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

Online

Symphony Orchestra Plays to Younger Demographics

It’s not a surprise that older people like classical music more than younger people. For the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra (OSB), that trend needed to be fixed. Since most of their audience is older than 65 years, the OSB started playing orchestral themes from blockbuster movies like Jaws, E.T., and Star Wars to show younger people that they had an unknown appreciation for classical music.

Rio de Janeiro agency Artplan also incorporated YouTube videos of film clips to add a visual presence to the experience. As a result, the OSB saw a 40% increase of young people in the audience. The case study gave a healthy boost to the box office draw as well: all of the orchestra’s concerts in the upcoming season are already sold out. Unfortunately, young people still like Kesha more than Wagner, but I don’t think there’s a lot that the OSB can do to remedy that. Credits after the jump.

Read more

Mediabistro Event

Early Bird Rates End Wednesday, May 22

Revamp your resume, prepare for the salary questions, and understand what it takes to nail your interviews in our Job Search Intensive, an online event and workshop starting June 11, 2013. You’ll learn job search tips and best practices as you work directly with top-notch HR professionals, recruiters, and career experts. Save with our early bird pricing before May 22. Register today.

‘Leaked’ Microsoft Ad Parodies Google, Says Chrome Spies on You, Sells Your Info

Arguably the best part of the ongoing tech wars is just how catty all of these Silicon Valley giants are when it comes to their competitors. While a Microsoft spokesperson allegedly told Mashable that the above spot was “not meant for public consumption,” it’s an obvious continuation of the brand’s “Don’t Get Scroogled” campaign, which started running late last year. Perhaps all they needed to add before it went live was a Microsoft logo. Oh, and if you’ll notice after the jump, it’s a direct parody of Chrome’s “Now Everywhere” spot from early March.

Read more

Don’t Give Zach Braff Money Even Though Everyone Else Already Did

There was a time, all the way back in April, when the Internet was outraged at actor/director Zach Braff. You see, after seeing Veronica Mars fans quickly pony up over $2 million to turn the cult 2000′s TV show into a movie, Braff figured he’d turn to the same platform, Kickstarter, to get his next film project funded.

This caused a lot of butthurt, especially on social media, where complaining is an art form of sorts. “But, @ZachBraff is a multimillionaire,” tweeted the world in unison. “Why should people be give the rich #Garden State douche their hard earned money to make a second #douchetastic film?” Comedian Tim Heidecker took the complaining to the next level, actually tweeting Zach Braff a one-page script about his douche-y idea. This was all fun for a while, but despite the Internet outrage, Braff’s Kickstarter investors already raised more than he needed for the movie, and everyone stopped caring. Well, almost everyone.

Starting today, the guys behind the website Screen Junkies (featuring that “brand rapper” former Deutsch LA copywriter dude Jason Pickar) have turned to Kickstarter competitor IndieGoGo to start “Don’t Back Zach Braff.” The campaign discourages people to donate to Zach Braff’s movie, despite it already being funded last month and everyone moving on to more important things like Angelina Jolie and the How I Met Your Mother season finale. With $10,000, Screen Junkies will take out a full-page ad in the print edition The Hollywood Reporter discouraging the people to give money to Zach Braff’s already funded project which, even if it wasn’t, would still be a waste of money, because you’d be making a media buy in The Hollywood Reporter and this isn’t 1954. With $200,000 Screen Junkies pledges to make whatever this is into even more of an exercise in futility by buying a full-page ad in (hold onto your butts) Entertainment Weekly.

Yes, of course they’re doing all of this ironically and the purpose of stopping celebs from crowdfunding their future vanity projects. After all, when has doing things solely for the sake of irony not led to great ideas? Donate here, or, you know, you could not let whatever Zach Braff or other Hollywood folks are doing have any impact on your spending habits. Credits after the jump.

Read more

Mash+Studio NYC Makes Metaphors with Children’s Story (for Adults)

“Jenny and the Chicken,” a Mash+Studio slideshow illustrated by Danny Mcclain, is one of those metaphorical stories that lets you know it’s metaphorical halfway through the narrative. A boy named Brand wants to befriend a a girl named Jenny, but he can’t figure out how to make her like him. He tries all of the usual friendly activities, like connecting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., but Jenny doesn’t seem interested in a guy who talks about himself all the time. Remember, his name is Brand. Get it?

This type of wink-wink story is typically not as clever as its creators think it is. Anthropomorphic chickens aside, engaging with consumers effectively is a lot more complicated than showing how a brand sees the world. I’m not sure who Mash plans to target with this slideshow, which is partly why it feels disjointed, but unless they start teaching brand equity to second graders, you might want to turn the page.

DraftFCB Finds Success with Felines, Cash Prizes

DraftFCB Chicago has invoked the cuteness theory for their latest Del Monte Foods work, which suggests that people will always respond positively to cats or babies. The Facebook campaign lets users personalize a digital cat avatar with pet photos and create a jingle. Aside from the obvious cooing and awwing, those who play along could win a $100 daily prize or a $10,000 grand prize. I can almost hear the creaky bones of cat ladies crunching as they try to get up from their rocking chairs and walk to their computers without stepping on one of their 47 cats.

The app has been so successful thus far, according to echoes from the Chicago office, that the agency’s needed to add more servers to accommodate the traffic. That means cat ladies are probably making 47 entries for each of their kittens, giving them more chances to win and less chances to ever reclaim a normal life that involves other human beings.

Credits after the jump.

Read more

Ah, So This is How ‘Couchella’ Came to Fruition

This is the true story about how one agency locked three creative types (a copywriter, art director and creative technologist) in a room for 24 hours and challenged them to, you guessed it, “get creative.” The end result was a viral hit of sorts from a few weeks ago called “Couchella,” which debuted just in time to coincide wit the annual weekend-long music extravaganza in California. As we previously mentioned, the trio who were put to the test were Julie Matheny, Scott Blew, and Ivan Cash, whose experiment is captured in the clip above. The “Couchella” project, essentially an internet music festival, actually marks 72andSunny’s involvement with Portfolio Night 11, specifically the Los Angeles installment. Whether it worked or not is up to the audience that took part, but hey, at least “Couchella” provided a free alternative to the now-bloated event that inspired it.

ASICS Prepares Us For ‘What’s Next’

Over the past few years, VITRO’s work for ASICS has been consistently high-quality, doing a remarkable job of depicting products’ ability to allow athletes achieve the impossible but not quite the unbelievable. I’m talking, of course, of popular spots that feature athletes out-running arrows and kind of walking on water, which I would link here but I know you’ve seen them hundreds of times already.

Because of this history, a new spot, “What’s Next” is a bit surprising. There’s nothing superhuman or jaw-dropping here. Just some good ol’ fashioned working out. In a note from VITRO, they mention that the spot was “shot in three days, in two countries, 4 parks, 3 gyms and an Italian restaurant, using 3 Olympians (Bryan Clay, Andy Potts & Ms. Lolo Jones) 12 elite US athletes in all — a hurdler, shot putter, javeliner, golfer, tennis star, triathlete, decathlete, pole vaulter, and track star. Cool Stuff: Our creative director wrote the lyrics for the song which provides the backbone of the piece.” Even more cool stuff: “Javeliner” is apparently a word. Try to use it in a sentence sometime this weekend!

While “What’s Next” certainly looks beautiful, and is very well directed (by some dude named “Xander”), it doesn’t exactly employ an execution brand new to the area of sports apparel. Perhaps as a results of heavy marketing, ASICS feels it doesn’t need to be different to stand out, having gained that brand recognition of the last few years. In short: It’s great, but not the groundbreaking work we’ve come to expect. Credits after the jump.

Read more

Audi Gives Us Spock Vs. Spock

Audi has switched gears from commuting with Iron Man to inject some ad gusto into another blockbuster franchise about to hit theaters: Star Trek into Darkness. The latest spot – produced by PMK-BNC – pits the wily veteran against the smooth newcomer. Spock v. Spock. Leonard Nimoy against Zachary Quinto in a battle of intellect, trash-talk, and automobile semantics. Quinto may be prettier, but Nimoy has an old-man game full of tricks up his sleeves.

The two-minute video promotes the new Audi S7 as the perfect vehicle for anyone in need of a smooth ride with technological toys. This may not be the USS Enterprise, but it can get Quinto to the golf club faster than Nimoy’s Mercedes, at least until the twist ending. The response has been overwhelmingly positive on YouTube thus far, and it’s a safe bet that sci-fi geeks will get a kick out of the Spock-off in the coming weeks. Can those geeks buy Audis? Probably not, but at least they’ll chuckle at the playful banter. Credits after the jump.

Read more

C-E Creates Tumblr, Meme Generator and More in Honor of, Yes, Two Expecting Falcons

Yep, it’s basically just as silly as it sounds. From what we’ve been told, this campaign from Detroit’s own Campbell-Ewald has been years in the making and concerns two adult peregrine falcons, which currently have three nest eggs about to hatch on the roof of the agency’s current Warren, MI headquarters. The campaign’s origins date back several years when C-E employee Paul Lenney (who serves as property manager) decided to construct and install a nest box on the agency’s rooftop in the hopes that a pair would land and ultimately reside up top.

Well, it took nearly a decade, and Campbell-Ewald has decided to celebrate this auspicious event (we think) with a web-based onslaught led by group digital CD Iain Lanivich that includes a Tumblr site, livestream footage, a birthdate pool, the Twitter hashtag #CEfalcons and even a meme generator (thanks for the personalized pic). Too bad we’re just stuck with a multitude of less-exotic pigeons here in NYC.

Welcome to the New Red Bull Studios

After battling several “international adversaries” as we’ve been told, Dutch digital shops Momkai was tapped to create a new visual identity and website for Red Bull Studios, which spans a network of ten recording studios from L.A. to New York to London to Auckland. The end results of Momkai’s efforts can be found in the case study clips above and below. The goal of this project for Red Bull, which is based in Austria (news to us), is to give the brand’s studios some digital uplift while helping support creative talent and introducing visitors to both known and unknown artists. Well, it sure beats the hell out the spots we’ve been jamming and practicing at over the years.

NEXT PAGE >>