Adopsy on "Let's Build"

The weather these days are getting as low as 35F, and I can smell winter in the air which means its time for me to move on to Cinnamon Dolce Latte at Starbucks from regular soy latte! Icy weather with cinnamon sprinkles in the air, lets perform second adopsy.
The spot is "Let's Build" Adweek's "best commercial of the week: Nov.2-Nov.8"

Here is the subject of the adopsy to be performed: 

I have to say, that little boy's voiceover is cute and creepy at the same time... is it just me? Anyway who doesn't like lego and who didn't grow up playing with LEGO? this commercial really warmed my heart....

Details details!:[this ad is not up on adsoftheworld yet. I wonder why?]
Client: LEGO
Agency: We Are Pi (Amsterdam based agency)
Director: Joanna Bailey
LEGO Project Leads: Sara Riis-Carstensen & Kathryn Mariott
(is this it? well, this is as much as information that is put out to the public at this moment.)

One thing I found interesting during my research of this spot is that lot of blogs with the word "geek" has made a post about the commercial! LEGO = geek? hmm....

Endless agencies continue on to overseas and this "WE ARE Pi" is truly weirdly attractive agency. (which kind of explains why that commercial is awkwardly weirdly cute?)
This is the "about" portion of the agency:

WE ARE Pi was founded in Amsterdam on March 14th 2011, Pi Day. Pi is infinite; people constantly search to better define it. We use this as a principle to search for shared value between people, communities and brands.WE ARE Pi is a tight team of different nationalities, backgrounds and truly diverse talent collaborating on world class projects.

and this picture is also the part of the about page.... now do you feel what I feel? :D


Aside from weirdness, this agency's clients include TED, LEGO, BBB, Habitat and Deloitte. Its a startup company, and within 2 years it was placed #1 on the "best commercial of the week" on world famous adweek.com, so hopefully we'll be able to see much more creative works from We Are Pi soon!

Going back to the commercial, its almost like a juxtaposition ad, placing a cute family lovey-dovey image with business introduction video-like voiceover. As I play this ad over and over again, seeing all those lego buildings and "sculptures" are breathtaking! They probably had handful of lego professionals building them constantly for especially breaking scenes...

One question I have is "where is mom?" why just a boy? will this become into a campaign and have a girl version? Was I the only female that played with lego? I don't think so!!!!!!
Personally, I really hope they make a girl version building castles, cars or horses for her dolls!

This ad is clearly targeting parents with little "boys" and has an underlying message that christmas is coming! *winkwink 

I just cannot get over how uncomfortable it still is, playing over and over again, and how cute and heart warming it is, making me to remind of the days I built LEGO with my daddy and how sad I was when my mom pull me away from my toys and put me to bed...

By reminding adults/parents of their own childhood and brining back their own precious childhood memory with LEGO, it leads them to purchase LEGO to their children to give them the same beautiful experience. I strongly believe LEGO is one of the top brand where they have strong bonds with their clients and everyone, their life-long customer.

Adopsy on "Halloween Treats Gone Wrong"

This blog's original purpose is to dissect and examine ads. So, I'll start performing adopsy on the new Adweek's "best commercial of the week: Oct.25-Nov.1"

Here is the subject of the adopsy to be performed: 

Poor kids.. they look like they actually threw up... I wish I could try them too....

It's cute, gross, confusing, funny, and doesn't really tell you its about a toothpaste commercial until the end! If I were to be watching this ad on TV, I would have thought it was another AT&T halloween version ad or a healthy snack ad... Turns out, its saying, "let your kids eat candies, because Crest is here to fight 'em off CAVITIES!!!" 

Let's start digging into its details now:
Client: Crest & Oral-B
Agency: Publicis Kaplan Thaler (NY based agency - more details below)
-CCO: Rob Freakins
-ECD: David Corr
-CD: Tony Gomes
-AD: Xavier Rodon
-Copywriter: George Logothetis
-Producer: Noelle Nimrichter
Production Company: Tool of North America
-Director: J.J. Adler
-Editor: John Piccolo, Fluid Editorial

When I saw PKT under the agency name, I went...who? I am still a virgin about advertising agencies, I dig one after another and they are endless... PKT doesn't seem to have a facebook page nor twitter account, but they did have linked in account with handful of job postings, and apparently one of my old classmate from college works there! wow

It turns out that Publicis Kaplan Thaler is fairly new agency, opened on July 2012. It was created from a merger of Publicis NY with Kaplan Thaler Group from Paris-based Publicis Groupe. PKT specializes in advertising, digital advertising and branding, located at 1675 Broadway New York.

Here is PKT's brand theory:
You can either adapt to change, ignore it, or lead it. At Publicis Kaplan Thaler, we help our clients take the lead. For change that helps them redefine the competitive landscape, leap ahead of the competition, become part of the public consciousness, and start a movement.

Going back to the commercial:
Target market seems to be females ages between 26-35, moms with young children. Moms who are agitated at all the candies that their children will be eating during the "Halloween week" (I feel like it is a week long holiday of excused candy consumption).
Few articles state how its funny and people can't stop laughing about it... I honestly don't find it hilarious... It felt long, seeing little kids eating "poo-poo" tasting snacks and throwing up and spitting out and asking for water. Like mentioned above, this commercial has very close similarity to AT&T's TV campaigns - brown table, four kids, one male adult talking to kids.

After kids scream and kicks the man, copy comes up on an orange background.... I strongly feel PKT could have made the design much more attractive. Very last frame is cute though...

this WAS the best one out of the 5 commercials Adweek posted for this week, and with Adweek's new way of showing awesome commercials every week, now I can't wait for next week to vote for myself too! Keep posted for next week's best commercial


* if you have extra time, check out pkt's website (www.pkt.com) they have some awesome work that I had no idea about! Super inspirational!

Ads that makes you go WHAT?

Adweek posts 10 best ads of the week and one of them was a RayBan spot


I thought this was revolutionary and clever until.... I got across Honda's new TV spot.
Optical Illusions are not so "revolutionary." It existed since l-o-n-g time ago, and it has been used in many different artworks over the years. Also using optical illusion in advertising has been done 7 years ago by Audi. But the thing is, how redundant the subject may be, it amazes me every time! It screws up my head even though when I see how-to, I go "I knew that!"....... not really

Without further ado, here is the Honda Spot:
 


The spot was done by mcgarrybowen London for European TV spot.
The flow of the spot is quiet and smooth, while your head is going "!?@?#?$?!#??Q?#@$#@%"
Its keeping you calm and exciting you at the same time. How fun is that?

I don't really watch how-its-done videos unless if I am writing an essay about it for class or if the spot is so awesome I just need to know how it was done. Well, this one certainly was the latter.
Here is the making of:

INSPIRE YOURSELF

Jobs are important, but knowing what kind of advertising are out there are much more important. I google ads, I search them on YouTube and I do watch the ads that play on YouTube without clicking  on that "SKIP" button. Some people hate ads and think they are annoying but that is exactly what I feel about science, math and english ;)

So with my obsession with ads, here I introduce to you a great spot from Google Map.
When Google Map Street view came out, it was revolutionary, fun, spectacular, awesome, amazing, but then it also created a lot of problems... (people's faces, licensee plates...etc.)
It was also really slow at loading images, and as it got better and better... So I decided to give it a try, and I looked up my old houses, places I have visited, and places that could recall my memory and moments... (I now often use it to see the surrounding areas of a new destinations since I started living in Detroit, MI! You gotta be careful where you are going and know where you are going here.)

Google Map can be used to find a route, but it can do much more than just that. Find out what amazing things can happen with this ad. A true-story of a young man and his journey of finding his family he once lost at age of 5. Without no further description, here is the spot.

5 Must-Know Agencies in US

Agencies that were covered last two weeks were generalized, surface information. 
Looking for a job myself, I picked 5 agencies from my "wanna work at list" and really 
got into them. I will be covering - Gyro, TBWA\Chiat\Day, CP+B, KCD, DDB 
 

Where Can I Go? 2

I have been refining resume and cover letters, and I tried to trim my choices down to top 5 agencies, but it is just so hard! There are too many amazing agencies and I just don't know. I did end up choosing my top 5 depending on the city I want to work in, specific client I want to work with, and agencies that "REALLY" inspired me with their works in last 4 years...

So, where do YOU want to go?

Wieden + Kennedy

One of the largest independently-owned advertising agencies in the world, with headquarters in Portland Oregon. It is an independent, creatively driven advertising agency that creates strong and provocative relationships between clients and customers. This agency is best known for Nike, AND remember the Old Spice man on a white horse saying “look at me, now look back at your man, now back to me” Smell like a Man, Man!

OFFICE LOCATIONS: Portland, New York, So Paulo, London, Amsterdam, Delhi, Shanghai, Tokyo

CLIENTS: Chrysler, Coca-Cola, converse, Dodge, Electronic Arts, Facebook, Ivory, Kraft, LAIKA studios, Levi’s Maxwell House, Nike, Nike Golf, Old Spice, Powerade, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Travel Oregon, Trident, ABC TV, Delta, ESPN, Hineken, Jordan Brand etc.

McKinney

Named “the most effective independent advertising agency in the world” – Effie Effectiveness Index. In 2012, McKinney was acquired by Cheil Worldwide, Korea’s largest and world’s leading marketing communications network (Cheil Worldwide will be covered in upcoming posts!)

OFFICE LOCATIONS: North Carolina and New York ! [This is a small agency]

CLIENTS: Nationwide, Sherwin Williams, Big Boss, Gold’s Gym, Travelocity, Urban Ministries of Durham, Mizuno, Samsung, Royal Canin, Durham, Dognition, mentos, Century Link, Old Favorites, Hankook Tire. 

BBDO

Founded in 1891, it has been named as “Most Awarded Agency Network in the World” by The Gunn Report. seen or heard “The Work The Work The Work,” ? It’s BBDO’s philosophy.

Holding Company: Omnicom Group

OFFICE LOCATIONS:

North America: New York, Toronto, Atlanta, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Chicago

Latin America: Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela

EMEA: London, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine

Asia Pacific: Singapore, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

CLIENTS: at&t, BayerBayer, Campbell’s, FedEx, GE, hp, Lowe’s, Mars, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson, Starbucks, VISA, Diageo, Hyatt, P&G, VW, ExxonMobil, Johnson+Johnson, Pepsico, Wrigley

Leo Burnett

Founded in 1935, the agency started off working on two main projects for Kellogg’s and P&G. Now, it is a worldwide company working with world renowned brands. The agency works with a one word philosophy, Human Kind: “It’s not about advertising or brand propositions or selling products. It’s about people and purpose. It’s an approach to marketing that serves true human needs, not the other way around.”

Holding Company: Publicis

OFFICE LOCATIONS: Almaty, Amman, Amsterdam, Asuncion, Bangalore, Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Belgrade, Berlin, Bogota, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Caracas, Casablanca, Chicago, Colombo, Detroit, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Guatemala City, Guaynabo, Harare, Haryana, Helsinki, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Jakarta, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait city, Kyiv, La Paz, Lagos, Lausanne, Lima, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Managua, Manila, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Montevideo, Montreal, Moscow, Mumbai, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Nicosia, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Ramat-Gan, Riga, Riyadh, Rome, San Jose, San Salvador, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Sao Paulo, Seoul, shanghai, Singapore, Sofia, Stockholm, Sydney, Taipei, Tallinn, Tegucipalpa, Tokyo, Toronto, Turin, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, Zurich

(Wow that is a lot of office locations…)

CLIENTS: Allstate, ltria, Beef, Coca-Cola, Firestone, Delta, DeVry University, esurance, MaMa Francesca, Fifth Third Band, Hallmark, hhgregg, Invesco, Kellogg’s McDonald’s, Nintendo, P&G, Remax, Samsung, Sprint, United Technologies, WhiteWave, ComeEd

R+R

Advertising, marketing, public relations and public affairs firm headquartered in Las Vegas. “Create. Build. Protect. Creating, building, and protecting brands for clients whose only option is to win.” Having hard time trying to figure out this agency? Well, we all know the saying “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It is from a Las Vegas Convention campaign from R+R in 2003. Shocked yet? I was mind blown… I thought it was from a show, not from an advertising agency!

OFFICE LOCATIONS: Austin TX, Denver CO, Las Vegas NV, El Segundo CA, Phoenix AZ, Reno NV, Salt Lake City Utah, Washington DC

CLIENTS: APS, Boeing, LVCVA, NV Energy, SNWA, Utah DABC, Utah Highway Safety, Western Digital


Want to know what agencies are in your area? This blog lists “ALL” the agencies that exists within US state by state: http://www.thecreativeham.com/the-list.php 

“Where Can I Go?”

Do you have an agency that you want to work for? There are hundreds of advertising agencies just within US and too many around the world. Then, we have large agencies that have world-wide locations and sometimes confuses us with modified agency names. Finding an agency that you want to work at CAN be overwhelming, so let’s go over one by one, one agency at a time, starting with the “big” agencies.

J. Walter Thompson

JWT is fourth biggest advertising agencies in the world. Headquarter is in New York City, and has over 200 offices in 90 countries.

Holding company: WPP Group

OFFICE LOCATIONS:

North America: Casa Miami, Minneapolis, San Diego, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver

Latin America: Sao Paulo, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curitiba, El Salvador, Lima, Mexico City, Puerto Rico

Asia Pacific: Almaty, Ulan Bator, Mumbai, Singapore, Bangalore, Bangkok, Beijing, Chennai, Colombo, Delhi, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Japan, Kolkata, Korea, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Melbourne, Hyderabad, Moscow, Mumbai, New Zealand, Pakistan, Perth, Shanghai, Sydney, Taipei, Vietnam, Nepal

Europe, Middle East & Africa: Manchester, Helsinki, Uzbekistan, Dublin, Frankfurt, Reading, Sofia, Zürich, Amsterdam, Bahrain, Barcelona, Beirut, Budapest, Cairo, Cape Town, Casablanca, Vienna, Damascus, Dubai, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Israel, Italy, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kenya, Kuwait, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Beirut, Riyadh, Tunis, Ukraine, Warsaw, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Tbilisi, Armenia, Stuttgart, Lithuania, Riga, Ljubljana, Sarajevo, Skopje, Zagreb, Athens

Other: Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Belarus, Republic of Moldova

NY CLIENTS: Smirnoff, Energizer,/Schick, Estee Lauder, Johnson&Johnson, Kleenex, Macy’s, Skinny Cow, Drumstick, Rolex, HSBC, etc.

McCann Erickson

McCann is a global advertising agency with offices in 120 different countries/cities. McCann is part of McCann Worldgroup, which includes Universal McCann, MRM Worldwide, Momentum Worldwide, McCann Healthcare Worldwide, and Weber Shandwick.

Holding Company: Interpublic Group

* Remember the MasterCard TV ad? “There are some things money can’t buy” Its from McCann.

Belief: “Truth Well Told” Every great brand is founded on a powerful truth. We turn brand truths into business transformations.

OFFICE LOCATIONS:

North America: Detroit, Guatemala City, Kingston, Los Angeles, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Managua, Miami, New York, Panama, Port-of-Spain, Puerto Rico, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Pedro Sula, San Salvador, Santo Domingo

South America: Asuncion, Bogota, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Caracas, La Paz, Lima, Mexico City, Montevideo, Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Sao Paolo

Asia Pacific: Almaty, Amman, Bangalore, Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Chennai, Dhaka, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Manama, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New Delhi, Nicosia, Osaka, Qatar, Riyadh, Safat, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sydney, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Uzbekistan

Europe and Middle East: Abu Dhabi, Algiers, Amstelveen, Athens, Baku, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Damascus, Dubai, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Estonia, Frankfurt, Geneva, Helsinki, Istanbul, Jeddah, Kyiv, Latvia, Lisbon, Ljubljana, London, Madrid, Malmo, Manchester, Milan, Moscow, Munchen, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Tbilisi, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, Yerevan, Zagreb

Africa: Abidjan, Blantyre, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Douala, Egypt, Gaborone, Johannesburg, Kampala, Lagos, Luanda, Lusaka, Maputo, Nairobi, Osu, Port Louis, Ruwi, Tunis, Zambia, Zimbabwe

NY CLIENTS: AMR, IKEA Jose Cuervo, USPS, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Kohl’s, L’Oreal, MasterCard, Dentyne, Nestle, Nikon, Pfizer, Staples, US Army, Verizon, Acuvue, WeightWatchers, etc.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

CP+B has headquarter in Coconut Grove, Florida with few more offices in US and Europe. The agency has been named “Agency of the Year” 13 times, and famous for using viral marketing. Remember the Subservient Chicken? “I’m PC” ad? Its all CP+B.

OFFICE LOCATIONS:

Miami, Boulder, Los Angeles, Goteborg, London

CLIENTS: Windows, Domino’s, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Best Buy, Jell-O, Grey Poupon, bing, Applebee’s arby’s UnderArmour, Diesel, Vitamin Water, Axe, Burger King, Mini, Ideaetc.

DDB

“We are guided by playbooks not rule books” is DDB’s philosophy, and with that in mind, agency won 82 Lions at 2012 Cannes. DDB is also one of the largest agencies in the world with Publicis Omnicom Group as a holding company.

OFFICE LOCATIONS:

North America: Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Los Angles,

Latin America: Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela

Europe, Middle East & Africa:  Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Algeria, Bahrain, Cameroon, Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tunisia, U.A.E, Zambia

Asia Pacific: Australia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

CLIENTS: Ad Council, Cars.com, CIBA, DePuy, ExxonMobil, Aveeno, RoC, McDonald’s, Tropicana, Cotton Incorporated, Clorox, Empire city, Georgia Pacific, Hertz, Clean&Clear, Lotto, Mega Millions, etc.

Want to know what agencies are in your area? This blog lists “ALL” the agencies that exists within US state by state: http://www.thecreativeham.com/the-list.php

What's your job?

Do you know what you want to be? I still don’t know and so are numerous other people that are about to graduate from college, or people that are looking for jobs… Well, at least if you know that you want to be in “advertising” field, here is a list of types of jobs related to advertising and you might find what you want to be!

Here are four main types of jobs at an ad agency…

Account Executive

Acoount represent the agency to clients, and clients to agency. They are link between the client and agency. Account identifies what clients needs and with agency, they figure out a campaign that would work with ideas and budget. Then they would present ideas to clients, and when idea gets approved by the client, Accounts make sure budget and time is on track.

Nutshell: Communication, communication, organization, communication

Account Planner

Once Planners identify the need of the client, they start a very in-depth research about the market and consumers. After quantitative and qualitative research, Planners write creative briefs, giving a general guideline for Creatives to develop ideas. The creative briefs include information such as the subject that needs advertising and its current position in market share and perception. Also, the brief would state kinds of media and target audience.

Nutshell: search, google, interview, analyze, brief

Art Director (a.k.a “Creative”)

Once art directors receive the creative brief from Account Planners, Art Directors and copywriters to develop ideas for clients (usually have a copywriter partner). Once a “big idea” is generated, they would produce storyboards, sketches, or script for presentation to the creative team and the client. Once the idea is approved, art directors would collect a production team to produce the final product. Art Directors oversees the entire production process.

Nutshell: IDEAS IDEAS MORE IDEAS, production... next, IDEAS IDEAS….

Copywriter

Generally same with the descriptions for Art Director, but more in charge of the “writing” part and maybe proof reading. Art Directors and Copywriters work very close hand to hand, which means because you are a “copywriter” that does not mean you cannot come with visual ideas and vise-versa! However, Copywriters would have more weigh on scripts for TV, Radio or any types of copy for an ad.

Nutshell: IDEAS, Writing, writing writing IDEAS, more writing

Still not what you were looking for…? How about these?

Market Researcher

Marketing Executive

Media Buyer

Media Planner

Public Affairs Consultant

Public Relations Account Executive

Public Relations Officer

Sales Promotion AE

New Era of Advertising

In order for numerous ad agencies to be running, there are holding companies. As of July 28^th of 2013, as Publicis and Omnicom finalized its merger, Publicis Omnicom Group became the biggest advertising company in the world! Their revenue is 35.1 billion with over 130,000 employees all over the world. Making rival brands to work under one roof, this merge pushed down the once the biggest company for many years, WPP Group to second place, where they have $15.6 billion revenue.

Now you may question, what kind of agencies are within these “holding companies” ?

Publicis : Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi

Omnicom: BBDO, TBWA and DDB

PepsiCo-TBWA\Chiat\Day (Omnicom)

Coca-Cola: Leo Burnett (Publicis)

AT&T: Omnicom

Verizon: Publicis

To have these kinds of competitors, (especially Coca-Cola & PepsiCo who made several ads making fun of the other) it would be interesting to see how the clients will react, and if the tight competition will continue on….

Here is an example of what Coke & Pepsi were doing before.