Hasta La Creative!

Catering to current trends of craft and crowdsourcing, Clear Channel Outdoor commissioned two “high-profile billboard muralists” to handpaint people’s tweets on a giant canvas during Cannes. And by smushing enough ideas together on a 16m x 4m screen, they’ve set a couple records: This was the world’s first hand-painted micrography billboard made entirely of tweets, and also the world’s first gigapixel image searchable by tweet.

To gather relevant words, CCO started Twitter debates with questions like, “Who owns the creative agenda?” and “Is technology redefining creativity?” People were into it: over the four-day period, the campaign delivered a total campaign reach of 15.7 million impressions on Twitter. “Who owns the creative agenda?” trended number two worldwide. As the responses streamed in, social media visualisations of the #canvas Twitter content were displayed on CCO’s website, digital screens at the festival, and a high-resolution projection to a separate 18m x 5m canvas located on the roof of the Le Grand Hotel.

It’s a sweet reflection of the spirit of Cannes, one that could have only been more accurate if it involved alcohol. See if your tweet was chosen here.

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To be fully experienced, this spot has to be watched at your nearest Sony Store or Magnolia Home Theater at Best Buy. That’s because it’s made specially for the 4K Ultra HD TV it advertises, which raises definition to four times that of a standard HD TV.

The ad still looks pretty on YouTube, with its New Zealand ocean setting, bright blue bird, and red-dressed woman. And it doesn’t hurt that filmmaker Garth Davis (a commercial director himself) narrates it all in his soothing Australian accent.

In addition to showcasing new HD technology, the ad features the largest asset ever made for TV: a random looming spaceship, created by VFX company MPC. Pretty sure Sony agreed to it just because they could.

“This is part of our Visionaries campaign for Sony,” 180LA creative director Dave Horton says. “The idea is to bring together two industry leaders to collaborate on a creation that brings Sony’s technology to life.” In this case, Garth Davis worked with Oscar-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi). I look forward to seeing who’s next. I watch almost nothing on TV, but this technology is tempting.

Credits after the jump

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Back in the 80s, some ice cream sandwich-makers asked, “What would you do-oo-oo-oo for a Klondike bar?” Then, a balding businessman made monkey sounds. Today, reaching greater heights of sophistication, we’re crowdsourcing challenges via social media to humiliate washed-up celebrities. The new question is, “What would you want _____ to do for a Klondike bar?”

In the Klondike Celebrity Challenge hosted by comedian/The Soup host Joel McHale, the blank is filled first by Alfonso Ribeiro, otherwise known as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s cousin, Carlton. The contest submission period has ended, so Klondike’s Facebook page has no evidence of people’s weird ideas. But on July 15th, we’ll presumably have a new video featuring the winner.

For now, watch Joel McHale wandering his ice cream museum. The videos are directed by Tristram Shapeero and written by The Soup writers Boyd Vico and Brad Stevens. It’s not half bad, actually. Maybe we have evolved since ’83.

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Jaguar’s campaign for the 2014 F-Type invites people to test drive the car. In the broadcast ad, a driver speeds down various spectator-lined roads around the world. Finally he slides to a stop and tosses the keys to the next handsome man in line. “It’s your turn,” he says.

To adapt their ad for a digital audience, Jaguar’s agency Spark44 apparently designed a takeover ad in which the F-Type drives across the screen and the driver tosses his keys “straight towards the screen.” This sounds cool, conceptually. But in the demonstration I saw, Jaguar’s ad looks like any other pop-out video. It’s basically the broadcast spot with less acting.

The spot is, however, packaged with Jaguar’s social campaign #MyTurnToJag, which offers participants the chance to win the “test drive of a lifetime.” The brand’s resulting Facebook page is reflective of its enthusiastic fans.

Jaguar’s done cool creative work before, hiring Lana del Rey to sing their soundtrack and making a short action-packed film. This digital spot just isn’t all it promises, and I couldn’t care less about watching another typical vroom-vroom car commercial. Credits after the jump.

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Considering game 7 is tonight, let’s just call this timely. This McDonald’s commercial from Arnold featuring Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James (sort of) isn’t exactly new, but it’s taken on some belated relevance following the headbandless fourth quarter performance from King James in last night’s NBA Finals Game 6. Once you get over the fact that Stephen A. is in a commercial, and the fact that the typical ESPN #embracedebate could be replaced in this case with #embracerecedinghairlines, you’ll see that the “greatest of all time” discussion usually reserved for LeBron vs. Michael Jordan discussions has been morphed, with good spirits, into a battle between chicken nuggets and hamburgers.

In a second local spot, Stephen A. apparently used the hashtag #headbandontootight in relation to LeBron’s fondness for fatty fried chicken and accidentally struck viral marketing gold for Arnold Worldwide. Nevermind that LeBron probably hasn’t had a chicken nugget in 8 years – when the timing is right, the timing is right.

Credits after the jump.

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We’d venture it’s a sure bet the brand McAfee is none too pleased with a recent video released by founder John McAfee in which he trashes the software he created because the people who have run the company without him for the last 15 years have “fucked it up.”

In the video, he hilariously reads profanity-laden emails he says he still receives even though he is no longer associated with the company.

Dressed like Hugh Hefner and accompanied by a bevy of bodacious babes dressed in cleavage-bearing tops and extremely short pleated plaid miniskirts, McAfee reads several letters than skewer the brand and beg him to tell them how to uninstall the software.

It’s quite funny but it hits close to home towards the end when in an apparent nod to his recent Belize murder investigation, McAfee says, “You know, something went wrong. Fifteen years ago, I had some beautiful software and they took it over. I don’t know what they did. It was like the time I hired that Bangkok prostitute to do my taxes while he fucked my accountant. It was terrible. The same fucking thing is going on now.”

He then illustrates how to uninstall the software — by shooting his computer with a gun.

While this will, no doubt, spark plenty of discussion surrounding the brand, we’d guess none of it will necessarily benefit the company. For now, the brand has remained mum on McAfee’s video. Which is probably a good thing. Although the best response would probably be an equally strange video confronting McAfee’s tirade. Not an easy task though.

Needless to say, the video is NSFW. You have been warned.

Today, health insurer Aetna is launching a new campaign themed, “What’s Your Healthy?” Created by Arnold Worldwide and Digitas, the campaign seeks to do what so many health insurance providers are trying to accomplish: Engage their customers and get them to be “proactive” about their healthcare. Pushing healthy habits ultimately reduces healthcare costs, so it’s not shocking to see most insurers focusing their messages there.

There’s nothing overly remarkable about this campaign, except to add that it’s being launched with a $50 million budget. I suspect we’ve barely begun to see all the advertising and marketing efforts healthcare providers and health insurance companies are set to launch.

With the new Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) gradually being rolled out, individual states being tasked with providing health exchange marketplaces so consumers can compare and purchase plans for themselves, and employers rethinking the coverage they provide to their workers, it’s going to be a mad rush for revenue. And it’s a huge opportunity for advertising agencies and other firms to get in on the spending.

Healthcare marketing is crowded field with a lot of similarity in the messaging and very little boldness. So who’s out there doing a great job of healthcare marketing? What’s the ultimate message insurers need to send? Will hospitals and health systems need to up their marketing game now, too? Will consumers simply be too confused and overwhelmed with marketing to make the best choices?

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It’s been quite a while since we’ve heard from NYC-based, Dentsu-owned digital shop Firstborn, which has now taken over for R/GA as digital agency of record for L’Oreal Luxe, the cosmetics/beauty giant’s luxury brands unit that includes Lancome, Giorgio Armani, Kiehl’s and Urban Decay. The review for the Luxe digital account appears to have lasted longer than Honda’s as L’Oreal kicked it off last summer with approximately 15 agencies initially vying for the biz.

Regarding her company’s new digital AOR appointment, L’Oreal Luxe president Carol J. Hamilton says, “I am so pleased to have a partnership with Firstborn, whose dedicated energy and expertise in the world of digital will help drive our brands to new heights.” As a result of the win, Firstborn essentially extends its relationship with L’Oreal as it’s already worked with the brand’s Redken line. The digital shop, which has also handled digital efforts for other notable brands including Pepsi, Aflac and Under Armour, will initially focus on digital ecommerce marketing strategies for various brands within the Luxe portfolio.

R/GA, which had served as Luxe digital AOR for two years, will still continue its seven-year relationship with L’Oreal Paris.

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Even though Domino’s recently redesigned their logo, that doesn’t mean all of the company’s old materials have to go to waste. The newest content from the pizzamaker and AOR CP+B showcases products built from recycled Domino’s materials like staff shirts, pizza boxes, and anything that incorporated the old logo. You can check out some of the “upcycled” gear on Pinterest – the above picture is just one example of the innovative user creations: an in-progress light fixture made of company signane and pizza boxes.

This project from CP+B is the latest in a consistent line of inventive campaigns that have helped build up some brand equity for Domino’s. We’ve covered a few of the efforts here – a consumer contest for the “Ultimate Delivery Vehicle,” a digital suggestion box called “Think Oven“, etc. All of the content has been very social and very original, allowing for customers to constantly engage with the pizza chain. Basically, Papa John ain’t got nothing on that.

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Any agency can always reach deep down into it’s bag of tropes and tricks and pull out a zombie idea for just about every brand. Some people are bound to like watching the undead jaunt around in some apocalyptic retelling of the universe regardless of whether the take is funny, serious, or cool. For Australian-based shop The Monkeys and Boost Mobile Australia, that cool take on zombies in the centerpoint of their latest campaign: “Stay Living.” Sleek action, plenty of gore, and some moody music are all you need for the phone carrier juices to start flowing.

The clips for this campaign are somewhat graphic, making them stand out when compared to typical American commercials. Zombies getting shot in the head with arrows or completely disrespected with huge katanas to the skull holds some edgy appeal that you won’t find in our commercials with little kids who want “Puppy Brothers.” If anything, these Boost Mobile ads are a fun watch as you think about moving to Australia to start your own zombie apocalypse narrative.

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