Wii-nter Wonderland - it'll be consolly this Christmas

If current advertising is to be believed, families around the globe won’t be sitting down on the 25th to watch Noel’s Christmas Presents whilst stuffed with turkey, or mortgaging Park Lane to keep hold of Mayfair in Monopoly, they’ll be waving remote controls at a small white box roughly simulating the joys of Tennis. The Wii revolution is truly upon us, so we at The Reel thought it fit to assess how the console war was being fought in the festive season, looking at the latest ads of each of the heavy-hitters.

Nintendo Wii

The daddy when it comes to casual gaming, Nintendo’s Wii advertising from Karmarama has been keen to stress the ‘anyone can play’ aspect of the console’s appeal. Featuring generic ‘model’ types and their families having the time of their lives with their Wii-wands, the spots, whist not being creatively eye-popping, certainly convey the ethos of the system. Indeed recent celebrity fuelled versions (Ian Wright and Shawn Wright Phillips to name but one) cement the family-fun stylings with smart casting, a technique mirrored in the clients’ DS advertising too, with Johnny and Zoe Ball loving their handhelds.

Sony Playstation

Sony’s TV and cinema output for their uber-powerful PS3 system has been centred on their ‘This Is Living’ strapline. Launching the console was an intriguing set of hotel based spots which led to a stylish webfilm housed on www.thisisliving.com. However, the latest sumptuous execution from TBWA London introduces a bizarre cast of characters in a fairground-esque world, entreating the audience to share in their magic. Whilst certainly conveying the system’s ability to transport players to another world, we at The Reel feel that it doesn’t do much for the consoles warmth.

Microsoft Xbox 360

Content in the fact that they’d well and truly built their customer base when Sony and Nintendo’s consoles were just hatching (thanks to a year’s head start), McCann Eriksson San Francisco’s work for the Xbox 360 has recently focussed on major game releases – most notably the fantastic Halo 3 launch campaign – and its online networking capabilities. However, with their latest piece the agency have obviously noticed the ‘casual gaming’ uprising that’s all the rage and are priding themselves on the diversity of their catalogue. Slickly produced and with a friendly feel (although the child choir ‘Nothin’ But A Good Time’ rendition could grate, give us the Poison original any day!), the spots nicely reposition the brand without antagonising their core consumer.


It’s interesting to see that two of the three top dogs have opted for a casual gaming approach for their Christmas advertising – one, a console that has prided itself on its all-encompassing appeal, the other, a gamer’s haven that finally has the pick-up-and-play software to sell. Sony’s approach is to side-step this altogether, although in doing so seems to be unsure who it’s targeting (gamers aren’t getting the chance to see the powerhouse in action, newbies aren’t encouraged by the cold, confusing world presented). Whilst it’s pretty clear which company is leading the race for a place on Santa’s list – Nintendo’s Wii still selling out in minutes wherever it’s stocked – it will be interesting to see which brand’s approach will lead to victory in the long run. After all, a console’s not just for Christmas, it’s for life…

NewsReel 27/11/07

The NewsReel is the new way for you to tell us your news and for us to tell everyone. Please send any adland news you may have at your disposal to Sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to make sure it appears here.

Jung von Matt
The German publication ‘Manager Magazin’, a magazine for German managers, has once again compiled its annual index of the most creative advertisers in Germany, and Jung von Matt, the home of October’s country feature guest editors Bernhard Lukas and Arnault Lindemann, have clinched the top spot as the best ATL advertising agency and best internet advertiser.

The agency, with offices in Hamburg and Berlin, also topped five out of six categories in ‘Agentur Images ‘07’, a poll of 300 German marketing decision makers, conducted by the ‘Handelsblatt’ newspaper and the trade publication ‘Absatzwirtschaft’.

The awards are particularly noteworthy due to the impressive state of German advertising as a whole, if last month’s country feature is anything to go by, and we’re happy because it vindicates our decision to let them take the reins of our much-loved country feature last month - if you didn’t get to see it, below is an example of the kind of thing you missed out on. Ooh, we do spoil you…

Title: Symphony in Red

Client: Konzerthaus Dortmund

Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg



Jake Wynne-s at Prime Focus
















Prime Focus London (the commercials and broadcast post-production company born of the merger between Clear, VTR and The Hive) have brought in ex-HSI director/editor Jake Wynne as a visual effects director and editor. Jake started his career as an editor and won the BTAA Best Commercial Editing Award for Lucozade’s ‘Mods’ spot in 1999 - click here to view – and as one half of directing duo Jake & Jim (the other half being Jim Canty) he has directed several high profile promos for artists such as Geri Halliwell, Stereophonics and Paul Weller, as well as commercials for Nescafe, Sony PS2 and The Observer.

Simon Huhtala, MD at PFL explains his reasons for bringing Jake on board, ‘I’ve been working with Jake for almost 10 years, he loves the craft of film-making and truly understands the role post-production has to play in it. As a long term client of ours I know he has as keen an eye and attention to detail as our artists here at PFL. I’m keen to offer Jake’s skills to our film clients as well as our advertising clients, especially where the visual effects are particularly heavy or the director can’t always be available to supervise.’

Jake reciprocated the glowing praise by saying, ‘It’s an exciting opportunity to spread my creative wings within a structure that is developing in a very forward thinking way.’

It looks like a match made in heaven and we at The Reel are looking forward to featuring some of the work that results.

Meri-bells ring out before Christmas









Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have long been closed and the representatives from The Reel have been honing their snowball throwing skills (but of course they’d never aim for you) and the beautiful French resort is gearing up for the grand opening on the 11th December. Watch out for our Meribel feature in this month's Reel.

Weekly short film festival








Due to the unavoidably late distribution of the newsletter we were unable to inform you of the great offerings at Short and Sweet this week. However, in retrospect, the following directors were featured and a good time was had by all (we can assure you we’ll be back on time next week to let you know what’s going on in advance):

Damien Bapst and Dan Creteur, Ken Wardrop, Chris Nolan, George Wu, Martin De Thurah, Florian Grolig, Jamie Rafn, and a special performance from Tim Key.

EVERY MONDAY:
Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
Time: Films START at 19h30

EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00

For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv

BBC Switch - Red Bee Media

BBC mans have low’ed their usual swagness and flexed a BARE HEAVY new selection of gully content for the boy dem’ and gyal dem seen. Its called BBC Switch, Get me family!

If you understand all of that – well done. If you don’t – you are clearly very old and we will translate for you here:

The wonderful people at the BBC have recently announced that they are to extend their content for 12-16 year olds under the cross platform Banner of BBC Switch.

(Ok no more yout’ speak)

Whilst Switch will not involve a new service or channel – the brand will be launched across major terrestrial channels Radio 1 and BBC 2 and has been designed to occupy the prime time ‘teen zone’ between 7pm and midnight on radio and a 4 till 6 weekend slot on BBC 2. Switch will be made up of a mixture of home grown content and new programming curated from across the water including, what is being touted as the new OC, “Falcon Beach”.

The new BBC 2 home grown music show ‘Sound’ will be presented by the budding partnership of Annie Mac and Nik Grimshaw, whilst Radio 1’s Surgery will be fronted by the ever opinionated Kelly Osbourne - both promising great music and teen related banter.

To launch the new brand the clever chaps and chapettes at Red Bee Media have produced this fantastic TV campaign and series of interstitials aimed squarely at the younger Switch demographic.

You won’t understand what they are saying. You will long to be young again. There is nothing you can do about it. But I think you will agree – its all rather nice…

So this summer is gonna be CHUNG and HECTIC FAMMO! Switch is SWITCHIN’ on us – its gonna be BIG in the GAME!

C U L8R M8 etc etc… (OK, we lied about no more yout’ speak)

NewsReel 19.11.07

The NewsReel is the new way for you to tell us your news and for us to tell everyone. Please send any adland news you may have at your disposal to sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to make sure it appears here.

2AM in Harmony with Korine




















The Apollo Cinema on Regent Street was the venue for an exclusive screening of director Harmony Korine’s first film in 8 years, last week. The former wunderkind writer of Larry Clark’s ‘Kids’ and director of ‘Gummo’ and ‘Julien Donkey-Boy’ introduced the film to the specially invited audience including some hand-picked figures from the advertising industry and a couple of representatives from The Reel, on Wednesday. The event was hosted by 2AM Films, who are representing Harmony in his bid to establish himself as an ad and promo director. Featuring some great performances, particularly from Diego Luna in the lead role, the film focuses on the lives of a group of celebrity impersonators, including the aforementioned Luna as Michael Jackson and Samantha Morton as Marilyn Monroe, living in an idyllic hideaway in the Scottish highlands. Werner Herzog features in occasional interludes as a Reverend leading a group of South American nuns.

Website Wonder











Digital production company B-Reel and Fallon have come together to create a particularly unique ‘infinite’ website. The site has been built to promote the Sci Fi Channel’s re-imagining of 'The Wizard of Oz', entitled ‘The Tin Man'. It utilises ‘Zoomquilt’ technology, looping stunning flash scenes together, to create a continuous zoom that feels like it’s pulling you deeper into what looks to be an amazingly realised world. If you don’t get too mesmerised by the technology and pretty pictures you can stop and learn more about the mini-series featuring Alan Cumming and Richard Dreyfuss that premieres in the US on 2nd December and will surely be crossing the Atlantic soon after.

To view another remarkable 'Zoomquilt' animation click here

Cristal on ice









This year’s 7th Meribel Ad Festival, which will take place from December 11th to the 16th, will feature a new ranking for the most awarded advertising agencies, networks and producers, called the « Cristal Ranking ».

Following Donald Gunn, who has previously awarded the best in the European rankings of the Gunn Report at Meribel over the past four years, Patrick Collister will present the 2007 Won Report exclusively for the Festival, which will also include cross-media work.

The Won Report is an annual analysis of the world’s best direct marketing and digital advertising as measured by the quantity and quality of the awards won. It is compiled by Patrick Collister and has been published since 2003.


Weekly short film festival








Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in London, has been going from strength to strength since its launch nearly a year and a half ago. In July it expanded into the West End and now runs on Mondays on Brick Lane and Tuesdays at AKA WC1. Founder Julia Stephenson and her small team work tirelessly to deliver the best in short films, music videos and animation from around the globe, with the intention to inspire, unearth some of the best new talent around and provide a great and FREE place to network.
Channel 4 will once again be present this week so an extra special programme has been planned, featuring work from: Laurie Hill, Emily & Matthew, Jeroen Offerman, Ed Roe & Dougal Wilson,
DA Pennebaker, Martin De Thurah, Marc Reisbig and Keith Bearden.

EVERY MONDAY:
Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
Time: Films START at 19h30

EVERY TUESDAY:
Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street
Time: Films START at 19h00

For more info contact:
ben@shortandsweet.tv
julia@shortandsweet.tv

Aardman Animation - Creature Discomforts

Aardman Animation’s Creature Comfort characters are familiar to pretty much anyone who enjoys charming animation and has eyes, so it’s a joy to see their roster being expanded to include creatures with disabilities. Created for the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability, the campaign’s aim is to challenge and change attitudes towards disabled people.

Using the real voices and experiences of several disabled individuals, the talented animators have, once again, modelled endearing plastercine representations to communicate the messages, including a bull terrier in a wheelchair (voiced by Kevin Gillespie - pictured below) and a stick insect with a walking stick.


Bryan Dutton, Director General, Leonard Cheshire Disability said: “We want people to change the way they see disability, to think and act differently and to make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people.”

“Disabled people experience unnecessary social barriers which are created largely through ignorance. In the twenty-first century it is unacceptable that such negative attitudes to disability still persist. Everyone has a part to play in creating a world in which disabled people are included in every aspect of life.”

“Creature Comforts is well known and much-loved for its ability to bring home messages in a simple, everyday way. Our Creature Discomforts campaign builds on this, making a serious point with humour.”

Without losing any of the engaging wit and charisma that made previous Creature Comfort shorts so appealing, this new campaign puts forward its point in an unfussy, successful manner. Speaking of the experience, director Steve Harding-Hill said: “Leonard Cheshire Disability’s new campaign is an important step towards changing everyone’s attitudes to disability. Working on it has been an amazing experience for us all at Aardman … taking the real voices and experiences of disabled people and creating animated stories that are informative, entertaining and poignant has been an immense but incredibly satisfying challenge.”

Launching in bus stops, print and online – www.creaturediscomforts.com for a preview – from Thursday, this smart use of a recognisable animation for a worthy cause has utterly won over all at Reel Towers. For full credits and all four films in the campaign, check out our website.

NewsReel 12.11.07

Donkey Kong scaffolding

In honour of the trailer for ‘The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters’ appearing in this month’s Reel as part of our Moxie Pictures feature, the Computerspiele Museum in Berlin erected a scaffolding and, with a few strategically placed printed canvas covers, turned it into a level screen of the uber video game, Donkey Kong. Alternatively, it could be that the building is undergoing a much-needed facelift and it’s an exceedingly clever way of promoting the soon to be re-opening gaming Mecca whilst utilising the essential but ugly scaffolding. You decide…

LINKS:
www.billyvssteve.com/

www.computerspielemuseum.de/english.html

Jonas&François win at MTV Europe Music Awards

We must be expressing our narcissistic tendencies this week because ‘Star Video’ winners at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Munich on 1^st November, Jonas&Francois, were featured in September’s Reel for their Kanye West ‘Good life’ video. The directing duo from Elnino @ 75 won the award for their clip for ‘D.A.N.C.E’ by the French group Justice. As with West’s video, they collaborated with art designers SoMe and the jaw-dropping result can be viewed below.

LINKS:

www.elnino.tv

www.75.tv

www.irene.fr

http://ema.mtv.co.uk/

Weekly short film festival

Short and Sweet, the only weekly short film festival in London, has been going from strength to strength since its launch nearly a year and a half ago. In July it expanded into the West End and now runs on Mondays on Brick Lane and Tuesdays at AKA WC1. Founder Julia Stephenson and her small team work tirelessly to deliver the best in short films, music videos and animation from around the globe, with the intention to inspire, unearth some of the best new talent around and provide a great and FREE place to network.

This week it features films from:

Tim Hamilton, Sil Van Der Woerd, Romain Segaud, Dave Waters, Keidrych Wasley (cinematographer) and Gergely Cziràki

EVERY MONDAY:

Venue: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane

Time: Films START at 19h30

EVERY TUESDAY:

Venue: AKA Bar, 18 west central street

Time: Films START at 19h00

LINKS:
www.shortandsweet.tv

For more info contact:

ben@shortandsweet.tv

julia@shortandsweet.tv

Meribel entries closed

Entries for the competitions at this year’s Meribel ad festival have now closed. It’ll be the 11^th December and you’ll be drinking cocktails and chucking snowballs at each other in no time…just remember what your mothers told you and watch out for the yellow snow.

LINKS:
http://www.meribel-adfestival.com/

Sony 'Monophonics' Like No Other

Eric Morecambe once famously pointed out to concert pianist Andre Previn that, in attempting Edvard Grieg's ‘Piano Concerto’, he was “playing all the right notes... but not necessarily in the right order." This mistake could be easily made in Sony’s new commercial from Fallon, in which 128 musicians take on a single note each to reconstruct a melody from the brain-box of Hollywood composer Peter Raeburn.

Gathering in London’s iconic Alexandra Palace, the musicians –spanning from axe-wielding guitarists to mini-toy-grand-pianists – were arranged by instrument group to form an ‘acoustic grid’, creating spectacular waves of sound when each note was played.

Speaking of the achievement, Sony UK’s Central Marketing General Manager Mikah Martin-Cruz said, ““This was a hugely complex technical experiment. Not only were we doing something that hadn’t been done before musically, but it also needed to provide a unique audio and visual experience. Sony always tries to push the boundaries, and this advert perfectly illustrates that. The combination of many people’s talent and passion has produced an organic experience that we are sure will capture consumers’ creative imaginations.”

Top pop promo director Nick Gordon – helmer of vids for The Kooks, Muse and Supergrass – captured the musicians in action, commenting “This was an ambitious project to work on. We didn’t just want to produce an impressive advert, we wanted to challenge people to think about music as an evolving art form.”

A great making of can be found on the official site - http://www.walkmanproject.com/

For the numerically minded amongst you who are desperate to know just how many Glockenspiels to spot, here’s the full list:

32 drummers including:
8 Toms, 8 Hi Hats/crash cymbals, 8 Kick Drums, 8 Snare Drums
8 Glockenspiels
1 Toy Glock
6 Kalimbas (thumb pianos)
16 High Synths
4 Bass Synths
4 Toy Pianos
1 Shofar
8 Tubas
4 Melodicas
8 Double Bass
32 Electric Guitars
4 Music boxes

Forming the basic of a integrated campaign - including TV, print, online, in-store and PR - the piece was viewable online from 25th October and is all over TV right now!