In the UK, true bar magic may be when some big bald guv’nah throws down way too many pints and then walks off like he was sipping shirley temples. But for those who prefer a more traditional type of magic, Space and Heineken premium lager brand Desperados have teamed for a new “Bar-Illusions” campaign that consists of street magicians performing bar tricks around the country. The goal is to generate some buzz for Desperado’s line of tequila-flavored lager.
In the above promo video, “Cap in Bottle,” you can see popular street magician Gerry Sims working a small staged crowd with one of his deft tricks. Watching the magic: fun. Dealing with the aftermath of a tequila-infused beer hangover the next morning: not as much fun. While you mull that over, you can watch another quick Sims trick after the jump.
Details are hazy at this point, but as mentioned above, sources familiar with the matter confirm that Crispin Porter + Bogusky has taken over ad duties for Turkish Airlines, the carrier that last we recall brought us an amusing campaign starring two of the greatest in their respective sports, Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi. The ad dubbed “Legends on Board” was created by hometown agency Alametifarika, though we haven’t received word if said agency participated in the review for the Turkish global account. We’ll keep you posted if and when we have more info.
For their first rebranding effort in 40 years, Meineke has enlisted the help of YouTube sensation Robby Novak, better known as “Kid President.” Novak is cast as Meineke’s “Kid Mechanic” for the new campaign “Drive A Little Smarter,” developed by Pitch, which features television spots, outdoor, print and digital marketing. But the rebranding doesn’t stop there, extending even to a new logo and uniforms.
The short TV spots — “Transmission,” “Oil Change” and “General Car Care” — are simple yet effective (and propelled by music from a certain Devo member). “Drive A Little Smarter” (which also functions as Meineke’s new tagline) seeks to educate customers on how short-term maintenance can prevent long-term issues (and thus save you money). They seem to be built around Novak’s natural charm and funny facial expressions, with an almost off-the-cuff feel. Banking on Novak’s charm and familiarity seems like a pretty safe bet, after all this is a kid who has tacked up over 20 million YouTube views. Novak doesn’t stray far from the humorous optimism he perfected with his viral YouTube work for SoulPancake, and his familiarity should work to Meineke’s advantage, keeping TV viewers in the room when they recognize “Kid President.” Child actors can go from charming to annoying pretty quickly, but it’s hard to imagine anyone hating on the winsome “Kid Mechanic.” I’m sure the comments section will prove me wrong, though. Credits and second video after the jump. continued…
Falling squarely in the “why bother” category, yesterday Nokia rode the Apple news cycle with a tweet that thanked Apple for, as Nokia UK put it, copying them with the introduction of the iPhone 5c which comes in colors. The tweet, which read “Thanks, #Apple ;)” carried an image of Nokia’s colored phones under the headline, “Imitation is the best form of flattery.”
Actually, Nokia, it’s “imitation is the SINCEREST form of flattery” if you want to get things right. And if Apple copied Nokia then it copied every single other phone brand and, well, every other brand in every other category that makes its products in different colors.
To date, the tweet has been retweeted 32,630 times. Not bad for an account with just over 42,000 followers.
Leo Burnett’s “Design Your Life” campaign for the new Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear, which the agency hopes to present as “vehicles of inspiration,” kicks off with the 2:51 length “Sweet Dreams.”
“Sweet Dreams” tells the story of a young woman who wants to save her grandfather’s failing toy shop. The ad follows the woman around as she utilizes six of the phone’s distinct features, all leading to a puppet performance that presumably will help revive the shop (somehow). While “Sweet Dreams,” directed by music video veteran Paul Hunter, sets the bar very high in terms of production, direction and cinematography — Samsung and Leo Burnett go as far as to call it a “digital short film” (a bit self-congratulatory if you ask me) — the writing and overall concept are a bit of a head-scratcher. Why isn’t anyone going to the toy store, it looks awesome? Is the puppet show really going to help? The store is closed at the time of performance and the stage seems to be blocking any view of the store itself.
If you can put aside the strange and poorly realized premise, the stylization works well, and Leo Burnett does a good job of showing the phone’s features in action. Plus, what’s not to love about dancing puppets? (Although the “puppets” in question were actually real dancers converted to CGI, rather than actual marionettes.) Whether or not it works as a story (or “digital short film”), “Sweet Dreams” does a good job of showcasing Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear. A promising start to the campaign, hopefully next time Leo Burnett can pull off a better realized concept to fulfill the potential of their impressive production. continued…
Lexus wanted to show that the Lexus IS Hybrid is a unique car, so “Trace Your Road”– a collaboration between Saatchi and Saatchi Italy, Logan, Movie Magic and Fake Love, is a completely different kind of ad.
Whether you call it a “life-size video game,” “real-time and real world video game,”or just a unique experiential event created and filmed with impeccable visual design, “Trace Your Road” is daring on many levels. And a little dangerous, actually.
The event, held July 26th, took place inside a large aircraft carrier near Rome. Ten finalists chosen from applicants on Lexus’ Facebook page (now that’s engagement), sat in the passenger seat while F1 driver Jarno Trulli drove through a course, traced on the spot by those contestants, using a tablet that projected the course onto the floor with the help of a collection of 12-20K and 22K projectors. Contestants were penalized if Trulli drove outside the projected course or touched the walls of the hangar. What resulted was a ton of impressive driving and incredible footage. Oh, and no horrific accidents.
The footage for the television spots — produced by Movie Magic and directed by Logan’s Alan Bibby, with app design and generative visuals by Fake Love — was used in :15, :30, :60, and 1:20 spots. “Trace Your Road” succeeds as a visually stunning spot that pushes boundaries, utilizes innovative consumer engagement and, perhaps most importantly, makes the Lexus IS Hybrid look like a ton of fun to drive. The behind-the-scenes video, also well worth your time, is featured along with credits after the jump.
Making music with Pizza Hut pizza? Well, it sure as hell beats eating it.
Toronto agency Grip Limited took a fun idea and ran with it for their celebration of Pizza Hut Canada reaching a quarter of a million fans on Facebook. They hardwired 12 of their dipping sauces (designed to distract you from the awful taste of their pizza) to become a kind of interactive keyboard. The sauces were then “played” by being dunked with pizza by a DJ/composer/whatever you call a dude who makes music by dunking pizza in dip, to create the first song performed with pizza. (Why hasn’t anyone done this yet?)
Although I was skeptical about this process yielding anything that actually sounds like music, Pizza Hut and Grip Limited pull it off surprisingly well. It’s not Timbaland or anything, but hey, it was made with pizza. They fail, however, at making the pizza look even remotely appetizing.
Has Pizza Hut just created a new genre of music/use for pizza? Your move, Domino’s. continued…
Virginia Alber-Glanstaetten, group director of planning at Huge, has returned with her monthly column for this here site, this time discussing a certain fast-food chain that has gone from zero to hero in the shortest time. Now, who’s in the mood for a Fiery? Take it away, Virginia.
Just earlier this summer, Taco Bell faced a Public Relations nightmare when an employee posted a picture of himself licking taco shells on Facebook. The photo was part of an internal contest supposed to feature employees enjoying their first taste of a new product. While the news was everywhere at the time, it did little to slow down the Taco Bell marketing juggernaut, hailed last week as 2013’s “Marketer of the Year.” So, for anyone not already paying attention, I decided to crowdsource from my team the biggest lessons for marketers from Taco Bell’s recent success:
1. Fail fast, and move on. Taco Bell realized quickly in 2011 that dumb white guy humor wasn’t getting them what they needed. A focus on product innovation and the realization that Taco Bell was, for many, a staple part of their diet — helped them successfully Live Mas. Taco Bell did not waste a cycle on lame humor, but quickly sought new ways to position themselves as both relevant and real, leaving their past positioning behind.
2. Partner Smart. Partnerships come in many forms. Whether it’s a product, brand, or a digital technology partnership, you need to associate with brands that will add value to the customer experience. We all know that the Doritos partnership was super smart—it makes total sense—and 45 product tests later, Taco Bell was in the money with their first Doritos shell. It wasn’t just a great product innovation, it tapped into an emotional and experiential component that lives on long after you’ve finished eating: nostalgia, deeply appealing to Taco Bell’s target market. Nostalgia aside, there are a total of 126 different types of Doritos flavors around the world, which leaves Taco Bell a plethora of options and can guarantee that people will be less and less consumed with where the beef is, and more about which taco shell to choose.
Jung von Matt/Alster Werbeagentur GmbH go for the “just throw a bunch of crazy shit together” approach over the “actually makes sense” approach with their “Add Power” spot for Vodafone.
The 1:38 spot, directed by RadicalMedia’s Sebastian Strasser, feels more like a trailer for a Michael Bay movie than a commercial for a telecommunications network. It features everything from robocats and shark riding to a rocket train (that the spots’ protagonist somehow manages to keep a grip on while it’s moving at supersonic speed).
Presumably, all this craziness is a testament to the Vodafone high speed network. It’s pure testosterone over common (or any other kind of) sense. The spot certainly left me with a lot of questions: What kind of drugs is this dude on? How exactly does one ride a shark? How might I acquire a robocat? Will Vodafone be partnering with Axe Bodyspray in the future? These and other questions remain unanswered.
BBDO New York has unveiled a new GE commercial, part of the brands “Brilliant Machines” campaign, which takes on a Back to the Future theme and is voiced by Michael J. Fox. It would appear the agency and the brand are sticking with their movie-themed approach which kicked off earlier this year with a Matrix-themed commercial featuring Hugo Weaving. Hmm, what’s next, a Terminator-themed ad featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger?
The Michael J. Fox ad touts GE’s ability to use data to predict power needs for entire cities.
In the ad, Fox says, “1.21 gigawatts? Today, that’s easy. GE is revolutionizing power, supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software; using data predictively to help power entire cities.” He closes with, “So the turbines of today will power us all into the future.”
Advertising aside, what we’re really looking forward to is Fox’s new show, The Michael J. Fox Show, which pulls no punches and gleefully, boldly and without apology, pokes all kind of fun at Parkinson’s Disease.
According to Advertising Age, Apple will nearly double it in-house design team by adding 200-300 new designers. The addition aims to give Apple more control over its creative product. A source inside Apple told Ad Age the group has traditionally been kept small because Steve Jobs wanted Apple to be a product company, not a marketing company.
The increase dovetails with a recent Association of National Advertisers study which found marketers with in-house ad shops increased to 58% from 42% five years ago.
While likely not in reaction to the brand’s failed Designed by Apple in California campaign, which was designed by TBWA/Media Arts Lab, here’s hoping this beefed up internal creative group can come up with something better.
But to clarify, the brand will continue to work with outside agencies on major campaigns.
From the Daft Punk meets Philip K. Dick meets Steig Larsson collection comes the Nismo watch, essentially a smartphone on your wrist that provides car-related data. Do drivers need reminders of speed or heart rate accompanied by suggestions to slow down? Probably not. Do they need reminders to get oil changes? Probably (even though most new cars can tell you this on the dash). But either way, the watch looks like a cool gadget and should retail for an expensive enough price, so it becomes a sleek status symbol.
The 100-second promo, created by TBWA G1 + TBWA Helsinki, is just as shiny and metallic as the watch itself. The music sounds like a leftover track from the last Transformers movie, and although this may not be an intended consequence, might make you want to drive fast. I’d prefer to spend however much the watch costs on gas, but if you have some excess income and want to purchase the watch equivalent of wearing sunglasses indoors, this product is perfect for you.
Hmm, do you really want to be listening this much? Well, if so, here’s RPA’s latest project, which according to the parties involved, is “a fluffy data-driven light sculpture that visualizes social media conversation in real-time.” According to a statement from RPA CD Perrin Anderson, “We wanted to build something that could show what’s happening in the social media ‘cloud’ in real-time, not as data or a visualization on a screen, but as a fun, sensory, physical thing. We hope that others will share their ideas on the marriage of creativity and data by using the hashtag #ListeningCloud on their social accounts.”
If you happen to stroll by RPA’s Santa Monica digs–which cater to the likes of Honda and Farmers Insurance–and love lights, colors, etc., “Listening Cloud” is there for the picking, featuring real-time data from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram public APIs. According to the parties involved, you the agency’s client will be in the mix as, via wireless bridge to LEDs, will track hashtags, likes or comments about a client, with cloud “storming” via multi-colored lightning that corresponds to the different social media channels. To be honest, this cloud shit is still new (yeah we know, blah blah) and we’ll absorb it when we can, but an interesting peek into agency and old client moving forward. Check out making-of clip after the jump.
When we last wrote about GoDaddy, it was to report they had taken a new direction with several Deutsch-created commercials that, while they didn’t completely leave behind the salaciously prurient approach to marketing, they did, at least, focus on the substance behind the service.
This week, the brand is taking another step away from it formerly sexed-up, raunchy and, let’s be honest, childish ways (hmm…perhaps they finally took our advice) with an ad featuring none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme. Yea, you read that right. The B-movie legend can be seen in “The Baker” which debuted during last night’s NFL season opener on NBC.
Of the shift, GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving said,”This is the radical shift we knew we had to make and it’s more than just marketing. A brand is a promise to our customers and a commitment to understand their needs. Our mission is to ‘fight the good fight for the go getter’ … the small business owner … or anyone who labors for the love of it and wants the benefits of the latest technology without having to be an expert.”
Long time CMO Barb Rechterman added,”This is definitely different for us, but you’ll see we still have a sense of humor. We think Jean-Claude is hilarious. ‘The muscles from Brussels’ certainly helps make the commercial memorable, but the story also illustrates the struggles and time constraints many small business owners face every day. Our job is ‘to be there’ for these small business owners who want to attract more customers with beautiful websites that are easy to create and affordable to maintain.”
In the ad, which is, by far, one of the strangest we have ever seen, Van Damme can be seen in various acrobatic poses playing the bongos, shaking maracas and playing the pipes. His antics represent the motivation and support GoDaddy can bring to small businesses.
Part of this new approach also includes a site redesign. The brand has launched a simplified website with a minimal design, a more intuitive interface and a streamlined checkout process. It has also re-built its Website Builder product which allows people to quickly create a website.
It would appear Bob Parsons has been put out to pasture.
It seems like there’s an awful lot of Back to the Future nostalgia invading the Internet these days, with posts about the series on sites like Reddit leading to listicles about the trilogy on nostalgia-aggregators like Buzzfeed which then go viral on Facebook and eventually find themselves on large emails your mom sends to her friends and CC’s you on for some reason. And, what with it being 2013 and all, where advertising campaigns are becoming increasingly informed by memes, we get GE and BBDO NY using the “1.21 gigawatts” thing to sell you technology or something. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads to perdition; we just fly there through space and time.
And yet, nostalgia has a way of endearing you to things in a way totally out of your control. Call it manipulation, call it “effective advertising” using one of the oldest tricks in the book. Any way or slice it, it’s hard as even a casual fan of the series not to get a little giddy when you see what are ostensibly Marty McFly’s Nikes pop out of a souped-up Delorean. While Pepperidge Farm dares us to remember a time when people died of dystentary and snakebites like in Oregon Trail, Back to theFuture‘s original audience has aged to the point where brands see the 1980s as a way to get consumers on board 30-something years later.
In fact, I hope this becomes a whole campaign where GE powers David Bowie‘s castle from Labyrinth, E.T.‘s glowing finger, and the computer from Weird Science. And, though it wouldn’t make much sense, maybe Michael J. Fox could narrate those spots too. Maybe in another 30 years, GE will power the ships from Avatar and Robin Thicke can provide us with his own deep-voiced VO. Trust me, it will make sense by then. Credits after the jump.
It’s clear Kenneth Cole doesn’t give a crap about what pundits, the media or his customers think about his attempts to leverage major news events to his brand’s advantage. Just today, after having been lambasted for a tweet about Cairo (and plenty of other similarly stupid tweets), Cole, who runs his own Twitter account, tweeted, “Boots on the ground” or not. Let’s not forget sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear”
"Boots on the ground" or not, let's not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear
Responses to Cole’s tweet are unilaterally negative with followers dubbing it the “dumbest tweet of the month” and asking “Mocking war to sell fashion?”
Clearly, the man either doesn’t want our advice or, more likely, couldn’t give a shit.
Haven’t we all seen enough movies, TV shows and other forms of entertainment that take steps, often extreme and comical ones (think stuffed animals standing in for real ones), to insure we never, ever, under any circumstances whatsoever, have to bear witness to animal cruelty — even the most innocuous — in any of the content we consume?
Whether or not one feels this is a bit of overkill is really irrelevant, the cause groups and their public have spoken. No harm — even of the fake variety — shall come to animals.
So it’s really no surprise running shoe brand Pearl Izumi is catching heat for an ad if created which shows a dog that has just suffered a heart attack while on a run with its owner being given CPR.
After the ad appeared in Canadian Running magazine, Pearl Izumi was blasted on social media by outraged dog lovers.
Reacting to the ad, Omaha bed and breakfast owner Julie Mierau said, “When I saw the ad, I believed they were trying to say the dog was dead. That was horrifying to me. It’s offensive to me as a dog lover…that the message is these shoes will make you run so hard you’ll kill your dog.”
Pearl Izumi has since pulled the ad and posted an apology on its Facebook page.
With a video that would appear to be announcing the coming of a new age God, Yahoo! unveiled their new logo today at 12AM. The new logo keeps the signature purple along with the exclamation point. The biggest difference, aside from the creation of a proprietary new font, is the increasing size of the “O” letters leading up to the large exclamation point which visually aligns with the brand’s yodel.
Of the new logo, Yahoo! CMO Kathy Savitt said last night,”We’re excited to share the new Yahoo logo with you. It will begin appearing across Yahoo properties globally tonight. We wanted a logo that stayed true to our roots yet embraced the evolution of our products.”
Continuing, Savitt added the usual bluster only true marketers can appreciate, “You’ll notice a chisel to our logo that’s very architectural. What we’re saying is our logo is the foundation upon which our brand and products and user experience will continue to be built.”
The change is the brand’s first since 1995.
Interestingly, the new logo, created in-house — and with help from Marissa Mayer over a weekend — by the brand design team and product designers, was not one of the 30 shared over the course of the past month as Yahoo! built towards the unveiling.
At least on YouTube, the new logo is, how shall we say, not garnering much love. Sample comments include:
“Not only does it not feel new, it looks like it was made by someone’s nephew that just learned how to use photoshop for the first time ever.”
“You? paid money for this? Wow. Welcome back to 1998.”
“Damn it looks like a downgrade.”
“Wow. The current design trend is the most boring shit I’ve ever seen. What about putting some effort into the logos instead of just using some font and write “yahoo!” in Photoshop?”
“Did someone in engineering make this logo? I’d suggest they google ‘graphic design 101′”
“For some people, fantasy football feels real. For others it is real.” So claims Tough Season, The Onion’s new fantasy football series, developed in cooperation with DigitasLBI and Lenovo. Most of us, I think, know someone for whom this is true. Someone who loses sleep over the draft, and talks about NFL players as “my guys.” Someone like Tough Season’s Brad Blevins. Brad takes fantasy football way too seriously, despite the fact that his team, Brad’s Awesome Team, never wins his league. But he’s convinced, of course, that this season will be different.
Brad’s creepy rival Harris is focused on humiliating him, but Brad is intent on avoiding “The Watermelon Dance” (You really have to watch to see this one, I won’t give it away) at all costs. As the owner of three consecutive championships, Huge Giant Robots is the team to beat, with their mysterious owner Mr. Z. keeping his identity a secret. Episode one of the show flashed back to last season, with Brad’s tearful goodbye to Matt Forte and end-of-season humiliation. Episode two focuses on the draft.
In an apparent move to better identify with the Millennial generation’s positive outlook on life, Mentos, with help from the brand’s new agency, McKinney, has launched a new campaign that veers dramatically from the brand’s lovably hokey “the freshmaker.”
The new approach is fronted by a decidedly less hokey commercial that carries the brand’s new tagline, “Roll With It.” The old jingle is replaced by new music from Beacon Street Studios and the antics are slightly less goofy. But true to the brand’s heritage, it’s still all about getting the girl as the guy does in this ad.
The brand will spend $30 million over the next year to promote its mints along with Mentos Pure Fresh gum.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
