Hasta La Creative!

Gocompare.com appointed London-based Fold7 as their new advertising agency back in November after the usual “competitive” pitch. Now, following a segue ad launched on Christmas day in a primetime spot during Downton Abbey, comes Fold7′s first full campaign for the price comparison site.

Fold7′s new campaign will officially launch on New Year’s Day and “will herald a new dawn for the brand whose previous advertising had divided the nation with their larger than life character Gio Compario.” Compario is pushed to the background for the new spot, playing the part of a bus driver taking a tour group to a rather exhaustively named land. They reference Go Compare’s old approach by opening the ad with Compario humming “Over There,” before flipping on the radio.

The whole tour group approach is a little strange, with passengers talking about going to …Go Compare to save on car insurance or check out credit card deals as if it is an actual place nestled in a lush green countryside. While the new approach is a little curious (as is the painful final line in the ad), it should be a relief to those annoyed by the more flamboyant Gio Compario spots, which, I suppose, is the whole idea. Fold7′s campaign seems a good deal more low key: talking, rather than yelling (or singing), about gocompare.com’s services.

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Ah yes, it’s that time of year again where we attempt to pile on during a time filled with a billion countdowns, best and worst ofs, etc. But rather than draw this out over days like we have in the past, we’ll spare you lovely readers and split it up into just two parts for today and tomorrow. Compared to previous years, our 2013 most popular list, complete with items we scooped, swooped or just expounded upon, isn’t all that surprising, but hey, maybe we’re just jaded at this point. Anyways, on with the show.

10) Publicis Groupe Acquires Engauge, Merges it with Moxie

9) G2 is Dead: Welcome Geometry Global

8) Here’s Jeff Goodby’s Note to Staff Regarding ‘Changes’ at GS&P

continued…

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Well, that’s the gospel according to Ignacio Oreamuno, executive director of the ADC, who helps round out our December installments of industry observations, whether they be 2013 recaps or 2014 forecasts. Oreamuno opts for the latter in his brief entry, which you can read below. We might sneak in one more tomorrow on a short day to close out the year, but who knows. Anyways, take it away, sir.

2014 will be the biggest year to date, not just for ADC, but for the entire global industry. Most people contributing to this column will probably write about the way the industry will transform, but what I believe is important is the way we will transform the industry. It is time for the industry to move forward from the hole it is stuck in.

After traveling the world and meeting with hundreds of agency leaders, I predict a massive talent crisis at both the top level of agencies, as well as at the entry level. Disillusioned with an industry that has become lazy and used to making an ugly product, thousands will flee to jobs that feel more real and more productive. It’s hard to remain motivated to create advertising when we don’t like or want to consume advertising ourselves anymore. ADC is calling for a global rethink of our titles and tasks. Ironically, we believe that titles like ‘art director’ and ‘copywriter’ don’t reflect the future, are confusing and are hampering us by limiting what we think should make up our skill sets.

Structurally, I believe that the agency of the future is not a massive agency holding company or conglomerate, but rather small independent shops with very well-trained, well-paid individuals who are neither afraid to learn new techniques and technologies, nor to re-invent themselves. These small shops will have the power to say ‘no’ to creating the ugly advertising that simply pays the bills. They will be the ones responsible for improving the quality of the creative product around the world, and talent will flock to them searching for work environments with more substance and real competitive, creative environments.

ADC will be flexing 93 years of muscle this year, and no organization around the world will be doing more than us to help the industry navigate itself and its professionals to a prosperous future. That’s not a prediction, that’s a promise.

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Just in case you didn’t get enough agency holiday cards, we’ve got one more leftover, this time from Boston-based agency AMP.

For their take on the holiday card, AMP created Cheerify, a site that can transform any webpage “into a winter wonderland with the click of a button.” Just type in a webpage in the input box and watch as Cheerify envelopes the site with the sights and sounds of the holiday season. You can also drag the Cheerify button to your bookmarks toolbar and press the button to transform any webpage into a winter wonderland. For an idea of what Cheerify does, check out the video above. Never before has your porn browsing experience been so festive.

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Well, looks like our tipsters jumped the gun last week on who actually won the NAPA account, but it’s now official, as you may have heard, that Kansas City-based, WPP-owned VML has been named agency of record for the auto parts chain. From what we’ve heard, DDB was also in the pitching mix for the account, which includes all national creative duties including TV, radio, print, sponsorship activation and digital. The 88-year-old NAPA brand previously worked with what is now Publicis Kaplan Thaler, which had handled the account since 2009.

Jon Cook, CEO/president of VML, says in a statement, “We’re incredibly proud to be selected as NAPA’s agency of record. VML’s focus has always been about challenging conventional thinking and delivering more relevant, innovative and category-changing ideas. These were some of the priority ingredients that NAPA wanted in an agency partner, and we can’t wait to get started.”

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Usually when you give a gift you want to show that you’ve put a lot of thought into picking out just the right item to express how much you care about the gift’s receiver. But sometimes, you want your gift to say “I don’t really like you, so I picked out something crappy that you probably won’t like.” If you find yourself in the latter situation, the good folks over at San Francisco interactive agency Traction have got you covered.

Traction created “The Amazing Crap-O-Matic Gift Generator” for all those times when you just need a crappy gift, fast. Simply pull the digital lever and it instantly generates a crappy gift idea, from the game Redneck Rampage to a shark-eating-a-baby necklace; from blank VHS tapes to Handerpants (exactly what it sounds like it is), it just keeps generating crappy gifts. If there’s a flaw with “The Amazing Crap-O-Matic Gift Generator,” it’s that some of the items are not crappy at all, but rather pretty damned cool — like the dead rapper nail art kit, or the aforementioned shark-eating-a-baby necklace. We’ve seen a lot of agency holiday cards this year, but Traction’s just may be the most useful. Happy holidays, everyone.

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Well someone had to do it. And Boston-based Winsper decided to be the one. Gathering together the 12 things (yes, we know, there are way more than 12) clients say to agencies — some reasonable, some not so reasonable — the agency turned the whole thing into a 12 Days of Christmas-style holiday card. No, they aren’t going to win any prizes for their vocal abilities but you’ve got to love the epic, head-bashing ping pong ball shot at the end.

Making bad advertising is easy. But, every now and then, somebody produces something so atrociously heinous that it almost makes you want to stand up and applaud.

Congrats, Samsung. “Are You Geared Up?” may be the absolute worst thing we’ve seen this year. You found rock bottom, and you dug even deeper. You combined bad acting with a nonsensical script, added in a dash of uncomfortable pacing and stretched the whole thing out to a cringeworthy two-and-a-half minutes.

Not only did you create The Room of online advertising, but your ad was so shitty that it went viral. Your spot was featured on the front page of Reddit under the headline “Hands down the worst ad I’ve ever seen. Take a bow, Samsung.” On top of that, the online legions have taken to your Samsung Mobile YouTube page, where you’ve received 13,000 thumbs down votes to 2,000 thumbs up votes. And, some genius left the comments on, which just adds to the chaos of terrible. Here are just a smattering of some of our favorite comments:

• “There’s no way this is a real ad from Samsung. That would mean someone from Samsung had to actually watch this train wreck of a commercial and approve it. So it has to be fake. Right?”
• “I feel like I just watched porn without the porn.”
• “I’m almost speechless because of how terrible this is.  I’m embarrassed that it’s for an Android product.”
• “Thanks Samsung, I forgot for a moment that women are prizes that can be won through the creative use of technology and being creepy as fuck.”
• “HAY GURL CHECK OOT THEESE COOL PICS I TOOK OF YOU SEECRETLY WHILE I FOLLOWED YOU. TEE HEE YOUR PICTURES OF ME ARE SO FLATTERING HERE IS MY CONTACT INFORMATION ANONYMOUS STRANGER I WILL BE ALONE IN MY HOTEL ROOM TONIGHT. HAHAHA I AM GOING TO HAEV SEX WITH YOU BECAUSE MY WATCH IS A PHONE!”

In other words, it’s been a pretty fun morning. However, one Reddit-er has an interesting theory for why this terrible, terrible thing exists:

This was shot in Korea (that’s why everyone has a Russian accent). It was probably never meant to be seen in English. The main audience will see this with a Korean dub (that’s also why the actors speak so slowly).

The English script was probably written and edited by non-native speakers, and the company probably doesn’t give a shit what the English version sounds like, because the Korean dub is the one that will be seen. All that matters is that the white people look cool and pretty. It’s like that other commercial with the Samsung hard drive or whatever.

It’s an interesting theory, but as one commenter replied, “I wonder if Samsung has heard of the Internet.” Judging by this, it seems unlikely. If anyone has any info on the agency behind this, or would like to nominate anything else for Worst Ad of the Year, please do so in the comments.

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Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Organic has parted ways with both Anna Banks, VP/strategy and planning, VP/marketing intelligence, Tom Thomas. No word yet on if there are plans to replace, but from what sources tell us, Omnicom-owned Organic is in the process of “restructuring.” Prior to her five-year stint at Organic, Banks served as VP/digital strategy and innovation at Organic while Thomas has worked on the client side at the likes of Sprint and Oracle before his stint at the agency.

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Boston-based agency Sapient wants your help to do good this holiday season, so they’ve created “an interactive holiday giving experience” called “Shake For Goodness Sake.”

The site features a digital snow globe with ledges from Sapient employees. To get started you select a pledge category: enable kids, acts of kindness, basic needs, or support a charity. Then you click on a snowflake to view a pledge; white snowflakes indicate available pledges, while colored snowflakes indicate already activated pledges. You can then activate the pledge that has most personal meaning to you, and shake the globe for more pledges. Watch the video above to learn more about “Shake For Goodness Sake” and head on over to the site to help Sapient give to those in need this holiday season.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.