Hasta La Creative!

After six years of infancy, the E*Trade baby is finally moving on with his life.

This week, the online brokerage began airiring what is said to be the last ad featuring the longtime spokeschild, a Super Bowl staple since 2008. As a bit of an admission that the campaign has started to get stale, the spot shows the baby being subjected to a new sidekick. In true 2014 Internet style, it's a zany cat.

The campaign's end was somewhat inevitable, given that the agency behind it, Grey, resigned the E*Trade account in 2013. Just a month later, the account was handed to fellow WPP Group agency Ogilvy & Mather.

L’agence publicitaire CHI & Partners réalise une série de prints pour l’association The Prince’s Trust à l’occasion des résultats du GCSE. La note, le F, la plus basse est transformée en perspective de carrière dans la finance, le design ou l’ingénierie. Une belle campagne pleine d’espoir et graphiquement très réussie.

Our favorite economic-development ads this week come from Eastern Poland—a region in which you simply must invest, lest you ruin your child's life forever. Somewhat more cryptically, the campaign also suggests that your therapist will also be super pissed if you miss the Eastern Poland boat. Also, your father-in-law—who's presumably just looking out for his little girl. Check out the other ads from the series below. Via Slate.

In the great tradition of employees becoming the stars here’s the delightful people from The Co-operative Bank singing their hearts out to thank everyone for voting them Best Financial Services Provider by Which?
http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/thankyou

The logo is familiar and normally it is a mode of lending financial help to both private and corporate consumers. MasterCard Worldwide is ranked among the top companies for diversity according to the recently announced 2009 list of Top 50 Companies for Diversity from DiversityInc. Of the 401 companies who vied for the honor, MasterCard was ranked No. 41.

This first appearance by MasterCard since its initial public offering in 2006 demonstrates the company’s increased focus on investing in human capital to drive its agility, innovation and performance in the marketplace.

As a worldwide organization that provides services in more than 210 countries and territories, MasterCard’s corporate vision to advance global commerce requires a keen understanding of the complex and ever-changing global business environment. As a result, diversity is a core enabler to deliver products and solutions that appeal to its diverse customer base and key contributor to the company’s overall business success.

MasterCard offers a number of programs and benefits that demonstrate its commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, including highly competitive benefits for same-sex partners of employees; adoption assistance; alternative workplace solutions such as teleworking and job-sharing; family medical leave; and relocation assistance. In addition, MasterCard supports five vigorous employee-resource groups, with 25 percent of employees participating in at least one of the groups. Also, earlier this year, MasterCard hosted its first MultiCultural Summit, with the goal to bring together employees from regions and business units to explore innovative ideas to drive business growth through its diversity and inclusion strategy.

(Source) Press

There was an article in yesterday’s WSJ regarding the new marketing and branding campaign for Citi appearing in the midst of credit-market turmoil and economic uncertainty. The answer to branding problems? Head back to 1978 and dig up a retired slogan. After researching, Citi determined that the best course of action would be to “revitalize” their classic slogan, “The Citi Never Sleeps,” although cleverly dropping “the” off the tag. From the WSJ article:

The ad push comes as the New York company has been on a cost-cutting drive, even slashing its dividend. Citi, which declined to say how much it is spending on the new ads, says it went to great lengths to save money on the campaign. It says it used leftover footage from a previous shoot instead of opting for an expensive new commercial shoot, which often involves extensive travel to far-off places. It also used a piece of music the company owns and has used in commercials before.

So one has to wonder – is Citi “never sleeping” out of a cognizant branding choice? Or rather struggling to find a new voice without the proper means to develop one? Either way, we’ll be seeing more of the Citi that doesn’t sleep in the coming weeks. Will the nostalgia prove comforting or merely confusing?