Vir, who has been creative services and operations director at Proximity for the past four years, will lead Havas Worldwide London’s digital capability and operations across all the agency’s projects and clients.

In this newly created senior role, he reports into the Havas Worldwide London chief executive Russ Lidstone.

At Proximity, Vir was a senior board member overseeing budgets, outsourcing, managing digital suppliers as well as managing the creative services department, process, workflow and talent management. During his time there, he was behind the integration of the agency’s on and offline processes.
Prior to Proximity, Vir was head of production at WPP agency GT between 2007and 2009. His role included developing and managing internal processes and overseeing delivery for clients such as Audi, Aviva, BBC and Microsoft.

Before that, he worked at Agency Republic as project director, overseeing project delivery across clients including Mercedes, Playstation and Nokia.  His past roles also include a stint at WPP agency Digit as senior producer.

Russ Lidstone said: “Justin is a proven force in digital operations. His arrival will strengthen our digital and integrated capabilities and build on our momentum in digital over recent years.”

Justin Vir said: “I’m very excited to be joining Russ and the team at Havas Worldwide. As well as working with some fantastic clients, there’s a great opportunity for me to build on the strong digital capabilities they have and explore the creative opportunities where advertising, PR, social and digital meet.”
The move is part of a series of hirings and internal promotions at Havas Worldwide London, and follows the promotion of Anthony Edwards as strategy director, and the hiring of Leila Bartlam as head of film and Lisa Bowcott as planning director.

McCann decided to take this discovery to Denmark’s biggest airport where it’s a tradition to welcome people with flags. But not everyone brings one and the welcome isn’t as big and happy as it could be. That’s why McCann created a special poster where people could take flags straight from the Coca-Cola logo. This gave everyone the chance to create a happy welcome to the world’s happiest country.

Creative Credits
Advertised brand: Coca-Cola
Client: Coca-Cola Denmark
Campaign Name: The Happy Flag
Advertising Agency: McCann Worldgroup/McCann Copenhagen

Chief Creative Officer: Miguel Bemfica
Executive Create Director: Lee Tan
Creative Director: Mads Ohrt
Art Director: Eva Wallmark, Michal Sitkiewicz, Gabriel Miller
Copywriter: Rickard Beskow, Gabriel Miller
Account Supervisor: Andrei Kaigorodov, Morten Ingemann
Producer: Catherine Lee
Other credits: Søren Albrechtsen

Fernando Silva: What is the reason of your visit to Latin America, and to Argentina specifically?

Stephen Allan: I’m in Latin America because MediaCom is very intent on growing in this region. Our first major step was to hire a new leader, and we found the very best in Fernando Silva. I met with many, many professionals in the region and Fernando really stood out. It was an easy decision and he’s proven to do very well. We’ve gotten past that initial step and presently we’re working on MediaCom’s footprint in Latin America. With 170 offices in over 90 countries, MediaCom is truly a global company. But we are still looking to grow the operation-recently we opened a new office in Colombia, a key country in the region, with Paulina Parra as CEO. In the coming months, we are planning to open an office in Peru, and start affiliations in Venezuela and Panama next year.

The purpose of my visit here is really to understand more about the region, how the market works, learn about the people, listen to what clients need and want, and also to identify the differences between one region and another. My job is to make sure that at MediaCom, we share our thinking and knowledge so we can do the best for our clients. For example, if we are doing something great in the Canadian office that would be useful in the Argentinean office, we need to share the knowledge and make things work in the best way possible.

FS: What were your impressions of the region on this visit?

SA: We are doing well; MediaCom works for some of the market-leading clients and, really, I see huge potential in Latin America today. Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Santiago, and Miami have enormous potential. We learn from our experience, and based on the growth that we’ve seen in Asia, it’s likely that this region will also expand in the coming years.

FS: How do you see the region in the global media business?

SA: First of all, I think the digital evolution of the region in general has been a little slower than in other regions. According to market research, 19 percent of media investment globally is in digital advertising, but in markets such as the U.S. or the UK that number is as much as 25 or 30 percent, which means it is surpassing television.

In a market like Argentina, digital investment is around 7-8 percent, where it has grown from 4-5 percent, though now seems to be slowing. That’s one of the differences that I see today, but moving forward the region will certainly begin investing more in digital.

This is an inevitable transition because we, as agencies and media companies, are in the business of knowing where consumers’ eyes are. The time those eyes are spending watching television is not growing. What’s growing is time spent on the second or third screen – mobiles, laptops, tablets. It’s like they say: “the dollars follow the eyes.” In Argentina today, people are already spending almost the same amount of time with second screens as with television, so in time investment will change.

Secondly, the market, particularly Argentina, is complicated. There are daily challenges which might be difficult for our clients, especially global ones. These are some major differences in the market that I see: digital investment and rising inflation.

FS: Speaking of digital – how does MediaCom handle digital today?

SA: “Digital” is a word that is getting a little old now. The world is digital now, everything is digital. Personally, I think everyone in our agency has to be “digital.” In Argentina, for example, between 60 and 70 percent of employees are under 30 and many are under 25 years old, so they are digital natives and that’s what we want in our company.

What we have at MediaCom is a way of working in which each person in the agency is an digital expert, so we don’t have a “digital hub” — all team members are digital. And that is why, in my opinion, offline and online is an anachronism, because what matters is the behavior of our consumers. They do not say “okay, now I’ll see analogue media … now I’ll see digital media,” they just do it and that’s all.

FS: Could you tell us more about MediaCom’s involvement in sports? For example, recently the agency began to manage Pelé’s image.

SA: If we look at the list of MediaCom’s clients, most of them are involved in sports and invest a lot of money. We wanted to be part of it for two reasons: firstly, because it is a business opportunity; secondly, because our clients tell us “this is our problem, can you help us?” We want to ensure we have the best solutions; we want to be a full-service media agency, which includes sports among its offerings. We have MediaCom Sport divisions in London, Germany, New York, Russia, Singapore, and Brazil, and it’s an area that will continue to grow. With regard to Pelé, I see him as another client, a brand that needs a media partner and communication, so we work to develop that content just as we would with any other clients.

Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & MatherThe CLIOs have also named O&M Agency Network of the Year for the second consecutive year, honoring the agency’s remarkable body of award-winning work throughout the network. O&M notched 127 shortlists (out of a total of 896 named), which was a 112% increase over last year when the agency also received this honor.

CLIOs recognized exceptional, multi-award winning work from O&M offices spanning the globe, representing executions for clients big and small. O&M performed in multiple categories including Film, OOH, Print Technique, Print, Direct, and Engagement.

“Building a culture of Pervasive Creativity requires great minds and great clients. We are fortunate to have both,” stated Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather.

O&M is especially proud to receive this honor in a year when its client, The Coca-Cola Company, is receiving the inaugural CLIOs 2013 ‘Brand Icon’ Award that recognizes continuous and exceptional creative execution over the years.

This collection of accolades stands as testament to O&M’s worldwide network of clients and employees and the exceptional work they produce together.

With his team of 20, Platschke will be developing ideas for recently acquired clients O2 and AIDA as well as international brands such as Pampers (Western Europe). He will also be applying his many years of creative experience to the task of building up Saatchi & Saatchi’s Berlin office into a powerful creative hub within the company’s network.

Berlin is a strategically important location for Saatchi & Saatchi. “The city has evolved over recent years to become the creative centre of Europe, attracting new ideas and talent like a magnet,” says Michael Samak, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Germany and Switzerland. “To profit from this, we want to make our Berlin office’s profile even more forward-looking. In creative terms we are in very good shape in Berlin. Together with Kai Platschke we are now augmenting our service portfolio with in-depth knowledge of the constantly changing use of media.”

“We have arrived in the post-digital age,” adds Platschke. “I firmly believe that it’s no longer about whether your ideas are put on TV, on Facebook, on a mobile app, or in a live event. What we really have to ask is, how does a brand play a relevant role in consumers’ lives? Saatchi & Saatchi’s Lovemarks concept offers the ideal setting for this way of seeing things.”

Kai Platschke spent 14 years in big-name agencies in Germany and abroad acquiring the management and communication expertise, which is now so important to Saatchi & Saatchi’s Berlin operation. He was most recently General Manager Germany for the French FullSIX network, whose Berlin office he led.

Before that he worked at McCann Worldgroup in Paris as their Chief Digital Officer, supporting their network in globally evolving its digitalization strategy. Other postings along the way included Duke/Razorfish, Paris, and Razorfish (formerly Neue Digitale), TBWA, and Ogilvy – all based in Frankfurt.  His previous clients have included global players such as adidas, Levi’s, Microsoft, Kraft Foods, Seat, Chanel, Samsung, and Procter & Gamble.

Aureus is Kinetic’s unique cloud hosted platform, specifically designed for all parties in the Out of Home media planning and purchase chain. The system brings together local market data; insights; industry and proprietary research and allies this to detailed inventory information. This drives optimised campaign planning and delivery in a truly end to end system, simplifying the path to purchase and ensuring seamless access to the market.

The Aureus system has been designed to facilitate growth for the media owner community whilst ensuring agencies and clients can quickly assess the value of their media placements.

As part of the Aureus launch, Kinetic also announced today the debut of its proprietary Out of Home audience measurement research, KRM another major first for the Malaysia market. Fully integrated into Aureus, KRM uses local demographic, visibility and traffic data, to facilitate audience measurement across major roadside formats in the Malaysian market.

Implementation in Malaysia forms part of a global roll-out plan for Aureus across the rest of APAC, North America and Europe.

“With the Aureus solution we are adding vitality to an already exciting market” explains Susannah Cery – Country Head of Kinetic Malaysia, “Malaysia is the first market in Asia to get this system and we are excited to be spearheading this major global development for Kinetic.”

“Introducing Aureus in Malaysia shows our commitment and investment in the region and demonstrates how we are able to leverage our global expertise and scale to deliver enterprise grade systems to all the markets in which we operate” confirms Steve Ridley, Global CEO, Kinetic. “We believe that simplifying access to the market will be

Created by Leo Burnett, the TV and national press campaign, centres around the premise that the ‘Great Tastes of America’ promotion brings a little taste of America to the UK. The campaign focuses on American quirks appearing in our day to day lives. The 30 second TV ad shows some typically American people and icons, contrasted against some typically British backdrops.  The ad shows a London cabbie looking bemused as he sees a sea of New York style yellow cabs around him, a fisherman somewhat confused by an airboatpulling out of a quiet canal lock and a team of cheerleaders performing an energetic routine at a cricket game, much to the bewilderment of on-lookers.

Each week the new burger on offer features at the end of the commercial, with an American idiosyncrasy unique to that burger’s theme unfolding inside a McDonald’s restaurant as bemused UK customers tuck into their food.

The TV is supported by a press campaign inspired by the American tradition of specially designed number plates featuring model making by Paul Baker and photography by Richard Maxted.

Credits :

TV
Client McDonald’s
Creative agency Leo Burnett
Copywriter Ed Tillbrook
Art director Richard Ince
Creative Directors Tony Malcolm & Guy Moore
Planner (creative agency) Livia Stefanini
Media agency OMD UK
Planner (media agency) Lucinda Allen
Production Company Smuggler
Director Neil Harris
Editor John Mayes @ Marshall Street Editor
Post-production MPC
Audio post-production Grand Central
Exposure National television & Republic of Ireland

Print
Copywriter Jon Fox
Art director Rik Brown
Photographer Richard Maxted
Model maker Paul Baker
Retouching/Designer Adrian Britteon
Exposure National press

The campaign, created by MRM Meteorite in partnership with Start, sees 40+ high profile brands and organisations showcasing how they are actively promoting ways for consumers to be more sustainable in their daily lives.

The brands involved in the ‘Be the Start’ campaign include IBM, Virgin Money, Waitrose, Mark & Spencer, Eurostar, Asda, Thames Water and the Eden Project.

The campaign runs across digital, social media, press, radio and outdoor, throughout the month of May. A dedicated online hub at bethestart.org brings together all the elements of the campaign.

Andrew Orbell, Business Director, at MRM said: “We want to create a campaign that breathes fresh air into sustainability, blowing away the cobwebs of worthiness which often stifle the brilliant work done by brands and organisations to improve the quality of the lives we lead, without it always being at the expense of the planets resources.”

Joey Tabone, Director of Start said “Most of us know there are things we can stop doing to make changes in the world we live in. The ‘Be the Start’ message is different. It’s about inspiring people to take positive action and start doing things. MRM Meteorite helped create the campaign and have been an invaluable support, enabling us to turn it from a one day event, to this year taking over the whole of May!”

Start is an initiative inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales is part of the charity BITC (Business In The Community) to help people across the UK to lead more sustainable lives.

Credits :

Creative Director     Dan Douglass
Art Director     Carl Knapper
Copywriter     Sam Bone
Account Director     Andrew Orbell
Agency Producer     Eleanor Fitzgerald
Artworker    Charles Townsend

eMarketer expects the growth in the number of US mom social network users to slow in coming years, given how common the activity already is among this demographic.

This year, eMarketer estimates that 28 million female internet users over the age of 18 with children in the household will use social networks at least once a month. The number of US mom social networkers is expected to come close to 30 million by 2017.

US moms continue to increase their social media usage. According to a March 2013 study by comScore for online parenting resource BabyCenter, more than 90% of US mom internet users reported using social media on a regular basis. BabyCenter estimated that 20% more moms used social media in 2013 than did so in 2010. At this point, moms who do not use social media are becoming practically unheard of.

Moms between 18- to 34-years-old were not only more likely to be on social sites, they also spent considerably more time on Facebook than the general population—24% more time on desktop, and factoring in mobile, young moms spent 260% more time than the average user.

BabyCenter also found that moms overindex in their use of all the other leading social platforms—YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.

The biggest difference between moms and the general population is on YouTube. Seventy-seven percent of moms used YouTube, compared with 61% of the population. The difference on Instagram was also significant—27% of moms used the mobile-social site, compared with only 15% of the general population. The smallest divide was on Google+.

Image courtesy: www. jem499.blogspot.com
Source: eMarketer

McCann Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways To Die” won seven awards. The campaign won three Webby Awards,one for Animation and two awards in separate categories for Viral Video and Viral Marketing. It won four People’s Voice Awards: for Viral Marketing; Animation; Viral Video; and Public Service& Activism.

McCann Erickson won 10Webby Awards in total.McCann NY won 2 awards for its interactive Nature Valley Trail View technology. Nature Valley Trail View won a Webby for Media& Consumer Packaged Goods and a People’s Voice Award for Best Use of Online Media.

McCann Colombia won 1 award for the Water Museum. The campaign won a People’s Voice Award for E-Mail Marketing.

“This is another outstanding moment for the McCann brand,” said Harris Diamond, CEO, McCannWorldgroup. “Dumb Ways To Die is just this wonderful, magical piece of work that connects across every culture, language, demographic and geography. And we’re seeing work from our teams around the world, from offices large and small, that continue to win awards at global creative shows, like the Water Museum from our Colombian office and Nature Valley Trail View from New York.

John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann Australia and the creative director on “Dumb Ways To Die,” said: “Our whole team is honored and overjoyed at the generous reaction we have received from the global advertising community. We never expected this video to be seen outside of Australia–let alone by the entire world.”

The McCann Worldgroup network, with McCann Erickson and its sister agencies, won a total of 14 Webby awards. In addition to McCann Erickson, The Martin Agency won two Webbys for its “Clouds Over Cuba” website for the JFK Presidential Museum and Library. It won a Webby for Best Website Navigation and Structure and for Cultural Institutions. Momentum Worldwide also took home two Webby awards.

In addition to the awards above, McCann Erickson agencies received an additional 3 Webby Award nominations including Marketel McCann Canada: 1 Nomination for Muse Zoom Explorer, in Banner Campaigns, McCann NY: 1 nomination for Verizon Color Live Broadcast, in Entertainment/Handheld devices,  McCann NY: 1 nomination for #millionhoodies, in Public Service & Activism.