Carl France

A Man Discovers He’s a Bot in This Amusing Warning About Click Fraud

Click fraud is a big problem, but it's also an exceedingly boring topic. So, how do you liven it up to warn marketers about it? The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau has tried a bit of comedy in the hopes that it will get more attention than a white paper.

Check out the video below—a fake newscast about a man who finds out he's a bot. And yes, the phone number at the end is real. Give it a try: 1-844-AM-I-A-BOT

We spoke to Danielle Delauro, svp of strategic sales insights at CAB, about the video.

AdFreak: Fun concept. Where did you get the idea?
Danielle Delauro: We present a lot to advertisers and agencies, and we always get questions about the extent of bot traffic online. We started out thinking, how can you tell when it's a bot? We started tossing around ideas, and the video took direction pretty fast.

What appealed to you about a fake newscast?
We've seen a number of networks tackle serious issues in a fake news setting, and do it successfully. We thought the setup would help us highlight a serious industry issue that is so pervasive it's almost absurd. On one level, you can't help but laugh.

Do you think this approach will break through where more rational attacks might not?
We hope so. There's been a lot of official reporting on the topic—white papers, studies, articles—that have exposed the issue rationally. We thought something funny could touch a nerve and get people to feel the issue rather than just think it, and then share it with friends and colleagues. It's a lot more natural to share a short video that makes you laugh than a long white paper. That's why the 1-844-AM-I-A-BOT number is important. It creates another level of sharable experience.

How committed is CAB to exposing click fraud? Is putting digital's purported reach in perspective a major priority these days?
We're committed to helping advertisers sell more stuff, so we're advancing reality in all things video. Marketers need real audience at real scale, and bots don't have credit cards. So we're prompting marketers to put the video options in the right balance, by putting audience claims in perspective.



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24 Hours in Advertising: Thursday, April 23, 2015


Here's everything you need to know about the last 24 hours in advertising, in case you blinked.

Buzzing on Adweek:

Women break into the CCO boys club
In the past six months, six women have been selected to take on the role of chief creative officer at some of the biggest agency's in the industry. (Adweek)

States open arms to LGBT travelers
Following the backlash from Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, states across the country decided to show their support for LGBT travelers  (Adweek)

Pandora's touching Mother's Day spot
With Mother's Day approaching, Pandora Jewelry released a heartwarming spot in which blindfolded kids do a touch-test to see if they can identify their moms. (Adweek)

Mobile ads take off in 2014
According to the IAB, mobile advertising shot up 76 percent last year, reaching $12.5 billion in 2014. (Adweek)

Reactions to Facebook's latest tweaks
Facebook tweaked its News Feed algorithm once again, favoring posts from a user's friend over posts from publishers. Publishers, however, don't seem too panicked just yet. (Adweek)

Sagmeister & Walsh says it was 'robbed'
New York-based agency Sagmeister & Walsh played a clever prank, claiming they were robbed, but said the thieves only wanted to take the agency's outstanding work. (Adweek)

Facebook posts 46 percent increase in ad revenue 
Facebook announced Q1 earnings Wednesday, reporting that ad revenue jumped 46 percent from the previous quarter with mobile accounting for 73 percent of ad sales. (Adweek)

Around the Web:

Agencies want to work with less online ad vendors 
Ad agencies continue to work with more and more online ad vendors for campaigns but are finding that working with too many vendors gets too complicated. (The Wall Street Journal)

Chipotle plans for a price increase 
On its latest earnings call Chipotle announced plans to increase the price of its steak and barbacoa. The increase will be between 4 percent and 6 percent. (CNN Money)

McDonald's stock goes up
McDonald's stock shot up 2 percent on Wednesday after the company's new CEO announced that he plans to reveal a big turnaround plan in the next 10 days. (USA Today)

Nike makes man-size women's soccer jerseys for national team
Nike just debuted the 2015 U.S. women's national team jerseys, which will, for the first time, be sold in men's sizes. (Bloomberg)

Industry Shake-Ups: 

Coca-Cola U.S. media account search includes roster shops only
Coca Cola is looking for an agency to head up its U.S. media account but will only look to current roster shops. (Adweek)

British Airways appoints Sapient Nitro
British Airways selected Sapient Nitro as its new digtial agency of record after a review. (The Drum)



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Foot Locker Catches Emoji Fever With 80 Individually Drawn ‘Shoemojis’

If your brand hasn't made custom emojis yet, sorry—it's now mandatory.

Or so it seems, given the rush of marketers doing so. And the latest brand to jump quite literally into the mix is Foot Locker, which is stocking its smartphone app with a library of "Shoemojis," beginning with 80 individually drawn sneakers from iconic brands like Nike, Adidas, Asics, Under Armour and more.

"Communicating with your fellow sneakerheads will never be the same," says BBDO New York, which conceived the concept with the client. More images below.

CREDITS
Client: Foot Locker
Project: Shoemoji
Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Chris Beresford-Hill
Executive Creative Director: Dan Lucey
ACD: Damjan Pita
ACD: Derek Harms
Director of Creative Technology, Experience and Design: Simon Mogren
Art Director: Bhanu Arbuaratna
Senior Designer: Jason Merenda
Copywriter: Allie Townsend
Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe
Director of Digital Operations: Clemens Brandt
Senior Producer: Carissa Ranelycke
Director: Janelle Van Wonderen
Account Manager: Nick Robbins
Account Executive: Samuel Henderson
Senior Digital Strategist: Rhys Hillman
Production Company: The BBBDO Digital Studio
Technical Director: Michael Condouris
Associate Technical Director: Konstantin Rosinov
Studio Director: Marty Ford



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Glock Shoots First, Asks Questions Later With This Strange Earth Day Tweet

Earth Day is a special day—a day to think about Mother Earth and how to keep her happy by recycling, by conserving her riches, by protecting her. A number have brands have posted environmental images in social media today, signaling their commitment to the health of the planet.

Glock went a different route, as you can see below.

Needless to say, this tweet caught some people off guard—and, well, brought out some gun-lovin' crazies to hash it out on Twitter. What does it mean? Some guns are brown, and so is earth? That's our best guess.

Check out some of the comments below. What's your take on this odd tweet?



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Taco Bell’s ‘Hottest’ Hot Sauce Yet Is Coming on Cinco de Mayo

Taco Bell is looking to kick things up a notch. 

The Yum Brands' chain announced on Twitter that it will introduce a new hot sauce on Cinco de Mayo called Diablo. The sauce, which will only be available for a limited time, is made with a variety of peppers, including aji panca, chipotle and chili, according to Taco Bell spokeswoman Ashley Sioson. 

"We're all familiar with verde, mild, hot and fire, but if there's one thing we keep hearing from our fans, it's that they want more heat," Sioson said. "Diablo will deliver just that—[it] packs a punch with a 'we don't give a shishito' attitude."

Each Diablo sauce packet features one of 12 new "wisdom" labels—the quippy lines Taco Bell has on its hot sauce packets—something the brand visually highlighted in its tweet.

Not much else is known about the new hot sauce, and the brand did not immediately respond to further questions. 

Check out the announcement below: 



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NYC Agency Sagmeister & Walsh Says It Was Robbed, but It’s Strange What Got Stolen

Sagmeister & Walsh says a brazen robbery has occurred at its New York offices, with three men making off with its most valuable property—and the whole thing caught on tape by the ceiling camera that normally streams live footage of the studio to the agency's website.

Except … wait just a minute.

Creative Review reported on the robbery, and the agency tweeted a link to the story.

But it's soon clear that something is fishy. The pantyhose over the head seems a bit clichéd. And then, the kicker—the Creative Review story says the thieves took the agency's work. And apparently nothing else.

Asked today about the supposed crime, the receptionist at the agency laughed out loud and confirmed the gag. An agency so good that robbers come and steal the work? Well played.



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Only Roster Shops Will Get a Crack at Coke’s U.S. Media Account

Like the media reviews of SC Johnson and Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola's U.S. contest is a roster-shops-only affair.

Incumbent Starcom is competing against three agencies that handle Coke business overseas: MediaCom, Carat and UM, according to sources. MediaCom, for example, works for the company in Mexico and the U.K.

Coke's U.S. media spending exceeded $400 million last year, according to Kantar Media.

The assignment in play encompasses media planning and buying across traditional and digital media.

SC Johnson's global media buying review pits Maxus, the incumbent on traditional media, against PHD, the incumbent on digital. That search is expected to conclude this month.

In Wells Fargo's review, the bank consolidated all U.S. planning and buying at OMD after a head-to-head battle with UM. Previously, OMD had handled traditional media, while UM handled digital.

Coke's search will stretch into the summer, according to sources. The Atlanta-based company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Starcom, a unit of Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group, has been a Coke roster shop for more than a decade, and the marketer consolidated its U.S. business at the agency in late 2003 after a review.



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In a World of Long-Form Video, Make Your Ads Count

Video is the most powerful medium of digital media today. Bold statement, right? Sure, we all appreciate weirdly (maybe uncomfortably) funny cat videos, inspiring news segments about hometown heroes, and cheesy-but-heartwarming holiday ads.

But there's more to this story than casual consumption of online video snippets. Today, consumers are enjoying much more than bite-sized content online, and more than 90 percent of digital video viewers watch long-form content. It's not just millennials streaming their must-see TV. Our new research at Yahoo shows it's not just daughters and nephews turning to digital for long-form entertainment; it's also moms, uncles and just about everyone else.

People of all generations just aren't watching as much TV, and the average number of channels viewed is dropping each year. More than half of long-form video viewers (52 percent) have replaced traditional TV with this type of video programming.

As people gravitate to online streaming sites and mobile video apps, the audience for advertisers is growing and shifting. A one size fits all, blanket approach just won't cut it. Now you have to be ready to meet audiences wherever and whenever they want, be it on a tablet, computer or mobile phone.

Marketers want to align with programming that impacts the audience and forges a strong emotional connection. That's where the NewFronts come in. NewFronts offer marketers an opportunity to get a first look at the newest, most entertaining programming coming to audiences online. 

Let's talk more about the audiences—it's a tough crowd. Digital video viewers have high advertising expectations and, frankly, when a different experience is just a click away, why shouldn't they? They want advertising that is compelling and that complements the viewing experience. Much like with the content that moves them in long-form video, they want their ads to entertain and not interrupt.

So what is ideal? Our research shows that 15 seconds is the ideal video ad experience for long-form video. To be as effective as possible, make your ads brief but powerful. Our research also shows that smartphone video viewers find ads to be 37 percent more noticeable than those who watch on other devices, so you really have to make every precious second of a mobile video ad count.

Today's audiences want quality content, they want to connect with the characters and the story, and they want to laugh or to be moved to tears. And there's no more powerful medium than video to evoke that emotional connection, whether it's the long-form video consumers are watching or the brand ads that accompany that content.

Lisa Utzschneider (@Lisa_Utz) is svp sales, Americas, for Yahoo. This opinion piece is the fifth in a weekly series leading up the the start of the Digital Content NewFronts on Monday, April 27.



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Tiny Billboards for Ant-Man Are Popping Up That Ants Are Really Going to Love

There's something irresistible about tiny billboards.

We've seen them before, of course—for example, there was this LittleBigPlanet campaign from 2008 and this Lego stunt from 2012. And now, the upcoming superhero film Ant-Man is joining the parade, with ant-size billboards popping up in several Australian cities ahead of that country's July 16 release of the movie.

There's even an ant-size bus-shelter with an ad on the side.

Check out more images below, via Screencrush and This Is Film.

For its next stunt, the studio might want to enlist the World Wildlife Fund's horde of leaf-cutter ants to parade the film's tagline around.



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Noooooooooo! This Loony British Ad for Mints Ends With a Comic Shocker

This Trebor Mints ad from Wieden + Kennedy London has a bit of that 1990s Gushers weirdness to it, either as a tribute to nostalgic thirtysomethings or just for shiggles.

It opens with a teen admitting to his father that he prefers soft mints to their harder contemporaries, which makes his dad go all Malory Archer and crush his whiskey glass out of anger. Weird how that never cuts anyone's hand on TV.

And it only gets stranger from there.

Though the concept is hardly revolutionary, they kept the weirdness to one element of the ad that mostly delivers, so it works. For my own sanity, I won't get into the Punnett square logistics that resulted in minty dad's human son. No sense asking questions I don't want answered.

CREDITS
Client: Trebor
Marketing Manager, Gum, Candy, Mondelez: Elena Germani
Senior Brand Manager, Mondelez: Elena Mallo
Project Name: "Choose Your Trebor"
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creative Director: Kim Papworth
Creative Team: Max Batten, Ben Shaffrey
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Andrew Kay
Account Director: Hanne Haugen
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planning Director: Georgia Challis
TV Producer: Lou Hake
Creative Producer: Danny Wallace
Designer: Michael Bow
Production Company: Hungryman
Director: Taika Waititi
Executive Producer: Matt Buels
Producer: Camilla Cullen
Director of Photography: Bob Pendar-Hughes
Editing Company: Work Post
Editor: Rachel Spann
Post Producer: Josh Robinson, The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: Dan Adams, The Mill
Music, Sound Company: Wave
Sound Designer: Dugal Macdiarmid
Producer: Rebecca Boswell
Mix Company: Wave
Mixer: Dugal Macdiarmid
Producer: Rebecca Boswell



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