Hasta La Creative!

We have no idea why TechCrunch Europe editor Mike Butcher had access to this email from Saatchi Operations Director Su Millar, why folks were in such a hard-partying mood last night, or why the finger-wagging note seems to have gone out to everyone on staff when the CCTV supposedly identified the guilty party.

Interesting to see ad agency people haven’t changed much pic.twitter.com/IVeOiUyFB6

— Mike Butcher (@mikebutcher) September 19, 2014

But we do know that it certainly reads like someone had a rough time today.

And we feel a little bad for the unlucky client (not to mention their cleanup staff).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Los Angeles-based production company Three Point Stance (TPS) brings together Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman and a llama named Spartacus in a new campaign for Neff’s Brodie sunglasses collection.

“We wanted to connect with the Neff core audience and what better way to do that than to bring together one of the biggest names in the NFL and a llama?  What started as several creatives in a room laughing at the idea of a llama and Richard morphed into an entire campaign when Shaun (Neff) and Richard (Sherman) believed in it,” said Three Point Stance founder Erick Peyton, who co-directed the spots along with Michael Koerbel.

The campaign includes seven videos, ranging in length from 15 seconds to almost a minute. Each spot employs some pretty ridiculous humor, imagining Sherman and Spartacus as inseparable buddies in various scenarios, such as hosting a cooking show and appearing together at a press conference. TPS hopes that the lighthearted approach and Sherman’s popularity will appeal to Neff’s young target demographic, and get shared on social channels. Neff founder Shaun Neff was excited to work with Sherman, stating, “Such an amazing experience to work with one of the most animated, nicest and top athletes in the NFL, it’s truly a dream come true.” (more…)

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So WARC, or the UK-based World Advertising Research Center, released a list today. WARC, for those who don’t know it, describes itself as “an online service offering advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world’s leading brands.”

The “WARC 100? is an annual compendium of “the world’s 100 best campaigns and companies, based on their performance in effectiveness and strategy competitions”. In other words, the organization assigns value to award-winning ads via a not-quite secret methodology in order to determine which campaigns and agencies were “smartest.”

On to the results: Omnicom defeated WPP in the “smartest holding company in the world” category, so we eagerly await Sir Sorrell’s response.

You’re more interested in creative, though, so here’s the list.

And the winner is…

(more…)

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AMV BBDO, London has a new spot for Guiness Africa entitled “Made of Black” that gets a little awkward.

Well intentioned as it may have been, the spot comes across as a bit tone deaf, homogenizing a continent of diverse cultural groups with the term “black,” because that’s also the color of Guinness. Opening with the question “What is black?,” lines like “Black is an attitude” and “Black got swag” come across as either pandering or condescending. (Several YouTube commenters even go as far as to call the spot racist.) Add to that the poor soundtrack selection of Kanye West (why would you not select an African artist in a spot that supposedly celebrates Africa?) and you’ve got quite the headscratcher. To be fair, the spot’s visuals are quite impressive, but somehow we don’t think that’s what people are going to be talking about. (more…)

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At the end of last month we brought news of Lincoln’s partnership with Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey for a new campaign promoting the Lincoln MKC, to be handled by a shop within WPP’s Team Detroit division.

Now, Team Detroit and Lincoln are rolling out the new campaign with a series of (purportedly unscripted) spots that take a somewhat unorthodox approach. In the 60-second introductory spot (featured above), McConaughey drives around pontificating on what it means to “go back” and how some people say you can’t do it but really you just have to look in the right places. What is he talking about exactly? How does it relate to the MKC? Your guess is as good as ours.

In the similarly strange “Bull,” the actor admires the majesty of a large bull blocking the road, before deciding to turn around and take the long route. The 30-second “I Just Liked It” is a little more straightforward, with McConaughey explaining that he drove a Lincoln long before he was paid to, not to look cool or make a statement, but because he “just liked it.” (more…)

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M&C Saatchi is launching UGG’s first-ever global marketing campaign, entitled “This Is UGG,” which enlists the help of veteran brand ambassador Tom Brady in the brand’s latest effort to change its perception as the official fuzzy boot of Starbucks-toting girls everywhere.

Launching today, the campaign focuses on life’s smaller moments, centered around the 60-second spot “Time Out.” In the spot, Brady shares the message that in life you only get so many time outs and you need to make them count, because you can’t back pocket them or carry them over to another day. Tom’s voiceover plays out over a scene of him driving to play golf with his father, a pastime the two have shared since Tom was old enough to play. Another spot, featuring Brady and his mother, is set to follow in October, with a third entitled “Down Time” arriving in December.

“For the new UGG for Men campaign, we started with this premise: small moments can carry as much weight as the big moments,” explained Nancy Mamann, vice president of marketing for UGG Australia. “We conceptualized the spots to capture authentic moments that relate to men across the world. For Tom Brady in particular, we explored his life off the field, along with more personal settings, to show some of the moments that he considers meaningful.”

Whether that will convince men to rush out and buy UGG remains to be seen. Stick around for behind-the-scenes footage after the jump. (more…)

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Doner’s latest spot promoting the Fiat starts out cute and sweet before taking a menacing turn.

The 54-second animated effort, entitled “Helpful Critters,” opens on a group of woodland critters talking up the Fiat 500?s gas mileage in a casual, conversational tone. “Do you get such crappy gas mileage, they know your name at the gas station? a bunny rabbit asks in a squeaky voice. “Why you hatin’ on the earth? With the Fiat 500, just think of the money you’d save,” adds a squirrel.

Things take a sinister turn around the midway point with the rabbit saying, “We think you should get a Fiat, if you know what’s good for you,” as her face suddenly changes from a smile to an evil glare. The critters then suggest that they know several members of the bear community and you could go missing (presumably murdered) if you don’t buy a Fiat.

It’s both reminiscent of Italian mafia stereotypes and the classic South Park episode “Woodland Critter Christmas” for its cuteness-turned-evil tone. Needless to say, threatening to murder potential customers is an odd approach for a car commercial.

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In something of a different direction for the brand, CAA Marketing crafted a back-to-school music video for Old Navy.

“Unlimited” sees a girl facing her doubts and insecurities,  personified by a Grimace-like creature called a Womp Womp, on the first day of school with a motivational anthem. While the four-minute song, written by Tony-nominated songwriters Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, might prove something of an endurance test for most adults, it provides a positive message in a very relatable situation, and the target audience (elementary school aged kids, especially girls) typically can’t get enough of this type of thing. It seems that the video is catching on, too, with over four million views since being posted at the end of July. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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See, sometimes we get fun tips. Someone at San Francisco’s Mekanism apparently proposed an in-house Photoshop battle beginning with this image of CEO Jason Harris:

The campaign almost certainly won’t win any Lions, but some of the entries are pretty good after the jump.

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Today we bring you the latest chapter in the spirited conversation that comes up in most creative industries on a yearly basis. This time, the two combatants debating the death of the AOR are:

• In the blue corner keeping it cheesy,  Kraft Foods Group Chief Marketing Officer Deanie Elsner
• And in the red corner helping you get your snack on, Dana Anderson, VP of marketing strategy and communications for Mondelez International

The feud started when Anderson published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal and opined that AORs are “no longer the pathway to Oz for clients or agencies.” Elsner took some serious umbrage with that sentiment from Anderson (for context, the two worked together at Kraft Foods before she flew the coop for Mondelez in 2012).

And so the debate is on.

(more…)

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