MERRY CHRISTMAS

21 Dec 2015

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My blog is going to be paused for a short while, whilst I'm off to the UK to get married. I'm then road tripping around the west coast of the US on my honeymoon on the way back.


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11 Dec 2015

If you haven't cried at a Christmas ad yet, this one will make you cry. I don't want to ruin it, but it is an emotional rollercoaster. It's worth a watch.

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4 Dec 2015

I love these new posters for the D&AD awards, with links to very successful past ads, re-imagined in these graphic posters. They are beautifully crafted with some fantastic typography.


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29 Nov 2015

This is a pretty cool experience by Google promoting the Star Wars film. You go the link below to 'Awaken the force within' where decide if you want to join the light or dark side. It then changes your Google applications slightly e.g YouTube play bar changes to lightsaber, gmail changes it's background and some more cool features. Check it out here.

Which side do you prefer?

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15 Nov 2015

After a sad week for rugby seeing the great all black player Jonah Lomu pass way, this lovely ad has been produced.  I saw this originally shared on LinkedIn and it stood out for its simplicity straight away.


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12 Nov 2015

I had a good laugh watching this charming short online film for Mentos. Where they hired kids to mentor adults, telling them what to say to complete strangers. Some of the adults looked a little bit special saying some of the things, but that made the ad a more enjoyable watch. Click on the image to view the film.


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7 Nov 2015

There have been a lot of Xmas ads coming out recently and I was tempted to share one, but then I looked at my calendar and realised it was only the start of November.

So I wanted to share this ad which talks about a topic widely spoken in advertising, should agencies do work for free 'spec work'? Well this guy has bravely gone and spoken to other business owners like cafes and gyms to see if they would provide their stuff for free. Some of the reactions are great.

One of my favourite questions he asks is 'So you guys are going to make me a spec breakfast? Then if I enjoy it, I'll make you guys my ROR 'my restaurant of record''.

Click on the image below to watch the ad.



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30 Oct 2015

I don't normally share many websites, but I see this interactive HTML 5 site today and I had to share it for it's lovely illustration style, the interactive side of it and the animation.

It's for Domino's over in the US and as you click left on your keyboard keys their new car moves to closer to delivering the pizza. Look out for all of the extra animations around the car. It kept me engaged for a while and I shared it around at work too.




PADC AWARDS 2015

25 Oct 2015

On Friday night, it was the PADC (Perth Advertising and Design Club) annual awards night, it was held in Kings Park, overlooking the city of Perth and it had a great atmosphere. It was well put on and the team behind it, have done a fantastic job.

Gatecrasher got 3 finalists on the night, 2 of which for this piece (below) I created with the GC team for it's print and outdoor executions.


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22 Oct 2015

The Paranormal Activity films have another one coming out and they are promoting the film with this stunt, where they invited people to look around a home open but's it's not as it seems. As they scared the hell out of people in this set up haunted house, breaking glass, pictures falling off the walls, you get the idea.

I would hate this if this was me, but the reactions to this ad are priceless.




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17 Oct 2015

This ad portrays the life of two testicles hanging in wicker chairs in this funny underwear ad, showing what a new pair of Bonds undies can do. The banter is pretty good and it shows everyone what men's testicles have to put up with. I haven't seen much done like this in the underwear space before and it feels fresh and funny.



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9 Oct 2015

Adobe have done some pretty funny ads in the last few years, including 'Click, Baby, Click! (check it out if you haven't seen it).
Now comes The Launch: Do you know what your marketing is doing'. that see's a spaceship being sent to Mars, but the client keeps ruining it. It's got a huge budget and for a 1.23 ad, I was hooked throughout.




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4 Oct 2015

How far would you go for free stuff? That's exactly what JetBlue (a low cost american airline) is asking New Yorks, with this fun adshel, giving away prizes, if they steal there ad.

The stunt is pretty cool and I haven't seen something like this before. Have you?



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27 Sept 2015

It seems like there is an illustration theme being created here, with this week's 'ad of the week' being an illustration ad too. The style in this Honda ad is very different from last week though.

It's a stop motion story that brings 'the power of dreams' (Honda's ongoing line) to life with creative transitions to show their portfolio of cars, bikes and even walking robots in an interesting way. Even slightly dull products e.g the lawn mower (compared to the sports cars), is well thought out.


MY AD OF THE WEEK .116 RUGBY WORLD CUP EDITION

18 Sept 2015

With the rugby world cup starting today, I wanted to share an ad for the tournament. I was engaged most with this lovely animated ad for 02. It shows a few of the England players growing into giants in suburbia and then across the whole of UK as fans get behind them and show there support.

It's extremely well crafted and I read it took 6,500 hand-drawn and hand-coloured character frames to create this ad over a period of 12 months.



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12 Sept 2015

These print ads for Wrangler stood out for me, with these Wrangler vs Wrongler posters. The brand is aiming to motivate people on how to lead a better life, the Wrangler way, to extract the most of your day to day.







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6 Sept 2015

Here is a powerful ad for PSA - Make Love Not Scars. As we see a young woman give tips on how to apply red lipstick. But when you see her face is half burned, it really makes you listen to find out what it's about and as she says at the end 'you'll find red lipstick easily in the market, just like concentrated acid'. 

It's a scary statement and it's definitely a strong CTA to make you sign the petition. I hope it works and please go on from this and sign to petition.


NEW WORK: THE SUNDAY TIMES AFL TATTOOS

5 Sept 2015

This weekend The Sunday Times in Perth are giving away AFL tattoos (temporary, of course) with the paper. The tattoos are the emblems of the two Perth AFL teams - The Fremantle Dockers and West Coast Eagles, as they are both going to be in the finals (like the Rugby Union finals for British people reading this, but more complex) starting next weekend.

So we created this ad at Gatecrasher Advertising showing how committed people are to supporting their team and for fans to show their real commitment by getting a tattoo.

Inspiration for the original idea came from Monty Python/Terry Gilliam animation.


Credits:
Client: The Sunday Times, Perth
Illustrator: Angie Cass
Post-Production: The Office of John Cheese

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26 Aug 2015

You've probably seen the pictures of it already and read all about Banksy's new project - Dismaland.

If you haven't, it's his 6 week pop-up exhibition in the form of an apocalyptic theme park with some very provocative artwork, unhelpful staff and depressing theme park games. My favourite bits from all that I've seen online is: Hook a duck from the muck (covered in oil of course to make it nearly impossible) to win a fish finger in a bag and a pocket money loan shop with 5,000 per cent APR.

I only saw the ad for it the other day which makes it more depressing than you can imagine.


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22 Aug 2015

Sorry, it's been a while. I only got back from a big holiday recently, but now I'm back and catching up with the latest ads to share with you. I've got some new work to share soon too and I'm also working on a new design for my website, but that's a bigger project.

But this week it's an ad for John Lewis Insurance, staring a young girl dancing around the house to the song that fits perfectly with the ad (Elton John's Tiny Dancer). She pulls curtains and twirls around the living room, as it nearly all falls apart. It's a pleasure to watch, enjoy.




MY AD OF THE WEEK .112 CANNES LION EDITION

28 Jun 2015

This week I'm not sharing an ad, but a short film from the 25th year of the Saatchi and Saatchi new directors showcase at the Cannes Advertising Festival. This short film is about a photographer and his dog who have an incredible bond that almost becomes broken when each suffer life-threating illnesses. It's an emotionally rollacoaster, but a lovely watch.


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21 Jun 2015

There aren't many ads that make my laugh this loud. These crazy ads for crazy domains (the domain and web hosting site) have recruited Rhys Darby (from flight of the concords), who plays 5 crazy characters in 5 business scenarios to help communicate Crazy Domains' 5 easy steps to creating an online presence for small business. All 3 are worth a watch.





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12 Jun 2015

A lot of advertising agencies are now creating products and new tech and here's another interesting one by Leo Burnett. Who have created this tech for Samsung to make roads safer in Argentina, which has a high car-accident fatality rate.
Trucks are always hard to over take especially on these roads, so on the back of trucks they put a digital monitor that would show vision from the front of the truck via a wireless camera, so you could overtake the truck safely. Do you think it will work?

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6 Jun 2015

I've worked on briefs for cars genuine parts in the past and this ad is a nice approach from Land Rover, that uses the insight that cheap imitation parts might look the same but won't be capable of the same performance.


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31 May 2015

How many times have you seen that annoying and rubbish ad on a YouTube pre-roll?

Well D&AD have an answer, created the 'The Ad Filter', a free extension that will only show you the best advertising ads (that can be watched again), compared to some of the ads that appear. I'm about to instal min now. Download it for free.


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22 May 2015

Try not to yawn at this simple digital billboard stunt for the Brazilian coffee brand Cafe Pele. Yawning is contagious, so showing a person yawning will make people yawn and feel sleepy too. They reveal their new coffee at the end of the ad, as the answer to want to wake them up.


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17 May 2015

WWF have launched an interesting way to raise money in their new campaign using Twitter. Transforming 17 real world endangered animals into emoji animals, that you can tweet. Every time you tweet one of the animals, you'll donate 10p to the charity. I hope they get loads of donations, in this stand out campaign.


Join in at their Twitter account @WWF

MY AD OF THE WEEK .105 MOTHER'S DAY EDITION (FOR AUSTRALIA & USA)

10 May 2015

I wanted to share this simple and funny ad for Samsung to celebrate Mother's Day (in America and Australia today), reminding us how bad our mums can be at texting. I know they have got a lot better, but I still get a few messages like these, especially the really long ones occasionally. Are there many you still receive? They could do a FaceTime one next year.


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2 May 2015

Here are two funny ads for the Guardian paper in the UK, that show how easily others can steal all the weekend fun with the continuation of the brands message 'Own your weekend, or someone else will'. I've enjoyed the whole campaign so far, finding them very true, good lengths and well put together.

I've almost been the guy watching my partner run too, thankfully not in the mud and rain.







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26 Apr 2015

This spot is about a boy who needs fuel for his big days, delivering phone messages to the towns people from the only phone. It's a quirky, very fun ad for this Icelandic yogurt, that's beautifully shot in some great locations. Well done W&K London.


MUMBRELLA PERTH

23 Apr 2015


Recently I went to the first Mumbrella Perth and it was a great day, with many interesting talks to take in.

The keynote speaker of the day was Jon Steel, the WPP group planning director, who talked a lot about research, saying it’s time to hit the reset button, go back to basics and do meaningful research to find real insights. He mentioned that he spent most of his time outside of the agency, taking the research to people in their natural habitats.

He spoke of the time when he judged the integrated category at an awards show, saying he spent hours listening to “this many twitter followers, hashtags, etc” but what should have been shown is more genuine research, not meaningless numbers. “If somebody believes that excited bloggers represent return on investment then I think the apocalypse is well and truly upon us. And if the answer is always Twitter, it must have been a really stupid question”, he said.

He told us all to remember the fundamentals that stay the same even though things like Snapchat, Twitter and phone sizes change.
1) Be clear of the problem we are trying to solve. We have to push back and identify the right issue.
2) Always look at the problem in the context of life. He gave an example of an empty jar sitting in a café with a note that says ‘tip’, but another jar that’s full says ‘Mexico 2014’.
3) Resist the accountability mindset that affects so many companies today.
4) Keep things as simple as possible. Just because you can do things, doesn’t mean you should. Simple works when complicated doesn’t.
5) Keep it personal.
6) And never forget that you are talking to people.

“I’m not saying just go back to the old ways and don’t embrace the new, I’m saying embrace the new, but do so while remembering some of these fundamentals.” Jon Steel.

And another speaker I really enjoyed was Travis Johnson, who talked about the future of technology and how cities like Barcelona are now connecting everything that can be connected. They are one of many cities creating new experiences with sensors and he asked us to think of new experiences we could create.

We heard some interesting facts about ibeacon, a wireless technology that sends you messages/information as you walk past a transmitter. Currently 1 in 5 people who receive one of these signals interacts with it. There are still a couple of problems with them though, in that you need an app to receive the signal and it doesn’t work through crowds.

An amazing fact I took away from his talk was that ‘each household currently has 8 connected devices on average (include Xbox, TV, laptop etc) but by 2017 it will be 20’.

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17 Apr 2015

I really enjoyed watching this ad for the Tribeca Film Festival starring Jason Sudeikis (from Horrible Bosses). He plays himself, but the stars in this one are the tourist couple who want to film a message with him for back home. But then the woman starts directing the famous actor.

There's a big truth in it, especially with smart phones getting better cameras nowadays, with people thinking they can be as good as famous directors. Enjoy.


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10 Apr 2015

Honda have pulled another one out of the bag, with an ad that never ends. Their new film brings to life Honda's endless desire to make things better (performance, longevity) with this great mesmerising optical illusion. It shows a Honda CR-V driving around a scene that keeps looping to reveal the same road again. I love how it loops and the soundtrack from 'Kill Bill' is perfect for this ad.


MY AD OF THE WEEK .100 APRIL FOOLS EDITION

1 Apr 2015

I can't believe I've wrriten 100 of these already. I hope you've enjoyed them so far.

How many April fools ads have you fallen for this year?
There aren't many I really wanted to share, as I found some of the other videos too long. My favourite one this year is SunLife's Beard Insurance for men who want to protect their facial hair, starting from £3 a month, it will protect you against damage and accidentally shaving parts off (we've all done it).

It's a very funny and light hearted video that could actually be useful for some people. Anyone come to mind?

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29 Mar 2015

Lima's University of Engineering & Tech (UTEC) have created another fantastic billboard (after their 2013 success, that won them a Gold Lion at Cannes) to show how engineering can solve real-world problems. They wanted to promote that the university are accepting applications, so to reach their audience they actually solved a problem through engineering.

Their problem was that in the Bujama region of Peru, crops are irrigated with contaminated water from the local rivers, so UTEC grew crops and every weekend they gave away lettuce to people in the community that were pollution free, by using water captured by the air. They have so far produced 2,800 heads of lettuce, as well as 96 litres of drinking water all donated to the local people. It's amazing to see an ad helping so many people.



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20 Mar 2015

The States United to Prevent Gun Violence set up this real-looking gun store in New York city and security filmed people as they came in looking to buy a gun. The results are very powerful; for you the viewer and especially for the customers in the store. We see the owner telling the customers the hidden costs of owning a gun and who the last owners were, with tags on the gun which tell the past history of the gun - including famous mass shootings and suicides.




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15 Mar 2015

When I saw these ads for the first time I was really suprised by how much land really is in London. So these ads worked on me. They are beautifully crafted, with some good font choices to match the tiles, wood and fabric textures and I really like the idea of using the size of the ad as part of the messaging. Well done AMV BBDO.




NEW WORK - 16 CANCERS

11 Mar 2015

I wanted to share this new press and outdoor campaign for Cancer Council WA, that I worked on at Gatecrasher Advertising. It's currently running in ashel's at some of Perth's biggest train stations and it was also featured in Best Ads 'Seen and noted' section. Below is the piece and the info wrote about the campaign by Gatecrasher, that also featured TV and radio:

'The Cancer Council of WA has launched a new campaign designed to lend even more weight to the threat of smoking-related cancer. The 16 Cancers campaign, created by Gatecrasher Perth, is led by an emotive 45-second television commercial, and backed up by this print ad. It invites them to consider how smoking-related cancers might impact their lives in a variety of debilitating and severe ways. It comes as a new survey has revealed that less than a quarter of those asked (24%) could name more than two cancers caused by smoking. Among non-smokers, 61% could name one or two smoking-related cancers, while only 39% of smokers could do so without being prompted.' Gatecrasher bio about the campaign. 




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6 Mar 2015

There is some great tech that can be used in digital billboards and WCRS and Women's Aid have used the facial recognition feature to get people to notice a strong message about domestic violence. You see a beaten woman on screen and when you pay attention to the ad the bruises and cuts heal faster, communicating the message of not turning a bling eye to the problem. I find it a strong idea that uses digital tech in an engaging way.

I knew I recognised the concept somewhere when I saw it today, as back in 2014 it won Ocean's Outdoor Art of Outdoor competition, the winning prize was for it to run and it's fantastic to see it live and spreading the message about domestic violence.