Commentary

Out to Launch!

It's Out To Launch and this week we've got a few ads that will debut during the big game, the coming together of big names, and a car so big that parallel parking it would be a big pain.

Four advertising-agency creatives share their "secrets" for "How to Write a Newspaper Ad" in a new ad campaign launched by the Newspaper Association of America at its annual Marketing Conference, held this week at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. Amid hand-lettered text and eye-catching illustrations, in each full-page ad the featured creative talks about the power and importance of newspaper advertising. The campaign was created by The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va., whose president and creative director, Mike Hughes, served as chair of NAA's 2001 ATHENA Awards, which honor creative excellence in newspapers. In addition to Hughes, the creatives appearing in the campaign launch are Lee Clow, chairman/creative director, TBWA/Worldwide, Los Angeles; Neil French, worldwide creative director, Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore; and Luke Sullivan, chief creative officer, WestWayne, Atlanta. The ads are available for use by all NAA-member newspapers and can be viewed and downloaded at NAA's website. The San Diego Union-Tribune and USA Today are among the first who plan to run the ads.

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The Allstate Corporation is introducing a national campaign focusing on the company's transformation to a financial services provider. Featuring the Beatles song "When I'm Sixty-Four," the ads inspire viewers to imagine what their retirement will be like when they're 64. These commercials will feature singer and songwriter Julian Lennon who has never previously recorded a Beatles song, singing his rendition of the classic hit. The commercials are part of Allstate's new "The Right Hands Make All the Difference" campaign.

Keeping things musical, Endless Noise has announced details of the company's music composition, mixing and sound design work for a series of :60 and :50/:10 Hennessy VSOP radio spots produced for Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners. Each spot is set in a nightclub and involves a unique form of jazz music beginning in discord before harmoniously blending into smooth melodies. At that point in each spot, the voiceover relates, "There are times when communication exists on a higher level. Hennessy Privilege VSOP, more harmonious, more elegant, more intense." A :60 plus a :50/:10 was created for versions involving saxophones, percussion and scatters.

Moving from harmonious sounds to harmonious relationships, Calvin Klein Cosmetics Company is expanding on the Eternity fragrances' ideal of lasting love and intimacy in a new advertising campaign that debuts globally in February. The new campaign consists of two 30-second television commercials and four print layouts, focusing on significant moments in family life. The TV commercial features scenes of family life as recording artist Aimee Mann sings Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now is Love" in the background -- the first time a song has been used in a Calvin Klein fragrance commercial. The print advertising, depicting life's special moments, will feature the tagline "Love, Sweet Love," and is designed to resemble photographs pulled from a family album.

Onto the big game! Yahoo! will premiere a new television commercial during the Super Bowl this year. The new spot, titled "Dolphin," is the latest commercial in Yahoo!'s current and ongoing "Do You Yahoo!?" campaign. The debut of "Dolphin" marks the first time that Yahoo! has run a spot during the Super Bowl. In the ad, Yahoo! takes viewers to the faraway island of Palau in Micronesia. The :30 spot is an extension of the campaign wherein ordinary people use Yahoo! to magically achieve remarkable solutions to life's seemingly impossible problems. "Dolphin," a :30 second spot, will debut during the second quarter of the game.

San Francisco-based BOLD Outdoor Media unveiled the colossal advertising breakthrough it created on behalf of its client, General Motors Corporation, an 8,000 square foot, nine-story image of the new Cadillac CTS. As the biggest thing at the Super Bowl this year (next to, possibly, Orlando Pace,) the image wraps the west-facing wall of the First Bank Center building in the Jefferson Parish district of New Orleans, Louisiana. In place from January 20 through February 19th, the giant, bold image will be floodlit and clearly visible from up to a mile away to traffic approaching downtown New Orleans on Highway 10. The city of New Orleans is projecting an estimated three million visitors during this period, which surrounds The 2002 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention & Exposition on January 26-29, the annual Mardi Gras celebration which began on January 6 and runs through Mardi Gras Day on February 12 and Super Bowl XXXVI on Sunday, February 3. General Motors is also sponsoring the two-minute warning at the end of Super Bowl XXXVI, which will include a camera pan of the BOLD Wrap image on the First Bank Center building an additional 130 million viewers in the U.S.

Moving out of the country, but sticking with GM, General Motors of Canada is launching the largest ever media convergence campaign in Canada. The multi-million dollar program, Road to Success, integrates print, broadcast and online media to increase awareness of Cadillac. The nine-month campaign begins with a print component at the end of January, linking Cadillac CTS to success in technology, design and business. All elements of the campaign will also be incorporated into a newly created micro site and provide consumers the opportunity to win a brand new Cadillac CTS. Bell Globemedia's family of interactive properties will drive people to the micro site.

Staying with websites, Visa International has unveiled a comprehensive Olympic website, and the first-ever, corporate sponsored Paralympics website. Both serve as an online resource for Olympic information for fans, visitors and media. The comprehensive Olympics site features categories including Visa & the Olympic Games; Visa's Guide to Salt Lake City & Utah; Visa's Olympic Highlights, and a special Virtual Souvenir and Cards section. Highlights include sections detailing Visa Olympics of the Imagination (soon to announce winning entries), the new Visa Olympians Reunion Center, and a preview of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. The key categories for the Paralympic website include: Visa and the 2002 Paralympics; Featured Athletes; Offers and Promotions, and Related Links.

This newsletter is compiled weekly by MediaPost staff writer Adam Bernard. Past issues are archived at the MediaPost website. Your comments, questions and submissions are always welcome and appreciated.

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