Hasta La Creative!

Office Depot was likely the first of the back to school flock this year, launching a 15-second spot from new AOR Zimmerman last month. But Great Clips is also getting out ahead of the pack, extending seasonal creep and ruining summer fun for children everywhere with a new campaign from Minneapolis agency Periscope targeting parents.

A pair of national broadcast spots, directed by Periscope chief creative officer Peter Nicholson, employ the “school described like it’s a nature documentary trope.” If you’ve ever taught at an elementary school, you understand why this is such a commonly employed tactic.

“The back-to-school season is a very important time for both kids and parents. The kids are returning to the proverbial kingdom of school,” Nicholson said in a statement. “It has a lot of great parallels to the classic animal kingdom shows, creating a great metaphor that stresses to parents the importance of starting the year off feeling great.”

“The Fall Migration” is set in the anxiety-provoking setting of the school bus on the first day of school.

“So begins the fall migration,” the retro-styled voiceover opens the spot. “In this roving habitat, youngsters are eager to show off their freshly shorn plumage,” he adds as the kids, who appear a bit too happy to return to class, show off their new haircuts.

The spot ends with a “survival tip” for parents, advising them to use online checking at Great Clips to save time during the busy back to school season.

Another spot, “The Watering Hole” employs much the same approach in a different location: the water fountain. Both spots will run in 30 and 15-second versions on national broadcast, and the campaign also includes digital, social, print and in-salon components.

Unfortunately, the effort fails to live up to the agency’s 2015 “#MoreMinutes” effort, which found a more fun and creative way to showcase how Great Clips can help save time during the busy lead-up to the school year.

“Our focus with this campaign is helping parents set their kids up for success. The first day is a time when everyone wants to feel their best; a haircut can really help boost confidence,” Great Clips director of brand marketing Ann Latendresse said in a statement. “It’s one less thing for parents to worry about during a really hectic time. The work with Periscope plays that up in a fun way.”

Sid Lee launched a new “Feel The Wins” campaign promoting fantasy sports on Yahoo, its first work since winning creative duties on the account this spring.

A lighthearted spots promotes Yahoo Fantasy Football via the series of large and small wins offered by playing fantasy sports, from getting over a breakup via a trade for a tight end to grabbing the right player off the waiver wire to endless gloating about winning your league, as in “Glory Year.”

That particular spot takes a look at Tim. Tim won his fantasy football team back in 2008 and now he will never shut up about it. Ever.

The spots are all voiced by the unmistakable H. Jon Benjamin (Bob’s Burgers, Archer, Home Movies, Dr. Katz) and the top notch voice acting does a lot to elevate the efforts. There’s the apparent disdain for Tim in the aforementioned “Glory Year” and his delivery of the name “Tico Jones-Parker-Jankovich-Jones-Parker III.”

The trio of spots, which run in 30 and 15-second iterations are a fun look at some of the particulars that appeal to fantasy sports players and leave plenty of room to explore further topics in the future (hopefully H. Jon Benjamin makes a return). Each spot concludes by reminding viewers that Yahoo Fantasy Football is the “#1 App in Fantasy” but the ads arguably don’t do much to make the argument for why fantasy players should choose the app over competitors.

You’ve probably noticed Chipotle in the news recently for reasons the fast casual chain is presumably not thrilled about. But it’s not all mice and norovirus.

The burrito chain (okay, they sell tacos, too) also recently teamed up with CAA Marketing and RZA to provide a musical equivalent of the burrito eating experience, accompanied by a 360-degree visual experience, entitled “SAVOR.WAVS.”

RZA composed sounds inspired by 51 ingredients for “SAVOR.WAVS,” utilizing various instruments. “SAVOR.WAVS” can create a track from any combination of menu items at Chipotle. Once the track and visuals are “cooked up,” you can then interact with the song by adding your own extras, like Tabasco and chips, which have sounds of their own. After completing the experience, visitors can sign up to receive a buy one, get one offer via text.

“SAVOR.WAVS supports our commitment to using only real ingredients in our food — without any colors, flavors or industrial additives,” explained Chipotle chief marketing and development officer Mark Crumpacker, in a statement. “As a parallel to the way we cook, RZA used only natural instruments, and composed them such that each unique combination works beautifully together.”

“I’ve always believed food, like music, has the power to change our day and even shape our world,” added RZA. “SAVOR.WAVS continues to challenge us in how we think about food, what’s real and what’s responsible.”

Back in March, Applebee’s named Grey as its creative agency of record, following a review launched in December which initially included six agencies and eventually came down to finalists Grey, BBDO San Francsico and Argonaut San Francisco. The same month, parent company DineEquity named John Cywinski as Applebee’s new president. Prior to the review, the account was handled by Kansas City-based agency, after Applebee’s ended its relationship with CP+B in November of 2015.

Last week, Grey launched what amounts to its first work for the client with a series of ads promoting the casual dining chain’s new “Topped and Loaded” menu.

An agency spokesperson confirmed that Grey had worked on the ads, explaining that the client requested the agency deliver a promotion for the new “Topped and Loaded” menu and the agency obliged. They added that Grey’ first full brand campaign for Applebee’s is expected this fall.

Given what was undoubtedly a quick turnaround timeframe, it’s perhaps to be expected that the resulting creative has some issues.

The campaign amounts to three variations riffing off the same basic ad. A man and a woman are sitting at Applebee’s when she asks what’s up with the new “Topped and Loaded” menu. That seems a fair question, given it is a recent introduction. However, the man seems at once perplexed and oddly disdainful, responding that it’s “an American favorite on top of an American favorite, Alice.”

That description then gets a series of varying comparisons in the different ads. In the above “Presidents,” he claims, “It’s like Abraham Lincoln on top of George Washington” (We’re not going to comment on that one…), while other versions imagine double “Holidays” or a rollercoaster rodeo.

It’s hard to tell what, if anything, the spots say about what Grey’s approach will be on its first full brand campaign this fall.

DineEquity is devoting a significant media investment to promoting AppleBee’s new offerings. It spent $3.1 million on national broadcast placement for the spots last week, the entirety of its national broadcast placement budget for the week. That was good enough for fourth on the list of last week’s list of top spenders on national broadcast placement for new creative. The campaign also includes regional TV buys, online video, internet and mobile display ads.

The DineEquity casual dining chain has gone through a rough period lately. In February, a month before Grey was brought on as creative agency of record, longtime DineEquity CEO Julia Stewart left the company amidst declining sales for Applebee’s.

W+K London worked with production company Time Based Arts to craft an animated celebration of “Dream Makers” for Honda U.K. which marks the directorial debut of James Allen and Mike Skrgatic.

The spot features four characters, who each drive a different model of Honda in their respective stories. Each of them races toward the conclusion of a plot that is already in progress. Interestingly, various stages of the process behind the creation of each segment is shown in detail, while the action unfolds.

The process, as it turns out, is at least as important as the individual stories themselves. It’s at the heart of the message celebrating the “Dream Makers” behind bringing such ideas to life, from script to finished product, implicitly likening them to the minds behind the Honda vehicles shown.

“The best Honda ads often overcome some kind of challenge in the craft and the storytelling that reflects the ingenuity of the brand. There’s crazy technology involved in making a film or a Honda nowadays, but it’s ultimately the warmth of the human touch that makes them achieve excellence,” W+K London creative directors Carlos Alija and Laura Sampedro explained in a statement published by LBB.

Shorter spots, presumably individual scenes from the full version, will run on films shown on Channel 4, More4, Film4 and E4 for a full year, with a longer version living on as cinema ad and online.

The campaign follows a similarly high concept campaign from a competitor here in the U.S. last month. Saatchi & Saatchi L.A. launched a series of short films for Toyota which each played with the concept of time.

Credits:

Creative Agency: Wieden+Kennedy London
Creative Directors: Carlos Alija, Laura Sampedro
Creatives: Carlos Alija, Laura Sampedro, Juan Sevilla, Mico Toledo
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait, Kim Papworth
Producer: Michelle Brough
Executive Producer: James Guy
Account Manager: Olivia Amato-Pace
Account Director: James McHoull
Group Account Director: Nick Owen

Production Company: Time Based Arts
Directors: James Allen, Mike Skrgatic
DOP: Daniel Landin
Producer: Bonnie Anthony

Post-Production Company: Time Based Arts
3D: Chris Wood, Dan Davie, Tom Robinson, Stephen Ross
Executive Producer: Tom Johnson
Colourist: Simone Gratarolla
Concept Artists: Sylvie Minois, James Husbands, Yibi Hu, Nigel Raynor, Ben Oliver
3D Artists: Federico Guzzardo, James Mann, Oscar Gonzalez Diez, Dave LohMike Battcock, Sam Osbourne, Federico Vanone, Nigel Timms, Jeroen Hooghoudt, Tom Hall, Jess Gorick
Nuke Artist: Ralph Briscoe, Aitor Arroyo, Linda Cieniawska
Nuke: Matt Shires, Bernie Varela (Lead)
Flame Artists: Jamie Crofts, Adam Paterson
Flame: Luke Todd, Matt Jackson, Thiago Dantas (Lead)
VFX Supervisor: Sheldon Gardner, Stephen Grasso

So … do you have any tattoos? Of course you do.

But did those SICK tats come from the wheels of your own kickass motorcycle, bro??

The latest campaign from Saatchi & Saatchi’s “premium and luxury brand agency” Team One somehow combines ink, bikes and a father’s love for his son. So all the bases are covered, really.

In the words of the President of the United States, “My son is a high quality person.”

This is part of a campaign to promote Indian Motorcycle, which claims to be America’s first such company. As you can see from the video above, the carbon for the ink in these tattoos was created from the “burnout” rubber of a bike tire.

That ink will be used for a limited time exclusively at Vescovi’s Vatican Studios in Lake Forest, CA and at four Hart & Huntington Tattoo shops in Las Vegas, Orlando, Niagara Falls and Nashville. And then it will be gone forever. Sad!

The campaign will also include “an advertorial spread” in the July/August issue of Inked Magazine.

Full disclosure: we have never heard of this guy. But then we are quite clearly nowhere near the target audience for this campaign…

CREDITS

Director/DP: Leo Zuckerman
Producer: Andrea Sheffield
Assistant Camera: Kenneth Merrill
Gaffer/Grip: Levi Williams
Production Assistant: Lisa French
Sound Recordist: Kevin Santiago

Agency: Team One
Group Creative Director: Craig Crawford
Creative Director: Johnnie Ingram
Associate Creative Director: Geoff Vreeken
Photographer: Matt Hartz
Producer: Leah Bohl
Associate Producer: Claire Allman
Account Director: Landon Nguyen
Account Supervisor: Justin West

Editor: Leo Zuckerman
Colourist: Clinton Homuth // Alter Ego
Sound Design/Mix: Matt Kielkopf

Partners in Crime, the flex business model agency launched in San Francisco last year by DDB, Mullen and West creative vet Stephen Goldblatt, has been busy.

Its latest work is the debut campaign for GolfBook, the only digital platform you need to manage your time on the course. In order to explain what this sort-of-new product does, PIC lampoons some deliciously low-hanging fruit: Ted Talks. In this case, the title character is Fred, a guy who might remind you a lot of someone’s dad or boss.

“Fred is a guy who loves golf over everything else,” said Goldblatt. “He has a knack for explaining anything golf-related in a simple and humorous way.”

So he does!

The campaign is all about Fred, his passion for golf, and his tendency to reduce everything to a comparison between straight talk and however The Kids are communicating these days.

“As long as golf continues to grow with innovative technology, there will be Fred,” Goldblatt added, noting that Partners In Crime will further develop the character through social media and IRL appearances.

We don’t personally know much about mortgages or kids, but gluten is indeed hard.

Fred keeps going in a way that is not too different from some of the lower quality Ted Talks. And he does succeed in explaining how to use a product that’s completely new to us.

Regarding the agency/client relationship, GolfBook president and CEO Gene Pizzolato (who has worked with Goldblatt in the past) said, “With Partners in Crime, we were able to get real bang for our buck in addition to great creative. The platform they created is unique for the market and will allow us to show up in endless ways, from app communication to marketing activities and events.”

Goldblatt explains the model as such: “By keeping overhead low and aligning with strategic and production partners, Partners in Crime is able to deliver world class creative without requiring traditional staffing models, production budgets or extensive timelines.”

So they probably won’t be pitching for Miller Lite anytime soon, but they get the work done.

CREDITS

Client: GolfBook
President, CEO: Gene Pizzolato
Director of Marketing: Joe DiFiore

Agency: Partners in Crime
Creative Director / Founder: Stephen Goldblatt
Art Director: Stephen Goldblatt
Writer: Brian Perkins
Agency Producer: Greg Speck
Production Company: Where The Buffalo Roam
Executive Producer: PJ Koll
Line Producer / Executive Producer: Chris Whitney
Production Coordinator: Phil Tang
Post Producer: Taraneh Golozar
Director: Brian Perkins
Director of Photography: Brett Simms
2nd Camera DP: Will Nail
Animator: Ryan Luse
Animator: Jess Gibson
Editor: Marco Svizzero

Post Production: MFDsf
Colorist: Ayumi Ashley
Producer: Nick Castillo
Sound Engineer: Joel Rabe

Last week, the Brewers Association (BA) launched an “Independently Crafted” label to designate independent craft breweries from those which have been purchased by the likes of A-B InBev and Heineken and “crafty” brands brewed by macro breweries. Sterling-Rice Group (SRG) worked with the Brewers Association on the project, following a successful pitch last June, but the agency has been working with the Brewers Association since 2014.

“With Big Beer acquiring small breweries, it has become increasingly difficult for beer drinkers to know and remember which brands are truly independent. Yet, we know that independence is important to them and they want transparency as it pertains to ownership,” added Brewers Association president and CEO Bob Pease. “Beer drinkers vote with their dollars and want to support businesses that align with their values,” he added. “They have indicated that ownership can drive their purchase intent. We are providing information that will help them select the brands that they already have indicated they want to support.”

“We’re thrilled about this opportunity,”  added SRG executive creative director Adam Wohl. “The Brewers Association is a very collaborative client who represent an unbelievably passionate group of beer-loving entrepreneurs. Individually and collectively, they are David fighting Goliath. And SRG has been given the chance to write the playbook to take on the giant. That challenge, and the creative ways we can disrupt the conversation, is what we live for.”

Over 1,000 breweries have adopted the label since its introduction last week.

“We had more than ten percent of eligible craft breweries adopt just in the first 24 hours,” Wohl noted. “The brewery members of the Brewers Association’s board of directors who helped to spearhead this initiative were among the first to commit. We’re excited to have more and more.”

He added that they’re seeing more breweries commit to the label every day and the Brewers Association is keeping a live tally on its website.

To qualify for the “Independently Crafted” label, a brewery must have less than 25 percent “owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer,” per the Brewers Association’s definition of an independent craft brewery.

“The 25 percent ownership mark has been in place for a decade, and has not changed. One strength of the BA craft brewer definition is that it’s a bright line that can be clearly seen by brewers,” Pease explained.

Early adopter Dogfish Head (the 14th largest craft brewery in the country), for example, which sold a 15 percent stake to New York-based private equity firm LNK Partners in 2015, qualifies as “Independently Crafted.” Grand Rapids, Michigan’s Founders Brewing, which sold a 30 percent stake to Spanish brewing company Mahou San Miguel in December of 2014, does not.

“Small and independent owners often risk their own financial well-being when they take on the challenge of opening a brewery. With any business, it’s not uncommon to seek outside capital. But I think there’s a big difference between gaining access to capital and partnering up with a global brewery, specifically in the areas of raw material and distribution,” Pease said. “When you partner with someone for 30 percent, you don’t have the same challenges, and certainly have better access to raw materials.”

AB InBev was quick to respond to the release of the “Independently Crafted” label, releasing a video providing “Six Viewpoints From The High End,” formerly independent brewers who are now part of AB InBev responding to the new label last Friday. David Buhler, co-founder of Elysian Brewing, asks, “Does this label designate something like quality?” — a familiar argument for those who defend big beer buyouts. 

Walt Dickinson, co-founder of North Carolina’s Wicked Weed, which AB InBev purchased earlier this year, adds, “At the end of the day, we’re all making beer,” and “fighting a bigger battle” against wine and spirits, to which beer is “losing market share every year.”

“At the end of the day, the beer does the talking, not the label on the package, and the consumer makes up their own mind. The problem is that the BA continues to refuse to let the consumer make up their own mind and tries to make it up for them,” 10 Barrel Brewing’s Garret Wales claims.

Asked about the response from AB InBev and other detractors, Wohl said, “Our job is to focus on what we need to do to get our client’s message out in a clear and memorable way. Attention from Big Beer draws attention to our cause. Since we have an exponentially smaller advertising and PR budget, free exposure is always appreciated.”

Pullitzer Prize winning photographer Barbara Davidson turned to an unorthodox camera for her new photo exhibition: a Volvo.

Forsman & Bodenfors new work for the brand features a photo exhibition by Davidson shot entirely with the Volvo XC60’s City Safety system. Davidson used the City Safety camera located on the car’s front windshield to capture moments of life as viewed from the Volvo and the resulting exhibit, which she also curated, opened at London’s Canvas Studios on July 4. Forsman & Bodenfors also put together this “Moments Feat. Barbara Davidson” spot documenting the process. Davidson explains at the opening of the spot that she in a car accident as a young girl and was told that she survived “because the car was a Volvo.”

It’s an extension of the “Moments” campaign which the agency launched for Volvo last month with a spot directed by Gustav Johansson.

“I would say, ‘Turn right, slow down, move a little to the left,’” Davidson explained to The New York Times. “I was essentially framing my images in the screen that they had created for me in the car so I could see how they would look. Later, I edited pulling screen grabs off that video.”

Amateur photographers shouldn’t expect to be able to replicate the experiment, however. As The New York Times points out, Davidson’s car was “hacked by Volvo’s computer experts to allow her to see the camera’s video output in real time and compose images as a precision driver shepherded her through Copenhagen earlier this year.”

“I think the car camera has incredible artistic potential,” Davidson told the publication, “and conceptual artists in particular are going to want to explore it. The fun part for me was that I was able to turn off my photojournalist mode.”

See some of Davidson’s photographs here.

Regional Tex-Mex chain Taco Bueno appointed TM Advertising, which bought itself back from IPG in May, as its creative agency of record, following a review.

The Dallas-based agency will be tasked with handling broadcast and digital creative, brand strategy, consumer engagement, integrated media planning, packaging and in-store experience for the brand.

TM Advertising’s appointment follows the arrival of Sarah Beddoe as Taco Bueno’s new chief marketing officer in February, as well as the chain’s recent endorsement deal with newly-drafted Dallas Cowboys defensive end Taco Charlton.

“After a very competitive search, TM emerged as the right integrated partner for Taco Bueno,
Beddoe said in a statement. “Together, we will build on the passionate brand affinity for Taco Bueno and create even more brand advocacy with a breakthrough creative campaign.”

“Taco Bueno has an incredibly unique story to tell filled with history and the fiercest of loyal ‘buenoheads,’” added TM Advertising CEO Becca Weigman. “We are thrilled to be working for such an incredible brand and client. They are smart, relentlessly hardworking and fun. We connected immediately. Like us, they are passionate, have a unique approach and are perfectly positioned for growth.”

TM Advertising first work for Taco Bueno is expected sometime this fall. Taco Bueno has 175 locations in Texas, Colorado,  Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma and generates an annual revenue of around $187 million. Last year it was named best Mexican chain in by Market Force Information’s quick service restaurant study.