Australia's ANZ Small Business tapped M&C Saatchi to develop an ad both funny and sympathetic to its target demo: small business owners.
That doesn't sound like tons of fun, so we didn't expect it to be, especially when we saw the length of the clip: 1:40? And in sepia? Why not force our eyes open with steel rods, too?
The spot itself starts out innocuously enough: a suited man is walking down the street, somebody calls his name: "Jack!" He starts to run. As the spot progresses, the variety of people -- butchers, mechanics, a Chinese restaurant owner -- that catch sight of him and give chase increases, adding to the dramatic tension and making way for a few semi-amusing stunt scenes. You lazily wonder what the punchline is.
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- Prior to the premier, Mad Men season 3 leaks on iTunes just long enough for a bunch of madcap bloggers to publish stuff like this.
- Social media cool-kid Jeremiah Owyang leaves Forrester, calls his time there "a grand adventure!"
- Defending the PR merits of the Flip camera. (Via.)
- Back to '69 with the Gap, on all your social media platforms (even iPhone!), courtesy of AKQA.
- ...and after Juno, Diablo Cody gives us an exorcist man-eating queen bee. With requisite dorky hot friend.
- Grey: wedding football and the Phantom. (Via.)
In what could, for some, be considered poetic justice, Barely Political contributes to the untimely-yet-prolonged death of its charmingest Frankenstein Monster: Obama Girl.
Amidst a campy new jingle and some ass-wiggling with a faux Republican, a reluctant Obama Girl -- recently informed that she's cheated vindictive Death -- is thrown into a wall of knives. The resulting perversion of a quaint Victorian pastime gives her the chance to perform something most actors salivate for: a death scene.
The chill demeanour she maintains, even as life leaks unconvincingly out of her sternum, is a tribute to our casually jaded generation. She even gets a dandy little healthcare message in.
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Taking a break from its role as ad land's mouthpiece for the American adolescent's collective wet dream, Levi's partnered with Break to bring forth "Stories of a New America."
This is supposed to be the more relatable version of its frontiersy-sounding "Go forth" campaign. Hit a point on a rust-coloured US map to watch, oddly enough, mockumentaries of American pastimes.
There's currently only one pinpoint, a video for the "Manhattan Beach Six Man Volleyball Tournament." Composed of co-ed teams playing volleyball in costume, the California (?) based pseudo-event is supported by inspired quotes like "this is the one setting where people can get away with wearing as least as possible."
And of course you have guys dressed like Smurfs. Just think of the whole thing as a less interesting version of ING's Bay to Breakers, populated with characters from The Hills.
This is hilarious. American Copywriter has put together, in chronological order, a series of online ads for the free online video game, Evony. The early ads can certainly be seen as relating to the medieval nature of the game. But as the ads progress, one wonders wheter or not Evony has turned into a dating site or a retailer like Victoria's Secret or Frederick's of Hollywood pimping cleavage-enhancing bras.
Odd. Just odd.
Because sometimes serious news can be useful, we're happy to inform you search ad network Looksmart, is out with SmartRotation, a cost-per-action (CPA) tool that automatically serves the best-performing ad creative in an ad group based on conversion data from a tracking pixel. The new tool, part of LookSmart's ad rotation, allows advertisers to optimize campaigns by conversion events like sales, sign-ups, downloads, and registrations to drive higher performance.
"It doesn't matter how many clicks you have if it doesn't convert", said Michael Schoen, Vice President and General Manager of Advertising Platforms at LookSmart. "While other platforms only offer even ad rotation or optimization by click-through rate (CTR), LookSmart's SmartRotation analyzes conversion rates and serves the best-converting ad creative, giving advertisers a better rate of return on their search investment."
See? Now don't you think that will make your job a lot easier when your boss asks you which ads are converting the best?
If you like websites where random statements float by and change when you click on them, you might like this promotional site for a new camera which will be released August 13. On the site, called Tap and Take, you can ply around with the statements as they move about the screen. You can also add your own statements to he site which can then appear as Tweets of Facebook status updates.
Way to get the word out, social media geniuses.
We're written a lot about Svedka Vodka and their fembot-based ad campaigns. For the most part, they've been good (to be sure, you'll have to check the archives). We've even begun drinking the stuff. Why? It's half the price of Grey Goose and just as good. At least we think so.
Anyway, the folks over at uber-awesome Barbarian Group, working with Oddcast, have put together the Svedka Bot Builder which, after uploading your face (from your computer, your webcam of from Facebook) and choosing what you want your bot body to look like (and even give it a drink to hold), lets you to turn it into an IM icon, a widget, make an e-card or send if to Facebook.
When was the last time a bank campaign made you feel all giddy and happy? Never? Well you might feel that way after viewing these three spots (here, here and here) for Regions bank created by Luckie & Company. Along with Crossroads Films and director Wayne Isham, the campaign latches on to recent research which finds the U.S. personal savings rate has gone from negative in 2008 to 6 percent today. Hence, Regions is there to give people's savings a home.
Along with the three spots, the campaign includes online advertising, a new microsite, redesigned ATM screens and a branch makeover.
Must have been an interesting gig for Isham. "Now hold that can up, shake it and dance." Over and over and over and over and over...
Following leaked revelations Twitter will take in as much as $20 million or so per month by the fourth quarter of 2010, it appears the company is testing a new contextual advertising system that will target ads to people based upon the contents of their tweets.
Saul Hansell of the New York Times tweeted yesterday he's apparently in on the test and will have more to report at a later date.
Inline contextual advertising on Twitter might not be such a bad thing. If it's relevant. If it's not too frequent. And if it actually serves a person's needs. Time and testing will address that but one thing is clear. Either through fees, ad revenue or some other source, Twitter does need to start making money. Even the best services can't live on VC money indefinitely.
Twitter, of course, states all this leaked information is inaccurate and unofficial. But, there may be a reality TV show in the works called Final Tweet. Seriously. That has to be a joke.
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