Saatchi & Saatchi NZ Helps Kiwis Hold on to Summer for L&P

It’s hard to relate to, as below freezing temperatures continue here in the northeast US, but in New Zealand people are just returning from summer holiday. Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand has launched a new campaign for L&P in an attempt to help Kiwis hold on to that summer feeling as they return to work and school.

Beginning this week, L&P is offering people in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch “the chance to swap their shoes for jandals, bring a bit of summer to their workplace, or even take an impromptu urban dip to cool off.” It’s an interesting outdoor campaign for a product that many associate with summer. And who wouldn’t want a free towel or flip-flops (jandals if you’re in New Zealand, apparently)?

As Saatchi & Saatchi creative director Guy Roberts explains, “We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling when the holidays are over and we’re forced to hang up our togs, get back into our work clothes and re-join the commuter crowds to work or Uni. You’re back at your desk and reduced to watching the best days of summer from your office or classroom window. For many kiwis, L&P and summer go hand in hand and we hope this campaign will help kiwis hold on to that great summer feeling just a little bit longer.”

The campaign will roll out over the next six weeks, with “a range of customised ad-shels, street posters and promotional partnerships.” As the brightest thing we have to look forward to in this region is a weekend with temperatures in the 40s, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels a little envious hearing about this campaign. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Jung Von Matt Presents ‘Renovated Billboards’ for OBI

Hamburg-based agency Jung Von Matt has created an interesting new outdoor campaign for OBI, the largest DIY store in Germany.

The new campaign was launched as a result of price wars between independent stores in the country causing ugly billboards to pop up everywhere. OBI wanted something visually appealing to set them apart. “Why do people advertise products that are supposed to make our homes look nicer using adverts that make everything look uglier?” they asked. So JVM came up with “renovated billboards,” which are essentially outdoor advertisements showing what costumers could use OBI’s products to accomplish. It’s an innovative solution that benefits not just OBI, but also the run-down locations where Jung Von Matt renovated. Areas that otherwise would be inundated with ugly advertisements were instead renovated in a way that should get people to notice OBI. Check out the results for yourself in the video above, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Cossette Games the Arctic for Royal Canadian Mint

Educational video games typically offer up half-hearted gaming experiences that grow staler by the click. It’s like the developers weren’t sure how to balance the knowledge with the fun, so they just half-assed both parts. Rarely do we get to enjoy the two like in an Oregon Trail. Who knew caulking a river could be so much fun?

Based on the screenshots and trailer for the Royal Canadian Mint’s new digital children’s game, Cossette has teased enough creativity to at least get kids interested in checking it out. The release marks the 100th anniversary of first Canadian Arctic expedition (although according to the trailer, the timeline should start in November 1913). I haven’t played the game myself – I’m a bit outside the 6-11 year-old age range – but in terms of advertising, I was surprised by the amount of storytelling and suspense in the trailer. The graphic aren’t exactly going to challenge the Grand Theft Auto franchise, but this actually looks like a game rather than a textbook pretending to be a game. Credits after the jump.

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Anúncio de shampoo interage com a passagem dos trens do metrô na Suécia

Para apresentar sua nova linha de produtos para cabelo, a marca sueca Apotek criou um painel interativo no metrô de Estocolmo. A interação, porém, não se dava com as pessoas, mas com os trens.

Sensores ultra-sônicos detectavam a proximidade da composição, acionando uma animação que transmite o conceito: “De? vida aos seus cabelos”.

Uma execução simples, com um efeito bem marcante para os passageiros que aguardavam na plataforma.

Apolosophy

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This German DIY Store Promoted Renovation Products by Renovating Buildings

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Here’s an interesting use of outdoor advertising. Engaged in a epic price war with the competition, German do-it-yourself store OBI hooked up with Jung von Matt which create billboards with a unique goal.

Answering the question “Why promote things that make our homes more beautiful, with advertising that makes everything look uglier?”, Jung von Matt created billboards by actually renovating sections on run down buildings near OBI stores.

The boards demonstrate what can be done with OBI products in real world scenarios people can understand. And the billboards permanently beautify the area. Instead of making it uglier with price-war messaging.

Australian Bank Turns ATMs Into GAYTMs

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Australian Bank ANZ, supporting its partnership with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2014, has converted several Syndey area ATMs into GAYTMs, complete with bedazzlement and rainbow colored receipts.

Created by Whybin\TBWA, the ATM screens carry messages such as “Hello gorgeous,” “Cash out and proud” and “Happy Mardi Gras. ANZ will donate all non-ANZ ATM user fees to the non-profit Twenty10 for the duration of the campaign.

Draftfcb Chicago Lets Pets Speak for The Shelter Pet Project

We thought we’d round out Monday on a cute note.

Draftfcb Chicago created a new pro-bono campaign for The Shelter Pet Project that lets the animals speak for themselves. Working in partnership with The Ad Council, The Humane Society of the United States, and Maddie’s Fund, Draftfcb’s integrated campaign features TV, outdoor and web PSAs promoting pet adoption. The campaign showcases the adorable and amazing personalities of real dogs and cats adopted from shelters, who practically reach through the screen and invite viewers to play with them. Draftfcb plans to take things a step further later this week with the launch of a new online experience on The Shelter Pet Project’s website allowing visitors “to virtually meet and play with the pets from the PSAs.” You can view the PSA for the friendly feline Stetson above, while dog lovers can meet the energetic Arnie below. Still not enough aww to round out your Monday? Stick around for another feline/canine pair and credits after the jump.

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Grey Stages Ewing Energies Takeover for TNT’s ‘Dallas’

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If you own a car and live in Manhattan, you’ll have reason to celebrate this Monday, especially if you’re a fan of TNT’s Dallas reboot.

To celebrate the season 3 launch of Dallas, Grey New York is organizing a gas station takeover for TNT, with the mystery location being transformed to a Ewing Energies station with prices that will drastically undercut the competition (although 1978 prices may be a bit too much to hope for). The show’s star, Josh Henderson, will be on hand to cut the ribbon and announce the price.

Grey has launched the campaign with a video message from Henderson on the Dallas Facebook page. A multimedia campaign will lead up to the event on Monday, including “radio promotions, billboards, wrapped oil tankers,” more video messages from Henderson, and “a New York Times ad announcing the price cut.” The actual location of the Ewing Energies gas station will be kept secret until Monday, so a keep eye on this campaign, especially if you’re keen on getting some cheap gas after the weekend. This should be a fun way to launch the new season, and we’re guessing the slashed cost of gas at the station will draw quite the crowd and garner a lot of attention for the show.

“Producing a campaign for TNT that effectively showcases how the world’s most powerful fictional family, the Ewings, can blur the lines and wield enough power to change something in the real world is the type of work that Grey lives and breathes for,” says agency executive creative director, Lisa Topol. “Fans will just have to wait and see how generous the Ewings will be with the final price of gas.”

One thing is for sure, though, this guy is excited:

 

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DHL Trolls Competitors with Clever Stunt (Update)

We’re not sure who is behind this one, but DHL pulled a clever stunt and, in lieu of a traditional advertising campaign, had their competitors advertise for them (if the above video is to be believed).

To accomplish this they taped the packages with thermoactive foil and cooled them to below the freezing point. So competing companies like UPS and TNT picked up what appeared to be a black package, but when they went to deliver it (to carefully selected, not so easy to find locations) the box had transformed to reveal the message, “DHL Is Faster.” So employees of competing companies were walking around the city, advertising DHL’s services for free. Assuming this isn’t a hoax, it has to be one of the more clever marketing stunts in recent memory. Video of the stunt, appropriately titled “Trojan Mailing,” has been gaining a good deal of attention on YouTube. It’s already gained over 500,000 views since being added on Wednesday. I think it’s fair to call DHL’s tactic a resounding success.

Update: “This was not something that was initiated by DHL,” a rep for the company told Consumerist in an e-mail. “The video was created by an external agency for their own internal competition. We were aware in advance of the intention to use it for this purpose. We were not aware of any plans to share it externally.” No word yet on which agency was involved.

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David&Goliath Puts On Live AR Experience for California Lottery

David&Goliath wanted to do something a little different to promote the California Lottery’s California Black Exclusive Scratchers tickets as part of their “Luck Will Find You” campaign. So the El Segundo, CA-based agency teamed up with production company V Squared Labs to create the “first-ever real-time, augmented reality experience.”

Utilizing “a mix of live TV production and augmented reality,” David&Goliath and V Squared Labs brought Lady Luck to life on a massive LED screen at L.A. live on February 9th. Select bystanders were given the opportunity to dance and interact with Lady Luck in real time. Pulling off the augmented reality experience was made more difficult by having “set times to go live and nail the performance before the next advertisement went on,” combining some of the more difficult aspects of live television with those associated with creating a believable experience out of augmented reality technology. After each performance, the scene was reset and the crew went through the whole process all over again. It’s exhausting just thinking about it. In order to account for any mishaps, and to make the experience as seamless as possible, V Squared Labs “created a custom software platform to react to real-time interactions,” including any possible mishaps.

“It was all about creating a fun, engaging, interactive piece of entertainment,” says David Angelo, founder/CCO of David&Goliath, and it seems the agency was willing to pull out all the stops to make it happen. Check out the video above to see how the whole thing came together, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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New Caribou Coffee So Strong It Needs A 5-Story Pinterest Board at Mall of America to Express Itself

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In America, bigger is always better, right? We’ve never been to the Mall of America big we hear it’s big. Really, really big. So it is without surprise it’s not got a 5-story Pinterest board, courtesy of Caribou Coffee, which is promoting its new Real Inspiration Blend.

The board, created by Colle + McVoy, is live and passersby (or anyone) can get their images on the board by hastagging their photos on Instagram and Twitter with #CaribouInspires.

As a Zombie Fan, I Thank You, Relevent (Now, Only If We Were in Union Square at the Time)

There’s not much to say, but as The Walking Dead crawls, groans, lurches, etc. to the telly soon, here is a nice little stunt set up in Union Square today by NYC-based, MDC Partners-owned experiential marketing agency, Relevent. I promise to never walk over a sidewalk subway grate again (ok, at least for today). In case you missed this one, here’s a prank from just a couple of weeks ago on the AMC show’s star Norman Reedus in London.

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Volkswagen 4Motion: Nature insists

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Volkswagen
Gmp Advertising, Romania

Canadian Olympic Committee: We Are Winter

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Canadian Olympic Committee
Proximity, Canada

Everyone Hates the Venmo Ad Campaign

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If you’re in New York, perhaps you’ve seen the out-of-home campaign for Venmo, an app that makes it easy to send money to a friend. It features Lucas (who actually works at Venmo) staring off into space with copy that doesn’t say much.

Copy includes, “Lucas buys a round” and “Lucas uses Venmo” and “Lucas takes the stairs” and Lucas has dreams.” The ads don’t explain Venmo which in and of itself is a worthy tactic with the aim of getting people curious enough to find out for themselves.

But it would seem there is an outright wave of hatred for this campaign if you check Twitter and various blog comments.

One can, of course, argue the approach was intentional. Launch a lame campaign, get people talking about it, get free publicity. Which is exactly what’s happening.

Or, if you’re ad guy John Laramie, you might say, “Who the fuck is Lucas? I should give a fuck that Lucas likes magic? Oh wait, I like magic, so maybe I’ll like Lucas, which means then I should try Venmo? Oh my god, I ride subways too, just like Lucas! Let me go Google Venmo when I get off this train. Maybe it’s a subway app?”

Or if you’re Steve Hall who publishes Adrants, you might say, “Who the fuck cares. It’s just a stupid app. Move along people.”

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Russian Flaming Billboard Today’s Ad Ripoff?

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It’s been awhile since we reported on a potential ad ripoff, but this one got our attention.

A restaurant in Yekaterinburg, Russia decided to promote their flame-broiled steaks with a flaming billboard. The technique is strikingly similar to a 2011 Deutsch NY campaign promoting Outback Steakhouse’s wood-fire grill cooking platform in which, “three long, brown cylinders running along the front of the billboard—symbolizing a grill—[were] ignited.” The new campaign certainly shares a lot in common with Deutsch’s work for Outback, although that campaign was significantly more badass, ending with “The flames [consuming] the billboard and the grill [falling] off, landing on a car, [resulting] in an explosion.”

It would be a much more clear case if the billboard in question were in the US, but the distant location suggests that it’s at least possible that the similarities are a mere coincidence. Did the Yekaterinburg restaurant rip off Deutsch’s campaign? We’ve provided footage of the Outback billboard below for comparison. Let us know what you think in the comments section.

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Korean Air Lands on Madison Ave

Korean Air has landed downtown in Madison Ave, with a new, interactive video wall aimed at enticing business travelers.

The immersive, interactive wall, designed by Pearl Media, was installed at 335 Madison Avenue — a location strategically selected for its heavy foot traffic and proximity to Grand Central. Visitors to the wall, after activating it through gesture-based technology, are invited to choose from a list of cities, including Dubai, Bali, Seoul and Prague. Then, the video screen immerses them in the selected location and prompts them to take a photo, which can then be emailed and shared on social media. A sweepstakes is also part of the promotion: nine winners will receive a $500 Korean air voucher.

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The experience “…is intended to be a market disrupter to encourage travelers to consider Korean Air,” says Pearl Media CEO Josh Cohen, who adds, “Breaking demanding business travelers out of their familiar patterns is an ongoing challenge for airlines.” And yes, Pearl Media’s Korean Air experience attempts an intriguing solution. It also looks pretty fun. Check it out for yourself if you’re in the neighborhood, and let us know what you think in the comments section.

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Jogmydog: Dog Walking

Advertising Agency: Draftfcb, Sydney, Australia
Creative Director: Simon Edwards
Head of Art: Steve Liu
Copywriter: Elle Crozier
Art Director: Elle Crozier
Retoucher: Electric Art
Account Service: Kate Heatley

Anonymous Donor Buys Thank-You Billboard for Batkid

Just in case you thought the San Francisco Batkid story couldn't get any cuter, a mysterious billboard near the Bay Bridge is thanking the miniature hero, better known as 5-year-old leukemia patient Miles Scott, for keeping the city safe. Whoever paid for this thing employed some Bruce Wayne-level secrecy, because it surprised the Make-A-Wish Foundation—who helped turn San Francisco into Gotham City for young Miles—as much as everyone else. Batkid has turned into quite the donations magnet for Make-A-Wish, which is great and all, but gestures like this sign also offer a lot of value by keeping this story fresh in people's minds. 


    

Situation Stockholm Magazine: CV

A harsh winter of 6 months of the year makes it hard to be homeless in Stockholm. Some 700 homeless people get help by selling the magazine Situation Stockholm. But the growing number of homeless made it more difficult to sell the magazine. Sales dropped 22% during 2012. So we helped people discover the sellers again. By letting some sellers write their authentic CVs and tell their tragic life story through them. And by choosing a media close to the selling situation. The campaign got massive attention in all medias, including national TV, making the homeless of Stockholm a nation matter. More importantly – they hoped for a sales increase of 50% compared to previous month. The actual increase was 101,5%. The December issue sold out a week early.

Advertising Agency: INGO, Stockholm, Sweden
Creative Director: Björn Ståhl
Copywriter: Björn Persson
Art Director: Timo Orre/Richard Baynham
Illustrator: Attributverket
Graphic Design: Kerstin Engberg