Cool Shit 2014
Edited from the presentation "State of Our Art" by Federico Gaggio and Patrick Burgoyne of Creative Review at Promax BDA Europe conference, London, March 2014. The focus of this showcase is on the TV branding and promotional work which we feel has been the most significant or creatively interesting over the past year, and we are also going to look at ideas and campaigns pushing the bar of excellence across the wider marketing and creative world.
ITV
In January 2013, ITV rolled out a rebrand that extended across all five of its channels in the UK as well as its online and on-demand products including ITV Player. An impressive feat, executed to perfection by ITV creative. We like the 'colour-picking' feature whereby the on-screen logo adapts to the tone and colour scheme of the footage of the TV show being promoted.”
More on the ITV rebrand on the Creative Review Blog.
With the new branding ITV introduced a clear brand idea: this is where [insert keyword here] lives. The new ‘entertainers’ campaign is visible outside here and on today’s hot spot. This blockbuster celebrating its drama heritage embodies the idea perfectly.
Icons
Equally beautifully made is this This Sunday Times ad from Grey London which uses a similar style of visual storytelling.
“The BBC and Red Bee skilfully applied the same approach to one of the TV events of the year, the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who”
Risky
Channel 4 restated its commitment to challenging programming with its Born Risky campaign.
4Creative also produced some fantastic promos last year – here are three of our favourites:
Further reading on the CR Blog.
Real
Courting controversy has its drawbacks. The people living in London's Aylesbury estate grimly depicted in one of the classic channel 4 idents took exception. They wanted the nation to see their community in its true light and so made this film with producer-director Nick Street. Channel 4 to its credit is reportedly considering broadcasting the film.
Enhanced reality works for the sporting world: Sky celebrated the new season of Formula1 with a promo that gets to the heart of the visceral appeal of the sport.
Wieden + Kennedy combined identity, storytelling and animation in these brilliantly crafted sponsorship idents with Honda Hands
More on the Honda idents on the CR Blog.
Animation, animals and the light feeling of summer at the heart of these charming idents for France 3.
Real Time Marketing
In the wider marketing and creative world this was a year in which we saw a lot of technical innovation. This project by Ogilvy for BA used live data to deliver some magic at two outdoor sites in London.
More on BA Look Up on the Creative Review Blog.
The 'Autocomplete' campaign from Ogilvy & Mather Dubai for UN Women used real Google search results to highlight sexism worldwide”
Marking the end of Breaking Bad, US agency Mullen posted a spoof ad on Craigslist putting lead character Walter White’s house up for sale. The spoof sales ad, for US estate agent Century 21, tied into the social media frenzy generated by the finale.
Read more about this on the CR blog.
Highlighting the the importance and opportunity of always on marketing was Oreo’s Twitter campaign, conceived and activated in real time during the Superbowl blackout
Playing with the Medium
Channel 4 used twitter in a really interesting way to promote its conspiracy thriller Utopia
Twitter wasn’t the only platform where we saw innovation this year. Leo Burnett made use of the YouTube pre-roll ad, and our resistance to it, in this ad for Business in the Community, a charity helping ex-offenders. If you don’t skip, he grows in confidence and thanks you for listening.
Read more on the CR Blog.
For the ultimate in ‘messing with the Medium’ look no further than the brilliant ITV ad break takeover to promote the Lego movie, remaking existing ads using the trademark blocks.
More on Lego ad break on the CR Blog.
Interactive Storytelling
We have seen incredible interactive experiences offering full-screen video and multiple storytelling elements via the browser. National Geographic’s Serengeti Lion was one of the best.
This music video for Welsh band Masters in France – made by ad agency BMB – samples Vines relating to hashtags linked to the song’s lyrics in real time ensuring that each viewing is different
More about Vinetune on the CR Blog.
Another great interactive piece was Pharrell’s 24 hour video for Happy, created by French directing team We Are From LA, and produced by Iconoclast. as we don’t have 24hours you’ll have to check it out yourselves.
Read more on the CR Blog.
Also stand out for us was the result of new tech platform Interlude partnering with Pulse Films and Walter Pictures to produce this new take on a Bob Dylan classic: featuring 16 different channels which the viewer could zap between, keeping the track in synch at all times.
Experience the interactive video here. | Or read more on the CR Blog.
Low Tech
We’ve shown work that involves great technical innovation, but we also love works at the opposite end, which are just brilliantly done. Like Michel Gondry’s welcome return to the music video for Metronomy.
This charming Pomplamoose video proudly embraces the hand-made, low-tech aesthetic
(note: for some reason, this post appears truncated from the original)
