homuth // Alter Ego
Sound Design/Mix: Matt Kielkopf
Jul
13
Seattle Agency POP Names James Wilkinson as Chief Creative Officer
Posted in: UncategorizedSeattle agency POP hired James Wilkinson as chief creative officer, a new position at the agency.
In the role, Wilkinson will be tasked with leading creative development and direction across a client roster that includes Target, Microsoft, Adobe and F5 Networks.
“Our focus is on crafting creative solutions that solve business and marketing challenges for our clients. World-class creative talent paired with a leader of James’ caliber will further these efforts in a meaningful and impactful way” POP CEO and founder Bill Predmore said in a statement. “For nearly 25 years, James has re-engineered and re-imagined creativity with the teams he has led. His passion is infectious and is already playing a pivotal role solving tomorrow’s complex marketing challenges for our clients.”
“POP’s work is recognized for making a lasting impact on its clients’ businesses through an obsession with craft,” added Wilkinson. “The opportunity to identify, nurture and inspire POP’s creative team and deliver transformative solutions for clients and their customers is the perfect challenge for the next chapter in my creative journey.”
An industry veteran of nearly 25 years, Wilkinson joins POP from SapientRazorfish, where he led creative for the Western Region as vice president, executive creative director. Before joining SapientRazorfish in February of 2012, Wilkinson spent time as a creative director with Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett. Over the course of his career he has worked with brands including Nespresso, Intel, Nokia and TAG Heuer.
Jul
13
Translation Hires Eric Steele as Group Creative Director
Posted in: UncategorizedTranslation hired Eric Steele as group creative director, reporting to chief creative officer John Norman.
“Eric’s unbound creativity and management acumen are a rare mix in this business,” Norman said in a statement. “Throughout his career Eric has shown an ability to see around corners and bring a fresh perspective to his work. His creative vision will be a strong asset to Translation and our clients.”
“When you focus on what truly matters, the rest falls into place, and that’s immediately what I saw in Translation, founded on the instinctive smarts and passionate convictions of Steve Stoute, and led by the creative vision of fellow ex-W+Ker John Norman,” Steele added. “Breakthrough creativity that leads culture instead of following it is the only way to meaningfully connect with people in the real world outside the ad world – and Translation is full of talented individuals who understand that and want to push for it. I couldn’t be more excited to work with John and the Translation team.”
Steele joins Translation from 72andSunny New York, where he served as that office’s first group creative director and led creative on brands such as ESPN, Smirnoff, Samsung and Xfinity. Before joining 72andSunny at the start of 2015, Steele spent nearly nine years with W+K New York, his final two as a creative director. While with W+K he worked with brands including Nike, Heineken, Delta, ESPN and Sharp’s Aquos.
Jul
13
Klick Health Depicts Stomach Pain as ‘The Wrestler’ for Novartis
Posted in: UncategorizedKlick Health launched a new spot for pharmaceutical company Novartis, one of last week’s top spenders on broadcast placement for new creative, which finds a somewhat bizarre personification for gastrointestinal issues.
That said, the anthropomorphized take on stomach issues might not be seen as so inaccurate by chronic sufferers. Klick Health imagines the pangs of stomach discomfort as a tiny, but overly annoying professional wrester, straight out of 1987 or so. The spot opens on a man reading in bed, when “The Wrestler,” appears, announcing, “It’s terror on the tummy time!”
From there, he just keeps showing up, in the break room and at a backyard barbecue. Apparently he brings along, “persistent diarrhea, stomach pain and bloating” for good measure.
TheWrestler_30 from Klick New York on Vimeo.
The spot concludes without informing viewers of what, exactly, they’re watching an ad for. Instead, it directs them to WhatAmIWrestlingWith.com to “learn more” about a “diagnosis that may not have been considered.” There, they can take a short quiz to see if they may have carcinoid syndrome. Self-diagnosis via Internet is, of course, notoriously unreliable and even the site mentions that “Most people who seem to have symptoms similar to those of carcinoid syndrome do not have the disease,” making the whole exercise (and the reasoning behind the accompanying ad) feel a tad dubious.
The integrated campaign also includes a series of live-action banner videos, and the broadcast element includes addressable TV.
Credits:
CLIENT: NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICALS CORP.
Executive Director: Vanessa Thirion-Cullity
Director: Jessica Hayes
AGENCY: KLICK HEALTH
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Elliot Langerman
Art: Anthony DiCarolis, Mark Schruntek, Lee Seidenberg, Sam Quiles
Copy: Mark Schruntek, Lee Seidenberg, Anthony DiCarolis
Senior Producer: Brian Schierman
VP, Brand Strategy: Alexis Penty
Group Account Director: Eric Presman
Sr. Project Manager: Klayton Kyle
Senior Strategist: Rachel Affoo
SVP, Strategy & Analytics: Cam Bedford
VP Group Account Director: Joan Bercovitz
VP, Program Director: Leslie Doyle
PRODUCTION: SEED MEDIA ARTS
Director: Tim Abshire
Exec. Producer: Roy Skillikorn
EP/Line Producer: Kipp Christiansen
DP: Joe Zizzo
Shot on Location in Thousand Oaks, CA and on stage in Culver City, CA
EDITORIAL: CUTTING ROOM, NY
Editor: Chuck Willis
Assistant Editor: Greg Ryan
Executive Producer: Anna Petitti
VISUAL EFFECTS: SMOKE & MIRRORS, NY
Executive Producer: Steve Intrabartola
Senior Producer: Tara Maloney
Head of Flame: Dino Tsaousis
Flame Artist: Kevin Quinlan
Flame Artist: Jenna DeAngelis
AUDIO POST: SONIC UNION, NY
Audio Post Mixer: Paul Weiss
Producers: Justine Cortale + Pat Sullivan
MUSIC:
Extreme Music stock library
TELECINE: NICE SHOES, NY
Colorist: Sal Maltifano
Producer: Matt Hubert
Jul
13
McDonald’s Seeks to Consolidate Local U.S. Creative Accounts
Posted in: UncategorizedAdAge reports that McDonald’s is launching a review and seeking to consolidate its local U.S. creative accounts.
“Building the modern, progressive company that we aspire to be involves changing the way we conduct business,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in a statement provided to AdAge. “In order to accelerate our efforts to engage customers across all platforms to advance our brand vision, we aim to streamline and modernize our local marketing efforts in 2018.”
According to the publication, sources close to the matter have claimed that the review will be handled by Select Resources International and will include both current roster agencies and newcomers, who will begin pitching on July 17. Beyond those details, not much appears to be known about which specific agencies are involved in the review.
According to AdAge, the shift can at least partially be attributed to the fast food giant moving more resources to We Are Unlimited, the dedicated agency Omnicom launched to service the client last November. McDonald’s decided to consolidate with the agency network in August, following a U.S. creative review launched in April.
McDonald’s chief marketing officer Deborah Wahl also announced that she was leaving the company three months ago. She was replaced by Morgan Flatley.
Among the agencies working on regional McDonald’s accounts are Zimmerman Advertising, Doner, H&L Partners, Stern and Bernstein-Rein, whose recent work for the client includes a campaign centered around a promotion tied to the Kansas City Royals and a March campaign promoting the Filet-O-Fish.
Jul
13
Wednesday Odds and Ends
Posted in: Uncategorized-Bjorn Borg and its agency Round and Round have an answer to Trump’s wall: cross-border tennis matches!
-Watch out, legacy shops: boutique and digital agencies are gaining on you.
-Spending on broadcast placement for new ads hit a lull last week.
-Addressable and programmatic TV ad spending in the U.S. are expected to double through 2019, according to a new eMarketer report.
-AKQA promoted Kristin Goto to director of client services.
-Branding studio The Working Assembly helped create a new identity for New York City Restaurant Week that does not include the word “foodie,” thank god.
-Production company Untitled, Inc. welcomed Maurizio Zappettin to its directorial roster.
-Colorist Lez Rudge and veteran production and post-production executives Marcelo Gandola, Axel Ericson and Ed Rilli teamed up to launch post-production boutique TWELVE.
Jul
13
NYT to Trump Jr.: We're Digging This Hole for You. Trump Jr.: Wow, Thanks! Can I Help Dig?
Posted in: Uncategorized
Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Tuesday, July 11:
So let’s review what’s been happening between The New York Times and Donald Trump Jr.: On Saturday, the Times published a story saying that Trump Jr. and top Trump campaign aides met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. Trump Jr. said yeah, that meeting happened, but so what, we talked about a Russian adoption program. Then on Sunday the Times ran a story saying that Trump Jr. was promised dirt about Hillary Clinton at that meeting. So then Trump Jr. said, well, yeah, duh, I wanted to hear anti-Hillary stuff, but the information offered was useless, but I didn’t really know who I was meeting with, and we still mostly just talked about an adoption program.
And then on Monday night — well, see No. 1, below. [UPDATE: See the addition at the end of this post.] Anyway, see a pattern here? It’s tempting to conclude that the Times is holding back what it knows about Trump Jr. and releasing it piecemeal in the hopes that Trump Jr. will lie and/or obfuscate, and then force him to backtrack as it releases more information. The Times, it seems, keeps setting traps for Trump Jr., and he keeps falling for them. Is it a cat-and-mouse game if the mouse keeps on climbing into the cat’s mouth?
Jul
13
NFL Teams Split Record $7.8 Billion in 2016, Up 10%
Posted in: Uncategorized
The National Football League distributed a record $7.8 billion to its 32 teams in 2016, a jump of almost 10% that reflects the league’s increasingly rich TV deals, according to a financial disclosure by the Green Bay Packers.
That’s another way of saying that the TV networks need ad revenue for their NFL properties to leap just as high — something with which they’ve had a bit of a struggle so far in this year’s upfront talks.
Each NFL team receives an equal share of the league’s “national revenue” — primarily money from television deals, but also league-wide sponsorships, licensing and merchandise sales. The Packers, the only publicly owned franchise in major U.S. sports, reported Wednesday that they got $244 million, up from $222.6 million last year.
Jul
13
McDonald's Puts Local US Creative Accounts in Review, Aiming to Cut Dozens of Shops
Posted in: Uncategorized
Credit: Illustration by Tam Nguyen/ Ad Age
McDonald’s is plotting another massive shakeup of its U.S. marketing model as it looks for ways to cut millions of dollars in ad costs and sharpen its messaging.
The Golden Arches plans to greatly reduce the number of creative agencies handling marketing for cooperative franchise groups that operate throughout the United States, Ad Age has learned. Some 60 or so agencies do local creative work for nearly 200 McDonald’s co-ops across the country, with some agencies handling work for multiple co-ops. McDonald’s aims to slash that figure to 10 or fewer, people familiar with the situation told Ad Age.
Jul
13
Apple Is Setting Up a Data Center in China, to Comply With a Tough New Law
Posted in: Uncategorized
Apple will establish its first data center in China to speed up services such as iCloud for local users and abide by laws that require global companies to store information within the country.
The new facility, which will be entirely driven by renewable energy, will be built and run with local partner Guizhou-Cloud Big Data, Apple said in a messaged statement. Apple aims to migrate Chinese users’ information, now stored elsewhere, to the new facility in coming months. The data center is part of a $1 billion investment by the iPhone maker in the province of Guizhou.
The data center was partly driven by new measures that bolster control over the collection and movement of Chinese users’ data, and can also grant the government unprecedented access to foreign companies’ technology. Forcing companies to store information within the country has already led some to tap cloud computing providers with more local server capacity.
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