Get a load of the repositioning memo:
Not so long ago in our industry, the holy grail was an ad that "broke through the clutter," was "attention getting," "memorable," "persuasive" (ads usually measure by a copy test of an ad unit).
Today, in the new world of the internet, digital video recorders, mobile devices and myriad other technology -- all in the hands of an empowered consumer -- the new holy grail is maximized presence and multiplied exposure as a result of having an idea picked up, shared, played with, assimilated into the consumer's life.
Some call it viral; some call it buzz. Leading agencies must redefine their end goals in line with this fundamental new end game.
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Check out the JellyBeats, which are like jellyfish you can alternately identify with and fantasize about eating. Each is themed with a genre of music (folk, easy listening, acid house -- wouldn't it be funny if that whistle was a pacifier?) and comes equipped with its own playlist.
The JellyBeats represent Aardman and Digital Outlook's attempts to cash in on the 14-18-year-old crowd. They launched on Bebo last week. Individual JellyBeats come with film shorts, downloads, special dances and lingo. And they're all embeddable on other social networks. ('Cause if you can't be everywhere at once, you FAIL.)
For interior design site mydeco, TAMBA put together a swanky Facebook app for all the users that are getting too old to cash in on their .edu cachet.
The My Dinner Party widget enables users to create a "dream dinner party" with famous and fictional characters, as well as actual friends. (Then again, everybody's equally actual and fictional when they can all appear on your Top 8. Which is also an app!)
And because no inet offering is worth anything unless it comes with opportunities for validation, friends can change seating arrangements, organize private fetes and rate the dinner parties they attended. How fancy. These days, any plebe can play blue-blood. Who'd've guessed that Wonderland would be so ... democratic?
The movie American Pie made the term MILF famous. You hear it everywhere. Even where you shouldn't like in kid's movies. Somehow we don't think the same will happen with the term Shmmom or Smoking Hot Minivan Mom. Yea, we know. It's a mouthful. Leave it to a local car dealer to think up this crap.
Imagine The Warriors took place in present-day Manhattan. But replace the vicious gangs with refugees from Flashdance.
Before you virtually bitchslap us and go, "Why would we EVER do that?!", be forewarned: somebody already has.
Can -- you -- dig -- it?
The client: MTV.
Philly is angling for the gay vote. The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation just launched "Get Your History Straight" followed by the tagline, "...and your nightlife gay," which -- in tangent with SouthWest Airlines -- will populate creative with gay locals.
At left is Matthew Izzo of Matthew Izzo Boutiques. See the full "We Your People" ad.
Others will appear on gophila.com/gay and on southwest.com/gaytravel. Check out Philly's other campaign, uwishunu.
We get it! We get it! It's a mashup! An underwear mashup. And, in case we didn't already realize that from the pantheon of colors in this ad, we've also got myriad musical styles to hammer the point home for those of us who might be visually impaired.
For Bonds Youth, Sydney's The Campaign Palace created the ad
AdFreak drew our attention to this ad for Philippine rock radio station NU107, which betrays pretty negligible knowledge of rock music. And logic.
The text reads, "The 80's: When looking like a ladyboy got you all the ladies." Imagery: what looks like a Kiss band member ... with boobs. (An homage to Marilyn Manson?)
More creative -- and a small dissertation on Kiss, Poison, rock-dandy dress codes and lack of actual boobage among male '80s rock band members -- at AdFreak.
It's really too bad everybody can't be Chuck Klosterman.
- On the outs with Nicole Richie for some time, Pars Hilton wants a new BFF and MTV has launched a new reality show to help her find one.
- DDB Barcelona brings out hand string games to somehow illustrate how its cars are built. We sure hope they're made of something stringer than string.
- Ziff Davis Media, publisher of PC Magazine among others, filed for bankruptcy citing falling print ad revenue and subscriptions as the reason.
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If you want to see a really, really weird ad about Nomis, logos, trophies, attention, sponsorship, endorsements and boots then you really need to watch this quirky video for Nomis boots (we call them sneakers here). The ad was created by Johannes Leonardo, a new agency founded by former Saatchi & Saatch EVPs Jan Jacobs and Leo Premutico.
Rehab, the cats behind Gap's Sound of Color effort, just produced a series of videos for Kenneth Cole's most current campaign "We All Walk in Different Shoes," put together by Kenneth Cole's in-house creative crew.
As always with Kenneth Cole, the campaign exploits the language of fashion to raise awareness for popular social issues. (Or maybe it's the other way around.) At left is the creative for Regan Hofmann's HIV video. See other shorts -- including stories about a Sikh businessman and a duo of Israeli and Palestinian film directors -- at KennethCole.com/Thinkers.
And here's the campaign blog, Awearness, which generated winces all around with the all-caps tagline, "To be aware is more important than what you wear."
We dig Rehab's audio/visual spin on an old Kenneth Cole agenda. But we can't say we're crazy about using tacky puns like "Awearness" to generate trendy cause mojo.
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Over two years ago, Bernard Urban rebranded his URBANadvertising company to become GIGANTIC. Last April, agency We Are Gigantic was born out of an MDC consolidation of its MFP and Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners agencies. We Are Gigantic was headed by Neil Powell who was formerly a partner at the now defunct MFP which suffered significant client loss.
Urban sued MDC for trademark infringement and recently won, effectively ending the existence of Niel Powell's We Are GIgantic. Oddly, the We Are Gigantic site, though taken down as part of the court decision, is now back up. It seems, Powell, or someone, is trying to get whatever business they can out of this drama. The We Are Gigantic site's contact section says "We've moved" and a telephone number leads a company called Tremendous, which, following We Are Gigantic, is pretty funny.
We've left a message for clarification on all of this and will share that with you as soon as we have a response.
While we're not sure what making a bed has to do with a hospital's ability to successfully perform a hip replacement or being ranked tops among all hospital responding to a heart attack, we do like this new commercial from Boston-based Winsper for Exeter Hospital. Oh wait, we get it. Attention to detail. After all, a well made bed is certainly as important as performing open heart surgery.
OK. We jest. We get the analogy. Besides, the spot is just very soothing and who doesn't want to be soothed when faced with a nerve-racking hospital stay? Not us. We've been there.
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To hock its wares, Virgin always aims for just left of left-field. Looking for a flight? Seek thee out the least enthusiastic of the bunch. Need a mortgage? Geriatric sex should get you off. Investment aid? A pyromaniac ballerina can help you with that.
Virgin Money's latest campaign is no exception. It takes a kooky idea and makes it totally logical in context.
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OK, guys. Admit it. You know you've done something similar before. OK, maybe not as goofy as the guy in this Kohler commercial but when it comes to finagling your way into crossing paths again with that hot chic you just saw, let's just all admit the high school in all of us makes a bit of a return. So if you simply must have that hot female plumber who's doing work in the apartment next door, make sure you don't have a Kohler toilet. They ruin all the fun because, well, they just work.
Penny Denialer, the well-preserved materfamilias of Mackenzie Investments' "Denialers" campaign, began appearing in rich media ads on popular Canadian websites last week.
See her on Sweetspot.ca (you'll have to scroll way down). When engaged she'll say something decidedly wise like, "Whoever said money can't buy happiness was obviously shopping at the wrong website. Look at that." Then she'll stare with vacant Valley awe at the content of the page.
The ad invites traffic to burnrate.ca, where they can meet the Denialers, watch money burst into flames, and find out how to keep theirs from going up in smoke.
Put together by Lowe Roche, Toronto.
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