Hasta La Creative!

Procter & Gamble disclosed in an earnings call this morning that it plans to divest or shed 90-100 of its brands, in an attempt to streamline and focus on its more successful brands.

“Less will be much more,” P&G CEO A.G. Lafley said. “We are going to create a faster growing, more profitable company that’s far simpler to operate.”

The announcement is the latest attempt by P&G to trim back, following the sale of P&G pet food brands Iams, Eukanuba and Natura to Mars Inc. for $2.9 billion in cash in April, and the sale of Pringles to Kellogg Co. for $2.7 billion in 2012. P&G reported a net sales increase of only one percent last quarter, which Lafley saying the company “could have and should have done better.”

Obviously, the move will effect the agencies working on P&G’s brands, including Publicis Groupe’s Publicis, Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi and WPP’s Grey. As Adweek points out, “Although these agencies work on big brands like Tide and Crest that won’t be affected by the divestiture, they also handle smaller, regional brands that collectively represent significant chunks of revenue from the world’s biggest marketer.” Last year P&G spent over $9.7 billion on advertising worldwide.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you like watching bad karaoke, you’re going to love Saatchi & Saatchi Europe’s newest spot for the Toyota Yaris Hybrid.

The agency turned Prague into a playlist by replacing street signs with the names of songs (much to the chagrin of local cabbies) and connecting the car’s stereo to the GPS so that the song changed every time the driver changed streets. In this way, drivers could select the song by altering their route. Supposedly the “best performers” were chosen to appear in the television spot, which airs in Poland, UK, Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Spain, but we think you’ll agree “most entertaining” is a more accurate description.

So what does karaoke have to do with the Toyota Yaris Hybrid? (more…)

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For the latest in the brand’s “Learning Meets Doing,” Y&R New York teamed up with Über Content and director Adam Gunser to create a mockumentary celebrating “5 Second Filmmaker” Marty Goldberg.

Goldberg is the (fictional) king of the the 5-second film, taking home the “Cinco” award year after year and employing “The Goldberg Method” while grooming his assistant and protege. Seemingly targeting the growing popularity of the short-format Vine, the mockumentary mostly seems to be trying too hard and its humor never really hits it mark and struggles to find a cohesive tone. Most of the time, the spot seems to be mocking Goldberg, but elsewhere seems to celebrate his working methods showcasing Dell technology. Also worth noting is that the brevity-mocking video feels long at 2:15. Goldberg could have done it in five seconds. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney has a new campaign for Toyota, entitled “Bad in Dad,” featuring one dad’s “bad” antics, attributed to his new Camry RZ.

Set to George Thorogood‘s ubiquitous “Bad to the Bone,” the dad is pictured using his leaf blower to blow leaves onto the neighbors yard (kind of funny), spraying his wife with a hose (cute) and embarrassing his son with the locked door trick as he picks him up from soccer practice (just plain cruel). The narrator at the end of the 45-second spot asserts that the new Camry will “bring out the bad in dad,” making the positioning of the vehicle as the motivator behind dad’s behavior explicit. While he may occasionally step over the line, the dad’s antics are mostly presented as the kind of things most of us think about doing, don’t, and then wish we had, which fits with the vehicle’s presentation as a sort of liberator. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Droga5 takes Under Armour in a different direction with a new campaign called “I Will What I Want” aimed at women, starring Misty Copeland, a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre.

The spot opens with a young girl reading a rejection letter from a ballet academy over a sparse piano track as we see Copeland, poised on her taut ankles in a practice room. “…You lack the right feet, Achilles tendons, turnout, torso length and bust,” reads the girl. “You have the wrong body for ballet. And at 13, you are too old to be considered.” At this point, the soundtrack is set in motion and Copeland springs to life, twirling and gliding across the stage decked out in Under Armour. It is not until the conclusion of the 60-second spot that Copeland’s identity is revealed, her ultimate triumph over adversity implied.

Copeland, who is only the third African American soloist in the history of the American Ballet Theatre, told The New York Times “she never received a rejection letter that so starkly enumerated the reasons she was ill suited to be a ballet dancer,” but that “it accurately encapsulated the resistance she had faced throughout her career,” told from the time she was an adolescent that she had “the wrong body type” for ballet.

We see a lot of ads aim to be inspirational, but seldom do they succeed like “I Will What I Want,” which, unlike most spots with similar ambitions, doesn’t come across as forced or hokey. Coming from Under Armour, it’s an unexpected and refreshing new direction. Along with the broadcast spot, the campaign also includes digital and outdoor components, featuring Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, tennis player Sloane Stephens and soccer player Kelley O’Hara in addition to Copeland. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Change is the only constant. In digital media terms though, change is more than a constant, it’s a constant storm.

Grace Bonney, founder of Design Sponge, waxes nostalgic about blogging days gone by. Let’s listen and learn.

Six to eight years ago, most bloggers were living in our own version of the ‘Conde Nast heydays’ without knowing it. We were getting great rates for advertising, having to do (relatively) little to get those ads and could keep our advertising and content wells completely separate.

I must admit, AdPulp was in a better position six to eight years ago. We had more readers and more income.

For those interested in digital media survival, Bonney suggests a way forward:

The concept of a homepage is becoming somewhat obsolete. Readers will consume content where it is most convenient to them. So it is up to bloggers to now track down their audience and find them wherever they are (on Twitter, Instagram, etc.)

Correct. This, in part, explains why I’ve been allocating more time to AdPulp’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));

 
AdPulp’s Facebook page is the default gallery for the work coming in from press agents and from agencies directly. If you don’t already, please follow AdPulp on Facebook and Twitter.

As a writer and editor, it’s interesting to engage an audience that is quantified, not by number, but by name. In other words, I can look through our followers on social media platforms and see who is interested in our content. This is gratifying and informative.

Writers are used to addressing the black hole, otherwise known as the audience. Knowing who is out there, as one does in the theater and now in social, brings the enterprise to life in a way that page views alone do not.

The post What You Can Bring To the Content Party: Digital Endurance appeared first on AdPulp.

Leo Burnett gets emotional for Ronald McDonald House Charities with their new spot, “Dad’s Voice.”

The 60-second ad highlights the emotional impact of the charity providing home-to-home accommodation for families with a child in the hospital. “It’s only a voice, everyone has one,” a narrator intones at the opening of the spot. “But this, this is dad’s voice. Dad’s voice is, well, dad’s.” Going on to list some of the voice’s idiosyncrasies, the spot concludes, “Dad’s voice is the sound of home, even when they’re not at home.”

It’s a pretty straightforward approach, but it makes a real emotional impact, delivering on a relevant insight for the charity. It helps that the approach is tender without being cloying, choosing not to oversell the drama of the situation but rather sticking to what viewers can relate to. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Internet domain clearinghouse and noted soft-core Super Bowl commercial creator GoDaddy recently announced that that it has “matured.” In fact, in a recent Adweek interview, the company announced it would stop making those questionable advertisements.

“We’ve evolved,” CMO Barb Rechterman said in a statement. “Our new brand of Super Bowl commercials will make it crystal clear what we do and who we stand for. We may be changing our approach, but as we’ve always said, we don’t care what the critics think. We are all about our customers.”

GoDaddy recently appointed Barton F. Graf 9000 (BFG9000) as its AOR after a stint with Deutsch, and now the brand is growing up. Sort of.

They have not outgrown Danica Patrick, who stars in this ad called “Air Wrench.” The goal of the company’s semi-rebranding is to target small businesses. From CMO Barb Rechterman:

“This commercial marks another milestone in our brand evolution. The ad definitely uses humor, as our past campaigns have, but this new campaign is not solely about driving brand awareness — it promotes more than domain names by plugging Website Builder.”

The “Air Wrench” commercial will run during broadcasts of NASCAR races and other sporting events on ESPN this summer. GoDaddy will also use social media to promote the spot. The budget was undisclosed.

Note: BGF9000 was not involved in this campaign.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We have heard it coming for years: Wearable technology is going to be a hot trend. The fact that it’s now here is no surprise, but what may be are the gaggle of advertisers ready to pounce, according to Businessweek. 

From watches that engage with your phone to glasses that help you get your NSA on, wearable technology has been discussed for years. The masterminds behind these new toys have been working to perfect it. Now that they’ve developed a few decent products worth shilling, advertising is ready to focus on what this story calls “the new frontier.”

To boldly go, indeed.

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Newly-launched Venice,California-based agency Adams&Partners have debuted the first-ever campaign for thinkThin, which positions the “nutritionally balanced high protein bars” as something you don’t have to feel guilty about — unlike some other things.

The 30-second “Runner” takes this idea in a somewhat uncomfortable direction, with a group of women lecherously staring at a nearby guy on a morning run. When he passes them, he recognizes one of the women, saying, “Oh, hey Mrs. Adams. Hey, say ‘hi’ to Brian for me.” A voiceover follows, saying, “There are lots of things to feel guilty about. thinkThin isn’t one of them.” A second spot, “Text”also tackles mom guilt issues, but chooses a less uncomfortable target than staring at your son’s friend’s ass, which perhaps takes the approach a bit too far.

“We all have things that we feel guilty about,” explained Chris Adams, executive creative director at Adams&Partners. “This campaign is about laughing at the little things that make us feel guilty every day, while making the more serious point that eating thinkThin bars is something you should never have to feel guilty about.”

We’ve included “Text,” along with credits, after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.