Hasta La Creative!

LONDON (AdAge.com) — British marketers are cutting their budgets for the second consecutive quarter, resulting in a flat ad-spending outlook that reflects a steadily declining confidence in the state of the U.K. economy.

Having teased us for weeks with PR-disseminated photos, Sony has launched a video for its Foam City spot, which promotes a line of camcorders and cameras, not the Bravia TVs like we originally thought.

Bob Greenberg, CEO of R/GA told Adweek why his agency is opening an office in San Francisco.

“We opened in San Francisco not based on business but based on talent,” he said. “Talent is the biggest issue facing agencies today. It’s the biggest open creative and technology talent pool other than New York.”

“It’s not so much the agencies but the Yahoo!s and Googles,” he said. “All the technology companies have many potential hires for us.”

R/GA is looking at office space in San Francisco that could house as many as 80 employees. By the end of 2008, the shop expects to employ roughly 25-30 workers in San Francisco.

One of them will be Mauro Cavalletti, who is returning to R/GA as executive creative director after three years at Organic and most recently AKQA, where he was group creative director.

Hello readers! Here’s something i was keeping in my Magic Bag for ages: the videos of the projects which received an Award or an Honorary Mention at the VIDA competition. This international competition on art & artificial life, set up 10 years ago by Fundación Telefónica, rewards works of art produced with and commenting on artificial life technologies. Most of them will give you a fantastic glimpse into the mind of the creators of projects which include empathic blobs, cabinets of curiosities for the biotech age, exploration into digital survival and animatronics.

I guess no one in the assistance will be surprised if i tell you how excited i was when i first saw the video explaining one of the latest project from Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (SymbioticA): NoArk.

Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, Noark

I’ve also been impressed by Julius Popp‘s bit-flow video and found extremely sweet the OMO robot of Kelly -Blendie- Dobson.

This way to discover them all. In english with spanish subtitles or vice-versa.

Award ceremony in Barcelona last November

I have to admit, I’m a pretty big fan of the Sony spots, even including the momentarily controversial play-doh spot. When I first saw the clips on YouTube hyping this new spot from Sony, i have to say I was a bit excited. The continued buzz about the spot kept me eager, although it also got my hopes up.

Well, the newest Sony/Fallon UK spot is finally out, advertising Sony’s line of digital cameras with the tag “images like no other.” The similar tag, similar beautiful cinematography, and an excellent soundtrack make for another impressive spot. Not to mention the fascination and joy at the idea of Miami being flooded with foam.

More info, including a download link for the spot, which will air worldwide beginning in May, at Sony’s website. Enjoy!

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — What has radio done for you lately? That's a question radio programmers and ad sellers alike have been asking consumers and ad buyers in recent years, as radio's share of the overall media mix stabilizes while online and TV continue to expand. Now the original reach-medium is hoping to reclaim some of the relevance and pervasiveness of its pre-TV heyday by kick starting an industry-wide campaign called "Radio Heard Here." The campaign launches today at the National Association of Broadcasters Conference in Las Vegas.

(TrendHunter.com) We’ve seen dozens of ad contests, but this particular contest is exclusively for students. The concept of this College Challenge is that students could win $15,000 for pitching the most out of the box commercial idea.

The company, CommercialPitch.com, is launching a new ad sharing platform. From a…

LONDON – National Lottery operator Camelot focuses on the excitement of the winning moment in a forthcoming £3.5m TV ad campaign for Lotto, which introduces the new tagline ‘who’s next?’

Some readers think the only thing we like to write about here on Adrants is T&A. Well, who are we to argue with reader’s assumptions?

Seth Godin recently wrote a warm laudy post about how Twitter is great for building trust, brand equity and ultimately a sale. Practically two seconds later, marketing and social media blogger Ryan Kuder wrote Seth an open letter declaring…