Hasta La Creative!

VML New York has welcomed Fabio Seidl as executive creative director, tasked with overseeing the office’s creative department while working with clients including New Balance, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Legoland Florida Resort, AMC and the United Nations.

“We’re very pleased to have Fabio join VML and lead the New York creative team,” VML global chief creative officer Debbi Vandeven said in a statement. “His global expertise and passion for creating strategic, impactful work for clients will continue to push our work forward.”

Seidl joins VML from 360i, where he has served as group creative director since November of 2015. Prior to 360i, he spent two years as senior vice president, executive creative director with Leo Burnett Chicago, where he worked with brands including McDonald’s, P&G, Kellogg’s, Allstate and Firestone. That followed over two and a half years as a creative director with Ogilvy & Mather Brazil, working with clients such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, Volvo, Mondelez, Philips and Pfizer.

Turning your haters into your most effective promoters isn’t the newest trick in the marketing playbook. Bars and restaurants have been at it for years, turning negative Yelp reviews into everything from hot-selling T-shirts to dramatic monologues. But here’s a fun twist that takes the idea to the next level, building an entire print and…

Yesterday i was at Z33 in Hasselt to visit Perpetual Uncertainty, an exhibition that explores “contemporary art in the nuclear anthropocene.”

I had already read The Nuclear Culture Source Book, the publication that accompanies the research and was hoping that the show would be at least as informative and exciting as the book. It certainly delivered and i’ll get back to you with aenthusiastic report as soon as i’m back home. In the meantime, i’d like to share with you the decidedly bizarre but very enjoyable nuclear-themed playlist commissioned by Z33 to Micha Volders and Tim Geelen from Meteor Musik.

William Onyeabor, Atomic Bomb, 1978

Black Moth Super Rainbow, Radiation Society, 2016

Sonic Radiations. In search of a nuclear musicology is online for you to enjoy and scratch your head. The compilation is pretty eclectic. Among the tracks you’ll find:

Energy & The Atom, a 1976 production of the American Nuclear Society that extols the virtues of atomic power and downplays its dangers; Z_Boson by the cult Doppler Effekt; A Child’s introduction to atomic energy and outer space, an educational record from 1960; Atomic Bomb, ‘electronic sounds mixed with Nigerian afro beat grooves’ which William Onyeabor released in 1978; Radiation Society, a recording by Black Moth Super Rainbow that’s slowly being eaten away by radiation; dialogues from the 1983 scifi movie WarGames; excerpts from the original background music of Godzilla (a metaphor for nuclear weapons) composed by Masaru Sato, etc.

Bernard Fevre, Molecule Dance, 1975

Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan, The Ray Makers, 1968

A trois dans les WC, Contagion, 1978

Perpetual Uncertainty is at Z33 in Hasselt until 10 December 2017.

Source

WeChat’s U.S. invasion continues as its parent company Tencent builds out ad services for American brands looking to reach Chinese consumers.

The Chinese mobile messaging giant, with 963 million monthly users, is opening an ad bureau inside its Palo Alto, Calif.-outpost to start promoting the service to U.S. advertisers.

“Advertisers can actually spend some ad budgets and get brand awareness in China,” says Poshu Yeung, VP of international business at Tencent. “Targeting options allow advertisers to target Chinese travelers who are potentially going to the U.S. within the next month.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

All the usual suspects again make strong showings on our weekly chart of the most-viewed brand video campaigns, especially in a week following new product announcements by Apple. But also as usual, an interloper or two refused to let tech companies get all the attention.

Our chart includes both organic views initiated by curious viewers and paid ads such as pre-roll placements.

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Continue reading at AdAge.com

Consumers thirsty for non-Caucasian-targeted products are starting to get their due from retail brands.

Earlier this month, for instance, Rihanna debuted Fenty Beauty, a “Beauty for All” collection that offers products for every skin tone — think 40 different shades of foundation. The line, the latest from the trend-setting singer/designer, was met with immediate enthusiasm from consumers who were used to being ignored.

Finally got my hands on @fentybeauty yesterday and I literally cannot stop talking about it is this how vegans feel all the time

Continue reading at AdAge.com

MillerCoors has picked Alma DDB to handle creative duties on Sol, a Mexican brew that the company is taking over from Heineken. Alma’s selection strengthens MillerCoors ties with DDB Worldwide, coming two months after DDB Chicago won Miller Lite creative.

While Heineken barely spent behind the small brand, MillerCoors is expected to give the brew significant marketing support. The reason is that Sol represents MillerCoors entry into the hot-selling Mexican import category. Heineken prioritized its two larger Mexican brews, Dos Equis and Tecate.

MillerCoors earlier this summer said it had struck a deal to assume distributing, marketing and selling rights on Sol for a 10-year period, effective Oct. 1. Sol’s official launch under MillerCoors is planned for March.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Happy first day of fall! It’s that time of year again, or will be soon: scarves, boots, pumpkins, crunchy leaves. But before all that, enjoy an (unseasonably) warm weekend as we head into New York Advertising Week on Monday.

Now, onto this week’s agency news.

Snoop in the house

Continue reading at AdAge.com

(TrendHunter.com) Most people are using the technology around them for hours each day without taking time to clean it as often as they should, so the ‘Off’ Keyboard has been designed to ensure you can…

Transport for London announced this morning that it was withdrawing Uber’s licence to operate in the capital. The reaction from social media was one of little consensus, but plenty of strong views.