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Coca-Cola Taps Three WPP Agencies to Create Next Global Ad Campaign
The end of Mad Men lives on: Coke still wants to buy the whole world a drink. Yes, we’ve come full circle. Congratulations Ogilvy New York, Madrid's SRA Rushmore and Santo in Buenos Aires. These three shops, all WPP agencies, have bested a group of 10 competitors that pitched their creative ideas to Coke earlier this year.
The iconic beverage brand conducted a search for the most compelling concepts from innovative agencies to create global campaigns that will – and this might sound familiar – impact consumers around the world. The move marks a departure from the “Open Happiness” campaign created by Wieden + Kennedy in 2009. Read the full story at Adweek.
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It is a unique and highly focused event gathering the leading agency search consultants drawn from markets around the world with agency network CEOs and management teams from from all disciplines, including creative, media, digital, PR, direct, and marketing services. Learn more.
Soft Drinks, Soda and the Visual Power of Sugar Art Ads
Speaking of soft drinks, check out the candy creations made by food photographer Henry Hargreaves in this piece by Fast Company. “The process involves boiling down a Vitaminwater or Monster Energy Drink, brand by brand, to burn off the water evaporated, leaving only the industrialized sugar leftovers behind.”
Advertisers Court China’s Millennials in Real Time
Younger generations not understanding their parents, and vice versa, is a universal condition of human nature. The American men who stormed beaches in World War II birthed the generation that danced in the mud at Woodstock. This chasm of misunderstanding is a seemingly timeless phenomenon, and one that advertisers are intensively analyzing the China, which – despite recent economic news – stills holds the dreams and money of millions of Millennials sporting a new view of the world… and life. Being distanced from China’s harsh past through lots of time and little life experience, China’s Millennials are focused not on the past or future, but now. Read more at Ad Age.
The Martin Agency Taps Daniel Fisher as ECD for London Operations
The Martin Agency, based in Richmond, Virginia, has hired Daniel Fisher – formerly of adam&eveDDB – as the executive creative director at Martin London. Fisher is renowned for, among other accomplishments, his role in creating the “Monty the Penguin” holiday ad for John Lewis, which won a Cannes Grand Prix. For more details, visit Agency Spy.
This Made Us Laugh!
Comedian on Facebook poses as customer service representative for Target and addresses the haters spouting venom over the brand's move to gender-neutral advertising. Full story and more laughs over at Adweek.
Shift in Consumer Buying Behaviors Confounds U.S. Retail Advertisers
Life is short. Blame the great recession. Blame a less materialistic national sensibility. Blame the post-9/11 generation and Millennials. But American consumers are more interested in spending their money on purchases that afford memorable experiences rather than stuff – and this has department stores scrambling for ways to adjust to the new shopping normal. Does this mean we are a deeper and more self-aware society? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Experiences – rather than, say, our new sunglasses – say more about our personal identities because we share those experiences with others through social media and digital technology. Not even the hippest pair of kicks can rival a 7-second video of someone scuba diving among manta rays. Find out how department stores are trying to stay relevant in a rapidly changing society by reading this article in The New York Times.
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Agency of the Week
Wunderman: We live at the collision of data and creativity. We believe one cannot function without the other, and together they are powerful tools. Our ideas are born and rooted in cultural intelligence. We make sense of data exhaust to understand customers’ values and connect to them on an individual level. Because when we know what matters to people, people care about what we do. Learn more about Wunderman by visiting their AdForum profile page.
(Coffee photo courtesy of bark.)
The world is a complicated place, and our oceans are perhaps the most complex ecosystems on the planet. Watch the ad below to learn how coastal villages with limited resources are combating the lionfish, an invasive species poised to disrupt entire communites that have spent generations living off of the sea.
