Hasta La Creative!

Does Ogilvy & Mather have the best online presence of any advertising agency in the world? Yes, according to a new site that ranks shops based on the size of their social audiences.

Created and maintained by Pivotstack, a tech company that creates software specifically for marketing agencies, the “Top 50 Ad Agencies” list takes into account the number of likes and followers an agency has on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as the traffic to an agency’s website, as ranked by analytics firm Alexa.

The leaderboard, so far, is a bit of a surprise.

Design consulting group Ideo is at No. 2, with Wieden + Kennedy taking the bronze. The first historically pure-play digital shop on the list is Razorfish, clocking in at sixth.

The list also includes media planning and buying agencies like Mindshare, along with public relations shops like Edelman. There’s even a holding company: MDC Partners.

The first 100 agencies were drawn from other lists of top shops and the personal knowledge of Pivotstack staff, although the site includes a callout inviting agencies to contact Pivotstack to be added.

Some digital brand names, like AKQA and Huge, are notably absent from the list. But the current version is just a first draft that “might not have hit some of the bigger ones,” Michael Koehler, director of sales and marketing at Pivotstack, tells AdFreak. “It’s nothing personal against them, and they’ll probably be added in the next few months.”

The social media numbers for each agency are currently entered manually, but Pivotstack also hopes to automate the update process in coming months. (For example, Ogilvy’s Facebook score on the list is currently only 205,000, whereas its Facebook page has grown to 215,000 likes).

The website bills the list as a “fun project” aimed at measuring how well an agency is doing at managing its online presence, hinting how that might speak to their ability to manage a client’s. It’s also—perhaps moreso—a clever way for the company to draw attention to itself among its target customers. (It rarely hurts to appeal to vanity or envy in the advertising business).

What about the age-old “cobbler’s shoes” argument that agencies might be neglecting their own presences in favor of servicing their clients? Koehler says an agency’s online presence is “just a reflection of how well a shop is run” and demonstrates one facet of their abilities. “By no means,” he says, “is this supposed to be the definitive list of best agencies in the world.”

Via Design Taxi.

Nike doesn’t want Brazil to linger on its loss in the World Cup. Instead, the brand’s new ad aimed is aimed at pumping up the passionate nation of sports fans for their next global event: the 2016 Olympics.

“Tomorrow Starts Now” is a beautiful tribute to the outstanding athleticism of a country whose chances at glory were abruptly and embarrassingly snuffed out by a 1-7 World Cup loss to Germany.

But instead of trying to tend the wounds of Brazil’s futebol fan base, Nike is instead looking ahead to the many events where the country is expected to do well when the world returns to Rio de Janeiro’s for the next Summer Games.

The spot from Wieden + Kennedy São Paulo is a solid minute packed with diverse talent like track athlete Ana Claudia Lemos, beach volleyball siblings Clara and Carol Salgado, basketball players Leandrinho and Anderson Varejão, and Yane Marquez, a bronze medalist in the modern pentathlon at the London Olympics.

As usual, Nike is on top of its game, finding those perfect moments that celebrate the unparalleled power of the world’s best athletes. It’s also a moving reminder that the soul of sport lies not in winning, but in the passion it takes to keep going after a defeat. You can make it, Brazil. You can get past this.

Toshiba skewers a certain hype-driven West Coast tech-topia in the brand’s new animated spot, “Sillycon Valley.”

Packed with fun visual gags, the spot from goodness Mfg. takes us to a highly caffeinated zone of hyperactive technophilia  that boasts computer goggles for canines (doggles!), WirelessWater (the bottles are WiFi hotspots), Asimo-type robots on public-works details and 5D printers that inadvertently summon slimy tentacled monsters.

A java-drone flying Starbucks colors soars above the local wind-farm—and almost everyone’s eyeballs are glued to their smartphones, if they’re not hip enough to have Google Glass. 

“Animation is a great way to deliver over-the-top humor,” goodness Mfg. ecd Tom Adams tells AdFreak. “It immediately transports the audience into another world where they don’t take things too seriously.”

Of course, tech excesses have been parodied to death—in HBO’s Silicon Valley and just about everywhere else—so Toshiba’s not doing anything especially innovative. Plus, this is a commercial, ultimately promoting the Encore 2 tablet for the back-to-school season, so the satire can’t bite too deep, lest it risk being branded as hypocritical.

All that said, the spot hits just the right tone. It’s snarky, but not too mean-spirited, with a look that fits the tech biz to a T—busy yet sleek, over-bright and self-consciously befuddling.

The commercial feels kind of like a spoofy segment on The Simpsons or Family Guy, which makes sense, as Friends Night, the studio that produces Fox’s Animation Domination HD programming, worked on the project.

“Because they come from a TV background, they were able to move quickly which was very important to us,” Adams says. “We were able to complete the project from concept to the final approved version in about six weeks.”

Overall, the effort seeks to position Toshiba’s products as “providing products and services that offer solutions, not empty promises,” Adams says.

(That’s also the thrust of “Unleash Yourself,” a live-action spot with a cartoon-y feel that shows Satellite Pro laptops magically morph into useful or fun items in various situations. You can watch that one below, as well.)

“Today’s savvy consumers are constantly questioning the practicality of new technology,” Adams says. “We decided to have fun with this shift in attitude [emphasizing that Toshiba makes devices to] meet the real-world needs of today’s consumer.”

Laptops and tablets are great, but I’ll take a pair of those “smart-scissors” revealed during the animated extravaganza’s crazed climax. It looks as if they’d cut through the clutter—and just about anything else.

A college championship that’s both national and rational has long been the dream of American football fans. In fact, Rudy dreamed up the solution 40 years ago, according to this fun bit of alternate history from ESPN.

Sean Astin reprises his 1993 role as Notre Dame’s plucky 1970s walk-on Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger in an ad created by Wieden + Kennedy New York to highlight ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoff system debuting in the 2014-15 season. For now, the sports network is mostly focused on just helping casual fans make sense of how the whole thing will work. 

Oddly enough, this is the second time Astin has returned to playing Rudy in 2014. His cameo was definitely the highlight of CarMax’s “Slow Clap” Super Bowl ad.

We asked Wieden + Kennedy New York if this second Rudy reprisal was just a coincidence, and a spokesperson sent along this statement:

“Our campaign is all about fans’ excitement for the inaugural college football playoff season. Rudy is not only one of the biggest icons of college football, but he’s also one of the sport’s biggest fans. His passion for the game is representative of the passion of all college football fans,” the statement said.

“So we thought he should usher in this new and exciting era. The fact that Sean Astin was recently in another spot this year was only brought to our attention after the idea was concepted.”

The real question, of course, is which brand will talk him into re-enacting a rousing Goonies monologue. Down here it’s our time. It’s our time down here.

Are you tired of plain old traditional self-promotion? Business cards? What is this, the 1980s?

No, clearly this is the 1990s, and you need to log on to your personal computer right now and design your very own Business Pogs!

Remember pogs? Basically, they were little cardboard circles with pictures on them that were a fad in the early ’90s, lasting about as long as the Funky Bunch before Marky Mark married Mark Wahlberg.

With this service (the amazingly retro video below and associated website actually date back to 2012…how are we just discovering these treasures?) you can get all kinds of cool designs on them: 8 balls, yin yangs, cobras, skulls! And your very own name, phone number and electronic mail address!

What’s that? You want to “go viral with QR codes”? Well you’ve found your place. 

This seems legit too, but the minimum order is $100.

So, if the GIFs above weren’t enough, take a look below at the full video, in all of its faux ’90s glory. As of press time, the folks at Business Pogs could not be reached for comment. We’ll try again in a year or two. 

Weird Al might not be the hero an illiterate Internet wants, but he’s certainly the one it needs.

His newest video, “Word Crimes” (a parody of “Blurred Lines”), is possibly the catchiest grammar lesson created since the days of Schoolhouse Rock. The song and kinetic-type video cover a wide swath of everyday errors, from “its” vs. “it’s” to abusing the word “literally.”

A few of my favorite lines:

“You should never write words using numbers, unless you’re 7 or your name is Prince.”

“Listen up when I tell you this: I hope you never use quotation marks for ’emphasis.'”

“I saw your blog post. It’s really fantastic. That was sarcastic. Cause you write like a spastic.”

He even squeezes in a PG-13 pun with his reference to the aid of “some cunning linguist.” Look at Weird Al, gettin’ scandalous.

This clip almost makes up for his practically unwatchable video for “Tacky,” a lifeless parody of Pharrell’s “Happy.” After seeing that one the other day, I was just about ready to write off Weird Al. But never underestimate his ability to get the last word.

To help expand its reach in Canada, Netflix has released a series of new ads that play off the streaming video service’s role as a sort of cultural watering hole from which we can draw endless references.

Created by DDB Vancouver, two of the spots continue the vibe of the “Pep Talk” spot from earlier this year by showing how citing movies and shows on Netflix can help you in tough situations like asking someone to marry you or sharing a hospital patient’s prognosis. 

A third spot takes a pretty different approach, although the setup’s quite similar. I’ll let you watch without spoiling it, though.

CREDITS:

Agency: DDB Canada Vancouver
Executive Creative Directors: Dean Lee, Cosmo Campbell
Creative Directors: Dean Lee, Josh Fehr

“AIRPORT”
Associate Creative Director: Daryl Gardiner
Art Director: Daryl Gardiner
Copywriters: Daryl Gardiner, Jessica Schnurr, Geoff Vreeken

“PROPOSAL”
Associate Creative Director: Daryl Gardiner
Art Director: Daryl Gardiner
Copywriters: Daryl Gardiner, Jessica Schnurr, Geoff Vreeken

“TEST RESULTS”
Associate Creative Director: Daryl Gardiner
Art Director: Daryl Gardiner
Copywriters: Daryl Gardiner, Geoff Vreeken

Agency Producer: Karen Brown
Account Team: Patty Jones, VP Client Services Director; Roger Nairn, Account Supervisor
Project Manager: Matthew Sy
Strategy: Rob Newell

Production Company: Steam / Anonymous Content
Director: Brian Billow
Senior Executive Producer-Anonymous Content:  Eric Stern
Executive Producer-Steam:  Krista Marshall
Executive Producer-Steam:  Tony DiMarco
Director of Photography: Dion Beebe
Line Producer: Kelly King
Post-Production Company: Cycle Media http://www.cyclemedia.net/
Editor: Matthew Griffiths
Visual Effects/Animation: Peter Debay at Cycle Media http://www.cyclemedia.net/
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3
Audio House: Vapor Music
Audio House Creative Directors: Joey Serlin, Andrew Harris
Audio House Producer: Natalie Schnurr
Casting Agency in LA: Ryan Bernstein
Casting Agency in Toronto: Andrew Hayes http://powerhousecasting.com/

Talent/Lead Roles only:
“PROPOSAL”
Jake: Chris Smith
Kate: Cali Fredrichs

“AIRPORT”
Stephen: Gary Smith
Elizabeth: Abigail Marlowe

“TEST RESULTS”
Patient: Mike Beaver
Doctor: Richard Waugh

Who feels like getting naked and dancing through the strees of Los Angeles? Wait, don’t answer until you’ve watched this.

In a charming (and essentially safe for work) video promo for its upcoming reality series Dating Naked, VH1 and agency Mistress filmed a diverse mix of people whirling and waltzing around a small crowd of onlookers in L.A. to the tune of “I’m Just Wild About Harry.”

The result is a one-take clip free of the kind of sleazy sexualization we usually see in nudity-based ads. It feels instead like a warm-hearted celebration of dropping inhibitions (and trousers) in the name of self-expression.

It’s also timed to correspond with National Nude Day, which I’m told is today. (Sorry, France, here in America the Bastille is a distant second to bare buttocks.)

Hopefully that tone will carry through to the Dating Naked series, in which participants go through the typical courtship rituals with strangers—except, as you could guess, they’re nude.  

Hey, look, the new Apple isn’t just the same old monolith after all.

A video released by the brand this week features thousands of the company’s employees, including CEO Tim Cook, and their family members all gathering to march in last month’s San Francisco Pride Parade.

It’s unusual to see Apple’s workers show up in its consumer advertising. It’s also nice, especially in support of a worthwhile cause (even if Apple does, yes, just ultimately want to sell more gadgets). Set to Coldplay’s new single “A Sky Full of Stars,” the video opens on the company’s prep for the parade, with rows of bicycles, and a barista pouring beverages, and staffers donning boxes-on-boxes worth of special Apple-logo T-shirts reading “Pride,” before the montage crescendoes to the main event. Cook’s appearance is brief, nestled among a sequence of less-recognizable faces. “Inclusion inspires innovation,” says the closing copy.

That reads, though, as more than just a corporate show of force for LGBT rights, which the company has a history of supporting in its own employment policies. Everybody always knew Cook would have a hard time replacing messianic figure Steve Jobs as the face of Apple. The perhaps obvious answer, hinted at subtly here, is that Cook is not doing it alone.

After much handwringing in recent years over the new CEO’s vision—or perceived lack thereof—the blueprint of Cook’s Apple that’s now trickling out suggests a company that’s less closed off and more collaborative than during its mythic era under Jobs, a notoriously exacting master who crafted its reputation for shrouding itself in secrecy and keeping a tight focus on products—including in its advertising.

In other words, it’s hard to imagine an ad featuring a smiling Jobs milling around with his underlings. Yet, here is Cook, doing just that.

The clip itself is a little slow to get off the ground, but the payoff, focused as it is on people—namely Apple staffers and the LGBT community writ large—is well worth the wait. That’s something of a coup, considering the company’s ill-fated detour into advertising around its corporate culture in 2013, by way of a botched attempt at a manifesto about the significance of products.

The new ad, meanwhile, also aligns with Cook’s championing, including in his CEO role, of human rights broadly defined, as well as other causes like environmentalism. Such are the trappings of inheriting a powerful company with the ability, and arguably an obligation, to contribute more socially. But back in 2011, Cook also made a point of saying that one of Jobs’s last pieces of advice to him was never to ask what Steve Jobs would do, and instead to “just do what’s right.”

Maybe those who want to can still see Jobs pulling the strings, even from beyond the grave. Subtle perception games aside, that just might mean the next great Apple product everyone’s been waiting for is just around the corner, too.

A bizarre crop circle appeared north of the Kansas City International Airport this week, causing a stir in social media. No, there were no aliens or incredibly talented goats involved in this one. The image of a man covering himself was done by ad agency Barkley as part of its work for Spirit Airlines’ “Bare Fares” campaign.

Which means no free bag, no free drink, no carry-on luggage. Just you and a personal item (like a handbag or a backpack) origami’d onto a seat (they add extra seats to these flights, so no luck on legroom) for a really, really low price.

Spirit is often a target for hate in social media because of confusion about its unique model (super low fares, but fees for everything, like … water), so they also started the Hate Thousand Miles Giveaway. Check out the video below.

“Air travel can suck. We get it. You wouldn’t believe all the hate Spirit gets,” the narrator says before singing angry tweets. Funny video, neat campaign, but the high-pitched (fake? real?) voice is grating enough to make me mute it. But maybe you like that. And body contortion, I don’t know.

Barkley has been working with Spirit since the end of 2013, and is trying to steer its intentionally controversial marketing in a more productive direction—”provocative with purpose,” as the agency says. But Barkley adds: “Spirit’s main focus has and will remain heavily vested in PR, meant to drum up earned media without the financial outlay that comes with broadcast or digital campaigns.”

Photo via.