You probably can’t tell by the fish belly white color of my skin, but
today concludes three days in Hawaii. While the appeal of riding
bicycles between local watering holes with David Angelo and Ian Grais
or taking surfing lessons with Margaret Keene was strong, the desire
to get home in time to see my two sons play in their respective
championship basketball games was stronger.

We judged a couple hours this morning and there’s not much new
insight. Things followed much the same pattern with there being a few
bad pieces, a lot of good ones and a handful of great ones.
Fortunately, I had Mila Kunis in my head telling me which ads to vote
for. Turns out she speaks to me through TV commercials and has a huge
crush on me but doesn’t want anyone to know because the papparazi will
talk since she’s a big movie star and I have a wife of sixteen years
and loud children. So right now, we’re only communicating through the
television.

Suffice it to say, Mila was really impressed with the work and wanted
me to tell you that if one of your pieces is recognized in the annual,
you should be very proud of yourself and probably ask someone in the
immediate vicinity of your office for more money. Genuinely, the One
Show has become the Olympics of advertising with 65% of the entries
coming from outside the US and creatives traveling literally from all
over the world to judge. The internet, guerilla marketing, promotional
and event marketing and reality television have allowed our industry
to flourish creatively in ways that we honestly unimaginable only a
few years ago.

Now, if this makes you concerned about the basic literary and design
craftsmanship of that the One Show is rooted in, let me give you an
example that will help you rest easier. It actually comes from one of
my fellow judges.

Thirasak Tanapatanakul, (AKA Guy) of Creative Juice, created a piece
for the Thailand Yellow Pages, where he used Google Maps to shoot an
aerial shot of the region. Okay, so far, not too terribly complicated.
Then, it appears like he colored all the rooftops yellow. Until you
look closer. At which point you start to feel a nauseous wave drift
over you as you realize how smart/determined/effing mad he is. What
Thirasak did, was cut out the appropriate Yellow page ad for each Thai
buisness and affix it to the appropriate roof on the shot. Thousands
of them. It took him four months to complete this labor of love. So
next time you get tired of noodling with a layout, think of Thirasak,
hunched over a cityscape with an Exacto knife and little tiny pieces
of yellow paper.

Having talked a bit about the work and Mila’s discerning voice in my
head, the last thing I’d like to mention are the judges themselves. If
you’re like me, you always imagine these crass, self-important
windbags looking dismissively at the work and saying anything they
didn’t do sucks. But the fact is, the men and women I judged with were
some of the nicest, most genuine and thoughtful people I’ve met in
some time. This extends right through the One Show staff of Mary
Warlick, Kevin Swanepoel, Tiffany, Emily, Joni, Jeff and his wife
Gretchen. These are good people who invest themselves year after year
in making sure the One Show is the premiere creative advertising
competition in the world.

I know that sounds glib, but think about it. The One Show has
outlasted most agencies and a hell of a lot of clients. Most
importantly though, no one has ever rushed the stage and stolen the
awards. Why? Because they’re motivated by quality rather than money.
Because the judges really care about the work. And because, well, if
someone ever dared put a hand on a pencil they didn’t deserve, Mary
would beat their ass.

See you in New York.

Court Crandall – Ground Zero / Los Angeles

Of course you remember the old Reese Peanut Butter Cup campaign where two people collide into each other.  One is consuming peanut butter and the other chocolate.  They offputtedly (new word!!!) exclaim, “You got peanut butter in my chocolate!” and “You got chocolate in my peanut butter.”  Then they try it and, shucks if it isn’t just swell.  They explain away the birth of a God-sent treat to this little miscalculated intersection and subsequent collision.

I think awards season is just swell too.  Not only because we all want to coat our walls with shiny items, but also because, even when we are not creating best in show pieces, our brains are squeezing the juice out of every brief and working just like God and advertising intended them.  Granted, some briefs simply produce no juice and we shuffle them off our desks as quickly as possible to make space for the pretty, glittering, hope-filled briefs to come.  (i.e. background designs for email blasts with a heavy emphasis on template usage.) It is nice though, to really think for a client that you know too well will say, love the idea, but it just isn’t as nice as the other less exciting spot for our overall campaign.  Honestly, who cares if anyone buys it.

I’ve decided that I’d rather continue doing good work and selling the few glimmering stars than to let myself fall into the all to common trap of writing ready-made, clients-pre-approved ads that I won’t want to put my name on at the end of the day.  Apparently, in this economy raises are awards dependent.  So… I’m gonna keep letting the awards brain spill out into the client brain.  BRAAAAAIIINSSSS (that was my impression of a zombie reading this post.)

With all the interest being generated in Twitter in the UK, in my view  sparked by Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (@wossy) and his conversation with Stephen Fry (@stephenfry).

On wednesday this week i saw a section on the  One Show (UK viewers only) where Gyles Brandreth explored what it was all about. The presenters who i enjoy watching didn’t quite get it and wondered why you would want to listen to the types of conversations that generally happen in these spaces – “making tea”, “going to shops” and ” off to town” being the type they were referring to…

I revisited my RSS feeds from earlier in the week and found this post by Brian Solis over at PR 2.0 about twitter and building relationships, it also contains links to supportive tools and feedback directly from the twitter community. A useful guide to understanding the real benefits of twitter, well worth checking out.

• PR 2.0: Finding the Tweet Spot – Top Tips for Building Twitter Relationships.

Tomorrow O&M Jakarta will have a special guest. Some famous advertising person are perceived as rock stars. Not based on the look (although I have to admit some great Creative Directors manage to look good), but based on their works and award achievements. Yes, creative ranking, too.

This will not be the first time this office invite a guest speaker for an inspiring session. The last speaker was John Merrifield and I really really enjoyed his session. I hope tomorrow we’ll get another inspiring one.

So I google the name, and the result is amazing. Not merely because he has tamed many prestigious international awards like Lion Cannes, D&AD, Clio, OneShow, and many more, but also because I found out that he cares about animal’s and nature’s welfare. I really can’t wait to meet him!

With roots in Chennai, Jagdish Ramakrishnan, or ‘Juggi’, worked forseveral agencies in India before moving to Singapore in 1995, where he has gone on to become one of Singapore’s most lauded and consistent creative talents. He has defended his reputation with wins at Cannes, the Clios, D&AD, and One Show for both Aware and Greenpeace. Runner-up as Creative of the Year at Media’s Agency of the Year Awards last December, losing out to two ECDs, Ramakrishnan heads an award-winning team that includes fellow Top-10 Saatchis Singapore creative, Richard Copping. Citing animal rights, wine, and travel among his many interests, outside of the advertising community Ramakrishnan volunteers with Acres, an animal welfare group, and also acts as a guide for the Nature Society.

In Aug 2007 Juggi left Saatchi to join BBDO as ECD in October and the agency has already moved to form a new creative leadership team comprising of Andrew Petch, Richard Copping and John Kyriakou.

Ramakrishnan, who replaces Farrokh Madon who left for McCann Erickson, will work together with BBDO Singapore CCO and chairman, Danny Searle. BBDO MD, Jean-Paul Burge said “as we move from a being a strong local agency to a centre of excellence in the region, one of my key pre-occupations is to ensure that we have an unfair share of the best talent. With Juggi we have this, he is a great addition at a time when the business is growing and BBDO Singapore is developing Total Work ideas that are both effective and creative”.

Source : Brand Republic News and Media and Marketing Interactive

These are some of his well known works;

Thai SPCA – Cannes 2007 Lions Winner

Penguin – Cannes 2007 Outdoor Winner

Republic of Singapore NAVY: Stop Dreaming

D&AD 2006 winner yellow pencil – Writing For Advertising category

]]> http://mybrandedlife.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/for-the-record-i-dont-discriminate/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:10:22 +0000 mybrandedlife http://mybrandedlife.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/for-the-record-i-dont-discriminate/

i just want y’ulle to know something. there are copywriters out there who discriminate against briefs. they see some briefs as ‘not being cool enough’ for them, so they give them less attention and do things like run around the studio making a noise and being ‘zany’ and ‘crazy’. i am not one of those copywriters. in my eyes, every brief is equal. every brief deserves to be treated like an allan gray tv ad, even if it’s a simple promotion.

If there is ever a flood in the agency i will take a pair of every brief so that when we begin advertising life anew all the briefs can mate and make new briefs and life will be preserved. The meek briefs will inherit the earth.

********************************DO YOU KNOW ANY DISKRIMINATORS?*******************

discriminators give copywriters a bad name. they make us seem like shallow dimwits who are only looking out for the next pun we can make, or the next LOERIE D&AD GRAND PLATINUM PRIX EAGLE we can win. really, being a copywriter is about so much more. it is about giving a voice to the brands that shape our minds / homes / wardrobes / poor sense of self-image / addiction to sex/spending/eating / addicition to the hot fragrance ads in glossy magazines / loyalty programmes that give us free coffees/half a book/points we can collect like Diaper Babies / personality disorders. it is about giving people ready-made opinions so they can get on with the important stuff like changing nappies and choosing Low G.I. it’s about helping humans judge and discriminate against other humans. but it is certainly not about winning awards.

********************************************************************************************

Did you hear? I won a Grand Pencil Loerie Lion on Saturday. Yeah no big deal it's my tenth one. Do you believe me about how i am awesome now? Huh? Because if you don't I'll just win another one and then you won't be able to deny my awesomeness any longer. PS after i eat i make myself puke.

“It is a writer’s duty to come up with fancy ways of saying normal things so that people don’t realise how boring life actually is, and to encourage them to eat more fatty burgers because living for a long time while not being excessively wealthy is not much fun.” – Bill Bernbach

I once read this saying about how artists make art to escape from reality. Do you think copywriters and art directors make ads to escape from art? sometimes art is too meaningful to me and i cannot access the message because i am too used to brands delivering very clear messages to me and teaching me how to think and communicate clearly. i think art taught me that there are people out there who are searching for such extreme experiences that they would pay money for something that i made even though it looks like shit. miss those days. but i try to apply that learning when i am designing and conceptualising brand experiences, ie. i make them as extreme and experience-ful as possible, because there are obviously many people out there who have logged into the void that all of us humans feel inside, or, VOIDBOOK, as i like to call it.

Would you like to add the "Deep Down Inside We All Just Want To Be Loved" Application?

How to deal with a discriminator:

Discriminators are tricky to deal with because they have a niggling suspicion that they are more awesome than anything in the world. I would have this advice for you:

- Point out their physical flaws. It’s a cheap shot, but it works. Telling a discriminator they should lay off the Vida Muffins will cause them to brood for a good few hours because they will be struggling to deal with the fact that you don’t think they are wholly and utterly awesome.

- Use the brooding time to question whether awards actually mean anything in the greater scheme of things. This is like kicking them when they are down. Because they have had a loss of confidence, they will entertain your line of questioning. Suddenly, they will not feel so awesome.

- Use this crisis of self-esteem to toss out the saying “Ah life. You’re only as good as your last ad you know,” at random. The discriminator will take it personally, and probably blush as they realise you’re trying to tell them that their attitude has run away with their talent. Now would be a good time to push the brief that’s being discriminated against across the desk and say ‘Take a look at this when you get a chance?” The discriminating copywriter will get right on it.

Remember y'ulle: it's all about finding a balance.

WOW! I really wasn’t expecting this one but the Be Kind Rewind website took home a silver in the One Show Interactive awards 2008. We haven’t received the ‘metal’ yet so in the spirit of the campaign I wrapped a pencil in silver foil and have ’sweded’ the award. Thanks to the Judges, Client and all the team at TEQUILA.

You can download the full winners PDF list here

x

Segnalazione per gli amanti della pubblicità: dal 6 al 9 maggio a New York oneclub.org premia i migliori commercial all’interno del ONESHOW, uno showcase delle più interessanti agenzie creative del mondo; le categorie coprono praticamente tutti i possibili territori, dalla tv e la radio, all’interactive adv e i nuovi media.

Se volete partecipare anche voi, andate sul sito e votate il vostro spot preferito: molto bello lo spot realizzato per la ONG Powa, la cui mission è combattere la violenza sulle donne. MTN, una telco sudafricana, ha infatti stretto una partnership con Samsung grazie alla quale, per ogni telefonino Samsung venduto, MTN donerà a Powa 10 rand (che corrispondono a 0,86546 euro). L’agenzia aveva a disposizione un budget di 120,000 rand per realizzare uno spot televisivo che promuovesse l’iniziativa, ma ha fatto di meglio: ha usato il budget per finanziare alcuni dei progetti di Powa e ha realizzato lo spot a costo zero… come? Realizzando un Power Point! Sfortunatamente il sito non rende disponibile il codice embed per pubblicare il video, ma per i curiosi eccolo qui.

La classifica del ONESHOW per ora vede invece in testa “Doodle Heart”, campagna a cura di Saatchi&Saatchi NY per JC Penny:

Be Kind Rewind website has managed to “swede’ itself into the one show shortlist. Fingers crossed!