Hasta La Creative!

hhgregg is a rapidly growing, publicly owned and operated consumer electronics and home appliances retailer headquartered in Indiana specializing in high end TVs and appliances.

For their latest TV spot, Leo Burnett came up with a nightmarish date scenario in which a TV-obsessed tech geek (possibly an hhgregg employee), who bears a slight resemblance to a young Mario Batali, can’t stop talking about “light and illuminating pixels” and “variable refresh rates” while on a paddle boat ride with his date. The extremely bored date sits, paddling with her feet while holding a rose from TV-Obsessed Tech Geek. The poor woman stares off, bored out of her mind, as her date drivels on, “Of course, you wouldn’t know that unless you read the blogs I read.” Then we cut to an hh gregg salesman who says, “Talking about TVs doesn’t make you sound smart, it makes you sound lonely,” perfectly followed by the tagline, “hhgregg knows TVs, so you don’t have to.”

The ad is effective not just because it dovetails so well with the tagline, but because it presents such a humorous real-life situation that everyone can relate to. Ladies, I’m sure you’ve been there: stuck with some dude yammering on about some techie drivel without letting you sneak in a word of conversation, completely oblivious to your boredom. And I’m sure that tech-obsessed guys have felt at times a bit too much like the guy in this spot. Maybe this spot will raise some self-awareness. An advertisement that may open up some eyes and improve first date behavior? I’d say that’s a pubic service.

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If CBS' The Crazy Ones seems like a day at Leo Burnett in Chicago, there's a good reason for that. The agency's executive creative director, John Montgomery, works as a consultant and executive producer on the fall comedy—and, in fact, inspired the show, which marks the network series return of former Mork from Ork Robin Williams.

It's no accident, then, that the pilot has the fictional ad folks working on a campaign for McDonald's, one of Burnett's biggest clients. (They want pop star Kelly Clarkson to shill burgers. "I don't do jingles," she sniffs, but eventually belts out a meat-loving ditty.) The brand didn't pay for the prodigious placement, though Williams told 200-plus reporters at a Television Critics Association panel on Monday in Beverly Hills to "look under your chairs—there's a Happy Meal!"

Expect to see other real brands on the show, likely from Burnett's stable, that were willing to let the creative team poke some irreverent fun at them. Montgomery has been spending several days a week with the sitcom's writers, said executive producer David E. Kelley, giving them agency scoop that's "sometimes crazier than we could imagine." Kelley and Williams also visited Burnett's offices to soak up the agency flavor. Even the show's title comes from advertising—"Here's to the Crazy Ones" was the anthem spot from TBWA's "Think Different" campaign for Apple.

There's another ad connection with The Crazy Ones. James Wolk, who plays the shadowy Bob Benson on AMC's Mad Men, stars as the new show's office lothario and creative whiz. "I only do advertising and marketing shows," he joked during the panel. The workplace comedy, premiering Sept. 26, also features Sarah Michelle Gellar as Williams's pragmatic daughter who's trying to keep her screwball dad in line.

Well, it appears that Leo Burnett is doing something right as of late in General Motors’ eyes as the automotive giant has given more work to the agency according to those in the know. As you may recall, Leo took over for Commonwealth on the Chevy Silverado duties last December, though the latter agency did produce the recent “Strong” spot for GM’s truck brand before the parting of ways (Update: We should clarify that Commonwealth actually created the Silverado launch spot even after the shift to Leo, which will now handle future work). Anyhow, sources familiar with the matter tell us that Leo Burnett has now taken on AOR responsibilities for three more GM units including Fleet and Commercial Operations, Certified Pre-Owned, and Remarketing.

From what we’ve been told, Leo, which has actually had ties to GM for over 45 years, will oversee brand strategy, digital marketing and creative initiatives for the aforementioned brands, with work for all three being led out of the agency’s Detroit office.

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In writing, Leo Burnett’s winning entry for the 4A’s TruthBrief Competition almost sounds like a Sporcle quiz: advertisements stripped of logos were turned into artwork.Visually, the Leo Burnett submission – titled “4 Le Communique Art Show” – was meant to show that advertising and art don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The agency produced an art show at a college campus with the logoless works of art. Although you can’t clearly see the the art in the video above (I’m not sure why), the concept still lends itself to thoughtful debate about the relationship between commercialism, creativity, and art.

The competition called for entries that could “improve advertising’s image and attract a new generation of talent into the advertising business.” Considering it’s generally accepted that a majority of ads are boring and/or terrible, the competition seems like a worthy endeavor. As for Leo Burnett, now that the art is over, the agency can go back to handling it’s mega-commercial clients like McDonald’s, The Coca-Cola Company, and Kellogg’s.

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Usually, city rivalries related to sporting match-ups involve wacky wagers from politicians. The mayor of City X wants 100 pounds of cheese from the governor of City Y if City X wins the Super Bowl. But for the 2013 Stanley Cup between the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks, the wacky wagers are getting social and, well, smack-talky. The folks over at Arnold Boston and Leo Burnett in Chicago are using the Stanley Cup to launch their own trash-talking competition for charity: The Smackley Cup. Agency employees and random fans from all over are encouraged to tweet using #smacktalkboston or #smacktalkchicago. Once the series concludes, the agency supporting the loser of the Stanley Cup will have to donate 10 cents per tweet and retweet to a charity AND wear the opposing team’s sweater in the office the following day. That sort of masochism always makes for fun water cooler talk.

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Before you read on, watch the above spot in full screen. If you have heart problems, maybe avoid this clip altogether.

Good? Okay, “Spoiler Alert” and all that. The above spot comes from Leo Burnett’s London shop and is part of the UK’s Department of Transportation campaign, “THINK!” It’s pretty damn terrifying, watching a bloodied head come crashing through glass.

Unfortunately, the press release ruins some of the magic by telling us that the guys in the bathroom are actors, as there are probably some rules about pulling this prank on unsuspecting citizens, especially if they’re at risk for a heart attack. In any case, pretty effective messaging. Oh, and don’t drive drunk this weekend. Credits after the jump.

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Pouco mais de 500 quilômetros separam as cidades de Lahore, no Paquistão, e Nova Delhi, na Índia. É uma distância pequena, se levarmos em conta a violência e constante estado de tensão que fazem parte do dia a dia destas duas nações, em conflito desde a época em que pertenciam ao Império Britânico. A Coca-Cola, então, resolveu mostrar que apesar das diferenças, os dois povos podem ter muito mais em comum do que pensam, utilizando a Small World Machines.

O projeto da Leo Burnett de Chicago e Sydney criou uma conexão entre indianos e paquistaneses por meio de uma tela touchscreen 3D para projetar um vídeo ao vivo, na tela de uma vending machine. Os participantes, cada um em seu país, foi incentivado a completar uma tarefa junto com a pessoa do outro lado, como desenhar corações e símbolos da paz.

O conceito é muito bonito para a venda de refrigerantes em shoppings, onde as máquinas foram instaladas, mas pouco faz para contribuir para o entendimento entre hindus e muçulmanos, especialmente aqueles que estão nas zonas de conflito e certamente não podem beber uma Coca.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Well, while we’re on the Publicis Groupe-owned agency theme today (again, purely coincidental), we’ve received confirmation that Leo Burnett has had to let go of some staff today. The Chicago-based agency tells us, “Leo Burnett made the difficult decision today to let less than 2% of its U.S. staff go, in an effort to better align staff to client needs as it evolves and grows in new directions.” Staff count is “less than 2,000″ at Leo’s U.S. operations, which of course also include offices in Detroit and New York as well as the Samsung-dedicated creative hub in LA, so feel free to do the math. 

From what we’ve been told, Leo Burnett’s alignment as they say has nothing do with the agency losing Tampax to sister agency Publicis last month. We’ll let you know if and when

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Dizem que pai e mãe é tudo igual, só muda de nome e endereço. Aplique este raciocínio no cinema e o resultado será bem próximo da campanha que a Leo Burnett criou para o festival IndieLisboa.

Na série impressa, vemos como as ideias podem ser facilmente recicláveis no caso de personagens como Rocky e Chucky, cenas românticas ou duplas como Nick Nolte + Eddie Murphy, Mel Gibson + Danny Glover, Jackie Chan + Chris Tucker e Tommy Lee Jones + Will Smith.

É claro que, se a gente parar para pensar a respeito, vamos encontrar muitos outros exemplos para comprovar o argumento de que “Hollywood está ficando sem ideias”.

Nos comerciais para a televisão, a ironia continua. Enquanto Noooo mostra que as mocinhas sempre gritam do mesmo jeito (só mudando mesmo o cenário e o nome do filme), Runaway comprova que o maior suspense daquelas cenas em que durante uma fuga o herói tenta ligar o carro – que falha, obviamente – está no fato de esperar que elas terminem de maneira diferente.

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We All Share é o nome da nova campanha da Samsung para divulgar o aplicativo AllShare Play. Hoje à noite, durante a CES, um filme crowdsourced será apresentado ao público. No hotsite, os usuários são convidados a ajudar a Samsung na tarefa de contar uma história respondendo à questão “O que significa compartilhar, para você?”. As respostas podem ser dadas na forma de tuítes ou fotos no Instagram, que devem ser acompanhadas pela tag #weallshare e poderão ser acessadas a partir de um mapa – a pegada global film experience do projeto.

Na raiz da campanha está a proposta de mostrar como nos conectamos às pessoas utilizando o conteúdo – ainda que isso signifique compartilhar fotos de comida e gatinhos.

A ideia de um filme crowdsourced, entretanto, não é nova – One Day on Earth está aí para provar. Mas We All Share é uma forma interessante de divulgar uma ferramenta convidando as pessoas a contribuírem com textos e imagens, de preferência usando o AllShare Play, é claro. A criação é da Leo Burnett.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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