No single decade in recent memory has a monopoly on style. Or questionable exercise methods.
A new video, “The History of Exercise,” stars Nick Offerman and Michelle Obama looking back on past—and present—contraptions for working out, as a way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.
Overwhelmed as we are with wacky politicals, terrorist hysteria, a looming police state and social media’s unending attacks on our peace of mind, more than a few of us feel outsized pressure to do something—or at least say something—even when we normally wouldn’t.
This apparently applies to brands, too. In “This Land,” Delta and SS+K dive into the moral fray with a meditation on America from 30,000 feet up.
This week saw a first in the long, contentious and thoroughly exhausting campaign for the White House: an apology of sorts from GOP nominee Donald J. Trump.
Some critics were quick to point out that Trump didn’t say that he was sorry in last night’s speech or name any specific incidents in which he feels like he may have gone a bit too far. He simply said, “Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing,” adding, “I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.”
One ad agency—admittedly one with a long track record of working on Democratic campaigns—has made light of Trump’s word woes by combining two of today’s hottest marketing topics: messenger bots and the ever-shifting spectacle of the Trump campaign.
“BFF Trump” is a Facebook Messenger bot that provides users with the best and/or worst of Donald Trump. It makes for an amusing way to pass a few minutes’ time … unless you happen to be a yuuuuge fan of The Donald.
SS+K has appointed Elisa Silva as senior vice president, director of client services. In the position, she will focus on talent management, department collaboration and overall creative excellence, while reporting directly to newly-appointed chief operating officer Kate Rothen.
Silva joins the agency from Barton F. Graf, where she has served as a group account director since her arrival in February of 2015. Prior to that she spent nine months as an account director with Translation, following a year as a business director with JWT New York. She made the jump from production-side positions when she joined W+K Portland as an account supervisor in May of 2006. Nearly five years later, she left W+K to become a brand director with 72andSunny L.A., a position she held for nearly two and a half years, before leaving to join JWT.
Rothen, who has been a partner with SS+K for several years, previously served as head of account services and director of social media. She originally joined the agency in 2005, following a year as director, client services with AGG International, and four as a senior associate with PR firm RF Binder before that. Rothen also serves as a board member with City College of New York, where she has previously taught a graduate course in agency internal management as an adjunct lecturer.
SS+K launched a new campaign targeting millenials for international children’s charity Smile Train, entitled “Serious Baby.”
Inspired by baby memes, the campaign tells the story of Walter, a nine-month old who goes on a smile strike. “There’s kids who have trouble smiling because of their unrepaired clefts,” he explains in an online spot (through a gruff, serious voiceover, “If they’re not smiling, I’m not smiling.” He encourages viewers to donate if they want to see him smile.
It’s a big change in approach for SS+K and Smile Train, whose last spot for the charity, “Dreaming of Midnight,” featured an interactive story allowing viewers to change the fate of a young girl by donating. The baby’s demeanor aside, it’s a far less serious approach than what viewers typically associate with Smile Train, as many remember when its ads featured shot after shot of children suffering from cleft palate to garner viewers’ sympathy and encourage donations. SS+K began changing things up by focusing instead on a single child, as in its previous spot and last April’s “Power of a Smile.” This is a far more drastic departure, however, as the spot attempts a more light-hearted approach without making light of an important cause. The video, along with various memes featuring Walter are hosted on Smile Train’s Tumblr microsite for the campaign.
“We wanted to take a bit of a risk and try something different,” Shari Mason, senior director of integrated marketing at Smile Train, told Digiday. “We realized that if we are able to put a humorous spin on a serious issue like this, it will have a bigger impact rather than shouting facts and figures and attract a younger audience, including millennials. Millennials like to support causes where they can see the impact they’re making.”
“We’re trying to build their audience base and reach out to a younger demographic,” added Armando Flores, creative director at SS+K. “They have their core audience, but what we’re really moving toward is figuring out interesting ways to get more people to make micro donations instead of just big charity amounts.”
Marriott International named SS+K lead creative agency for JW Marriot, Adweek reports, handing the agency global creative duties for the luxury brand which has 79 locations in eight regions worldwide.
SS+K beat out several unspecified agencies in a review handled by Joanne Davis Consulting in New York, taking over lead creative duties from Team One, who will continue to handle advertising on Marriott’s Ritz-Carlton brand. The agency will partner with M&C Saatchi, who purchased a one third stake in SS+K last November, on ads overseas, taking advantage of M&C’s 21 offices outside of the U.S. Adweek notes that, “according to a recent job posting for a director of brand marketing,” the brand spends up to $30 million annually. Media responsibilities were not part of the review and remain at MEC.
SS+K launched a new integrated campaign for Jackson Hewitt in anticipation of tax season, introducing the brand positioning, “Working Hard for the Hardest Working.”
A 30-second anthem ad celebrates “Quttin’ Time” as it pictures cashiers, waitresses, construction workers, teachers, nurses and more ending a hard day of work over the Pete Seeger song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” The voiceover delivers the “working hard” line before promising “the biggest refunds” and “100 percent accuracy.” The spot’s footage works with the song selection to evoke the mood of a hard day’s work just ended before promising that Jackson Hewitt is on your side and will do whatever it can to earn you that maximum refund. Two 15-second spots — “Cashier” and “Waitress” — support the effort.
Bobby Hershfield, partner and chief creative officer at SS+K said of the spot’s song selection, “We wanted the music to be something that relates to our message of working hard for the hardest working but is charming and classic. Pete Seeger felt so right for what we were saying and the audience we were talking to.”
Credits:
Client: Jackson Hewitt
Project: “Working Hard for the Hardest Working”
Agency: SS+K
Partner, Chief Creative Officer: Bobby Hershfield
Senior Vice President, Director of Production: John Swartz
Executive Producer: Christopher McLallen
Senior Copywriter: Lindsey Lanpher
Senior Art Director: Alyssa Georg
Vice President, Account Director: Katie Dahill
Senior Account Executive: Keri Cook
Account Coordinator: Cameron Reilly
Production Company: Believe Media
Director: Bruce Dowad
Executive Producer: Jannie McInnes
Producer: Jane Thomson
Director of Photography: John Houtman
Service Company: The Capital Media Company
Executive Producer: Christian Allen
Editorial: Lost Planet
Executive Producer: Krystn Wagenberg
Producer: Taylor Colbert
Editor: Jacks Genega
Assistant Editor: Kyle Grandmaison
Colorist: Sofie Borup for Company 3
Finishing by Nice Shoes
Few magazines have the staying power of The New Yorker. The Conde Nast publication is aiming to skew younger by creating a new website (seen above), and doing away with that dreaded paywall for a limited time. It has also hired SS+K as its AOR just in time for its 90th anniversary. Agency co-founder Rob Shepardson writes:
“There are few brands that we’d be more excited to work with than The New Yorker. For decades, it has occupied a unique spot in American culture as the gold standard for writing, whether reporting, commentary, or criticism.”
Following a review, The New Yorker determined after 90 years it was time to partner with an AOR; the classic rag joins the SS+K fold along with the likes of Wells Fargo, Starbucks, HBO & E*TRADE.
The New Yorker spent $22.7 million on measured media in 2012 and $19.5 million in 2013 according to Kantar Media. The magazine spent $2.7 million on measured media in the first quarter of 2014.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
If someone asked you what sort of business would spark the next social media trend, odds are that the word pharmaceuticals would not come to mind.
Pfizer hopes to defy convention by capitalizing on its “Get Old” campaign–launched back in 2012–and introducing “FOGO“: fear of getting old.
The company thought that the initiative, intended to stimulate conversations on subjects like the challenges of aging, needed a boost. As reported in The New York Times, they traded original AOR SS&K in an effort to go HUGE.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
It’s official: today Ashley Furniture HomeStore appointed McCann New York as its creative agency of record and Compass Point as its media planning agency.
The press release names Ashley as “the #1 furniture retailer in North America and one of the fastest growing furniture brands in the world”; the company’s SVP of global marketing/ads calls McCann “a strategic partner who understands the powerful connection our brand has with our customers.”
In other AOR news, New York’s SS+K won the Jackson Hewitt Tax Services account. The agency’s creative work will drive a rebranding effort designed to position the company “as the financial partner for hardworking Americans.”
Incoming CEO Dave Prokupek writes, “Our industry is undergoing rapid change and SS+K has the vision to help differentiate the Jackson Hewitt brand and to drive sales.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
In what we’ll call a creative take on those universally awkward coming-of-age moments experienced by everyone fortunate enough to live in a house equipped with HBO, SS+K advertises the network’s streaming service by reminding viewers of the scenes that would be particularly painful to watch with mom, dad and your little sister.
Our favorite part of this campaign is its acknowledgement–nay, embrace–of the fact that very few young people currently using HBO GO actually subscribe to the network.
The lineup of vices is extensive, covering everything from incest:
…to awkward body image issues:
…to that never-comfortable “It’s OK if you’re gay” conversation:
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Advertising Agency: SS+K, New York, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Cooke
Creative Directors: Matt Ferrin, Sam Mazur
Art Director: Matt Ferrin
Copywriter: Sam Mazur
Print Producer: Jeannie O’Toole
Published: June 2008
Thinking saves thousands.
Advertising Agency: SS+K, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Cooke
Art Director: Peter Cortez
Copywriter: Daniel Bremmer
Producers: Jeannie O’Toole, Amy Moorman
Account Executives: Rebekah Ahn, Jennifer Vizina
Photographer / Designer: Diametric Davidoff
Thinking saves thousands.
Advertising Agency: SS+K, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Cooke
Art Director: Peter Cortez
Copywriter: Daniel Bremmer
Producers: Jeannie O’Toole, Amy Moorman
Account Executives: Rebekah Ahn, Jennifer Vizina
Photographer / Designer: Diametric Davidoff
Thinking saves thousands.
Advertising Agency: SS+K, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Cooke
Art Director: Peter Cortez
Copywriter: Daniel Bremmer
Producers: Jeannie O’Toole, Amy Moorman
Account Executives: Rebekah Ahn, Jennifer Vizina
Photographer / Designer: Diametric Davidoff
Thinking saves thousands.
Advertising Agency: SS+K, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Cooke
Art Director: Peter Cortez
Copywriter: Daniel Bremmer
Producers: Jeannie O’Toole, Amy Moorman
Account Executives: Rebekah Ahn, Jennifer Vizina
Photographer / Designer: Diametric Davidoff
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
