Hasta La Creative!

Zulu Alpha Kilo launched an awareness campaign to promote the National Advertising Challenge (NAC), formerly the National Advertising Awards (NAA), with the intention of doubling last year’s submissions.

The campaign coincides with the release of NAC’s nine creative briefs, “sponsored by Canadian marketers looking for solutions across nine categories (Big Ideas, Campaign, Student, Print, OOH, Wild Card, Not for Profit, Media Innovation, and Digital).” Winning teams will receive a trip to Cannes, for the International Festival of Creativity.

The briefs are at the center of Zulu’s 90-second video for the campaign, which attempts to use humor to draw attention to the NAC. In the spot, a creative resource manager discovers a young creative printing out the NAC briefs. Worried about the agency juggling its already full workload, she is stressed out at the prospect of adding more to the agency’s workload, and responds as you might expect. Zulu Alpha Kilo worked with production company Someplace Nice and director Pete Henderson on the spot.

“We have big aspirations for the NAC, but we were facing a serious comprehension issues within the creative community,” said Ellie Metrick, marketing and communications manager at NAC, in a statement. “This year’s online video goes a long way in explaining that we offer creatives an opportunity to do original work in exchange for a chance to go to Cannes.”

Credits:

Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo

Client (Company): National Advertising Challenge

Creative Director: Zak Mroueh

Art Director: Ari Elkouby

Copywriter: George Ault

Agency Producer: Tara Handley

Production House: Someplace Nice

Director: Pete Henderson

Account Team: Alexandra Potter

Client: Ellie Metrick

Production House Producer: Robbie McNamara

Video Post Facility / Editing Company: Rooster

Editor: Chris Parkins

Online/Transfer: Fort York

Flame Artist: Lauren Rempel

Audio Post Facility/Music House: Zulu Alpha Kilo

Audio Director: Stephen Stepanic

Engineer: Stephen Stepanic

You’ve all seen BBDO’s Brady Bunch-themed Danny Trejo/Steve Buscemi Snickers Super Bowl spot that continues to saturate your TV.

In another, recently publicized element of the campaign, a billboard that’s been up in New York City since December that initially featured a massive image of Marcia Brady was gradually turned into Trejo’s menacing mug.

This week, the brand has unveiled a quick time-lapse clip (above) of the billboard’s transformation from Brady to badass in a matter of weeks. Snickers seems to have captivated some New Yorkers, who were initially compelled to take photos and hit social media with the hashtag #WhatsUpWithMarcia.

Colossal Media, which handled the painting process, shared its own stop-motion clip and accompanying risque joke (?) last month:

The secret about #whatsupwithmarcia is finally out. #eatasnickers, y’all. pic.twitter.com/AgxxlWiUIu

— Colossal Media (@colossalmedia) January 23, 2015

I wonder if the carpet matches the drapes. #whatsupwithmarcia #eatsnickers http://t.co/fHwRAejHBI

— Colossal Media (@colossalmedia) January 24, 2015

The billboard essentially serves as a springboard for the next phase of the “Who Are You When You’re Hungry?” campaign.

There’s the web site that encourages visitors to upload photos, the Snickers Meme Generator, and a contest offering the chance to win free stuff or take over the brand’s YouTube page for a day.

Expect more work to come.

The residents of Lampa, Peru and  Waskaganish, Canada are thousands of miles apart but share a common problem: extreme cold. So FCB Mayo worked with Western Union to facilitate an exchange between the inhabitants of each region in a campaign called “Moving Warmth For Better.”

Two Waskaganish residents (Virginia Wabano, the president of the Cree Women of Eeyou Istchee Association, and Lillian Trapper, an animal hide specialist) arrived in Lampa with animal hides and showed residents how to use them to protect their homes from the cold during the winter. In return, the residents of Lampa sent back quinoa, a nutrient-rich food well suited for the cold, along with cooking instructions. Since Waskaganish, Canada suffers from a lack of food resources due to its cold climate and remote location, it was the perfect exchange.

On the campaign website, Western Union describes the program as “one of our most valuable transfers: an exchange of knowledge between two cultures that, unknown to them, was needed to solve their problems.” The process was captured on video for an online spot documenting the uplifting experience.

“Moving Warmth For Better” is just the beginning of a larger “Goodwill Transfer” campaign for Western Union, which promises to “carry out exchanges between
different cities throughout the world, for the sole purpose of attaining the common good.”

W+K Portland debuted a new ad for Coca-Cola during the Oscars on Sunday, entitled “A Generous World.”

The 60-second ad, the latest in Coca-Cola’s “Open Happiness” campaign, follows a series of unfortunate events. It opens on a man buying a Coke when he sees a woman break a guitar string and decides she needs it more than he does. She’s about to sip the bottle when she sees an elderly nun whose car is being towed and gives the Coke to her. From here, the Coke keeps making the rounds from one person to the next. As each is about to sip the drink, they see someone who has suffered a worse misfortune than they have and decide to give it to them instead. It’s very much in line with the “Open Happiness” mood of promoting happiness and positivity, although the premise wears a bit thin by the end of 60 seconds after so much repetition. The broadcast spot ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and Coca-Cola invited fans to submit their own ideas for endings before finally revealing their own (see below).

Thanks to all the screen-writers and guessers out there. Ready to see who gets the Coke next? #AndTheCokeGoesTo… https://t.co/TQa3pKOodQ

— Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) February 23, 2015

Credits:

Client: The Coca-Cola Company
Spot: “Generous World”

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Hal Curtis / Jeff Gillette / Antony Goldstein
Copywriter: Neil Ramanan
Art Director: Gianmaria Schonlieb
Producer: Jennifer Hundis
Account Team: Brian Mead
Business Affaires: Teresa Lutz
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fizloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Dante Ariola
Head of Production: Scott Howard
Line Producer: Natalie Hill
Director of Photography: Philippe Le Sound

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Adam Pertofsky
Assistant Editor: Marjorie Sacks
Post Producer: Shada Shariatzadeh
Post Executive Producer: Angela Dorian

Final Online & Effects: The Mill, Chris Harlow
Color Correction : Company 3, Stefan Sonnenfield

Music Company: We Are Walker
Executive Producer : Sara Matarazzo

Audio Post and Sound Design Company: Eleven Sound, Jeff Payne

Hello Flo teamed up with production company Senza Pictures to release a mockumentary ad about a woman who creates “Postpartum: The Musical” to promote their newest product, the “New Mom Kit.”

The online spot follows Hello Flo’s irreverent ads for its tampon subscription service, “First Moon Party” and “Camp Gyno.” Given the viral success of those videos, it’s no surprise to see the brand taking a similar approach to promote its new offering. Things get graphic (and gross) pretty quickly with the author of the musical describing her bloody, cracked nipples and just keep on from there, serving a dual function as an effective form of birth control. She continues describing the untold horrors of motherhood as we get glimpses of her musical, which, of course, is awful. The problem with humor about bad musicals is you have to sit through the music, although the spot is not completely without amusing moments. Still, “Postpartum: The Musical” pales in comparison to its predecessors, also because the product integration here feels so forced. (When she is told about the product her “completely groundbreaking” musical suddenly seems “completely irrelevant.”)

The creative team behind the new spot is also different from “First Moon Party” and “Camp Gyno.” For those spots, Hello Flo teamed up with Jamie McCelland and Pete Marquis, who both wrote and directed the ads. This time around, CEO Naama Bloom told Adweek, she once again reached out to the pair but timing issues prevented another collaboration. “It was really scary to do something without them because I have so much faith in their ability to tell my brand’s story,” she told the publication.

Credits:

Client: Hello Flo
Production Company: Senza Pictures
Writer: Sara Saedi
Producer: Brandi Savitt
Casting: Wulf Casting
Music, Lyrics: Found Objects
Director of Photography: Mark Schwartzbard
Editor: David Fishel
Art Director, Wardrobe: Ally Nesmith
First Assistant Director: Lenny Payan
Production Coordinator: Julia Brady
Hair, Makeup: Rebecca Levine
Script Supervisor: Leslie Zak
Assistant Editor: Elizabeth Theis
Assistant Camera: Cory Stambler
Gaffer: GT Womack
Key Grip: Ben Hunt
Sound Mixer: Wil Masisak
Boom Operator: Matt King
Assistant Art Director: Nelson Mestril
Production Assistant: Jordan Bush

Ogilvy created a new spot in its “Built For It” campaign for Caterpillar, the first international effort in the campaign (and fifth overall), helping a remote village celebrate its lantern festival like never before.

Caterpillar brought power to the Yuhu Village, which is nestled 7,900 feet up in Yunnan Province’s Jade Dragon Snow Mountain for the most spectacular lantern festival its inhabitants have ever seen. The video opens on villagers preparing for the festival, while explaining that “In China, lanterns symbolize prosperity and good fortune.” Before night falls, Caterpillar shows up and powers the 8,840 lanterns with 252,000 watts of electricity from its generator, for a stunning light show, captured by Eyepatch Production and director Brandon LaGanke. Soon, fireworks are going off overhead and the festival is in full swing. The visually impressive spot ends with the line, “Bringing power and prosperity everywhere.”

Beyond its eye candy, the ad does a good job of showing Caterpillar’s equipment standing up to unusual situations. The villagers seem to really appreciate the gesture, as well, and their reactions make the ad emotional, positioning Caterpillar as the hero in the story without seeming too heavy-handed.

Credits:

OGILVY

Group Creative Directors: Chris Curry, Jerry Dugan

Creative: Emily Clark, Gavin Breyer, David Marino, Todd Goodale

Chief Creative Officers: Steve Simpson, Chris Garbutt

Account: Kurt Lundberg, Kate Prescott, Bret Emerson

Planning:  Bryan Smith, Liz Sparkman

Chief Production Officer: Matt Bonin

Producer: Damon Webster

CATERPILLAR

Client: Caterpillar – Diane Lantz-Rickard, J. Archie Lyons, Deanna Dean

Creative Director, Global Brand Marketing:  J. Archie Lyons

Producer:  Jim Kelton

EYEPATCH PRODUCTION

Director: Brandon LaGanke

Executive Producer:Joanne Golden

Line Producer: Daniel Lubell

DP: Paul McCarthy

EYEPATCH POST-PRODUCTION

EyePatch Executive Producer: Jay Cagide

Post Producer: Laura Shackelford

Editor: Drew Palazzo

Sound Engineer: Ken Meyer

Music Supervisor: Chris Mazur

Color/On-Line: Method/Co3

Assistant Editors: Wes Latta, Andrea Podaski

Leo Burnett Sydney showed off the capabilities of the Samsung Gear VR by offering residents of landlocked Alice Springs the chance to go shark diving.

Working with surf director Taylor Steele of Rapid VR, the agency created a video using footage of great white sharks in Port Lincoln, including a shot of one of the sharks attempting to eat the camera rig. They then established a “Dive Shop” in Alice Springs offering locals the chance to experience a shark dive with the Samsung Gear VR and recorded their reactions. Most people were in awe of the immersive technology, while others found the experience so realistic as to be frightened when they were “eaten” by the shark at the end.

“Beyond the technology itself, what really excites us about the Gear VR is that it’s enabling completely new kinds of experiences, and putting them directly in the hands of our customers,” Arno Lenior, chief marketing officer at Samsung Electronics Australia, told mUmBRELLA. “The potential for this platform is huge – and we wanted to create something that would bring some of that potential to life.”

Leo Burnett took quite the minimalist route with its Oscar campaign for McDonald’s, using nothing but text to evoke classic movies.

The 60-second spot likens movies such as Jaws, Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and King Kong to McDonald’s iconic Big Mac, an audacious claim to be sure, ending with the line “Lovin’ takes the right ingredients.” Aside from any qualms about the comparison, the ad does mostly succeed at conveying movies with just a few lines of text, at its best (fava beans + chianti + people…for dinner) mixing in some humor. There’s also something oddly satisfying about how well the text synced up with Debussy’s “Claire de Lune.” Still, how you feel about the approach will largely come down to whether or not you think a fast-food chain should be comparing itself to the classics, and we’re guessing McDonald’s won itself plenty of haters with this one.

W+K London tests viewers speed reading abilities in a series of unconventional ads for Honda.

Entitled “Keep Up,” “Keep Up (Faster)” and “Keep Up (Even Faster,” the spots are inspired by speed reading apps that function by, as Adweek puts it, “displaying a single word on the screen at a time, one right after another in rapid succession,” along the reader to “not just beat but destroy the average reading pace of 220 words per minute.” W+K London employs the same tactic here, with words flashing by in quick succession, ending by asking the viewer, “Think you can push your limits even further?” before linking them to the next video, where the words scroll by even faster.

The main video has amassed over 150,000 views, and since the other two have almost as many it seems safe to say most viewers are taking Honda up on the challenge. W+K London does a good job of marrying the concept to the idea of pushing personal boundaries and finds a way to stand out in the crowded auto space.

Last year, Samsung grabbed attention at the Oscars with a certain celebrity selfie. This year, 72andSunny mostly promoted Samsung’s other hardware — specifically its SUHD TVs, tablets and Gear VR virtual reality headset.

Comedy Central’s Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (of Key & Peele) appear in “The Best TV Deserves the Best TV” in which they are amongst a cast of people talking about their favorite shows and movies. The comedic duo, it turns out, have an idea of their own for “the greatest show of all time ”  — Found, which is just one episode. They throw out some other ideas in the 90-second ad, such as Zombees and Night Club Court, and their appearance has the feeling of some of the more open-ended, seemingly improvisational segments on their show used to fill in space between sketches. Without Key and Peele, the spot would feel like just another ad celebrating film and TV to promote a high definition television, but they help elevate it to something a little more worthwhile.

“Movie Magic,” the other spot Samsung ran during the award ceremony is more typical Oscar ad fare. After a couple sees a movie together, a woman decides she’s going to make a movie that will “kick that movie’s movie butt” and the remainder of the ad focuses on her creative process, while highlighting several Samsung devices she uses. While not without its charm, the basic premise is commonplace enough that Apple released something fairly similar, showing how their devices could be used by aspiring filmmakers, and it drags on at 90 seconds.