Busting up brands and building them back up.

In this fast, crazy and intense industry (advertising/media) it's very easy to get "lost in the sauce" as I like to put it. Shops have a monumental task of distinguishing themselves as an individual entity apart from others. Not only do these shops specialize in brand consulting, innovation and communication; but they also owe it to themselves to build upon there own brand. What I envisioned for this blog was to look at all aspects of the business i.e., media, print, TV, social networking, public relations, marketing and new emerging technology.

All of these elements mentioned could not be produced without a shop(s) creating them. Each one of these agencies have a feel onto themselves; different cultures and philosophy's. And I am very intrigued buy what each of them provide for their clients, employees and client's customers alike. In this entry I would like to speak of a shop based out of London, which has offices in New York and Dubai; the shop I speak of is Wolff Olins.

Wolff Olins founded in 1965 is a part of the Omnicom Group; known for pushing boundaries and busting categories. The founders Michael Wolff and Wally Olins share an interesting belief on the work created by the shop "ambitious for clients, and optimistic for the world" is what they believe. As of now WO boast an employee number of about 150, each carrying on the tradition, or revolution for a lack of a better word. Insisting on creating innovative approaches to campaigns.

Some client's listed for this agency includes; GE, Sony, Starbucks, PepsiCO Planet Launch, Unilever and even the New York City brand just to name a few. Past clientele reads like a history book; BOC (1967), Apple Records (1968), Bovis (1971) and Volkswagen (1978). WO has been charged for creating the London Olympic brand for 2012, criticized for the brands design. To the point of the UK being in a uproar, for calling the branded design a waste of money.

The way I see it: Wolff Olins stands strong behind a great message. Continue to reinvent yourself never become complacent, this can mean a great many things if you look at it in a broad sense, strategically speaking, career wise or just growing as a person. As far as the London Olympics 2012 campaign is concerned. I feel they did a wonderful job of creating a buzz. You might find yourself hating the design and what it stands for or loving it. Either way people are gossiping about it, so that to me is an accomplished goal. I for one cannot wait to see what other goodies they have in store for consumers, I am convinced it will sure to be inventively controversial.

Do opposites really attract?

Welcome to the third installment of S.I.U.Y.A. I thought to touch upon two campaigns that are extreme opposites of each other. You cannot have good without bad; yin without yang, life requires balance right? So the question still remains do opposites attract?

The first campaign we are going to look at is for the brand Unilever and there product Axe/Lynx the male body spray. Here we have the campaign appropriately named "Ideal Woman" I will get to the reason why I feel this campaign is perfectly titled. At least we know just from the headline that this is every guys dream right?, well this campaign spot was composed from the creative’s at BBH London. The entire 40 second spot was produced in first person perspective, this direction engages the viewer to feel as if they are part of the campaign. Which can be credited to Director Paul Goldman. The shop (bbh London) managed to cast 9-10 very sensual/sexy women to fulfill their vision. You know the saying sex sells! And I know it's worthless to mention without an image to bring home the point, but come on guys let's try to stay focused on the topic at hand.

Art Director Rosie Arnold really planned a great visual here. The spot opens with random women speaking into the camera lens one even shouting; depending on the situation. This gives off a feeling as though they are conversing or yelling at you; creating great consumer engagement right from the beginning. The shops very own Shawn Preston (copy writer) wrote some really interesting topics, having to do with different scenarios. These topic range anywhere between comic books, football, cheating, hooking up, dirty laundry & a threesome! Well aren't we a lucky camper!

In the above mentioned scenarios these men pretty much get away with anything and everything. Like I said every guys dream in a perfect world!

Ideal Woman spot http://www.luerzersarchive.us/weekly/2010-23/classicspot.asp

Ok so if that last spot was our yin then this has to be our yang. First I must say this campaign really engages the viewer, but what really sells this advertisement is this spot leaves a lasting impression, which engages the viewer to piece it together. BETC Euro RSCG, Paris is a subsidiary of Havas Worldwide a French based holding company. Created a wonderful campaign for the McDonald's brand, yes you read correctly I will say it again McDonald's! Nicely titled "Father/Son" art director Benjamin Le Breton envisioned a decent set up. Which opens on a teen aged boy sitting at a table next to a window; looking at a class picture and seems to be lost in thought memorizing something pleasant. He then receives a phone call from what seems to be a love interest of his, he cancels the call before his father can return in time to see what he was doing.

The father then ask his son “What are you looking at" in this particular moment the boy then hands over the class photo. Then the father goes into a rant about, how they looked so much alike at that age and so on. I would like to tell you the rest but I don't want to ruin the end for you. This campaign I felt was strategically well placed together. RSCG creatively copy written an appropriate tag line "come as you are", no not the Nirvana song silly but a very strong statement to say the least!

Father/Son spot http://www.luerzersarchive.us/weekly/2010-23/spotoftheweek.asp

The way I see it: both of these campaigns are on extreme opposites of the spectrum; just in the pictures alone we can see these differences, but they do have commonalities in place. When we think of marketing; our first primary goal/question should be, who are we targeting? And what are we looking to achieve? Once those are in place then ideas/creative processes start to take on a life of its own. Here are two campaigns one targeted towards heterosexual men and women, kind of on the hyper masculine side. And the other a very controversial campaign spot based in France. In these times it's important to deliver a comprehensible message; your message needs to transcend across the board to all communities; if your looking to generate the most sales for your client.

Sure these two campaigns have very different messages but they both deliver precise targeting strategies. On one end you have a product (Axe/Lynx) implying to their male consumers that, if you use their products you will have every woman at your beckoning call. While the other gives out a message of come use our services (buy our food) we do not discriminate, kind of like a good friend that puts his arm around you and says don't worry I will take good care of you. Both of these brands have generated high revenue, Axe at 39.642 (48.540 usd) billion Euros annually, and McDonald's made a first quarter statement of 6 million just in the US alone! If you look at these figures we do answer the question previously asked, opposites do attract indeed!

Iphone4 a hit out of the ballpark?

So it we seems as though Steve Jobs has done it again! Yesterday I received an email announcing the release of Apple's iPhone4, which promises to raise the bar when it comes to smart phones; the slogan for this campaign is,"This changes everything.Again.". Now upon first glance I quickly realized that this phone was plastered all over the news a couple of months ago. The story at the time was someone had access to a apple prototype; and somehow I assume in a drunk stupor left the prototype at a local bar which in turn created quite a stir.

New features of the iPhone4 include HD video recording that operates in low-lighted situations; full editing capabilities and of course designed for multi touch. The new feature is accompanied by iMovie an app that will be available for purchase in the app store. I'm sure everyone at some point thought to themselves when will we be able to speak to one another and see the person on the other end of the line (like some kind of star trek gizmo). Well my friends that time is now! Coming to the stage is Facetime; a cool Wi-Fi feature. This will change the game for mobile communications, I guess Steve is keeping his word, now you will be able to talk literally face to face with anyone possessing a iPhone4. The way this works is you'd make a call once connected you can then send an invite; when accepted you will be able to have a video conference. How cool is that?!

The iPhone4 is now equipped with two camera lenses on either side, this allows the two parties conversing to view each other. And all of this with just a quick tap of the screen. Next on the agenda is Retina Display; apple is boasting this will be the highest resolution of phone screens out there. No more spotty screen displays when it comes to pixels, only crisp clean image's no matter how big or small. Apple's engineers created a way to condense four times the pixel display into 3.5 inches. Talk about innovation!

All of this without sacrificing the sleek design we have become accustomed to. No one wants to walk around with a bulky phone bulging out of their pocket. So that was important for apple not to change those dynamics. Here's how I see things apple is a revolutionary giant when talking tech, the last version was great (iPhone 3GS) when first released but iPhone4 is just spectacular, and on a whole new playing field! In my opinion apple needed this is a big way when it comes to the "war of smart phones". At this very moment we are smack in the middle of a mobile/tech war, and to me the front runners in this so called war just happen to be two giant brands; apple (iPhone4) and google (Droid).

Google has been slowly creeping up on apple with the droid, but with this release google will have to go back to the drawing board and innovate something absolutely unheard of. The tech industry is going to keep close watch to see what answer google will have for apple, will they just follow suit or come up with something totally out of the box? These are very interesting times for us all, because we are witnessing the very soul of true creative. Only time will tell how this will end; one thing for certain though there is always a victor and the defeated. Right now apple has google on the ropes and is going for the KO!

My introduction to the world of advertising.

Hello,

First let me start by thanking you in visiting my blog. I'm fairly new to this blogging stuff, so please bear with me as I am quite confident I will become better at this in due time. Well, onto what this blog will be about and my hopes for it. Oh one moment where are my manners. First and foremost allow me to introduce myself. I am born and raised in New York and have lived here all my life thus far; as you can imagine any child living in such a big diverse city as NY tends to give you an advantage in the game of life. Children living in environments such as these tend to learn at an accelerated rate, making you mature earlier in life. I've also done a good amount of traveling around Europe, Japan, Canada and the U.S. while touring in a heavy metal band, and we did quite well for ourselves I might add. Seeing all of these beautiful distant far off places and different cultures tend to make one grow up fast as well.

But getting back the topic I continue to live in this wonderful city that's so full of life! I grew up in the Bronx; an outer borough of NYC, went to school there (Alfred E. Smith H.S.) and studied architecture as a major; being that it's the closet subject to art offered there. After graduating I ended up working in one of the biggest ad shops (BBDO, NY) learnt some great things there and meet some amazing people along the way. At the time bbdo was in the hands of Phil Dusenbury, with him holding the reigns bbdo included clients such as Pepsi, Gillette and M&M's among a slue of other big name brands.

Once I left bbdo an opportunity presented itself in the form of Bozell Jacobs (now just called bozell) located in the flatiron district. That was another great shop in itself. Tom Bernardin was the CEO at the time; and bozell worked on such campaigns as First National Bank, Catholic Charities of Omaha and Verizon to name a few. Even though I was not a creative in the sense of the word when it comes to advertising in both shops; what I did walked away with was priceless! I learned among a great many things to, always meet your deadlines, stay vigilant, appreciate the values of working as a team and last but not least is to work hard and play hard!

Bozell merged with another organization and the New York office closed it's doors not so long after my leave. Since then I have been out of the ad world for quite some time, and made a great decision to pursue my BFA in advertising/media. That brings me to one of the main reasons for creating this blog; as I aspire to re-enter this glorious world of ours it only makes sense to stay on top of all the new happenings. So my first goal and promise to you is that I will do my best to reiterate all that is going on in this extremely fast paced and exciting profession from my point of view; while at the same time keeping it fresh, fun and informative.

Another goal would be to possibly inspire others who might be thinking of getting into a career in advertising, but just didn't take the leap forward. If one person is moved by what I have to say then I did my job. So with that said I hope you enjoy what I have to contribute. And by all means please feel free to leave comments, this blog is just as much yours as it is mine! Get comfortable grab some chips and stay for awhile, welcome to Shove it up your Ad!

Warm regards,