Continuing what we started in New York on Nov 8, yesterday Adrants and BDI held the second Ad Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference in San Francisco, hosted by the Academy of Art in conjunction with BIG. Local and nationwide entities including Google, Modem Media, Draft FCB, Dieste and T3 (The Think Tank), showed up to trade paper with giddy be-suited candidates.
The set of pews and the wide church like set-up served as a good backdrop for what could be both parts keynote and sermon.
Larry Harris, EVP and Director of Integrated Marketing at DraftFCB, made a straightforward delivery on topics we expected to rise to the surface: the disparity of diversity in our industry, the changing face of marketing in the face of new media (iPods, internet, mobile phones, chip-reading billboards) and the importance of knowing what you want before leaping into the wild blue yonder. He also told an awesome story about how he infiltrated agency execs by pretending to be a message boy. "They let you right in!" he exclaimed.
more »
- MTV has added a user-generated category to its Movie Awards.
-Nike is opening an agency review with its U.S. business, currently handled by Wieden + Kennedy, getting first look.
- After many years with JWT, Kraft's Miracle Whip is heading over to DDB.
Mark Cuban must be laughing his ass off now as Viacom, following unproductive settlement talks, sues Google and YouTube for $1 billion in damages.
- If your into the whole March Madness thing, Coke has a nice Brack-O-Matic site that makes picking teams easy.
- Nickelodeon UK has launched Musical March, a site where kids can create their own musical videos and upload them to the site. The best videos will air on Nick JR Video.
Apparently believing employees aren't intelligent to find their own industry news sources and laughably calling it "first of its kind," JWT has partnered with Nielsen to create JWT NewsWatch, a customizable "information portal" which will pull news from 40 sites including AdWeek, BrandWeek, MediaWeek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. Obviously they haven't heard of the countless other news aggregation services (NewsPage, anyone?) that have been around since the birth of the Internet or RSS readers which are free and are comfortable paying InfoDesk what is likely to be a hefty fee for creating/managing this service.
more »
It's been a while and, unfortunately, it's a bit too late but here's some Leo Burnett-created spots for Chocolate Dipped Altoids we actually like. As the agency bids adieu to the client which is heading to the sunny San Francisco offices of Hal Riney, Leo Burnett can be pleased it created some decent work while in lame duck status. These four spots, produced by Biscuit, create four scenarios in which the intrigue displayed by the onlookers isn't due to what would normally cause intrigue. Each spot has a nice twist and holds attention long enough for the payoff. Don't worry, Leo Burnett. Be happy. Maybe Hall Riney will screw it up and the chocolate dipped weirdos will come running back to you. See all the ads here.
As a marketer, what do you do when your brand icon has been known the world over for 35 years? You open an agency review and change it of course. It's the natural way of things, of course. While we never thought of Singapore Airline's Singapore Girl as any sort of sexist symbol, some feel her time has come and she should step down as the last of many female flight attendants who have been featured by various airlines over the years. While airline officials say the Singapore Girl may remain part of the brand in some form, Singapore Airlines VP of Public Affairs says, "What has worked well in the past is not always an indication of what will work well in the future It would be a mistake to cling to the past as a measure of success for the future. We want to explore the creative market; see what others have to offer." While true, we're hoping the airline, which continually ranks high for service and experience, doesn't become just another American Airlines cattle car.
Likening an agency/client relationship to a marriage contract but acknowledging things or permanence can sometimes be droll, boring and, well, just not that much fun, project agency Tattoo Projects in encouraging brands to stray. Just a little. To have a fling, some fun, some action to spice up your life. In fact, Tattoo Projects' approach - providing that pent up and much needed occasional release - might actually curtail the wildly increasing divorce rate between clients and agencies.
So don't make a big move that will ruin your life and cause you to say fuck off to your client or agency. No. Just have an affair. Stray a little bit. Cheat, if you will. According to Tattoo Projects, it's a very healthy thing.
- Starcom has reeled in the $100 million United Airlines global media business beating OMD and Mediaedge:cia
- Rosie O'Donnell's in a tiff over the American Idol Frenchie Davis/Antonella Barba picture thing. American Idol Exec producer responds, "Without wishing to add to the obvious self-promotion of Ms. O'Donnell, I feel as though I must refute her absurd and ridiculous claims that American Idol is racist and/or weightist. Ms. O'Donnell has, once again, spoken without thought or knowledge. Viewers need only look at the show tonight to realize that American Idol constantly confirms to America that talent has nothing to do with weight or color."
- According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, Internet ad spending grew 34 percent to $16.8 billion in 2006.
- If you're having trouble sleeping on those long business flights, British Airways has the solution: a soothing podcast.
- Here's a decidedly different look at outdoor advertising.
- The LAist will be rockin' during SXSW in Austin this Sunday hosting its own party at Room 710. If you're there, check it.
After stylishly offing everybody at his old agency, Chuck McBride prepares to start afresh with a new San Francisco agency. Called Cutwater, it'll mainly consist of employees and clients from TBWA's SF location. TBWA will consequently be bowing out of the SF market.
Here's something that might prove helpful for the hopefuls attending the Advertising Industry Diversity Job Fair and Leadership Conference taking place next week.
Shedwa points us to My Life in Advertising, a video podcast hosted by Sean McKenna of GSW. McKenna has a gift for portraying our industry pretty well and making it laugh-worthy too (in retrospect, that's probably not hard). Jokes aside, the show lends a decent look inside a typical agency. Apparently it's not all bloody murder.
Check My Life in Advertising out on iTunes.
In a Talent Zoo podcast interview, Cramer-Krasselt CEO Peter Krivkovich said, among other things including how illogical it was for CareerBuilder to dump the agency because its ads didn't place in the top ten of the USA Today Super Bowl ad poll, now that he's free of CareerBuilder he'd love to take on Monster.com. By all accounts, Cramer-Krasselt has catapulted CareerBuilder to stunning success even besting primary competitor Monster.com in some areas.
Oddly, CareerBuilder has been silent regarding its strange move and has offered no explanation for its sudden dumping of Cramer-Krasselt. Perhaps it's too embarrassed to face the wrath of detractors who've maligned the company for it's irrational decision. Perhaps we'll find out later there's some intriguing nepotism going on between CareerBuilder and the yet to be selected agency. Perhaps we'll never hear anything until next year's Super Bowl when the company, aided by some as yet unnamed agency, trots out another set of commercials. Perhaps no one will care and this will die like the controversy surrounding a certain Wal-Mart marketing executive whose name we no cannot remember.
|
|
