What D&AD Means

Arguably the two most important awards for advertisers are the Cannes Lions and the D&ADs.  But what does D&AD mean?

D&AD stands for Design and Art Direction, and is a British educational charity set-up to promote excellence in design and advertising.

The art directors and designers responsible for establishing the charity are David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes.

A judging panel gives out yellow pencils every year for exceptional work in a number of different categories including writing for advertising, press advertising, graphic design, and many more.

Black pencils are only given out to truly outstanding work.  Normally 2-3 are awarded every year but in 2003 none were awarded.

This year's yellow pencils have already been awarded.  Black pencils will be announced in September at a larger event than normal, to celebrate the awards' 50th anniversary.

Creative Review has a lovely long article about this year's yellow pencils which is certainly worth a read.  Below are a selection of some of the ads that stood out to me as particularly brilliant.

BETC Paris' bear ad for the movie channel from Canal+ is pure advertainment.  A comparison of this ad with the Christmas 2011 ad for Sky Movies is not a very flattering comparison for WCRS in terms of originality and imagination.  Without criticising the Sky ad too much, because I do genuinely like it, WCRS's ad is a nostalgic mashup that is, quite frankly, a penny a dozen on Youtube, while BETC's high-quality original content is about aspiration.  I know which emotion speaks to me more as a consumer.

The other winner in the TV & Film category was this fantastic ad from BBH for Barnardo's.  I've not got too much to say about it.  It's a fantastically crafted and thought out ad which inspires compassion and, most importantly, hope in the viewer.

The JWT Melbourne mobile ad was another fantastically clever piece of work which recalls every advertiser's favourite example of short copy, Ernest Hemingway's six word tale:
For sale: Baby shoes, never used.

It was interesting to see Wieden + Kennedy pick up a pencil for digital for their "bespoke album creation experience" for Kaiser Chiefs, mainly because I was aware of the project without expecting that an ad agency had worked on it.  The ad made waves but I was never sufficiently interested in it to have my own "bespoke album creative experience".

72 and Sunny's campaign for K-Swiss on the other hand, which also won a pencil for digital, was one that I really enjoyed and engaged with as it came out.

In such a crowded marketplace as trainers / sneakers / training shoes, 72 and Sunny found a gap in the market that was totally powerful and somehow found a new niche in the market for the brand image of K-Swiss to occupy.  The ad applies all of the attitude, bad-assery and humour that Kenny Powers has displayed in Eastbound and Down onto the K-Swiss brand, but perhaps most importantly of all utilizes the power of the HBO show's cult following.  This was a really risky ad unlike anything seen in the market before.

McCann Erickson Bucharest won a pencil for Integrated and Earned for their fantastic campaign for Rom candy bars.  This was another campaign I was aware of at the time; in fact, it was all a really smart, really manipulative piece of trolling.

More than anything, this campaign shows that even risky strategies like generating anger can be worthwhile.

Those are my favourites, but I highly recommend spending 10 or 15 minutes on the Creative Review piece which shows a full list of the winners.   

This post started with the question: what does D&AD mean?

D&AD means taking a risk.  D&AD means making something new, that no-one before has thought of, and that most importantly evokes a strong emotional reaction.

Hope that you can make it back tomorrow. I'll be taking a closer look into what makes a black pencil.  Until then.

How Iris Won The Olympic Mascot Account

Iris Nation is a creative agency founded in 1999 in London.  It has since grown into one of the world's largest independent integrated agency groups with several international offices.

Last month, Iris won a D&AD in the packaging category for its work with Heineken, which repackaged the bottles so that their designs stick out under UV light - taking the traditional star of the packaging and reinventing it as something new and exciting.  It's an incredibly smart campaign and does a fantastic job of rebranding a stodgy Dutch beer into a glamorous nightlife brand - a well-deserved pencil for their efforts.

A quick google search for Iris doesn't yield as many results as some other agencies, but it's clear that they've done some very clever, exceptional work.  This piece for Quitline (number 3) is very, very smart, but you would have to imagine that the outreach would be relatively small for such a project.

This spot for VW is another very clever idea - but I do wonder if this isn't the sort of footage many car fans would have grown quite accustomed to seeing on Top Gear.  Certainly I would say it isn't quite as original as some of Iris' other works.

In terms of originality, Wenlock and Mandeville, the official sponsors of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, are a brilliant example.  They're controversial, (the Marina Hyde article I linked to a couple of days ago shows that despite the two year bedding-in period for them, they are still not really accepted), but in terms of genuinely disruptive and unique mascots I think they're great, certainly attesting to the spirit of creativity and originality that makes London such a fantastic city.

Personally I applaud the committee's decision as brave.  Iris are an exciting agency, capable of genuinely creative branding and advertising solutions.  They're certainly an agency which I will be keeping tabs on.

I mentioned the D and ADs briefly in this blog, but I'll be doing a more full go-over of the winners from this year in tomorrow's blog.  Until then, check out some of these fantastic adverts from across the world.  Not all of them are amazing, but there are a few in there that will make you find yourself saying "well that is just very, very good".

33 Clever and Creative Billboard Ads
26 Brilliant Minimalist Print Ads

Until tomorrow

3 Mad Men Who Built BBDO and Omnicom

Advertising is about emotions. It is one of the most people-orientated crafts there is - both in terms of creativity and business.  Here are 3 key people who made BBDO one of the world's leading advertising agencies.

Allen Rosenshine began at BBDO in 1965 as a copywriter. He worked his way up to become BBDO New York Creative Director in 1975, President of the BBDO New York HQ in 1980 and then CEO of BBDO Worldwide in 1985.  He played a key part in the 1986 merger with DDB and Needham Harper which created Omnicom.  Time magazine called it the Big Bang Merger.

James J Jordan Jr aka Jim Jordan joined BBDO as a copywriter in 1952.  He was renowned for his slogan, perhaps the most famous being the 1961 slogan "Schaefer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one."  His form of sloganeering was known as nameonics.  This technique stressed linking a brand name to product qualities or intended benefits.  Jordan rose to become BBDO's creative director (later succeeded by Rosenshine) and president.  In 1978, Jordan left BBDO to form his own agency, which later became best known as Jordan, McGrath, Case and Taylor.


Phil Dusenberry joined BBDO as a copywriter in 1965.  One of Dusenberry's first projects, an ad for Gillette showing two men chatting through a bathroom medicine cabinet, is still remembered as a standout commercial of the 60s.  He had most success when Creative Director of BBDO in the 80s, where he was an avocate of cinematic production standards to ads as well as celebrity endorsements. He aimed to create Advertainment, the sort of advertising that consumers would seek out for themselves.  Later in his career he became involved in movie-making, credited as co-author of "Hail to the Chief" and "The Natural".

A text heavy blog today. I'll try and keep it a bit light for tomorrow's spotlight on Iris.

Hope you're looking forward to reading it as much as I am to writing it

How BBDO Inspired Mad Men

Yesterday's featured Getty Images Ad was by Almap BBDO.

 From what I can tell, Almap is a Brazilian-based arm of the BBDO Agency Network. 

Almap BBDO was named #2 agency of the year in 2008 at Cannes.  BBDO New York was number 1 agency and  BBDO Worldwide was top agency network.  In fact, BBDO won Agency Network of the year for the 5th year in a row in 2011.

2008 was the year that Fallon's Gorilla for Cadbury was the major headline. But BBDO had a lot of success with a number of spots for HBO, and this Voyeur Project Installation was also successful.



The "about" section of BBDO's website links directly back to its Wikipedia page. This says two things:

1) BBDO realise that if someone wants to get information in the digital age, they will go to Wikipedia before anywhere else.

2) The information on BBDO's Wiki is all company-approved.  You won't find any skeletons in the cupboard there.

Their Wiki lists a number of BBDO's current clients. Among them: Gillette, The Economist, AT&T and Starbuck's.

The history of the company section is unlike any other Wikipedia page I've ever seen before.  You have to imagine its curated by BBDO themselves.  It's vast, but I've picked out 5 moments of this New York-based agency for you.

5 Key Moments in BBDO's History:

1928:  September 21, the Batten Co. and BDO merge to form Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BBDO).

1946: Ben Duffy becomes president. Billings quadruple from $50 million to $200 million in ten years. He steps down in 1957 due to illness.

1984: On January 27, Michael Jackson's hair is accidentally set on fire during filming of a Pepsi commercial. Phil Dusenberry, BBDO's executive creative director from 1980 - 2002, later names his memoir "Then We Set His Hair On Fire"

1986: BBDO wins the account of Apple from Chiat/Day, producers of the "1984" Ad. Apple would return to TBWA/Chiat/Day in 1997

1986: Omnicom is formed from the merger between BBDO and DDB Needham. Sometimes referred to as the "Big-Bang" merger.


 I skipped over the early 60s in this list, so here's a separate list of events which may have inspired Mad Men plotlines (show-runner Matthew Weiner cites BBDO as an inspiration for Sterling Cooper).

6 Events of the Early 60s at BBDO that could have Inspired Mad Men

1960 On March 16, Chrysler moves its Dodge Truck and Car Divisions, with billings of $21 million, to BBDO. On April 6, BBDO wins the $17 million Pepsi account after a pitch against seven other agencies.

1961 Jim Jordan creates a campaign for Schaefer Beer based on research that revealed that 80% of the beer was consumed by 20% of the drinkers. The slogan and jingle: "Schaefer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one."

1962 Phil Dusenberry is hired as a junior copywriter.

1963 Jim Jordan creates the campaign "Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!"

1963 BBDO introduces the slogan "Come alive! You're in the Pepsi Generation." It is the first time a product is identified not by its own attributes but by its consumers' lifestyles and attitudes.

1965 Allen Rosenshine is hired as a copywriter.


The early 60s is the most name-droppy section of the BBDO section.  Tomorrow I'll return with some profiles on Phil Dusenberry, Jim Jordan and Allen Rosenshine.

I also want to talk a bit about Iris, the creative agency who concepted Wenlock and Mandeville. This article in the Guardian piqued my interest in them today. 

Stay classy.

Indies and Majors

I couldn't find much about Batman.  Last year Warner Bros. switched from WPP to Omnicom but that's about media-buying and planning-duties.  Does that mean they also control creative?

WPP is the world's largest advertising group, Omnicom is the second largest.

WPP gained the Warner Bros. account in 2004 when it acquired Grey Global Group, but last year MediaCom (the WPP agency who led the Warner account) not only lost Warner, but also a 1.4 billion dollar account for GlaxoSmithKline.

I may pick up the story of MediaCom on a later blog, to see whether they have made up any ground after last year's failures.

I've started to learn a little more about the independent / holding group dynamic.  Holding groups don't seem that popular with advertising journalists. They gobble up any creative agency whenever they get the chance.

Omnicom just bought Adam and Eve, the agency behind well-received campaigns for Foster's and John Lewis.

Adam + Eve are/were a new agency, founded in 2008 by David Golding, James Murphy and Ben Priest - all former RKCR/Y&R (WPP) Execs, as well as Jon Forsyth from Naked Comms.  In addition to Fosters and John Lewis, A&E have also done work for Sony, The Telegraph, Google Plus and Youtube.

The acquisition by WPP means the agency will be integrated into DBB, with many of the management roles going to A&E execs.  The new agency will also integrate DDB Tribal, and will be renamed Adam & Eve / DDB.  DDB has struggled in recent times, despite strong support from VW.  DDB has recently lost accounts from Phillips and Virgin Media.

I saw an interesting piece of advertising by VW which I assume DDB Tribal took the lead on.  It's a really interesting idea with excellent use of PPC ad placements - but if the ad-explaining-the-ad hadn't been blogged about, I would never have spotted it.  Then again, PPC placements are very cost-efficient and I've not seen anything like it before, so I have to say that I think they really did a fantastic job with this one.

I'll end as I've got in the habit of doing: by highlighting a great ad that I came across (another ad which got a lot of love on Reddit). This was by AlMapBBDO for Getty Images.  I'll hopefully have a bit more info on it tomorrow!

Bis morgen

Just Do It

Wieden+Kennedy was founded on April 1st 1982, when Dan Wieden (bizarrely pronounced as WHY-den) and David Kennedy took the Nike account away from the agency they were at at the time, McCann Erickson, and decided to form a new company.  The two met while working on the account in 1980.

Dan Wieden coined "Just Do It" and is therefore now someone who I am desperate to know more about.  There is a documentary in which he is featured called Art & Copy - I will try and get a hold of it this week.

Apart from the consistently excellent work Wieden+Kennedy have been doing with Nike since '82, they've also had some other amazing campaigns. Among them: Old Spice Guy, "Impossible Dream" for Honda, "Where do you want to go today?" for Microsoft, and the GTA-inspired "Coke Side of Life".

W+K is one of the largest independent agencies in the world, which I like about it.  Banks seem to love buying up successful creative businesses.  I don't know what effect it has on ad agencies, but it's one of the worst things to happen to record labels.

Economies of scale come at the cost of human individuality.  I don't believe that's a cost worth paying.

A couple more thoughts to end the blog on:

The ITV ad was apparently done in-house, by ITV Creative.  A couple of days ago they poached Channel 4's deputy network creative director, Phil Lind, who has been with C4 since 2000.  ITV parted ways with BBH in late 2011 and now produce all their creative marketing in-house.

The posters at the below link got a lot of love on Reddit yesterday.  They are indeed, very cool.  I'll have a bit more info on them on tomorrow's blog.

http://imgur.com/a/PdSNB

Später

A New Direction

That half-arsed attempt at starting a blog didn't really work so well.

I talk about a new direction in the subject, but it's probably more truthful to say "new: a direction".

I want to write about advertising.  To educate myself, and anyone else who's interested.

I'm trying to write short, like Dave Trott.

Nike's adverts approaching International Football Tournaments are always pretty special.  This year's first one looks promising, but I don't think it's so epic as previous ones.  I hope they will go somewhere else with this for the TV ads during the tournament.

This ad was made by Wieden and Kennedy - I don't know much about them yet, so I will post a blog on them tomorrow. I've heard they have some very cool accounts.

The tunnels idea is interesting - but I found myself thinking: if it's not interesting enough to be an ad in its own right, why should I spend my time "searching through tunnels" for an ad?

For the purpose of this blog - I just had a look at the tunnels thing, but I'm on an old computer and I lost patience.  I may come back to it later, but I still have the feeling like I'm not really missing out.

Maybe it's only because I'm English that I like the ad so much, but I thought ITV's "what could have been" idea was fantastic. I'm sure it will resonate with many sports fans. 

The ad dips into a rich history of past optimism rather than trying to drum up an optimism that just isn't there for this year's tournament.  A totally opposite approach to that taken by Nike, but one that I think is better suited to the audience.

Nike want to sell over-priced football boots to kids hoping to emulate their idols.  ITV want to appeal to the owner of the TV remote - older football fans who are not watching their first tournament. 

Overall I think ITV hit their mark better than Nike hit theirs, which is why I want to know who made this ad.  I'll have another snoop and hopefully find out tomorrow.

Bis dann, ad fans

(campaign's article on the Nike campaign is here: http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1132823/nike-kick-starts-global-football-campaign-starring-ribery-neymar/)