AKQA

Is there any bigger Halloween buzzkill than running over trick-or-treaters with your luxury automobile? Not only does it take a toll on your conscience, but the necessary repair work can run a high bill, especially if you’re driving an imported specialty vehicle.

With the Audi A6′s thermal imaging and night vision assistant technology, the holiday revelry doesn’t have to end on the way from the bar to the afterparty. The above spot, created by AKQA, reminds drivers of the 41 million little monsters on the roads this year (not to mention their accompanying parents, who make for slightly larger but equally frightening monsters). As we’ve been told, the technology, which can detect pedestrians up to 300 feet away, is displayed in the spot with no special effects added.

While Audi A6 drivers can enjoy Halloween with added security, those of you who choose to be cruising around in different cars should remember to keep an eye out, keep the speed down, and keep your car stereo blasting “The Monster Mash” to a reasonable level. Credits after the jump.

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From agency AKQA and prodco The Cartel comes a new spot for Nike+, starring young UK pop sensation Ellie Goulding and a remix of her debut single, “Under the Sheets.” Maybe I’m just a little old-fashioned with my exercise regimen, but are people actually jogging to dubstep remixes these days?

The spot follows Goulding during an international tour that makes stops in London, New York and Los Angeles, tracking her route using Nike+ and iPod technology. Similar to LCD Soundsystem’s 2006 opus for Nike and iTunes, “45:33,” Goulding is releasing a 30-minute mixtape called “Run into the Light,” now available exclusively on iTunes. As we’re told in the announce, the mixtape “works seamlessly as a 30-minute running aid, with peaks and troughs that sync perfectly into the rhythm of a run to help inspire the listener to run better than ever before.”

This spot also seemed somewhat familiar to us, at least in concept,  as it looks like an in-house project from Nike Sportswear we saw last Novemember that documented the workout of Brooklyn resident and Ra Ra Riot cellist, Alexandra Lawn. Maybe it’s just the use of an attractive young female musician jogging around an urban environment, but we can imagine Nike+ seeing the Sportswear spot and telling AKQA, “Do something like that,” to which AKQA responded, “We’ll do better.” Credits after the jump.

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A few folks at AKQA felt bad for San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, whose season came to an end after a gruesome home plate collision back in May, so they decided to send their hometown hero some well-wishes. And since there’s no better way to show compassion than creating a Twitter profile, @Poseyscast was set up right after the player’s foot injury occurred and since its launch, has lured hundreds of people to “sign his cast” via tweet. The case study above explains it all and the end result of this effort was a physical card featuring the five best tweets that was mailed to Posey himself. Hope it helped somewhat.

Credits:

CD: Rudi Anggono

AD/CW: Katherine Fernandez/Greg Damiani

The Copa América is a soccer tournament that pits 10 South American national teams against each other for bragging rights and glory. As it’s one of the most watched sporting events in the world, W+K Amsterdam and AKQA London are teaming up to give us their own spin on the event, renaming it “Copa Barrio.” “Write the Future” this is not, but it still finds a way to capture that frenetic national pride that makes these games so exciting to watch. “Barrio” in this instance is used to say that these games represent regional culture, comparing an entire country to a neighborhood where one grew up.

On Nike Football’s Facebook page, fans can select their own barrios and create their own team mottos and posters for matches. As for the spots, if “Write the Future” was a sci-fi comedy/drama, then Copa Bario is a collection of short cultural documentaries. These ads are visually engaging short films, and that’s what makes them stand out. That kickass logo isn’t bad either. Check out second clip and credits after jump…

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Today, as part of the 58th Cannes Lions fest in France,  AKQA announced the 2011 winners of its 6th annual Future Lions competition (watch winning films here).

The competition invited students (in any field) over the age of eighteen to submit campaigns that “advertise a product from a global brand in a way that couldn’t have been one five years ago, to an audience of your choosing.” When we think “global brand,” we tend to think big fish like Nike and and McDonald’s. After all, coming up with unprecedented ways to sell expensive sneakers or artery-clogging burgers is exceedingly difficult. What’s most inspiring about the Future Lions competition, is how the top contestants gravitate towards campaigns that aren’t just innovative for their use of the chosen brand, but also have a social conscience and the capacity to actually…er…well, for lack of a better term, change the world.
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AKQA has announced the winner of the Cannes “Future Lions School of the Year.” This year, the honor goes to Miami Ad School Europe’s campus in Hamburg, Germany, which represented the most shortlisted finalists in global competition for this year’s Cannes International Festival of Creativity. You might remember this school from having two students recently concoct the Facebook-connected bottle opener for Heineken.

This is the sixth year AKQA has hosted Future Lions, and in response to the award Niklas Frings-Rupp, Managing Director of Miami Ad School Europe in Hamburg said in a press release, “Being a finalist in Future Lions is already a huge achievement as it is a highly competitive show and displays the state of the art in communication.  Becoming School of the Year and having the most shortlisted works in the competition is definitely something my business partner Oliver Voss and I have to think about how to properly celebrate.”

We’ve seen a variety of ad agency charity for the victims of the Japan disaster, including a t-shirt Lee Clow sports while hanging out with dogs (hope you know someone at TBWA to get that). And, while the charitable programs have taken all sorts of creative turns, we have yet to see a simple, direct way to donate.

“Creatives Unite for Japan” is a simple concept the combines the Art Directors Club and One Club with AKQA and is, as they put it, “NOT A CALL FOR ENTRIES. Instead, it’s simply a place to donate through PayPal that funds the Ashinaga Foundation, an organization that aids orphaned children who have lost their parents due to hardship, economic or natural disasters. As AKQA CCO and ADC board member Rei Inamoto says, “Right now, Japan does not need ideas that win gold, silver or bronze Cubes or Pencils, they need our support. We urge fellow creatives around the world to unite in rebuilding Japan.” Hard to argue with that logic, isn’t it? Donate here.

Creative duo Paul Nowikowski and Craig Kind (l-r) have joined the fold at AKQA San Francisco to work within Pierre Lipton’s Xbox team as well as on the digital agency’s Google business. Art Director Nowikowski and copywriter Kind arrive from London-based Glue Isobar, where they were creatives on Grey Goose, Google, Coca-Cola and led the pitch that secured the Codemasters account. During their time in London, the pair also co-founded The Young Creative Council and Playground Academy, two initiatives designed to help nurture and promote top young creative talent.

Along with the new hires and GCD Lipton, who joined AKQA from BBDO in July, the Xbox team also includes ACD and CP+B alum Tom Zukoski.

AKQA added some bulk to its strategic planning team as the agency’s not only brought on Rachel Lawlan (pictured) as planning director, but six more staffers ranging from senior planners to associates.

On the senior strategic planning level, the agency added Sebastian Kemmler, Simon Wassef, James Filmer and Gabriella Petter to the mix, while Sarah Waite and David Prentell join as strategic planner and associate strategic planner, respectively.

As for planning director Lawlan, the new AKQA member previously worked at DDB on VW most notably and also led the Sony Ericsson and ITV accounts at Dare. All seven new AKQA hires will be based in the digital agency’s London office.

More: “Nicholson, Fox Join AKQA London”

Ahh, we love it when we’re right. A month after we reported that Pierre Lipton quit BBDO and was possibly headed to AKQA, the latter agency stopped being silent and finally announced that he has indeed joined its San Francisco office as a GCD on the Xbox account.

While at BBDO, Lipton served as SVP/CD and worked on campaigns for HBO’s True Blood and Big Love as well as AT&T among others. Prior to that, he was an ACD at Chiat where he worked on Absolut and helped launch the “In An Absolut World” tagline. At AKQA, he will report to CCO Rei Inamoto.

More: “Nicholson, Fox Join AKQA London”