Friday, 7 August 2009

Got a job at Y&R New York


Yes that's right. 

Graham Hall (of DDB London) has got a job at Y&R New York.

He's leaving DDB along with the head of planning (who's going to Ogilvy New York)

Some of his best work as presented by the ridiculously annoying Brand Republic presenter.

Thursday, 6 August 2009

Free Budweiser


Four becomes two. Fallon are the latest agency to drop out of the Budweiser pitch. 

Declining to repitch, but perhaps with good reason.

Turns out all the agencies pitching must produce 3 fully formed campaigns in two weeks, 
as well as also waiver any rights to the work. 

Therefore Budweiser could actually use all 12 campaigns (if all 4 agencies pitched) without 
appointing any of them.

So now it's down to just RKCR/Y&R and DDB London to pitch for the business.

Really you can't blame TBWA/ or Fallon for this, who wants to put all the work in when there is a good chance
you won't get anything out of it at all. 

It's not like ABInBev are strapped for cash, they just bought Budweiser for literally billions of dollars!  


Wednesday, 5 August 2009

TBWA/ & Budwieser


First casualty of the Budweiser pitch.
TBWA/ Media Arts London have decided not to pitch. With Tim Lindsay giving the reasons for this on his new blog
here (or you can read below)

Long story short, they are simply to busy with existing clients and all the upheaval of moving into one office, to deal with such a big pitch, in such a short space of time

This could have been a big one for TBWA/ after all the trouble they've been having, with redundancies and account's jumping ship. Perhaps they can start their creative revival on an existing account, they do still have some good 'uns after all.


TOUGH DECISION

We had to make a really tough decision today.

You may have read on the front page of Campaign that Budweiser have asked us to pitch for their UK business. (What’s happening round at Fallon, by the way?). It’s a great brand and arguably a chance for glory, but an incredibly tough brief and a very short space of time in which to deliver it. We would have had to throw an enormous amount of resource at it – which would have consumed the agency for the next three weeks.

Trouble is, we’ve got a huge amount on. Two huge and exciting international pitches. Another big regional pitch about to walk in next week (we hope). Two RFIs from the AAR. A big Nissan task about to land. Lot’s of work on PlayStation in preparation for the arrival of a new European President. In August. When a lot of people are obviously on the beach. Oh yes – and with 150 Dean Streeters about to come up the road and move in with us.

So we’re not going to do Bud. It’s a tough call (and I can promise you Matt, Mark, Tom M, Julie, Ed and I went full circle on it at least twice this morning) but it’s the right call. We have to be able to do what we’re already committed to do well. And our first obligation is to existing clients.

I thought I detected a slight flicker of relief on Tom C’s and Paulo’s faces when they heard the news. Thanks for the work you put in chaps, it won’t go to waste.

Craigen isn't impressed.


Top Gear, making a VW advert, Jeremy Craigen looking on in disbelief.

You can imagine the quality of Clarkson and Captain Slows advert; for the VW Scirocco, wasn't quite up to the standard of DDB and Mr Craigen, nor the head of Volkswagen.

Mr Volkswagen client had out his 'How to write a Volkswagen advert' rule guide out for them, to which they would obviously pay no attention to.  

Watch from 19:20 - 40.00 on iPlayer. (apparently you can't embed iPlayer anymore?)


or watch one of the many they made here;


Friday, 31 July 2009

Bollocks


Found this interesting little film of Dan and Amber at RKCR/Y&R. 


They answer questions about advertising, and attempt to sell us Helix rubbers. 

They used to work at DDB London, where they did this.

Thursday, 30 July 2009

John Webster lives on.



Is it just me or is there a theme here? 

Everyone seems to love Comparethemeerkat.com

People who don't have cars.

 Kids. O.A.P's, my dog. 

But why do they love it? Not for the cheesy pun. 

But because of the character and the personality? (a la Webster) 

To be fair to Comparethemarket.com they are backing it and pushing the campaign as far as they can and are being rewarded for it. Making people talk about an insurance comparison site!

But with this campaign being such a success.

Why aren't more brands using a character or personality? Is it now going to become cool again? or is it still a creative no-no?

Heineken have been using a character in the US, 'The Most interesting man in the world' which has increased sales of their import brand so should brand characters be back on the table?

It's Pitch O'Clock


Budweiser has decided it wants a change. 

The UK account (Fallon) and the Ireland account (DDB) are both up for pitch.

As well as Budweiser, Beck's has also decided they want a new agency. According to Campaign, Lowe resigned the account but it sounds mutual. 

So that's £5.5 million for Budweiser and £25 million for Beck's. 

Of course both are owned by Inbev so it's no real surpise their both up for pitch.

When brands go up for pitch i always assume they're not happy with how the ad's are going at the moment, but i'm sure there is more to it than that. 

But can anyone remember the last great beer ad? 

Sure, the Bud spot up there is good but it's not something you will remember like Wassup or John Smiths (TBWA/London are on the pitch list for Budweiser). Beck's latest spot below didn't exactly blow me away, i know it's said beer is such a difficult product to advertise but it's also one of the briefs everyone seems to want too.


Less Than Zero



Great book i'm reading at the moment.

Sharp, short and very matter of fact.

Nice to read something with a different kind of tone and i always admire writers who can keep you interested whilst nothing much seems to have developed in an obvious story line kind of way. 

Any recommendations for something to read next?

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

Simple Thinking Works.


First of all, no i haven't adopted a Polar Bear. But it's possible to adopt anything from a Polar Bear to a Donkey these days.

This appears to be a simple and straight forward idea but look at charity advertising on the whole and it's actually a lot of cleverer.

How do you solve a problem like getting people to give to charity? Give them something back.

You never meet the animal you adopt (i assume they don't actually exist?)
But it's a brilliant idea that gains your initial interest and then maintains it for a significant period after the original donation.

As Dave Trott would say, simple preditory thinking. Executed brilliantly.

Saturday, 18 July 2009

Scamp is alive

Sympathy For The Devil - Egos of the Advertising Industry from Toodle Pip on Vimeo.


Found this video on Toodle Pip's website, a student team trying to get into advertising. Featuring bloggings very own Scamp.

Monday, 22 June 2009

Be Nice or Leave

Be Nice Or Leave
View more PDF documents from Faris Yakob.

Slides and Audio. 
Great Talk by Faris Yakob at McCann-Erickson NY about Social Media


Do Not Shave


We all hate those Gillette ad's right?

This one is a bit different.


Infact it's REALLY interesting!

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Teepay



Teepay is a company that allow anyone to submit a design for a t-shirt.


It then gets uploaded to their website  http://teepay.com

and then every t-shirt is available to vote for. 

Basically if enough people pledge a vote to buy your design, it then goes into production with the designer of the T-shirt getting a slice of the profits!

It was brought together by these lovely people.





So have a go!

or visit


for other cool stuff!

Interview with Dave Trott



Found this on ]-[appy Thought's blog! Only found it by chance so doubt many will have read it, anyway it's a great read.

It can be found here

50% Killing spree




Now for some advertising gaming i do like!

Created by DDB London