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Here is a sneak peek into The Perrier Secret Place campaign that brilliantly combines modern day marketing strategies. We received our preview invite kit today which included the stamp to get in, and we were also given a special invite code to share with our visitors here at Great-Ads, find it and the link after the campaign Q&A's and credits below.

Perrier Secret Place Premise: If you were at a Secret and Exclusive party and you wanted to party as long as possible, you’d make sure you were as refreshed as possible. And no one can throw a party and ensure you are refreshed to party as long as you can like Perrier.

Q. Tell us about this latest digital initiative for Perrier?
Perrier Secret Place puts you in the shoes of a guest who goes to a very very special evening party. A hidden place in an alley in Paris, behind a laundry mat. An evening where all guests will have the opportunity to live their craziest fantasies. And you'll have the best seat in the house to enjoy since all the characters that you see on the screen are clickable. With one click you find yourself in their skin. Living their fantasy.

Q. How did you come up with this idea?
We started from the following insight: drinking Perrier during the evening party is the best way to take full advantage of all the opportunities available to you… and until the end of the night. In Secret Place, not only are you at the Ultimate Party living out the experience of the Ultimate Party Guest from the beginning, but you also live out the ultimate evening of 60 other guests who are in the apartment.

Q. And there is something to win, right?
Yes. At the ultimate party, we’ve hidden a very special bottle of Perrier. 5 clues are hidden in the rooms of the apartment. They will lead you to the bottle where you are entered into a drawing to win an exclusive invitation to the wildest night of the world party in St Tropez, New Year in Sydney, Miami Art Basel, Carnival in Rio and the closing of the season Ibiza. Only the most experienced gamers will succeed, believe me... Among thousands of different scenarios during the evening, only one leads to the bottle.

Q. So, it’s a game or an interactive film?
Both! This project mixes Brand Entertainment and Gaming. We produced 1 hour and 20 minutes of content that allows all users to experience a unique evening scenario. We also used digital interactivity to inject this dimension of Gaming. This involves the quest of finding the bottle and the opportunity to live the lives of all guests by clicking on them.

Q. Why Secret Place?
This was inspired by the emerging phenomenon of speak easy. A party venue at the rear façade that has absolutely nothing to do with the place. This is quite in line with Perrier. Completely unexpected.

Q. How are you using social networks to amplify this experience?
In partnership with the agency Buzzman, we worked on a social strategy:
Become a fan on Perrier Facebook and regularly you will get tips to find clues that will lead you to the secret Perrier bottle. We'll give you a little tip. Slip into the skin of the young man who looks through the keyhole and live out his fantasy. Or play a game of "Pillow Fight" (Sounds weird, but it is Perrier!)

Q. How will the experience function on the mobile?
We have specifically developed an application that runs on iPhone / Android / iPad. This is not a replication of the desktop experience but a concept designed for specifically for the mobile device. By downloading the application you enter the rooms of the Perrier apartment and you can navigate through each room. The challenge: find the Secret hidden bottle of Perrier in the apartment.

Q. What was the biggest challenge to pull off this experience?
This is the most ambitious project to carry. We spent 18 months writing lots and lots of different scenarios. Produced a film in which we choreographed each scene so that it is connecting with one another when the user clicks on the characters. Sound design work has also been a real challenge. Imagine having to reproduce the sound of a bottle on a bar as many times as there are people in the room who can hear it.

Q. Where will Secret Place be launched?
The experience will be available worldwide but open to 20 countries to play in the major markets for Perrier France, United States and Canada. This is the first time that Perrier launches a project of this magnitude in the United States. The challenge is enormous. Positioning is also a little different there. Much more premium. We really hope that the French touch--its audacious content-- is embraced well there.

Q. What results do you expect?
There is a counter on the site that counts the number of lives that all users worldwide will live on the site. 1 life = 1 click on a character. I want to hear from Perrier that this idea made 10 million lives by the end of week five of the experience’ launch.

Q. How is this truly innovative?
We believe Secret Place is truly a digital first. Not because it’s the first time you can click on something and enter into his point of view. But, the ambition was really to say: Imagine you enter in any movie theater, have the quality screenwriting and the direction of cinema but also to have permanent control over the course of the story.

Q. What kind of partner did you work with to make this type of project?
Fighting Fish is our production partner based in Paris. This is the first time that we’ve made a digital experience for Perrier conducted by the French. This is an opportunity to remind the world that France is in a good position on Digital Excellence.

Beyond the fact that Fighting Fish is based in Paris, it was able to fulfill the requirements demanded by this project. The team assembled to deliver this feature was made up of an interactive-hybrid. On the team was Lawrence King, the director of the experience and who is currently working on his own film. Arnaud XXX is the production designer and there were the script writers. Franck Marchal oversaw the sound design – having conducted several reputable orchestras before working with us. Fighting Fish puts digital at the heart of its "production thinking" and Ogilvy Paris thinks the same way. This allows a real synergy between the film's producers and those who are thinking through its interactivity.

Q. Why is Secret Place the right creative approach for Perrier now?
Digital and social are playing an increasing role in Perrier's Communications strategy. They have an important, specific role: communicating the edgier, younger, hottest facet of the brand. Reaffirming that Perrier is a must have brand and product when it comes to partying and socialising. And proving, again and again, that the brand loooooves creativity, surprise and inventiveness. This is what Secret Place brilliantly does in my mind. – Benoit de Fleurian, Managing Director | Ogilvy&Mather Advertising.
The digital space has opened up a new opportunity for brands. It's solved a contradiction that exists in the real world. Physically, you can't make an exclusive experience accessible to everybody. But with Secret Place, that's exactly what we've achieved. We give people the opportunity to live an experience they wouldn't normally live, but have always dreamed about. Like those exclusive parties you've always longed to be invited to. And thanks to Perrier, you can live it not once, but multiple times, through the eyes of multiple characters. This is an idea that is only possible thanks to the technology we have at our disposal today, and a bit of creative thinking. — Chris Garbutt, Chief Creative Officer | Ogilvy&Mather Paris, Group

Q. The Director is who? And why did you choose this director?
Laurent King. We chose him because of his ability to manage this kind of project: half movie, half digital and interactive experience. It's really important to have this kind of new director that knows how to direct with all the constraints that a digital experience impose.

Q. Where did you shoot and tell me one challenge with organizing the shoot or a challenge that arrived at the shoot? How did you overcome the challenge?
We filmed in an amazing appartement in Paris that was almost a piece of art by itself. We loved the parisian kind of architecture of it, with lovely rooms, very different to each other. It's very rare to find a place with different moods and atmosphere in it. Moreover, we were looking for a place where you can imagine secret parties happening in it. The biggest challenge was to choreograph all the action of the 60 guests. It was a real challenge because every character had a link to each other in terms of scenario.

Q. Is there a music track?
The track of the experience is played live by the group called "TOYZ".

Q. Would love to hear from one of the party-go’ers at this Ultimate Party...
The Host: All Secret Places have their secrets. You understand why I'll keep this one...

Credits:
Secret Place, a campaign imagined by Ogilvy, produced by Fighting fish while Buzzman was in charge of the Social Media and PR strategy.
Format: Digital/Brand Entertainement
Chief Creative Officer: Chris Garbutt
Creative Director: Frederic Levron, Thierry Chiumino
Copywriter: Baptiste Clinet, Nicolas Lautier, Florian Bodet
Art Director: Baptiste Clinet, Nicolas Lautier, Florian Bodet, Chris Rowson,
Global Business Leader: Constance Capy Baudeau
Account Supervisor: Stanislas Vert
Film Producer: Diane de Bretteville
Digital producer: Hugo Diaz, Cyril Duval, Sandra Petrus
Production company: Fighting Fish, Olivier Dormerc, Cyril Couve de Murvil, Adrien Moisson, Benjamin Przelspolewski
Sound Design: Le COMPTOIR DU SON / Franck MARCHAL & Alexandre POIRIER
Film Director: Laurent King
Story development: Olivier Domerc
Story editor: Benjamin Bloch
Production manager: Caroline Petruccelli
Production designer: Arnaud Roth
Director of Photography: Frédéric Martial Wetter
Line Producer: Vincent RIVIER
Location manager: Timothée TALANDIER
Main title music: Toys
Client: NWFB head of marketing and category, Muriel Koch. Sparkling Brand Director, Fabienne Bravard. Perrier International Brand Manager Armelle Roulland
Social Media & ePR Strategy Buzzman:
Georges Mohammed-Chérif (CEO & DC)
Hubert Munyazikwiye (Head of Social Media & PR)
Nicolas David (Social Media Manager)

Visit www.perriersecretplace.com and use the invite code "PE757 " enjoy the party.

In Australia Strike Bowling will save your Christmas Party from enividable doom and save many of us from the aftermath of one too many an Egg Nog. This fun TV spot from agency Loud & Clear entitled "Your Workplace is No Place For A Party" could very well have been shot in just about any office any where in the world, lord knows we've had a few we'd like to forget ourselves.
In an earlier campaign, customers were asked to describe their very worst office Christmas party experiences. They then created an ad featuring some of the worst, with the chance to win an unforgettable party for you and 25 colleagues at Strike Bowling.
Credits:
Brand: Strike Bowling
Headline: Your workplace is no place for a party
Advertising Agency: Loud&Clear Creative, Melbourne, Australia
Agency website: http://www.loudclear.com.au
Creative Director: Keith Walsh
Copywriter: Joel Beath
Photographer: David Rusanow
Director: Jordan Prosser

As London hosts the 30th modern edition of the Olympic Games, Dr Craig Barker from the University's Nicholson Museum and Michelle Kiss, a Year 10 work experience student from William Carey Christian School, evoke the ancient Olympic spirit with a look at the origins of the world's oldest sporting festival that may provide parallels for the next three weeks of competition in London.

• The first Olympic Games took place in 776 BC at Olympia in Greece, a sanctuary site devoted to the Greek god Zeus. The ancient Olympics were held every four years, a tradition that remains today. However, whereas cities around the world compete to host the modern games, ancient-world athletes always competed in Olympia.

• Olympia boomed as the games increased in importance — a statue of Zeus was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world — before the games were eventually abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in 394 AD, supposedly because they were reminiscent of paganism. While there is much talk of the legacy of London 2012, Olympia and its athletic stadium is an important historical and archaeological site.

• In 2012, news surfaced that Australia's men's basketball team travelled to London in business class while their female equivalents languished in economy. However, during the first ancient games, gender equality in sport was even worse: women couldn't compete. Competitors were split into two groups, boys (12-18 years) and men (18+ years). Horses were also split into colts and fully grown age groups.

• While the composition of the crowds of spectators is less well understood, it's likely that only males and young girls were allowed to watch.

• In antiquity, a lit flame was tended throughout the celebration of the Olympics, and the idea of the fire was reintroduced in 1928 in Amsterdam. Every four years the Olympic flame is lit in front of the Temple of Hera then carried by torch to the host city. The torch relay was not an ancient practice and was introduced at the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics.

• Judges were handpicked from people living in Elis, the area surrounding Olympia. The 'Elean Judges' enforced strict rules on the competitors: fines were issued for failing to arrive on time for the training period, cheating and for cowardice.

• Events in the ancient Olympics included foot races, discus, jump, javelin, boxing, pentathlon, pankration (a blend of boxing and wrestling) and chariot races. Most events, including the races, discus and javelin, took place in the Stadium of Olympia with other events taking place in the surrounding area.

• Before the start of any Olympic Games a truce would be announced, proclaiming that all wars, disputes and death penalties be put on hold until the end of the games. This truce also guaranteed athletes a safe journey to Olympia in the month leading up to the games. The truce was written on a bronze discus and placed in Olympia. The modern International Olympic Committee has revived the tradition of the truce, and all 193 United Nations member states have, for the first time, united to co-sponsor the Olympic Truce Resolution for the 2012 London Olympics.

• the sixth-century BC wrestler Milo of Croton, who was said to have died when he was wedged against a tree during a display of strength gone wrong and subsequently devoured by wolves

• Astylos, also of Croton, who competed at Olympic Games between 488 and 480 BC, but was expelled from his home city when he agreed to compete for Syracuse, and so can lay claim to being the first free-agent in sporting history

• Roman emperor Nero, who despite being thrown from his chariot in the 10-horse race at the 67 AD games, was still proclaimed the winner on the grounds that he would have won had he been able to complete the race

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Meet Robert Willis of The Hudson River Watch Co. and his New York City street inspired collection of wrist watches. The collection includes: Berry Street, Cranberry Street, Milligan Place, Charlton Street, Fulton Street, Sutton Place, Delancey Street, and Front Street in Silver and Black designs.

Robert explains his inspiration for starting Hudson River via KickStarter:

This project really started about a year and a half ago when my wife and I noticed it was very difficult to find great-looking, high quality men’s watches for under $500. We found ourselves talking about watches a lot, and pretty soon we started designing our own for fun. With my longtime interest in collecting watches, and my wife’s degree in studio art, we have come up with some really unique designs that we are excited to share.

We started by sketching our ideas and then applied our experience with graphic design to develop illustrations.

"Fulton Street"

"Sutton Place"
All nine of the watches from the collection below.

To date they have raised over $93K on Kickstarter, see more in the campaign video below.

Images via: Kickstarter
Hudson River Watch Co. by Robert Willis website link HERE.

Sometimes, power comes from a less obvious place. This commercial shows exactly what we mean, by putting the spotlight on an unsung hero in the boxing ring.

Below, a print ad from the BBH, London created work features Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent beautifully done in simple black and white using the tag line: "Power from a less obvious place."

Introducing mbrace2, the most comprehensive cloud-based telematics system on the road today. No matter where the road may take you, the new Mercedes-Benz mbrace2™ system lets you stay connected and stay in touch all from one place: your Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-Benz introduces us to the Mbrace2 Telematics System with this new TV ad entitled "All From One Place". The commercial puts a Benz owner in various scenes from a stadium full of fans, in front of a burning house, on a stock exchange floor, in the middle of violent storm, at a party and on a date while he explains to us how the system helps him optimize his daily life with sports information, weather, business news, restaurant listings and such...all from the comfort of his shiny new Mercedes.

The system actually has some very cool features like "Travel Zones" and "geo-fences" the Curfew Minder, Driving Journal, Speed Alerts, Valet Protect and Remote Horns & Lights. It also has "Mercedes Benz Apps," a suite of in-vehicle versions of social media platforms as well as things like Google Local Search. The company says it also includes update software that automatically updates apps via the cloud...not too shabby at all, so they've basically installed your smartphone into the dash of your car.

Credits:
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

On September, 11th, 2001 Barack Obama has arrived to an anniversary of acts of terrorism to a memorial to victims of terrorists in the Pentagon, informs CNN.

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All cultures throughout time have tried to honor and commemorate those they have lost. A new exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum will show how the living cared for the dead, and how the ancients conceptualized the idea of the human soul in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Israel/Palestine.

The Oriental Institute’s Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli, Turkey in 2008, during which an inscribed funerary monument was discovered, inspired the exhibit. The monument, which dates to about 735 B.C, is carved with an image of a man named Katumuwa seated before a table heaped with offerings and with a lengthy inscription in Aramaic—a language widely used in the ancient Middle East. The text proved to be the longest-known memorial inscription of its type.

“The text gave us a whole new understanding of the ancient belief system in eastern Turkey and northern Syria. Although Katumuwa knew that the realm of the dead could be a cruel and lonely place, the rituals he describes that his family would enact on his behalf would give him a happy afterlife,” said exhibit curator Virginia R. Herrmann, PhD’11. Herrmann, now a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, was part of the team that discovered the stela and co-curated “In Remembrance of Me.”

The text also revealed that the rituals took place not just at the grave or in the home, but in a private mortuary chapel next door to a temple—exactly the setting where the Katumuwa stela was discovered. The stela itself is in the Gaziantep Museum in eastern Turkey, but a precise facsimile of its front has been produced for the exhibit.

Rituals of remembrance

Other sections of the exhibit explore how commemoration and communication with the dead was enacted, the importance of banquet scenes, and how the concept of the soul differed in ancient Egypt, Iraq and Israel/Palestine.

Rituals of remembrance of lost loved ones—from memorial services to Day of the Dead celebrations in Latin America and even the “funeral selfie” phenomenon—continue to be an important aspect of many cultures.

Jack Green, chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum, said, “In coordinating this exhibit, we found that although death can often be a taboo topic in Western society, there are plenty of examples today that commemorate the dead through festive and colorful celebrations—the Dia de Muertos being just one example.”

Source: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago [March 13, 2014]

Good Hope FM’s new brand ad, shot by Slim from Egg Films, comes with one, unmistakable message: if you don’t have Good Hope FM, you have no hope.

The deliciously tongue-in-cheek spot makes a great meal of a simple truth: Capetonians live in one of South Africa’s greatest cities; and boy do they know it.
It is exactly this wry humour that attracted Slim to the job in the first place: “I really digged the exaggeration and comedy; it gave us a chance to completely take the mickey out of ourselves as both Capetonians and non-Capetonians,” says Slim, ironically a non-Capetonian himself.

Letting the comedy speak for itself, Slim purposely chose to avoid too many tricksy morphs and let editor Ricky Boyd work his magic, allowing the cut to reveal the change from cool Cape-Town-land to uncool-place-of-no-return, after our guy mistakenly strays beyond the signal of Good Hope.

The concept, dreamed up by 140BBDO creatives Ivan, Alexis, Gareth and Alex, proves that those wine-guzzling rascals can laugh at themselves after all. We didn't actually get to interview any of them but we'd imagine that if we did, they'd say something like, "It's, like, the truth. And if you don't, like, find it funny, you're probs from, like, Jo'burg. Eeuw."

Credits:
Creative Ad Agency: 140BBDO
Title: Beyond The Fence
Client: SABC / Good Hope FM
City: Cape Town, South Africa
Agency producer: Sarah Southey / Jo Weiss / Megan Sturgess
Executive creative director: Ivan Johnson
Creative director: Alexis Beckett
Copywriter: Alex Goldberg
Art director: Gareth Cohen
Production company: Egg Johannesburg
Director: Slim
Director of photography: Willie Nel
Production co-producer: Nicci Cox
Executive producer: Colin Howard / Nicci Cox
Post production: Deliverance
Editing: Deliverance
Editor: Ricky Boyd
Audio: Milestone Studios

An interesting take on cigarettes showcased here in a new commercial for the "DNA Project" entitled The Cigarette That Saved Lives.
The DNA Project had the following to say about the ad campaign:
Egg Films’ Bruno Bossi recently directed The Cigarette That Saved Lives, a controversial commercial for The DNA Project, a non-profit organisation raising crime scene awareness and fighting crime with science with the invaluable support of The Change a Life Trust. “It came as a surprise, as it does to most people, that we do not have the legislative framework in place to more fully use DNA profiling for crime scene investigation in our country,” says Bruno. In South Africa, the National DNA Database only has about 133 000 DNA profiles and there are only two South African Police Services labs that can perform DNA profiling on forensic samples.
Conceptualised by Fox P2, The Cigarette That Saved Lives depicts another brutal South African murder but focuses on the evidence that’s left behind, encouraging viewers to never disturb a crime scene as DNA can convict. The ad is paradoxical: a cigarette saves lives in a commercial where the lead woman dies. “The wonderful thing about this ad is that it creates conversation,” says The DNA Project founder Vanessa Lynch. “Egg and Fox P2 have done a brilliant job.” Everyone involved with the shoot worked pro bono, from the crew to the rental houses. “This project struck me as one of the more worthwhile causes in our country,” says Bruno. The DNA Project would also like to thank the Change A Life Trust for helping by sponsoring this advert.
Vanessa set up The DNA Project after her father’s murderers went free because DNA evidence left at the crime scene was discarded, destroyed and not properly collected. “There was only one chance to collect and preserve that evidence, and it was lost,” says Vanessa. “We can never go back, so that crucial link to my father’s killers was lost with it.”
The Cigarette That Saved Lives is currently screening on local broadcasters as part of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children between 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and 10 December 2011 (International Human Rights Day). “Awareness is one of our biggest problems,” says Vanessa. “You can have the laws and systems in place but you only have once chance to gather the evidence before it’s lost forever.”
Credits:
Advertising Agency: FoxP2, Cape Town, South Africa
Agency Producer: Katherine Tripp
Executive Creative Director: Justin Gomes
Copywriter: Gavin Williams
Art Director: Michael Lees-Rolfe
Director: Bruno Bossi
Director of Photography: Paul Gilpin
Producer: Kirsten Clarence
Post Production Company: Black Ginger
Editing Company: Priest
Editor: Matthew Swanepoel
Music: Marc Algranti
Music Publisher: Pulse Music NY

This is why Lejebolig.dk has put common sense to the test by showing potential renters a flat where all is not quite as it seems. In a newly released prank film, featuring an actor that plays a landlord, tenants are introduced to what they think could be the place of their dreams.

However, when the landlord leaves his guests alone for a few minutes, the flat soon turns into a “ghost house” where furniture moves and creepy sounds can be heard. The result is an entertaining film that raises awareness about remembering one's common sense when looking for a new home at a desperate housing market.

Google introduces us to the newly redesigned Google Play with this cool new web video ad campaign created by Studio G. Check out more of how Google Play puts everything in one place here.

The film was a combination of practical, and post production effects. According to producer Yovel Schwartz, the contraption that stars in the film “did in fact work. It required five or six people to puppeteer on set, all of whom were also involved in building it.” The shoot actually required two cases–”one with the functioning guts and one slightly smaller one that we comped the mechanical innards into during post,” Schwartz says. “Most of what you’re seeing at its base is from a continuous take–take 15 to be precise, with the Rubik’s Cube section being stitched in from take 14.”
Credits:
Agency: Studio G
Client: Google
Writer/Director: Jonathan Zames
Producer: Yovel Schwartz
Production Company: Studio G
Production Company: Camp Creative
Line Producer: David Dranitzke
Fabrication and Practical Effects: White Room Artifacts
Visual Effects: HOPR
Director of Photography: Adam Santelli
Art Director: Garret Lowe
Motion Control: Camera Control
Product Marketing Manager: Paola Veglio
Music Composition: Headquarters Music
Sound Design and Mix: Sound Lounge

(via)

Nice Shoes recently shot and animated a film for The Partnership at Drugfree.org to help convey the organization's message of the benefits of athletic mentorship and positivity. Through interviews with kids, teenagers, adults and professional NBA coaches Avery Johnson and Lionel Hollins, the importance of healthy competition among kids, teens and young adults was brought to life through first-person stories.

Nice Shoes handled the production, edit and post duties and filmed the kids at the Nice Shoes insert stage. The company then tapped into its post-production expertise to place those featured into a pencil-drawn, cell-animated world.

"Our goal in designing the graphic treatment was to create a visually interesting presentation — something that conveyed both the energy and the common but extraordinary experience of playing sports," noted Nice Shoes Director/CD Brian Bowman.

The video was featured as a visual centerpiece of The Partnership at Drugfree.org's inaugural "All-Star Tasting" event, a unique gathering of all-star athletes and celebrity chefs that took place at Astor Center in New York City on June 27, 2012.

"When you're working with an organization that is advancing such a great cause, there is an extra bit of gratification," stated Bowman. "The fact that we could handle every part of the process from concept to completion is a tremendous source of pride for everyone here at Nice Shoes."

Credits:
Client: The Partnership at Drugfree.org
Production/Post Production: Nice Shoes
Director: Brian Levi Bowman
Art Director: Lucien Yang
Producer: Kristen Martini
Designer: Kit Lam
Animator: Andy Mai
Animator: Seehun Jeon
Editor: Brian Bowman
Sound Design and Mix: Sound Lounge

Attribution: Written content created by TRUST: http://www.trustcollective.com
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Share Alike

Jennifer Watts, account director at Brandworks International, left, and Scott Morris, media manager at Mindshare Media MICHELLE SIU PHOTO Ad Agency Wars III is set for Wednesday in Toronto!

A year ago, Scott Morris’s typical Friday wind-down with colleagues would have involved beer, pizza and more beer.

Morris, the media manager at Mindshare Media Canada, still ushers in the weekend with members of Toronto’s advertising community. But for the past three months their fellowship has been devoted to toughening up for a charity boxing event.

Agency Wars III, which takes place at the Arcadian Court this Wednesday, will see 24 men and women from 14 local ad agencies square off to raise money for Ronald McDonald House and the National Advertising Benevolent Society.

The participants, who train with professional coaches, actually become qualified amateur boxers sanctioned by Boxing Ontario for the sold-out event.

One of the final training sessions found a broad range of ad industry employees, from art directors to CFOs and copywriters, drilling down at The Boxing Loft in the Entertainment District.

Morris, 31, had spent last Friday fine-tuning ideas for his Ford Fusion portfolio for next year. But come dusk, he was focused on his upcoming bout with Jason Kan, motion graphics designer at Teehan+Lax.

Even before stepping into the ring for their three two-minute rounds, Morris has already earned bragging rights: he’s shed 35 pounds since training began in September and can now execute at least 40 pushups and an eight-minute mile.

“I’ve never done anything like this in my life,” said Morris as he took a break from light sparring inside the Adelaide St. W. gym. “I feel good. I feel confident. I wake up everyday thinking I’m going to throw up from the nerves, but I just channel past that and stay focused.”

Abs aside, Michael Clancy has seen the long-lasting benefits of exposing his competitive industry’s desk jockeys to the even more cutthroat world of pugilism since he founded Agency Wars three years ago.

“Knowing what to do under fire is really important,” said Clancy, executive creative director for Brandworks. “If you can get into a ring, then you can walk into any boardroom in the world.

“In the ad business, taking care of your stress is really important. And boxing is a spectacular way to do that because you’re not in your head. You have to be very much aware of your body. And hitting a bag, doing that kind of strenuous work, the footwork involved, takes you out of the office and puts you into a very physical place where you do what you’re told. You don’t have to think, and you’ll be fine.”

Clancy, 62, who took out his opponent in the third round, aided by former junior featherweight champ Steve Molitor in his corner, when he fought in 2010, has been the oldest competitor to date in the event, which is taped by Fight Network for later broadcast.

“It’s kind of like a fantasy camp for boxing,” he said. “You get to walk in with your entourage, you get to pick your music and it’s televised.”

Head coach Chris “Mr. Showtime” Johnson, a 1992 Olympic medallist, finds the ad folks “very dedicated.

“They’re hungry. They want it almost to an obsessive stage,” he said. “They believe in perfection, but perfection in a sport like this does not come in three months. It’s taken me almost a lifetime.”

After a 20-minute skipping warm-up, Johnson led the group through various punch combinations, all the while pumping them up for fight night.

“If you get a chance to hit someone, hit ’em hard, because if they get the chance they’re going to hit you hard,” he exhorted.

From his ringside perch, returning announcer Jeromy Lloyd, Marketing Magazine’s online editor, has seen a fight or two stopped for split eyebrows and swollen eyes. He’ll be decked out as usual in a rented tux, but without a catchy “let’s get ready to rumble”-style tag line.

“I’m so scared of trotting on someone else’s intellectual property and getting the event sued,” he explained.

The creative team at Brandworks came up with the nickname “Da Boss (a.k.a. The Shot-caller)” for one of their fighters, Jennifer Watts, and selected their Christmas party favourite, LMFAO’s “Shots,” as her entrance music.

Now endowed with an eight-pack and the ability to do “at least 20 real pushups,” thanks to the rigorous 12-week training, the 6-foot-2 account director is pumped to face off against Mindshare media manager Christina Mirabelli.

“My strategy,” said the trash-talking Watts, 30, “is to keep her back with these long arms so she does not get near my face — and punch her in the head.”

Via: Ashante Infantry | The Star

Press: Samsung Electronics has today revealed a new UK marketing campaign for its Galaxy Alpha smartphone. The £10 million campaign which includes TV, print, PR, search, social media, digital display and out-of-home, takes Samsung into new territory with the launch of an epic TVC featuring pop star Lily Allen.

The TVC will debut in the UK from this Saturday, 20th September with a one minute primetime spot. As the latest member of Samsung’s popular Galaxy smartphone range, the TVC demonstrates the role the Galaxy Alpha plays in the lives of everyday Britain, capturing the spirit, diversity, quirkiness and vibrant culture of the people that live here.

Filmed on location around England and directed by the acclaimed Josh & Xander, the TVC ‘Right up our street’ is set to the soundtrack of Lily Allen’s ‘As Long As I’ve Got You,’ and features the Galaxy Alpha throughout, showing it naturally entwined in the everyday lives of Alpha Britons, who embody the spirit of new modern Britain and its stylish youth culture.

Commenting on the launch campaign, Russell Taylor, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Samsung UK & Ireland said: “The Galaxy Alpha is a smartphone that pushes the boundaries in terms of its style and technology and we wanted a campaign that was culturally relevant with young minded consumers. Our goal is to bring this mobile brand platform to life in a way that is relevant to our audience.”

Lily Allen commented: “I’m proud to be British, and it’s exciting to be involved with a campaign intended to be a love letter to my home country. Samsung and Josh & Xander have done an amazing job, the Alpha Briton campaign represents all the things I love about Britain; fashion, music, family...it’s all there.”

The Galaxy Alpha print and digital display campaign will show how Samsung’s beautifully designed new smartphone represents an alternative style choice and capture the uniqueness of British people. The TVC will feature 56 real-life Alpha Britons, some of whom also appear through-out the other elements of the campaign, who will each demonstrate their independent, varied and eclectic style choices.

Logan Wilmont, executive creative director at Cheil UK, the creative agency behind the campaign, added: “Britain is an amazingly diverse and creative culture. We have come through a difficult few years and have emerged as a positive confident and optimistic place. But sometimes we forget that. We wanted to celebrate that optimism. Samsung are the most popular phones in the UK, used by more people on more devices than any other phone. And we love the fact we fit so perfectly into this new Britain. And Lily Allen is the perfect encapsulation of all this. Positive, populist, stylish and fun.”

Matt Pye, COO at Cheil UK, added: “This is the first time we’ve worked with Samsung to create a brand platform in the UK, and significantly, one that will influence the way Samsung devices are marketed in the future. The platform holds exciting potential for future activity and I couldn’t be prouder that our teams have been a part of putting that in place.”

Creative Credits:  
· Creative agency: Cheil UK
· Creative Directors: Dave Newbold & Jim Eyre
· Copywriter: Dave Newbold
· Planners: Tony Evans / Jason Kidd
· Agency Producer: Alex Davis
· Account Handlers: Andrew Boatman / Fraser Campbell
· Media Agency: Starcom MediaVest
· Director: Josh & Xander
· Production Company: RadicalMedia
· Production Company Executive Producer: Ben Schneider
· DOP: Ross McLennan
· Post Production Company: Absolute Post
· Audio Post Production: Universal Music Publishing
· Editor: Paul Watts

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One of the sites chosen as part of the green cultural routes program organized by the Culture Ministry’s Directorate of Museums, Exhibitions and Educational Programs Department was Aristotle’s Lyceum. The tour, which introduced attendees to new and exciting information about life in ancient Greece, was led by the head of the Third Ephorate of Classical Antiquities, Eleni Banou.

The Lyceum, located between the Officers Club, the Athens Conservatory and the Byzantine Museum, is poised for its grand opening. The display areas are ready, the information signs are up and the site is officially waiting for visitors. Those passing the well-tended 11,000-square meter grounds on the Culture Ministry’s tour asked Banou when the ancient philosophy school would be ready. Some of them managed to sneak in through the door on the Vassilissis Sofias side of the site to take in the ancient lyceum from up close.

The Lyceum (first brought to light by archaeologist Effi Lygouri in 1996), was an overgrown suburb of ancient Athens named after a nearby temple dedicated to Apollo Lyceus. The archaeologists of the Third Ephorate of Classical Antiquities, which is responsible for the site, want it to become a part of Athenians’ everyday life, a place where visitors can take a walk, rest or read.

However, a date for its formal inauguration has not been set yet, though it is slated to take place within the next couple of months, before the end of summer.

Author: Iota Sykka | Source: ekathimerini [June 03, 2014]

Directorz’ Jeff Bednarz Directs New Texas Tourism Campaign For Traveltex.com. A Travelers’ Passport To A Place So Diverse and Original It’s Like A Whole Other Country. As bold and unique as the state it promotes, the new Texas Tourism campaign directed by Jeff Bednarz for agency Slingshot, recently launched on cable networks nationwide. “Great Outdoors,” “Live Music” and “Cowboys” highlight just a few of the amazing adventures that await travelers in Texas, from majestic vistas, to music country – a place that inspires exceptional music in all genres. Each spot concludes with an invitation to discover more at the Texas Tourism passport to the region: www.traveltex.com.

Director Bednarz and his crew traveled throughout the state for 15 days to film a range of experiences, from natural wonders to those created by Texans. “The state of Texas is so vast and so diverse, and people are wonderfully intriguing wherever you go,” says Bednarz. “As we embarked on the project, I looked at Texas – my home – as a different land, and through this road trip we enjoyed, and captured, just some of the awe-inspiring discoveries that await travelers.” To find out more about Jeff Bednarz and Directorz, please visit www.directorz.net.

Credits:
Client: TEXAS TOURISM
Director of Texas Tourism: Brad Smyth
Deputy Director of Texas Tourism: Tim Fennell
Advertising Coordinator: Jenny Poon
Advertising Specialist: April Bear
Advertising Agency: SLINGSHOT
VP, Account Services: Tony Balmer
Group Account Director: Drew Holmgreen
Account Supervisor: Danielle Rector
Account Executive: Rachel Massey
ECD: Susan Levine
Art Director: Clay Coleman
Executive Producer: Ann Vorlicky
Production Company: Directorz
Director: Jeff Bednarz
DP: Mark Thomas
EP: John Gilliland
Editorial/Post: Lucky Post
Editor: Marc Chartrand
Sound Design: Scottie Richardson

More than 2,000 years ago, China’s First Emperor built a burial complex guarded by a large terracotta army, intended to protect him in the afterlife. Now, some of those warriors are making the journey to Chicago’s Field Museum in their latest exhibition China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, opening March 4, 2016.

The exhibition features more than 170 objects including stunning bronze artifacts, weaponry, and ten of the famed terracotta figures. Terracotta Warriors will introduce visitors to Qin Shihuangdi —China’s First Emperor—who united a country and built an army to last an eternity.

One of greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century, the terracotta army was created by Qin Shihuangdi, the First Emperor of China. His rise to power in 221 BC ended an era known as the “Warring States” period, during which China was composed of seven competing states and was marked by instability and broken alliances.

An Emperor’s Final Resting Place

Even though the Emperor made public improvements in his country, he was not without enemies; three unsuccessful assassination attempts increased his fear of death and drove his quest for immortality. With death constantly on the Emperor’s mind, and a desire to rule forever, Qin Shihuangdi began constructing a palace for his afterlife and instructed craftsman to make a terracotta army to protect him after his death.

Excavations continue today, but the central tomb of Qin Shihuangdi remains sealed. Stories tell of a celestial ceiling mapped out in pearls and a mercury river, but none of these written accounts have been confirmed. Visitors to the exhibition will learn about the scientific investigations hoping to shed light on the mysteries of the tomb.

China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors was organized by The Field Museum in partnership with the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Army Museum of the People’s Republic of China. Major sponsors: Discover, Exelon, United Airlines.

China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors is currently showing at The Field Museum, Chicago, and will run until January 8, 2017.

Source: The Field Museum [March 01, 2016]