Gillette Campaign

For the group project, Bridget, Mallory, Emily, and I were given the assignment to create a campaign for a new line of personal grooming products by Gillette, called ProSeries. Gillette is already the top global distributor of men’s skin care products, so naturally we were given a hefty budget by P&G to take the line worldwide in 2011.

We met over dinner during the first week of class to discuss ideas. I’ll admit, it was a struggle to get the creative juices flowing at first. We had some crazy guerilla ideas about shaving homeless people, but we mostly focused on our food. We took a break to gain inspiration during the week of the festival, and when we met at the beginning of this week, we had our idea.

We wanted to target a younger demographic, primarily young professionals and secondarily college students. Our creative strategy is that Gillette can help you be your best. It can be your first, it can help you out in your career and it can help you in your life. Our media choices include: television, viral videos, and twitter.

For our viral video executions we took a risk and developed an awkward character named Close Shave Dave. He will also maintain an advice based twitter feed that appeals to our young audience. For our older television audience we took a more serious note, but we still showed the characters in embarrassing situations.

I think our campaign is good, and will work well in the United States; my only concern is how it will translate globally.

You Look Dumber With Your Mouth Open (commercial critique 5)

For my final commercial critique I would like to examine a campaign that I saw at the film awards last night. It consisted of two commercials for Otrivin Nasal Spray in Switzerland. The first spot showed a kindergarten class waiting for the teacher to hand out scissors. As she went around the room, she comes to a little girl staring blankly ahead with her mouth open. Instead of normal scissors, the teacher hands her a pair that have a rounded edge. The tagline, “You look dumber with your mouth open,” appears and then clips to a picture of the nasal spray with the tagline, “The pleasure of breathing.”

I thought the concept was incredibly clever and used an insight that isn’t usually associated with products in the category. Because of the unique position of the campaign, it was very effective at providing an incentive to buy the product and humor to help you remember it.

For production of this ad, it seems that it was just filmed on a built set with actors and props. For a simple idea like this, I thought the simple set design worked perfectly.

If I were to offer suggestions for improvement… actually I don’t have any. Obviously, the film jury didn’t either since it won a gold lion.

The Music Never Stops (commercial critique 4)

One commercial I saw in the viewing room actually ended up winning a few gold lions. It was for MTV Brazil and pictured a never-ending line of balloons that each had pictures drawn on them. A pin was rocketing through them and when they popped the effect was somewhat like a flipbook.  They played a very intense, upbeat song in the background and as the pin continued on its path, the tagline “The music never stops,” is displayed.

What was really interesting is that the pictures in the “flipbook,” weren’t merely random images, but told a story of the evolution of music. The story starts off simply with an egg and morphs into record contracts and finally, a cartoon Slash morphing into a cartoon Eminem. Very creative and cool.

For the production technique, (I’ll admit I couldn’t tell if it was real or animation just by watching) I found that they used a very “low tech yet inventive animation technique where a traveling spike pops hundreds of balloons along a track” (http://great-ads.blogspot.com/2011/05/mtvs-inventive-popping-promo-ad.html).

I thought it was a really great spot, but if I were to offer a suggestion, I might change the song. It was good. The beat fit perfectly, really. However, it was distracting to me that the song was in German and the ad was for MTV Brazil. That’s my only suggestion, but I really think the ad was close to perfect as it was.

 

The Close

We watched a seminar today on the secret behind the success of Brazil as a country. Several important industry professionals participated in a panel. One executive was from Natura, the fourth largest cosmetic distributor in the world and the other executive was the CEO of strawberryfrog. The panel focused on why customers in Brazil are so satisfied with the work of their agencies. Obviously Natura is satisfied with strawberryfrog because Natura was voted the most trusted brand in all of Brazil for the last few years.

The numbers from Brazil were very impressive when they compared several components of what makes an agency stand out. However, I will point out that their numbers really only appeared strong against the four other markets they had chosen: Mexico, Argentina, China, and India. The performance of Brazil has been impressive here, I will admit. The only two countries they trail in number of awards are the United States and the United Kingdom.

Tonight we are heading over to the Palais to watch the film awards. Hopefully we’ll be able to snag some tickets to the closing gala. If anyone in the industry actually sees this (highly, highly unlikely) HELP!

Imaginative Minds Need Imaginative TV. (commercial critique 3)

This was truly beautiful advertising. Right away it sparked my attention, and throughout the entire 2 minutes and thirty seconds (a very long ad), I was dying to know what the story was about. We only saw one spot for this campaign for TIJI TV (I had to look it up, but it’s actually a French children’s television programming station).

The spot began with a scene in black and white that was styled to look sort of like a coloring book. It then showed a paintbrush painting an entire forest scene with watercolor paint. Music played and the paintbrush danced across the scene. The colors were pretty and the music was very upbeat. Eventually you come to the climax of the story; the paintbrush disappears and soon after, a panda emerges from out of a cave. He’s still black and white because he had slept through the coloring of the forest. He sits down and then the scene clips to a panda in a children’s animal guidebook. A boy is holding it and we are to believe that his imagination designed the paint story behind why the panda is black and white. The tagline then appeared, “Imaginative Minds Need Imaginative TV.”

Obviously the ad was produced through use of animation. It was very good animation at that. The coloring of the forest was very well executed and was quite attention grabbing. I have no changes to propose to this commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBphtvT5JrY

As real as if you'd experienced it yourself. (commercial critique 2)

This campaign for History Channel in Germany featured everyday looking people who were recounting stories from history as if they’d actually been there. One featured a woman speaking from the point of view of Jackie Kennedy on her husband’s death, another featured a man on the space landing, and finally a young boy spoke of seeing Hitler’s corpse after his suicide. After each of the dialogues in each commercial finished, the tagline “As Real as if You’d Experienced it Yourself.”

For my first point, I would just like to state that I really admire the campaign for addressing that watching shows about history can be fun. Education will truly be the savior of this world, and learning about history through watching this channel can be fun and interesting. I am a history channel nerd already, so that’s the message I took away from the campaign; however, it was very well done, and I believe that it could have affected other viewers in a similar way.

In it’s production, it was very simple. It was an actor who had memorized a script with a plain background behind him or her. The actors were actually what made the commercial so special, because they really captured the emotions that the different people in history would have felt. I felt myself on the verge of tears when the German woman was talking about holding the lifeless body of JFK in her arms and telling him “I love you, John.”

For improvement, I don’t have any meaningful corrections. I felt it was on point with the message it needed to promote and did so in a meaningful, engaging way.

Creativity. Creativity. Creativity.

Today we arrived in Cannes for our first Young Lions workshop sponsored by BBDO and HP. The featured speaker was Brazilian (shocker… they seem to have all the talent these days) Art Director and advertising rockstar, Marcos Medeiros. He gave a presentation that featured a client of his, Billboard Magazine. His concept was for covers featuring popular musicians faces, but made up of their musical influences. He then partnered with last.fm where music lovers could design a cover of themselves and with paid subscription, receive a custom cover printed by HP.

The idea really impressed me because of its integration. It featured all of the right people, it was witty, it reached the target, and it even had a brilliant outdoor campaign to match. The outdoor campaign featured typefaces made out of important moments in popular artists careers. These could be downloaded from the Billboard website as well, creating a product placement forever in the individuals’ font books.

BBDO also did something a little… we’ll call it interesting. I was a plant with a pre-written question to ask during the workshop. “How do digital print and traditional print differ?” Formerly considering a degree in traditional darkroom photography, I know exactly why digital is different than film. It makes things easier and cheaper. And although I do believe that he answered the question very well, I don’t think that easier and cheaper is always better. For the next few years at least, I believe there will still be some advantages to traditional print… at least in the art world.

Chris Hall talked to us briefly afterwards, and while he is quite the valuable connection to have made (especially in Atlanta), I couldn’t hear him very well. One message I did take away was the importance of creativity, which my entire experience at the festival has completely reinforced.

Hello Future

Today everyone arrived at the festival a bit later than usual. That probably had a little something to do with the Microsoft Beach Party last night. I did however manage to catch the 11:30 Saatch & Saatchi New Director’s Showcase and it was like nothing I could have ever expected. There were lights, an electronic music performance, and futuristic digital narrations. The theme was “Hello Future.” Some of the work that was presented was really sharp, but some of it mainly aired on the strange side as opposed to brilliant. My favorite film showed a priest walking into a bedroom where a girl was pressed against the ceiling screaming as if she were possessed. It then clipped to the apartment above her where a woman was vacuuming; which made clear that the force of the vacuum was pulling the girl against the ceiling. The spot was for Dirt Devil, which I thought fit perfectly with the tone of the ad.

I attended my first workshop today, which was interesting, but would have been more relevant if I was actually a part of the global advertising business. I didn’t have any experiences to share with my table.

Our guest speaker was Amr Salama who blew me away with stories of how he began his directing career and how he played a serious role in the recent revolution in Egypt. He also made clear to me the vast importance of social media vehicles like Facebook in making messages (especially important, revolutionary ones) travel faster and accomplish more in a shorter period of time. He was truly inspirational and I admire him greatly.

The story you could be watching is better than the one you're in. (commercial critique 1)

One of the campaigns I watched was for HBO Go. It contained several different ads, and contained two different taglines. The first tag was, “The story you could be watching is better than the one you’re in.” One of the spots featured three individuals standing in an elevator discussing how their weekends were. They each keep finding ways to restate that they wished that their weekend had been longer. Then, the tagline appears, “The story you could be watching is better than the one you’re in.”

I thought the spot was incredibly clever, and the writing for the tagline was effective at explaining the message of the commercial. As far as production techniques, the elevator scene was most likely filmed on a small set, since the setting was not incredibly detailed. The spot mostly focused on the boring and worthless dialogue going on between three individuals in an elevator who really had nothing to say to each other. It then highlighted how HBO would make your life better and entertain you instead of getting stuck in boring scenarios.

As far as ways to improve the commercial, perhaps the message would have been more effective in a setting where someone would realistically be watching TV on a tablet. Most people aren’t watching a program when they walk into an elevator. In two of the other spots for this campaign, the characters are in a waiting room and a bus, which I believe are more believable.

Middle of the Week

Today we spent most of the day in personal interviews that our (wonderful) professors set up for us. First was Jennifer Frommer from interscope records who actually made music marketing and promotions seem very appealing to me. I had never considered who matched brands with musical artists, but I was very lucky to have met someone who could give me a better understanding of it.

Next was David Simon who writes the shows the Wire and Treme on HBO. I will admit, some of his presentation was a bit over my head, but overall he came across as an intelligent thinker who understood how to match commercials with different television shows. He was interesting, but I think my father (age 63) would have been more on his level conversationally. I was afraid I’d ask a silly question.

Allison Adren gave the next presentation and shed some light onto the situation at Advertising Age. However, what I found most interesting was her discussion on becoming a successful woman in this industry. I dare say she sounded a bit more realistic about it than Martha Stewart did. She gave me hope of one day becoming a successful woman in the field.

Finally, I did manage to get into one of the planned seminars for one of my favorite agencies, Leo Burnett. They talked about sincerity and the language of advertising. Examples ranged from Gandhi to Fiat. All of their projects seem to keep very closely to the message their company tries to project – the importance of purpose and acts.

Living the Young Lion Dream

Today I attended many seminars, the first three including prestigious names such as Fiat, Martha Stewart, and Robert Redford. On top of that I was privileged to hear from some professionals from Porter Novelli New York, Fitzgerald and Co., and Fleishman Hillard.

Overall this was my most memorable day so far. Martha Stewart explained the importance of viewing a job merely as a job, and not one for women or men exclusively. Robert Redford introduced the idea of originality and the value of storytelling.

The speakers from Porter Novelli were interesting as well, even if one doesn’t care to pursue a career in public relations (and I don’t). However, they did impart some useful advice about being knowledgeable about many different subjects. Afterwards, Noelle from Fitzgerald shared his story and how he came to be where he is today.

At the very end of the day, we attended presentations from Coca Cola and Hill and Knowlton representing Angry Birds. Though the Coca Cola presentation was visually stimulating, it didn’t really teach me anything new. Also, while the Angry Birds presentation was interesting, I had already learned much of this information from Peter Vesterbacka the night before. He seriously recommended standing out and focusing on having fans rather than consumers.

To sum up the evening, we headed over to the Young Lions Party (three free drink chips upon entry). There we danced, I finally got to interview someone from Spain, and we took a Mercedes limousine home to Juan les Pins. As it would seem, we’re living the dream down here in the French Riviera.

Angry Birds.. maybe

Today, I attended the BBDO Worldwide seminar first. It was much more interesting than I would have expected, since the description said it would be about making a billion dollars. It ended up focusing on how different screens affect different people in their different lives, depending on age and nationality. I especially found it funny that they compared a cell phone to a lover, but really it’s true. A cell phone is the first thing most people reach for in the morning.

Next, was Malcolm Gladwell’s talk about not being first, but third. He was an excellent storyteller, but I actually already knew the story he told. His talk, however, gave me a better perspective on how unconventional principles relate to advertising. Speaking of unconventional, the phd presentation talked about a lot of far-fetched futuristic ideas. It was interesting, but too much at times.

Eventually after touring Microsoft, I ended up at the Google beach party. This was probably the highlight of the day, considering I got business cards from people at Google and from Angry Birds. It was much easier to network with people in a friendly setting like that. The Angry Birds people came with us to another party, and Peter Vesterbacka actually ended up being a speaker for tomorrow.  They may or may not have offered me an internship as well. We’ll see how it plays out. In any event, it will surely be a very interesting connection…

First Post/Day at the Cannes Lions Festival

Well here goes the first post, which happens to coincide with the first day of the festival. Though I didn’t get there as early as some, (cough... Whitney) I arrived in Cannes bright and early, ready to start off the day. After checking out the Young Lion Zone and tagging UGA rather obnoxiously on the wall of the HP white space, I headed into the first seminar of the day.

Goviral gave a presentation that stressed the importance of long term branding, and compared it to football in an analogy used throughout the entire presentation. It was an interesting presentation and a good start to the festival. A second speaker then compared good branding to religion. Apparently, the same area of the brain is activated when a loved brand or a religion is thought about. That was definitely interesting to me.

After the first seminar ended, we talked to Susan Lilley from USA Today about how to make the most of the festival. She also shed some light on women’s situation in the advertising world and recommended Martha Stewart’s seminar (one I had already planned on attending).

After that, I grabbed a panini and headed into another seminar; this one was given by UM, Loreal, and BMW. Overall, the panel was very hard to follow, and at times it felt like the speakers weren’t really answering the questions. It was definitely overshadowed by the presentation that followed.

The Independent Agency Showcase was really interesting, and I honestly wish I had caught up with the speakers after instead of staying to hear one of the Jonas brothers speak. All three of them stressed making people nervous, steering away from “looking like an ad,” and above all, where big agencies focus on pleasing the client, independent agencies focus on making great ads. They all showed examples of their work, and I was truly blown away. I got some contact info, so maybe we will meet again during the festival.

After that performance, the imc² presentation couldn’t really measure up, and I was very tired by the time I made it to the Fleishman-Hillard seminar. I did, however, think that the use of mobile to help vaccinate African children against pneumonia was a very innovative idea. I also admired the enthusiasm of the speaker from livingsocial.com.

Overall, it was a successful day, and I am officially exhausted. I think tonight will consist entirely of relaxing and preparing for another exciting day tomorrow. I need to save myself for all of those agency parties later in the week that I’m somehow going to find my way into.