So while Ad Week doesn't officially end until today, Friday, it felt like it ended Thursday. I didn't make it to the Facebook party but, instead, opted to have drinks and dinner with some friends. The first stop was Undercurrent marketing in SoHo where I met Julia Roy (who was just featured on Awesomeology) and Yianni Garcia.
Undercurrent is a young, small agency which specializes in online marketing and social media. We ended up somewhere in mid-town at a place which looked like it was right next to Wall Street. Everyone had a suit on and, if it were the eighties, could have been labeled Yuppies. Pictorial goodness here.
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At the PricewaterhouseCoopers Auditorium during Advertising Week on Thursday at 2PM, Corbis hosted a panel entitled How Mega Celebs Are Boosting Mega Brands which explored how brands and celebrities are working together towards similar ends: boosting their visibility and connection with people.
On the panel were McCann Erickson EVP Chief Creative Officer Joyce King Thomas, Greenlight Director of Brand Strategy and Development Martin Cribbs, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Global Marketing Senior VP Robert Kaplan and Corbis Outline Publicist and Photographer Relations Megan Wiley. The panel was moderated by OK! Weekly Executive Website Editor Chris Morran.
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Wednesday night during Advertising Week, Adobe held its Battle of the Bands even at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. It was well attended and there was some amazing talent on stage. Agencies participating were The Concept Farm, Eric Mower & Associates, Vidal Cendeno Advertising, Initiative, Grey, May & Co., Tribal DDB, Surge, Pyper Paul Kenney, TargetCast TCM, Starcom Chicago, Twon Sports International and McCann Erickson.
And while there was certainly talent on stage, it was the winning stage presence of McCann Erickson's More Fucking Cowbell that won over the judges and the crowd. Rocking out classic eighties heavy metal in full, big hair regalia, the group, along with two females dancers, just owned the crowd. There was no way they couldn't win. There would have been a riot of epic proportion. See pictures of the battle here.
Following the Battle of the Bands, I tagged along with the Barbarian Group to a little hip hop place in the Lower East Side for some drinking and dancing which lasted until 3AM. that agency knows how to party. One emplyee IM'd she had "85 hangovers" this morning. Sweet. All kinds of pictures here.
Sony Style is working with Extreme Group/Toronto on a rebranding effort called "Experience the Wonder." Print ads will be used to distill the magic people feel when walking into a Sony Style store.
"A typical consumer standing outside a Sony Style location has the same look on their face as a kid in a candy store," said associate CD Anthony Taaffe, explaining the ad at left.
It's weird, but for some reason the image of a dazzled kid in oversized clothing always makes me think of Disney.* It's like those guys have a monopoly on childlike awe -- not to say Sony hasn't occasionally swept me off my feet.
Anywho, the work will appear at Sony Style stores and launch events in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
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Because I've always wanted to share my bra size, waist-to-hip ratio, and breadth-of-ass with a fabric softener company that cares just that much, I sat around taking the "Discover Your Shape" quiz on DownyDesignTags.com. This is part of a partnership between myShape and P&G's Downy.
At the end of the test, long-suffering women get a Downy Design Tag, a personal style guide that reveals what our best colors are and which clothes most flatter our bodies. (What is this, a joke?!) Advice is proffered by a celebrity stylist called Jorge, who also dispenses cockle-warming welcome letters and coupons to Ann Taylor LOFT.
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Got a minute to kill and a lust for destruction? Take time out for Suicide Kittens, a strategy game where you play a kitten and the objective is to get shot, preferably by your own laser beam.
It gets surprisingly complicated.
I stayed alive too long in level 4, which landed me a big fat GAME OVER, after which I was invited to check out 4mations.tv, a just-launched site for deliciously sophomoric animators.
The funniest thing about this effort, though, were the game tags: suicide, kittens, lasers, and trigonometry...?
By Rubber Republic/London.
Came across this ad for the Tantra Chair earlier today. (NSFW, unless your boss is into artistic nudity.) Under the tagline "For the sensually sophisticated," the spot starts out with rave reviews and flashes dramatic imagery of a woman lying across the chair in sexually suggestive positions.
Neato. But where would one put a Tantra Chair -- between the recliner and the yoga ball? (It's not exactly a stashable copy of Joy of Sex.) I guess if worst came to worst, you could always wipe it down and tell the kids it's one of those newfangled video game chairs.
In an effort called "A Piece of Your Lov," Volvo invites online users to contribute to the first Volvo XC60 billboard, which looks something like this (except without the "download wallpaper" bar up top).
The image has been cut jigsaw-style. You'll be given a puzzle piece upon which to inscribe a raving little message about the XC60. These notes are called pieces of "Lov," named after the Swedish town of Lov, home of the XC60.
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Or at least knows how to stare and snack at the same time.
Brokaw Inc. sent us this video of an elevator rescue that took place at its office. Awesome cut to the American flag at the end. It would make the agency look damn heroic if only they didn't include that shot of all the creatives, standing there, mid-chew. And maybe if they stenciled the likeness of Bill Brokaw over the firefighter.
The video hit YouTube on February 22 and drew a fiery 859 views. Way to take the world by storm! And if for some reason you need another reason to make Brokaw your agency of choice, here's an illustrious name-drop: Brokaw occasionally also does outdoor stuff for White Castle (whose agency of record, incidentally, is JWT).
Apparently just placing a video on YouTube is no longer enough for advertisers wishing to seed their message to as many people as possible. OK, it was never enough for the smart marketers but go with me on this one. Anyway, Wii has placed some Wario Land Shake It game play footage on YouTube that delivers a decidedly different online video experience.
It's only fitting that video pages get the same takeover love "regular" web pages have for so long from the likes of Pointroll, Eyeblaster and other expand-o-banner techniques. Have a look.
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