Mailchimp finds success with in-house video (and audio) campaigns And, how it weaned itself off of agencies like Droga 5 This was a fascinating read because it highlights a direct-to-consumer brand taking creative into its own hands to convert small business owners to customers, and pushing its agencies aside. The nine-person Mailchimp Studios team (six…
2. Production
Deepfake technology is forcing reforms on publicity and privacy rights And those reforms, alongside developing technology, point to coming controversies on the horizon I have written about the challenges of deepfake technology before in Newsletter #146, and this piece above reflects a crossroads for deepfake technology in entertainment. Because though “many of the nightmare scenarios…
Brands’ needs for “cheaper services” raise ethical questions around the ad industry But, in digital advertising, efficient may be more valuable than cheap The Digiday piece above, breaking down the increasingly “transactional” nature of agency-client relationships, emerged last week alongside side this AdAge piece arguing for ethical media buying, which asked “What would an ethical…
The Video of the Week David Beckham delivers AI-generated, deep-fake multilingual malaria awareness Back in Newsletter #146, I highlighted how deepfake videos (convincing but fake audio and video) “present real challenges, and surprisingly, opportunities for publishers”. Here, RG/A, Ridley Scott Associates and video startup Synthesia partnered produce a video of international superstar David Beckham speaking…
The rise of niche content brings major, meta, cultural questions, too Why it is worth keeping an eye on what Discovery does in SVOD This piece above raises excellent, reasonable questions about what “success” actually means for “niche” strategies in creative and in streaming, if not what the value of niche actually *is*. Discovery may…
Earthquakes: Accenture Interactive and S4 Capital models point the way to next gen customer needs As CMO needs evolve to become increasingly digital, two new market entrants find wins I think this interview above should be read side-by-side with this Digiday interview with S4 Capital and former WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell. Accenture Interactive had…
AdAge delivers an inside look into Woven, P&G’s in-house strategy A year later, obvious successes, but more departures than perhaps was anticipated It has been almost a year since we first heard of P&G’s cross-holding company, internal agency model (when I warned in Newsletter #114: “In-house marketers, do not emulate P&G’s new model… yet”) ,…
The Video of the Week Nordstrom makes some fascinating creative decisions for a “top-of-the-funnel campaign” This two minute ad, “An Open Mind is the Best Look”, stars part-time actors and non-professionals and is built around ad-libbed dialogue from Carol Hickey, an acting coach. Nordstrom asks viewers to “Be receptive, be flexible, be present”, and wants…
“The biggest boom” for animated content from Amazon, Apple, Hulu and especially Netflix And studios are now struggling to keep up with a limited talent pool Back in October I wrote about how Dreamworks’ reboot of She-Ra was a next-gen animation business case study, because of how heavily it was relying on Netflix for survival….
"One of the things I learned in building Bark Bark was that the more specialized we could be, the more successful we were going to be." – Brian Tolleson In this episode in our Profile of the Creative Entrepreneur series, Joel Pilger speaks with Brian Tolleson of creative studio Bark Bark. In our ongoing Profile...