Michaela Ingels

I know I haven't blogged in a while so I thought a great way to kick off 2012 would be to look back... way back... 

Four thousand years ago the Ancient Egyptians invented advertising by carving public notices in steel. Fast forward to the present day, and augmented reality apps, Facebook Like-driven campaigns and viral commercials, such as the Old Spice Guy, are common. 

This illustrated timeline, created by Infolinks, takes a walk down advertising’s memory lane.

The Impossible Brief

Right so let’s talk some advertising jargon:

Background
The Israeli - Palestinian conflict has been going on for over 60 years.
To date, the political leaders have failed in reaching a diplomatic solution to create a sense of closeness between the two nations.

Objective
To break down the barriers between two nations that for a long time have been physically close, yet mentally worlds apart.

The Mission
Rather than “out of date” policies, we need “out of the box” solutions. Let’s show the world that creative minds at their best can inspire even political leaders.

The Idea
Detail your original, creative and truly inspiring suggestion for how to bring these two nations closer together. To help illustrate your idea, you can upload a picture or add a web link

The Result
The most inspiring solutions will be selected by a joint panel of Israeli and Arab advertising people from the BBR group. The winner will receive a ticket to the 2011 Cannes Lions, and who knows, you may even win a Nobel Peace Prize.

An interesting speech from The original Mad Man about the difference between Creatives and Directs.

The job of any creative: 'to understand their soul and then make that soul relevant to a greater number of people'

Links:
Advertising, Media and Marketing Blogs | Wieden+Kennedy
welcome to optimism
Wieden+Kennedy Blog

Google, a company that has made its name off search and has famously eschewed brand advertising for over 10 years, have picked up five awards for creative and inventive advertising campaigns at Cannes!

These days, it seems like everybody wants to be famous, or at least relatively Internet-famous. Google was probably banking on that idea, at least a little bit, when it announced its Google Demo Slam competition last October. The idea was that you pitched videos about cool applications of Google technologies against each other and asked users to vote up a winner. Here a couple of my favourites!

1. Extra Spicy This one has the thrill of a prank call, but with the tasty reward that is samosas and indian curry. Who knew Google Translate could get you that?

2. Rushmore A group of guys go through a lot of chicken wire and spraying face paint to create a replica of Mount Rushmore that Google Goggles recognizes. While one commenter points out at the end that Goggles ultimately recognizes the landmark based on a pattern of fake trees rather than on their replica of the faces themselves, it's still a creative slam that's fun to watch.

3. Stealing the logo I think the Prize for most original Search Background should go to these group of artists!

4. Epic Google Docs Animation  You see I only just recently discovered GoogleDocs on Gmail so I thought that this video was a great example of the power of Google. While this probably isn't the best way to collaborate to make an animation project, these guys take the cake in the "most creative" category by using only Google Docs to create the most fun fake-informational presentation ever.

D&AD Student Award Winner 2011 (Open Graphic)

Project: Walk'n'Paint
Client: Arjowiggins Creative Papers
BRIEF: Create a viral movement amongst designers that unbreakable links Arjowiggins Creative Papers with creativity and the creative design process.

I am all for anything that encourages art for the masses which is why I think this phone app is a perfect blend of Art meets the 21st Century technology.

The whole idea is to imagine the world to be an endless blank sheet of paper. The challenge is yours. The Students Jenne Genser, Christian Grelich created an App for you to design the largest painting mankind could ever imagine. Be a part and share your creativity with the rest of the world. Accept the challenge to be the best painter only while you are moving through the streets by GPS.

I don't know about you but I am a personal hater of things fake: fake nails, fake bags, fake hair ... So I thought that this is an awesome campaign by Leo Burnett Beirut, the idea was to create awareness around the counterfeit products in Lebanon and drive some attention to the call center where people can report fake products. The campaign, which was done for the BPG (Brand Protection Group), won a Silver Lions Award in the PR category for “Best integrated campaign led by PR” at the Cannes Lions Festival 2011, amazing!

The campaign started with a TVC featuring a couple having a too-good-to-be-true conversation with a message saying the closest things to you can fake, here it was the husband! The campaign moved to different mediums like radio, newspapers and Facebook. Al-Balad newspaper faked its logo on the front page, with a small ad asking people to reach the call center to report the logo issue, and it’s not only the logo that imitated, TV and radio presenters, mall goers, and even celebs and bloggers through Facebook.

Cannes, France, June 20, 2011 — To mark the centennial of David Ogilvy’s birth, the agency he founded is holding a special celebration at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Turn red for creativity at www.ogilvy.com/do100

“Ogilvyisms”- Quotations from David Ogilvy
1. Never write an advertisement that you wouldn’t want your own family to read.
2. We pursue knowledge the way a pig pursues truffles.
3. If you hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants.
4. Encourage innovation. Change is our life blood, stagnation is our death knell.
5. We prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.
6. Tolerate genius.
7. Unless your advertising is built on a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.
8. Get rid of sad dogs who spread gloom.
9. I believe in the Scottish proverb: Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom. They do not die of hard work.
10. You cannot bore people into buying your product; you can only interest them in buying it.
11. The relationship between a manufacturer and his advertising agency is almost as intimate as the relationship between a patient and his doctor. Make sure you can live happily with your prospective client before you accept his account.
12. No manufacturer ever got rich by underpaying his agency. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys.
13. Hire the kind of people clients don’t have and wouldn’t dream of having.
14. If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out – either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.
15. Do not summon people to your office. It frightens them. Instead go to see them in their offices.
16. You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.
17. I despise toadies who suck up to their bosses; they are generally the same people who bully their subordinates.
18. I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings.
19. Look for people who aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.
20. The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.

YouTube - lifeinaday's Channel‏

I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite campaigns from last year which I have found out has won a Gold Prize at Cannes this year for Best Viral Marekting is the Life in  Day by Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald.

Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create the world's largest user-generated feature film: a documentary, shot in a single day, by you. On July 24 2010, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.

The film has just come out here in London and can't wait to go and see the end product!

D&AD Student Awards:

BRIEF: Launch ‘A Frame’, Umbro’s lifestyle footwear collection, to a young, football inspired, audience.

I really like this response from 2 students for the above brief. Its fun, gets people involved and shows that there is hope for a new generation of advertisers in the world. It is not enough to make a bland advert that most people will probably ignore, the best way is to make a social intergrated campaign that actually involves people in the brand, gets them excited and gives them something to talk about.