Friday, February 24, 2006

Face of Indonesia in the movie industry.

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Probably this is the most complete guide and history of Indonesian film industry. A 500 pages book that including index of movie title and name, was released 11 years ago in 1995.
The title is Katalog Film Indonesia 1926-1995, a first edition of data record about Indonesian movies ever made.
Now the new edition has been released, Katalog Film Indonesia 1926-2005.

Ideally, as catalogue, it should be revised anually because there's movies produced and it means there'll be a revised data.
JB Kistanto, the author of the book said there's so many obstacle why this book was not made anually. Because there weren't so many film produced each year, so the book became not too economic to be produced.

When we see the past decade, there're only 30 films annually excluding crisis era 1998-2000. 30 films were not going to add more than 10 pages, not too economic, right? The books consists of new 2438 Indonesian films and including pictures.

The movies in the catalogue are excluding the movies that made for TV broadcast and never been showed in theater, in the criteria of long duration film and or feature film with limitation of 60 mins duration, internationally.

It's a windy day, let's play a kite!

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We've all known that you can advertise on most anything - the moon even, if you are to believe some nutty ideas - the beach, on most foods like eggs and pizza crust. Well, now you can advertise in the sky to match the sand-ads that your target market is messing up by walking on it.

Let's remember our old beautiful childhood, what happens if there's no winds around, of course there'll be no kite. Hey what can you do with a kite? Okay we might flewn it, but further than that? Isn't it nice when people seen our kite flying high, a huge kite with well-designed shape?

That's my point, it's a new opportunity for brands to communicate through it, to the target down there. On the beach, village, city, anywhere as long there's a wind and there's no rain. Yes, kite ads are born. It was bound to happen.

According to a posting from http://ad-rag.com, there's a great news our field. Here comes an innovative medium. Kite Billboard Inc. (http://www.kitebillboard.com) now is the first company in the world to offer advertising on kites used for Kitesurfing/ Kiteboarding, which is, today, the most exciting and eye-catching sport in the water sports industry.

This new advertising medium ultimately will be present on all the major beaches of the world. All major beaches, except where prohibited by law. I think you can read that line as "all major beaches in the United states".

It will provide Advertisers, Corporations and Institutions with an inexpensive and effective advertising/branding tool that can be deployed on any body of water in the world at a moments notice.

180's Adidas +10 Campaign: a campaign to be envied.

From SHOTS news, 180 Amsterdam, last year multiple winner for its Adidas Impossible Is Nothing campaign has developed a newly approach that used in new Adidas campaign for World Cup in Germany this June, +10 Campaign.

What's new about this kinda campaign?
180 has mixed reality TV and advertising in a new campaign for adidas in the lead-up to the World Cup in Germany this summer.

The +10 campaign features four spots, each following two of adidas's most high-profile players over a day as they picked players off the streets for a real match which happened later that same day. Players who feature in each of the recruitment films include Ashley Cole for England, Djibril Cisse for France and Alessandro Del Piero for Italy.

Andy Fackrell, executive creative director at 180, explained the idea: "+10 is all about team. But that can come across all worthy. Football is all about you finding ten mates, so it fell out of the equation quite early on. Importantly, we were looking for something that could springboard into events. 100,000 kids turned up in Mexico City to participate in the 'one day' version of these films, where they could get the chance to be on a superstar's team. So it's a very integrated concept in that way."

Each spot ends with the players, having picked a team, squaring up on the pitch and shaking hands just before kick-off. A link through to the website then appears on which viewers can watch highlights of each of the matches, with commentary.
180 had struck something interesting with the Beckham/Wilkinson spot a couple of years ago; that you didn't have to shout and try to be cool to engage people. Although these films look very random, they are actually quite disciplined in their structure. All the recruitment films are resolved in the actual games, played generally later the same day of the recruiting. There is a real honesty and truth that we wanted to get across.

The teams for each game were carefully selected. The match-ups to have a bit more spice so we picked up on close rivalries - Brazil v Argentina, Holland v Germany, England v France, Spain v Portugal, etc. The only one that was weird was Japan v Italy in Glasgow, but that helped it comically.

Also visit www.180bv.nl to take a look the creative freak behind this interesting project. Or take a look at www.shots.net for viewing the ads.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Social Responsible Advertising: a must or a must not?

Some people, mostly thinks that business is far away from social responsibility to the humanity. Business is business, and social is a totally different discipline from it. Imagine now, why there're so many chaotic situation because of business and the power of capital dominating the humanity?

Just like Michael Moore did in Fahrenheit 9/11, all of the bad things happening in the history of humanity is caused by one thing: business interest with no heart.
See what happens in Africa, Asia, and rest of the world in the circle of 'poor' term. What if the marketing communication being developed with the awareness of combining the two elements: business and social thing?

Social responsibility business could be the only one answer for sure.
Just like what St. Luke's developed for the communication for the chocolate brand Divine in UK.
St. Luke's (www.stlukes.co.uk)-- probably the most inspiring advertising company run by heart that use a unique approach for this.

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Background:

Instead of the usual mass-produced chocolate treat on their hotel bedroom pillows, delegates to this week's G8 Africa summit at Gleneagles will find a bar of Divine Chocolate. Behind the small gift lies a heavy symbolism and a masterpiece of PR spin: Divine chocolate, a Fairtrade product, is produced by the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa-growing co-operative in Ghana and thus represents for many a way forward for Africa - self-reliance and trade - that is better than debt cancellation and aid. Day Chocolate, established in 1997 and in which the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo have a one-third stake, is hoping that the ads will help Divine capitalise on the focus on Africa and debt.

What happens:

Most Fairtrade-type advertising is deadly earnest and targeted at hardcore activists. This ad, which gently parodies high-end fashion shoots (the photographer, Freddy Helwig, is better known for his work for Vogue), is trying to broaden the target market to include women normally more interested in designer gear than the origin of their chocolate. The model, by the way, is Beatrice Mabi, a real cocoa farming member of the co-op. Comment: Advertisers who try to nobilise African tribal values risk falling into elephant traps but Divine gets away with it here since African authenticity is essential to the product.

TV: a daily sin (one angle of a view).

Imagine your kids is being put to sleep with lullaby, but imagine also when serial murderers, monsters and horror characters from well-known splatter, horror and violent films are the one who sing Brahm's lullaby.

Now you got the point of how much violence do your kids see before they go to sleep?
Against violence on TV, your guidance on them is highly needed.
Sinetron, irrasional reality show, full of blood-shed news reportage should be banned, but, again, who in this lovely country are still care about this reality sin--a TV daily sin?

Check your ads' medical up!

Big question about the effectiveness of the creative driven brand advertising in the business being asked everywhere around the hemisphere.
Advertising is art not a science. Yet while it's an art, we're determined to hone, refine and improve our work. My office, LB is so determined, that we've dedicated significant investment in a process, the GPC (Global Product Committee), to ensure we deliver engaging, effective, 'best in the world, bar none' work to our clients.

How can LB dealing with a product as subjective as advertising be specific about advertising standards? The solution is to score the work against our propietary 1-10 scale. The goal for is each submision to receive a 7+ score.

After each Q's GPC, all 7+ work is compiled onto a DVD, aand distributed across the entire network. Thus every LB fellas can learn, be inspired, and spot opportunities to improve their work for their clients. In addition, each office receives feedback on the work they've submitted.

The GPC rating scale:


10: Best in the world, bar none - a forever brand
9: Sets new standard in advertising
8: Sets new standard in category
7: Excellence in craft
6: Fresh idea(s)
5: Innovative strategy
4: Cliche
3: Not competitive
2: Destructive
1: Appaling

Is 7+ work effective in marketplace?

In fact, 7+ work has proven to be significantly more likely to exceed business objectives. LB, with the help of outside analyst, conducted research on a mixture of 5- and 7+ campaigns from around the world over a period of eight Qs. The results? Impressive! Indicating there's a 45% greater chance of exceeding business objectives with 7+ work. Conversely, there's a 75% chance of not meeting objectives with work scoring of 5 or below.

It's brilliantly means to share insight on our accounts. It's a truly unique tool for spotting new opportunities, most importantly it's how we ensure we continually raise the bar and deliver standard-setting and effective work to our clients.
So, trust me, the 'healthier' the ads (hey! should be a 7+! right?), the 'healthier' the brands in terms of business. Check your ad's medical up and try this out on your brand's works.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Whaddaya think? Think inside out? Or...

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Again, still an advertising creative guru and now a film director and co-founder of Arden Sutherland-Dodd, a London based film production company strikes back with his sequel of inspiring book.
Following the hero and world's best selling It's Not How Good You Are It's How Good You Want To Be, here come the new and yet published Whatever You Think Think The Opposite.

Whatever the content of the book, don't think the opposite, you have to read it, and again, apply in your life. I bet it's going to be an interesting future journey of yourself later on.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

BMW Audio Books: Gimmick or Beyond Entertainment?

Following the success of bmwfilms.com, now BMW strikes back with its unconventional medium still for its brand communication. Not making the sequel of The Hire--made by 8 well-known Hollywood filmmakers, but using a newly approach in the communication's entertaining element: a book and a lullaby.

You might still remember our childhood, our mom always trying to make us sleeps with her lullaby read from many books. Warm voice and good story, finally makes it: a good sleep and wonderful dream.

WCRS (Wight Collins Rutherford Scott), London based ad agency used all of this element to make the ad not only entertaining yet a beyond medium. Not just entertaining yet lullabying till the target group are really sleeping in a loyalty for the brand, BMW.

Anyway, we sill remember when BMW released its series of online films, it was hailed for reinventing branded content. That was six year ago, right? And here comes the next of stage: the latest chapter of BMW's entertainment strategy is a deal that sees the car manufacturer linking up with the publisher Random house to produce a series of stories that visitors to bmw-audiobooks.com can download as free podcast.

BMW Audio Books, a unique series of specially-commissioned short stories showcasing the work of some of the finest contemporary writing talent. Each gripping audio book is yours to download for free. A new audio book will be available fortnightly. Listen to them on your MP3 player, your laptop or ideally, in the car. So sit back, hit play and enjoy the ride. There are two books: Beautiful Ride by Don Winslow and Master Of The Storm by James Flint.

Don Winslow - Beautiful Ride

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Summary

Back then he was looking at a fat IPO and a boat. Back then he was rich. Back then he had a condo overlooking the ocean, a wife, and had just bought the BMW Z4 convertible. Cobalt blue, like the ocean on a clean, clear day in early spring. Now what he has left is the car. Ted's a real estate investor in Laguna Beach, California. He's been kicked out by his soon-to-be ex wife, his assets have been frozen by the IRS, he's holding on to his Beemer, but the car company's repo men want it back, and he's living in a tent. He's falling through the cracks of the 'Gold Coast' life, until he turns to money-laundering to get back in the game. Then things get worse...

Biography

Don Winslow has worked in the theatre, film and as a private investigator. He now works as an independent consultant in issues involving litigation arising from criminal behaviour. His previous novels include The Power of the Dog, The Life and Death of Bobby Z and California Fire and Life.

Narrator: Kerry Shale

A native of Winnipeg, Canada, actor and writer Kerry Shale has been working on the UK stage and in British television since 1978. He was most recently seen in the BBC 1 series Love Soup and will shortly be seen in Stephen Poliakoff's new film Gideon's Daughter. Kerry has appeared in over one hundred radio plays and has won a host of awards for his work in this medium including the Sony Award as Best Radio Actor and a Writer's Guild Award for his dramatisation of Doctor Strangelove.

James Flint - Master Of The Storm

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Summary

This is the story of a man who drives a BMW 1 Series finds himself arriving at exactly the same service station over and over again. He leaves, he drives away, but every time he tries to exit the motorway he discovers that he’s back in the same Happy Break. Who is he? Where has he come from? What is he running from? What exactly damaged the wing in his car while he was tuning the radio? And who is the hitchhiker he stops to pick up?

Biography

James Flint is a novelist, journalist and film-maker. He is the author of the novels Habitus; 52 Ways to Magic America, which won the Amazon.co.uk Bursary Award for the year 2000; and The Book of Ash, winner of a 2003 Arts Council Writers’ Award. Flint’s short fiction has been published by the Daily Telegraph, Dazed & Confused, Penguin, the New English Library and the ICA. In 2002 one of Flint’s stories (The Nuclear Train) was filmed for Channel 4 by the director Dan Saul. Flint also scripted the film installation Little Earth. He makes his own short films and maintains a website at www.jamesflint.net .

Narrator - Forbes Masson

Forbes Masson is one of Britain's most versatile actors. He has appeared extensively on stage and television. He was co-creator of the BBC sitcom The High Life and has played leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Forbes is an artistic associate of the National Theatre of Scotland.

Amazing, my first impression. It's a witty and innovative approach.
From the newsroom of WCRS' site (www.wcrs.com), there's a bold title on Campaign magz article: Are BMW's Audio Books a gimmick? Will BMW's latest initiative be able to replicate the success of online films? Hmm, just wait and see, again, will BMW Audio Books follow The Hire success in many advertising creative award? Try this first: click www.bmw-audiobooks.com and you bet!