Archive for the ‘Wieden’ tag
Video of the day: This is where it starts
For basketball fans, and basketball stars wanna be. Epic new commercial directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen for Jordan brand.
The agency is Wieden + Kennedy NYC.
Should Media Companies Mentor Startups?
Large companies starting mentoring schemes for tech startups seems to be becoming a thing. The latest example is an initiative from BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the beeb, to create a six month mentorship programme for digital startups and emerging digital media companies with the aim of helping them to gain traction and scale and ultimately to establish some kind of commercial partnership.
It’s easy to see what’s in it for the corporates: early and preferential access to new technology platforms, new thinking and ideas, some of that startup pixie dust. But does it make as much sense for the startups? The BBC scheme makes no seed funding available. Instead, they offer access to mentorship from BBC Worldwide staffers, company resources including office space out in White City if they need it, and the potential of a partnership at the end of it.
A while back I wrote about Wieden & Kennedy’s Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE), an interesting initiative that has created an environment giving startups access to seed funding, office space, mentorship, potential investors and collaboration opportunities with some of Wieden’s clients. I was (and still am) pretty positive about the idea. At the time, Stuart left an insightful comment on the post questioning whether the kind of resources provided by large organisations were really the kind that startups need. It’s a good question. It’s easy to assume that the answer to that would be yes, but if the startups make use of corporate office space, is that really the right environment for them? If the ultimate outcome is to form a commercial partnership, is that the optimum commercial partnership the startup has open to it? Might the startups find themselves sucked into the type of culture and processes that are inherent to large organisations? Stuart paraphrases Steve Blank in his comment, saying that startups are not smaller versions of large companies so the “help” larger companies give may be quite a hindrance.
Projects that support entrepreneurs should be applauded and I’m sure the BBC scheme makes provisions to deal with these kinds of considerations. But as these type of schemes become more popular, these are the kind of questions that both parties need to be asking themselves.
Nike Basketball – The Ring Maker
Finally LeBron… after 9 years The King has earned his ring and Nike Basketball celebrates him with a spot that looks like a short documentary and viceversa. The story of LeBron’s success is told through a jeweler who begins working on a championship ring when LeBron is a young phenom, crafts it over the highs and lows of LeBron’s first eight years in the league, and then finishes it just in time to be delivered for the 3-time MVP’s first championship.
The agency is Wieden & Kennedy, while on the client side the kudos go to my dear friends Colin & Enrico.
Twee bureaus op shortlist Euro Effies
Lowe@Alfred en Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam staan op de shortlist van de EACA Euro Effies.
W+K ECD naar Google
(US) Iain Tait, global interactive executive creative director Wieden + Kennedy, verlaat W+K om naar Google te gaan.
Clays Mills managing director W+K Amsterdam
Clays Mills volgt Lee Newman op als managing director van Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam.
Geniuses Masquerading As Interactive Creative Directors, There’s A Place For You
Digital talent. There’s a growing need, and the need is not being met. Even by the best agencies in the land.
Ergo, Iain Tait, partner at W+K, has taken to searching for the elusive creatures (sometimes known as Interactive Creative Directors) via his newly reconfigured blog, Crackunit2.
We’re looking for Digital Revolutionaries with Traditional Sympathies, people who are first and foremost digital agitators. People who get frustrated by most of the work that they see. People that think we’re not trying hard enough. That we’re too slow, too backwards, too analogue, too static, too broadcasty – that we need to push harder and push more.
But at the same time they must have a respect for, and understanding of, the heritage of the agency. Of the un-process that has been creating great provocative communications for almost 30 years. An interest and passion for the craft that makes the most wonderful, soulful, effective, advertising in the world. But then be prepared to pick the right moments to say: “fuck it old timers, that was yesterday”.
“Fuck it old timers, that was yesterday” is an interesting sentiment, and one I can readily relate to. Nor am I alone in that. My friend Bob Hoffman, president of Hoffman/Lewis in San Francisco and author of 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising argues that many of the best young people today want nothing to do with “serving the man.” Not when they can go off and make things like games, apps, soc nets, blogs and the like.
Tait says he wants people who are frustrated by what they see. Again, that’s very interesting, because what if I happen to be highly frustrated by the idea of growing market share for Coca-Cola or P&G, two of Wieden’s top clients?
What if digital thinking isn’t the problem at all? What if the problem is much more fundamental? What if the geniuses masquerading as interactive creative directors begin to care about more than their annual trip to Cannes to collect more hardware? What if the changes they seek are systemic and the solutions they bring to the table are far outside the communications box?
Facebook krijgt marketingdirecteur
Rebecca Van Dyck, voorheen werkzaam bij Apple en Levi’s, wordt de eerste marketingdirecteur van Facebook. Haar benoeming heeft ongetwijfeld te maken met de aanstaande beursgang.
Van Dyck werkte van 2007 tot 2011 in de marketingafdeling van Apple, en hielp onder meer bij de lancering van de iPhone en de iPad. Ze was haar loopbaan begonnen bij reclamebureau Wieden & Kennedy en Chiat Day.
In 2011 stapte ze over naar Levi’s om de Go Forth-campagne te leiden. Daar is ze dus maar kort gebleven.
When Black Friday Comes…
Target has a new Flo-like character and she’s been busy promoting Black Friday, which starts five hours from now on the East Coast.
The character (invented by Wieden+Kennedy) has 15,361 followers on Twitter at this time. Pam Mandel is not one of them.
Go Ask Alice When She’s Done With Her 10K
People in these new Nike spots from Wieden + Kennedy are talking about “Alice,” a woman who likes to run.
Who is this Alice?
And why does she run the Gump?