Hasta La Creative!

Grey New York aims for the funny bone with two new spots for Ally Bank, but they mostly miss the mark.

The more humorous of the two spots, “Nothing Hidden,” (featured above) opens with a man asking an Ally representative if Ally really has no hidden fees on savings accounts. He mentions that he’s worried about “hidden things.” When the representative asks why, he flashes to a series of memories of his father attempting to hide the fact that he’s a crime boss. It’s not exactly laugh-inducing, but also not bad enough to induce frustration or anger. Or maybe I’m just in a good mood today.

The second spot, “New Ways,” tries harder and makes a lot less sense. A woman speaking to an Ally representative asks if it’s true that she can reach Ally 24 hours a day, but there are no branches. She tells the representative that she’s “really reluctant to try new things.” When the representative asks why, we get another series of flashbacks. Like I said, this one makes a lot less sense, and tries a little too hard to be zanily funny. (Why would anyone tell a robotic dog to drink water?) The spot is also less successful in that the Ally feature it talks about doesn’t tie in as well with the flashbacks. Plus, people like cats; they don’t want to see them die on TV.

Credits and cat-killing spot after the jump.  continued…

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In their new brand extension campaign “The Thread,” Progressive asks and then answers a question you might have had watching their long-running spots starring apron-wearing sales clerk Flo: “What does an apron have to do with car insurance?”

Over dramatic piano music, the first spot of the campaign, “Everything,” poses and then answers the question, claiming an apron is “hard work,” “pride in what you do,” “not quitting until you’ve made something a little better,” and, finally, “for us, everything.” The serious spot is quite a departure from Progressive’s typically goofy advertising strategy.

The real heart of the new campaign isn’t in the television spot, but rather the “Apron Projects” highlighted at Progressive’s Thread website. These are projects by people outside of Progressive who “make progress by making things a little better.” Like Stephen Ritz, a New York-based educator who launched Green Bronx Machine, a project building green walls that grow vegetables in urban areas with a lack of healthy food options.

The new, serious strategy apparent in “Everything”  – originally a bit perplexing — makes a lot more sense in light of “Apron Projects,” which makes you wonder why they didn’t highlight this side of the campaign in the TV spot. Hopefully the follow-up to “Everything” will remedy this.

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Trolli gummy candy wants to get funky. Apparently, the bright colors and odd shapes weren’t quirky enough, so the candy company called upon Minneapolis-based Periscope for some creative legwork. The result is the new “Weirdly Awesome” campaign, which features a couple of thirty-second spots that are off the reservation. Periscope seems to be tapping into a “Napoleon Dynamite” aesthetic that hasn’t really been relevant in the eight years or so. The only other comparable campaign I’ve covered in the last year is this strange bit of Bugle buffoonery from Canada. Trolli’s campaign is a little more appropriate because of the sour candy product, but I’m not so sure that weird is the new currency of cool.

You can watch the second spot and sort through some credits after the jump.

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The new space thriller, Gravity, from Alfonso Cuarón, who helmed Children of Men and one of those Harry Potter films among others, hits theaters in less than two weeks. You’ve probably seen trailers for Gravity on TV with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock floating around space as classical music plays.  It’s an unusual premise for a movie, and even though Cuarón is a brilliant director, one can understand how studios might be worried about box office sales. So, to generate some buzz for the film, production company B-Reel has launched an interactive website that digitally illustrates the experience of floating around space.

The site holds brief appeal – exploring a simulation of space can get boring after a few minutes of scrolling and listening to the eerie loop of someone panting – which is the point. Floating around knowing you’d be lost forever looking at blackness sounds tremendously boring and tremendously frightening. Of course, Cuarón (I hope) will focus on the threat of that boredom, so his space thriller is, you know, thrilling. But if you’re an astronomy geek or interested film buff, the spacewalk and links to the movie trailers should be enough fun until October 4.

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The latest Adobe Systems spot, from Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, brings up a valid issue: companies that rely on digital marketing may not understand if their ad tactics are working properly. Traffic, as we all know, can be misleading. But Abode won’t mislead. They’ll presumably cut through the smoke and tell a company how to effectively increase exposure. At least, that’s what one is led to believe after watching “Click, Baby, Click.”

The one-minute spot is enjoyable enough. There’s some frenetic action, frenetic music, and an easy punchline at the end. That formula generally works, and any viewer with three ounces of common sense understands the commercial is a flashy exaggeration. But, part of me would like to see at least a hint of what Adobe Marketing Cloud can do for a business rather than focusing on what it won’t do. Still, we’ve seen much worse.

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Around seven weeks ago Honda launched Project Drive-In, a charity to raise money to buy drive-in theaters digital projectors as 35mm film distribution comes to an end. Project Drive-In lets you vote on which theaters you’d like to see saved, and has included an online Twitter and Vine auction, in addition to their normal crowdfunding at Indiegogo.

Yesterday, Honda released an emotionally charged video documenting the project’s successes so far. Called “The Reveal,” it documents the tear-filled reactions of drive-in owners when they are told that they’ve been awarded a new digital projector from project drive-in.

But Honda isn’t content to just document past successes. Project Drive-In has awarded new digital projectors to four more theaters: Monetta Drive-In (Monetta, South Carolina), Ocala Drive-In (Ocala, Florida), Starlite Drive-In (Cadet, Missouri), and Stateline Drive-In (Elizabethton, Tennessee). The winning theaters were determined by more than 2.6 million votes at www.projectdrivein.com. These latest additions drive the total number of drive-ins saved to nine, four more than Project Drive-In’s original goal of five. All nine of these theaters will host a celebration that includes a special screening of shameless cash-in sequel Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.

The Project Drive-In Indiegogo campaign will continue until the end of the year in the hopes of saving more theaters by allowing them to make the leap to digital conversion. You can help save a drive-in near you at the Project Drive-In Indiegogo page, where they’re also selling a 2014 Odyssey Touring Elite.

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Draftfcb San Francisco went the live-action route to show the immersive nature of the new free-to-play (up to a point) massive-multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The whole thing looks more like a movie trailer than one for a video game. Groups of people gradually take to the streets, wielding familiar Jedi/Sith weapons, using mind control and otherwise looking fierce/menacing while drums pound in the background. A voiceover declares, “We are no longer friends, or neighbors: today, we choose a side and join the battle,” as a melee breaks out.

The live-action nature of the spot (which even foregoes including actual gameplay footage) underscores the immersive nature of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which puts players “at the center of [their] own story-driven Star Wars saga,” which takes place over 3,000 years before the original films. Players can choose to play not just as Jedi or Sith, but also as a Bounty Hunter, or from other iconic roles. Players can enjoy the story-driven game up to level 50 for free (with restrictions), or choose to become a subscriber for unlimited game access. So, to be fair, this isn’t exactly a “free game” as there are serious restrictions to the free-to-play mode and it’s used more as a way to ease gamers into paying for a subscription if they want to finish the game and enjoy all its features.

Nerds everywhere are seemingly eating this spot up right now, and those faithful to the franchise are undoubtedly going to play this game, but some of the non-Star Wars-obsessed gaming crowd might be left wondering if the gameplay-averse spot is hiding flaws with the game itself. Feel free to check out more and “join the battle” here.

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Funny prank, or the ultimate gift?

For Saatchi and Saatchi’s latest campaign for DB Breweries, the agency pranked a friend named Russ by plumbing his house with beer.

Following their plumbing hack, every tap in the house flows with cold beer, fulfilling every alcoholic frat boy’s wet dream. (It is unclear if the toilet is also tapped with beer.) They then set up cameras around the house to capture the reactions of their friend and his significant other. Russ is initially flummoxed by the brown liquid flowing through the tap (usually when that happens it’s time to call a plumber); after smelling and then tasting the beer he delightedly pours himself a glass and decides, “That actually tastes really good.” His wife/girlfriend, on the other hand, seems significantly less amused, presumably with concerns of when water will once again flow through the taps. The spot concludes with Russ climbing under his house, to find the kegs tapped to his plumbing. At this point the prank crew jumps out of hiding, and, predictably, everyone enjoys a good brew.

Since launch last week, the spot has gone viral on YouTube, with the full-length version (watch at your lunchtime leisure above) already racking up over three-million views. There’s also a :90 version, with :60 and :15 TVCS to follow as well as social media support, billboards, etc., etc.

Should Saatchi wish to duplicate this experiment in the States, I would be more than happy to volunteer my apartment. Let’s make this happen guys.

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Carnival Cruise Lines is launching a new 25 million dollar campaign, “Moments That Matter,” with agency Arnold Worldwide. The fall campaign will extend across broadcast, radio, digital and direct mail from September through December. For the first spot in this campaign, Carnival sourced material directly from their customers through social media.

The :60 spot, “24 Hours Onboard” features content chosen from over 30,000 pictures and videos submitted by past guests on Carnival’s cruises, including one dude who publicly proposed on a Carnival Cruise (yikes). “24 Hours Onboard,” which will debut on major network primetime Monday, September 23rd, appeals to viewers’ sentimentality, and employing pictures and videos sourced directly from past customers adds a personal element that could help convince viewers to book their next vacation with Carnival. As Arnold Executive Creative Director Pete Johnson puts it, “We found those looking to book a cruise are much more likely to listen to recommendations from previous cruisers.” So filling a commercial with vacation memories from enthusiastic fans of Carnival makes a lot of sense.

This isn’t a spot that will blow anyone away with its creativity or execution, but it doesn’t have to. It appeals to the type of people who line their walls with photos from family vacations, or, in other words, Carnival’s target audience. continued…

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To celebrate the end of NFL training camps and the start of the regular season, Gillette and BBDO NY released “Training Tracks” a music video using only the sounds of NFL players and other athletes training.

Who could pull of such an unusual, even avant-garde concept? Probably only Academy Award-winning director Michel Gondry. So that’s who they got. Gondry directs the spot, based on a track conceived by Phil Mossman of LCD Soundsystem fame. The “music experiment” was produced at the acclaimed Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood.

“Training Tracks” features NFL stars Champ Bailey, Kayvon Webster, BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Giovani Berard, as well as former Notre Dame offensive guard Mike Golic, Jr., all of whom participated in Gillette’s  “Built for Training” program this summer. You may not recognize all the athletes as they come into and out of focus, but the sounds they make work surprisingly well. The spot is also expertly shot (obviously) and a much-welcome departure from Gillette’s normal blase approach to advertising (or worse yet, that terrible Adrien Brody/Andre 3000/Gael García Bernal campaign). Let’s hope they continue putting out more interesting and unique (an overused word in the ad world for sure, but one that definitely applies here) work like this spot with new agency Grey in the future. continued…

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