Hasta La Creative!

Creative agency Don’t Panic realized the hardest part of getting people to care about a crisis going on in another part of the world is to remove its remoteness and make it feel relevant and immediate, closer to home. So, to promote Save the Children UK’s initiative supporting child refugees in Syria, Don’t Panic created the above 90 second video imagining how a similar conflict in the UK could sink a London child’s life into despair over the course of a year.

The video shows one second a day (okay, so some days are skipped since the 90 seconds wouldn’t add up to a year, but that’s not important right now) of the child’s life as she goes from a comfortable middle class existence to a homeless and fatherless refugee haunted by the horrors of war. It is brilliantly shot, and the second a day format delivers the message with maximum impact, showing how quickly war devastates children’s lives. It opens with the child happily celebrating a birthday, and closes on her despondent stare the following year as she is presented with a rather sad looking birthday cake in a refugee tent. The harrowing footage is followed by the message, “Just because it isn’t happening here doesn’t mean it isn’t happening” — a perfect call to action that shakes the complacency all too easy to feel about a far away problem.

“It’s easy to forget that Syria was a middle income country, where children enjoyed the benefits of education, healthcare and the other basic rights our children take for granted—not to mention Facebook accounts, video games and youth culture,” Jack Lundie, director of brand and communications at Save the Children told Adweek. “We hope the video will resonate with the public, particularly those who don’t know much about the situation in Syria, and offer a new perspective on the devastating impact this conflict is having on innocent Syrian children.”

The PSA is timed to coincide with “with the buildup to the third anniversary of the Syrian crisis, which has left 100,000 people dead and 2 million more as refugees.” You can learn more about the Syrian child refugee crisis on Save The Children’s page here.

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Phoenix-based agency Riester teamed up with Backyard Productions to create “Farm,” a new spot for Voskos Greek Yogurt.

In addition to having the word “farm” in the title, Riester’s 30 second spot also has a similar (perhaps Chipotle-inspired) approach to Chobani’s “Farmland” spot. Like that ad, “Farm” emphasizes the natural ingredients they put in their Greek yogurt (in this case Voskos), while employing pastoral shots of cows and fresh fruit. Unlike the Chobani spot, “Farm” doesn’t spend time taking down the competition, instead launching into the brand’s virtues, via the cheery voiceover and footage of a girl picking fruit with her family and enjoying a cup of Voskos while sitting on a fence. It’s a slightly simpler tactic than Chobani’s, foregoing the takedown of competitors for more of an emphasis on wholesomeness. The brand’s “Happiness in Every Spoonful” tagline exemplifies the slight difference in approach — whereas Chobani takes a stab at competitors (while opening themselves up to scrutiny), Voskos just wants to let you know that their yogurt tastes good and will make you happy. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Iris has launched a new campaign for Adidas called “Fast or Fail,” to promote Lionel Messi‘s new adiZero f50 Messi boot.

The campaign is centered around “an innovative real-time reactive game experience requiring players to beat opponents down an endless pitch and reach Rio de Janeiro in the fastest time possible.” Players will be given the opportunity to win tickets to the 2014 FIFA World Cup to see Lionel Messi play. In an interesting twist, the game is driven by social media — with “more mentions of Messi, the faster you go in the game.”

Iris also created a “Fast or Fail” video to promote the game and the new Messi boot. To create the video, they shot Messi on a green screen backdrop, and then worked with “Media Monks to create the CGI-built polygonised world you see in the game and film.” You can check out the 1:35 video above, and head here to try your hand at the #fastorfail game.

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Chances are you’d give up your car for a Porsche, right? The folks over at independent Dutch agency ACHTUNG! are betting on it, delivering an interesting an interesting new campaign where they ask people to trade their car for an unrevealed new Porsche model.

Driven by the insight that “40% of Panamera’s had been pre-ordered before the model had even hit the road” and enthusiasts often pre-order a new Porsche model based on little more than Internet photos, ACHTUNG! has introduced the new interactive platform “Blind Trade,” to see if people show the same enthusiasm for a completely unknown Porsche.

Starting today, car owners can offer their current vehicle for trade at www.porsche.nl/blindtrade. During the first phase of the campaign, the new model’s identity will remain a mystery, with a new feature of the new model revealed every two days for three weeks. The earlier you decide to trade, the greater your chances to bring home the new model. 2,000 cars were offered as a trade for the new Porsche model in the first hour alone, so there are no shortage of takers. In addition to how early it is offered, the value of your trade will also determine your chances of bringing home the new Porsche model. On March 31st, the winner will drive off in the new ride, “without having to pay any additional costs,” at which time the Dutch Porsche importer will take ownership of the winner’s trade-in. “Blind Trade” has to be one of the more interesting online initiatives we’ve seen in recent memory, and serves as a powerful illustration of the strength of Porsche’s brand. Head on over to the site now if you want to have any chance of taking home the new Porsche (or if you’re just curious to learn more about the campaign), and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Karmarama created “The Boss” in a new campaign for Cobra Beer (not to be confused with Anheuser-Busch’s disgusting King Cobra brand of malt liquor, something of an undergraduate staple in the states).

The titular character is an always on the job owner of Cobra Beer and a successful brassiere company BraCo by night. (It’s an anagram, get it?) As you may have already gathered, the concept is more than a bit reminiscent of Havas’ popular “The Most Interesting Man in the World” character for Dos Equis. While Karmarama are certainly not alone in borrowing from Dos Equis, their “The Boss” is probably closer to Jonathan Goldsmith‘s character than anything else we’ve seen. (Perhaps a little too close?) He shares with Dos Equis’ spokesman both an underlying elegant cool, and seemingly superhuman capabilities — “The Boss,” the spot elucidates “never sleeps, because he’s living the dream.” Like Dos Equis’ campaign, “The Boss” also relies on tongue in cheek humor (such as when employees rearrange the Cobra letters above the entrance) to deliver its message with “broad appeal to their target audiences.”

“This was a sprawling international shoot and it was such a fun concept and a great team – Dave Buonaguidi, Rich Connell, Clem Woodward and Jenny O’Connell of Karmarama were great to work with and very involved in all the right ways,” says Biscuit director, Mike Maguire. “The concept was always about The Boss and his two companies, but the simplicity of this great play-on-words, it just took the humor to a new, wildly absurd and fun place.”

Stick around for credits after the jump, and let us know what you think of the spot in the comments section. continued…

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Dare Toronto teamed up with Penguin Books Canada to create a digital companion to Khaled Hosseini’s best selling novel And the Mountains Echoed, a project almost a year in the making.

Entitled “The Echo Project,” the site is a “a digital exploration of each of the 402 pages of the novel.” It’s an interesting proposition, and one that attracted many collaborators, including “contributions from Khaled Hosseini himself, magazine editors, TV & Radio personalities, producers, authors, painters and illustrators” — each of whom chose a page of the novel and either offered up ideas of what that page should look like on The Echo Project or told the team at Dare how the page made them feel and left it up to them to develop further. The pages represented on The Echo Project include a “unique assortment of interactive puzzles, motion graphics, videos, illustrations, audio and video that allow the reader to explore themes that are complimentary to the story, like references to history and culture.”

“We hoped it would evolve and take on a life of its own. And it has,” said Paul Little, Dare’s executive creative director. “The concept was a framework to allow any content that helped embellish, explain or express. And because of the range of content, it needed it to be flexible enough to allow for spontaneity and fan contribution.”

Dare Toronto and Penguin believe that The Echo Project “is a sign of how book publishers will evolve their launch strategies to offer different reading experiences for avid and casual book readers.” As André Louis, director of planning at Dare explains, “Avid book readers got to co-create and live a more immersive book experience; casual readers get the ‘DVD-extras’ that go along with the paperback. We’re leveraging avid Hosseini fans’ word of mouth to influence those who buy a few books a year in an attempt to sell more to casual readers.”

Dare and Penguin are no strangers to exploring the intersection of books and digital, having “created the MyFry app which allowed users to read British writer and actor Stephen Fry’s second autobiography in a non-linear, theme-based fashion via mobile” back in 2011. The Echo Project will be unveiled in its entirety and promoted in the paperback edition of And the Mountains Echoed scheduled for publication this June. For an idea of what to expect from The Echo Project, check out the video above, or head on over to the site for a more complete experience. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Well, earlier this week we introduced you to Hotels.com’s obnoxious Captain Obvious character, and now we have another “obvious” related spot, this time for Virgin Mobile (which actually premiered a few days before CP+B’s spot), entitled “An Obvious Deal.” Are we sensing a theme?

“An Obvious Deal,” presumably created by Mother NY (we’re checking),  focuses on Virgin’s “obviously amazing” unlimited data and messaging for $35 per month deal. A spokesman laments that some people are missing out and says “Maybe we need to be more obvious” while drinking out of a mug advertising the deal. A bunch of obvious, over-the-top messages follow as the spokesman decides that a deal this obvious needs to be stated obviously. If you’re getting tired of reading “obvious” and “obviously” you probably shouldn’t watch the 30 second spot (featured above), which uses the word at least every 3 seconds. The similarities to CP+B’s spot are, well, obvious (sorry), with the closing “This is obviously our website” quite reminiscent of the “All these words are spelled correctly” line that closes “Captain Obvious.” Now let’s retire this whole direction before it’s completely milked dry.

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Inspired by the Mars exploration rovers, Cheil UK built a “web user-controlled camera-bot, the first of its kind, called the NX Rover, for Samsung to showcase the unique connectivity of the Galaxy NX Camera.” Needless to say, it’s pretty badass.

To demonstrate the Galaxy NX’s capabilities, Cheil UK is sending the NX Rover on an international trip to “a series of extraordinary places and events.” Planned stops include London Super Comic Convention, an FC Bayern Munich training session, on-location in Iceland, and an after-hours visit to a major London museum. Samsung will also be giving interested parties the opportunity to take control of the NX Rover and snap shots with the Galaxy NX camera. To accomplish this, Cheil “built an interface which will give users real time control of the camera via a ‘point and click’ function.” Users can also control the arm of the Rover which can extend up to 2m high. Among the other Rover functions are up/down movement of the arm, 360-degrees pan and tilt/pivot of the camera, as well as focus and zoom.

“We wanted to reignite the spirit of adventure and put the NX in to the hands of the photographers everywhere, and do it in a way that did justice to this game-changing product,” says Cheil UK COO Matt Pye. “Through the NX Rover keen photographers will have the opportunity to see and capture some of the world’s most interesting places and characters in an entirely new way.”

If you’d like to try out the NX Rover experience yourself, head on over to Samsung’s microsite and check it out.

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TBWA\Greater China is launching its first ever “Young Bloods” program — sort of like the agency’s version of Young Glory or Young Guns — as part of its global talent initiative.

The agency describes Young Bloods as “a fully immersive creative competition whereby successful candidates work alongside members of the agency’s creative department on client briefs, with the ultimate reward of one candidate being offered a permanent role within the agency.”

TBWA’s Young Bloods program began back in 2001, the brainchild of TBWA’s Worldwide Creative Director, John Hunt. “The programme is special because it’s not an internship,” explains Hunt. “The idea is so bloody simple – we just drown the talent with creative opportunity to do real work. It’s the only way to inspire and nurture the best young talent available. The Young Bloods release a lot of energy throughout the agency as well as offer a fresh perspective on our client’s brands. Often we learn as much from them, as they learn from us.”

TBWA/Greater China began the recruiting process near the end of 2013, working closely with The One Club in China to review potential candidates. The agency received submissions from all over China, and made a final selection of three young creatives: Jing Li, Xujia Niu and Guo Giang. This September, the submission process will begin all over again.

TBWA/Shanghai partnered with P.I.G. China to create an online film promoting the venture, which you can view above. It’s a strange one. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Following a “formal competitive review” that involved incumbent/Troy NY-based creative agency, id29, as well as “several West Coast shops” along with VML, it was the last, WPP-owned agency that won out for the Cobra Puma Golf account. This marks the second AOR win for VML since last December, when the agency picked up ad duties for NAPA Auto Parts.

Cobra Puma Golf president Bob Philion says in a statement, “VML is an innovative agency with extensive expertise in creating meaningful consumer experiences within the world of marketing, and we are excited to have them on board. Their understanding of the industry and ability to tell our Game Enjoyment story across multiple platforms will help us elevate our communications platform and reach an even greater global audience.” , VML has taken over the activation of the current COBRA “Go Looooong” campaign and will continue to focus on all 2015 product launches. You can check out the first print work for Cobra Puma Golf from VML, which will also handle global creative for the brand in UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, Sweden, South Korea, South Africa, Australia and China, after the jump.

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