Well, the time has come and with this, we’ll put the ADC coverage to bed for a while. Yes, the fifth and final installment of the ADC’s video series highlighting the happenings from last year’s first-ever Portfolio Night All-Stars event. Perhaps you saw episode 4 featuring AKQA CCO Rei Inamoto yesterday and now, the finale takes us to the presentation portion where the six all-star teams actually pitch for Ford representatives. The peculiar thing about this clip is you really don’t see/hear any of the actual pitches being made (we assume because Ford wants to keep things close to the hip). Well, at least this entire series still has a quick runtime than one actual episode of AMC’s The Pitch. FYI, the winner’s announced just past the 5:00 mark. You can check out the full series here, and in case you were wondering, this year’s PN event takes place May 21.
Sony could be excused if they had decided not to bother advertising the release of MLB 14 The Show at all. The latest installation in the long-running franchise, the only baseball simulation for PS3 or PS4, has literally no competition (which is how Sony got away with releasing the PS4 version a full month into the baseball season). Instead, they tapped Portland-based boutique agency Mutt Industries, who teamed up with Eastbound and Down star Danny McBride for a integrated campaign spanning broadcast, digital and social media. At the center of the campaign is a really fun online spot starring McBride, who also stars in the broadcast version.
In the 1:45 spot, McBride tells you something you should already know: that “Baseball is Better” — better than all other sports, and better than babies. He goes on to list all the reasons baseball is the best: no crying, no flags, no clocks, etc., all while sporting a badass old school Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. McBride is inserted into the game itself (Hey Sony: You really should make Kenny Powers a playable character) allowing Mutt Industries to show MLB 14 The Show‘s shiny new graphics, which really do look great. Most fans of the franchise have been eagerly anticipating the title for months now, but “Baseball is Better” may convince a few converts that The Show is worth picking up this year.
Broadcast spots will air on on Adult Swim, ESPN, Discovery, FX, History, MLB Network, Comedy Central and other cable stations, while digital and social media content highlights top MLB players, including Miguel Cabrera, Andrew McCutchen, Brandon Phillips, and Buster Posey. Over the course of the baseball season, Mutt Industries will release over 100 unique videos for the campaign, with each player given a unique role and character. Interestingly, Mutt Industries developed, directed and produced the entire campaign in-house with creative director Mike McCommon doubling as the commercial director. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
“What the hell was that?” — That is our (and, we’re guessing, your) reaction to “Oranjekoorts (Orange Fever),” W+K Amsterdam’s 2014 FIFA World Cup spot for Heineken, the agency’s first work for Heineken Netherlands.
The campaign actually began earlier this year with the search for Heineken’s first Chief Orange Officer (you can’t make this shit up), described as a “legitimate [cough] full-time role that sought a representative as Dutch as Heineken, but who shared the same international outlook and would be committed to spreading Orange Fever in The Netherlands and across the globe.” Heineken advertised the legitimate position on their own recruitment channels and throughout the Netherlands. After reviewing more than 2,500 applicants, the position was awarded to Marco van Houwelingen, who will fill the year long role at Heineken’s Amsterdam headquarters.
The 65-second spot features a float representing “everything great about the Netherlands and the Dutch,” making its way through a Brazilian Carnival. Lead by Heineken’s Chief Orange Officer, the float includes a windmill, illusionist Hans Klok, and Dennis Bergkamp, among various other weirdness. Float participants all dance to a samba version of the song “No Limit” by 2 Unlimited, “one of the world’s favorite 90’s anthems” (which is not how anybody outside the Netherlands would describe the song). Watch the confusing mess for yourself above, and stick around for credits after the jump. Maybe you just have to be Dutch to get it.
Ace Hardware tapped FCB Chicago to help introduce The Paint Studio, which seeks to provide a “more style-inspired and personal paint shopping experience” for Ace customers with exclusive paint collections from Clark+Kensington, Valspar Optimus and Valspar Aspire. The resulting campaign, “Helpful Is Beautiful” is the largest ever for Ace Hardware, spanning television, radio, print, social and digital.
“Helpful Is Beautiful,” which was developed by FCB Chicago in association with Ace and Valspar, riffs on tropes from beauty advertising in an effort to emphasize the more design-oriented aspects of The Paint Studio. The attempts at humor fall flat (painfully so), but the spots do get across the more personalized approach Ace’s new Paint Studio takes when compared to other hardware mega-stores. Still, the three 30-second spots are pretty tough to watch.
“For years, women have expressed loyalty to their favorite cosmetics brands and the inspiring shopping experience that comes along with it,” explains John Surane, executive vice president, marketing, merchandising, and sales for Ace Hardware. “Ace and Valspar recognize the emotional response evoked by color and built the ‘Helpful is Beautiful’ campaign and The Paint Studio at Ace around this connection as a way to offer consumers a differentiating paint shopping experience featuring the brands they know and trust.”
Ace also launched a new website for The Paint Studio today, created by GSD&M, and will be featuring special offers to get customers to experience The Paint Studio throughout the month of May. Stick around for credits and a second spot after the jump. continued…
Meet Harold and Lenny, the pair of geriatric kvetchers in Deutsch’s most recent assault on McDonald’s in their latest campaign promoting the new Taco Bell breakfast menu.
Deutsch and Taco Bell have had McDonald’s in their sights since they launched the breakfast menu with their real life Ronald McDonalds (an idea borrowed from a 2002 Jack In The Box campaign). They ratcheted things up with the 80s-referencing “Get With The Times,” which called out the McMuffin directly as being as out of touch as the spot’s Loverboy-fan protagonist. This time around, the McMuffin isn’t explicitly referenced, but the pair of old men complaining about youngsters and the new Taco Bell breakfast items appear to be eating McDonald’s signature breakfast sandwich on a park bench.
The formula is the same for the three new spots, said pair of old men complaining about young people and Taco Bell’s new breakfast offerings on a park bench across the street from a Taco Bell. This allows Deutsch to skewer McDonald’s as being for the old and out of touch while simultaneously promoting the new Taco Bell breakfast items, such as when the pair question the need for a one-handed breakfast (the A.M. Crunchwrap) — “so they can do that Tweeter thing,” one of them explains. In another spot, the pair complain about the “Morning Rave” happening at Taco Bell, despite the fact that they don’t know what a rave is. This all ties in well with the tagline, “The next generation of breakfast is here.”
There’s no official word as to whether Harold and Lenny are expected to make an appearance beyond this campaign, as a spokeswoman told AdAge, “Anything is possible” when asked if they will be ongoing characters. Stick around for “Morning Rave” and “Slippery Slope” after the jump. continued…
Operating under the assumption that more people would recycle if it was fun, Coca-Cola and Grey Dhaka placed six “Happiness Arcade” machines around Dhaka, Bangladesh. The machines were operated by inserting an empty Coca-Cola bottle and played a branded version of arcade relic Pong. As some might remember (and Adweek readers noticed), DDB Stockholm made the same hypothesis regarding fun and recycling back in 2009 (dubbing it their “Fun Theory”) with their similar “Bottle Bank Arcade” campaign for Volkswagen.
“Bottle Bank Arcade” differed in that it turned recycling itself into a game: lights above bottle deposits lit up and, the faster you inserted the bottle, the more points you got. It seems like it was both more fun and a better way to promote recycling than Coca-Cola’s more branded effort, in which it appears the only type of bottle that makes the game work is a Coca-Cola bottle.
At the very least, these seem like two executions of the same idea. We’ve included DDB’s “Bottle Bank Arcade” after the jump for comparison.
Last year FCB Mayo (then Mayo Draftcb Peru) teamed up with The University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Lima, Peru, to create the world’s first water-generating billboard in the desert city. The innovative campaign generated a lot of buzz, and a lot of attention for UTEC. This year, FCB Mayo teamed up with UTEC again to create an air-purifying billboard, an answer to the construction boom in Peru.
The billboard, located at a construction site in Barranco, Peru, contains an air-purifying system, developed with Peruvian technology, capable of cleaning large volumes of air by removing dust, metal and stone particles that inevitably escape into the air during construction. The billboard cleans air to a level that is “apt for human respiration, according to international and national air quality standards,” with the cleaner air impacting within a file mile radius of the site, benefiting residents of the area as well as construction workers. Operating “by means of thermodynamic processes that occur in nature, such as pressure, vaccuum and decreasing temperature,” the machine is highly efficient, with energy consumption of 2.5Kw per hour.
“This billboard seeks to spark young people’s interest in engineering, said Jessica Rúas, director of promotion at UTEC. “It is closely aligned with the university’s mission of educating creative engineers who are sensitive to social needs and have extensive scientific knowledge that enables them to become researchers and find solutions to society’s problems.”
“Putting our own ingenuity into action gives us great satisfaction, because in addition to the creative challenge it presents, it enables us to raise awareness, inspire and innovate in our work as advertising professionals,” added Juan Donalisio, creative director at FCB Mayo. “UTEC is a client that constantly challenges us, because its approach is not traditional. The university represents change. Therefore, its advertising does as well, and that makes us think about what is nearly impossible to do, in order to do it.”
See the case study video above to learn more about the campaign, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
Electronics retail chain Radio Shack, online collaborative Quirky and Austin-based, Omnicom-owned GSD&M have teamed up to extend the brand’s “Do It Together” mission by launching an invention challenge for kids and budding inventors. The Shack is inviting its target audience to contribute “smart” toy ideas with the opportunity for the best one to become a sellable product on the chain’s shelves. It doesn’t look like there’s much time (well, seriously, there isn’t much time), but you can check out the site here to submit your concepts, which will be judged live on June 5 at Quirky.com. This effort marks the latest partnership between Radio Shack and GSD&M, which began working with the brand last year and created their well-received, 80′s-loving Super Bowl spot. And if you can bear the crap weather here today in NYC, tonight, the brand and Quirky are hosting a Sketch and Design night at the Radio Shack Concept store on 150 E. 42nd St. from 4-7. Enjoy, kids.
CP+B have unveiled the latest in their continuing “You Know You Love It” campaign for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Previous work on the campaign for Kraft’s macaroni and orange goo product has included the funny, on-point “What I Did For Love” and the nostalgia-laden “Go Ninja, Go.”
The two new 30-second spots are more in the vein of the former, although not as funny or effective, relying more on cuteness than humor. In “Pregnant,” a man eats the macaroni and cheese his pregnant wife requested, claiming that they’re “all out.” As you may have guessed, this is not a smart move and the spot ends just before she claws his face off (okay, not really). “Babysitter” is similarly minded, with a babysitter who will pay the price for helping herself to a late night mac and cheese snack. Stick around for credits and “Babysitter” after the jump. continued…
At the beginning of the month, Wongdoody debuted a new spot for Amazon Fire featuring Gary Busey — which was predictably weird. Now Wongdoody is back with an interactive video, just in case that wasn’t enough Gary Busey for you.
The new video allow viewers to select from 23 items, from a blowfish to a surfboard to a monkey with a party hat, which Busey will then talk to. “Talking to Things With Gary Busey” contains over 450 individual annotations within a 15:30 YouTube video, with each item selected bringing the viewer to a different point in the video. Options to click through to purchase Amazon Fire are spread throughout the video. Apparently the video “also features several secret clips that users can only find by navigating deeper within the experience,” although it’s unlikely most viewers will stick around to discover them as the interactive video adds little to the joke from the original spot, basically drawing out a kind of funny idea well past its welcome point. Credits after the jump. continued…
Earlier this month FCB Chicago introduced “The Truck Whisperer” for fleet tracking and management service Fleetmatics.
While a “Dog Whisperer” parody may have come across as edgy and topical say, 6 years ago, FCB Chicago’s character mostly felt flat and slightly annoying. The newly added additions to the campaign, unfortunately, take things even further in the annoying direction. The new spots — “What?”, “Therapy”, “10 & 2” and “Cinderblocks” continue embellishing the “Truck Whisperer” character. “Cinderblocks” (above), for example, sees the character pained over the fate of a truck and wishing he had been contacted sooner. If you like the character already (can’t imagine that’s a lot of you), the new spots may tickle your fancy, or may sour you on him, as there’s even less to like than with the original “Meet The Trick Whisperer” spot. If you don’t, they certainly won’t do anything to change your mind. All told, this is kind of a curious approach for Fleetmatics, and we’re not sure it’s doing much for the brand. Stick around for credits and more from the “Truck Whisperer” after the jump. continued…
With a few hidden cameras in tow, airliner KLM along with DDB and Tribal Worldwide Amsterdam decided test whether travelers waiting at the gate in what we imagine is the hometown airport would go “flat or not.” /What the hell does that mean exactly? Well, if you watch above, KLM is hyping its new business class “flat seat” by installing such seats in select areas of the gate. Those who wen t flat would ultimately win a pair of biz class tickets, like the lucky person in the clip. While we doubt we’ll be flying KLM in the near future, the chairs look pretty comfy and seeing as it’s difficult getting decent sleep on an airline to begin with thanks to the positioning, we’d be glad to see domestic airlines follow suit in adopting the contraption. In addition to the case study video, MediaMonks has also developed an online game to tying into the effort that lets you gauge whether certain unsuspecting travelers would go flat. The site’s a tad sluggish but why not give it a go if you got a few.
McCann New York has a new campaign for Jose Cuervo that takes viewers on a journey through the brand’s history via handcrafted dioramas housed inside, you guessed it, Cuervo bottles. The results are pretty intriguing, and make the dioramas of your grade school past look pretty crappy by comparison. Called “History in a Bottle,” the campaign also includes an augmented reality app, which can be downloaded at CuervoHistoryApp.com. The app allows users to “hover over a bottle of Tradicional (Silver or Reposado) and bring the campaign to life.” It’s no surprise that the dioramas look so good. McCann commissioned LAIKA/house, the animation studio behind the stellar films Coraline and ParaNorman to handcraft each of the five distinctive dioramas, as well as the other imagery of the campaign. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…
The cheesy spot features typically terrible acting from Schnatter, who trades lines with George. “Here’s how I make my dough,” George retorts, before the spot cuts to footage of him dunking. “Sweet,” says Papa John, “like my new Sweet Chili Chicken Pizza,” in some of the most transparent copy we’ve seen in awhile. In a surprise move, George then dunks his slice in one of Papa John’s artery-clogging dipping sauces. The spot is the latest in Papa John’s line of sports-themed advertising that in the past has included the likes of Peyton Manning and Joe Montana. It’s a shame they couldn’t go a less obvious route with the Pacers star, but the Papa clearly likes to play it safe. The new ad will run nationally on cable entertainment and sports channels, as well as syndicated shows, until May 11th.
“Papa John’s is about fresh new tastes, which is why we love our partnership with Paul George,” said Schnatter in a painfully rehearsed statement. “Paul brings a fresh approach to basketball as one of the game’s new stars, which works perfectly with Papa John’s because new and fresh is the message we’re delivering with our partnership and with our new Sweet Chili Chicken Pizza.”
BBDO New York collaborated with clients Johnson & Johnson, Campbell Soup Company and AT&T Wireless to create a commercial message designed to raise autism awareness and educate viewers of the importance of early detection, timed to coincide with the end of Autism Awareness Month.
Four 15 second spots that air sequentially combine to form a story arc of a child growing up with autism. Three of those spots also acts as ads for Band-Aid, Campbell’s Soup, and AT&T. Following the last spot, which features a recent graduate and his proud parents, played by a real autism sufferer and his parents (who appear in the other ads as well), the sequence concludes with the message, “You just saw how early diagnosis can make a lifetime of difference. Watch again or learn the signs at www.autismspeaks.org/signs.” This sequence is scheduled to air one time today on the CNN program New Day, and will then live online at YouTube and the Autism Speaks website, with a digital extension expected to run courtesy of Undertone. continued…
About a month ago we brought you the sneak peek of “How to Do Everything in the World,” the web series Rooster created for Vans starring creative director/baby fighter/punk rock dadGavin McInnes. Given some of Gavin’s funny hijinks in the past, we had high hopes for the series.
In “How to Do Everything in the World,” McInnes takes on such topics as how to drink in a bar, what to do if you get in a fight, how to fly the friendly skies, and how to survive prison with an expected dose of absurdity. Unfortunately, the humor misses the mark, occasionally painfully so. There was a lot of potential here, but something about the series just feels off, and not in a funny way. The highlight is probably “How To Fight,” which mostly just sees Gavin coming up with ways to get in a cheap shot and run away. That’s really the only one of these to even merit a chuckle, as they mostly confuse awkward with funny. (Awkward can be funny, but isn’t necessarily in and of itself funny, a mistake on full display here.) Mostly, the series sees McInnes screaming at people for being jerks (especially in “How To Fly” and the painful “How To Drink”), which is basically one joke stretched over several “episodes” that are each several minutes long. It’s hard to imagine these catching on and getting shared, or even someone sitting through the entire series for its entertainment value. Let’s chalk this one up as a disappointing miss and hope Rooster delivers the goods next time. You can check out “How to Fight” above, and stick around for “How to Fly” and “How to Survive in Prison” after the jump, if you’re so inclined. continued…
W+K Portland went all out in getting celebrity talent for “Winner Stays” the latest iteration of their “Risk Everything”campaign for Nike.
The 4:12 film plays off the idea of pretending to be your favorite star players while playing a pickup game with friends. “Winner stays” says one side of one such pickup game, and soon players are claiming to be famous soccer stars and taking on their unique skill sets. It’s a fun idea, although it’s stretched a bit thin at over four minutes long. W+K is betting that with World Cup fever spreading people will stay around for the star power, which includes the return of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr. and Wayne Rooney, a host of other soccer stars from around the world, and a few unexpected cameos. During the action, the spot offers the first glimpses of Nike’s new Magista and Mercurial Superfly.
“We connect to players’ passion for the game, whether it is the world’s best in Brasil or players in the park or street, explainsDavide Grasso, chief marketing officer for Nike. “‘Winner Stays’ taps into an experience that every young player around the world will recognize – competition with friends and the idea of playing with your heroes or pretending to be them.”
While it may be fun and expertly crafted, it’s pretty hard to get over the run time for the full-length “Winner Stays.” Four minutes is just a really long time to expect people to sit through an advertisement and the new product reveals are relatively deep into the spot. Thankfully, there are abridged versions, with run times of 3 minutes (still pretty long), 90 seconds, 60 seconds, and 30 seconds. Stick around for full credits after the jump. continued…
This one’s been making the rounds for awhile, but we figured we’d add our two cents since it involves the ruining of a classic Beach Boys track. BBDO New York employs the Beach Boy’s “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” for their latest AT&T campaign. In the debut spot, “Sing Anthem” people in everyday situations randomly start singing the song as if they’re on Glee or something.
To be fair, BBDO does a passable job of connecting the song to AT&T’s message of helping “people and things speak the same language” and a good job of illustrating the point visually. But people of various walks of life (including an operatic news reporter) randomly bursting into song is a lot to swallow, and that the song is a personal favorite makes it even harder to take. The spot, which BBDO collaborated with Biscuit Filmoworks and editorial company Rock Paper Scissors to make, is part of a broader campaign that employs “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” as a theme song in each of its commericals. Thankfully, “Sing Anthem” is the only one of these to turn everyday life into a cheesy impromptu musical. Stick around for credits and “Sing Network” after the jump. continued…
Google turned to production company B-Reel to help them launch a new Street View feature allowing users to “travel back in time,” accessing images from past Street View collections dating back to 2007. B-Reel created several assets for the launch of the new feature, including a redesign of Pegman into Doc Brown. Doc Brown Pegman can be found in the lower-left hand corner of the map once a user engages with the clock icon, as well as in marketing materials for the launch. For more on Google Maps’ new feature, check out the video above.
Tis been some time since we’ve received a memo from Grey, but the agency’s New York CEO Michael Houston has sent out one regarding the brand’s new relationship with coffee staple, Folgers, this week. As a result of taking on assignments for the aforementioned brand as well as continuing efforts with J.M. Smuckers and Millstone, Grey has brought on ad vet Marnie Kain to lead the work. Anyhow, why steal Mr. Houston’s thunder any further. See below:
“You’ll see today that we are introducing a new coffee, Folgers, in our kitchens. It is to celebrate our newest brand assignments from the J.M. Smucker Company, Folgers and Millstone coffees.
This is an outstanding win from our longstanding partner and a tremendous vote of confidence in Grey’s work for Smucker. They have our deepest thanks as we start this exciting new chapter together.
Speaking of new beginnings, we are delighted to welcome Marnie Kain as our newest EVP on these coffee brands, that she led with distinction at Saatchi & Saatchi.
Marnie spent 17 years at Saatchi, rising to the post of EVP, Managing Director, Head of Marketing and Business Development. Along the way, she oversaw brand management for such blue-chip clients as JPMorgan/Chase, Wendy’s, JC Penney, P&G’s Dawn and Fixodent, Sunny Delight and earlier, Carnival Cruise Lines, all textbook examples of marketing innovation in her capable hands.
Most recently, Marnie was President and Founder of her own advertising and marketing solutions company, Kain & Co. An accomplished speaker on advertising and branding, she has served on the board of directors of the Advertising Club of New York and President of the Advertising Federation of Miami. And she’s found to time to give back, serving on the board of Step Up Women’s Network, a non-profit dedicated to helping deserving teens go to college and become career ready.
Please give her a warm welcome and stop by for coffee.
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