Hasta La Creative!

World Cup-winning Springbok star, Bryan Habana, has announced the launch of MatchKit.co, an innovative platform that gives athletes a ground-breaking solution towards growing their commercial brands.

Habana and his team at the award-winning creative sporting agency, Retroactive, have created a mobile tech play that reinvents the way athletes – of every tier and discipline – monetise their careers in a simple and cost effective way.

The devastating impact of the Covid-19 virus is expected to extend to economic losses on the sporting front, with an estimated $61.6bn in missed revenue by the end of 2020. Inevitably, it is the athletes who are personally affected, as event cancellations result in pay cuts, loss of appearance-fee income, and reductions in endorsement deals.

Set out to create a new approach to luxury travel, Manifest is poised as the new frontier of mindful travel with a chapter-based service that provides custom-crafted getaways to unique destinations within the U.S., paired with private plane service. Members pay annual membership dues of $2,500, which provides access to Manifest’s exclusive members-only programs that are curated and booked from lift off to landing by concierge service. Experiences include adventure, wine/culinary, golf, cultural, and romantic destinations such as Santa Fe, New Mexico; Sedona, Arizona; Telluride, Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Bandon Dunes, Oregon; as well as major events.

Unlike certain fast food chains’ nuggets, KFC’s chicken tenders are cooked with real chicken filets – which is why you’ll never find 2 exactly alike. KFC France wanted to highlight the delicious uniqueness of its real tenders so, together with its agency Sid Lee, the brand is launching “Unalike” a new guerilla OOH campaign to show how each tender is one-of-a-kind. Each of the outdoor posters features a single tender and when positioned side by side, amplify the diversity of the tenders’ breading, shapes, and sizes. Over 200 visuals were created for the campaign, a mere sampling of the infinite possibilities. KFC is also bringing the campaign to life online with gifs featuring a quick succession of the images, challenging the online community to find two identical tenders. “Unalike”, which began August 15, visualizes the benefits of KFC’s tenders vis-à-vis its competitors’ nuggets while also communicating about the brand’s authentic cuisine.

TBWADublin launched the world’s first ‘Smiling Face Mask Emoji’ and submitted a proposal to Unicode – the world standard for text and emoji – for the new creation to be added to emoji keyboards around the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic has largely changed world views on face masks. Recommendations from the World Health Organisation, as well as numerous medical studies that suggest face coverings are effective in reducing the spread of Coronavirus, have resulted in a dramatic change in global behaviour. The Centre of Disease Control and Prevention found over 76% of Americans now endorse face masks and in some countries – such as Spain and Italy – the number of people wearing coverings rose to over 80%. Latest research shows that this figure is just over 60% in Ireland.

Despite this rapid change of global behaviour, TBWADublin spotted an issue in a form of communication used by the world over – the emoji keyboard. Prior to the pandemic, face masks were recognised as a sign of illness, causing unease and apprehension amongst those not wearing masks. The current face mask emoji accurately represents this sentiment – its closed eyes are visually linked to other emojis people use to express negative emotions. TBWADublin’s own research using 100 Voices (the agency’s standby global panel of people prepared to give their time and views via audio notes, video responses, and Design Thinking exercises) also revealed a negative perception from audiences.

However, the perception of face coverings has changed dramatically. In response, TBWADublin has created a brand new emoji to represent this. Face masks are now a sign of health, well-being, and protection. They’re a sign of safety and security – and this new emoji allows people to support a positive sentiment around face coverings.