Thursday 22 May 2008

Plum viewing for babies

Work Club, the new agency from the founders of Agency Republic and former Mother Creative Director Ben Mooge, has launched a series of online short films for the premium baby food brand Plum. The films are aimed at parents with babies in the 10 to 18-month range and include such baby friendly scenes as animals filmed against bright backgrounds, musical sequences of lights and balloons and a natural peek-a-boo.



However, the most striking aspect of the films is the music specially composed by BAFTA-winning composer Laura Forrest-Hay, there’s much banjo, violin, trumpet and glockenspiel playing and we’re sure even the grumpiest baby will be made chirpy by the joyous sounds. Susie Willis, mother of three and founder of Plum Baby, said of the idea behind the 3 x seven-minute films, ‘Great taste for me is about discovery, trying things you have never tried before and developing and exciting the senses. These feel-good films hopefully do just that – and give mums a special relaxing experience with their baby.’



To make the experience as beneficial for parents and babies as possible, the process of creating the films was supervised by Baby Psychologist Dr Pat Spungin, who was very positive about the innovation of Plum Vision, saying, ‘It is so important for mums to have relaxing, quality time with their babies. Plum Vision offers a wonderful experience of the sights and sounds of nature in your very own home. It is so refreshing to see something for babies, which just uses natural images, as opposed to cartoons and computer graphics.’


The whole idea of 'relaxation' means that the films are best viewed on a wireless laptop in a comfortable environment for parent and baby, but either way, the overall effect marks a new beginning for branded content as the brand increasingly enters the periphery and the target audience becomes more widespread and varied, moving away from the previous media savvy demographic.

The films are accompanied on the Plum Vision site with tips for mums and dads on how to interact with their babies while watching the films together, parents can also comment on the films and share favourite chapters with other users. Take a look at
www.plum-vision.co.uk.



NewsReel 23.05.08

As always, please send any news and press releases to sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to include it here.

D&ADs
Last Thursday saw 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' enigmatic host Simon Anstell present this year's D&ADs at the Royal Festival Hall in London. From 25, 000 pieces entered, 143 were nominated, but only 64 were left with a new shiny yellow ornament for the mantelpiece/paperweight for the desk and even fewer, six, took home a much coveted black pencil. Out of the many categories, all of which can be viewed here, there are two big ones that mostly concern us - subscribers can view the ads and see full credits by clicking this link.

There were only two Pencil winners in the TV & Cinema Advertising category. We are especially pleased that Skittles 'Touch', one of The Reel's favourite ads from last year, was given a Yellow Pencil, but only Cadbury's 'Gorilla' sauntered off with a rare Black Pencil - his week completed, getting a mention by a grateful Phil Collins as he collected his Ivor Novello last night, 'I can't go without thanking the gorilla.'

Yellow
Title: Touch
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day New York
Brand: Skittles

Black
Title: Gorilla
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Cadbury's

There were multiple pencils of the yellow variety for three notable ads in the sub-categories of TV & Cinema Crafts: Brylcreem's 'Effortless' won in Production Design and Practical Special Effects; Vodafone's 'Time Theft' was awarded for Direction and Editing, and the often maligned Sony 'Play-Doh' was victorious in Direction and Animation & Visual Effects.

Production Design

Title: Effortless
Agency: WCRS
Brand: Brylcreem

Direction

Title: Dangerous Liaisons
Agency: Rattling Stick
Brand: Levi's

Title: Play-Doh
Agency: Gorgeous
Brand: SONY

Title: Time Theft
Agency: Academy FIlms
Brand: Vodafone

Editing

Title: Dangerous Liaison
Agency: Work
Brand: Levi's�

Title: Time Theft
Agency: BBH
Brand: Vodafone

Sound Design

Title: Interview
Agency: Dab Hand Media
Brand: Tide

Title: Gorilla
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Cadbury's

Title: Music Pieces
Agency: Soundtree Music
Brand: SONY

Practical Special Effects

Title: Belonging
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Orange

Title: Cake
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Skoda

Title: Effortless
Agency: WCRS
Brand: Sara Lee

Animation & Visual Effects

Title: Play-Doh
Agency: Passion Pictures
Brand: SONY

Title: Wave
Agency: CHI & Partners
Brand: Big Yellow Storage Company

Golden Drums

Eastern Europe's première advertising festival will be taking place for the 15th time from 5th to the 10th October this year in Portoroz, Slovenia. The juries have been announced and are listed in full below:

TV, Press, Outdoor and Radio Jury

Bob Moore, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis USA – President
Jon Granström, Creative Director and Co-owner, Bob Helsinki, Finland
Andrey Iliassov, Group Creative Director, BBDO Moscow, Russia
Yaniv Melinarsky, Creative Director, McCann Erickson, Israel
Daniel Růžička, Chief Creative Director, Young & Rubicam Prague, Czech Republic
Suna Tancig, Creative Director, Original, Slovenia
Victor Tognola, President and Director, Frama Film International, Switzerland
Iwo Zaniewski, Co-founder and Creative Director, PZL, Poland
Alexander Zelmanovics, Chief Creative Officer, Lowe GGK Vienna, Austria

Advertising Campaigns Jury

Per Pedersen, Creative Director, Uncle Grey Denmark – President
Braňo Bezák, Creative Team Leader, Istropolitana D'Arcy, Slovakia
Ralf Langwost, Founder and CEO of IdeaManagement Worldwide, Deutschland
Franco Moretti, President of ADC*E and Group Chief Creative Director, Leo Burnett, Italy
Robin Weeks, Regional Creative Director, Ogilvy Group CEE, Poland

Media Awards Jury

Christophe Cauvy, Regional Digital Director, EMEA McCann WorldGroup, UK – President
Srđan Gulić, Creative Director, Lowe Digitel, Croatia
Lajos Horváth, Creative Director, Laboratory Ideas, Hungary
Anna Lubowska, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mediaedge:cia CEE, Poland
Emil Zakhariev, Creative Director, New Moment New Ideas Sofia, Bulgaria

Interactive Jury
Serge Fenenko, Managing Director, Novocortex, Netherlands – President
Tugbay Bilbay, Creative Director, Grey Worldwide, Istanbul, Turkey
Dieter Weidhofer, Creative Director and Chief Creative Officer, DRAFTFCBi, Austria

TV & Film Promo Jury
Steve Davies, Chief Executive, Advertising Producers Association, UK - President
Anthony Guedes, Executive Producer, Film Factory, Austria
Josef Prouza, Creative Director, Sazka, Czech Republic
Miša Molk, Executive Project Manager, TV Slovenia, Slovenia

Design & Art Direction and Portoroz Piran Advertising Award Jury
Kurt Georg Dieckert, Chief Creative Officer and Member of the Management Board, TBWA, Germany – President
Marius Kasperavičius, Creative Director, designHotel, Lithuania
Marko Vičič, Partner and Chief Creative Director, Futura DDB, Slovenia

It has also been announced that McCann, Publicis, Grey and TBWA will present their thoughts and insights into key topics on the Golden Drum stage. The Publicis seminar entitled 'Is there life after death?' will discuss the changing face of advertising and the supposed death of mass media, and will include a debate among our sister magazine Contagious' Editor Paul Kemp Robertson, Richard Pinder (Chief Operating Officer of Publicis Worldwide), Bob Moore (Chief Creative Officer, Publicis USA), and Paul Marsden, Ph.D. (Freelance Market Researcher). The round table will be moderated by Carter Murray.