Hasta La Creative!

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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All of a sudden, San Francisco-based digital agency Cibo has been flooding our radar as the shop has now welcomed Keith Ciampa to the fold to serve in the newly created role of chief creative officer. In case you didn’t know, last we heard Ciampa’s name, the senior creative was no longer holding the ECD post at Tribal SF back in 2012 after spending just eight months at the agency. During his brief stint at Tribal SF, where he replaced Tony Cordero at the time, Ciampa led new biz wins for Dolby and Intel among other accounts. Prior to his brief stay at Tribal, Ciampa held two-year creative director posts at both Goodby and McKinney, where he worked on accounts including Yahoo and Virgin Atlantic, respectively.

Yes, we have the obligatory statement from Cibo co-founder/CEO, Lu Lacourte, who says about Ciampa, “He’s a unique and special talent and a perfect fit for what Cibo is focused on. He has a magic touch when it comes to combining brand narratives with robust usability expertise across both digital and traditional. The guy’s a rock star and we’re thrilled to have him.”

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This hopefully won’t be too much of a recurring theme on the site today, but sources familiar with the matter confirm that Critical Mass has had to cut a handful of staffers. From what we’ve been told, the number is actually a handful of staffers as five have been let go. From what we’ve been told, the Omnicom-owned agency’s cuts affect less than 1% of global staff count and they were made as a result of  “organizational shift” and “realignment of skills” to adjust to client needs.

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After spending the last four-and-a-half years at SapientNitro, where he worked out of the agency’s Boston office and last served as VP/general management/new business lead, Eric Healy has moved on to assume a new role at Rosetta. Specifically, Healy will serve as managing partner of the Publicis Groupe-owned agency’s consumer products & retail industry group. As you’d expect, Rosetta CEO Tom Adamski sings the new hire’s praises, saying in a statement, “…Eric is a true superstar, with a glowing record of business development, growth and expansion during the last 16 years. He’s the right leader at the right time to strengthen and solidify our reputation across the rapidly changing consumer products and retail industry.”

Prior to his time at SapientNitro, Healy worked as EVP of corporate development at Aegis and before, spent two years as SVP/director of interactive at Mullen and served for nearly four at Arnold. During his time at Arnold, Healy first oversaw the agency’s interactive practice before taking the lead on strategy, integrated marketing and creative development for its then-existent Vonage account.

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A couple of somewhat vague tips have poured into the Spy line over the last 12 hours basically stating, “RPA layoffs.” Well, we checked in with the Santa Monica-based agency, which of course has handled creative duties for Honda for nearly 30 years (most recent effort here) and also works with clients including Farmers Insurance. Anyhow, an RPA spokesperson offers a little clarification on the matter via the statement below:

“The agency is introducing a new production management structure under the leadership of 27-year RPA veteran Gary Paticoff, who has been promoted to SVP, Chief Production Officer, to more efficiently produce integrated campaigns that position our clients to stand out in the digital world. As we integrate our production process, the changes necessarily result in small number of staffing adjustments. More than 450 RPA Associates are dedicated to creating remarkable work and remarkable growth for our clients.”

No approximate numbers have been revealed as of yet, but we’re checking. As for Paticoff, the the New York native moves up to his new role after spending several years as SVP/executive producer, content at RPA. During his time at the agency, among other things, the Honda Art Gallery project that he produced was chosen by New York’s Museum of Modern Art as the first television commercial to be inducted into its permanent collection.

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And so, the cast of contributors from the Huge family continues to rotate as we now welcome Andrew Kessler to the fold. Kessler is the founder/CEO of Togather, a startup out of Huge Labs that serves as a platform that helps clients like Barnes & Noble and Red Bull deploy event marketing programs with the same control and measurability of a digital ad buy. As the headline mentions, Kessler makes his AgencySpy debut by discussing whether it’s to sound the death knell for what’s known as experience marketing. Take it away, sir.

The “experience marketing” trend is close to extinction.

A sponsored pop-up/installation/lounge/whatever made sense as an “organic” brand experience — before the domination of digital. But today anything that would feel at home in Times Square doesn’t fulfill the new authentic standards for branded content.

Specifically, I’m talking about the big-budget consumer-facing events with colored lights, a giant logo, and, if you’re lucky, a fun stunt. In years of agency work, I’ve been a part of too many to count, and the result was always:

– A large crowd…but not the right audience
– Lots of product interest…but only about the freebie swag, and
– Photo albums of smiling fans…but no metrics or demographic data

Sure, our clients could claim a big success because a whole town could be counted as “impressions” and gift bags eventually ran out. But nobody was asking:

– Is this a useful exercise?
– Are we providing the right kind of value to give us a return on brand favorability?
– Are we just repeating a visibility stunt that has a negligible effect on ROI?

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.