PRNewser UnBeige LostRemote GalleyCat AdsoftheWorld BrandsoftheWorld more TVNewser TVSpy AppNewser 10,000 Words FishbowlNY FishbowlLA FishbowlDC MediaJobsDaily SocialTimes AllFacebook AllTwitter semanticweb.com

Carrot Creative Makes Moving Dramatic with ‘Unpakt Network’

This parody reality show trend is tiresome, especially because reality shows are already a parody of life. Earlier this month, PBS invented fake reality shows like “Knitting Wars” and advertised them coupled with their own message: “The fact that you thought this was real says a lot about the state of TV. Support Quality Programming.”

Now, Brooklyn-based agency/organic farming advocate Carrot Creative has come up with a series of new shows on the “Unpakt Network,” all centered on moving house. On “America’s Next Top Mover,” contestants struggle with boxes as European-accented judges critique their form. In “Mover Wars,” three movers grit their teeth as they consider the lowest prices they’ll accept. Additional trailers offer previews of “The Moving Truck Whisperer” and “Movebusters.”

Fans can suggest the name of the next show by tweeting to @unpakt with the hashtag #unpaktreality. If the reality theme is here to stay, I hope at least for a parody of Dance Moms, with moving men and women grooming their children to move boxes in tutus.

See the other videos after the jump

Read more

Mediabistro Event

“Vine: Create Quick Social Video to Market Your Brand” Webcast is Today at 4 pm ET

Bring your Twitter efforts and information to life with this popular video app. Find out how in our Vine webcast taking place today, June 19, from 4-5 pm ET. Gemma Craven (left), EVP, New York group director of Social@Ogilvy, will discuss how her team has created interactive videos for brands to get their message heard. Register soon.

Wednesday Morning Stir

-If you have about nine minutes to spare, here are your Cannes, Day 2 highlights, which include OMD Australia (Sydney) and O&M Amsterdam picking up Media Agency of the Year and Media Grand Prix awards, respectively. link

-In cased you missed it at Cannes, Creativeland Asia launched a new “creative experiential learning program” called “Soultripin,” which begins in the motherland (above). link

-WPP Digital unit Possible and Google-owned Wildfire have formed a strategic alliance for a global rollout of the latter’s Social Marketing Suite for Enterprises.

-Sid Lee has been appointed as global marketing agency for luxury villa (sounds redundant, no?) rental company, Luxury Retreats.

-Talent/production support services company Talent Partners has hired Sue Renaldo as director of operations.

-NYC-based shop Sub Rosa has been named AOR for color/color systems brand Pantone, marking the first such appointment by the latter in over six years.

Cubes: VIP Tour of Code and Theory

Code and Theory is a creative agency behind publishing websites like “The Verge,” and “Interview” magazine. They also have an odd fondness for the Dewey Decimal System.

Managing partners Steve Baer and Mike Treff took the mediabistroTV crew on an Olde Timey New York meets modern design tour of their fifth floor offices. The guys showed how they added wide open spaces, planned randomness and hip wood floors to the windows, the wood and the brick that originally came with the building built by the Astor family in 1886. Then there were the books, the many, many, many books.

You can view our other MediabistroTV productions on our YouTube Channel.

And Now, a Quick Cannes Report

Chris Zander, managing director/partner at Venice, CA-based prodco, Backyard, chimes in from the French Riviera and talks about why Cannes is still worth attending. So, we’ll indulge and live vicariously through him for the next few days. Stay tuned for more and you can follow Zander at @realchriszander.

I’ve come to Cannes eleven times over the past thirteen years, and most of the trips have blurred into each other.  Whenever somebody asks me what has changed since my first trip here, I usually answer that nothing has really changed but some of the faces.  Tuesday night here could always be counted on for being quiet…the calm before the storm.  But last night, for the first Tuesday night ever, the restaurants and bars were packed.  The streets were buzzing, and the Carlton was overflowing like the typical Thursday nights of the past.  Digital and Innovation have finally caught up to TV.  There is a palpable energy here, and a bigger SXSW-type of crowd.  There is an energy of excitement…what is coming next??

Read more

Tuesday Odds and Ends

-Among other notable Cannes happenings today, the Barbarian Group picked up a Grand Prix Lion in the newly created Innovation category for its creative coding platform, Cinder (highlight reel above, video explaining the technology here).

-Google-owned Motorola has reportedly shifted its global media duties–without a formal review–to Digitas. link

-Shawn Kardell, a former space150 vet who we’ve been told essentially built the Minneapolis agency’s UX department from scratch, has joined Digitaria’s Twin Cities office as user experience director.

-Y&R/Wunderman Latam has appointed seven-year and current CFO Manuel Segimon as COO, effective July 1. Succeeding Segimon as CFO will be Jesus Portillo.

-RAPP has welcomed Organic alum Michael Arguello as a senior art director.

-L.A.-based brand response agency Hawthorne Direct has welcomed Kathi Moore as its new VP/account director.

-Chrysler has recalled 2.7 million Jeeps, but don’t worry, the company assures that they’re still “safe.” link

Momentum Cuts Some Staff in St. Louis

Almost a year to the day that we last reported on cuts at Momentum St. Louis, we’ve received confirmation from the IPG-owned global agency that is has once again made some reductions–though not quite as severe as last time from what we hear. Word on the Spy line this week was that both STL and NYC were affected and the cuts were significant, though that doesn’t appear to be the case at this point.  The Momentum camp tells us, “We made recent staffing adjustments across various departments of our St Louis office – affecting a small percentage of our workforce – in line with changing business needs and a proactive restructuring to evolve our creative model.”

Sources add that the “small percentage” of cuts equates to essentially a handful of staffers in St. Louis, though we haven’t been able to confirm what current headcount is at Momentum’s Midwestern branch as a result. The St. Louis office currently works with clients including JM Smucker, William Grant & Sons, Pacific Gas & Electric and SSM Healthcare.

Pizza Hut Launches Review (Updated)

We’ve received confirmation that Pizza Hut is indeed reviewing its creative ad duties, which have been handled by The Martin Agency for the last three-and-a-half years. We’ve been told, though, that the Richmond, VA-based Martin will defend the account, which it beat out Gotham for at the end of 2009.

We’re trying to get a comment/statement from Yum! Brands-owned Pizza Hut, which worked with BBDO for 20 years prior to moving its account to the Martin Agency. Some of the latter’s most recent work for the chain includes this year’s “Hut Hut Hut” pre-Super Bowl push (see after the jump). No word yet if Pizza Hut’s review includes the digital and social components, which Martin also took over on two years ago, but we’ll hopefully have some clarification this afternoon.

Update: Pizza Hut has issued the statement below regarding the move. We’ve been told that the review involves just the advertising account as Martin doesn’t actually handle digital and social. Huge in fact manages e-commerce for the brand and TracyLocke is handling the latter.

“Pizza Hut is continually looking at fresh ways to enhance its marketing efforts and strengthen relationships and points of engagement with pizza lovers. As a result, we are conducting an advertising agency review. We are thankful for the commitment The Martin Agency has made to our business over the past 3 1/2 years and have invited them to participate in the review process. We will not disclose the other participating agencies nor additional details regarding the search.”

Read more

Arnold’s Pogogram Provides Social Content with a Bounce

Most people can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, but Arnold Worldwide’s latest creation, the socially versatile Pogogram, can multitask with ease. The pogo stick can bounce, take video and pictures, and post content to Instagram, Vine, Flickr, etc. Still working on that chewing gum bit, though. I’m not sure why the agency would build such a tricked-out pogo stick with a Canon G15 camera attached – maybe so staffers can goof around in the lobby on breaks? – but it’s a cool side project bolstered by a minimalist video with a peppy French song straight out of a Woody Allen movie. You may also want to know that Pogogram even holds a pogo stick Guinness World Record for highest bounce.

Arnold seems to have a fondness for building souped-up consumer products. First there was the socially connected beer vending machine, a homey staple for frat houses with an abundance of engineering students. Next came the Arnold Bike from Arnold Amsterdam. Beer vending machine, check. Bike, check. Pogo stick, check. Now, is there a way to combine all of the inventions together? Maybe a hydraulic bike with a beer dispenser? Think of the awards that baby could win…

Reminder: The Wrath is Back This Thursday

If you’re as forgetful as we are, let us just remind those of you based in NYC who didn’t make the trek out to Nice that the Wrath of Cannes returns this Thursday. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, competition and judging returns for the seventh annual installment of Woods Witt Dealy & Sons’ annual event, which focuses on the agency’s new brew, Wrath of Cannes Bitter Ale. While WWD&S has a recipe, label design and brewer in tow, the agency needs funds to bring its Bitter Ale to life, hence why it’s going the Kickstarter route. The Wrath 7 competition itself is explained in this brief, which asks participants to devise a social media campaign to drive folks to Kickstarter and ultimately donate.

Those who feel like competing can submit ideas directly at this Thursday’s event, which takes place at 200 Orchard from 7-11 PM. You can get further updates by following WoC7 here.

Grey NY, Digital CD Thurlow Part Ways

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that John Paul Thurlow, who’s spent just over two years at Grey New York serving as VP/sole global digital creative director across its beauty accounts including Pantene and Clairol, is no longer with the agency. From what we’ve been told, Thurlow was “let go.” Prior to his stint at Grey, the Brooklyn-based creative has also had fairly lengthy CD stints in London at the likes of LBi and Critical Mass.

Along with his 15-plus years of agency experience, Thurlow perhaps more interestingly moonlights as an illustrator whose Covers series has been featured in Juxtapoz among other trades. Regarding his exit from Grey, which we hear is currently ramping up staff on its recently won Gillette biz, one tipster laments that Thurlow “deserved a hell of a lot better.”

NEXT PAGE >>