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.

Last year Google started a program to partner with advertisers and agencies to re-imagine how brands tell stories in a connected world. Project Re: Brief set out to recreate some of the advertising industry’s most iconic, classic campaigns using the latest technology tools. This year Google is expanding that program to work with some of today’s most iconic brands and innovative marketers, in it's newest project: Art, Copy & Code.

Art, Copy & Code is a series of projects and experiments to show how creativity and technology can work hand in hand. Some of these will include familiar brands like Volkswagen, Burberry and adidas—projects developed in partnership with their creative teams and agencies. Others will be creative experiments with innovative filmmakers, creative directors and technologists to explore how brands can connect with consumers through a whole range of digital tools—including ads, mobile apps and social experiences. Google's first partner project is a new social driving experience, The Volkswagen Smileage.

Building off VW's 2012 campaign, "It’s not the miles, it’s how you live them," (video clip below if you have yet to see it) Volkswagen Smileage is a mobile app and web service that aims to add a little bit of fun to every drive, from your daily commutes to holiday road trips. The app measures the fun factor of each trip using a metric called “smileage,” based on signals like weather, traffic, location, time and social interactions (e.g., a long drive on a sunny Saturday afternoon might accumulate more smileage than a morning commute in the snow). You can use it with any car, not just Volkswagens.

Powered by the new Google+ sign-in, you can choose to share Smileage experience with friends and family. For example, during a road trip, photos and videos taken by you and your co-passengers can be automatically added to a live interactive map. The inspiration for the service came from a recent study showing that every day, 144 million Americans on average spend 52 minutes in a car—76 percent of them alone; making that time a more shareable experience. Volkswagen Smileage will be available soon in beta.

"It's not the miles, it's how you live them."

via: Aman Govil, Art, Copy & Code Project Lead

The Recording Academy® and TBWA\Chiat\Day have teamed for the sixth year to promote the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards® with the ad campaign "#TheWorldIsListening." The 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards (www.grammy.com) will be held on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS Television Network.

"Slammed Door" featuring Rihanna above and below is "Soundcheck" with The Black Keys and voiceover by Dr. John

"#TheWorldIsListening" campaign features both established and up-and-coming artists across a variety of print, out-of-home and digital communications, as well as three TV commercials. The first commercial, "Slammed Door," tells five-time GRAMMY® winner and current nominee Rihanna's story. The second commercial, "The World is Listening," features artists including the Kills, Snoop Lion and Taylor Swift alongside emerging artists such as Grace Potter, Kishi Bashi and Dam-Funk. Two-time GRAMMY winners and current nominees the Black Keys will appear in the forthcoming commercial titled "Soundcheck."

At the heart of this year's "#TheWorldIsListening" campaign is a newly created Web site, www.grammyamplifier.com, which allows musicians to share their tracks via SoundCloud for a chance to have their music tweeted out by a panel of musical icons, including Linkin Park, RZA, and Snoop Lion. While social media has given musicians more ways to share their sounds than ever before, the online music space is increasingly fragmented. As a result, it gets more difficult for emerging artists to be discovered. "#TheWorldIsListening" campaign and the GRAMMY Amplifier aims to help solve this problem by exposing new artists through social platforms — with the ultimate goal of discovering artists with the potential to be the next generation of GRAMMY winners..

"This year's campaign highlights the raw emotion and desire of the artist's journey, and is amplified via social media in order to draw more music fans into an engaged music conversation," said Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer of The Recording Academy.

Patrick Condo, Creative Director, TBWA\Chiat\Day, said, "Sure, the music industry embraces fame — but music always comes first. From RZA to Rihanna, to the young girl taking her first piano lesson, it's their passion for the craft that will, ultimately, lead them to the public and then fame. This year's campaign celebrates this passion and the talent as burgeoning artists embark on that quest for fame."

All of the campaign materials prominently feature the hashtag #TheWorldIsListening, a first in GRAMMY history and a testament to the role of social media with regard to the GRAMMY telecast. In February 2012, the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards generated more than 13 million social media comments making it the biggest social media event in the history of television at the time.

"The World Is Listening" 55th GRAMMYs Full Campaign Credits:
Artists: The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr., DaM-Funk, The Gaslamp Killer, Jim James, Kaskade, The Kills, Lianne La Havas, Linkin Park, Moon Duo, Nas, Ozzy Osbourne, Papa, Grace Potter, Rihanna, RZA, Simian Mobile Disco, Snoop Lion, Taylor Swift, Anthony Valadez, Warpaint, Patrick Watson, Jonathan Wilson.

Global Creative President: Rob Schwartz
Executive Creative Director: Patrick O’Neill
Creative Directors: Patrick Condo & Bob Rayburn
Associate Creative Director/Copywriter: Eric Haugen
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Kirk Williams
Art Directors: Hillary Coe, Rebecca Ginos, Katie Dittman
Executive Director of Integrated Production: Richard O’Neill
Executive Producer: Sarah Patterson
Producer/Music Supervisor: Michael Gross
Assistant Producer: Whitney Fromholtz
Director of Creative Technology: Ricardo Diaz
Account Director: Michele Tebbe
Management Supervisors: Mike Peditto & James Aardahl
Account Supervisor: Daryl Conui
Group Planning Director: Rad Tollett
Digital Strategist: Kyle Luhr
Business Affairs Managers: KK Davis & Lisa Lipman
Typography Design: I Love Dust

DIGITAL PRODUCTION
Music Supervisor: Liza Richardson
Creative Technologist: David Riegler
Tech Lead: Gevorg Ablabutyan
Senior Developers: Marcelo Duende & Jake Edur
QA Lead: Lester Broas
QA Engineer: Walter Velasquez
Senior Producer: Justin Taylor
Producer: Kiley Story
Tech Lead: Mike Bucks
Technology Manager: John Byrne

PRINT & OOH PRODUCTION
Photographer: James Minchin
Executive Art Producer: Karen Youngs
Print Producer: Matthew MacDonald
Project Managers: Jane Martin, Collin Beckles
Creative Retouching: Arthaus
Prepress: E-Graphics

FILM PRODUCTION
Director: Saam Farahmand
Production Company: Furlined
President: Diane McArter
VP Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins
Producer: Dave Robertson
Original Music, Sound Design, & Mix: Barking Owl
Creative Director: Kelly Bayett
Mixer: Brock Babcock
Sound Design, "Slammed Door" and "Soundcheck": Barking Owl & Michael Anastasi
Editorial: Arcade
Editor, "The World is Listening": Kim Bica
Editor, "Slammed Door" and "Soundcheck": Greg Scruton
Post Producer: Kirsten Thon-Webb
Managing Partner: Damian Stevens
Executive Producer: Nicole Visram
Assistants: Dean Miyahira, John Jenkins, Pete D'Andrea, Laura Sanford
Visual Effects: The Moving Picture Company
Creative Director / VFX Supervisor: Paul O’Shea
Smoke Artist: Mark Holden
Telecine Artist: Ricky Gausis
Producer: Juliet Tierney
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards

Looking for an ingenious way to build their online presence, the Johannesburg Zoo has decided to hand over all their Social Media management to ‘someone’ who knows the zoo inside out. BG the Badger! The Johannesburg Zoo’s much-loved resident honey badger and the official JHB Zoo mascot.
How is this even possible? Well, it’s largely due to BG’s new high-tech animal enclosure, cleverly devised by award-winning digital agency Hellocomputer, of the Draftfcb group. Creatives on the job include Candice Hellens (copywriter), Eras Gous (art-director) Moira-Gene Sephton Gous (art-director) and Rory MacRobert (copywriter), and the technology was implemented by tech wizard Tom van den Bon (at BinarySpace) along with Johan Pieterse, Nathan O' Gates and Ben Fourie of Hellocomputer.
Selected because of his cheeky-yet-lovable personality, love of people and his very active nature, BG began tweeting on June 14 this year. You can follow him at @zootweetslive.
The Technology: BG’s high-tech badger enclosure is rigged with wireless infrared motion sensors, which are divided into six zones. The animal-friendly sensors talk to a server that holds a database of hundreds of pre-written BG tweets. As BG moves from zone to zone, the motion sensors pick up on his location and automatically trigger tweets from his Twitter account, in real-time. The built-from-scratch coding ensures that all the tweets are relevant to what BG is doing at that moment e.g. if BG is at the front section of his enclosure he will trigger people-related tweets, when he is near the sides he will trigger neighbour-related tweets and so on.
“The techno-wizards from Hellocomputer are thrilled by the project and the team at the JHB Zoo are amped to have turned BG into – in record time – what they believe is the world’s first LIVE tweeting zoo ‘spokesanimal’”, said Kerry Friend, executive creative director of Hellocomputer.
“The Joburg Zoo does a wonderful job connecting with animal fans using many different traditional media, but it has steered away from the digital realm until now. Having acknowledged the many benefits of engaging with its target base using social media, it wanted an especially appealing way of doing so.”
“Hellocomputer’s logic was that, since the thing that people really love about the Zoo is its animals, it makes sense for an animal to be their spokesperson”.
“The job has fallen on BG’s shoulders right now but there are plenty of interesting candidates, ones who are on the extinction list and who could become ‘spokesanimals’ for their species as well. Who knows what the future will bring,” she said.
“Critical to the zoo’s acceptance of the concept and the system is BG’s safety”, said Johannesburg Zoo’s Brand & Communications Manager, Letta Madlala.
“While we were immediately enchanted by Hellocomputer’s innovative proposal to turn one of our most social animals into a social media spokesperson, we stressed that we could not put BG at risk at all”.
“The system designed by Hellocomputer utilises wireless sensors, so there’s nothing for BG to chew on, choke on or entangle himself in. They are also small and unobtrusive, and have been attached at the highest points of the enclosure, while the base station and its solar power source, which are more difficult to ruggedise, have been placed outside the enclosure.
“The sensors are also enclosed in hard-to-penetrate Perspex so, if BG does manage to get his claws on one – and let’s face it, honey badgers are resourceful and very strong creatures – he will not be able to penetrate it in the short term and it can be retrieved by zoo staff”.
“While several of BG’s tweets will address his daily activities – such as his walks around the zoo (which he adorably takes on a lead), his mealtimes and playtimes, comments on his human visitors and animal neighbours and badger philosophies–he will obviously also be able to promote special events at the zoo and, when relevant, comment on current events”.

“We are thrilled with the results and look forward to many of our supporters and the public engaging with BG on a regular basis,” she said. “He’s a very friendly badger, we’re sure he’ll be very popular on twitter.”
While Hellocomputer has written several rules to govern BG’s tweets limiting the number of tweets a day and an hour or the number of tweets triggered from one station, its server will log BG’s exact movements as they trigger the sensors.
Additionally, all this valuable data will be retained and made available to the zoo should it have a need to research or contribute to research being done on badger habit studies and/or studies on animals in captivity.
“Not only does this system provide the Joburg Zoo with an exciting and totally apt way of communicating with its target audiences through social media, it has the potential to contribute to mankind’s understanding of animal behaviour and — by extrapolation — animal well-being in the future. We couldn’t be prouder,” concluded Kerry Friend.

The British Museum will open a major exhibition presenting a history of Indigenous Australia, supported by BP. This exhibition will be the first in the UK devoted to the history and culture of Indigenous Australians: both Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. Drawing on objects from the British Museum’s collection, accompanied by important loans from British and Australian collections, the show will present Indigenous Australia as a living culture, with a continuous history dating back over 60,000 years.

The objects displayed in this exhibition are immensely important. The British Museum’s collection contains some of the earliest objects collected from Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders through early naval voyages, colonists, and missionaries dating as far back as 1770. Many were collected at a time before museums were established in Australia and they represent tangible evidence of some of the earliest moments of contact between Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Islanders and the British. Many of these encounters occurred in or near places that are now major Australian cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. As a result of collecting made in the early 1800s, many objects originate from coastal locations rather than the arid inland areas that are often associated with Indigenous Australia in the popular imagination.

The exhibition will not only present Indigenous ways of understanding the land and sea but also the significant challenges faced by Indigenous Australians from the colonial period until to the present day. In 1770 Captain Cook landed on the east coast of Australia, a continent larger than Europe. In this land there were hundreds of different Aboriginal groups, each inhabiting a particular area, and each having its own languages, laws and traditions. This land became a part of the British Empire and remained so until the various colonies joined together in 1901 to become the nation of Australia we know today. In this respect, the social history of 19th century Australia and the place of Indigenous people within this is very much a British story. This history continues into the twenty first century. With changing policies towards Indigenous Australians and their struggle for recognition of civil rights, this exhibition shows why issues about Indigenous Australians are still often so highly debated in Australia today.

The exhibition brings together loans of special works from institutions in the United Kingdom, including the British Library, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. A number of works from the collection of the National Museum of Australia will be shown, including the masterpiece ‘Yumari’ by Uta Uta Tjangala. Tjangala was one of the artists who initiated the translation of traditions of sand sculptures and body painting onto canvas in 1971 at Papunya, a government settlement 240km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Tjangala was also an inspirational leader who developed a plan for the Pintupi community to return to their homelands after decades of living at Papunya. A design from ‘Yumari’ forms a watermark on current Australian passports.

This exhibition has been developed in consultation with many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, Indigenous art and cultural centres across Australia, and has been organised with the National Museum of Australia. The broader project is a collaboration with the National Museum of Australia. It draws on a joint research project, funded by the Australian Research Council, undertaken by the British Museum, the National Museum of Australia and the Australian National University. Titled ‘Engaging Objects: Indigenous communities, museum collections and the representation of Indigenous histories’, the research project began in 2011 and involved staff from the National Museum of Australia and the British Museum visiting communities to discuss objects from the British Museum’s collections. The research undertaken revealed information about the circumstances of collecting and significance of the objects, many of which previously lacked good documentation. The project also brought contemporary Indigenous artists to London to view and respond to the Australian collections at the British Museum.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum said, “The history of Australia and its people is an incredible, continuous story that spans over 60,000 years. This story is also an important part of more recent British history and so it is of great significance that audiences in London will see these unique and powerful objects exploring this narrative. Temporary exhibitions of this nature are only possible thanks to external support so I am hugely grateful to BP for their longstanding and on-going commitment to the British Museum. I would also like to express my gratitude to our logistics partner IAG Cargo and the Australian High Commission who are supporting the exhibition’s public programme.”

Source: The British Museum [April 23, 2015]

New pro bono work from Campbell Ewald (CE), the creative agency behind a new campaign for non-profit Keep Oakland Beautiful called “Litter is Bad.”
Although parts of Oakland are undergoing re-gentrification, the city still suffers from a rampant litter problem. To further Keep Oakland Beautiful’s mission of creating and sustaining a beautiful, clean, green and litter-free city, the campaign shows just how bad litter can be. From cigarette butts that brag about dirtying up the sidewalks and harming dogs to an abandoned sofa looking forward to being set on fire by vandals, this new work personifies litter to emphasize the severity of the issue at hand.

Credits:
CE CREATIVE:
Chief Creative Officer: Mark Simon
Executive Creative Director: Jim DiPiazza
Associate Creative Director/Copy: Becca Loose
Associate Creative Director/Art Direction: Vanessa Witter
Art Director: Meggie McArthur
Interactive Designer: Eric Dominguez
Flash Desiger: Gonzalo Enriquez

CE ACCOUNT:
Managing Director: Angela Zepeda
Senior Account Supervisor: Matt Clark

CE MEDIA:
Director Media Planning: Karen Campbell
Associate Director Media Planning: Jennifer Accad
Senior Media Planner: Jon Perez
Assistant Interactive Media Planner: Tara Hana
Director Local Media Buying: Linda Southern
Associate Director of Local Media Buying: Allison Jones

CE SOCIAL:
Director of Digital Operations: James Sanders
Social Media Manager: Stacey Vick
Senior Community Manager: Jennifer Murphy

CE PRODUCTION:
Executive Producer: John Haggerty
Assistant Producer: Chris Robertson
Senior Production Artist: Renee O’Brien
Retouching Supervisor: Scott Kessler
Senior Art Buyer: Tat Luneva-Evenchik

CE PROJECT MANAGEMENT:
Senior Digital Project Manager: Amy Ruud
Production Company: At Swim
Executive Producers: Tomas Krejci, Michael Appel
Director: Nicolas Iyer
Producer: Theresa Martin
Director of Photography: Thomas Lembcke
Editorial Company: Big Block
Executive Producer: Leslie Sorrentino
Producer: Lauren Thorne
Lead Flame Artist: Brian Shneider
Audio Mixing: The LA Studios
General Manager: Jane Curry
Mixer: David Guerrero

Sound Design: Yessian
Sound Designer: Jeff Dittenber
Head of Production: Michael Yessian
Chief Creative Officer: Brian Yessian
Retouching: Joe Notaro / Hand Digital
Printing: Darrin Day / Circle Graphics
Media:
Jill Schuster & Lindsay Warners / OAG
Clear Channel OOH
Chrystal Sisco / Comcast
Dion Carrancho / NCC Media
Jill Kregel / RocketFuel
Erin Seramur / RadiumOne

Last Wednesday night's back-to-back season premieres of "Duck Dynasty" became the #1 telecasts in network history! An astonishing 8.6 million viewers tuned in to see America's favorite family, making "Duck Dynasty" the #1 nonfiction series on cable. Perhaps even more impressive is the record-shattering 5.0 million adults 18-49 and 4.9 million adults 25-54 who tuned in; as well as the incredibly successful Social Media campaign that led up to the premiere.

The original press release and "The Quack is Back" spot below:

The creative team at A&E called on long-time collaborators at entertainment agency BIGSMACK to help conceive, write and produce a hilarious Season 3 promotional campaign for their biggest runaway hit in the cable net’s history: “Duck Dynasty.” Under the creative leadership of Head Creative Andy Hann and Senior Creative Director Matt Hall, the BIGSMACK team collaborated with A&E’s in-house team to write, produce, and post for an extensive campaign, that is being rolled out now, as a daily countdown to the launch of the third season on February 27th at 10/9c.

Hann and director Scott Whitham co-direct an unbelievable 21 spots in just two days. The BIGSMACK team shot in the deep rural bayou of Louisiana in the dead of winter, up against tremendous challenges. To view a selection of the creative results, go here: http://wdrv.it/VVWojD

“’Duck Dynasty’ has literally become a phenomenon for A&E, being their highest rated show to date,” says BIGSMACK’s Hann. “It has huge fan appeal, so we were thrilled when they asked us to take a crack at what appeared to be the impossible. We jumped right in with the A&E Senior Creatives Maria Pecoraro and Keith Kopnicki, and fleshed out and wrote a mountain of scripts over the course of a week. Kudos to the A&E marketing and creative team, who worked many weekends and late night hours to make sure this was a successful campaign. This project was a great opportunity for BIGSMACK to show what our company can do, pulling from all of our resources to make this roll-out campaign a reality, and a funny one at that.”

One of the most successful reality series currently on television, “Duck Dynasty” features the Robertson’s, a Louisiana bayou family living the American dream as they operate a thriving business while staying true to their family values and lifestyle. After creative concepting and writing In New York and Philadelphia was complete, the BIGSMACK production team flew down south from the east coast. They were met with seven inches rain soaked roads in early January, and show fans appearing on-set to get a peek at the Robertson’s, known for their signature long beards. CD Hann and Whitham directed the 21 spots with just two days to shoot the show’s main characters. Strategically planning the logistics for the shoot, they had two crews shoot simultaneously at an enormous Bayou location in Monroe, Louisiana.

“We went in with a plan of course, but due to the volume of spots, unpredictable weather and an unfamiliar location, a lot of adjustments and improv had to happen in Monroe days and hours before the shoot,” explains BIGSMACK’s Head of Marketing Andrew Kobliska. Mud soaked roads, trucks and equipment coming from hundreds of miles away, and crew arriving the night before were part of the challenges the production team was up against. “While Andy was directing one spot, he had to think about the next two spots so we could have a crew set things up ahead of time. The crew was awesome: great hustle; great attitude. The DP's Andrew Turman and Patrick Loungway were absolutely incredible. Because of the circumstances, the DP's had to act essentially as Co-Directors, and they really came through. The members of the Robertson family were all good sports. They hung in there with us and they were willing to do whatever we asked, which included being submerged in freezing water! They have natural talent, and great comedic timing. They really are a wonderful, funny family, which is why they are loved by so many fans worldwide.”


Credits:
Project: 21-spot promo campaign for the launch of “Duck Dynasty,” Season 3
Client: A&E
EVP, Head of Marketing: Guy Slattery
Sr. Creative Director. Brand Creative: Maria Pecoraro
Senior Writer/Producer: Keith Kopnicki
Director of Operations, Brand Creative: Brett DiPretoro

Advertising Agency: BIGSMACK
Executive Creative Director: Andy Hann
Head of Marketing: Andrew Kobliska
Executive Producers: Heidi Erney, Kevin Lahr
Writers: Tom Pace, Joe Nelms, Bob Shea, Andy Hann, Laura Gillespie

Production Company: BIGSMACK
Directors: Andy Hann, Scott Whitham
DPs: Andrew Turman, Patrick Loungway
Producer/AD: Michael Dean
AD: Nick Conway

Editorial Company: BIGSMACK
Senior Creative Director: Matt Hall
Senior Writer/Producer: Laura Gillespie
Designer/Animator: Rick Malwitz, Jason Harmon
Editor: Rob Graham
Sound Engineer: Bob Schachner

A Twitter ad campaign, developed by BBDO Belgium, to invite people to discover the new Volvo-model XC60 which is characterized with a revolutionary braking system.

View the case study video of how Volvo invited tweeps to discover the new XC60, see how @FollowedByVolvo was able to get some of the most influential Belgium Twitter's to follow them.

Credits:
Client: Volvo Cars BeLux
Sebastien De Valck: Creative Director
Frédéric Zouag: Art Director
Nicolas Gaspart: Copywriter
Wouter Has: Digital Project Leader
Tom Verdeyen: Account Manager
Inge Wertelaers: Account Executive
Bart Muskala: Head of Digital
Jelle Willaert: Social Writer & Publisher
Ellen Pottoms: Social Writer & Publisher

So, now that Google Glass is a reality are you ready for the newest Art Copy&Code project? Google introduces the "Talking Shoe", still in it's very early stages the idea is simple: anyone and anything can be a storyteller.

To explore the world of connected objects, Google partnered with artist Zach Lieberman and YesYesNo to create a smart sneaker with personality that talks back and can connect the wearer’s activity to the web. Using an accelerometer, a gyroscope, Bluetooth and some other off the shelf technologies, the Talking Shoe translates the wearer’s movements into funny, motivating and timely commentary. The things it says can be posted to Google+ by the user, sent to real-time ad units, if the user chooses to, and broadcast via onboard speakers. It can talk to the world and to the web. The collected data then gets pushed to a web app on your mobile device and translated in real-time into funny and motivating commentary which then gets pushed to banners and social media, creating new, interesting content in the digital world from something happening live in the physical one...all thanks to your sneakers. Keep them clean! Learn more at Art Copy&Code.

Today, 21 March is World Down Syndrome Day and the new project launched by Saatchi & Saatchi and CoorDown 10 days ago entitled #DammiPiùVoce (Turn up my voice), has been a huge success with 40 celebrities answering the call and donating their voice.

As of this morning 40 celebrity videos have been donated. Amongst them Sharon Stone, Jose Mourinho, and numerous Italian Stars Including Chef Carlo Cracco, Singer Jovanotti, who also created a special song for Spartaco, Actress Asia Argento and Football players Francesco Totti and Antonio Cassano.

You can follow the campaign on twitter.com/coordown and facebook.com/coordown. #DammiPiùVoce is the official hashtag on Twitter.

“This year — says Sergio Silvestre, the National Coordinator of CoorDown — we have dedicated our energy to the main goal: defending and promoting the rights of people with Down Syndrome, who are too often overcome by prejudices and the lack of application of existing laws, especially those concerning inclusion in the job market. We are not asking for more rights for our guys, just the same opportunities as everyone else. We are proud to collaborate with Saatchi & Saatchi again on this occasion after the success of the last campaign which has succeeded in communicating, with courage and brilliant ideas, the need to turn up the voice of people with Down Syndrome. This is the most important theme of the World Day of Down Syndrome 2013.”

"We are very pleased to work again with CoorDown — said Giuseppe Caiazza, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi in Italy and Head of Automotive Business for Saatchi & Saatchi EMEA. Following the success of last year's campaign, we decided to do something unique together, and just as we did last year, we feel enriched professionally, but also personally."

Agostino Toscana, Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Italy, said: "After having “ecologically recycled” the TV commercials and print ads last year, making it a major integration campaign, this year we decided to get the most out of another "old trick" of making advertising: the use of a celebrity. The fact that the entire campaign is developed on a digital platform, live and fully transparent, is another piece of this project that we are carrying on together with our CoorDown friends. In 2012 the companies donated their commercials for Integration Day, in 2013 celebrities donated their voice. Both times in a way never seen before."

After the results of the “Integration Day” campaign, which won 7 Gold Lions and one Bronze Lion at the 2012 Cannes International Festival of Creativity, Saatchi & Saatchi and CoorDown Onlus worked together again to safeguard the rights of people with Down syndrome.

In Italy, due to prejudice, the basic rights of people with Down syndrome are still too often denied. Rights like proper academic support, rehabilitation treatments, the opportunity to do beneficial work or even just the possibility to have fun like their peers.

With more funds available it would be possible to defend their rights through protective measures, projects that stimulate their engagement and autonomy, and through better information activities. That’s the reason behind the launch of the #DammiPiùVoce (Turn up my voice) campaign.

On www.coordown.it, 50 people with Down syndrome asked 50 celebrities for a particular donation. Not money: they asked for a video. A video in which those celebrities ask the public to support the rights of people with Down Syndrome through a donation, thus amplifying their voices. A video that, if shared by the celebrities on their social networks, would have more chance of being listened to.

The new “Vikings” exhibition at Discovery Times Square is, in a sense, built around something that isn’t there.

The exhibition, which opens on Friday, was organized by the Swedish History Museum in conjunction with MuseumPartners in Austria, and the people behind it really want you to know that during the 350 years (750 to 1100) that Viking culture flourished, horned helmets were never a thing. They have amassed 500 artifacts — some copies; many the genuine article — to make the point.

There’s not a horned helmet among them (unless you count an amusing sight gag as you exit), because no such headpiece has ever come out of an archaeological dig. The ubiquitous headgear often associated with Vikings, we’re told in the exhibition, actually came out of the imagination of an 1876 costume designer staging a Wagner opera. And that’s not the only misperception this exhibition is intent on correcting.

The first thing you see in the introductory film as you enter is a farming scene. Raiding was certainly part of what Vikings did, but it is de-emphasized here — perhaps too much so — in favor of displays that highlight social and religious life and try to give women their due.

Countless fictional portrayals might have left the impression that Viking culture was somehow 90 percent male, wild-haired and sword-wielding, but of course it wasn’t, as the jewelry and many other women’s artifacts here attest. The now-rusted keys on display, we’re told, were often carried by women, because with men frequently on the road, they ran the farm.

What’s most interesting about the exhibition, though, is the way it places Vikings within the evolving world. It includes, for instance, a shell found on Gotland, the Swedish island, that came from the waters off distant Cyprus, because one thing Vikings were good at was getting around.

From Scandinavia, the Vikings vikinged far and wide, encountering other emerging cultures. The exhibition is organized by themes rather than chronologically, and the cross-cultural pollination is especially clear in a section on religion. Norse gods and Christian symbolism combine on brooches and pendants, tangible evidence of the kind of slow cultural conquest or merging that is harder to dramatize than a plain old military invasion but fascinating to contemplate.

The ships that made all this roaming possible are well represented. There’s a reproduction of a Viking boat, but just as compelling is a display that speaks to the archaeologist’s frustration: So many materials, including wood, deteriorate in a harsh climate. The display — “We call it the ghost ship,” Ms. Hejll said — consists only of what might be left of a ship at an archaeological dig: the metal hardware that held it together. Dozens of weatherworn rivets and other pieces of ancient hardware dangle from strings, creating the shape of a vessel; only the actual vessel is missing.

The exhibition is geared toward a general audience, with several interactive features likely to appeal to children. One especially illuminating one involves shipbuilding. It presents a graphic display of a landscape, then asks you to select what you’d need to build a Viking ship. Rope? Sure — make that choice and all the horses in the landscape lose their tails, because horsetail hair was used for rope. Wood? Of course — make that selection and all the trees disappear. Deforestation, it turns out, was not just an Industrial Age problem. The Viking commitment to a seafaring life was also a commitment to expend a lot of natural resources.

The Vikings Exhibition runs from Feb. 5 – Sept. 5, 2016, at Discovery Times Square: 226 West 44th Street, Manhattan, NYC.

Author: Neil Genzlinger | Source: The New York Times [March 02, 2016]

The Diesel Island

Diesel has started new adv campaign «Diesel Island» within the limits of strategy «Be Stupid».
If you do not manage to advance the outlooks on life in an old society, it's necessary — to keep away from those who does not accept innovative principles, and to organize the own state. Diesel continues to throw brushwood in a movement fire «Be Stupid», starting new advertising campaign «Diesel Island».

Freedom Island for Free People

Is a story of desperate young people which were tired of a boring society with all its interdiction dictated by «big brother's mind». The young people has landed on paradise islands to create the new nation to take all best principles of the device of the existing countries and forever to eliminate social injustice.

People on a photos, it «the pioneers, which profits on Diesel Island in search of rescue from tyranny, an economic crisis, political corruption and reality shows», begin new life in which there is no place for silly restrictions of the usual world.

The army of these people consists of pair-three the person, armed with soft pillows, inhabitants of this kingdom of rest project ecological means of transportation (for example, the car which copes from a strength of wind), and also gradually steal Wi-Fi from neighboring countries. Being children of a wind, the sun and freedom, they do not accept all totalitarian powers.

The Rome based Latte Creative Ad Agency recently created a 2 minute PSA promo spot for Solidar entitled "Rights First".

Solidar is a European network of NGOs working to advance social justice in Europe and worldwide. The 59 member organisations in 25 countries which include national NGOs in Europe, as well as some non-EU and EU-wide organisations, brought together by its shared values of solidarity, equality and participation.

SOLIDAR voices the concerns of its member organisations to the EU and international institutions by carrying out active lobbying, project management and coordination, policy monitoring and awareness-raising across its different policy areas.

Credits:
Ad Agency: Latte Creative, Rome
Brand: Solidar
Advertising Agency: Latte Creative, Rome, Italy
Creative Director / Copywriter: Eugenio Orsi
Illustrator: Camilla Falsini
Animator: Emanuele Colombo

An island at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Sicily occupied a pivotal place in antiquity between Greece, North Africa, and the Italian peninsula.

“This is the first major exhibition to arise from the Getty’s 2010 Cultural Agreement with Sicily, presenting masterpieces that are among the most accomplished examples of ancient Greek art in the world,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

“We are especially thrilled to have on view the exceptional statue of a victorious Charioteer from Mozia that the Getty has recently conserved. This object is a unique expression of the marvelous artistry of Greek sculptors at the dawn of the Classical era.”

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, features some 150 objects, a major portion on loan from institutions in Sicily, including stone and bronze sculptures, vase-paintings, votive terracotta statuettes and reliefs, carved ivory, gold and silver metalwork, jewelry, inscriptions, architectural revetments, and coins.

“These splendid objects bear witness to the athletic and military victories, religious rituals, opulent lifestyles, and intellectual attainments of the Sicilian Greeks, which shaped Greek culture at its peak,” explains Claire Lyons, acting senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition.

The Mozia Charioteer

The Mozia Charioteer, widely considered one of the the finest surviving examples of Greek sculpture, serves as the exhibition’s centerpiece. Recently on view at the British Museum in London during the 2012 Summer Olympics, the statue has since undergone conservation treatment at the Getty Villa. Part of the Getty’s cultural agreement with Sicily, this 18-month collaborative conservation project involved remounting the sculpture and the provision of a seismic isolation base, which will accompany the object when it is reinstalled at the Whitaker Museum on the island of Mozia.

The triumphant Mozia Charioteer, discovered in 1976 on the island of Mozia in western Sicily, is believed to represent a charioteer who competed at Olympia on behalf of one of the Sicilian rulers. The extraordinary style of the sculpture, especially notable in the sinuous pleating of the long linen xystis that sheathes the figure’s athletic physique, is a tour-de-force of stone carving. Clearly a master of his craft, the sculptor was able to reveal the torso and limbs beneath the thin fabric. With its confident gaze and proud stance, this statue conveys the high level of originality and experimentation achieved by Greek sculptors working in Sicily.

The “Signing Masters”

Important evidence of Sicilian artistic innovation is also apparent in the exquisite coins of the time. Beginning in the late fifth century B.C., a group of Sicilian Greek coin engravers, mainly based in Syracuse, added their signatures to the dies used to stamp coins. Known as the “Signing Masters,” these remarkable craftsmen created extraordinary works of art on a miniature scale. Departing from the traditional profile view, they devised novel ways of representing the human body in a lively three-quarter perspective or striking frontal pose. This testimony of individual mastery of the medium is virtually exclusive to Sicilian Greek coins created around 400 B.C. Often abbreviated in tiny but legible script, the artists’ signatures are typically all but hidden in locks of hair or elements of jewelry.

Known as the “coin of coins,” the unique Aitna tetradrachm from the Royal Library of Belgium is one of the most precious ancient coins in the world. On view in the exhibition along with 50 other exceptionally crafted Sicilian Greek coins, the image on the tetradrachm depicts the head of Silenos on the obverse and on the reverse, Zeus enthroned with an eagle perched beside him, imagery that alludes to the cult of Zeus on Mt. Etna.
Greek settlers and their gods

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome will also examine how settlers from the Greek mainland brought their myths and religious practices to Sicily. To sanctify new colonies and maintain ties with mother cities, they built altars and temples to such gods as Apollo, the patron deity of colonists, as well as the deified hero Herakles. Included are terracotta heads of Apollo, Hades, and Persephone, created as cult or votive images of deities that played a central role in ancient Sicilian worship. The skillfully modeled clay, embellished with striking polychrome pigments, compares favorably with the most accomplished works in marble and bronze. An exceptional example of metalwork is a religious offering dish made of two and a half pounds of gold. Known as a phiale mesomphalos, the vessel is embossed from the center outward with bands of beechnuts, acorns, and bees above blossoms; the owner’s name —Damarchos, son of Achyris— is inscribed beneath the rim, together with its equivalent weight in gold coins.

The divine hero Herakles was also embraced by Greek settlers, who linked his deeds to their cities. Contrasting aspects of Herakles’ identity —peaceful healer, solitary herdsman, and violent aggressor— heightened the appeal of his cult among the men of rural Sicily, who tended flocks and worked as mercenary soldiers. Among the objects on view is a finely preserved bronze statuette of Herakles recovered from a river-bed in Contrada Cafeo (Modica), which suggests that a shrine to the hero was situated nearby.

Preeminent among the honored deities was Demeter, goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone (or Kore). Sanctuaries of the goddesses dotted the island, but their cult was most enthusiastically embraced in central Sicily, where, according to myth, Kore descended to the Underworld as the bride of Hades. Depictions of these deities include a terracotta bust with a rare painted figural scene that may represent part of a ritual honoring or celebrating the goddesses, and a cult statuette disc overed near an altar in Gela together with an offering jug of carbonized seeds of grain.

Archimedes of Syracuse

A section of the exhibition will focus on Archimedes of Syracuse (about 287–212 B.C.), one of history’s foremost scientists and mathematicians. More than a millennium ahead of its time, his work laid the foundation for branches of math, physics, engineering, and even computer science. When Syracuse’s King Hieron II asked him to determine whether a crown was made of pure gold, Archimedes made his legendary deduction that a solid displaces a volume of liquid equal to its own volume, a discovery that supposedly caused the scientist to leap from his bath and run naked through the streets crying “Eureka” (“I have found it!”).

On view is a leaf from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the only surviving manuscript containing copies of Archimedes’ writings. The medieval prayer book that included this leaf was inked by a scribe onto recycled parchment that originally bore the theories of Archimedes. The pages were scraped clean before being overwritten, but with the use of advanced imaging technology, the original writing is visible. The leaf on view is a section of text from “Proposition 1” from Archimedes’ Method, a work integrating geometry and physics.

Literature on Sicilian art

Finally, the exhibition examines the reflections of literature in Sicilian visual arts. Many mainland Greeks became familiar with Sicily through the epic poetry of Homer, including Odysseus’s wanderings after the Trojan War, which took him to the western Mediterranean.

Often depicted in vase-painting and sculpture, Odysseus’s encounters with strange creatures like the Cyclops and Scylla were allegories for early colonial settlement and trading enterprises that spread Greek culture to distant, exotic regions. The pastoral genre created and perfected by the Syracusan poet Theokritos (about 300–after 260 B.C.) flourished as Sicily was falling under the dominion of Rome in the third century B.C. He is renowned for his Idylls (literally, “little pictures”), which paint nostalgic word-images of Sicilian country life from the point of view of a sophisticated urbanite. Theokritos’s rustic characters—including satyrs, shepherds, and the woodland deity Priapos—also populated the visual arts of the period, attesting to the appeal of rural fantasies during a time of civic turmoil. On extended loan from Syracuse, a life-size statue of the fertility god Priapos, the earliest such figure in Greek art will be featured in the exhibition. Like the Mozia Charioteer, it was also the subject of a collaborative conservation project undertaken by the Getty Museum.

The importance and popularity of Greek comedy and drama outside of Athens is evident in the theatrical figurines, masks and scenes on vases, many of which come from the island of Lipari. The celebrated “Father of Tragedy,” Aeschylus (Greek, 525–456 B.C.) traveled to Sicily on at least two occasions, where his plays found fertile ground in the strong local tradition of performance on the island.

On display is a terracotta mixing vessel with the earliest known depiction of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, which likely reflects a performance of Sophocles’ Andromeda (about 450 B.C.). The Greek inscription painted above the figure of Perseus—“Euaion, the son of Aeschylus, is handsome”— names the actor, son of the great tragedian.

Rich harvests, bountiful seas, and a favorable trade location brought immense wealth to the Sicilian city-states, and the exhibition highlights their widespread reputation for luxurious lifestyles with five gilt-silver vessels, part of a larger group of fifteen. The silver treasure had been buried for safekeeping beneath the floor of a house in Morgantina during the Roman sack of the city in 211 B.C. The entire hoard comprises religious vessels as well as a set for the symposion, a convivial drinking party for men that was an important part of the social life of well-to-do Greeks.

Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome is the latest in a series of cooperative efforts between the Getty and the Sicili an Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity arising from a 2010 agreement that calls for a number of collaborative projects, including object conservation, seismic protection of collections, exhibitions, scholarly research, and conferences. Recent related projects include the 2010 loan of the Gela Krater, a monumental red-figured volute krater (wine mixing vessel) attributed to the Niobid Painter; The Agrigento Youth, a rare example of an early classical marble statue called a kouros (an idealized nude young man), loaned to the Getty from the Museo Archeologico Regionale in Agrigento (2010/2011); and most recently the loan of thirty-six objects from the sanctuaries of Demeter at Morgantina (2012/January 2013).

The exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, and celebrates 2013 as the Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realized under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Italy.

Source: The J. Paul Getty Museum [March 19, 2013]

To celebrate the launch of the 5th edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, Mechanica and Lollipop have created an interactive experience around the concept "You Are Your Words." The core of the concept is that the words you use are about more than just communicating – they tell the world who you are. And today, through emails, tweets, posts and other forms of communication, our words define us more deeply and broadly than ever.

The site brings this concept to life in a very dynamic and personal way, by engaging people to create a self-portrait in their own words. Visitors to YouAreYourWords.com can upload a photo or use their webcam to take a picture of themselves. They can then connect to Facebook or Twitter to pull in words from their social stream, or enter words that best define who they are. From there, Lollipop created a server-side application that composites a user’s words with their photo, creating a unique word-based self portrait.

One of the largest challenges on this project was to develop an engaging interactive experience that didn’t rely on Flash or HTML5 functionality. The site is built on a Ruby on Rails infrastructure and uses front-end technologies that do not require the use of plug-ins or advanced browsers.

Credits:
Client: American Heritage Dictionary – 5th Edition
Creative Agency: Mechanica,
Jim Garaventi, Partner/Creative Director
Libby Delana, Partner/Creative Director
Brand Director — Julie Carney
Executive Producer — Eric Freedman
Interactive Production Company: Lollipop, Toronto

Thanks Shannon

As if borne of a dream, Poetica’s beautifully monochromatic spec film for Trek Bicycles bares the distinct look and feel of a surreal mindscape. The piece, conceptualized by Poetica Creative Director Steve Tozzi and brought to life with the help of CG Director, Lead Animator John Clausing and Senior Flame Artist Aaron Vasquez, is an expressive 3D ode to the rider’s unique connection to the Trek brand.

The film revolves around a cyclist traveling through a menagerie of hyper-stylized landscapes, each populated with phantasmagorical cranes, flowers, and more, made up of bicycle parts. However, it also functions as a case study on the capabilities of Softimage, and Arnold, a powerful new 3D CG-rendering program. Poetica rendered some 200-plus passes of CG to bring the stunning images to life with a quick turnaround. Additionally, programs such as Exocortex, Slipstream, and ICE were employed to give the VFX a singularly natural and organic look.

Poetica used Arnold, a powerful new 3D CGI-rendering program, rendering some 200-plus passes of CG, as well as Exocortex, Slipstream, and ICE.

“We wanted this film to be a something of a vision, but to also turn it into something that moves and lives,” said Tozzi. “We used the bicycle as a toolkit to build other things while relying on the refined look of the elements and this real sense of light throughout. It’s really pushing the limits of 3D design.”

The film was developed as an identity piece for the venerable bicycle company, originally founded in 1976. Poetica took the piece as an opportunity to deliver a unique vision of an already well-known worldwide brand using the most cutting-edge CG software and platforms available. Rising to the challenge, Poetica utilized the Trek project as a way to showcase their 3D capabilities and award-winning VFX talent.

This is spec work, see the video at TrustCollective.
Credits:
Client: Trek
Spot Title: Trek
Production/Post-production: Poetica
CD: Steve Tozzi
CG Director and Lead Animation: John Clausing
MD: Rachelle Madden
Animator(s): Young Park, Kirt Critoph
Compositor: Rosalie Garlow
Senior Flame Artist: Aaron Vasquez
ICE Generation/Animator: Matt Semel
Head of Production: Stefanie Bassett
Music by Colors in the Air
Song Title: “Social Race” from Surfacing EP — Copyright 2013

Ray-Ban Belgium and DDB Brussels have launched a new campaign that makes creative use of public transportation to communicate Ray-Ban's wide range of polarized color lenses: from sky blue to hot pink.

In all major Belgian cities, trams have been redesigned into "Ray-Ban Test-Drive Trams" that let you discover the city through different Ray-Ban color lenses.

Tapping into the use of filters on mobile platforms like Instagram, posters inside the tram invite travellers to share their pictures of the city with #nofilterjustrayban.

Credits:
Campaign: #nofilterjustrayban
Creative Ad Agency: DDB Brussels
Client: Ray-Ban Belgium (Luxottica Group)
Marketing Manager: Dagmar Sleuwaegen
Agency: DDB Brussels
Creative Director: Peter Ampe
Creation: Gertjan De Smet
Account Manager: Gertjan De Smet
Strategic planner: Maarten Van Daele
Head of Digital: Geert Desager
Online producer: Simon De Pauw, Sevenedge
Experience Architect: Maarten Breda
Graphic Designer: Arnaud Hemroulle
Production company: Lijncom, JCDecaux, Clear Channel
Photographer: Mary-Ann Koninckx, Yannick Tielemans
Media: website, transit, social media

The Montreal Canadiens, the most celebrated team in hockey history, has one of the most passionate and diehard followings in the NHL. So during this year’s Stanley Cup run, Coors Light teamed up with MEC Canada and DraftFCB Montreal to create an interactive outdoor experience called "L’action sur la glace” or “The Action’s On The Ice”, bringing the fans even closer to the action.

Outside of Montreal’s Bell Centre, the home of the Habs, Thinkingbox digital production company built a custom 240 square foot ‘shooter’ platform where fans were able to take their best and hardest “slap shot”. Each time, the strength and speed of the shot would trigger a specific 3D animation that appeared on a 45’ HD LED video wall. For example, if the puck was hit hard enough to score a goal, an animation showing the ice shattering as well as a 3D modeled representation of Bell Centre and the Montreal Canadiens’ locker room would appear. Everything was done to recreate and simulate the experience of scoring a goal for the average fan.

The activation included a custom iPad application that controlled the flow of the event. It was synced with social sharing technologies so players could publish their experience on their respective networks. The platform included a puck track containing IR sensors and micro-controllers that converted fans’ shots from microseconds to km/h.

Credits:
Project: "L’action sur la glace” — “The Action’s On The Ice”
Client: Molson
Brand: Coors Light
Marketing Manager: Sonia Palazzo
Senior Marketing Manager: Véronique Simard

Creative Agency: Draftfcb Montréal
Digital Production Company: Thinkingbox
Media Company: MEC

'Best Yourself' celebrates diversity and independent millennial spirit. Honda has teamed up with America’s Got Talent host Nick Cannon to inspire millennials to “Best Themselves” in a new campaign for the redesigned Civic.

Created in collaboration with the Los Angeles agencies Quantasy and Muse Communications, the long form video and social campaign launched this week, the 60-second TV spot aired during America’s Got Talent this past Sunday.

Honda has also started Project Drive-In — America's drive-in theaters are vanishing.

By the end of the year, movie studios will stop distributing 35mm film. The costly $75,000+ switch to digital projection is threatening drive-ins across the country. To help preserve this treasured American icon, Honda has started a national fund for contributions and is donating 5 digital projectors to the cause. Your votes decide where they go. Visit http://ProjectDriveIn.com to help #SaveTheDriveIn.

Director Seth Epstein of Stardust recently finished an incredibly moving and inspirational brand film for Ahnu, the Bay Area-based providers of originally engineered performance shoes. The three-minute short film entitled “Walk New Ground” follows ultra-endurance hiker Trevor Thomas on one of his challenging, long-distance hikes — revealing his unique story along the way.

“Stardust was chosen for one simple reason, their unique ability to capture a true and authentic moment and translate it into inspiring digital content,” says Anders Bergstrom, Marketing Manager for Deckers, Ahnu’s parent company, and Co-Creative Director on the film. “The Ahnu brand had been working with Trevor Thomas for some time, but had not yet captured the emotional essence and impact that an incredible person like Trevor can have on a brand and its core business. Seth, Dex, and their team [at Stardust] saw the potential and brought out what is true and inspiring in Trevor's story – all the while delivering on the Ahnu brand's promise to ‘walk new ground.’"

According to Stardust Director and company partner, Seth Epstein, the idea for the film came from a two-hour phone conversation and pre-interview he had with the film’s subject, Trevor. “His story was amazing on it’s own, so I asked him every question you could imagine,” he explains. “It was during that phone call, that I realized how I wanted to approach the story. I knew where I wanted to go, and needed to figure out how to do it as efficiently as possible.”

Utilizing “lean filmmaking techniques,” Epstein shot the film on DSLR on-location in Northern California’s Redwoods, not far from Ahnu’s headquarters, which was important to the company’s co-founders. “We used a lot of in-camera film techniques, and played with light and focus as much as we could, in order to create the film’s story which is a metaphor. Every filmic technique is an ingredient in the visual aesthetic of the film, and that was our intention going into the shoot.”

For Stardust Executive Producer and company partner Dexton Deboree, this Ahnu brand film represents a new direction the company is taking in terms of storytelling. “By focusing on Trevor’s story, Seth was able to create a film that truly celebrates the Ahnu brand and everything it represents as a conscious, sustainable company, which puts its success back into the community by sponsoring someone like Trevor. For us at Stardust, it was an opportunity to further express our new voice by creatively investing in a project with a lot of heart, which is important to Seth and I as creatives, but also as business people.”

After production was wrapped, the short film was edited by Neil Meiklejohn at Rock Paper Scissors with color completed by Company 3’s Siggy Ferstl. Stardust contributed motion graphics to the film, which according to Dexton required a “tender hand.” The film was unveiled at a large trade show event earlier this year. It is posted to the Ahnu web site, and will be used for branding, marketing and Social Media initiatives this year.

Credits:
Client: Ahnu
Brand Director: Jacqueline Van Dine
Marketing Manager, Ahnu: Michelle Erbs
Marketing Manager, Deckers (Ahnu Parent Company): Anders Bergstrom
Production/Postproduction Company: Stardust
Director: Seth Epstein
Co-Creative Director: Anders Bergstrom (Marketing Manager, Deckers)
Executive Producer: Dexton Deboree
DP: Patrick Notaro
Producer: James Taylor
Design/Effects Producer: Melina Osornio
Line Producer: Sean Cope
Design Director, Animator: Piero Desopo
Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Neil Meiklejohn
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Postproduction Company: Company 3
Colorist: Siggy Ferstl
Musical score by Jesse Mattson