universal positive » Creative Resources

Super Bowls past and present

Roger Darnell — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:00:06 +0000

Last week, Hulu introduced its Hulu AdZone, which is presented by Toyota and offers easy access to historic Super Bowl ads extending all the way back to 1973. For the project, Hulu invited Advertising Age to highlight celebrity cameos and present expert picks for the most iconic Super Bowl ads of all time. On Sunday, February 5, tune in to www.hulu.com/adzone to watch all of this year’s ads in real-time, share them with friends and vote for your favorites. The best ad of 2012 will be announced early the next day.

On a personal note, I’m hoping for a well-matched battle between New England and New York, and I’ll also be watching for the first-ever Super Bowl spot for Lexus, which is one part of a multifaceted campaign effort produced by my clients at ATTIK. ATTIK’s work has made high-profile Super Bowl splashes in the past, to include their bold logo for Super Bowl XLIV itself just two years ago. Here’s wishing much success to everyone involved in what is sure to be one of the top media events of 2012!

Leviathan’s magical holidays

Roger Darnell — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:49:45 +0000

This spot for the Illinois State Lottery was produced by Energy BBDO in Chicago, directed by Dom Bridges of Bob Industries, and features visual effects from design-focused production studio Leviathan. As Leviathan’s Jason White recently explained to SCREEN Magazine:

“We appreciate this engaging story. Something we can all relate to. Effective and emotive. We really got behind the aspiration of the spot concept – capturing these amazing gift revealing holiday moments.”

Today, White and his colleagues reported on their very successful 2011 in SHOOT Magazine. Here’s wishing you many magical moments and dreams come true over the days ahead.

Ewasko: Days and Lights

Roger Darnell — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:00:39 +0000

Tommy and I are very proud to announce that our book “Ewasko: Days and Lights” — which was nominated for Blurb’s “People’s Choice Award” — is now available as an instant ebook download for Apple iBooks (iPad/iPhone).

We’re also very psyched to announce the release of the first wave of high-quality art prints and photographic products of images featured in “Ewasko: Days and Lights.” By visiting RKDfind Ewasko Gallery you can now order prints with mounting and framing services from Mpix Lab and Photobox, and specialty gifts and photo products from vendors such as IYP Photo Products and fotoflot.

If you have any questions on orders, please call me at 1.828.264.8898. Thank you very much for your interest in this project — we hope you enjoy these images and we look forward to hearing from you any time.

Needham Rising

Roger Darnell — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:49:22 +0000

This has been an eventful year for everyone at global creative agency ATTIK, including its co-founder and executive creative director Simon Needham. The San Francisco Egotist is currently featuring a brief article Simon contributed entitled, “What I learned this year.” He also shared some career advice with the publishers of Creativepool.co.uk back in November in this ‘5 minutes with Simon Needham‘ article. I thought you might also enjoy the in-depth video interview embedded above. From ATTIK’s humble origins in northern England, Simon’s obviously come a long way, and he has many exciting developments shaping up for 2012 and beyond. For more information, please visit www.attik.com.

Killer reels: B-Reel

Roger Darnell — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:00:56 +0000

Founded in 1999 with full service offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Stockholm, B-Reel specializes in the field of advanced digital productions on multiple platforms including web, mobile and out-of-home media. They collaborate with sister company, B-Reel Films on integrated campaigns. B-Reel Films is a traditional film production company.

B-Reel swept the 2011 Cannes Lions’ Awards with a Cyber Grand Prix, a Golden Lion and three more awards from its 15 nominations, and in July, it was named the most awarded digital company in the history of the prestigious FWA Awards. Since November of 2005, B-Reel has earned 57 Site of the Day honors.

For more information, visit www.b-reel.com and @B__REEL

eBay’s give-a-toy stores

Roger Darnell — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:30:45 +0000

Starting last Friday and for the next month, shoppers in New York City and San Francisco can use their mobile phones to purchase toys for children in need at two new interactive storefronts presented by eBay and Toys for Tots. The initiative conceived and produced by advertising agency Venables Bell & Partners features interactive displays created by international production company and design studio Brand New School (BNS) and its School of Interactive Media.

As reported by TheInspirationRoom.com, all web-connected shoppers can experience the Give-A-Toy Store and make donations online by visiting www.eBay.com/GiveAToyStore and www.Facebook.com/eBay.

King and Country’s got game

Roger Darnell — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:32:06 +0000

This Vimeo album from King and Country presents some of the Santa Monica-based design-driven production company’s best projects in the Sports category. Enjoy these spots, promos and documentary projects for Chevrolet (via Goodby, Silverstein & Partners), Fox Sports Net, The History Channel, NBC, Sirius Satellite Radio (via The Martin Agency), U.S. Cellular (via Publicis and Hal Riney) and Versus, and for all the latest from K&C, check out www.kingandcountry.tv.

Killer reels: King and Country

Roger Darnell — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:47:13 +0000

Since its launch in 2006, Santa Monica-based design-driven production company King and Country (K&C) has earned international recognition for breakthrough projects spanning commercials, original promos for major networks, and much more. The innovative production foundry established by directors Rick Gledhill and Efrain Montanez and executive producer Jerry Torgerson elegantly unites A-list talents representing every facet of production and post, delivering impactful films that blend original live-action content, 2D and 3D animation and seamless visual effects into new artforms. Drawing upon its principals’ extraordinary creative capabilities, K&C takes deep pride in directing and producing spectacular projects from concept through completion, collaborating with others to add brilliant end-tags, visual effects and flawless finishing for any and all media platforms, and everything in-between. K&C is featured in the recent SourceEcreative Special Feature entitled “Going Hand-to-Hand with King and Country” and its extensive portfolio of work is viewable online at www.kingandcountry.tv. For further information call Jerry Torgerson at 310.586.0100.

Zeus returns for Scion’s release series

Roger Darnell — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:31:17 +0000

Back in June, global creative agency ATTIK summoned Zeus for its inventive cross-media campaign for the limited edition Scion tC Release Series 7.0, shining new light on Greek mythology’s father of all Gods and men and driving sensational marketing effectiveness. In the first two weeks alone, even before a national TV buy kicked-in, that campaign achieved over 13.5 million impressions, while exponentially expanding Scion’s fan-base across its www.YouTube.com/Scion and www.facebook.com/scion channels, and well beyond.

This week, Zeus returns in a new cross-media campaign promoting The Blizzard Pearl xD Release Series 4.0 (only 800 have been chiseled from the glacier peaks of Mount Olympus) and the Hot Lava xB Release Series 9.0 (just 1,500 have been forged from the Fires of Hades). More information on each is available now at www.scion.com/releaseseries.

To create new campaign assets spanning television, print, radio, online and outdoor channels, ATTIK’s creative leaders including co-founder and executive creative director Simon Needham, creative director Ron Lim, digital creative director Jacob Ford, art director Michael Cornell and copywriter Andy Sciamanna (all but Ron Lim pictured) undertook the arduous journey to Mount Olympus. To read their full account, please visit go.attik.com/30e.

Good works from Thornberg & Forester

Roger Darnell — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 18:02:53 +0000

Ever since DreamWorks Animation and Conservation International commissioned the principals of award-winning design and production company Thornberg & Forester (T&F) to create a special feature PSA for the DVD release of Kung Fu Panda back in 2008, the NYC-based group has kept on applying its diverse talents to the needs of worthwhile nonprofit and non-governmental organizations and environmental causes. Videos from those projects now appear on T&F’s Good Works channel on Vimeo, and more project information is available at www.thornbergandforester.com.