Hasta La Creative!

When they stumbled upon archival pictures of a man and his 1955 Beetle, Volkswagen Canada and Toronto-based agency Red Urban realized they had a story to tell. As it turns out, that story is pretty amazing. They tracked down the man in the photo, Paul Loofs, who has driven the car around the world three times. Amazingly enough, that car is still running.

So Volkswagen Canada and Red Urban teamed up with Academy-nominated director Hubert Davis to tell his story in an (approximately) 30-minute documentary film. That documentary, Once More, The Story of VIN 903847, premiered on Discovery Channel and Bravo in January and is featured above (not a bad way to spend a lunch break). It tells the story of Loof’s unlikely, low-budget solo treks around the globe, which included many obstacles and unexpected, fortuitous events. Loofs eventually sold the car back to Volkswagen for use in an advertising campaign. A man named Emmanuel Thuillier bought the car and tracked down Loofs on the Internet, then surprised him by reuniting him with the vehicle for the first time since 1967.

“We feel that it really speaks to our fans, not only reinforcing the emotional connection so many people have to the brand, but celebrating the truly remarkable stories that so many of our owners have. It is not so much about a single car, although this Beetle is remarkable, it is more about how one car connects so many different people and their experiences, proving itself as The People’s Car,” said Volkswagen Brand Marketing manager, Lynne Piette. The documentary will continue to air on Discovery Channel and Bravo until February, with the following showtimes:

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Coming off the latest (not so surprising) revelations of the misuse of NSA data, Happiness Brussels has launched “Spy on the NSA,” a site which gives the the NSA a taste of its own medicine in support of www.thedaywefightback.org, “a massive digital protest against mass surveillance taking place across the internet today.” Among those participating today as well are Reddit, Amnesty International, Tumblr, Upworthy and Greenpeace.

The “Spy on the NSA” site turns the camera on the National Security Agency’s Maryland headquarters. Happiness Brussels describes it as its “own statement against the mass surveillance and privacy issues that are occurring right now.” They also wonder “how long they can keep the site online, before it gets shut down.” The site gives visitors the opportunity to record a selection of Happiness Brussels’ surveillance to share on social media. Check out the site here (while you still can), and, if you haven’t already, head on over to www.thedaywefightback.org to take a stand against the NSA’s abhorrent abuse of your constitutional rights.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Chicago-based agency O’Keefe, Reinhard & Paul wasted no time releasing their first campaign for Big Lots, after winning AOR duties for the company in late January.

OKRP worked with former Kmart CMO Andrew Stein(who was the man who of course led the infamous “Ship My Pants” campaign) on the new digital effort promoting the fact that Big Lots “ is now the official Hostess Thrift Shop.” The campaign, “#thriftisback” is centered around two Hostess-themed videos. “Mostess” is a 60 second spot featuring a group of choreographed moms dancing to a song name-checking Hostess treats. Yeah, OKRP definitely went the goofy route with this one. As tough as “Mostess” is to watch, the 90 second “Twinkie Time,” which features a car ride marred with an a capella Twinkie song, is just plain insufferable. (It could just  be me, as I have a strong aversion to a capella, but I don’t think so.)

“Videos are emblematic of the kind of quick-to-market, impact-driven and unexpected work that we are doing for clients who need to turn around campaigns yesterday,” explains O’Keefe, Reinhard & Paul CEO Tom O’Keefe. In addition to the videos, the campaign also features social media and digital marketing. Stick around for “Twinkie Time” after the jump (if you dare), and head on over to Big Lots’ YouTube page for more.  continued…

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Seiden has launched a new CPR initiative for New York Presbyterian Hospital called “Songs to Save a Life to.” Inspired by the story of Michael Kiernan (see above) and the frightening statistic that “89 percent of people who experience cardiac arrest at home, at work or in public die because they don’t receive immediate treatment,” the campaign aims to dispel the idea that only trained medical professionals can save lives.

The “Songs to Save a Life to” site teaches you how to perform hands-only CPR, a procedure that can “double or even triple a victim’s chance of survival.” Since the procedure calls for 100 chest compressions per minute and most people have no idea what 100 beats per minute is, Seiden came up with the ingenious idea of creating a Spotify playlist called “Songs to Save a Life to,” comprised entirely of songs that are 100 BPM. Even if you can’t get to the Spotify playlist during an emergency situation, the playlist should still be helpful: just take a minute to peruse the list and pick a song you know by heart to use if you ever need to perform CPR. It just may save somebody’s life someday.

The playlist contains such CPR-appropriate songs as “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees (the classic example of 100BPM used to teach CPR) and Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” — although we have to wonder about the inclusion of Queen’s classic “Another One Bites The Dust.” It’s a great tool for those of us who aren’t EMT trained, although you should keep in mind that if you save someone’s life and the first thing they here when they come to is Hanson’s “MMMBop,” they may wish they (or you) were dead. Stick around for an official 2012 hands-only CPR instructional video after the jump.  continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Lucky Pet

Advertising Agency:The Jupiter Drawing Room, Cape Town, South Africa
Creative Directors:Jonathan Beggs, Lucas Van Vuuren
Art Director:Steven Tyler
Copywriter:Gerhard Pretorius
Agency Producer:Lauren Trevelyan
Production Agency:Black Ginger
Cg Supervisor:Darrin Hofmeyr
2D Animation:Sasha Perdigao
Clean Up and Paint:Thea de Klerk, Daoyi Lu
Backgrounds:Daoyi Lu, Thea de Klerk
Storyboard:Thea de Klerk
Compositing:Angelo Beciero, Chris Bekker
Flame:Marco Reposo de Barbosa, Eddie Addinall
Cg Animation:Andre De Villiers, Marthinus Wessels, Roberto Pita, Jac Hamman, Samantha Cutler
Modeling and Texturing:Roelof Van Wyk, Hayden Barnett, Lani Greenhill
Lighting and Rendering:Sean Wilkens

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Intel

Advertising Agency:Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco, USA
Executive Creative Directors:Paul Venables, Will Mcginness
Creative Director:Tom Scharpf
Associate Creative Director:Eric Boyd
Art Director:Stephen Lum
Copywriter:Liz Cartwright
Director Of Integrated Production:Craig Allen
Agency Executive Producer:Emily Moore
Agency Producer:Melissa Nagy
Production Company:Knucklehead
Director:Chris Hewitt

Code and Theory New York have redesigned the website for Finnish vodka brand Finlandia, giving it a sleek new look.

The new site features a unique and unusual visual design that lends itself well to the brand’s “To the life less ordinary” tagline. On the site “a singular access point icon has replaced the fixed navigation, the logo surfaces only when necessary, and product-specific sections like “Drinks” are more about cocktail inspiration than a recipe archive.” The site invites viewers to scroll down the page for a cinematic experience, ending with a 1:06 video (featured above) that correlates with the rest of the site. That all of it is rather strange (in a very Nordic kind of way) and doesn’t make a ton of sense, again, completely fits the “life less ordinary” attitude the brand is promoting. Intended reaction (I’m guessing): “I have no idea what’s going on, but it kind of makes me want some vodka.” Check out the site for yourself, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

McCann Erickson has launched an integrated social media campaign called Not-So-Super to raise awareness about sex trafficking for the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition.

“Sex trafficking is commonly perceived as something that happens far away, in other parts of the world. We are eager to try to change that perception.” said Tom Murphy, co-CCO of McCann New York. Because of this, it’s all too easy for people to dismiss the sex trafficking epidemic as something that doesn’t concern them, but it’s a very real issue much closer to home than many suspect.

McCann’s “Not-So-Super” campaign shines a light on the sex trafficking epidemic happening in New York, elsewhere in this country, and all over the world. “It is the buyers of commercial sex who drive such a high demand that girls as young as 12 are trafficked across state lines to meet it. We need to address the day in and day out demand to bankrupt this so-called business model and put an end to the buying and selling of young girls once and for all,” says Sonia Ossorio, President, National Organization for Women – New York City. So McCann is hoping their campaign can help curb the demand for commercial sex, which spikes around big events like the Super Bowl, that leads to the exploitation of women and children by pimps and sex traffickers.

At the center of the campaign is the “Not-So-Super” website and the above video, a harrowing look at the victims of sex trafficking and the increased demand placed on sex workers during the Super Bowl and other big events (accompanied by an increase in the likeliness of physical abuse at the hands of their clients and pimps/traffickers). It’s hard to watch, especially on the Friday going into Super Bowl weekend, but it’s an important message that needs to be shared and a stark reminder that some dread the impending arrival of the big game. The website also offers a telephone hotline for people who are or may know victims of sexual trafficking, and a variety of other resources. The full campaign will “span film, print, street activities, a website and twitter initiatives.” Hopefully, “Not So Super” can help make a difference for victims of sexual trafficking at one of their most vulnerable times of the year.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As the age old saying goes, you only get one chance at a first impression and when it comes to online marketing, your landing page is often times that first impression. It’s your opportunity to tell customers about your product or service and convince them that it’s the best one on the market.

If you are able to create and maintain a great landing page, there’s no telling how far your business could take you, so with that in mind, here are our five best tips for creating an outstanding landing page.

1. Do Your Research

Before you start to lay out the design of your landing page, do some research on your audience and your competitors. Knowing your visitors expectations will allow you to create a great landing page and ultimately generate higher conversion rates.

A great example of this is how the company Conversion Rate Experts made $1 million for Moz with nothing but a landing page and a few emails.

Conversion Rate Experts simply asked Moz’s customers what they liked, what it would take to sign up for the service, or why the service was cancelled and used that to information to create landing page prototypes and shared them with Moz’s Twitter followers. After receiving customer feedback, Conversion Rate Experts unveiled Moz’s new landing page, offering memberships for only $1. By doing this research beforehand and designing a page that catered to customers’ desires, Conversion Rate Experts succeeded for Moz.

2. Create More Landing Pages

Even if you already have one great landing page, you should build more simply because more landing pages results in more leads.

In fact, studies have shown that companies can expect to see 50% more leads by increasing their number of landing pages from just 10 to 15. The reason for this is that more landing pages equals more opportunities to convert potential customers into leads. Furthermore, it will help you build more targeted landing pages that play to the unique interests of specific visitors. As we all know, the more targeted your advertising is, the more likely it is to convert.

3. Avoid the Word “Submit”

Although a good clear call to action button is the best way to convince customers complete your desired action, having a “submit” button has actually proven to turn people away. Even if you’ve established a relationship with a customer, most of them still won’t be comfortable submitting any information right away. So while a call to action button is a surefire way to get results, you should veer away from using the word “submit.” Try using call to actions like “Get Your Free eBook,” “Subscribe to Our Newsletter,” or “Download Whitepaper.” Terms like these are not only more appealing to visitors, but they also tell them what they can expect to receive from you.

4. Be Consistent

Being consistent with your landing page is important if you want to see results. One way to stay consistent is by focusing on your call to action and making sure that the message remains the same on both the landing page, and the rest of your site. A consistent and strong call-to-action will tell visitors what you want from them and will also establish trust by eliminating confusion.

Another key part of staying consistent is making sure that your landing page works on mobile devices just as well as it does on desktop–in 2014, this is more important that ever before. More people are surfing the web via mobile devices and if your landing page doesn’t work on a smartphone, you should expect to see a loss of conversions. Make sure to optimize landing page for mobile so that it’s effective on all platforms.

5. Focus on Design

Design is a broad topic, but it’s an essential part of creating an outstanding and high converting landing page. Design doesn’t just refer to the color scheme of your page though; it also means that your headlines, images, copy, and form is all clearly presented and appealing. Avoid visual clutter and get to the point. In other words, tell your visitors exactly want you want them to do once they’ve arrived on your page.

Make sure your design also uses contrasting colors, and remember that when creating a landing page, less is always more. Keep your forms short and ask only for essential information.

This contributed article was written by Murray Newlands for The Offer Machine.

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HTC

Villaverde Boetticher FC is a modest Spanish football team that plays in an amateur regional division with one of the lowest budgets in its category. Most importantly, Villaverde is known for playing a fundamental role in the integration of kids in a conflictive neighbourhood through its football academy. Villaverde has two dreams and they’re both extremely complicated: promoting to Third Division (and going professional) and playing a UEFA Champions League match. HTC, official UEFA Champions League Smartphone, decided to help make both dreams come true. Without the players knowing, HTC put artificial turf on their old soil pitch, renewed the club’s installations and brought the official UEFA Champions League trophy to preside the new pitch’s inaugural match. Engaging the fans’ dreams about dreaming big and someday being able to play the UEFA Champions League. HTC. Here’s To Change.

Advertising Agency:El Laboratorio, Madrid, Spain
Ceo:Marisa De Madariaga
President & Founder:Carlos Holemans
Executive Creative Directors:Jesús Lada & Carla Roméu
Online Creative Director:José Sánche-Blanco
Art Directors:Ignacio Soria, Maitane Herráez
Copywriters:Arturo Benlloch, Federico Botella.
Agency Producer:Paco Bueno (RPM)
Account team:Ignacio Olazabal, Emanuele Manzini, Jose Ortiz, Cristina Torrecilla
Producers:GRUPO GOODCOMPANY
Director:Fergus Stothart
General Director Goodcompany:Daniel Martinez-Tessier
Creative Director Spotless:José Gamo
Executive producer Picnic:Santi Poch
Head Of Production:Ramón Masats