The Creative Dept

My last post for 2011. See ya next year kids! Stan x

Mercedes at speed

Very cute outdoor idea for an obviously very fast Mercedes.

No idea who did it or which country it is from.

But I've gotta say I like it. A lot.

Here's a slightly better look at the detail.

Time to get a real job

The annual Design Industry Voices survey of British design and digital agencies has just been released.

Around 500 agency staff contributed and much of what they had to say comes as no surprise to me.

It still makes for a depressing read though.

Here's a couple of highlights (if you could call them that):

85% say that clients expect more work for less money.

71% say clients expect more work in pitches for free.

43% are using more unpaid interns.

35% of agency staff have been with their agency less than a year.

And if those points aren't depressing enough how 'bout these quotes from survey respondents;

“Clients want twice as much work for half the money.”

“Clients want everything done at speed for no money."

Wonder what Bernbach, Ogilvy or the fictional Don Draper would make of it all?

A Christmas drink

Merry Christmas

Love me some Sammy. Especially at Christmas.

Hiccup!! ;-)

A different Top Ten

Trust coffee drinkin' Jesus to put the whole end of year top ten thing into perspective.

Hat tip to the disciple.

Click the pic for a better look.

Santa the Creative Director

I hear an agency I once worked for are currently without a creative director.

Rumour has it they're about to lose their senior creative team too.

Perhaps they should hire Santa to run the creative department.

After he's finished his Christmas deliveries obviously.

A blank sheet of paper

Great interview with the legendary John Hegarty.

Click here for more on the Blank Sheet Project.

Death by Powerpoint

Via

Water water everywhere

If there's one thing that bugs me it's seeing people throw out empty water bottles rather than refill them from the tap.

My wife always tells me there are more important things to worry about but after watching this ad I'm not so sure.

Australia is the driest continent on earth.

So using 7L of water to make a litre of bottled water seems like a waste of our most important natural resource.

Kudos to British copywriter Ben Kay who created this ad to raise awareness.

There's a website too if you're interested.

Now that's a Christmas card!

Know what I hate?

Digital bloody Christmas cards that's what.

There just so try hard and generally about the agency trying to look clever or ironic rather than a celebration of Christmas.

Plus you can't attach them to a string over your fireplace.

Glad to see the clever kids at Make in Brisbane share my love of the Xmas card string.


Their agency Xmas card comes in a box branded "Instant Popularity".

It includes a set of cards plus a string and some teeny weeny pegs.

Brilliant!

They mailed them today so hopefully a box will turn up in my letterbox on Monday.

Japan sets a Twitter record

Legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's classic film Castle in the Sky gets a screening about this time every year in Japan.

To say the film has a cult following there is something of an understatement.

This year's screening sent Twitter into overdrive with a mind boggling 11,349 tweets per second.

Not per minute per second.

In the film's climactic scene the two main characters issue a cry of Balse!

And as that happened viewers in their thousands echoed the cry on Twitter.

Now that is what being a fan is all about.

Not a Facebook fan a real fan.

And I very much doubt a brand could generate the same amount of passion and fervour.

Even if they offered the typical $10,000 prize that most social media promos seem to have.

Complement vs Compliment

I saw the TV spot for this campaign on the telly tonight.

Doubt it'll be troubling any award show juries but not a bad little ad.

Have to admit I'm surprised that one fast food chain would take pot shots at another.

Especially as the food isn't exactly great at either of them.

Anyway the reason I'm featuring this ad today has nothing to do with any of the above.

I want you to click the pic to enlarge it then take a look at the fourth bullet point.

Now maybe it's just me but I very much doubt that the "finest ingredients" ever pay compliments to the chicken.

Or maybe they do!

Might have to flick an email to someone at Ogilvy in Sydney tomorrow and ask them.

Think inside the box

Every now and again I see an idea and I think to myself "Wish I'd done that!"

This Adidas pop up store is one of those ideas.

Particularly like the laces popping out the lid of the box.

Just brilliant!

via

December in the Blogosphere

This is my last Around The Blogosphere column for this year.

In it I take a look at, and share my frustrations about, the new world of frictionless sharing.

Click here to go take a look and please feel free to share your opinion via the comments.

Timeless tripe

Hard to believe this is a current ad. It seriously looks like it's from the 1950s! No wonder auto makers are in so much trouble.

Memes of the year

Never thought I'd see the day that people ranked dumb web memes. Glad they do though!

Bad banner ads?

Seen any good banners ads lately?

Me neither.

Which is doubly sad considering how much time we spend online these days.

And given how much money is spent on online advertising.

Well...I think you know where I'm going with this.

Don't you?

Weapons of mass creation

Hat tip to Mona for these excellent graphics by Angry Blue.

Click the pix to make 'em bigger.

The Don on clients

The Creative Director says

There's been a bunch of ad agency memes doing the rounds of late.

Hovering art directors is still my fave.


Today I came across a new one about Creative Directors.

It's a classic.

Click here to check it out.

An unexpected friend

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who gets random friend requests on Facebook.

In fact I know I'm not.

But I doubt anyone ever expected to get a friend request from their unborn child.

Which exactly how Olla Condoms chose to promote their product.

Pretty clever huh?

In essence they take your name and create a new profile using your name but with “Jr.” added to it.

You then receive a friend request from your "Jnr."

Once your curiosity is aroused (and I'm sure it would be) if you click through to the profile page you'll see an Olla Condoms ad.

Like I said pretty clever huh?

I suspect this sort of thing may be outside the rules of Facebook.

In fact it's probably been banned already.

But I've gotta admit I like this idea. A lot!

Quotable quotes

Lovely collection of quotes by the Hidden Persuader. Guarantee you'll be able to drop at least one into a presentation before Christmas.

Avant garde design

Just came across a music blog specialising in avant garde and experimental music.

One group of records on the site really caught my eye.

They're from the Deutsche Grammophon label.


Some beautifully simple graphic design.

Particularly good reference I think for people who design for the web as they show how you can make virtually endless variants on a theme.

Love the way the designers carried the treatment across to the back cover too.


If you click and enlarge the pics you'll also see some very well crafted type.

Hard to believe these covers are almost as old as I am!