Playing for keeps
Brooklyn-based Quirk Creative, which is founded by two female ex-Google employees, has launched a new product called “Keeps,” which aims to become the Warby Parker of men’s hair loss treatment. The product, which is being promoted through national TV spots, is targeting young men who want to keep their hair.
Flying high
Just as the Super Bowl ad analysis finally fades, comes another round of high-profile marketing with the start of the Olympics in South Korea. Coke and Toyota will make a major push, while diamond marketers will be trying to win some attention with a round of ads that come as Valentine’s Day approaches.
Intel’s plans didn’t quite go as planned. The marketer said Friday that it broke its own Guinness World Record after showing a prerecorded video of 1,218 Intel Shooting Star drones flying in formation at the opening ceremony venue. Those watching on TV were always going to see the prerecorded video of the stunt, but Intel had intended to demonstrate a live version to those actually in attendance. The plans were cut short, however, “due to impromptu logistical changes,” Intel says. The company says it still plans to fly some 300 Shooting Star drones each day of the Winter Games, weather permitting.
Below, a look at some of the Olympics ads:
If you’re a creative in the industry, you know the importance of a flashy portfolio.
Camilla Ciappina de Souza wants to help with that.
In December of 2016 she launched Pimp My Portfolio to help creatives take on the daunting task of developing their online portfolios, utilizing her designer skills. Now an art director at Publicis, de Souza previously served as a junior art director for DiMassimo Goldstein, working with clients including Jackson Hewitt and Weight Watchers.
Pimp My Portfolio is focused on visual layout and design for online portfolios. So the service can’t help your portfolio if you don’t, you know, have solid work in it to begin with. As the site cautions, “We are not responsible for making sh*tty ideas look pretty, that’s your job.”
Since launching Pimp My Portfolio, she has helped 167 creatives develop their portfolios, typically delivering results in 2-3 days. She claims keeping up with demands of Pimp My Portfolio and her work as an art director isn’t a challenge, as she devotes nights and weekends to the project.
“In the beginning I thought I’d be doing more portfolios for copywriters than art directors. But now I do more for art directors,” de Souza said, adding that her clients are usually in senior-level positions. “The responses have been really good. I always get emails from clients saying recruiters loved the website, or that they managed to find a job.”
De Souza has ambitions to one day expand Pimp My Portfolio into a full-fledged agency.
“I like recruiting too, so I’d love to open an agency where I can recruit and help creatives find a job by working on their portfolios too. Because I’ve been to so many recruiting agencies to find a job, and they never mention portfolio design/layouts. They only talk about projects.”
Are you concerned about the possibility that an incompetent Commander in Chief could lead us to the brink of nuclear disaster? Does the fact that the Doomsday Clock is now the closest it has been to midnight since 1953 give you anxiety? Do you like sushi? What do these questions have in common?
TDA_Boulder launched a campaign for Colorado sushi chain Hapa Sushi playing on apocalyptic fears, entitled “Eat Well Before It All Ends.” The campaign looks no further than the president’s twitter feed for inspiration. In fact, it more or less provides the creative for the agency, as there’s perhaps no better source to stoke existential fears of humanity’s demise. The tweets in question include a 2015 pre-presidential run rant about the “only global warming we should fear” being caused by “nuclear weapons” in the hands of “incompetent pols” and Trump’s recent baiting of North Korean leader Kin Jong-Un, naturally leading into the “Eat Well Before It All Ends” tagline. Might as well try the fugu!
The campaign is running across social media outlets, in OOH and in Colorado-focused print publications such as Yellowscene, Out Front, 5280 Magazine, The Rooster, Boulder Weekly and Denver Hotel Magazine, ColoradoBiz Magazine.
“Unfortunately, our president is Trump. Fortunately, he makes a joke out of himself so we don’t have to,” RDA_Boulder executive creative director Jonathan Schoenberg said in a statement. “We decided to use his tweets as a scary indication that the world as we know it might end under his power. But, let’s eat some really good sushi before it does.”
Suggesting you should go ahead and go for it since we all might die is certainly a bold strategy for a sushi restaurant about 1,000 miles away from the nearest ocean, but it is certainly attention-grabbing. Taking a stand against Trump will likely not scare away too many local patrons for Hapa Sushi. According to a November poll, 64 percent of Coloradans held an unfavorable view of the president.
It’s not the first time TDA_Boulder has played on recent events for the Denver-based sushi outlet. Following Colorado’s legalization of cannabis in 2014, the agency developed a pairing menu for cannabis strains and types of sushi.
And since we may not find a better excuse to include it in a post, here’s the most beautiful song ever written about the nuclear apocalypse, “Final Day” by Young Marble Giants.
Amazon has hired Jennifer Salke, one of the top programming executives in the TV business, to run its in-house film and TV studio in the wake of sexual-harassment allegations against her male predecessor.
Salke has spent the past seven years as president of entertainment at NBC, where she has put hit series “This Is Us,” “Chicago Med” and “The Blacklist” on the air. The Los Angeles native also ran the Universal Television studio, overseeing the development of “Master of None” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” Both of those shows appear on Netflix, Amazon’s rival for streaming customers.
Amazon has spent months searching for a media executive who could overhaul the programming strategy at its studio, which has churned out critically lauded movies and shows like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” but has yet to release a bonafide hit. The company spent more than $4 billion on video programming in 2017, according to analyst forecasts, less than Netflix but more than other technology giants.
Michelle Wilson and George Barrios, respectively the WWE’s chief revenue and chief marketing officer and chief strategy and financial officer, have been promoted to co-presidents at the company. They will report to chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. “The successful transformation of our business model has put us in a position to capitalize on all that…
In the television campaign for the 2018 Honda Accord, trophies come to life and spread the message that no matter how successful you are, you can always improve. The automaker extended the initiative to Facebook and Twitter, launching a social campaign that will run through March and allow people to nominate their friends on those…
Amazon has hired Jennifer Salke, one of the top programming executives in the TV business, to run its in-house film and TV studio in the wake of sexual-harassment allegations against her male predecessor.
Salke has spent the past seven years as president of entertainment at NBC, where she has put hit series “This Is Us,” “Chicago Med” and “The Blacklist” on the air. The Los Angeles native also ran the Universal Television studio, overseeing the development of “Master of None” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” Both of those shows appear on Netflix, Amazon’s rival for streaming customers.
Amazon has spent months searching for a media executive who could overhaul the programming strategy at its studio, which has churned out critically lauded movies and shows like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” but has yet to release a bonafide hit. The company spent more than $4 billion on video programming in 2017, according to analyst forecasts, less than Netflix but more than other technology giants.
W+K London touts its home city in “Nothing Beats a Londoner,” a new campaign for Nike.
The long-form spot “Nothing Beats a Londoner” features some 258 young residents of the city, as well as a series of cameos from the likes of Mo Farah, Harry Kane, Dina Asher-Smith, Gareth Southgate and Skepta. The celebration of London and its young athletes begins with a young runner referring to cycling as “light work.” This sets off a series of one-upmanship that spans the remainder of the ad, featuring a series of increasingly difficult athletic feats.
Each of the young athletes in the spot were given their own section of the ad as standalone content, which they promoted via social channels. The full version of the ad launched online, on broadcast and in cinemas today.
“‘Nothing Beats a Londoner’ champions a special, unbeatable attitude we’ve discovered in the U.K.’s capital. The campaign is from London, for London, and celebrates the next generation of sporting stars against a city backdrop thriving with a culture of sport in every street, park and building,” W+K London creative directors Paddy Treacy and Mark Shanley said in a statement. “Despite the star cameos, the creative flips the traditional model and holds kids up as the inspiration for all – championing them, their spirit and incredible athlete mindset.”
“I don’t know what agency or consultancy to go to anymore.” A client of ours bemoaned this to me not too long ago. As a director of a major international brand, his comment revealed the confusion he and many business leaders are increasingly feeling these days. In 2017, we saw plenty of alarming headlines about…
There was a time when Tumblr was included in the upper echelon of social networks, mentioned alongside giants like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Yahoo saw enough potential in Tumblr to spend $1.1 billion to acquire the blogging platform in May 2013, and then-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer took to Tumblr to rally the troops: “We promise…
A few days ago, Diesel secretly opened an authentic knock-off store called Deisel on Canal Street, very far from Fifth Avenue or the other fashion landmarks, and right in the heart of New York City’s most famed fake-fashion destination.
The unsuspecting shoppers probably did not realize then, but the items they bought at the Deisel store were actually one-of-a kind pieces specially crafted by Diesel design team disguised with fake Deisel branding. Those lucky shoppers took home some rare pieces, very likely to become collector’s items. Operating in the original style of its Canal Street neighbors, the store’s interiors and selling experience played out authentically, and the whole experiment was caught in a video that celebrates those who are brave enough to venture off the beaten path to find their own unique style.
Long before “fake news” became a cudgel for the Trumpites, it was the hippest form of protest for Jon Stewart types during the George W. Bush years.
Jennifer Salke, who championed shows like “This Is Us,” will succeed Roy Price, who was forced out in October after a sexual harassment allegation.
Have you ever wanted to stop seeing Story posts from a specific contact in the Facebook Messenger application? Our guide will show you how to mute their Story, so that their content will no longer appear at the top of the app. We’ll also show you how to unmute a user’s Story later on if…
Here’s a brilliant little stunt from Publicis New York timed to Fashion Week New York–a storefront on Canal Street called Deisel that appears to be a blatant knock-off store, but which is actually an official Diesel store in disguise. Canal Street, of course, is home to a notoriously sprawling marketplace of knock-off goods. Counterfeit Diesel…
Walmart says its acquisition of a virtual reality platform and content studio is meant to explore the possibilities of VR in retail, but the retail giant has been relatively quiet about its plans otherwise, saying only that it wants to “develop new product exploration through immersive retail environments.” In an email, a rep said that…
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