Hasta La Creative!

Creative content agency Bonfire Labs continues its growth with the addition of three top-level hires: executive producer Tim Pries, producer John Hunt and designer Judy Leung. The company, which grew by 33% last year, sees the hires as a means “to accommodate burgeoning client demand and enhance its staff infrastructure.”

Executive producer Tim Pries is already a familiar face around Bonfire Labs, having worked with many of the Bonfire crew throughout his career. His most recent collaboration came while he was an executive producer at Google’s Brand Studio. Before that position, Pries served as executive producer at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners’ post/motion division, eLevel, where he worked alongside several Bonfire alums creating work for the likes of TDAmeritrade, Chevy, Sprint, HP, Adobe, Cisco, YouTube, NBA and Comcast. He began his career at the San Francisco based VFX studio, Radium.

John Hunt arrives at Bonfire following eight seasons as a live-action producer on the Discovery Channel’s MythBusters. His resume also includes work on Emmy Award-winning legal drama The Practice, and showson FOX, Animal Planet, and Australia’s Nine Network. In addition, Hunt “has been a presenter on educational programming at the National Science Teachers Association Conference, and produced digital media for Discovery in partnership with General Electric.”

Judy Leung “is accomplished in multiple design disciplines, ranging from graphic design and typography through to photo color correction and retouching.” She has previously worked with the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce, Hyphen Magazine and as a team lead for Minted.

“We are pleased to add these uniquely talented individuals to the roster of talent already at Bonfire Labs,” said Bonfire Labs’ managing director Jim Bartel. “Each of them will make a valuable contribution as we continue to leverage our unique position in the industry.”

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Stockholm-based creative agency House of Radon is taking Electrolux‘s food-based Tumblr, “Now We’re Cooking,” live this April 22-24th for its over one million followers.

The agency will be live-streaming 15 different recipes from an early breakfast to a bedtime snack. It will have the “same look and feel” the site normally maintains, but with the difference that everything is being done live, with creatives grading everything in real time. This is no small venture, as “Over 1,000 props will be used to style all dishes and approximately 100 different “Now You’re Cooking” posters will be used in the live-stream.” Check out the teaser above for a glimpse of the campaign, and head on over to “Now We’re Cooking” on April 22nd to see how House of Radon pulls it off. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Arnold Worldwide has a new campaign launching the new Brushing Chews for Milk-Bone, which feature “a patented shape that has been developed over the past three years, earning them the trusted Veterinary Oral Health Council’s (VOHC) seal of approval.”

To introduce the new product, Arnold keeps it simple, telling the story of a man and his dog (Ted and Rudy), and explaining how their new Milk-Bone Brushing Biscuit is designed to work as well as a toothbrush to keep dogs’ teeth clean. Because no one wants to brush their dog’s teeth, this is a pretty effective selling point. Ted and Rudy’s story extends beyond the broadcast spot above to a series of online videos, all set against the red backdrop matching Milk-Bone’s packaging, and following roughly the same formula. The campaign strategy is based on the insight that “The more you care for your dog, the happier and healthier he’ll be.” Ted and Rudy’s relationship is intended to to be “funny and adorable” but arrives at something closer to “hokey, but kind of cute.”

“They’re very much a classic comedy duo, with Rudy being the straight man and Ted as the accidental comedian,” explains Arnold creative director Tristan Kincaid. “We put them on a bright red background to give them a simple but visually striking stage for them to tell their stories.”

The campaign also includes social elements, with each of the six online videos (which act as pre-roll video assets on sites including Hulu, AOL, Discovery, TubeMogul and Yahoo) featuring an end card driving traffic to Milk-Bone’s Facebook page. Future social posts will also include Instagram and Twitter. Stick around for credits and a pair of online spots after the jump. continued…

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Kentucky-based agency Cornett IMS’ Beardvertising initiative, which we’ve covered here before, has been nominated for a Webby in the Professional Services category. So how has the agency chosen to promote their cause and garner more votes? Beardvertising, of course. That’s right: Cornett IMS is beardvertising for beardvertising. In case you need a refresher, Beardvertising is advertising via small billboards placed in large, bushy beards (as pictured above). They’re currently in the lead with 36% of the vote, but if you’d like to help “the realist and truest form of native advertising,” head on over to the Webby site and cast your vote.

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Today the principals at Straight Up, Films–the studio behind the upcoming Johnny Depp Warner Bros. flick “Transcendence”–formally launched their production studio/commercial division.

Operating under the Disorderly|Conduct moniker, the new division will be run by Straight Up producers Kate Cohen, Marisa Polvino and Ron Cicero.

From the release, the principals started the studio to “…collaborate with leading advertising agencies and entertainment brands to create commercial content” directed by ad/entertainment vets who the D|C team spent the last year recruiting.

That lineup’s collective portfolio includes work for Panasonic, Lexus, Playstation, Axe, DirecTV and more as well as episodes of “Glee”, “House” and other shows. These directors have created spots for Weiden & Kennedy, TeamOne, 180, Y&R and JWT.

Polvino says the launch makes sense because “Feature film directors are coming to the space from all arenas” and “Commercial directors in particular are directing material that’s incredibly cinematic”–like the D|C Jeep spot after the jump.

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Anyone notice that the recent Taco Bell “Ronald McDonald” spot bears a very slight resemblance to this 2002 Secret Weapon ad for Jack in the Box?

Secret Weapon founder/creative director Richard Sittig did–and he told Felix Gilette of Bloomberg Businessweek all about it today.

You know you want some key quotes after the jump.

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The Mars Agency, formerly known as MARS, “the new-age leader in next generation shopper marketing,” announces an international rebrand today.

The reinvention impacts all of the agency’s entities throughout the U.S., U.K, and Canada, a result of the agency’s vision expanding “far beyond the traditional definition of shopper marketing to lead the charge in next generation integrated marketing.” This announcement comes on the heels of several international client wins, including being added to the Chobani roster last November. The 42-year-old, Southfield, MI-based agency was also named the first or second place independent shopper marketing agency in The Hub Magazine for the seventh consecutive year.

“At one point in time, advertising simply meant producing an ad and placing it,” explained Ken Barnett, global CEO of The Mars Agency. “Today the discipline of marketing has moved beyond traditional advertising and must incorporate every medium that connects brands with consumers and shoppers, including digital and social. We’re redefining our role to provide broad solutions that impact our clients and grow their businesses at every point of the marketing spectrum.”

The Mars Agency sees the rebranding as an opportunity to reposition “itself to create brand experiences that deliver sustainable, profitable results” for itself and its clients. “Staying out front of the curve The Mars Agency pushes the boundaries while maintaining its status as one of the top agencies in North America,” said Derek Joynt, senior vice president, general manager of The Mars Agency in Toronto, Canada.

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Nine years after changing it’s name to JWT, the agency will, once again, be known as J. Walter Thompson. While the change was planned for later this year, WPP’s Martin Sorrell let the change slip at a breakfast event Monday hosted by the Wall Street Journal.

Sorrell shared with the audience that the agency has been “talking about rebranding” and said the J. Walter Thompson name is “immensely powerful” and that a return to the name would be “a slick and good move.”

Back in 2005, JWT CEO Bob Jeffrey explained the change to JWT saying, “We are now living in a world where the consumer is savvy, time-conscious, easily distracted and in control. Today’s consumer is totally at odds with dumbed-down, formulaic, repetitive, voluminous messaging. Our greatest value to clients is our ability to recognize a changing world in which the customer is king, the currency is time and the rewards are measured in the length and strength of relationships. This understanding defines our role, purpose and belief.”

Hmm. Does that mean that the the new (old?) J. Walter Thompson is going back to “dumbed-down, formulaic, repetitive, voluminous messaging?”

We hope not. And neither does Jeffrey who said “this is a year of reigniting the values and soul” of the agency.

Of Sorrell stealing his thunder, Jeffrey magnanimously said, “Maybe he just couldn’t help himself.”

In December, Saatchi & Saatchi Belgrade launched a provocative campaign called “Chronicles of Threats” for Serbian Commission for the Investigation of Murders of Journalists and Office of the OSCE’s Representative on Freedom of the Media.

The campaign featured a threatening letter in one of the country’s most widely circulated newspapers, with an accompanying video on the news outlet’s website, intended to shake public indifference to violence against journalists and rally “media outlets and journalists to document real and threatened acts of violence towards editorial staff, writers and photographers.”

“Chronicles of Threats” succeeded in getting the public’s attention. Thousands called the police in response to the threat, and soon it was featured on the news. When the stunt was revealed, it sparked debate about the kind of threats journalists receive daily. But the campaign also led to the reopening of three cases of murdered journalists, and in one case — Slavko Curuvija, “the most influential independent journalist reporting during the Milosevic regime,” who was murdered 15 years ago — to the arrest of the perpetrators of the crime.

Saatchi & Saatchi Belgrade’s executive creative director Veljko Golubovic commented: “I think the “Chronicles of Threats” campaign is a great example of true power of modern communications. Even one simple idea can move mountains and push the whole society forward. What was impossible yesterday is today’s reality. Our idea was initiation of the chain reaction that led to solving a murder case. And more than that it changed the way people feel and think about journalists.” Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Crispin Porter & Bogusky Boulder have announced the appointment of Ralph Watson as the office’s new chief creative officer, AdAge reports.

After the departure of worldwide chief creative officer Rob Reilly in December, CP+B “announced a new, decentralized model that gave its offices in various cities more autonomy.” Watson joins the agency from BBDO, where he led the Bud Light account. Before that he was at Goodby Detroit, where he oversaw Chevrolet. The industry veteran has also spent time with Leonard/Monahan, Team One, Arnold and Saatchi & Saatchi New York. He has created award-winning work for clients such as Miller High Life, Fruit by the Foot, and AT&T.

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