by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Exclusive Books plays with the word “Experience” in its latest radio ad campaign, produced by Net#work BBDO under the creative direction of Jenny Glover and Brent Singer, with copywriting by Jarred Osmond and Greig Watt. Thanks to a masterful voice performance, the ad takes listeners on a journey into the ‘theatre of the mind’.
Tag archives: Net#work BBDO
Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – you keep your eyes on the road
Mercedes Benz has developed yet another pioneering, high-tech innovation, aimed at improving road safety. Studies show that around one quarter of all serious motorway accidents are attributable to sleepy drivers in need of a rest, meaning that drowsiness causes more road accidents than drinking and driving.
This latest piece of computing wizardry works on several levels to analyse a driver’s behaviour in order to detect if they are getting sleepy at the wheel, and then sound an alarm that brings their attention back to reality.
Of course, just showing this technology would probably induce sleep in today’s low attention-span TV audience, so ad agency Net#work BBDO came up with an amusing take on two ‘Walter Mitty’ type characters. The first features a good looking executive type, who catches his own reflection in the mirror while driving. He’s clearly in love with himself, as each time he looks in the mirror, his gaze lingers a little longer.
The music, a Sinatra/Perry Como-style song (created for the ad by Pulse Music New York) that harks back to the sultry lounge-lizard era, is a ballad about “You’ve either got it or not,” – something that this driver seems to think is the case.
As his hand reaches up to run his fingers through his hair, and you’re about to snarl “Keep your eye on the road,” a loud beeping snaps him back to reality. It’s a reality that is a bit of a shock, because now we see that he is, in fact, balding, and maybe slightly older than the ‘mind’s eye’ picture that we previously had of him. The beeping sound was, of course, the Mercedes Benz Attention Assist technology, that picked up the fact that the driver wasn’t paying enough attention to the road, and quickly brought him back to reality.
The byline is: “‘When your mind wanders, ATTENTION ASSIST brings it back.”
Effective creativity – mutually exclusive or myth?
Is creativity and effectiveness mutually exclusive, what is the relationship and can it be defined? This question was put to a number of captains of industry who served on the 2013 APEX awards jury and this is what they had to say…
Vice Chairperson of the APEX awards jury and Chief Executive Office of award-winning agency, TBWA – Ivan Moroke said that the relationship between creativity and effectiveness has been debated by marketing moguls and advertising gurus for decades and agrees that creativity and effectiveness are indeed linked. He added that the impression that creativity is only relevant if one talks about producing brilliant, ground-breaking adverts, is false. Applying creativity is intrinsic to delivering effective advertising – one needs merely to broaden how we define and apply creativity. And, likewise, effectiveness shouldn’t just be associated with the kind of advertising that delivers business results. Effectiveness should be measured alongside creativity. Moroke provided a good example – “Even if the central idea is not driven by explicit creativity – these days creativity is often applied somewhere else in the communication mix in order to deliver the message effectively to the audience. The Apple brand is a typical example of this.”
This comes as little surprise. With innovations in mobile devices, the fragmentation of media channels and tsunami of social media that has changed the way we interact – little wonder that advertising agencies have had to apply creativity in ways beyond a pretty picture.
SA wins Design, Press & Radio Lions, takes first gold #canneslions
The Design, Press, Radio and Cyber Lions category winners have been announced at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Breaking news: New creative leadership announced for Net#work BBDO
Net#work BBDO has announced its new creative leadership team following the departures of Executive Creative Director Rob McLennan and Deputy Executive Creative Director Graeme Jenner.
McLennan and Jenner were amongst those who left following the loss of the Nedbank account late last year to Joe Public.
Net#work BBDO promoted internally – Schalit had already indicated that the move of McLennan and Jenner would allow the next layer of creative talent to move up within the agency.
Jenny Glover and Brent Singer have been appointed as Joint Executive Creative Directors of Net#work BBDO. Bruce Anderson was appointed to a new leadership support role, which will see him form part of a new Executive Creative#Council with Glover and Singer, and which will report directly to the Chief Creative Officer Mike Schalit.
EXCLUSIVE: Rob McLennan and Graeme Jenner leaving Net#work BBDO
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Net#work BBDO is losing both its Executive Creative Director Rob McLennan and Deputy Executive Creative Director Graeme Jenner.
Mike Schalit, Chief Creative Officer and co-founder of Net#work BBDO South Africa, confirmed that their resignations have been received by the agency. According to Schalit the creative partners are leaving to set up a new hot shop. They will remain with the agency for several months to ensure a smooth transition.
Schalit says Net#work BBDO has always spawned creative break-aways, some of which have become highly successful agencies in their own right, like Ireland-Davenport and Joe Public. According the Schalit the agency has always attracted creative entrepreneurs and eventually they do leave but not before contributing to the legacy of Net#work BBDO
Nedbank out to pitch soon following Net#work BBDO divorce
The Nedbank account will be put out to pitch in the next few weeks. Thulani Sibeko, Nedbank Group Executive: Marketing, Communications and Corporate Affairs, says the pitch process will start once the bank has decided on a third party agency to assist with the search. The third party agency selected process is still ongoing, Sibeko confirmed.
“Net#work BBDO will serve the notice period of 6 months stipulated in our contract ending at the end of February 2013,” says Sibeko.
Pendoring Awards more competitive than ever
by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Pendoring Awards, established in 1994 to promote and award Afrikaans language advertising, is coming to the Cape, one of the two provinces in South Africa where it is spoken by the majority of residents. It’s been warmly embraced by the city and its ad agencies.
The Pendorings have joined Cape Town’s Creative Week and the award ceremony takes place the Friday before the Loerie Award ceremonies (which happens on the Sat & Sun evenings of Sept 22 & 23).
Pendoring General Manager Franette Klerck says the move to Cape Town has reenergised the award show which has been run as a Section 21 (not-for-profit) company since 2010. This year saw over 500 entries – a jump of 40% on 2011. Entries from ad schools increased from 62 to 94 this year while entries from agencies jumped from 283 to 384.
Most categories saw increased entry levels although numbers for Outdoor were disappointing, Klerck admits. Digital entries grew well and, in a departure from judges comments on the crop reviewed in 2011, were commended for a dramatic increase in quality
Abdulla Miya: bridging business goals and communication outputs
by Kim Penstone When Abdulla Miya resigned from Net#work BBDO in October 2011, he didn’t have a job lined up at another agency. In fact, on the morning that he was due to meet with agency heads Keith Shipley and Mike Schalit to put in his resignation, he heard that his tentative plans for a new business venture hadn’t panned out. But he resigned anyway.
At the time of his resignation, he was MD of Net#work BBDO, and over the previous 14 years at the agency, had played an integral role in the agency’s phenomenal success and growth. He decided the time was right to go it alone, and announced that he would start his own strategic consultancy in 2012. He did not have a firm business plan or even one client to his name.
Maybe Miya is an eternal optimist, but he puts it down to faith. Partly external, because he is and has always been, a very spiritual person. But also internal, because after 23 years in the advertising industry, he had earned a solid and outstanding reputation as that rare breed of advertising man who could bring together the often opposing worlds of business strategy and creative communication.
Winning work: Gold winners from SA at the Cannes Lions
Winning work: Gold winners from SA at the Cannes Lions. See the work you hear so much about!