Here's a fun neighbor-shaming McDonald's billboard from DDB Stockholm. Sitting right at the border between Sweden and Norway, the billboard displays comparative pricing for Big Macs in the two nations—egging on Norwegians to take advantage of Sweden's cheaper burgers. In other words, it's the rare fast-food ad that doubles as fodder for exchange-rate geeks.
Here's a fantastic ad stunt orchestrated by media agency PHD on Britain's ITV. On Sunday night, the TV broadcaster devoted a whole commercial break during an episode of Dancing on Ice to airing remade versions, done entirely in Lego, of four well-known British ads—to promote The Lego Movie. See the entire ad break here: The first spot was an abbreviated version of the famous 2012 Vinnie Jones CPR ad for the British Heart Foundation. That was followed by 30-second ads, remade practically shot for shot, for Confused.com, BT and Premier Inn.
Traditional publishers are getting even deeper into automated buying, as evidenced by Condé Nast’s just-announced investment in programmatic buying platform iSocket. ISocket revealed today that it has received $5 million in new funding led by Time Warner Investments and Condé Nast, as well as include R&R Venture Partners, a fund created by former Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons and Ronald Lauder; and media investor Vivi Nevo. “A new era in media sales is beginning, and automation will be playing a huge role," iSocket CEO Richard Jalichandra said in a statement.
Specs Who John Muszynski What Where How’s the transition back into TV buying been treating you? I’m very, very fortunate that I’ve had such a diverse experience base during the 33 years of working at the Starcom MediaVest Group family. But this is what I really like to do and what I think I’m really good at. I feel like I’ve been rejuvenated to be able to work in this agency.
The biggest phone call of MediaVest’s phenomenal 2013 began, curiously enough, with Honda’s Mike Accavitti chitchatting about the weather and asking MediaVest U.S. CEO Brian Terkelsen how his day was going. While Terkelsen welcomed the small talk, given that MediaVest had just pitched Honda’s $800 million media account a few weeks earlier, it did seem aimless, particularly at the end of a long day. I really don’t know where he’s going, Terkelsen remembers thinking.
Steady are the hands that guide OMD. It’s a Monday afternoon in early January, and a handful of the media agency’s top executives are gathered at its headquarters near Wall Street to discuss last year’s performance. “2013 was a really great year for OMD,” says Daryl Simm, CEO of the agency’s parent unit, Omnicom Media Group. “We’ve had some great examples of both client successes and also the development of people within the organization.” It’s hard to dispute Simm’s point. Last fall, OMD landed marquee U.S.
Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah was named as the new chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau tonight. And he started his tenure by immediately taking the industry to task for letting bad traffic perpetuate—taking particular aim at digital media buyers. During a blunt keynote address at the IAB Annual Meeting, Shah said of the online ad business: "It seems to me that we have taken a perfect product and by our own actions have made it imperfect. Let’s start with traffic fraud.
Ziff Davis CEO Vivek Shah was named as the new chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau tonight. And he started his tenure by immediately taking the industry to task for letting bad traffic perpetuate—taking particular aim at digital media buyers. During a blunt keynote address at the IAB Annual Meeting, Shah said of the online ad business: "It seems to me that we have taken a perfect product and by our own actions have made it imperfect. Let’s start with traffic fraud.
A Walmart campaign breaking during NBC's broadcast of the Winter Olympics comes from a new roster shop: Saatchi & Saatchi, the retailer has confirmed. The campaign centers around Walmart's drive to create new manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Last year, the retailer pledged to buy an additional $50 billion in products made in America over 10 years.
Marketers are officially obsessed with trying to frighten the world-weary populace of New York City. Following the recent devil baby and zombie stunts, here's footage of the Chobani bear—an animatronic version of the real bear in the Super Bowl commercial—ambushing people in Manhattan, knocking over a hot dog stand and generally hamming it up. These videos are pretty funny, but I'd like to see New Yorkers fight instead of just whipping out their phones to take a picture.
