Hasta La Creative!

Just two weeks ago, we were covering the first wave of Nabi spots from Draftfcb, a pair of 30-second ads that favorably compared kid-friendly Nabi tablets to Kindle devices a la Microsoft vs. Apple. Our Erik Oster found them to be informational and appealing. However, these two new spots, “Fear Not Question” and “Swagger,” drop the comparison technique for an unconvincing plea for Nabi to be a lifestyle brand.

“Fear No Question” presents the Nabi brand as classroom-friendly, going right after a parent’s sense of idealistic learning, so in turn, that parent will go right for his/her wallet. It’s a boring and safe play that may have worked out if Draftfcb hadn’t already launched the Kindle attacks that are much more memorable.

“Swagger” goes straight after the kids. Promoting Nabi headphones – think Beats for kids – the spot shows a little kid walking down a school hallway in slow-motion as he gives headnods to his friends and long stares to the girl he probably has a crush on. This is more Fubu than Fuhu. This is also just a bad commercial, corny and overdone, even for a children’s market. The tagline of “Everyone Needs a Theme Song” actually has a nice ring to it, but the visual execution is too silly. The clip almost plays like a mocking comedy skit of itself.

At 30 seconds, both ads are easy to watch and easy to forget. ”Swagger” and credits after the jump.

continued…

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Well, despite what tipsters and those we know have been saying ad nauseum over the last few days, we’ve been told by parties involved that “any suggestion” that Draftfcb’s West Coast SoCal operation is no longer working with Taco Bell “is wrong” (Seattle and SF offices are not in play here). After all, the agency did just bust out this ad campaign this week for the fast-food chain for better or worse. But anyhow, the Draft camp has updated its announce from two weeks ago regarding the revamping of its SoCal agency structure, offering the statement below:

“Last month we announced that Rahul Roy would be taking on expanded responsibilities as the managing director of our operations in southern California.  He is partnering with Eric Springer and Michael Bryce, former creative partners at Deutsch L.A. who joined the agency several months ago as chief creative officer and executive creative director respectively, to revamp our operations there.  While we will keep a small service office in Irvine, we are shifting the heart of our business to new offices in L.A. so that we can tap into a deeper talent pool for the benefit of clients like Taco Bell while attracting new business.

Our latest new hire is Sandip Vadher, who has joined the agency as SVP, group planning director; he succeeds Ken Muench. Sandip had most recently held the same role at Pitch. He has deep QSR experience, working with clients like Burger King and McDonald’s over the years.  His keen strategic thinking has also benefited clients and brands like Microsoft, Target, Coke Zero and Samsung.

While a number of our Orange County people are now assigned to work in L.A., the decision to retool our operations in southern California means that we also need to part ways with some talented people. They were informed of this decision Wednesday. We are doing all we can to provide a smooth transition to those who are affected; we deeply appreciate their contributions to our agency. In the long run, we believe these strategic shifts should fortify our business in Southern California.”

We’ve inquired about number of staff affected and headcount as a result of Draftfcb’s SoCal restructuring. We’ll keep you posted.

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