Hostess - Reach For The Gold

Let's be honest, there's a ridiculous amount of cliche and hyperbole that surrounds most of the Olympic advertising and sponsorship.  Is that financial services or fast food company really going to help you, the consumer, 'go for the gold'?  With that in mind it's refreshing to see Hostess embracing plain old mediocrity in their latest Olympic campaign.

The series of spots, created by Bernstein-Rein show every day athletes reaching for the gold...and failing.  Instead Hostess is implying that it's time they reached for the golden deliciousness of a Twinkie.  As Hostess says 'You don't need to be a world class athlete to win this kind of gold.'  I love it.  Fits the brand, fits the event and resonates more than many of the campaigns from official sponsors.

Coincidentally it's almost comical counterbalance (the yin to the yang) of the recent Nike - Find Your Greatness series of spots, including the Jogger video that's had the Internet abuzz.

Check out the spots below.




This last guy is kind of a badass though

Olympic Fever - Adidas, Old Spice, P&G & Channel 4

The Olympic ceremonies open tonight, so I thought I'd share my favorite Olympic work that I've seen in the lead up to the games.

In terms of Olympic stunts, I think this one takes the cake.  Adidas invited fans to show their support in a #takethestage photobooth that had been setup in Westfield Stratford shopping mall.  What they didn't know is that David Beckham was just around the corner.  Check out their reactions when he joins them in the booth.


In terms of pure humor, I love the most recent Old Spice spot, 'I Will Live Forever.'  Notice how they nimbly dance around the fact that they're not actually official sponsors of the Olympics.


And of course there's just plain emotionally evocative as you can see in the latest spot from P&G 'Kids.'


But ultimately, the best piece of advertising I've seen for the Olympics, doesn't come from an official sponsor, in fact it's not even for the Olympics.  It's from Channel 4 to promote their upcoming Paralympic Game coverage as well as the shows/features that they'll be airing.  I literally get chills down my spine watching it.  For some reason they've turned off embedding, but you can see it here.

OXY - Man Sized Problems

Warning, this might be is the most disgusting ad you'll ever see.  Oxy face wash and their agency, Naked Communications, wanted to reach the 13-18 year old male audience and convey just how bad pimples can get if left untreated.  To reach their audience in an authentic way, they compiled a number of Youtube clips and assembled them together to demonstrate just how a pimple can turn into a 'Man Sized Problem' and therefore why they should be using Oxy face wash.  As Adam Ferrier of Naked Communications says:

"The idea came from the simple insight that guys like watching videos of guys squeezing big pimples. It speaks to our target much more authentically than the glossy, cheesy work of Oxy’s big spending competitors. We believe this work will result in mass trial of the brand, and change consumer behaviour towards Oxy."


As someone who spends an ungodly amount of time on YouTube, I found that insight surprising (perhaps even questionable), but then again I'm not exactly the target audience.


via Buzzfeed & Randy Matheson

Pepsi Max - From Youtube To A 30-second Spot

This is a bit old and I meant to post it a month or so ago, but it's still relevant as we see more and more brands working from the inside out.  That is, starting with a digital execution and then translating that to traditional media or into a 30-second spot.  This example comes from Pepsi Max.  In the video, we see Uncle Drew going to attend a pickup basketball game with his nephew.  When one of the other players goes down with an injury, Uncle Drew steps in.  After a slow start Uncle Drew starts dominating and talking trash while the  other players try to figure out how the hell this old guy has such ridiculous game. At the end of the video we see NBA rookie of the year, Kylie Irving, being transformed by Hollywood makeup artists into an old man, 'Uncle Drew.'  The stunt actually relates nicely back to the brand as Pepsi Max is 'the zero calorie cola in disguise.'

The five-minute video is fantastic.  It's compelling enough that 80% of the viewers were still watching at the 4 minute mark.  Pepsi could've considered the 10 million views the video over the course of a month success in it's own right.  This was never intended to be a 30-second spot or to have a presence on TV, but as a Pepsi spokesman says "Once we started looking at the metrics, it became clear that we couldn’t miss the opportunity to bring Uncle Drew to the sport’s biggest stage."  Pepsi decided to run a cut-down version, basically just a teaser for the full video, during the first three games of the NBA finals.  That in turn drove further viewership of the YouTube video, creating a nice virtuous cycle.





Additional Articles: MediaPost | AdAge

Coca-Cola Security Cameras

Damn you Coca-Cola and your continuous ability to evoke emotion through video.  Coca-Cola Latin America, Young & Rubicam and Landia created this delightful 90-second spot to remind people that acts of kindness and bravery are taking constantly taking place.  The video shows off the warm fuzzy side of security camera /CCTV footage.  'People tend to associate security cameras with negative events, but we wanted to disprove that assumption by demonstrating the abundance of happy events and actions they capture,' said Creative Director Martin Mercado.


via Yoram Cisinski

McDonald's Gets Transparency Right (after getting it wrong)

Here's a nice effort by McDonald's Canada to be transparent and respond to questions/concerns from customers.  This comes a few months after the Twitter #McDStories fiasco.  The #McDStories was promoted tweet centered around the idea that 'when you make something with pride, people can taste it' and invited Twitter users to submit their stories.  No doubt they expected stories of love, laughter and general culinary delight.  Within minutes it'd been highjacked by such lovely recollections as 'Watching a classmate projectile vomit his food all over the restaurant during a 6th grade trip.' (@jfsmith23).  Needless to say McDonald's pulled the plug on the campaign very quickly.


Now McDonald's Canada (and their agency Tribal DDB Toronto) has taken the lessons learned and launched the McDonald's Canada 'Your Questions website and Youtube channel.  The premise is simple:  'Ever wanted to ask us about the food in our Canadian restaurants?  Now's your chance! We'll answer any questions about our food - even  the tough ones - then post a personal reply from McDonald's Canada.'  


In an extreme act of transparency, they're committed to answering each and every question.  Certain handpicked questions such are being answered with an in-depth behind the scenes video.  A great behind the scenes video answering the question 'Why does your food look different in the advertising than in the store?' has racked up million of views and is an incredibly interesting look at what goes on during a food photo shoot.  Check it out below or head on over to the McDonald's Canada Youtube channel to see more video response videos.


Again, this is a really nice effort to actually engage in meaningful dialogue with customers in a completely transparent manner.  This is increasingly important in light of the recent customer satisfaction index that ranked McDonald's last in satisfaction amongst fast food chains (though those results may just be for the US).  Then again McDonald's was just named the most effective global brand for the second year running at the Effie awards.

via Leon Bayliss

Tide Responds To Fake Onion Article

This is great.  The satirical newspaper The Onion (which everyone should read religiously if you don't already) recently ran a spoof column from a fictional Tide digital director entitled 'Hey, Everybody! This Cool New Tide Detergent Video Is Blowing Up All Over The Internet!'  In the column, the fictional Tide guy writes:

Hey, everybody, have you seen this awesome new web video from Tide detergent?
...it's got these cute, funny talking animals, a cool indie-rock song, and it's just so hilariously random. And it's got this amazing cameo by Bret Michaels, which is so funny because Bret Michaels is hilarious and from the '80s.
  But hey, I don't want to ruin it for you. Just take a minute to check it out for yourself at the Tide website or Facebook.com/Tide, or check out Tide's totally awesome YouTube channel, which is like a treasure trove of cool, popular videos that everyone loves. And honestly, do yourself a favor and just go to Tide's website and hang there for a while. It's a totally awesome place to go and play online games and meet other cool fans of Tide products.
...The other cool thing is, after watching this awesome vid, I honestly just want to go out and buy a lot of Tide. Obviously, I've always bought Tide anyway because it's the best detergent around, but this awesome new clip just makes me want to buy it more. But hey, I guess it should come as no surprise that a brand that makes such a quality detergent would also make a quality video. I mean, it's Tide.   They're the best. They always come up with great stuff like this. It's a hip, modern company that is totally in tune with today's Internet culture, so it makes sense they'd have such a cool online presence.


Read the whole fictional column here.  As always the Onion is spot on, but the best part is that Tide has responded to the fake column by creating a real video that mirrors all of the elements described in the column.  Very meta.

We constantly hear about brands being responsive and listening to their audience (or the Internets in general in this case).  It's great to see a brand doing more than just paying lip service to the idea.  Check out the response video from Tide below.  My favorite line is 'making viral videos with reputable brand partners...':
Additional Articles: Brand Channel

Three Nice Uses Of QR Codes - Emart, Guinness & Mercedes-Benz

QR codes have gotten a pretty bad rap and are generally shit on by the creative community (case in point, this genius Tumblr).  Until certain smartphone technologies mature, the fact of that matter is that it remains one of the best ways to quickly and (relatively) easily get mobile users to a site/app.  While there are definitely some absolutely abysmal executions out there, here are a couple of recent ones that work extremely well.


EMART - SUNNY SALE
The first example comes Emart, the Walmart of Korea.  The Sunny Sale (created by Cheil Worldwide)  aimed to drive sales during lunch, which is a typically slow time for the retailer.  They created clever shadow QR codes which are only be readable/active in certain light, ie. between the hours of 12-1PM.  Users who scanned the sunny sale QR codes received special offers, coupons, etc.  It proved so popular they expanded it from 13 to 36 locations in Seoul.  Over the course of a month they sold over 12,000 coupons and increased store membership 58% month or month, but perhaps most impressive they increased sales by 25% during lunch hours.  Who says QR codes can't be effective!?


Additional Articles: Adverblog | AdFreak


GUINNESS - QR CUP
The second example comes from BBDO New York for Guinness.  The QR code is printed on the glass and only works when Guinness (or another black/dark liquid) fills the glass, so don't try filling these glasses with lager, etc.  Once full scanning the QR code launches a site that easily/automatically tweets, checks in, posts a status update or sends an Instagram photo about where you are and the fact that you're enjoying a pint of guinness.  Very clever.

via Digital Examples

MERCEDES-BENZ - QR TROPHY
Prior to the official car launch, you'll often see speculation about the new model based off photos of the car 'spotted in the wild' on various aficionado sites.  Manufacturers combat this by wrapping the cars in plastic and generally camouflaging them so the new body/shape can't be deciphered before launch.  Jung Von Matt/Alster has cleverly tapped into this behavior by turning the camouflage of the prototypes into a form of media.  They've wrapped the new Mercedes Benz A-Class prototypes in QR codes.  The QR codes contain links to an app in which users hunt for trophies based off spotting the new A-class and give them a chance to win a trip to launch event.  Nice expansion of the idea of owned media and tapping into the existing behaviors of passionate car fans and paparazzi. 


Additional Articles: Digital Buzz Blog

McDonald's - Mein Burger

It's always nice to see examples of crowd-sourcing and co-creation done right.  To be fair, it's hard to do those types of campaign in a way that doesn't feel gimmicky and benefits both the user and the advertiser.  The 'Mein Burger' campaign comes from Razorfish Germany to celebrate the 40th anniversary of McDonald's in that country.  The competition invited users to create their own burger via the 'Burger configurator' with the winning creations chosen by public vote and eventually appearing on the McDonald's menu.  It's all about the execution in this case as Razorfish created a compelling experience for users to generate their own bespoke burger creation.  Perhaps more importantly, they also provided the tools to for users promote their burger creation and encourage their friends, as well as the general public, to vote for the eventual winners.  The winners not only had their Burger creation added to the menu, but also starred in their own McDoanld's TV commercial.  Check out the case study below.


Oh yeah, the eventual winner was the Preztelnator, a burger with ham, italian cheese, american cheese and pretzel-like bun.  Sounds...errr...interesting.

Additional Articles: Laughing Squid

Domestos - Meet Phil Pace

Here's a nice little short film (brought to you by Domestos) from Droga5 in Sydney that shows a bit about the life of amateur bodybuilder Phil Pace.  The Domestos tie-in doesn't come until the end of the film and is done (IMHO) in a brilliant and quirky way.  Much better way of illustrating the product benefits than your typical toilet cleaning commercial. Check it out below:


Additional Articles: AdFreak

P&G - Thank You Mom

Wieden + Kennedy have kicked off the P&G 'Thank You, Mom' campaign with the beautifully shot and evocative film 'Best Job' which was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, Biutiful, 21 Grams + the Nike 'Write The Future' spot from 2010).  The film shows different Moms around the world nurturing their kids throughout the years as they move toward their moment of Olympic glory.  Check it out below.


The spot is just the first step in a much larger campaign from P&G leading into the Olympics and further extends the Thank You, Mom campaign that they ran for the 2010 Olympics.  In addition to the above spot, P&G is also encouraging the general public to say 'Thank You, Mom' and let her know you appreciate her.  You can submit your story through video, images or just a brief few words to let your Mom know you care.  So go check it out on the P&G Youtube channel and Facebook page.

Additional Articles: Adverblog | AgencySpy | W+K London blog

Streets Ice Cream - Share Happy

This is nice experiential campaign from Australia that effectively bridges the offline and online.  Streets Ice Cream (and their agency Soap Creative) launched the 'Share Happy' campaign (sounds a bit reminiscent of Coke - Open Happiness no?).  Installations were setup across Australian cities that invited any passer-bys to record Matrix style 360-degree rotating videos of themselves.  The videos were then uploaded to Streets Ice Cream Youtube channel and available on the Streets Ice Cream website.  Participants could go to the site and easily search for/find their video and easily share it out amongst friends, family, etc.

Great idea.  It's simple, but effective.  Participants are rewarded offline (ice cream samples) as well as online (a cool digital memento of an experience that they couldn't otherwise have).

Check out the 'Best Of...' video below.
Additional Articles: Simply Zesty | Digital Buzz Blog

Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King) - The $5 Experiment

Hungry Jack's is the Australian equivalent/subsidiary of Burger King.  They want to promote their $5 Stunner value meal and the idea that you can get great value for $5.  So Hungry Jack's and their agency (BBDO Sydney) decided to run the $5 Stunner experiment to see if they could source all the elements for a 30-second TV spot through the services site Fiverr.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Fiverr, they bill themselves as 'the world's largest marketplace for small services, starting at $5.'  On Fiverr, you can hire people to do various odd jobs for you, including various creative services large and small.

Check out the description from Hungry Jack's & the video below:
'You've asked for it, so the $4.95 Stunner is back.  And to prove just what great value the Stunner is for $5; we've successfully made a Stunner TV ad, where each element costs just $5.  We used a website called Fiverr to find the elements we needed from people all over the world.  We also asked our Facebook fans for a photo of their dog, and we ended up choosing Axel, a lovely dog from Western Australia, to star in the ad. His face was animated for (you guessed it!) just $5 on the Fiverr website.
This is the end result - we hope you like it!'


It's a really interesting initiative (my soul dies a little bit every time I have to use the phrase 'crowd-sourcing' or 'co-creation) and it will be interesting to see if other brands embrace this format moving forward.  One of the constant issues with UGC-type of campaigns is tapping into the 'Why?' of user participation.  What's the motivation/incentive to participate, especially when it's not necessarily the user in front of the camera or actually featured in the TV campaign?  In this case, the user is actually getting paid, so that eliminates much of the incentive dilemma.  Of course it opens up an entirely different debate about agency compensation models, eg. the whole Victors & Spoils crowd-sourcing debate.

Supporting Articles: Fiverr Blog | Digital Examples

Skittles - Touch The Rainbow

Skittles (and their agency BBDO Toronto) cleaned up at Cannes last year, winning a Gold Lion in the Film Category and a Gold Cyber Lion for the now famous 'Touch The Rainbow' campaign.  My personal favorite was the Skittles Touch: Cat spot featuring Zach Galifianakis as a half-man/half-cat (see below).


Now Skittles & BBDO are back with another series of 'Touch' videos that are bizarre as their predecessors.  All five can be seen in the playlist below.  My personal favorite is the Zombie Tennis video.  Personally I don't find the latest videos as impressive.  Then again, they set the bar pretty high as the previous 'Touch' campaign that surprised and delighted viewers with the unexpected nature of the spots.

Project Re:Brief - Re-imagining classic ads for the modern web.

Quite simply, Project Re:Brief may be my favorite project to come out of Google.  Despite the fact that we're in the midst of a revolution in display, video and mobile advertising, many people still question whether these new advertising mediums can tell an emotional story or build brands.  Project Re:Brief answers that question by taking four of America's most iconic advertising campaigns and re-imagining them for the web.  The blog post announcing the launch of Project Re:Brief explains it more eloquently than I can:

This year, digital advertising turns 18. Over nearly two decades, waves of innovation have transformed the medium—it’s come a long way since the blinking banner ads of the early Internet. But we think the most exciting changes are still to come, as marketers and agencies increasingly embrace technology to enable new types of creativity, and build online ads that don’t simply inform, but delight and engage their audience. 
For example, what if an online ad could bring together two strangers on opposite sides of the globe? Or let you follow a real-life adventure as it unfolds? We wanted to find out. So we started an experiment, both to celebrate 18 years of online innovation, and to link advertising’s digital future to its storied past: Project Re: Brief. 
We started with four iconic ad campaigns from the 1960s and ‘70s from Alka-Seltzer, Avis, Coca-Cola and Volvo, each considered groundbreaking in its day. The advertising legends who made the original ads then came out of retirement to rethink their original “brief,” this time, using the full range of technological tools at their disposal, to reach consumers in today’s digitally connected world.

I highly, highly, highly encourage you to go to the Project Re:Brief and watch the videos, but more importantly experience new ads (and the original) for yourself.  In fact, I just sent a Coke to You can check out the intro video below:


You can see how the re-imagined Coca-cola Hilltop ad works below.  Amazing!  It really brings to life what can happen at the intersection of technology and creativity.

Supporting Articles: New York Times | Fast Co. | Mashable

Happy (Belated) St. Patricks Day...

...but that's really just an excuse to post the hilarious Guinness - Round Up Your Mates video.

via Andrew Bent

The Coca Cola Video Puzzle

At this point one would hope that every advertiser is putting their TV commercials online in a branded environment.  Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that people want to watch or in any way interact with those commercials, though a healthy dose of paid media to drive viewership and awareness certainly helps.

More importantly, how do you get them do more than just watch your ad?  In other words, how do you get them to go from a passive viewer to actually DOING something.  This work from e-dologic Israel provides a nice solution.  They developed a Facebook app that turns the spot itself a video puzzle that users need to piece together (with the opportunity to win prizes of course!).  I took a crack at it, which you can see in action below.


It's also worth checking out the case study below for some impressive results.  More than 350,000 views, but incredibly users who took part watched the ad 23 times on average!

Supporting Articles:  Simply Zesty | Digital Buzz Blog