Life Style Study Finds Mother's Day Not Fave Holiday
Most Americans will do something to celebrate Mother's Day. Whether it be buying flowers, sending a greeting card, calling her on the phone or serving her breakfast in bed, children young and old will mark the occasion and take a moment to thank Mom for all she does.
A recent DDB Life Style Study survey revealed, however, that while mothers across the country appreciate the attention and love their families bestow on this occasion, Mother's Day is not, in fact, their favorite holiday. Only 2% of moms cite Mother's Day as their favorite holiday. Sixty-one percent of moms cite Christmas as their favorite, and Thanksgiving is next for 21% of moms.
Despite this, the study finds that most moms genuinely enjoy spending time with their children and even admit that they love their kids more than their spouses.
This doesn't mean that we should let Mother's Day go unmarked or unnoticed. But it is clear that most mothers love their children and their role as moms, regardless of what happens on Mother's Day. The study indicates that 95% of moms enjoy spending time with their children, and 88% say that raising a child brings them a lot of happiness. Only 9% of mothers find parenthood to be a real burden.
For most mothers, their relationship with their children is their top priority. Seventy-six percent of working mothers say they would dial back their careers if they felt it was negatively impacting their parenting, and more than 50% claim they would not even miss one event that was important to their kids because of a work obligation. Perhaps most surprising, 75% of mothers admit they love their kids more than their spouses.
According to the DDB Life Style Study data, mothers put a lot of effort and love into nurturing their children and cultivating the experiences that their families share. Family traditions are very important to 88% of mothers, and an equal number say they seek out ways to create lasting memories with their families.
What is also readily apparent in the study is that mothers are highly successful when it comes to fostering a loving and lasting relationship with their daughters and sons. Among adult men and women, 81% feel "extremely close" or "close" to their mothers. Only 5% describe their relationship with their mother as strained or worse (e.g., they are not on speaking terms). In fact, adults feel closer to their mothers than their fathers, with 43% saying they are closer to their mother than their father, and only 13% saying they are closer to their father than their mother.
This feeling of closeness that more people have towards their mothers might explain why we are more likely to see "MOM" tattoos than "DAD" tattoos. And it is probably also why we can more easily remember times of trouble when we thought or said aloud, "I want my mommy.
A big congratulations to the DDB Network who garnered due recognition at a slew of award shows this week.
DDB has been named New York Festivals' Agency Network of the Year, thanks to Alma DDB Miami, DDB Chicago, DDB Dubai, DDB Brasil, DDB Colombia, DDB Group NZ, DDB Puerto Rico, DDB Paris, DDB Shanghai and Tribal DDB Amsterdam. They combined for a total of 19 medals and 5 certificates, with 5 offices claiming Gold winners.
Check out the full list of winners:http://www.newyorkfestivals.com/worldsbest/
DDB has also received seven Webby Awards and 3 People's Voice Awards. The 21st Century Beetle - Rock 'n' Scroll campaign by DDB Berlin garnered four awards including a Webby Award and People's Voice Award for Best Automotive Website, and Webby Awards for Best Navigation/Structure Website and Best Visual Design/Function Website.
Additionally, DDB was awarded a total of 28 CLIOS this year. A special congratulations to DDB UK's "Walk of Shame" for Harvey Nichols which won a Gold medal in the Film category.
Tribal DDB Israel Creates 1st Instagram Agency Website
The Tribal DDB Israel office has launched a fully functioning website using Instagram as its medium. The "Officegram" website is available to those who download the Instagram app and locate TribalDDB_Israel. The website builds awareness of the agency, and highlights the agency's espousal of new mediums and use of new creative opportunities provided by tech companies.
As part of Tribal DDB's first Instagram self-promotional website for Tribal DDB Israel, "Officegram" celebrates the interactive navigation on Instagram by encouraging users to navigate site content with hashtags such as tags #workers, #clients, and #office life. The Tribal DDB Israel office is supported by content on Statigram, as well as the global agency's global website (www.tribalddb.com) for those who have not downloaded the app.
As the world continues to be swept away by the mobile social network Instagram, the creative team at Tribal DDB Israel fell in love with Instagram as a digital tool. Instagram now boasts over 4 million users, and the highly visual nature of the site boosts its relevance for a lot of brands as well as allows for unique ways in which photos can be shared to communicate information in a creative way.
Tribal DDB anticipates that a number of brands will explore opportunities with Instagram and other up-and-coming social networking sites and mobile applications. Therefore, the brand website on Instagram serves as an expression of how much Tribal DDB loves digital tools and opportunities for collaboration with tech companies.
Via Instagram (mobile): Download Instagram app and search for "TribalDDB_Israel"
Via Statigram (online): Click here
Download screenshots (jpegs): Download zip file here
Tribal DDB San Francisco has created a full-length feature film for Benefit Cosmetics called "Glamouriety," which premieres during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. The film chronicles the lives of Jean and Jane Ford, co-founders of the cosmetics brand, and profiles its evolution from a storefront in San Francisco to a global phenomenon. The sisters' first boutique opened in San Francisco in 1976. In 1999, Benefit was acquired by LVMH, the world's leading luxury product group, which catapulted it to a global beauty presence with make-up counters in over 34 countries worldwide.
Glamouriety was created in the style of a 1970's variety show in an effort to capture the fun, quirky spirit and wide variety of products that make Benefit so unique. The film uses creative storytelling to highlight some of the muses behind Benefit's most popular products. It runs the gamut from animation to acrobatics, encompassing a rare combination of short films, comedy sketches, animated shorts and musical numbers, all showcasing the co-founders, their loyal customers and the beloved make-up brand.
The client wanted its employees to fully experience the history of the brand and its sense of humor. The film will become a deeper part of Benefit's culture, and ultimately contribute to a stronger brand.
A series of animated shorts throughout the film tell the story of the Ford sisters from birth to present day. Live action segments include a docudrama about a cross-dressing farmer who was one of Benefit's first customers, a spoof on a medical show inspired by the best-selling product Dr. Feelgood, and a sketch titled "The Glam Gospel," featuring Reverend Gloria, a beauty evangelist who performs makeover miracles. Musical numbers such as a heartfelt ballad about the genesis of "Benetint," a stain created for an exotic dancer's nipples, serve as anecdotal illustrations of the product's conception.
Conceived of and produced by the Tribal DDB San Francisco group in conjunction with LEGS in NY and Mr. Hyde in Paris, Glamouriety has been a labor of love and an incredible collaboration between agency and client. Glamouriety will continue to premiere in cinemas throughout 2012 in cities such as Shanghai, Seoul, London and Paris.
Chief Creative Officer: Lisa Bennett
Director of Content Production: Frank Brooks
Group Account Director: Jenny Leonetti
Created by: Mike Andrews, Daniel Mabe
Directed by: Georgie Greville, Geremy Jasper
Production Companies: Legs, Mr. Hyde
The Party Has Just Begun: DDB Mudra & the APAC Region
Chuck Brymer, CEO of DDB Worldwide, was recently interviewed in IMPACT Magazine on how DDB is shifting its focus to the APAC region in a significant way and how India is expected to play a critcal part in DDB's APAC agenda. DDB took a major step in India last year when it completed the 51% take-over a Mudra Communications, rebranding it as DDB Mudra Group. DDB is confident that its return on investment will come in the form of creative client work and clients' subsequent successful communications. It is imperative to ensure that DDB's creative standards are the same across markets, so establishing a creative culture in Mudra is requisite.
See below for excerpts from Chuck's interview with Malay Desai:
Q: Tell us about your plans for India and the role it should play in DDB's overall agenda?
A: To me, the Indian marketplace is not an emerging market, it is here and now. We are making plans for today and tomorrow. We believe strongly that India will continue to grow and it will be a focus area for our clients, as they look to expand. The scale in this country will provide opportunities for our clients and we would be in the driver's seat with them, leading the charge creatively. Doing that means we need to have the right people and the right tools. Our vision continues to be focused on creativity; therefore, we want the best creative talent but we want that talent put together in an integrated fashion.
If you observe the DDB Mudra Group today, it represents not only advertising but through-the-line communication, which is similar to DDB. Our vision remains on doing great work, which manifests into success solutions for clients. We do so by coming up with insights in a powerful way that influence and persuade people, and we do it with different media.
Q: Do you think the agency is doing its best to derive maximum value out of the range of services you offer?
A: It's consistent that our clients are looking for integrated, through-the-line communication and we are able to bring that to the table. We house strong digital capability, shopper marketing and so on, and it is the ability to bring the best in each of these areas that makes us a strong brand. We will continue to look at digital services more closely, but we offer a holistic approach to our clients.
Q: Internet users in India crossed the 100-million mark last year. What do you think about the way digital advertising is shaping up in India?
A: It's opening wide up. Digital penetration will continue to grow with the importance of digital solutions. But I must say the word digital is confusing. What do you mean by digital? Is it social? TV has become digital. Does something that has the power to go global, mean digital? It is important for any campaign we develop that we are not just thinking about the media by which we are going to engage consumers. We can engage on TV, but our ability to engage through other channels creates a stronger opportunity for us. We have been working on those lines.
In the past, if I sent you a message on my car, you would go and tell someone about it. But the speed with which Internet travels, it can influence thousands of millions of people at one go. It starts with you and ends with you. Internet needs to connect to people as much as it connects to my brand. Historically, I want to tell you about my car and also want to reach out to your peer and then go through your social network that works and it's fantastic because my returns are much greater. My efficiency is much greater and my engagement factor with that brand is much greater. From that point of view, I don't see how a number can be attributed to a digital platform. I can't figure it out because if you see how much you are digital, that's included in what people think is digital. We don't operate that way with the work we do, which is integrated. In many cases, there is no television buy or radio buy, it's an event, an activity and an online program.
The way we position DDB is to refer to social creativity. We want work that people want to share and want to be engaged with. Social creativity is the driving position behind the work we do. Now that could be television. In the US for example, there is a show called American Idol, which here is 'Indian Idol', where people call in and are engaged with the product and the content that they see on it. That is creativity. That is the work people are sharing and engaging with, so it doesn't need to be all online. There are ideas that we come up for our clients. We bring that kind of engagement and that's what we need to do.
Q: You have been quoted on the importance of the right creative culture. How do you ensure that you have this culture across all your offices?
A: It starts with establishing a value system in the company and systems are based on two key principles. The first is creativity. To work at DDB, you must be creative. Whether it is a planner, digital specialist, an accounts person, IT or a creative person, we want the very best creative talent in our organization. Creativity is the pedigree and legacy of this organization. The second value is very important and that is humanity. Creativity and humanity are the two values we look for in all our offices. We want people who are collaborative. We want people whose egos are secondary to that of DDB's values. We want people who work well with other people. We expect our people to work together and be entrepreneurial in terms of creating work collaboratively. Equally, you could be a very nice person but if you are not a good creative, you don't fit. You have to have all those values in our organization to succeed and that culture is followed in all our offices.
Q: What are advertisers in India looking for?
A: Most clients are looking for communication that would enable them to strengthen their brand equity and grow their business. If you know your equity, then you are providing long term value to the organization. The combination of strengthening a brand and creating a leadership position for that brand generates sustainable differentiation. Globally, clients look for this and India is no different. Two years ago, I was sitting in the office with a client and we were getting into a sophisticated discussion about segmentation and he said he wanted DDB to sell more stuff - I have never forgotten that. Not much has changed since, even today, clients are looking for the same thing.
Q: There have been conversations of slowdown in the industry, affecting some markets including the likes of India and China. Is DDB experiencing something of the nature too?
A: The world is moving at different speeds. Some markets, particularly in Asia, are moving faster. We have seen higher growth rates. As a consequence, our clients are becoming more active in those markets to capture that growth and India is amongst those markets.
Data, and its sister, analytics, are the new sexy in advertising and marketing. Every agency and company now has an in- house data and analytics practice. It is blasphemy even to think of making any business move without the aid of sifting through mounds of data, given its ability to lead to better (more accurate) decision-making.
In today's technologically-advanced environment, the ability to capture and report data is much more accessible. With increased data-processing capabilities, we can build more complex models that can churn out more complex data. Both descriptive and predictive analytics can now do an exceptional job of uncovering the answers to "who, what, where, when, how and why."
So, with all of this data at our fingertips, you would also expect that we are becoming smarter, more efficient, and productive marketers. Perhaps in some instances this is true, but in many cases we have yet to optimize a data-driven creative process. We are overflowing with data, but there is a critical missing link.
What's missing is the optimized ability to identify insights from data. What's missing even more is the role of "creative" in this process. The very notion of inserting a creative person into the research process probably would send the greatest scientists, strategists, engineers and doctorates running. The commonly held view is: "to ensure the purity of data collection and unbiased analysis, this is where art and science shouldn't mix."
In fact, at the data-mining stage in the research process, we are just trying to uncover the facts. However, by introducing a creative into the process earlier, we are more likely to capture data that truly leads to insight. The ability to glean insight from data is where the art must take precedence over the science. Insight is necessary to make data meaningful and inform/inspire strategy and creative development.
In marketing, insight is now king. Insights, with their potential to inspire more conceptual design and creative, are what ultimately motivate consumer behavior. The critical question of how a consumer or shopper will respond or how an event will unfold in the future remains the role of insight. Insights can be used to guide merchandising decisions, drive brand relevance and help a brand differentiate itself within the category.
The creative challenge in shopper marketing is the ability to integrate multiple insights. The ecosystem of shopper marketing requires a blending of consumer, shopper, retailer, and cultural insights to form a differentiated strategic direction that will guide creative development.
As data from multiple sources is synchronized (say from the point-of-sale terminals, credit cards, loyalty cards)--the analysis of integrated data get us closer to a holistic view of the shopper. Who better to own this job than the creative team partnered with the research and strategy team? Today, it is our creatives who most deeply need to understand every aspect of the consumer/shopper at all moments of potential purchase and usage of brands.
DDB Life Style Study® Reveals Consumers Not as Green as Seem
April 22nd, 2012 marks the 42nd annual Earth Day, a day devoted to increasing environmental awareness and inspiring more sustainable attitudes toward conserving the planet. Yet, while there is a pervasive trend of consumers espousing "green" attitudes and holding companies to higher standards, the DDB Life Style Study® reveals that the majority of Americans are unwilling to stand up for these beliefs if it means negatively affecting their wallets, time, or quality of life.
Overall, the biggest revelation was that a mere 36% of Americans agree that they would be willing to accept a lower standard of living to conserve energy. This statement is particularly disconcerting, as this value has depreciated a full 24 percentage points from a high of 60% agreeing to accept a lower standard of living to conserve energy back in 1980, a time that was far less impassioned about environmental sustainability.
When surveyed on the topic, less than half of all Americans agree that they would pay more for an environmentally safe version of a product or make a special effort to buy from businesses that are environmentally conscious.
This unwillingness to make individual sacrifices might be explained by a belief that all companies should shoulder the costs associated with producing "greener" products and behave in a more environmentally responsible manner.
On the brighter side, a majority of Americans are actively doing their part to engage in behaviors that are good for the environment. More than 60% of Americans agree that they make a strong effort to recycle everything they possibly can and state that they always separate the recyclables from the rest of the trash. Moreover, more than half of Americans claim to use a refillable water bottle and use recyclable grocery bags as much as possible.
DDB suspects that there is greater participation when it comes to the aforementioned "green" behaviors because it is relatively easy to do them. The prevalence of recycling programs in most communities, and the broad availability of reusable water bottles and bags, enable people to do the right thing. However, the fact remains that people's sustainable practices prescribe to a moral relativism whereby they are sustainable up to a point, until it becomes inconvenient or inopportune to do so.
The DDB's Life Style Study® is the nation's largest and longest-running annual consumer survey. It was fielded in the fall of 2011 with 7,608 consumers nationwide.
DDB SF's Lisa Bennett Discusses Judging at the CLIOS
DDB SF CCO and Head of the North American Creative Council, Lisa Bennett, served as a judge at the CLIO Awards recently. In the video above, she details her views on creativity in the industry, criteria for judging the film category, and the changing dynamics of audiences.
To preface her outlook on the industry, Lisa explains her holistic view of communications. In this day in age, a great idea comes in any form, so our industry becomes less about advertising and more about the sharing of ideas. In regards to the film category and its recent evolution, Lisa believes that fresh ideas remain at the core of successful films and that those selected as leaders in the category all share wonderful storytelling, simple and true insights, and are relevant regardless of who the audience is and where the film runs.
With regards to whether or not the medium matters for viewing the film, Lisa maintains that the experience may be contextual if one is watching on a mobile device while in transit, but that the majority of films are not contingent on the medium. When asked about how to captivate viewers in the age of audience fragmentation, Lisa suggested bringing viewers into the conversation in engaging ways to mitigate their being inundated with myriad messages everyday.
When asked about what the future of advertising holds, Lisa spoke to what we can expect will not change. "Bill Bernbach, one of the Masters of Advertising had it right -- a great idea can come from anywhere."
Alexandre Hervé Appointed VP Creativity, DDB Paris
Having joined DDB Paris in 2003 as Executive Creative Director, Alexandre has created some of the strongest brand campaigns on the French market (including Bouygues Télécom, Voyages-SNCF, Winamax, Meetic, Nike, l'Equipe, Volkwagen, Greenpeace, MINI Allianz and Tiji) and has also been instrumental in the agency's move to integrate digital and social-creativity into the heart of their campaigns (Wrigley's, Tropicana, INPES Tabac, McDonalds, B&You, MINI, Voyages SNCF "Transatlantys")
Overseeing a department of 75 creatives, he infuses "DDB culture" into his teams: finding strong and innovative ideas that always build on a human truth, which speak to the person and not just to the consumer.
Since 2004, his work has been awarded 28 Lions at Cannes Lions Festival, 20 Clios, 5 One Show, 43 Eurobest, 1 D&AD Silver Pencil and 5 Silver Award Nominations, for a total of 15 different brands.
In France, Hervé has taken home the Grand Prix Stratégies three times with Volkswagen, Tiji and L'Equipe; the APPM Grand Prix de l'Affichage with Voyages-SNCF; and a Radio award with Eurostar. And this year the French Art Directors Club has nominated him Creative Director of the year. In addition, Creativity recognized him as one of the 50 most creative people in the world.
Marketers will spend upwards of $271 million on social game ads this year, and in less than three years, analysts expect mobile game ad spending to reach nearly $900 million annually. When it comes to brands, budgets and games on laptops, mobile devices and connected consoles, the stakes are high. Paul Gunning, CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide, led a discussion at Ad:Tech San Francisco with Zynga, Electronic Arts and Microsoft. He spoke with the titans of gaming about how they are shaping social, mobile and connected console advertising from the old method of in-game banners to new innovations, rising trends and technologies.
Game mechanics have infiltrated all forms of advertising, from check-in based coupons, to loyalty programs that reward shoppers with points, to branded virtual games that let moms dress up their avatars like the Real Housewives of Orange County. The buzzword for this is "gamification," and companies are now focused on making their offerings more ad-friendly. This makes three of the biggest names in gaming - Zynga, Electronic Arts and Microsoft - three of the most powerful companies in digital advertising today.
Zynga wants to make everything social - not just Facebook games. EA has dominated the console market, but is pushing steadily into mobile and social gaming, and Microsoft is transforming the Xbox 360 console into a full-fledged content and advertising platform.
In the video you'll get a glimpse into the advertising innovations currently being developed by each company, details on how they're pushing into each other's respective markets, and in a Q&A led by Tribal DDB Worldwide CEO Paul Gunning, you'll see what opportunities currently exist for advertising mobile, social and connected-console game platforms.
Given a shockingly high figure of half a million car crashes a year caused by women drivers applying make-up (in the UK alone), awareness of this underestimated danger needs to be raised. Based on this insight the aim of a viral video by DDB Berlin and Volkswagen is to address a target audience of young women drivers and educate them about the danger of putting on make up while driving.
The objective is to reach as many young women as possible all over the world. In order to do so, DDB Berlin picked up the latest viral trend among young women: haul videos. These videos are often put on the web by girls, who buy cosmetics and give make up tutorials on how to use the respective products. Together with the famous haul girl Nikkie, who has over 150,000 subscribers, DDB Berlin created the tutorial "a crash course to shine" carrying the message in a way that is designed for impact.
By using this platform the narrow target group is addressed directly in terms of age and interest. Having a famous make-up artist as the spokesperson makes the message relevant and even more believable to the target group. In only five days the video was shared, re-tweeted and has been watched almost 130,000 times. DDB Berlin and Volkswagen started a real discussion on YouTube with over 2,100 relevant comments. And this is exactly what we believe Social Creativity must do.
It Takes Less Time Than You Think to Change a Life
Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland is launching a Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign across the Lower Mainland designed to recruit women to volunteer for Big Sisters, a non-profit organization that pairs girls with women who can offer guidance and support.
The intention of the campaign is to dispel the misconception by many women that being a Big Sister requires a significant time commitment, which is often cited as the reason why women choose not to volunteer.
Developed pro bono by DDB Canada's Vancouver office, the integrated PSA campaign features playful TV, radio, and print creative, supported by social media and PR, which accurately demonstrate that "Being a Big Sister takes less time than you think." Lisa Chen-Wing, a mother and an art director, who revealed she was a Big Sister Study Buddy, brought the idea to fruition.
Specifically, the spot features mother who's managing to raise her own child while pursuing a career in an unquestionably demanding industry, and yet she still finds time to volunteer. DDB Canada felt that that was an admirable story that needs to be told and that if she can do it, there is no excuse why others can't.
To demonstrate how little time it takes to make a difference in a girl's life, DDB Canada created the shortest messages possible in any given media: seven second TV ads, five second radio ads, Tweets and small space print ads. The ads are just long enough to feature a Big Sister giving a young girl advice, reinforcing the fact that being a Big Sister may take less time than you think.
The brief length of the creative is meant to cleverly mirror the message of the campaign, while still making it accessible for broadcast media to play and help raise awareness of Big Sisters' need for volunteers.
In support of the multi-media PSA campaign, Vision Critical donated an Omnibus study that captured British Columbians' sentiment towards volunteering and found that 67 per cent of British Columbians want to volunteer their spare time towards a non-profit organization. The study also found 49 per cent chose Big Brothers, Big Sisters as the organization they would volunteer for.
The study is a wonderful indicator that British Columbians have the right intentions in mind and, despite their busy lives, want to give back. People are telling us they have enough time to volunteer, which is fantastic. The next step is to get them into our offices and pair them with those in need, a call-to-action.
The study also revealed that 85 per cent of Canadians, who identified having a mentor, agree they were impactful in their lives, something Cloutier believes is a crucial element that many youth are missing.
Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland depend on the volunteer efforts of the community to help provide young girls, ages 7-17, with positive, female role models who help the girls build self-esteem with their support and friendship. Currently 125 girls are waiting to be matched with a volunteer mentor, something the PSA campaign hopes to resolve by highlighting the fact that mentoring programs require a time commitment of only one to four hours per week.
The PSA campaign kicks off during National Volunteer Week (April 15-21), which celebrates the work of volunteers across Canada, and recognizes the great impact volunteering has on communities across Canada, and the globe.
In addition to Vision Critical donating the National Omnibus study, DDB Canada developed the multi-media PSA campaign for Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland pro bono in collaboration and with generous donation from the following partners: Family Style Productions, Griffiths, Gibson, & Ramsay Productions, JMB Post and Mann Casting.
DDB Life Style Study® Reveals Nature of Tax Cheats
In the midst of tax season and intensified political campaigning, news headlines are dominated by contentious and partisan issues surrounding income taxes--who is responsible for what percentage, whether the rates are justified, and if the tax code should be revisited. No matter how much most Americans complain about the burden of taxes, the majority of Americans claim honesty when it comes to filing their taxes. A recent DDB Life Style Study survey uncovered that while only 7% of Americans concede that they are likely to cheat on their taxes, the "tax cheats" share some disconcerting overall characteristics.
Demographically, the biggest difference between cheats and noncheats this year is still gender. Of admitted cheats, 72% are men. While 55% of tax cheats are under 45, somewhat surprisingly there are no other significant demographic differences between cheats and noncheats.
Based on the data from the DDB Life Style Study, the dishonesty that characterizes those who are tax cheats is, however, evident across many other chronic wanton behaviors, illustrating a skewed moral compass and an inflated sense of entitlement. For example, tax cheats are more likely than noncheats to keep the wrong change given to them by a cashier, take money from their child's piggy bank that they don't intend to return, and value their own happiness over that of others.
The behavioral patterns of those who evade their taxes illustrate that tax cheats also have an inflated sense of entitlement compared to those who dutifully obey the law and pay their taxes in full. Tax cheats are more likely to consider themselves as 'better' and 'more attractive' than most people, and tend to value their own happiness ahead of others including their own children.
Tax cheats are more likely than their noncheating counterparts to engage in dishonest or unethical behavior such as:
DDB New York announced the launch of "Safe Sex for Seniors," a campaign created in collaboration with SaferSex4Seniors.org, an independent collective of professional sexuality educators, researchers, authors, trainers, counsellors and therapists, whose mission is to provide better education and information to ensure sexual intimacy between older adults is as safe as possible. The campaign reminds mature adults that safer sex practices are essential, following unexpected research results declaring that the 55+ demographic in the United States has the highest growth rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
DDB recognized an unfulfilled need to support this important issue in light of changing social norms. With the tagline, "There are many ways to do it. There is only one way to do it safely," DDB New York's campaign features an array of elder couples of the target 55+ demographic demonstrating a variety of Kama Sutra positions.
Rather than taking a negative approach that uses scare tactics and piles on statistics to deter unsafe sex, DDB made the strategic choice to use humor and shock value. However, it was important for us that our creative response felt empowering to the 55, 60, 65+ demographic. Whether the younger generation likes it or not, our grandparents are having sex. We wanted to make a sexy ad that maintains a level of tastefulness and encourages seniors to enjoy their sex lives --safely.
While the ad maintains a playful tone, the truth remains that shocking statistics have recently come to light showing that the rate of STDs among older Americans, including syphilis and gonorrhoea, has doubled in the last decade, and the rate of HIV infection is reaching similar levels. From 2005 to 2009, the number of cases of syphilis and Chlamydia in seniors in central Florida rose 71% and 62% in the entire state.
Some experts hypothesize that this epidemic of STDs among senior citizens is a result of growing up in an age before sex education was the status quo. With DDB New York's rich history creating healthcare campaigns, we felt uniquely positioned to help ensure that a lack of education is not the reason this issue persists, and hope this campaign will help dispel stigmas around talking about safe sex practices for seniors.
The campaign will feature an educational video, as well as print media applications. To find out more about the campaign, visit: http://safersex4seniors.org/.
DDB New York CCO, Matt Eastwood, has instituted "Curiosity Sessions" for the creative department to encourage and ignite more curiosity. He invites someone inspirational to speak--a musician, a photographer, an artist, a writer-- with the aim of understanding their process and how they generate ideas. Or simply to find out a little more about the world around us. Most importantly, the sessions are designed to unleash curiosity.
This morning Andrew Zuckerman, a photographer and filmmaker, visited DDB New York to deliver a presentation entitled, "Curiosity, Rigor, and Learning As You Go." The presentation used his body of work as a lens through which to discuss the creative process from a macro perspective and examine the obstacles and rewards inherent in any creative venture.
Andrew's background includes publishing four books, soon to be five, that reflect his influential style and uniquely stark aesthetic of photography and film, including the internationally acclaimed "Creature" (2007), an intimate portrait series of a wide variety of species of animals, and "Wisdom" (2008), a book, film, and traveling exhibition, which included portraits and interviews with extraordinary individuals over the age of 65, including Nelson Mandela, Clint Eastwood, Jane Godall, Frank Gehry, and Chuck Close to name a few.
Andrew went into particular detail about his WISDOM project and the experience of seeing the project through to fruition from the initial conception of the premise to the actual execution of traveling internationally and interviewing all of the revered subjects under some very restrictive circumstances. He was adamant about staying true to his artistic point of view which democratizes the subject, whether it be an animal, a flower, or a person, and removes his/her context by placing him/her in front of a white background. In this way, he believes that his photos showcase one's essential qualities and reinforce a shared consciousness, whether s/he is being photographed and interviewed in a remote town in South Africa or down the street from the White House.
In regards to his own undertakings, he explained that he revels in looking at an exhausted subject matter and adding his own spin to it. Seizing on the power of being present, he believes that an interview with an individual, even one who has been interviewed countless times prior, captures a moment in time and will have its own unique spin by dint of being at that time, with that set of questions, and in that settings.
He offered advice on approaching a new creative undertaking, declaring that both curiosity and rigor need to coincide in equal force to impel a project forward. He believes in trial and error, explaining that inspiration doesn't just happen. Rather, one needs to buckle down to work before experiencing those epiphany moments. He elucidated how anxiety and other negative self-imposed influences, such as fear of redundancy, can act as barriers to beginning a project.
Andrew's conviction and differentiated point of view is apparent across all of his work. To view more of his photos, books, and videos, visit: http://www.andrewzuckerman.com/
DDB and Tribal DDB China have developed a digitally immersive adventure as part of an integrated campaign to increase consumer engagement with the new VW Tiguan 2012 Edition.
Entitled 'New Tiguan Tomorrow Mission', the campaign includes exclusive online-only content to engage the target audience - extending the TVC that cemented its positioning as an "intelligent urban SUV".
The digital campaign lets the consumer play the part of a hero secret agent on a mission to accomplish the impossible. With exciting motor and car chasing scenes, players can experience the full extent of the car's amazing new features and technology.
Embracing the fast paced life of China's young achievers, DDB wanted to deliver a clear message that resonated with our target audience who are always aiming high to chart new territories every step of the way. We did this with a movie-like theme and treatment to bring to life the superior features of the new Tiguan.
The campaign leverages the digital channel to further engage our target audience with a more immersive adventure that amplified their experience, and generated a big buzz for New Tiguan launch.
Based on DDB's 6 degrees idea of Social Creativity, the new campaign encourages people to play with, participate in and pass on.
Play: Users take the role of the hero driver of the new Tiguan 2012 Edition in the digital realm and can play with the multiple angles shot to explore how the car performs across each new feature and technology: TSI, ESP, 4MOTION & PLA.
Participate in: Users can experience and explore the new Tiguan 2012 Edition online, register to be one of four lucky winners each week to win the ultra cool Rimowa and ultimately the grand prize of a 15-days free test drive.
Pass on: As the hero driver, players can select three of their friends from weibo social to join them on this immersive adventure journey.
DDB NY Latest Installment of The Fabric of My Life™
DDB New York is introducing the latest installment of its four-year The Fabric of My Life™ campaign with two television spots featuring two new celebrities. Following in the footsteps of actresses Zooey Deschanel and Kate Bosworth, actress/singer Emmy Rossum and actress Camilla Belle star in this campaign, a tale of two cities that is meant to represent the versatility of cotton in fashion centers from New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between.
The two spots seek to showcase a range of cotton apparel and feature Rossum's and Belle's renditions of the cornerstone original song featured in all of The Fabric of My Life™ cotton ads. By presenting cotton as the fabric of each star's daily activities in their respective hometowns, the spots illustrate a wide variety of distinctive styles, all composed of the same fabric.
The Fabric of Our Lives® song has enjoyed widespread recognition and the recent high-profile celebrities featured in the ads help to bolster the underlying message that Cotton permeates the closets of everyone and is appropriate for any occasion. DDB New York is proud to be building upon this long-standing campaign and increasing its relevance for Cotton.
The New York City story features Emmy Rossum, a native New Yorker, sporting a fancy frock for a black-tie event, riding a crowded subway in a fashion-forward outfit, and hosting a dinner party while wearing yet another dress, each carefully catered to her dynamic lifestyle. Rossum's rendition of the song encapsulates the attitude of optimism and opportunity commonly associated with the Big Apple.
The L.A. spots provide a point of contrast, accompanied by a different verse of the song and imbuing a more laid-back California vibe that coheres with Camilla Belle's lifestyle on the West Coast. Belle exudes effortless elegance walking through the lobby of a theatre, perfecting her routine in a dance class, shopping for produce at a local market, and lounging around in her backyard with friends. Both spots conclude with a shot of the celebrity's closet, replete with a range of styles made from the signature fabric.
This campaign breaks widely on April 9, simultaneous to the rollout of several digital assets on the consumer website, www.TheFabricOfOurLives.com. These include a multimedia tour of Emmy Rossum's closet, which is categorized by occasions, a blog by Camilla Belle, behind-the-scenes footage and still images from the shoots, celebrity bios and interviews, and downloads of the new cotton songs.
DDB New York has launched the "I Care" button, the product of a creative pro bono project that caters to the impassioned discussions about global issues across social networks. Facebook's 'Like' button, intended to show interest in a status update or post, can often seem inappropriate when applied to tragic current events or controversial social causes. Conversely, the "I Care" button can be embedded alongside the "Like" button as an alternate expression of engagement with a given topic.
The "I Care" button seeks to serve as an appropriate complement to the "Like" button and can be easily leveraged by individuals and organizations alike to exhibit and inspire social activism. Now people will be able to do more with a button than just "Like" something. They'll be able to say 'I care' about important topics ranging from child labor laws, to natural disasters, to world poverty, to name a few.
The "I Care" button can be implemented throughout websites for people to engage with the content and express their attention to, association with, or compassion for a given cause or issue to their broader social network. Moreover, DDB New York has built a website that aggregates all of the "I Care" trending topics in a centralized location, serving as a clear indication of what causes are eliciting the most support in real time (http://www.icare-movement.com/).
DDB New York CCO, Matt Eastwood explains, "As a network, DDB has long espoused the philosophy, put forth by our founder, Bill Bernbach, that Creativity can change the world for the better and we believe that the "I Care" button perfectly exemplifies this notion. This was an unsolicited project that we felt represented an opportunity to fill a void in the online social community and we are greatly looking forward to seeing the "I Care" button proliferated and, ideally, convert awareness and engagement into action."
The code for the "I Care" button will be available to websites to embed alongside their content. By clicking on the "I Care" button, Facebook users can link it to their profile pages to appear the same way a "like" would. The world's first "I Care" button is now live at MTV Voices, an international platform that highlights socially positive and inspirational content produced by a select team of global correspondents, international and local music artists and MTV's audience: http://voices.mtv.co.uk/2012/04/selfassured/.
Tribal DDB Launches Game Featuring 21stC VW Beetle
Tribal DDB Amsterdam has launched 'Hitchhike with a Like', a new fully interactive online gaming experience for Volkswagen, featuring the third generation of the legendary Beetle car- 21st century Beetle. The campaign, which has been produced in close collaboration with Facebook, is a true innovation in the field of social media gaming worldwide and launches across 10 markets today.
The campaign, which conveys the authentic spirit of the 60's Beetle car, promotes the new 21st Century Beetle as the 'new' charming rebel- combining the iconic design with the new powerful features of the modern car. There is a prize for the best player- a real 21st Beetle trip across Europe.
The idea is to allow Facebook fans that 'liked' the game, to virtually hitchhike to the greatest cities in Europe, getting picked up by different Beetle drivers each time. The game is accessible, easy to play and fun. Cities featured are carefully chosen hubs known for cultural and musical events, or considered design or architectural icons in Europe. Every ride is unique and generates an irreplaceable travel experience for the gamer.
There are 64 various characters driving 64 uniquely designed Beetle cars. Each of the 256 different rides bring surprising stories and outcomes, there are opportunities to earn extra points, unlock prizes and discover originally composed music tracks bringing the gaming experience to another level.
"This game is a real experience of the spirit of the 21st Century Beetle," Robin Cenijn, Interaction Designer for Tribal DDB Amsterdam. "It allows you to travel with the iconic car but in an absolutely modern way bringing in the social aspect of the journey with sharing rides and comparing them with your Facebook friends. Hitch a ride with a Beetle and travel across Europe. Where to? It doesn't matter. It's all about the journey, the adventure and the surprise, not the destination."
"The 21st Century Beetle may be faster, tougher and digitally re-mastered, but one thing remains the same - its spirit," continued Chris Baylis, Executive Creative Director for Tribal DDB Amsterdam. "We're taking a classic symbol that captures the rebellious spirit of the original Beetle and updating it for the 21st century. We replace the 60's thumbs up from the side of the road' with hitchhiking the 21st century way: with a Facebook Like."
Music is a central part of this campaign taking a leading role in determining the 'driving the spirit' as each ride has its own soundtrack reflecting the characteristics of the of the Beetle driver.
"We're super stoked with the completion of this exciting project," said Joep Beving, Music Supervisor for MassiveMusic Amsterdam. "Especially since the role of music is so eminent in the game. It was a challenging brief to come up with 64 songs that would hit the mark both from a storytelling angle as well as appeal to a music savvy online social gaming generation. A big chunk of the songs are from our MassiveTalent catalogue that features exciting and aspiring unknown artists. The other tracks were all produced by MassiveMusic. It's the ultimate type of project to showcase why music agencies like ourselves exist. Let's hope people will enjoy it as much as we do."
Interactive social gaming experience
'Hitchhike with a Like' is a social media based and driven interactive experience giving you the liberty of directing the way of the game. To start, choose a destination city and then decide which character would like to be accompanied by. Every time a character offers you a ride, a short teaser about his trip appears. You start as a Rookie, but with practice you can become a true hitchhike king. And maybe, if you collect enough points along the way, you could win a real Beetle trip across Europe.
To bring out a truly innovative work with an unambiguous interactivity level, Tribal DDB Amsterdam worked very closely with Facebook.
"The Beetle has always been an incredibly social car, so we were thrilled when we got the chance to explore how to develop a program on Facebook that truly unleashes the social potential of the new Beetle," said Alexander Schlaubitz, Director Customer Marketing (EMEA) at Facebook. The close and immersive interaction between Tribal DDB, Volkswagen, and Facebook allowed us to build a creative and engaging marketing program that we expect to create a lot of excitement."
Design and details
The game is intuitive, aiming at the short initial attention span of the user and requiring the best of play interaction design.
Tribal DDB Amsterdam's creative team has invested a lot of time into the development of the campaign. The result is a large amount of written content, exceptional copywriting with a high dose of humor, brilliant music background and top-notch design taking this game to the next level of social gaming experiences. Each and every detail of the game is carefully designed- even the 'hitchhike/Facebook thumb' takes on 5 different forms.
While passing through New York's Grand Central, I spotted the Spring, 2012 issue of Lapham's Quarterly. It is a literary journal edited by Lewis Lapham. Four times a year they collect fiction, nonfiction, poems, and essays from over four thousand years of history, all gathered around a single theme. And this issue's theme is "Means of Communication".
I was struck by the incredible content and complementary visuals. There are close to 100 different pieces of content ranging from one-line quotes to longer essays. In addition there are illustrations of famous paintings, infographics, charts, and photos all supporting the issue's theme. Among them are the original concept layout for the "I Love New York" campaign, images from an IBM voice recognition study, and historic fonts.
The content is divided into sections covering Broadcast, Written, and Spoken. The contributors are a diverse lot including: James Madison, Li Si, H.G. Wells, Bertolt Brecht, Oliver Sachs, Plato, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Eusebius, Arthur Koestler, Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, Toni Morrison, and Simon Winchester. There is also a section on Tweets sent from Cairo in 2011.
Mr. Lapham's preamble called "Word Order" challenges current trends in communications, he writes, "The making of countless connections in the course of a morning's Googling, an afternoon's shopping, and evening's tweeting constitutes the guarantee of being in the know." Here he intones the Swiss playwright Max Frisch's phrase, "the knack of so arranging the world we don't have to experience it." I felt he was singling me out with my own superficial knowledge-attaining rituals I now conduct online.
The amazing quotes sprinkled throughout the pages are alone worth the cover price. Some of these included:
"Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?" Marcel Marceau
"No one gossips about other people's secret virtues." Bertrand Russell
"Translation is at best an echo." George Borrow
The standout content pieces for me were John Cheever's short story, "The Enormous Radio," an outtake from prescient communications theorist Marshall McLuhan's "Understanding Media," and an engrossing exchange of letters between poet Marianne Moore and The Ford Motor Company concerning the naming of a new car (absolutely hilarious).
The issue acts as both a fascinating lament and a celebration of human communications.
DDB was out to support the American Advertising Federation's 63rd Annual Advertising Hall of Fame Gala Dinner. There were seven individuals and one company inducted into the Hall of Fame. This entertaining and important event is held at the storied Waldorf-Astoria (where I am continually amazed that approximately 1,500 dinners arrive at the tables hot, delicious and all within a few minutes).
Equally amazing and welcome were the lack of references to Mad Men. As entertaining as the show is, many are growing fatigued with its mention at every industry event. It was almost a parlor game of guessing who might let it slip. We were 95% of the way through the program when one was shared.
But the night belonged to a diverse and deserving group of recipients:
O. Burtch Drake, former President and CEO, American Association of Advertising Agencies. Incredibly, Mr. Drake's copywriter father was inducted in 1983 and he spoke of what that meant to him
Leo-Arther Kelmenson, former Chairman, FCB and Bozell Jacobs Kenyon & Echhardt. Mr. Kelemson passed in 2011 so a fascinating tribute video was played highlighting his role in reinvigorating Chrysler
David Kennedy, Co-Founder Wieden+Kennedy. As expected, this induction had some fun irreverence in terms of an animated video and a heartfelt introduction by Dan Wieden
A.G. Lafley, former Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, P&G. Innovation and 24 different billion-dollar brands are one heck of a legacy. Mr. Lafley was introduced by Tim Love, Vice Chairman, Omnicom Group who spoke of Mr. Lafley's incredible vision and leadership skills
Jonathan Rodgers, former President and CEO of TV One. Truly a story of entrepreneurship, Mr. Rodgers' career in broadcast journalism is inspiring. Equally so is his current service on the Boards of Nike and P&G
Rick Boyko, former Co-President, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather NA and Director/Professor, VCU Brandcenter. The O&M advertisement in the program is a fantastic testimonial to Rick with 11 points covering what makes Rick...well, Rick. Mr. Boyko gave one of the more endearing acceptance speeches which demonstrated his talent and giving personality
Tere A. Zubizarreta, Founder, Zubi Advertising. Truly a pioneer in Hispanic marketing and an expert in that segment's consumer habits. She passed in 2007 so her son accepted and delivered a heartfelt and moving tribute
The Coca-Cola Company closed out the awards with its own induction. One might wonder why its recognition did not happen sooner but it was no slight or oversight. The AAF began to induct companies in 2010 with P&G being the first followed by General Motors last year. So Coca-Cola is in great company and their consistent commitment to the power of advertising was ably displayed in an amazing video showcasing their iconic work through the years.
DDB Tribal Düsseldorf, Steinway & Sons and Hilton are recalling the legendary Bed-In by John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam with the event "Piano for Peace." The same hotel, the same room, in the middle of the room an impressive white grand piano from the Imagine Series Limited Edition by Steinway & Sons.
The microsite http://www.pianoforpeace.com/ connects the scene with the web community. With the computer keyboard of every Internet-enabled computer, people can play the piano from anywhere in the world with a custom built robot arm and send their own personal musical message of peace. From March 23 to 25, musical pieces can be recorded on the microsite and uploaded together with an optional photo. On March 26, the anniversary of the Bed-in, the songs will be played on the approx. 90,000 euros priced special edition piano, while the image of the respective pianist will appear on a screen above the historical bed. The pieces played will be documented on the microsite and be available after the event.
"With 'piano for peace' we commemorate the yet unattained goal, which John Lennon and Yoko Ono pursued in their authentic and unique way: peace in the world. We will not be able to achieve it either, but with the help of modern technical facilities and the enthusiasm of the people on the social web, we have the chance to take a symbolic stand. Transported by the only universal language of mankind - music", says Eric Schoeffler, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Tribal Group.
DDB UK has created three infographic films with the acclaimed information designer and Information is Beautiful author David McCandless, to highlight the FT's position in the US as a truly global provider of business news.
The three dynamic films will be projected in 3D on the wall of the Vanderbilt Hall in New York's Grand Central Station to create excitement around the FT in the US, reflecting the title as an innovative news organisation. The campaign strapline, 'Stay on Top of the World' underlines the FT's position as a leading global business news provider.
The animated infographic films will report global business stories in a simple and compelling way. During the 3-day event, spanning 27th, 28th and 29th March, the films will be projected in 3-D on to the wall of the Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Station in New York between 7am-9pm, to target around 75,0000 commuters each day.
New York commuters will be able to interact with the films in order to explore the stories in greater detail, via a touch-sensitive floor mat. The three topics are, The US and the Global Economy, The Growth of Mobile Technology revolution and the Global Recovery. The topics reflect the typically important, global stories that the FT covers in-depth every day.
The 3 films will also be live on a campaign microsite: www.ft.com/graphicworld. Here, people will be able to share the films and also their views about the stories themselves. They will also have the opportunity to access more in-depth coverage of the topics, and familiarise themselves with FT content, via links to relevant sections of ft.com. A week's free subscription is being offered, via the URL above, to incentivise interaction with the campaign.
The campaign is also supported by online banner campaign and OOH screens in Times Square as well as running on Taxi screens throughout NYC.
Simon Richings, Digital Creative Director at DDB UK said: "We are delighted to have created such an innovative campaign in partnership with a world-renowned title. The direct contact and feedback with the FT's consumers is key to the campaign's success and we are thrilled that we are able to create such scale and impact in speaking directly to this discerning audience in such an iconic location."
Caroline Halliwell, Director of Brand and B2B Marketing at FT, said: "Infographics put complicated data into a format that can be digested quickly and they bring information to life in a modern, straightforward way. DDB has done a great job in using this device to explain the FT's global proposition to our US readership. The central idea is compelling and the execution is exciting and truly interactive - a great way for us to engage with potential subscribers."
The infographics, which are graphic visual representations of information, and data, were developed by David McCandless, acclaimed data journalist and information designer, and author of Information is Beautiful. The projections were created by KLIP Collective, based in Philadelphia, who are leaders in the field of 3-D projection mapping and the Illustrations for the animation were created by George Myers.
Al Gore was deep in conversation with "the Napster" himself, Sean Parker.
Bruce Springsteen gave a keynote speech before playing a theatre show with the E Street Band.
Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain was part of a panel discussion.
Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and (possibly) Kanye West were all here.
This certainly isn't an advertising conference, so I'm not quite sure why I came here.
What I am sure about is that for the last six months whenever I told anyone that I was coming to Austin that they gave me either a look of intense jealousy or far more often a completely blank stare. However once I explained what SXSW is, even the blank stares turned to jealousy.
Strangely enough, despite living on the other side of the planet I was never one of the blank stares. SXSW - a name that gives more than a knowing nod to Alfred Hitchcock's film "North by Northwest" - has run annually for 25 years. Growing up in Sydney and being completely obsessed with music, every year I heard about this festival as the place where bands from around the world who wanted to be signed by the major record labels went to play. Over time I learned a second thing about SXSW: that it's held in a city in Texas where the motto is "Keep Austin Weird" (which I like even more than "Virginia Is For Lovers"). A quarter of a century later, SXSW still delivers on both fronts, and increasingly a whole lot more.
"Increasing" is an important theme when it comes to SXSW. Held in Texas (where, believe me, everything is bigger than anywhere else on the planet) nothing could have prepared me for the sheer size of this event. Calling SXSW a "festival" doesn't do it justice, it's actually three enormous festivals in one, centered around interactive (whatever that means these days...), film and music, with an almost fourth part based around gaming. If Moore's Law about exponential growth has additional applications, then the increase in size, influence and importance of SXSW are surely among them.
While some cities use conferences to transform themselves, SXSW is a reflection of Austin itself. In addition to hosting SXSW, Austin is also home to around 1,300 food trucks (I recommend checking out The Peached Tortilla, which serves incredible chicken pad Thai tacos). This number of "startups" serves as an even better indicator of the city's entrepreneurial spirit than do the resident major tech companies such as Dell, Apple, eBay, PayPal and Samsung. This entrepreneurship also extends to how SXSW is programmed. As incredible as the celebrity speakers mentioned above are, one of the things that sets this festival apart from other events (aside from its 10 day length) is its user-generated, and user-selected, panels.
This year I caught panels that we, DDB and Tribal DDB, attendees proposed that covered topics as diverse as hyper-locality, social TV, mobile gaming, music publishing, coolfarming, mixtapes, food trucks, the fashion cycle and Lego. Certainly not the subjects discussed at advertising conferences. Choosing which panels to attend is an epic task, and there are two key pieces of advice that I took and encourage others to follow. The first is to give up before you start and accept that it's physically impossible to see everything. Do this at the beginning of SXSW and you'll feel a lot less angst/guilt as the festival rolls on, and enjoy the parts that you do see a whole lot more. The second tip came from a Facebook update by HotHouse Interactive's Simon Van Wyk: "Have a better strategy for choosing seminars - choose the weird ones". I think that Simon's right - and herein lies the true value of SXSW: it's not an advertising industry conference.
I said at the beginning of this post that I wasn't quite sure why I came here. However after attending SXSW for my first time, what I now know for sure is that the reason we need to come here is precisely because it isn't an advertising conference. Being far outnumbered by those in the entertainment industries, tech startups and fans of music and film is a great reminder of what a small part we play in the world. Spending time with people from different industries affords us the opportunity to learn a lot. Although we talk endlessly about moving beyond the 30 second TV spot to become content creators, those in the music and film industries have been doing it for a very long time - and they've figured out how to create something sufficiently compelling that they can charge people money to access, instead of paying media outlets vast sums to run it. While meeting those in the tech industry is a great crash course in what's happening - and more importantly what's going to happen - in all things digital, this year has highlighted how creative isn't just about the "big idea," but it's equally about how we create, adapt and deploy technology. In an age where everything is digital, coders are becoming the new copywriters.
DDB New York launched a new pro-bono project called "Water is Life," created to address the global crisis from the dearth of drinkable water around the world, in conjunction with the timing of World Water Day.
DDB is targeting high-trafficked areas around NYC where polluted city water outlets are pumped out into the streetscape and attaching cup dispensers to these structures. The cups are limited editions, featuring different facts about the global water crisis, such as the sad truths that "4,500 children die from unsafe drinking water every day," "unsafe drinking water kills more people than war," "one in eight people lack access to clean drinking water," "80% of illness in the developing world comes from unsafe drinking water," and "400 million Africans lack access to clean water."
The installations are a simple and direct way to bring the issue home for New Yorkers, who do not want for such a basic, life-sustaining force. Leaders at DDB felt that the abundance of life in New York City would provide a stark contrast to the nearly 1 billion people who live without access to clean drinking water.
While walking around a city like New York, where one is quite literally surrounded by water, it's easy to forget that others around the world are not so fortunate. This project serves as a reminder to New Yorkers about the water crisis, and provides them with both the information about how they can help as well as the impetus to get involved.
The installations can be seen at bustling locations around the city, including inside the Bergen Street F/G subway stop in Brooklyn or by the East River Park. The cups in the dispensers feature a hyperlink for the Water is Life website (http://www.waterislife.com/), which includes information about how people can get involved through either donating their time, or money.
With the return of Mad Men days away, it is seemingly impossible to avoid seeing or hearing mention of it in the news, through social media, or by the water cooler. In its hiatus, I found substitute in a few of the books that have been written about the show. A standout is Analyzing Mad Men: Critical Essays on the Television Series. The book is comprised of twelve essays involving the context, politics, women, and nostalgia of Mad Men.
The series is the brainchild of Matthew Weiner and I learned it is based entirely on monitoring the effect of change. And though Mr. Weiner is clearly fascinated with the early sixties, the show is meant to parallel the changes experienced in this last decade. He is interested in knowing whether people in tumultuous times "recognize that change is going on?"
At its base level, the series centers on capitalism, clear roles regarding the sexes and races, and unchecked hedonism. Those topics make for a great soap opera but Mad Men's appeal is in the search for deeper meaning and connection. All the struggles and conflicts that make up the storylines are predicated on a rejection of the status quo.
The series is akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone: the characters are trapped in a world they have contributed to but one in which they want to escape...it is a nightmare of their own making. And many would argue that we find ourselves in exactly the same dilemma today... "Mad Men offers the schadenfreude-filled message that their predecessors were equally unhappy - and that the bleakness meter in American life has always been set on high."
Mad Men's brilliance goes back to the first season when it began with "classic literary archetypes." These characters were quickly revealed to be either mysterious, disingenuous, or just terribly flawed as we humans can be. Equally brilliant are the accurate sets and costumes providing the nostalgic yearning many have for the show. In combination the characters and sets only emphasize how staged life was back then. Many of my friends' homes in the 60's and 70's had immaculate living and dining rooms that no one was allowed to enter. In essence, many of us lived on a "set."
What is not sufficiently explored in the books and articles I have read on Mad Men is why advertising? Perhaps because it is a simple answer: the people in the industry were seen as mavericks and non-comformists. They ran counter to the ubiquitous grey, drone-like middle managers that were the subject of sociologist William H. Whyte's 1956 book The Organization Man. If "conformity was the enemy of creativity and, therefore, productivity" then ad men appeared highly productive and appealing as anti-heroes. What it really means is, a show that took place at IBM, Bethlehem Steel, or General Electric in the early 60's may not have had the same appeal.
Another reason why the chosen backdrop is advertising is that we are all impacted by it in some way. The "influence of advertising" has to be in the top ten of most common cocktail topics as we each have a theory. It also "helps explain why Don's chosen profession is advertising. In the advertisements that Don creates, he avoids the anxieties of the 'real' world and simulates comfort and stability. According to Jean Baudrillard, "All original culture forms, all determined languages are absorbed in advertising because it has no depth, it is instantaneous and instantaneously forgotten".
Personally, as someone in the profession I enjoy the conundrum of "the contradictory notion that any "mass" marketed product has the capacity to individualize anyone".
One observation about the show that is still accurate in the industry today is "everyone in this office is always competing with each other, even if they do not seem to be doing so." It is when Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce bonds together and pitches new work or delivers a new campaign that their talents truly shine. Today employees of ad agencies still forget that the competition is outside of their office.
There also has to be recognition that Sterling Cooper has been ineptly run and managed. They can rightfully be accused of milking a cash cow whose strategy and structure are no longer relevant. One essay points out it "is resistant to adapting its strategy to a changing media landscape, often underestimating the impact of new media (e.g., television), new products (e.g., imported small cars) and demographics (e.g., youth culture)."
In terms of plotlines, the most jarring for me was Don denying his brother Adam a connection to his new life. The resulting suicide was horrific. As such, the psychological issues related to his family of origin make for meaty material as Don is more devastated over the loss of his fake wife. And his eventual "alienation from his family is one of the show's clearest examples of the real world's failure to deliver on the promises given us by capitalism."
On the evening of February 28th, an eyewitness video and photo materials were published on the Internet, showing two teenagers sliding down the roof of the National Library. The materials were rapidly shared on the social networks and proliferated quickly. Some daredevil snowboarders had finally done what the Internet chat community had been talking about for some time now - what would happen if the library were to be transformed into a hill.
In just a few days, the four second long video received more than 70,000 views. It prompted feverish debate not only on the biggest Internet websites, but also in Latvia's television news reports in which journalists speculated about the identity of the daredevils and how they had managed to gain access to the top security site. The next day, the full version of the video was posted on OKarte's homepage: OKartes image TV, which has been watched by 35,600 youtube visitors to date.
"In this campaign, we wanted to show what the masks are all about. They find actual content on the Internet, put it into practice in real life, and post it back on the Internet so that anybody can share it. The masks not only talk about what should be done, but they actually go out and do it," explains Una Rozenbauma, author of the idea for the campaign.
A couple of days later, a "making of" video was also posted on the Internet showing how OKarte's TVC was filmed. And in just a couple of days, this video had already proved to be very popular. This has already been viewed by 24,200 people. In total, in just a week the campaign had gotten 130,000 views. And this was just on the Internet, thereby free if charge. Meanwhile, a reader's comment had appeared on the wall of the "Angels Studio" TVC editors' wall: "If that's video editing, then the editor should be sent to Hollywood!"
However, that's not all. Each of us now is able to sample what it's like to descend from the roof of the National Library. Virtually, of course.
SXSW Beyond Just Music Licensing: March 16 @ 12:30
#sxsw #beyondlic
Beyond Just Music Licensing in Advertising
Explore the creative and production process of ways in which music, bands and artists are being utilized in advertising projects that are beyond just traditional licensing deals. Hear real-world examples including advertising projects as brand partnerships, product placement, events-based campaigns and digital, social and collaborative endeavors.
Where
Friday, March 16th
12:30-1:30
Austin Convention Center
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Friday, March 16th schedule.
Tribal DDB Amsterdam took top honors in the Music category at the SXSW Interactive Awards this week (http://sxsw.com/interactive) for their work on Philips' "Obsessed with Sound" campaign.
The winners were announced March 13, 2012, at the 15th Annual SXSW Interactive Awards ceremony in Austin, Texas. The SXSW Interactive Music category rewards exceptional projects related to musicians, bands, and the music industry as a whole.
Philips' "Obsessed with Sound" is an interactive music video featuring a performance by the Dutch Metropole Orchestra. The premise of the "Obsessed with Sound" campaign is that Philips makes it possible to hear every detail. The website gives the audience a unique opportunity to see and hear the Grammy award-winning orchestra as they perform a specially composed orchestral piece to demonstrate the crispness of the sound.
Sandra Krstic, Deputy Managing Partner, Tribal DDB Amsterdam, said, "It is truly rewarding to see the innovative and relevant use of music--and the superb performance of the Metropole Orchestra -- being recognized by the world's renowned music experts. The SXSW Interactive Festival and Awards are known for requiring exceptional standards of work. It is an honor for Tribal DDB Amsterdam to be in the winners' league."
The "Obsessed with Sound" campaign is the only SXSW Interactive Awards 2012 winner produced by an Amsterdam-based creative agency. The work has previously been awarded Gold in the music and innovation categories at both the Lovie and Eurobest Awards, and Silver for media innovation at Epica.
Joep Beving, MassiveMusic, added, "We're happy and proud to have been involved in such a beautiful project, especially one that enshrines music and the individual musician. It's rewarding to see Tribal DDB Amsterdam receiving acclaim for their work at SXSW. We are thankful for the opportunity to share the stage with them. We're the guys all the way in the back, waving at our mums."
Tribal DDB Amsterdam
Chris Baylis - Executive Creative Director
Bart Mol - Art Director/Concept
Pol Hoenderboom - Copywriter/Concept
Robbin Cenijn - Designer
Sandra Krstic - Global Business Director
Jan Willem Penterman - Technical Lead
Henk Rijks - Strategy Director
Niels Bellaar - Social Media Planner
Nikaj Gouwerok - Editor
Jeroen Jedeloo, Richard Land, Christy Wassenaar - Agency Producers
There's a stark contrast between "owning" an idea versus collaborating in an open structure. It's often the root of the divide between "traditional" and "digital/new media" people. Because good ideas evolve into better ideas through collaboration and open input, organizations that can effectively bridge these camps are the ones that will survive. Let's Kumbaya with Azher Ahmed, SVP Director of Digital Operations and Jonathan Sackett, Managing Director and CDO of DDB Chicago.
Where
Monday, March 12
11:00AM-12:00PM
Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin (701 Congress Ave)
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Monday, March 12th schedule.
#sxsw #CCCSocial
Credits Coins Cash: Social Currency & Finance 2.0
While Second Life and other online worlds have propagated virtual economies with their own "millionaires", 2011 saw virtual currencies break into the marketing mainstream. Facebook Credits were launched with the backing of brands including Walmart and Zynga; Google Wallet was announced and BitCoin rose, then fell, then rose then - who knows? As we enter 2012 the question 'what is currency?' has never been more relevant for so many people. And more applicable to marketers, how does our understanding of the 4 P's (product, price, promotion, place) change in a world of virtual currencies? This is both a philosophical and highly practical question: if you buy something with Microsoft points - have you really bought it? How much did you pay? What if you are hacked or get kicked off the platform - it is still yours?
We'll Talk About:
This panel will examine the state of virtual currency, where it is heading, and consider how marketers should be evolving their strategies to account for virtual currencies.
Where:
Monday, March 12
11:00AM -12:00PM
Hilton Garden Inn (500 North Interstate 35)
Sabine
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Monday, March 12th schedule.
Pocket Intelligence:
The future of mobile interaction & feedback networks may not be wrapped in a mobile phone interface at all. Let's talk about what feedback networks and invisible information gathering can mean for mobile experiences now and in the future.
We'll talk about:
Contextual feedback (imagine your phone buzzing three times when you walk up to the bus stop-indicating that a bus is three minutes away).
Context prompted information aggregation, (imagine your phone automatically collecting the "business cards" of all the people you meet today - whatever information they made public through their OWN network).
Networked complimentary functionality (imagine your mobile device automatically syncing with the ATM as an entry device, with that television in the window as a remote control, with that lock as a keypad, etc.).
Where:
Friday, March 9
5:00PM - 6:00PM
Hilton Austin Downtown (500 E. 4th St.)
Salon K
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Friday, March 9th schedule.
It all started with Bill Bernbach. He is the father of the Creative Revolution. He changed the way the advertising industry talked to consumers and to each other. He was the first to really team up copywriters and art directors. Bill taught us that talent should come from anywhere. And that advertising is not a science, but an art - the art of persuasion.
These days I sit in the same office Bill once occupied on Madison Avenue. A portrait of him that once hung in my office in Berlin has now come home. It hangs on my wall along with many of my favorite classic DDB ads.
It is an honor to continue his legacy at his agency. The magic that he and his teams brought to our business is the greatest our industry has ever seen. And his principles still have so much to teach us.
In this spirit I am launching "What Would Bernbach Do?" to celebrate his legacy and discuss today's issues.
"Let us blaze new trails," Bill famously wrote, "Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art and good writing can be good selling."
He still has much to say to us today.
The article delineates five obstacles marketers face and then poses a solution to these problems. Below are some snippets from the piece:
Problem 1: Prominent Branding Puts Off Viewers Solution 1: Utilize "brand pulsing" that unobtrusively weaves the brand image throughout the ad
Experiments have shown that this can increase viewership by as much as 20%. A good question to ask when conceiving an ad is: If I removed the brand image, would the content still be intrinsically interesting? If the answer is yes, viewers are more likely to keep watching.
Problem 2: People Get Bored Right Away Solution 2: Create joy or surprise right away
To maximize viewership, it's important to generate at least one of these responses early on. Traditionally, though, advertisers have constructed narratives that escalate toward a dramatic climax or a surprise ending. Such commercials may have worked on TV decades ago, but today's online viewers need to be hooked in the opening seconds.
DDB's Bud Light "Swear Jar" ad opens up a jar that workers must pay into as a penalty for profanity, one employee immediately curses because he knows the money will be used to buy Bud Light.
Problem 3: People Watch for a While But Then Stop Solution 3: Build an emotional roller coaster
Ads that produce stable emotional states generally aren't as effective at engaging viewers for very long. Viewers are more likely to continue watching a video ad if they experience emotional ups and downs.
The "Swear Jar" video makes skillful use of the roller coaster technique. The opening scene, which sets up the ad's conceit, lasts just 15 seconds. The remainder of the 60-second spot consists of seven scenes with bleeped-out profanities, each conveying its own surprise and humor. By delivering a fresh dose of these elements every six seconds or so, the ad holds on to its viewers.
Problem 4: People Like an Ad but Won't Share It Solution 4: Surprise but don't shock
Even though people may enjoy an ad themselves, they won't always send it to others. In particular, though shock may get people to watch an ad privately, it often works against their desire to share the spot.
DDB's Bud Light "Clothing Drive" ad uses the same cast, setting, and general structure as "Swear Jar." Here, an office worker tries to create enthusiasm for a charity drive by offering a Bud Light for every article of used clothing donated. The characters respond by removing clothes they're wearing, and the scenes that ensue contain increasing amounts of nudity. Like "Swear Jar," "Clothing Drive" garnered high viewership. But unlike "Swear Jar," it was not widely shared. The nudity was too shocking.
Problem 5: People Still Won't Share the Ad Solution 5: Target the viewers who will
Even when an ad has been perfectly tailored to go viral, only a subset of those who watch it will share it. Research shows, whether or not an ad is shared depends as much on personality types of viewers as on the ad itself. There are two attributes of people who frequently share ads: Extroversion and egocentricity. In many cases, egocentric people are inclined to share because they are looking to increase their social status.
As viewers gain increasing control over which ads they sit through, advertisers will have to become more consumer-centric. They'll need to think harder about the value a video offers to the viewer, instead of considering primarily how well the video serves the brand. The result will be ads that are both more effective and more enjoyable.
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, at a New Year's reception
DDB Group Germany views integration as a central topic, arguing that speech and language skills are the key to more integration and greater success both internally as well as in an international forum. DDB Group Germany is actively supporting the 'Deutschlandstiftung Integration' (Integration of Germany Foundation) by creating a targeted campaign to raise awareness about and draw attention to suitable propositions for language development.
DDB Group Germany is currently completing pro-bono work for the foundation of which Tonio Kroger, CEO, DDB Group Germany, became Member of the Board in 2011. In 2010 DDB Group Germany created its first campaign on behalf of the organization with the underlying message that language is of particular significance for active participation in society, successful training, and integration into the labor market. As a leading international communications company, DDB espouses the cause that speech and language skills are the key to greater equality of opportunity and is conceiving of creative ways to communicate this message.
The Foundation also calls attention to the role that successful citizens with immigrant backgrounds play, especially as valuable role models for a younger generation that is coming of age surrounded by a number of conflicting cultures. Language is the unifying element of our society - an element that allows dialogue between different cultures in Germany and makes tolerance and peaceful coexistence possible.
We are excited to increase our presence and share our thought leadership with the burgeoning SXSW Interactive Festival this year. While SXSW has always been known as a prestigious music festival, in recent years SXSW Interactive has been gaining clout with industry leaders as a hub for showcasing important industry trends and congregating colleagues and clients alike.
The festival boasts a breadth of dynamic speakers and compelling content in areas ranging from technical sessions on web and interface design, wireless innovation, and business operations to more philosophical discussions about online marketing, social networks, and the role of new technologies.
We are proud to spearhead and participate in the following sessions:
Pocket Intelligence
Friday, March 9, 5 PM, Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon K
Rich Guest, Co-President of Tribal DDB U.S, will moderate a panel called "Pocket Intelligence," which will explore the future of mobile interaction and feedback networks and the implications of information gathering for the mobile experience.
Is Social Media a Human Right
Saturday, March 10, 12:30 PM, Driskill Hotel, Citadel
Ed Lee, Social Media Director at Tribal DDB, will moderate a panel called "Is Social Media a Human Right?" which will discuss social media access for populations that are typically denied internet-based contact with other humans. The panelists will debate whether or not the reasons these groups are denied access are justified.
Credit Vs. Collaboration: The Organization Divide
Monday, March 12, 11:00 AM, Intercontinental, Stephen F. Austin
Azher Ahmed VP Director of Digital Operations and Jonathan Sackett, Managing Director and CDO of DDB Chicago will lead a core conversation called "Credit Vs. Collaboration" on the stark contrast between "owning" an idea versus collaborating in an open structure. It's often the root of the divide between "traditional" and "digital/new media" people. Because good ideas evolve into better ideas through collaboration and open input, organizations that can effectively bridge these camps are the ones that will survive.
Credits, Coins, Cash: Social Currency & Finance 2.0
Monday, March 12, 11:00 AM, Hilton Garden Inn, Sabine
Mike Parker, Co-President of Tribal DDB U.S, will moderate a panel called "Credits Coins Cash: Social Currency & Finance 2.0," which will examine the state of virtual currency, where it is heading, and consider how marketers should be evolving their strategies to account for these virtual currencies.
Who Needs a Fashion Cycle? I've Got Social Media
Tuesday, March 13, 11 AM, Driskill Hotel, Citadel
Nik Badminton, Director of Digital Strategy at Tribal DDB Canada, will serve as a panelist on "Who Needs a Fashion Cycle? I've Got Social Media," which will discuss how cycles of fashion trends are becoming obsolete as fashion transitions to real time in the digital era. The discussion will center on how digital and technological developments have affected the fashion industry from a media, consumer, and retail perspective.
Beyond Just Music Licensing in Advertising
Friday, March 16, 12:30 PM, Austin Convention Center
Eric David Johnson (aka DJ Bunny Ears), Executive Producer of Music and Integration at DDB Chicago, will present on a panel called "Beyond Just Music Licensing in Advertising" exploring the creative and production process of ways in which music, bands and artists are being utilized in advertising projects that are beyond just traditional licensing deals. Hear real-world examples including advertising projects as brand partnerships, product placement, events-based campaigns and digital, social and collaborative endeavors.
Our SXSW delegates this year will be contributing relevant content to the www.ddbdoesaustin.com platform over the course of the week of SXSW Interactive. Please check this site periodically for written, pictorial, and video updates on the panel discussions, new products and services unveiled, and POV pieces on keynote topics. Best of luck to those participating in the festival and we hope that this platform serves as a gateway to the action at SXSW in Austin, and inspires you all with the enthusiasm and creativity that pervade this gathering.
Who needs stores anymore when you can get exactly what you need, at the cheapest price, with a flexible return policy, delivered right to your front door? Or, delivered to your office--if you are trying to avoid conspicuous consumption on the home front.
The answer to this rhetorical question resides in the future transformation of the retail experience. This is not just an issue brought on by the emergence and success (finally!) of online retail. Retail as we knew it has been in decline for the better part of this decade. A large factor of that has to do with the steady decline of the in-store experience and customer service. Even if there were no good alternative, the industry is in a state of flux, pain, identity crisis (add your own description here).
Compounded by the economy and online alternatives, retailers have been able to hide behind external factors and pressures to place blame and explain their loss in sales, foot traffic, and affinity with the shopper. Asked if there is a future for physical retail--even decades from now--most people would agree that there remains a vital need. But we have lost sight of both the "vital" and the "need" that retail serves.
To get a clue of what might drive "vital" and fill a consumer need in this changing marketplace, let's look at retail moving in the opposite direction. An example of this is when a store opened to sell mobile apps. Where else but in Boulder, Colorado, app developer Openspace opened a brick-and-mortar location to help consumers browse through app collections while an "app guru" is on hand to offer suggestions and advice based on your interests and needs. Just as almost every retailer has now figured out that it needs some kind of online presence, so too are the e-commerce companies discovering the value of living in the physical world.
This Openspace example is particularly interesting because it points to a critical component missing from the majority of retail today, a customer service "guru." At the center of many abandoned purchases is the lack of sales associates or associates who are there for customer service. By contrast, the Openspace store experience is designated with this guru experience at the heart. It is part of its mission and seems to get an important insight: that the beauty and benefit of a physical location is to address online barriers to purchase.
Its purpose and value come from the ability to have a live person present to interact with the customer and personalize the sales experience in real time. Wow, has this been lost from most of today's shopping experiences! Whether shopping a low- involvement category or for a higher-involvement product like a television, the involvement of a sales associate is most often absent.
Whether shopping luxury or discount, the lack of positive human interaction is now the norm. What's worse, our expectations have shifted accordingly, leaving a generation of shoppers vulnerable to the benefits of online. Nothing threatens the livelihood and survival of physical retail more than this. In fact, those retailers who have reduced the number of associates to save cost are paying dearly.
So, does retail best-practice mean stores are filled with gurus, geeks and geniuses? We are certainly discovering, when deployed correctly, this can be a critical ingredient for going from barely surviving to thriving. But the role of these types of turbo-charged customer-service people and how it fits with the overall brand proposition is key.
Amir Kassaei, DDB Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, will be establishing DDB's global creative center in Shanghai. This development reinforces DDB's ongoing commitment and investment in the Asian region, and it is believed to be the first time a global, Madison Avenue agency has moved its creative headquarters to China.
The impetus behind this location is that world-class brands are moving to the region and they deserve world-class creative they have become accustomed to. Therefore, DDB wanted to build upon its three core regional hubs in Hong Kong, Singapost and Shanghai, making Chine the center piece for global creative work.
This is one of the most significant moves DDB has made in the history of DDB. The world as we know it is changing and our industry's growth market is now without doubt the Asian region. There's no time better to set up a creative powerhouse in China.
John Zeigler, Chairman & CEO of DDB Group Asia Pacific, India & Japan, has re-located to Singapore in December, 2011. Patrick Rona, Tribal DDB Asia Pacific's new President and Chief Digital Officer for DDB Group Asia Pacific, also moved to Singapore in January of this year.
DDB Group Asia Pacific is a cohesive collaboration of global businesses, including the world's most awarded advertising agency, DDB. The world's leading digital agency, Tribal DDB. The global leader in data-driven marketing and analytics, RAPP, and DDB Health, a specialist agency dedicated to servicing the healthcare and medical field. Group capabilities also include design, sales promotion and public relations orientated agencies in specific countries. It is comprised of 21 offices in 14 countries across the region and is part of the DDB Worldwide communications network.
DDB New York CCO, Matt Eastwood, has instituted "Curiosity Sessions" for the creative department to encourage and ignite more curiosity. He invites someone inspirational to speak--a musician, a photographer, an artist, a writer-- with the aim of understanding their process and how they generate ideas. Or simply to find out a little more about the world around us. Most importantly, the sessions are designed to unleash curiosity.
Craig Ward, "You Blow Me Away"
This morning, the session featured Craig Ward, a renowned typographer who blurs the line between design and art in a presentation entitled "Words are Pictures." Originally from London, Craig worked as an art director and designer at a handful of advertising agencies before he recently relocated to New York to serve as a consultant while he continues to create pioneering, award winning typography and art direction for a diverse range of clients from fashion to advertising and editorial. Craig is an active contributor to several industry journals including Wired, Creative Review, and Discover Magazine to name a few and a former ADC Young Gun.
Craig boasts a breadth of experience on a wide variety of projects ranging from Lady Gaga: Inside the Outside, Ketel One Vodka, Wired Magazine cover, Creative Review Annual 2010, and The Economist.
Craig Ward, "The USA Mistake"
During his presentation, Craig elucidated his love/hate relationship with type, as he grapples with adhering to the conventions of the discipline, and deviating to the point of abstraction whereby type becomes an art form. He views his own career path as evolving fluidly from an art director to a designer to an illustrator to a typographer, but is reticent to view any one of these fields as being in a silo. Craig was initially attracted to the anatomical, scientific underpinnings of typography and has evolved his perspective over the past two decades from when he first started in the 1990s and derived influence from the rock-and-roll zeitgeist to his recent fixation with the randomness of type and the natural beauty of that which is organic.
Craig Ward, "Don't Let Go"
Craig vividly described how he draws inspiration from typographic stories, even that which appears accidental. He cited a lighthearted example of a sign missing a letter so it becomes, "In God We rust," rather than "In God we Trust," taking on a different meaning. He is inspired by the notion behind the Rorschach test, reiterating that if you look at something abstract long enough, you start to see shapes.
Craig detailed how his recent designs have melded nature and science in an experimental fashion, allowing the concept to dictate the execution and vise-versa. For example, he has utilized everything from growing Chinese hamster ovary cells in a Petri dish, to pumping ink and flour in an aquarium with a turkey baster to simulate waves, to floating chiffon fabric through the air for his recent creations. All of these seemingly outlandish techniques have yielded beautiful, evocative typography and showcase his unique artistic perspective on how to make what could be mistaken for a rigid field wide open for interpretation.
DDB Latvia is proud to support MAMMU brand design and development. MAMMU is a social business fashion company modeled after the principles of the famous Grameen Bank model, a social business developed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. MAMMU is catered to Latvian mothers in need.
MAMMU is not just a fashion company; it is a movement. Its content is created by a collective of designers, marketing experts, business consultants, photographers, artists, resellers, social business designers and passionate people who want to change society for good.
The premise of MAMMU is cause driven rather than motivated by a profit. In essence, MAMMU helps to provide mothers with social benefits through producing creative and high-quality fashion products. In order to assist them, MAMMU provides flexible working hours.
MAMMU espouses 7 important principles of social business:
Business objective will be to overcome poverty, or one or more problems (such as education, health, technology access, and environment) which threaten people and society; not profit maximization
Financial and economic sustainability
Investors get back their investment amount only. No dividend is given beyond investment money
When investment amount is paid back, company profit stays with the company for expansion and improvement
Environmentally conscious
Workforce gets market wage with better working conditions
...do it with joy
The MAMMMU collection was designed by Liva Kauke Saule. Each of the high quality linen scarfs is a unique piece of fashion. The second collection of scarfs was designed by the Latvian designer HAYDA. Her individualized handmade scarves join together youth, sports and the taste of history.
Shot by Liva K. Saule
Shot by Maris Locmelis
Shot in Jeff's office at DDB Worldwide
If you are passionate and creative and want to support the project with your talents please contact MAMMU or visit their website: http://www.mammu.lv/
The DDB Life Style Study®, the nation's largest and longest-running annual consumer survey, has revealed insights on the differences between men and women's perspectives about the significance of Valentine's Day.
When asked 'what would upset you more on Valentine's Day? from a list of choices ranging from receiving a gift you didn't like, receiving the same gift as last year, receiving a gift card, or receiving just a card, women were far more likely than men to say they would be upset if their spouse or romantic partner did not do anything to acknowledge the day. Women were almost twice as likely to dwell on this as 51% of female respondents said they would be dismayed compared to only 26% of male respondents.
Moreover, the Life Style Study® reveals that this gender difference in attitude also prevails regardless of marital or dating status. However, it appears that if you are married, acknowledging the day is not nearly as tantamount as it is if you are dating someone.
22% of married men vs. 32% of men living with someone in a relationship vs. 39% of men dating somebody but not living with them would be upset if their partner did not acknowledge the day at all.
47% of married women vs. 63% of women living with someone in a relationship vs. 66% of women dating somebody but not living with them would be upset if their partner did not acknowledge the day at all.
These statistics not only corroborate the finding that women place a greater emphasis on the significance of acknowledging Valentine's day than men, but also that both genders view acknowledging the day as an important barometer of how their romantic partner feels about them. Therefore, people in committed, long-term relationships view the holiday differently than those in newer, more casual relationships.
The Life Style Study® also confirms that a similar sentiment holds true even for women who are not currently dating someone. 51% of non-dating women vs. 28% of non-dating men still feel that they would be upset if their future spouse or romantic partner didn't do anything to acknowledge the day.
Romance is in the air and with it comes the latest phase of the 'Give in to Gü' campaign by DDB UK. Produced for the luxury desserts manufacturer Gü Puds to promote their Passion Soufflé the campaign reveals two new sumptuously clever print adverts.
The national print campaign urges both men and women to 'Give in to Gü'. This is the very first time that a Gü campaign has directly targeted men, and it kicks this off with the launch of the limited edition product, 2 individual passion fruit soufflés in a special Valentine's Day pack.
Two press ads have been produced, one targeted at men and the other at women, playing on the gender differences that Valentine's Day conjure. The male targeted ad shows that buying the Gü Passion soufflé is an easy way to get brownie points, playing on that age old cliché of men picking up the cursory bunch of flowers for Valentine's Day with the line 'Think of them as edible roses'.
The female-focused ad toys with the idea that whilst buying the 2 soufflés as a gift for your loved one, it also guarantees a selfish treat for yourself at the same time. The cheeky headline says 'I saw these, and thought of me'. Both ads feature the trademark Gü black background and have 'hero shots' of the soufflés.
According to Ellie Fennell, Marketing Director at Gü: "The trend for couples dining in on Valentine's Day is increasing so we wanted a campaign that spoke to men and women about our new Passion Soufflé as an ideal dessert to celebrate the occasion. I think the DDB work got the message across in a very Gϋ way."
The Valentine's campaign comes hot on the heels of the Give in to Gü national TV campaign that aired in December when Gü saw a 40% increase in sales and reached 65% post-campaign brand awareness, which was an all-time high for Gü.
Take a look at the Gü Facebook page for more details: facebook.com/GuUK.
DDB Chicago Associate Producer, Jamie Gallant, is setting out on a journey to the bottom of the world. His destination--the Falkland Islands, a remote South Atlantic archipelago made up of over 700 individual islands.
Never heard the Falklands?
Two of the Falklands' major resources are landmines and wool, the former due to a 150-year ownership conflict between Argentina and Britain and the latter due to a surfeit of sheep. The truth of the matter is that there's not much information about the Falkland Islands outside of those focusing on either the war or on the islands' diverse wildlife. That's why Jamie, and his co-producer Vern Cummins are attempting to intimately capture the experiences, hardships and unique qualities of the people that call the Falklands home.
Their project is called 51º South, named for the Longitudinal coordinate at which the islands are located. It's a 7,000 mile journey from Chicago that takes over two days to complete. Bringing them first through New York, then Santiago to Punta Arenas, Chile and onwards to RAF Base Mount Pleasant.
Jamie and his partner need a minimum of $10,000 to produce their series this spring, and launch in time for the 30th anniversary of the Conflict June 14th. So, what's the hip way to ask for a handout in the 21st century? Kickstarter, of course! On Kickstarter, they are already over half way to their goal with 75 backers pledging more than $6,000. With 17 days left to finance their exploration, you can help kick-start the pair's dream by pledging your donation here and visiting the film's official website here.
DDB UK has created a new campaign for the Star Alliance network with an innovative promotion that allows users to learn about the range of Gold Status benefits in a fun and entertaining way. The app-based competition called 'Picture Your Upgrade' allows business travelers to earn exclusive upgrades and prizes on their travels, simply by taking a photo of the airport journey.
'Picture Your Upgrade' encourages frequent flyers to get more out of their membership while they are traveling on business throughout the network. The app invites travelers to collect photos each week associated with a Star Alliance Gold Status benefit. This entitles them entry into the competition where they can win a relevant upgrade. For example, they can turn a photo of an ordinary airport lounge seat into designer furniture, or a snap of airport luggage trolleys into a luxury luggage set. Each picture will then be geo-targeted appearing on a map to help spread this example of Social Creativity and teach people about Star Alliance in the process.
The competition will run from February 8th until April 4th. In addition to the weekly prizes, users are entered into a Grand Prize draw to win Round the World Business Class tickets or an upgrade to Star Alliance Gold status.
AdAge and Creativity both published a story entitled, "Five Ideas From Around the World You Need to See: Five of the best campaigns from the year's smartest global shops" and DDB and Tribal DDB is proud to hold 4 of these coveted spots.
AdAge culled its entries for the International Agency of the Year contest in which shops around the world submit an array of clever ideas that solved problems for clients.
Check out the four DDB and Tribal DDB campaigns that were profiled in AdAge as being exemplars of Agency of the Year caliber work:
What to do with instruction manuals too difficult to understand
Tok&Stok, an Ikea-like retailer in Brazil, used Twitter manuals to demonstrate how easy its furniture is to assemble by shortening instructions to a series of 140-character tweets. Customers who bought a piece of furniture just had to find the corresponding hashtag, displayed on stickers on the furniture and product boxes. Besides driving home the point that this furniture is easy to assemble, the Twitter manuals caught the attention of a younger audience buying their first items of furniture.
Tok&Stok and DDB Brasil also took the easy-to-assemble message to much odder media, like a Tok&Stock business card that turns into a little paper chair if you follow the instructions. And a puzzle, with the same number of pieces as the item purchased, that shows you how to "make" the furniture as you put together the puzzle.
To bring back a brand, involve former users in a stunt to draw younger customers.
Another DDB Brasil client, toy maker Estrela, wanted to relaunch its 1980s toy-train brand Ferrorama. To generate interest among a digitally oriented generation, the company's president challenged Ferrorama's biggest online fan group to prove its faith in the toy's return with a mini-journey along the famous pilgrim's route to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The catch: The little toy train had to travel the last 12 miles of the journey without stopping, even though the fan group had only 120 meters of old train tracks. The journey took five days, as the hardworking fans constantly picked up pieces of track and relaid them ahead of the train. People followed the feat in real time via video and tweets, and could interact with the team through the "Come back, Ferrorama" website.
Estrela relaunched the Ferrorama train set, and the product sold out in a month.
To reach young people, link music and fashion.
The iTunes-like StarHub Music Store in Singapore combined music and fashion -- two ways young people often express themselves -- by attaching radio-frequency identification chips to clothing in stores. When a piece of clothing was taken into a fitting room, it triggered an RFID speaker to play a music track in the dressing room matching the garment's style. Then a text was sent to the shopper's phone, offering a free download of the song he or she was listening to. The music and corresponding clothing were divided into 16 genres, including hip-hop, punk, rock pop, folk, ballads and reggae, totaling more than 10,000 songs. The RFID chips were used in eight fashion brands in 42 stores. The effort by StarHub and DDB Singapore had an average click-through of 84% and boosted paid music downloads by 21%.
Make the medium the message to demonstrate a key product feature.
Swedish winters require a rugged car. Volkswagen made a "winter-adjusted offer for a winter-adjusted car" to stir interest in its 4Motion four-wheel-drive feature. DDB Sweden put the car on a billboard plunked in the middle of a frozen Swedish lake. Once the ice melted and the billboard sank, the deal was over.
TV, print, in-store and banner ads all highlighted the billboard, which was streamed live so people could follow its Titanic-like destiny. A contest to guess when it would sink was a natural fit for social media. The billboard submerged April 14, after two months of live entertainment. Sales rose 38% in the first quarter of 2011 from the year-earlier period.
The night after the Super Bowl, I sat on a panel sponsored by the SF AD Club to discuss this year's Super Bowl spots. The panel was moderated by Jerry Gibbons of A-Team Advertising, and the other folks on the panel--Kristi VandenBosch, CEO of Publicis & Hal Riney; Erich Pfeifer, ECD at Venables Bell & Partners; and Steve Mapp, CD at Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners--and myself were asked to give our comments on the spots selected for USA Today's top 10 list.
For years, the USA Today list has been the "official" list of the best Super Bowl spots. Most of us on the panel have at one time another received a brief in which making the top 10 was the explicit objective. And even with dozens of other lists, metrics, and various ways to rate and rank Super Bowl spots, the USA Today list is still the most viewed. So who determines this most important list? According to the USA Today website, "286 adult volunteers in Phoenix and McLean, Virginia." Go figure.
No offense to the folks in Phoenix or McLean, but the panel didn't much care for their rankings. It's important to note that we all recognize the incredible amount of work that goes into making a Super Bowl commercial--from selling it through layers within an agency, through the layers at the client, securing a top-notch director, etc. all under the utmost scrutiny and pressure from inside and outside. So kudos to everyone who managed to get a spot onto the big stage this year--a great accomplishment in itself.
But we were asked to be critics (as is every viewer in America on game day).
When I got into advertising, my mother told me, "Just put a dog or a baby in everything." Apparently, I should have listened. It's no secret that the well-worn formula to the Super Bowl spot is to use at least one of these: dog (chimpanzee or other animal also okay), baby, sex, someone getting hit in the head/crotch, celebrity. Reading down the top 10 list, you have: Dog-Dog-Dog-Baby-Sexy candy-Dog-Cheetah-Ferris Bueller-chimp-sex.
So the safe play is to follow the formula. Which is what most advertisers did this year. And if the goal was to make USA Today's top 10, then they succeeded. But if the goal is to stand out or be memorable beyond Monday, the panel thought they were less successful.
The unanimous favorite of the formula ads was VW's "The Dog Strikes Back." It didn't live up to the Little Vader spot from last year, but it was a well-produced, well-shot piece of visual storytelling. The success of the commercial's button, which was set in the Star Wars cantina and linked this year's spot to last year's, was more debatable.
The panel also unanimously liked the Fiat spot, "Seduction." Compared to GoDaddy's annual hackfest, this spot is well shot, ties nicely to the product, and shows that a spot can be sexy without being sexist and tasteless.
Universally panned by the panel were the Doritos spots, which stuck to the Super Bowl schtick. They're consumer-generated spots, but the novelty of that has worn off. And the production value of them has gotten slick enough that they've lost any charm that a home-made shot-on-a-dime-with-dad's-camera spot might have. Which leaves them in a weird middle ground--slapstick jokes with little craft.
We also had a lively discussion of Chrysler's "Halftime in America" spot. We all admired the craft, though disagreed on whether or not Clint Eastwood was a good pick for spokesperson. This spot wasn't included in the USA Today poll because it ran at halftime, but we all agreed that it was the most breakthrough, and anyone who watched the game at a party commented on how the room went silent when the 2-minute pep talk to America came on the tube.
Audi's "Vampire Party" was also commended for its high production value, music, and the fact that it didn't telegraph humor from the opening shot.
My personal favorite Super Bowl spot was the little-seen Will Ferrell spot for Old Milwaukee. In a way, it was the anti-Super Bowl spot, running only in North Platte, Nebraska. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tejGMPAShdY
Jerry Gibbons concluded the panel by reminding everyone that the best in our business are craftspeople. A great concept, well-executed will always be admired, even if it isn't rewarded by the fine folks in Phoenix and McLean. And he implored us to approach everything we do and everything we create as if 111 million people were going to see it on the biggest stage in the world.
"I actually feel like I'm part of a bigger thing when I'm playing."
-Gamer respondent
I'm back from the sixth annual Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games in Madrid, and the trip was amazing. The conference was packed with so many great presenters, and I left feeling delightfully bewildered and intellectually stimulated. The three days of presentations found us in an old slaughterhouse that has since been turned into the beautiful home of INTERMEDIÆ, and at the Medialab-Prado.
This year's meeting of the conference focused on what it means to be a videogame player, and there was no shortage of great ideas. The members of the conference were incredibly kind and receptive to my argument, so my paper, entitled "Believe and Be Live: Entangled Experience in Halo," which focuses on the cultural implications of the digital revolution, will only need marginal revisions.
Besides the exceptionally helpful feedback I received on my own work, the greatest takeaway was a keynote delivered by Dr. Gordon Calleja, an Associate Professor at IT University of Copenhagen. In his presentation, Gordon detailed the backbone of his new book In-Game: From Immersion to Incorporation, in which he develops a theory of why games grab hold of us in such an interactive and all encompassing way. Gordon's work is very approachable, and has a lot to offer any advertiser involved in developing interactive content. I'd recommend that anyone interested pick up a copy of his book ASAP. Mine is already in the mail!
DDB Worldwide CCO, Amir Kassaei, was featured in Campaign this week after his appearance at DDB Dubai where he conceptualized his new creative vision for the DDB Network. Bringing a new creative edge is particularly crucial as DDB Dubai is in the process of adjusting to and redefining itself through a recent merger.
Amir has spent the past year in his new post as CCO traveling around to every DDB office to share his plan in an effort to provide a unified creative vision to the whole company, while each office continues to cater itself regionally. Amir's vision called "Lemon 2020" is a referent to DDB's founder, Bill Bernbach's, ingenious "Lemon" ad for VW and is a modern reinterpretation of Bernbach's focus on the core essence of DDB.
Amir's creative plan is based off of the axiom put forth by Bernbach that stated, "If you want to be successful as a brand, you have to find or create a relevant truth and deliver it, or communicate it in a fresh way so people start to share and care about it." Amir hopes in sharing his inspiring plan across the network, he will provide a cohesive definition and standard of creativity as well as support each office with consistent tools and infrastructure going forward into 2012 and well beyond into 2020.
Promoaction DDB Saudi Arabia started the New Year with a Green greeting in response to a contest to come up with an unconventional New Years card that spoke on behalf of a social cause: http://www.green2012-pddbsa.com/
The "Go Green 2012" is a digital interactive platform that was disseminated to all of our friends and clients inviting them to participate in making our planet greener. With every email greeting, the recipient was invited to plant a virtual tree on a specially created website. For each tree planted, DDB pledged to donate a dollar to the Saudi Environmental Society, SENS.
What a fresh and optimistic way to start 2012.
Being GREEN or environmentally friendly is one of the big new trends being followed by many companies in KSA. In the last three years, there have been a lot of initiatives taken by the government from city cleaning activities, environmental awareness programs, and establishing SENS. Similarly, private sector organizations have conceived of some unprecedented international environmental protection initiatives.
For those who would like to know more about these environmental initiatives in Saudi Arabia, here are a few useful links.
These are all positive signs for a country with an obsessive consumption culture, high disposable income and a thriving young population, in addition to being the largest producer of oil in the world. However, being a "Green" Company in Saudi Arabia is a bigger achievement than you may think. It is a matter of survival. Literally.
According to the Ministry of Labor in KSA, every business organization is required to employ a certain percentage of Saudi nationals as part of its total workforce. Only when the required number of Saudi nationals are employed, will the company be given a "Green" status. In case of non-compliance, the company can face heavy financial fines, hiring restrictions and even disqualifications. A company may not be completely "Green" today but based on how far they are from the required target, a company may receive an Orange or a Red rating code.
Now this seems like a brilliant initiative to create employment for a society with 60% local population under the age of 24 years and unemployment rate at a staggering 15%, but here is the reality check. Where do you suddenly find competent, qualified and willing Saudi workers who now have to replace up to 60% of your existing team? Here lies the real problem. Limited talent. Unlimited Demand.
Hiring, training and most importantly retaining staff especially in service sector businesses becomes such a critical criteria, that it may even challenge the feasibility of your business. To be a Green Company in these difficult times is quite an achievement. It shows impeccable resource planning, operational excellence and, most importantly, a great culture that is able to attract and retain local talent.
However the question remains unanswered. How do you find the right replacement talent? How about if every leading player in their respective industry takes their CSR budget and invests this money in developing local talent?
Instead of complaining let us start creating. Imagine if one of the travel industry giants takes the initiative to train young Saudis with basic skills and technical courses related to their industry. Within a few months, we can have a skilled supply of workers, trained to work in the travel industry all across the country.
There are some local industry patrons who have directed their CSR efforts towards skill development; Goody Kitchen is a great example of empowering women through training and skill development in the culinary field. Initiatives like these not only create new opportunities for young Saudis, but can also act as a social catalyst towards developing a progressive self-reliant community. Furthermore, it provides a great platform for organizations to demonstrate their commitment to the society by becoming visionary mentors to the local youth.
What about our industry? How about a College of Creativity! Any takers?
Yesterday the results for 2011 Gunn Report were announced and DDB retained second place in "The Most Awarded Agency Networks in the World in 2011" category. The Gunn Report is an annual compilation of winners' lists from the most important advertising industry award shows. Since The Gunn Report's inception in 1999, Omnicom networks have won an unprecedented 30 of the 39 first, second, and third place spots on the Most Awarded Agency Networks List.
DDB had strong showing across all categories and geographies. Some highlights include:
Our Stockholm, Brasil, Paris and New Zealand offices were all recognized as "The Most Awarded Advertising Agencies in the World"
Stockholm and Paris were also among the "The Most Awarded Digital Agencies in the World"
Campaigns that were most awarded include: VW Responsible Driving (DDB Argentina), VW Speed Camera Lottery (DDB Stockholm), FedEx's Neighbors (DDB Brasil), and INPES Tobacco Awareness (DDB Paris)
Our clients VW, FedEx, IKEA and McDonalds were among the "The Most Awarded Advertisers in the World".
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia, features one of our Tribal DDB employees, Kaya Lobaczewski, manager of Global Programs at Tribal DDB New York, as its poster child in its latest Graduate Success campaign series commercials. The campaign showcases the success of QUT graduates and aims to position QUT as 'A university for the real world.' The 45 second TVC, which features a real life QUT graduate telling her story in her own words, was filmed on location in New York.
DDB UK CEO, Stephen Woodford, made a guest appearance on SKY News yesterday to discuss the importance of Facebook as a platform for advertisers in light of its imminent public offering. In the past couple of days, online as well as offline conversations have been dominated by buzz and speculation about the valuation of this hegemonic social network which boasts as many as 800 million users, 30 million of which are from the UK.
DDB's Woodford affirmed Facebook as an effective way for advertisers to proliferate messages to a captive audience, particularly as the platform itself continues to proliferate at an unprecedented rate. He cited Facebook's added value that differentiates it from traditional mediums, and even other internet advertising platforms, as its ability to engage with people on such a deep level. As many as 50% of Facebook users log on to the site every single day to update their status, go on their friends' profiles, peruse their newsfeeds, or "like" a brand or product. Therefore, the opportunity for advertisers lies in leveraging personalized, highly targeted messages that aim to contribute qualitatively to the overall user experience.
Woodford cautioned marketers, encouraging them to carefully cater the way they try to interact with consumers and respect their privacy. He maintained that, given how exposed younger people are when they disclose their personal information, advertisers should make their appeals with the utmost sensitivity.
Lastly, when asked what he thinks the valuation of Facebook will be, Woodford relayed a response that Facebook's valuation should be approximately $100 per life. This exhibits just how quintessential the the social platform has become for communication for businesses and individuals alike. Although the valuation is just a monetary amount, it will be a clear indication of the Facebook's preeminence in both our public and private lives.
Social media is undeniably a hot topic in marketing. Yet, with all of the interest and activity, there are amazingly few standout examples to draw on and learn from. This is because social media gets tangled up in the technology when its essence is in human behavior. It has so quickly become a part of our society because it has recognized the fact that people love to share.
Through the centuries, anywhere people gathered, they shared ideas, opinions, and beliefs. Now the Internet and social media allow us to share more, more often, to more people, and at faster speeds than ever before.
All of this and more are explored in a new DDB Yellow Paper called We Love to Share: Social Media Means Business. It covers how social media mirrors (mostly) normal human behavior and how trust and influence are both primal and primary factors in social media marketing success. The paper features five interesting cases that demonstrate the theory through practical application. And it provides a framework on how to implement social media marketing efforts.
To be sure, these efforts require creativity and innovation. And this means experimentation. We hope that this paper will provide tangible guidance but at the end of the day, social media marketing demands that you be bold and take some chances.
To celebrate the creativity and diversity of DDB New York, we kicked off a special month-long exhibition mounted throughout the New York office. The works represent submissions of DDB'ers who have generously shared art that they have created and, in some cases, the art of those related to them. For many DDB'ers, this was their first exhibition of their work. In total, the work that has been curated for the exhibition is as impressive as it is broad in creative scope.
This is a follow-up event to the Taste of DDB 1.0, which took place last year and celebrated ethnic cuisines from different countries of origin of many DDB New York employees. Similar to the art showcase, last year's event sought to exhibit our cultural diversity in an interactive setting and encourage office-wide engagement with foods from all around the world. After the event, DDB created a cookbook encompassing all of the delicious recipes. Following the month-long exhibit of the artwork, the exhibit will be commemorated in Taste of DDB Annual, which will take the form of an artist catalogue rather than a cookbook.
K.C. Tidemand
The event yesterday spanned three floors of the agency and had various special attractions on each floor, including a dialogue with Tattfoo Tan about his practice of collapsing the boundaries between art and advertising, a room full of Twig terrariums that exemplified how miniature magical worlds are created, and a paint workshop which allowed DDB'ers to apply their creativity in an attempt to recreate famous masterpieces, to name a few.
Katie Maslow and Michelle Inciarrano
Below, DDB Remedy copywriter, Arlene Ellis, stands with her illustration. She explains that many of her pieces are influenced by organic patterns due to her background in neuroscience. The piece displayed at Taste of DDB 2.0 uses her favorite patterns and colors as she chronicles her love of fashion design, the awe-inspiring colors and patterns found in nature, and an appreciation of decorative arts.
Arlene Ellis
Below, Creative Department Coordinator, Nina Horowitz, stands beside her photographs. Nina has a longtime passion for photography. She received her Bachelors of Art in photography from Lafayette College and specializes in portraiture, with a special proclivity for photographing strangers. The artwork displayed here is from a photography thesis entitled, "This is She; Portraits of Women from the Lehigh Valley," which serves as a visual introduction into the diverse community of women who live and work near Lafayette College. The woman are photographed in their homes to portray a sense of comfort, price, and intimacy.
Nina Horowitz
A special thank you to the efforts of Karina Argudo, Minerva Garcia, Karin Christina Ospina Tideman, Monica Hudson, Dominick Santiago, the Office Services Team, Ralph Navarro, Peggy Squazzo, Menno Kluin, Jane Piampiano and Marlon Crosbie for making this event possible.
Tribal DDB Recognized as Leader in Mobile Marketing
Tribal DDB Worldwide announced today that it was among the select companies that Forrester Research, Inc., invited to participate in its January 2012 report, "The Forrester Wave™: US Digital Agencies -- Mobile Marketing Strategy And Execution, Q1 2012." In this evaluation, Tribal DDB was cited as a "Leader" in mobile marketing. Forrester examined solutions from nine digital agencies with mobile marketing services, and its Wave methodology places agencies in four "waves": Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Risky.
"We have been, and will continue to be, very aggressive in the mobile marketing field in all of our offices globally," said Paul Gunning, CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide. "We believe being named a Leader in this report validates that our strategy is working. We're honored to be among the select companies that Forrester invited be evaluated in its Forrester Wave report."
Much has been written about the rapid pace of consumer adoption of the mobile Internet. In fact, Forrester forecasts that the number of mobile Internet users will grow at an average of 9% year over year for the next five years. In response to this growth, nearly half of the interactive marketers Forrester's surveyed told Forrester's that they planned to increase their mobile marketing budgets in 2011.To make the most of these budgets, interactive marketers are turning to digital agencies to create comprehensive and strategic mobile marketing programs that move their brands beyond experimentation and engage their mobile consumers effectively.
In Forrester's 37-criteria evaluation of US digital agencies with mobile marketing services, it identified the nine significant agencies in this category and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report details Forrester's findings about how each agency measures up and plots where they stand in relation to each other, to help interactive marketers select the right partner for their mobile marketing efforts.
"Client references figured very heavily into our evaluation and each of the Leaders can boast strong client approval," said Forrester's Research. "Lauded for both their strategic thinking and execution skills, these Leaders produce high-caliber work with client satisfaction to match."
Okay, jargon alert! I'm going to talk about T-shaped people. While I'm there I may throw in the odd reference to silos, pushing the envelope and fluffing the sausage. So get your jargon bingo cards ready and eyes down for a full house...
Back in the 1950s Bill Bernbach, DDB's founder and philosophical guiding light, was the first person in the industry to formalize the Copywriter/Art Director relationship. Prior to this, writers would dash off witty headlines in between cocktails, cigarettes and sexism and the art department would then lay out the ads in a fairly predictable and formal way. But Bill Bernbach came along and shook it up. He didn't just get rid of the silos (make sure you tick that off your jargon bingo card) he also hired people from 'outside' the industry. He didn't hire WASPS, he hired immigrants, Jews - kids from Brooklyn. He mixed it up, challenging the collective wisdom with his hiring policy the same way he did with his ads.
But advertising today is a more complex business. We don't just create print ads and TV spots anymore, we need to innovate (tick), build relationships (tick), earn media (tick) - oh, and still sell stuff. So by my reckoning that makes us inventors, psychologists, media planners, marketeers and shit-catchers (not on your card?). What can we do?
There are two things agencies can do; they can either hire someone from every single discipline they touch; which is an expensive hobby as it's impossible to make everyone billable, or hire versatile or 'T-shaped' people (tick - that's the jackpot.) For those of you who've been living under an 'O' shaped object, T-shaped people describes those who have a strong single discipline such as copywriting - that's the vertical stalk of the T - whilst the horizontal top of the T reflects their empathy and ability to understand other disciplines. Of course, this was always true to some extent.
Writers have never just been writers, they've had to understand art direction, strategy, photography, directing, editing etc. But in these digital times, the list gets longer and longer as copywriters and art directors need to be able to talk media planning, UX, creative technology, service design, mobile technology, trend watching - but still be able to write great scripts and create compelling advertising that people want to share.
So where do we find these people? In Amsterdam at a local level, people with this level of expertise and experience are often found running their own agency. Even if they're not running their own agency, they're still very hard to find, very senior and very expensive. If you want a big T you have to pay for it.
At Tribal DDB Amsterdam we have hired a range of smaller T's with genuine variety in their make up. These idiosyncratic-mini-T's (I've just invented a new term that won't be on your cards) are actively mixed up thanks to our new office redesign to hopefully create an agency that can handle the complexity of modern advertising and the demands of digital. Here's how it works. We have classic creative concept teams (in name, not make up) who are curious about digital and love new stuff. We sit them in project teams alongside an interactive designer, a user experience (UX) person, a tech lead and just off to the side we have strategists and creative directors who work across multiple projects but can dip in at a moment's notice. Even project management and account managers are invited to share the space when the project demands it. The office has been intentionally designed to have all creative disciplines around one table sharing a space, knowledge, ideas and respect. So what we end up with are T-shaped pods that can handle anything clients want to throw at them.
Of course, finding the right people who can work in these teams is still a challenge, but it's not as hard as finding people who can 'do everything.' We have to hand pick these teams to make sure we have not only the right mix of disciplines (our vertical stalks of our Ts) but also a good and varied selection of tops to our Ts. Some creatives' 'tops' might be better suited to social media, others may have a traditional background that makes up their top, and some are happy talking e-commerce. But ultimately everyone learns from everyone else because we literally knocked down the walls, we think hard about casting and how we mix people up. Many innovative companies run on casual interaction - but what we have done is accelerate that casual interaction to help us come up with the kind of ideas our clients have come to expect from the agency of today; socially led campaigns with digital at the center.
You could say that we simply put a lot of smart people in a room and give them a bit more of a free rein than other agencies. It's probably the main reason I work in innovation driven advertising (tick); I like being surrounded by smart and curious people because it makes me smarter and more curious. My T gets bigger, which means I can spot the skills and interests of other Ts, who in turn help influence other Ts and help them grow.
We all know that our ideas are only as good as the people who come up with them, our work is only as good as the people who touch it and our ability to change and innovate is driven by versatility, a willingness to adapt and the need to fluff the sausage. (Full house!) More T anyone?
Cancer Council NSW & Tribal DDB call on Australians
Australians can now have a better understanding of what causes cancer, learn ways to prevent it and commit to a healthier lifestyle at a touch of a button, thanks to an Australian-first interactive online cancer infographic launched by Cancer Council NSW and Tribal DDB.
The cancer infographic, Hope - Turning the Page on Cancer, uses creative design and an interactive build to demystify cancer myths and reveal evidence-based facts on what causes cancer, primary risk factors and the five pillars of prevention.
The information is followed by a call to action asking users to publicly declare via Facebook and Twitter, the cancer risk factor they will commit to reducing this year.
"This is a great example of how charities and health organizations such as Cancer Council are embracing social media to engage and influence communities on important social issues. The infographic presents a large volume of detailed information in a really visual, interactive and easy to understand format, which is crucial as we move into a world of data overload" said Matt Melik - Director of Data and Publishing at DDB.
Cancer Council NSW CEO, Dr Andrew Penman, said the concept was developed to help Australians better understand cancer, improve their knowledge and ways they can reduce their risk.
"There's so much information out there so the idea was to break it down so it's easy for people to digest. The reality is 30 per cent of cancers can be prevented through healthy lifestyle choices. The infographic clearly and simply states the facts on cancer and gives people hope around the lifestyle choices they can make to help prevent the disease.
"We are excited to be working in the social media space and hope the launch of the infographic and its share-ability will help Australians better understand cancer and spread the important message of prevention," he said.
You've just spent the past six hours killing dragons and zombies with spells and enchanted swords. Now it's time to do the laundry. We all know that videogames have swiftly become an incredibly important part of our media landscape. These digital media allow us to visit places without walking out the door, and to experience things that don't exist offline. The potential of this medium seems boundless. But as advertisers and cultural critics, it is very hard to know what to make of games. They are frustratingly difficult to define, pin down, and relate to other, more familiar media. Videogames are simultaneously movies, puzzles, narratives, and above all else, they are interactive. Despite all of this complexity, we do know one thing. Videogames games are incredibly important to their players. Don't believe me, than just watch this (head to 1:15 to see the carnage). Convinced? Thought so.
As advertisers, we should care about games a great deal. Not only because they are lucrative, not only because they have exceptionally high rates of engagement, and not only because they a relevant to their players, but because videogames, along with many digital technologies, are changing what counts as real. Take this example, in which gamers helped some scientists in the fight against AIDS. Seriously crazy stuff, that shows how much games can matter, how real they can be.
In a few days, I'll be shipping off to Madrid for the sixth annual Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games. This year, the conference will address what it means to be a videogame player. I will be presenting a paper there entitled Believe and Be Live: Entangled Experience in Halo. The paper jumps off from this ad campaign, and focuses on what happens when the experiences of playing a game become entwined with real world experiences, challenging the idea that experience in the digital world isn't as important as experience in the real world.
Tribal DDB has been inducted as the fourteenth FWA Hall of Fame member today by the Favourite Website Awards (FWA) (www.thefwa.com), an industry-recognized Internet awards program and inspirational portal which honors cutting-edge digital creativity. Hall of Fame recognition further showcases the success of the agency's work for clients including Hasbro, Intel, Philips and Volkswagen.
The FWA Hall of Fame is a dedicated showcase to highlight those recognized at the Favourite Website Awards and agencies that have shown outstanding achievement in interactive design, development, and creativity, and paved the way for the future of innovation.
"We're honored to be inducted into the FWA's Hall of Fame," said Paul Gunning, CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide. "We're grateful that we have clients who allow us to really disrupt their creative. And we want to thank our employees, who have worked tirelessly and never settled for mediocre ideas."
Since being founded in 2000, Tribal DDB Worldwide has been awarded 37 FWA Awards. The agency has won Site of the Day 29 times, Site of the Month twice and Mobile of the Day five times. Tribal DDB additionally won FWA Site of the Year in 2006 for its Bodygroom campaign promoting Philips Norelco's new, all-in-one electric shaver system to shave and trim men's body hair.
"In 2006, when Tribal DDB Worldwide launched one of the most original online projects of all time with Philips Bodygroom, which went on to win Site Of The Year, I knew that this exciting company was one to sit up and keep a keen eye on," said Rob Ford, FWA Founder. "With over 60 offices spanning 42 countries, this is a true global digital agency and we have witnessed the power of its creativity with amazing FWA winning projects from all corners of the world. Without a doubt, Tribal DDB Worldwide is one of the absolute leaders in this industry."
Tribal DDB Worldwide was most recently honored by the FWA with a Mobile Site of the Day win on December 6, 2011, for the "Philips Wake-App." The mobile app was part of the "Make Me A Morning Person" Wake-up Challenge on Facebook. This social experiment tested whether people could improve how they felt in the morning by swapping their alarm clocks for Philips Wake-up Lights (result: they could). Anyone can use the app to record their morning mood, alertness and ease in getting up. To make the experience more fun, cute animations of toasters, roosters and other morning icons were incorporated into the data to ensure every user a good morning.
Intel Corporation recently premiered its new, streamlined, YouTube channel platform on www.YouTube.com/Intel in which videos encourage visitors to experience Intel products and events, and to discuss the brand. Featured video reviews let the consumer see new products through the lens of a real consumer.
Intel, Tribal DDB and Google developed the global video strategy to organize Intel's global YouTube presence into a fully customized, branded interface that considers overall structure, content organization and governance. Moreover, this implementation illustrates Intel's new leadership role on YouTube and in the social media and digital space.
Matthew Nelson, Director of Social Strategy at Tribal DDB San Fancisco emphasized the necessity of helping Intel consolidate a scattered, visually inconsistent, global YouTube presence into a fully customized interface. With the objectives of housing all Intel's video content and simplifying the consumers' ability to discover and share videos of interest, Tribal DDB re-architected Intel's content hierarchy to create a consistently branded user experience.
The new channel layout, navigation and functionality are primarily focused on consumer experience and streamlining the processes of discovering, consuming and sharing content of interest. Specifically, Intel's new YouTube presence features simplified navigation, the capability to play select, user-generated content, promotion of in-market campaigns, and an integration of Intel's master-brand Facebook and Twitter feeds.
Speaking on behalf of Intel, Ekaterina Walkter, Social Media Strategist explained,"For a brand, a united clear presence on any network is critical. Moreover, it is important to have a global strategy and direction that the company can follow as it engages with its customers on that particular network. The benefits include increased organic discoverability, better content creation and optimization, more options to share videos across your network, and integrated social presence across multiple networks."
Intel stands to significantly alter the perception of its brand by exemplifying an online presence that exhibits content organization strategy, technical implementation and a governance plan. Tribal DDB looks forward to continuing to work with Intel to evolve its YouTube presence, positioning it as a leader in the social media space.
How does something enter the annals of popular culture? What qualifies as popular culture? It is kind of like - if you say you are cool - you are not. Other people have to recognize the qualities that make you cool for such a label to be authentic and credible. Author Andrea Hiott has chosen a subject that is undeniably part of global pop culture...the Volkswagen Beetle. In her book, Thinking Small: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle, she puts us in the passenger seat for an entertaining and educational ride. The vehicle's creation and its rich history truly make for a fascinating read. The book's first half takes us sequentially from vision to creation to near doom to resurrection.
Then the story really takes hold when the Beetle attempts to penetrate the American market. This was the time of big, big cars with huge tail fins. America was experiencing incredible prosperity, celebrating its superpower position, and enjoying a period of relative peace. Bigger was not just assumed to be better...it was. Enter the Beetle. It was viewed as ugly, noisy, underpowered, and uncomfortable. And, worst of all, it was small. Not to mention the fact that fourteen years earlier, many Americans were fighting their way across Germany, so few held any positive associations with 'The People's Car'. In fact, in one episode of Mad Men, an attendee at a party at Don Draper's home states, "the last time I saw one of them, I think I threw a hand grenade in it."
Those constraints and opposition to the product did not make for the best conditions. And that was precisely what Doyle Dane Bernbach were up against when Volkswagen commissioned them to do the advertising for the Beetle. But great challenges often yield great results and that certainly was the case for the creativity that followed. Voted the Number One campaign of the 20th Century by Advertising Age, the now iconic "Lemon" and "Think Small" ads addressed all objections to the car directly in a self-deprecating way that continues to resonate in Volkswagen communications. Arguably, those ads have their own place in popular culture right beside the diminutive vehicle.
Born in Germany, adopted in America but truly global in popular culture, the story of the Volkswagen Beetle is one of innovation and creativity - two incredibly powerful forces in business.
DDB gives a warm congratulations to Aki Chang, Daniel Berenson, and Maria Meehan, the recipients of the 2011 Bill Bernbach Scholarship, each of whom will receive $5000 toward tuition to advertising school. The scholarships are thanks to the Bill Bernbach Diversity Scholarship Fund, established in 1998 by DDB Worldwide to provide financial assistance to creatively talented, culturally diverse students seeking an education in copywriting, art direction and design.
The three winners were selected by a committee of DDB Chief Creative Officers, Creative Directors, Talent Managers and Creative Service Managers from across the U.S. The selection committee commended the caliber of talent and diversity of candidates pursuing careers in marketing today. The scholarship gives credence to the investment that Universities and Ad Schools are making in impressive portfolio programs for the next generation of creatives.
Participating AAAA schools include the Ad Center at Virginia Commonwealth, the Art Center College of Design, Creative Circus, Miami Ad School, Portfolio Center, Savannah College of Art and Design, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Oregon. The Bill Bernbach Diversity Scholarship Fund has awarded 55 scholarships over the past 12 years.
In addition to offering a unique opportunity to the recipients, the Bill Bernbach Scholarship has inspired new diversity efforts and research at DDB, such as the establishment of its National Diversity Council in 2008.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) has launched a campaign to communicate Changi Airport's brand appeal and experience to its travelers. Eschewing the traditional formula of enumerating facilities and services, the campaign sets out to raise the emotional quotient of the airport by focusing on the traveler experience.
Developed by Tribal DDB Singapore, the campaign which kicks off with a 90-second brand video, embodies the brand promise of 'The Feeling is First Class' to showcase some of Changi Airport's best kept secrets.
The campaign rides on the changing role of airports in the modern context. Airports today are no longer just places to catch a flight; instead, they are fast becoming destinations in their own right, where shopping, dining and entertainment converge. Changi Airport offers over 400 retail and dining outlets, together with a multitude of amenities including the world's first in-airport butterfly garden.
Changi Airport's highly acclaimed operational efficiency is just one of the elements of the unique Changi experience. The airport is focused on innovative ideas including an indoor slide, the roof-top pool, movie theatres and koi ponds, to create an unforgettable airport experience. This is encapsulated in the brand line: 'The Feeling is First Class'. Joy, Wonder and Delight, emotions distilled from the brand, are key themes played out in the video. These emotions are captured through intimate sequences of travelers indulging in the Changi Airport experience. Singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat's 'Bubbly', is used to provide a modern, yet emotive background to the lush imagery.
Mr Ivan Tan, Senior Vice-President, Corporate and Marketing Communications Division says, "We believe the Changi Airport experience to be unique, out-of-the-ordinary. Excellent service, operational efficiency and innovative ideas blend together to create a feeling that's first class. It's this special feeling that we set out to capture in this campaign."
Cut down versions will be flighted on expandable video banners on selected websites to drive users to a newly refreshed microsite (http://www.changiairport.com/the-feeling-is-first-class), which features the full video, as well as a peek into the highlights of Changi Airport.
Print executions of the campaign will also be launched in magazine titles globally. The advertisements will include a Quick Response code to lead readers to the microsite.
Les Binet and Sarah Carter get a little bit angry about some of the nonsense they hear around them... like the idea that brainstorming works.
You may not have heard of Alex Osborn, one of the 1950's Mad Men . But you will almost certainly have taken part in something which he has bequeathed to the world of marketing and advertising. For it is Mr Osborne who is attributed with originating the business use of the term and technique of "brainstorming". Frustrated by the way that typical group decision making processes in his opinion tended to inhibit rather than encourage creative thinking, he argued that this new technique increased both the quality and quantity of ideas generated. With its "rules" of no censoring of ideas, quantity over quality and an informal, fun atmosphere, the brainstorm was supposed to unleash the creative in all of us. Many Post-It notes and hours holed up in hotel conference rooms later, the technique in one guise or another lives on today.
But does "brainstorming actually work?". We both must have spent hundreds of hours in these sessions over the years, but we can honestly not recall a single great idea that emanated from all that expensively choreographed management time. And, in fact, it seems we are right. Academic research over the years has demonstrated unequivocally that brainstorming groups produce fewer and poorer quality ideas than the same number of individuals working alone. You are much more likely to come up with a great idea in your bath than in a Holiday Inn meeting room.
Research shows that there are a number of powerful psychological processes at work which together severely limit the effectiveness of brainstorming; "Social Loafing" whereby the group situation encourages and allows individuals to slack off, "Evaluation Apprehension" where we are nervous of being judged by our colleagues or looking stupid, and "Production Blocking," the idea that because only one person can speak at a time in a group, others can forget or reject their ideas while they have to wait. We are also learning more and more about the power of our "herd" tendencies. As humans we have strong innate desires to conform to others with only the slightest encouragement. When asked to think creatively, these implicit norms are invisible, but extremely powerful shackles on our ability to think differently. No wonder not many ideas come out of those hours of well intentioned brainstorming.
So why on earth do people keep doing these brainstorms? Even if they are not aware if the damning research on their effectiveness, the lack of good creative ideas emanating from them should be pretty obvious to everyone. The answer is probably that holding a brainstorm is fulfilling other, largely unarticulated needs which, in some sense, compensate for the lack of creativity- time out of the office maybe? A chance to do some team bonding? And getting a brainstorm in the diary can feel like something very tangible is being done to tackle a tricky issue.
Luckily there is also useful research which points to ways in which we can make brainstorming sessions more productive. Experiments using electronic brainstorming found that when people typed their ideas online at the same time as seeing other people's ideas displayed, more and higher quality ideas were generated. This neatly got round those psychological processes blocking effectiveness of the face to face session. So here it seems are some clues as to how to offer the best of both worlds. If you want a face to face brainstorm to work, ask people to come up with and list ideas on their own in the bath or wherever before coming to the session. And monitor the number of ideas produced by each person. Then use the group to evaluate the ideas generated - because psychological research does show that whilst groups may not be great at coming up with ideas ,they are very good at evaluation of these ideas.
My dictionary describes a brainstorm as "a sudden disturbance of the mind!" If you want your experience of them to be a bit more positive than this, then hopefully you now have some research evidence to help.
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