Johnnie Walker: The Man Who Walked Around The World

One of my favourite actors, without a doubt, has to be Robert Carlyle. From Trainspotting to The Full Monty to The 51st State, Carlyle always delivers shocking believable performances. Although Carlyle rejects the term 'method actor' he always seeks out a level of emotional identification with a role aiming to find a core of humanity. This is what ultimately makes him so memorable and convincing. With all that said (and not to mention Carlyle's Scottish heritage), it should come as no surprise that Carlyle was the first choice when it came to casting for Johnnie Walker's new ad.

The ad, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, was shot in Scotland in a single continuous take, which sees Carlyle tell the story of how Johnnie Walker whiskey developed from the grocery shop blending of a 14 year old shopkeeper to the international brand that it is today. Between a classic Scottish bagpipe intro and the random appearance of visual cues along the highland that Carlyle is walking, the ad is certainly captivating and engaging. Carlyle delivers a pitch-perfect and charismatic narrative that turns this into more of a short film then an ad.

The copy is from BBH's Juston Moore, and while the ad is delivered as a single continuous shot, according to the production company it did take 40 takes to achieve a successfully result. Shots has a great interview with the ad's director, Jamie Rafn of HLA.

So without further delay, here it is...

MercuryGirl: The World’s First Augmented Reality Browser

A huge congratulations to Tim and everyone at MercuryGirl, who announced that they were awarded a Layar developer account. This means that MercuryGirl will be developing datasets for Layar, the world’s first Augmented Reality browser.

Initially MercuryGirl will be focusing on developing travel orientated layers.



Layar is a free Augmented Reality application for mobile phones. Layar is currently available for Android handsets and will be available on the iPhone in the near future.

Current layers:

• Funda, realty site, providing information for a layer with houses for sale and rent
• Tempo Team, temp agency, providing information for a layer with available jobs
• ING, bank, providing information for a layer with all ATM’s
• Zekur.nl, heath insurer, providing information for a layer with participating health care providers

Wieden + Kennedy 12: Fail Harder

This definitely has to be one of my favourite things that I've seen from Wieden + Kennedy 12.

The project was to create a mural, which they did with over 100,000 thumbtacks and over 351 hours (in the process they bought out all available clear push pins on the west coast of the US). The mural spells out Fail Harder. W+K12 runs by the philosophy of the importance of failure during the creative process to ultimately create stunning and impactful creatives.



Wieden + Kennedy 12 is an experimental advertising school run by Portland ad agency W+K

What is Social Media

I posted at the beginning of the month about a great presentation that Paul Isakson, Head of Strategy with Space 150, gave at the Marketing 2.0:unfiltered event put on by Espresso. Following on from that there is a must-see presentation by Marta Kagan, Managing Director at Espresso: 'What The F**K is Social Media?'

Here Marta takes a look at exactly where Social Media is within the modern (digital) marketing mix, how brands / businesses should be utilising Social Media, and what the important points are to consider (remember) when making the move into Soicial Media. Although this is written from an American perspective, almost all stats are international and all learnings are universal.



Marta's presentation is a follow on from her first 'What The F**K is Social Media?'

Follow Marta at...
Bonafide Marketing Genius
LinkedIn
Marta's Blog
Twitter
Facebook

Lemonade: The Movie

In the US more than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs so far in the "current economic climate". Lemonade tells the story of what those people, who were once creative in advertising, get creative with their own lives. Lemonade has been put together by Please Feed The Animals, an online community for advertising professionals who have been made unemployed.



Writer: Erik Proulx
Director: Marc Colucci
Directors of Photography: Peter Nelson, Will van Hazel, Todd Heater, Neal Morrell, Mark Harmel
Production Company: Picture Park
Executive Producers: Jennifer McKenzie, Erik Proulx
Producers: Carrie Jacobson, Scott Burtnett
Post Production: Finish/Boston
Editor: Pete Warren
Sound Post Production: Soundtrack/Boston
Mixer: Brian Heidebrecht
Music: Caspian