Hasta La Creative!

Two years ago I decided to leave the agency world behind and begin a new chapter on the brand side. The decision wasn’t easy, nor quickly made, but I’m glad I did it.

Starting out our careers on the agency side is what most creatives do. It can be a truly fantastic experience. Agency life is fast-paced. You learn from top-notch creatives and gain exposure to amazing brands. The highly transferable nature of your creative skills may take you to several countries. You probably work on blue chip clients at blue-blooded agencies. You win your share of the “chrome.” You get to make an impact on the work.

Yet times are changing. The heyday of the agency world is seemingly over. We’ve all read the headlines, a litany of sins and reasons why the outlook appears so bleak. Declining budgets, agency mergers, splits and fiascos, the rise of social, the pace of digitalthe list is endless. To add insult to injury, you’re asked to make your video vertical.

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Category: Beyond Madison Avenue
Summary: Since the 1940s, the Ad Council has worked with the U.S. government and ad agencies to create PSAs that people actually pay attention to.

How does the world get more cashmere? By letting cashmere goats bone and making more cashmere goats. A cheeky new out-of-home campaign from online retailer Naadam, opening its first brick-and-mortar location this week, is proselytizing that natural fact by papering hip New York City neighborhoods with posters featuring a pair of goats doing the deed….

When messaging apps began to take over the workplace, some leaders worried that they would replace face-to-face interactions and kill our humanity completely. These fears were not unfounded, given the studies we read about how millennials prefer texting over having actual conversations and that relying so much on communication technology can cause feelings of isolation….

Film
Tata Tiscon

Advertising Agency:JWT, Kolkata, India
Chief Creative Officer:Senthil Kumar
Svp:Vijay Jacob Parakkal
Managing Partner:Vijay Jacob Parakkal
Vp:Arjun Mukherjee, Ayan Chakraborty
Ecd:Arjun Mukherjee
Creative Director:Moeinuk Sengupta
Art Director:Sourish Mitra
EBD:Ayan Chakraborty
Client Services Director:Sreeparna Gupta
Client Servicing Executive:Sushmita Byapari
Avp:Surojit Sen
CSD Digital:Surojit Sen
Account Director Digital:Soham Sengupta
Production House:Made in Calcutta
Director:Abhishek Sinha
DoP:Mrinmoy Nandi
Music:Subhagata Singha

Media
Green People’s Power

Feel the atmospheric concentration of CO2 through Carbonated water then and now.

Advertising Agency:McCann Tokyo, Japan
Creative Director:Tomoaki Hirano
Copywriter:Tomoaki Hirano
Art Director:Riko Koide
Illustrator:Riko Koide

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device. Search for “Ad Age” under “Skills” in the Alexa app. What people are talking about today: Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 list is out today, with up-and-coming executives chosen from over 700 entries. We’ve added something new this year: Our first 7 Over 70 list is recognition that good work is hardly just the province of youth, as the editor’s note says. The honorees are all still deeply engaged at their companies. Take Cathy Hughes, founder and chairperson of Urban One, the largest African-American-owned multimedia company targeting urban audiences; she still plays an active role in ad sales. Check out the full lists here and here.

#JustDidIt

Tiger Woods just won the Tour Championship, his 80th PGA Tour win, and his first in five years. Woods clinched his comeback at age 42 after four back surgeries, as CBS News notes.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Activation is part of Westfield London’s annual student event.

Why do the most lucrative industries quickly become the most saturated? Because that’s where people are making money. In no time, that lucrative industry becomes an over-populated any man’s zone where only the exceptional survive. Fortunately, in the words of Henry Ford, most (if not all) of that saturation is full of business-owning wannabe’s who…