Guinness Africa

I have absolutely no idea what kind of super secret African ingredients are in Guinness Africa but man oh man I think I need a bottle right now. What a little cracker of a film! 

Brainstorm of brain fade?

 If there's one thing in agency life I've never been a fan of it's brainstorming.

They always sound like a good idea. But sooner or later I find myself sitting with a group of people in a room wondering what on earth I'm doing there.

Knocking ideas around with a collaborator or colleague always helps make ideas happen.

But brainstorms?

Not in my experience.

Sure they produce ideas. But better than I could come up with at the pub with an art director?

I think not.

Draplin - The book

 I sent my creative team to a talk by Aaron Draplin last year.

To say they came back inspired is an understatement.

Now he has a book coming out.

Much excitement. Plus it's not too expensive.

Can't wait!

Use colour with care

AC Milan and The Haka

AC Milan. 18 Italian titles. 5 Italian cups. 7 times champions of Europe.

And they go and do something as dumb, lame and culturally insensitive as this stunt for Nivea.

Surely they don't need the money that badly. Do they? 

Kobe the conductor

Baseball. Gridiron. Basketball.

I have no interest in American sports.

And yet I absolutely love when Nike make ads about it.

This farewell Kobe Bryant spot is a great case in point.

You don't need to know who he is or what sport he plays.

It's obvious he's one of those players that's so good that everyone that hates him also has a begrudging respect for him.

Nice one Nike! 

Here we go again...

These neatly typeset statements are head every day in agencies and design studios across the globe.

In fact you could say some things never change.

Why is it like this?

Well if I knew the answer I'd tell you.

But I don't. So just enjoy this small selection from an even bigger selection from Canva Design School.

Agency wildlife

Agency life reimagined as a series of Attenborough style wildlife documentaries by US agency The Variable.

A copywriting computer?

Over the last few years technology has impacted many industries and also the jobs within those industries.

Creative types like myself generally feel pretty safe in what we do as computers can't do what we do.

Well not yet anyway...

A company called Persado has been developing (or should I say has developed) software that can write what co-founder Assaf Baciu refers to as cognitive content.

I honestly have no idea what cognitive content is by according to Baciu it's copywriting that is primed to get people engaged.

Based on my experience that's exactly what the job description of a copywriter says a copywriter does.

Yikes!

The Persado algorithm must have something going for it as no less than Goldman Sachs recently led a $30,000,000 round of investment in it.

I wouldn't be surprised to see more and more of this sort of thing in the future. However I doubt it's going to replace real copywriters.

It may take a lot of low end copywriting jobs.

But truly creative writers, those who know how to entice and engage by thinking differently will always have a role in the marketing mix. 

Neither hot or spicy

This apparently is what passes for creative thinking in Australian adland in 2016.

Bit sad really. Don't you think? 

Small but nice hotels

I kinda like this campaign for Small Luxury Hotels.

No image. Lots of attitude.

Pretty much the same strategy as the ultra budget Hans Brinker hotel.

But with a bit more class.

Love your work McCann Bristol.

Bonus Cookie Monster!

Hot on the heels of the viral success of the Apple spot with Cookie Monster comes a fantastic collection of behind the scenes out-takes.

Of course he's not a real actor. So they can hardly be real out-takes. But man oh man they sure are fun. 

BrandDNA on Reputation Revolution

I chewed the fat last week with my friend Trevor Young for his always interesting Reputation Revolution podcast.

We touch on a range of topics including creativity, personal branding, having an opinion and more.

People tell me it's a pretty good listen. And who am I to argue? 

Bland experiences

In my opinion the advertising industry has never been so cliché riddled.

Social media gurus. Digital evangelists. Content marketers. Etc etc.

Now comes exactly what the industry needs.

Digital Blanding.

Click here and read all about.

It's genius I tell ya. genius.

Youngs pubs get a makeover

Always had a fascination for the names of pubs in England.

Not to mention the signage usually found  suspended over the door.

This short film shares some of the work that went into a recent revamp of the livery of every pub in the Youngs network.

Sadly it's nowhere near long enough and left me hanging out more more. Oh well... 

Failure = You're Trying

Ultimate nineties

My daughter sent me this pic.

Does it get any more nineties than this?

VHS tape - Tick.

Windows 95 - Tick.

Cast of Friends - Tick.

All that's missing really is the theme music from Never Ending Story. 

Eye catching yoghurt

I've worked on two yoghurt brands in my career.

Each of them had clients who were fixated on us using the words natural and goodness.

Which meant that it was very difficult to do something different.

Something that would catch the eye as soon as you turned the page.

So kudos to the team at Saatchi Stockholm for this lovely work on Verum yoghurt.

Cookie Monster & Siri

When you have nothing to say use showmanship.

Still made me laugh though! 

Romanian advertising adds up

Kids in Romania are crazy about football.

But not so keen on maths.

So someone had the crazy idea of promoting maths via the Romanian team jerseys.

Pretty clever huh?

I'm not convinced it's going to help reduce the number of kids struggling with maths at school.

But it sure is a good way to generate publicity around the UNESCO figure of one in four kids being unable to solve relatively basic maths problems.

McDonalds recruits via Anime

McDonalds in Japan do teen recruitment a little differently to the rest of the world.

They do anime style.

It's all a bit cringey if you ask me.

Then again I'm not a teen so what would I know.

Tagline translates to something along the lines of: Connect to the future you.