Hasta La Creative!

Team One runs through a list sins encouraged by the Lexus F performance line in their new spot, “Temptation.”

According to the 60-second spot, the Lexus F, “Provokes lust, unleashes wrath, incites envy, and elicits pride.” Absent are two of my personal favorites, sloth and gluttony, which Team One decided (understandably) don’t really do much to sell luxury performance vehicles. Greed is skipped over because they’re trying to get people to shell out a lot of money for a car here.

The spot, slickly produced by RSA, does a better job of tying the vehicle to certain sins than others. Lust is embodied by a couple making out in the rain, after which the Lexus F happens to exit a garage, not doing much to show how it “provokes lust.” Oh wait, it’s because the guy stops making out for a second to check out the Lexus F. Ugh. The rest of the sins are dealt with a bit better, with “unleashes wrath” tied not to actual anger but the car’s power, and envy and pride dealt with in more obvious ways. Perhaps most importantly, “Temptation” makes the Lexus F look good, even if its concluding line, “Temptation comes in many heart-pounding forms, but only one letter” is a bit weak. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Toronto-based agency photographed every pizza on Toronto hot-spot Pizzeria Libretto’s menu for a new social media campaign via Instagram.

With business booming at the Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) approved restaurants, “there was no time or space for servers or menus to give diners the in-depth details they were looking for.” Union realized that Instagram posed the solution and created Librettogram. They photographed each pizza on the menu and cropped them into nine separate shots that re-from into indivudal pizzas in Instagram’s Grid View. When users log on to Libretto’s Instagram, they can scroll through the entire menu with a flick of their finger, and click on a picture to bring up a closer view and more detailed information. In Union’s words, “By reframing the VPN story into a format and medium our target engages with every day, we were able to deepen customers’ appreciation for what Pizzeria Libretto does and strengthen their connection to the restaurant.” Credits after the jump. continued…

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Minneapolis-based agency Martin Williams recently completed a rebranding effort for Mall of America, the nation’s largest retail complex in Bloomington, Minnesota.

“Mall of America is in the process of expanding and rebranding itself to reflect its vast and unique experience,” explained Tom Moudry, CEO and chief creative officer, Martin Williams. “We’re really excited to have been chosen to be part of this effort.”

The new television campaign focuses on the excitement possible from the array of experiences found at Mall of America, crafting two separate “best day ever” type narratives from the perspectives of visitors, while avoiding the use of the word “mall” — which we’re guessing is a key component of the rebranding campaign. Both spots are created to show a dizzying whirlwind of different experiences at Mall of America, with a short-attention span let’s cram everything in series of events that’s exhausting just to watch. The narrator has to talk really fast to even keep up. “A tiring day spending hundreds of dollars (at least) at Mall of America could get you laid” seems to be the message behind “Couple,” which ends with the line, “Who needs date night when there’s date day?” Okay, so that may be reducing things a bit, but there’s definitely the suggestion that a day at the mall cramming in countless shopping and dining experiences can spark some romance. Positioning a mall as romantic is a hard sell, to say the least, but Martin Williams does a passable job with that premise.

“Girls” meanwhile, shows Mall of America as the perfect place for a girls day out, which makes a bit more sense, although the execution comes off as a bit stereotypical. What do girls do at the mall? Get a crush on a bag; try on jeans, jeans, jeans; find some guys, ditch some guys; eat something and don’t remember what it’s called. (At times things get a bit insulting.) At least they ride the rollercoaster a couple of times for good measure. Both of the 30-second spots end with the “Always new” tagline, emphasizing the ever-evolving nature of the 4.2 million square-feet complex housing over 520 stores. Check out “Girls” below and stick around for some behind-the-scenes footage, along with credits, after the jump.
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Digital agency Entrinsic created a new campaign for RBC targeting first-time home buyers called “The Mortgage,” in which they imagine the home buying experience in three different Hollywood-genre style trailers.

Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechick (best known for National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), each trailer promotes a fictional film of a couple shopping for their first house, with roughly the same formula channeled into three different genres: romantic comedy, drama and horror. The results are cheesy, but not unwatchable. They certainly have the tone of the Hollywood trailer nailed. The best of the bunch is probably the horror one (featured above), which squeezes in some jokes riffing on popular horror movie tropes. It works a lot better than the drama trailer, which feels a bit forced attempting to fit home buying into a Hollywood drama style narrative.

“Analytics are always behind everything we do at Entrinsic,” said Eli Singer, founder and president of Entrinsic. “We call it ‘creative by the numbers.’ Based on the data we gather we’ll be able to augment the campaign, making it increasingly connected so that it drives strong results for the client, just like we did with RBC’s successful students initiative.”

At the end of each of the trailers, viewers can click through to RBC’s digital properties for first-time homebuyers. In addition to the three spots, the campaign also has a social media element with events on Twitter, as well as a contest giving entrants the opportunity to win $25,000 towards a mortgage downpayment. The campaign will also be supported by “integrated offline content including full page movie poster-style ads in newspapers, mock “coming soon” posts promoting the movie trailers on relevant websites and blogs, in-branch advertising, wild postings, in-cinema advertising, interactive banner ads and social content and influencer outreach.” It will run throughout the key spring homebuying season. Stick around for credits and “Romantic Comedy” after the jump. continued…

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M&C Saatchi Stockholm has launched “Stockholm Is Your Canvas,” an initiative for Stockholm Art Week allowing visitors to canvas.stockholmartweek.com to submit their art and have it displayed on a digital billboard in Stureplan, Stockholm (if they’re a Swedish resident).

Visitors to the site simply upload their picture or video, select a 30 second time slot during the festival — which began April 1st and runs until April 6th — and their art will be displayed on the impressive digital billboard passed by over 450,000 people a day. My first impression was that this was open to any online visitors, but it is in fact limited to those with Swedish cell numbers. If you’re interested (and have a Swedish cell number) all you need to do is visit the site, provide your name, title of your art, city and said Swedish cell number, pick a desired time and submit your work in a 16:9 aspect ratio, with a maximum file size of 50 MB. This is a pretty cool way to get people involved with Stockholm Art Week, even if it’s kind of a shame that visitors to the country (or those who would get a thrill from their art being displayed on the billboard even if they can’t see it) can’t submit.

Update: We received the following note from M&C Saatchi: “The campaign is really for all people on the planet. Not only good looking Swedes. We have removed the confusion with phone number now.”

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This week, Conan O’Brien has been doing shows at Dallas’ Majestic Theater in anticipation of the NCAA Final Four. Although O’Brien may not have acknowledged it, the “Son of Conan” was there, too.

Conan O’Brien look-alike Greg Keating was in Dallas, ostensibly to “reconnect” with Conan O’Brien, but with a few ulterior motives up his sleeve. In a slick move, Johnson & Sekin approached Keating with the opportunity to promote American Airlines, Omni, DART mass transit, Dallas Comedy House and Raising Cane’s while O’Brien was in Dallas. Although it meant taking a few days off from school, the Temple advertising major and aspiring copywriter jumped at the opportunity to further his “pursuit of dad” while diving headfirst into the ad world and gaining exposure. He can be seen in the above clip, slyly promoting Raising Cane’s while on a Dallas morning news program where he explains he first realized he looked like O’Brien in third grade when a basketball coach referred to him as “Conan.”

“Johnson & Sekin was great because it was crazy fast and they had it all organized,” Keating said, adding “I’m not just saying that because I’ll be looking for an ad job.”

We’d be surprised if Keating doesn’t land himself a copywriting gig at an agency somewhere in the near future (I mean, who wouldn’t hire this guy?). But hey, if advertising doesn’t work out, he always has a future as a Conan impersonator.

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Online investing platform provider Kapitall just released what we’ll call “an historic” campaign with creative by New York agency SWELL.

The series of quick vignettes begins with a bit of light-hearted sacrilege:

In keeping with the “revolutionary” theme, there’s thirty seconds of the wrath of Kahn after the jump.

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RPA teamed up with production company tool for a new campaign celebrating Newport Beach Film Festival’s 15th anniversary entitled “15 Years Under the Influence.”

The centerpiece of the campaign is a short film called “Bedtime Story.” In the two and a half minute video, directed by Tom Routson, a daughter asks her father to read her a story before bed. The father begins a story about “a beautiful princess who lived in a magical castle far, far away,” but soon finds himself bored with the story and strays from the narrative, deciding that the princess is not actually a princess but a “beautiful operating system” (referencing Spike Jonze’s Her). From there his story bounces all over the place, referencing memorable moments in independent film from the last 20 years or so, with a rather gory ending. Somehow, through all this his daughter manages to fall asleep, making the display of truly awful parenting seem almost sweet. In addition to its home online, the film will screen during this year’s festival in Newport Beach, which will take place from April 24th-May 1st. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Philadelphia-based agency Tierney just launched the follow-up to their “Bank Human” campaign for TD Bank,  with “Human Truths.”

“Human Truths” follows much the same vein as “Bank Human,” with four new, 30-second spots each pointing out a flaw with the inhumanity of most banks, and then positioning TD as the alternative. If you caught any of the “Bank Human” spots you know what to expect: someone enters a bland, generic looking bank with a problem and instead of helping to solve it the bank just gives the customer a logistical headache. It’s a straightforward, no-frills approach that speaks directly to TD Bank’s image as a customer-centric bank. The new spots tackle issues such as hold music, getting a new debit card (“Almost Magic,” featured above), running late, and maintenance fees.

“TD Bank’s focus is to create a very human and convenient banking experience,” explained Vinoo Vijay, chief marketing officer, TD Bank. “These new commercial spots speak to the pain points consumers too often face with their banks. They also highlight how TD’s approach to banking is different. This includes our unparalleled service and convenience, as well as our customer-first culture.”

The “Human Truths” campaign kicked off yesterday and will run through mid-August, with a strong presence on the four major networks in all scheduled markets. In addition to broadcast, the campaign will contain additional elements across digital, social media and PR. Stick around for “Maintenance Guy” and credits after the jump. continued…

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This coming Monday, March 31st, breakfast is on Diddy.

To promote The Breakfast Club, “the #1 radio program in the nation” REVOLT is presenting The Breakfast Club Food Truck. The food truck will be pulling up to locations in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles to serve a complimentary breakfast to advertising agencies in those cities. Designed to “let fans and passersby know that the number one name in music and the number one name in radio are teaming up to make your day, every morning,” The Breakfast Club Food Truck will visit all three cities on the 31st, with an engagement spanning the work week in New York. Continue after the jump for a full promotional schedule and head to REVOLT’s press site for more details. continued…

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