17. May 2012
CMW's mighty softball team started out the league with a killer win last night, beating the competition into submission within 5 innings. They're very happy with their final score of 28-9.
Anyone up for a good ol' game of softball...?
Pictured below (L-R):
Kim, Kristen, Leon, John, Anthony, Ally, Marnie; Wen, John, Tom
10. May 2012
CMW and Elastoplast have teamed up with Lewis Moody to create some 'Xtreme DIY' virals to show the strengh and durability of Elastoplast plasters.
Ex-England ruby international, affectionately known as ‘Mad Dog Moody’ on the pitch for his fearless approach to play, perfectly represents the toughness and durability of the Elastoplast product and resonates well with the predominately male audience the brand is looking to engage.
The campaign comprises of three films showing Moody getting to work with some extreme DIY. The first film, ‘freestyle vertical tiling’, launched on Friday, sees the star try to tackle a tiling job while being restrained by a heavy-duty bungee. Its launch was timed to promote the brand ahead of the bank holiday weekend, a notorious time for DIY mishaps that traditionally sees in a spike in product sales.
By Tuesday morning the film had already received almost 100k views.
http://www.youtube.co.uk/UKElastoplast
The second and third films, ‘Velocity concrete drop off’ and ‘Jetstream wallpapering’ launching later this week, will feature Moody tested to the max with more extreme DIY challenges. (www.youtube.com/UKelastoplast.)
The films dramatise the tough, waterproof nature of the product and demonstrate that it will offer protection no matter how tough the task becomes. Want to know more? Give our Business Development Director, Paul, a call on 020 7927 3657.
8. May 2012
Excellent news on the new client front for CMW!
After some exciting pitching, CMW has been awarded the Diet Chef account, and will be responsible for repositioning the business to focus communications on the brand’s proposition of chef prepared and calorie controlled meals.
Activity will launch across TV, print and digital and social media. The campaign will launch over the summer in the UK before rolling out to other European markets.
Liz Wilson, chief executive, CMW, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for the agency. Diet Chef is an exciting and brave client operating in a hugely crowded sector. While the category is obsessed with the end result, weight loss, research shows us that half the dieting audience are more concerned about the quality and taste of food so this represents a massive opportunity for us to own this area."
Liz Dale, marketing director, Diet Chef, said: "CMW's pitch provided us with exactly what we're looking for in an agency. They showed a deep insight into our business and consumers and provided some truly integrated creative thinking."
We're looking forward to taking on the account and a whole lot of tasty meals!
4. May 2012
This month, hot on the heels of Mark Earls and Steve Henry, we’ll be joined by Alex Fleetwood who will guide us through the Zeitgeist that is play and social gaming and explain why it’s appearing high on every brand’s agenda.
Alex is the founder of Hide and Seek, a gaming consultancy that’s dedicated to inventing new kinds of play, from iphone apps to citywide adventures, festivals to R&D. In this Olympic year there’s little chance of escaping games and Alex will talk about why play has never been more central to our cultural experience, presented more commercial opportunities, or been so core to our social interactions.
It all happens on Tuesday 22nd May, and we'll be live tweeting from the event. Please follow @CMWLondon and #WorkingBreakfast.
3. April 2012
CMW created an April Fools Day spoof for Peugeot this year. The ‘mood paint’ film was seeded on various automotive, news and sports sites, picked up by the Telegraph and featured on Peugeot’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and Homepage. The video already has already clocked up 178,500 hits, just three days after release.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP5_5RDKxOY
Read the full prank below:
Peugeot UK has unveiled an RCZ that uses an innovative reactive paint to change its body colour to reflect your emotions – be it happy, sad or anything in between.
Technicians at Peugeot developed this pioneering new technology by using a psychochromatic coating (mood paint), which alters the molecular structure of the paint to emit light at varying wavelengths. The driver’s moods are detected via heat sensors integrated into the steering wheel, which read their body temperature and pulse rate to change the exterior colour of the car accordingly.
So if you’re feeling happy, the specially-coated RCZ will turn a shade of yellow, depending on the extent of the emotion sensed, but should your feelings change to anger and you’re hit by a fit of road rage, then the car will turn a deep shade of red.
And as long as drivers are ‘happy’ to express their emotions, the whole emotional spectrum of body colours is available to them, including: dark blue – for when drivers are feeling a little down, while a hue of green will spread across the exterior when a driver is detected to be feeling very relaxed.
Speaking about the innovative new ‘mood paint’ concept, product manager, Vince Clisham at Peugeot, said: “This really is a world first for motoring, to have developed a paint that accurately reflects the emotion of the driver, will no doubt have our competitors green with envy. Particularly as our customers can experience this innovation behind the wheel of the RCZ – a sports coupé that already inspires goose-bumps with its double-bubble roof line.”
30. March 2012
New faces here at CMW, and one of them is Matt North, who we’ve just appointed as our Head of Digital Strategy.
Matt joins us from the digital shop VML London, where he was the planning director managing clients that include Microsoft, Vodafone, and Xbox. (He also established an in-house social media practice offering analytics, activation, and listening services for clients. Impressive!)
Here, he’ll be working on quite a few of our FMCG clients, like Kellogg, Allied Bakeries, and Cadbury.
We’re thrilled to have him on board – watch this space for updates and maybe an embarrassing picture or two.
See here for the Brand Republic article on Matt’s appointment: http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1124778/cmw-appoints-north-digital-strategy-chief/
29. March 2012
The Great Football Experiment, our innovative campaign for Nivea for Men, picked up its first prize of the season this week winning gold at The Hollis Sponsorship Awards for best digital activation campaign.
With it shortlisted for both the Marketing Week Engage and Sports Industry Awards next month, we're thinking we may have a hattrick on the cards.
The campaign itself dramatized the brand's proposition 'Preparation is everything,' by showing how a bunch of amateur footballers at a failing football team could progress from no hopes to runners up in their league, and even beat a team of England Legends when given access to the likes of El Tay, Ray Wilkins, and Ray Clemence.
The whole thing played out through social channels and drove massive engagement with the brand. Result.
Great assists from Carat, Octagon, Online Fire, and Big Balls who all gave it 110%.
Check out our film of the campaign here www.cmwlondon.com/work.html#nivea
14. March 2012
Today’s guest speaker at cmw’s #workingbreakfast was advertising legend, Steve Henry.
If you don’t know who he is, stop right here and have a read of this:
Up to speed? Good. Let’s return to the main event.
Steve has been described as ‘one of the 40 most influential people in British advertising over the last 50 years’, so that put us firmly in the company of Adland Royalty this morning.
And he didn’t disappoint. His 45-minutes were truly inspiring and as a fellow creative, his words genuinely resonated with me.
The thrust of his presentation went something like this:
In an industry where most budgets are wasted on a scale that would shame the banking industry, Steve’s point is that if you want your money to work for you, you must produce work that gets noticed. And to get noticed you must do what your competitors aren’t.
Common sense right?
Not so.
In the risk adverse world of marketing and brands, most work is very similar. Think about it - most car manufacturers produce almost identical advertising.
So what stands out?
Very little.
Only brands brave enough to take risks, like Mini, are rewarded with our attention. I’m paraphrasing, but the key point to be taken was that the only advertising that truly succeeds is the advertising that is looking to challenge the norm or ‘be different’ (you may have heard that before).
And so to be different, you must think creatively – and break the rules.
So this presentation was about the power – the necessity – of taking creative risks.
He talked about the fact that disruptive ideas are difficult to embrace but stressed these ideas aren’t just flights of fancy or an indulgence; they’re critical to a brand’s success - a principle he also applied when founding HHCL 20+ years ago.
Isn’t it funny how the clearest of thoughts don’t age? It still sounds like good advice for any start up in 2012 and probably will in 20+ years too.
Steve then went on to talk about how easy it is to kill an idea and how, at every turn, there is someone armed with a reason for something not to happen.
He gave an example of Apple’s famous ‘1984’ ad for the launch of Macintosh. There are countless reasons why it shouldn’t have run (‘Hey, where’s my product shot?’ ‘Why doesn’t it mention our computers?’). But run it did, and since its first appearance it’s been applauded and hailed as one of the most celebrated – and successful – ads of all time.
Doing something different takes courage. And it takes bravery. But ‘different’ will always reward that initial leap of faith.
To quote another Apple ad: “...because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
The lasting impression of Steve’s (Henry, not Jobs) words is that ‘good is the enemy of great’.
That what we do is hard.
It’s bloody difficult.
But that’s what gets us out of bed every everyday, right?
I left the room buzzing with excitement, anxious to get back to the pitch I’m currently working on. It would be GREAT to win this one.
Dan P
28. February 2012
CMW USB sticks can also be used to create scale models of famous landmarks!
2. February 2012
The ad industry collectively held its breath with excitement when news filtered through from twitter and the vastly expanding ‘See all the cool stuff first’ blogs, that VW’s Superbowl ad was going to have another Star Wars theme.
Hooray! Who would be in it – would Star Wars kid feature again? Could it be Jabba the Hutt squeezing into a Golf? Perhaps Han & Chewy would be taking a VW camper to Florida.
I didn’t know. In truth, I didn’t care. I was excited because whatever it was, it was going to be a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
A few days later, a teaser circulates with all sorts of dogs sat on white plinths of various shapes and sizes (both pooches and plinths). After a few seconds I recognised the inane barking as the opening score to Darth Vaders entrance music. Da da da da ddda da da dddadda da.
‘This is going to be good’ I thought and it conjured up even more ideas. Ewoks on a road trip in a Polo? Are these dogs Chewy’s kids and he needs more boot space so he’s buying a Passat Estate?
As the lunch bell silently rang at CMW towers today, one of the cool blogs announced ‘it was here!’ A preview of the ad that will be aired this Sunday during the Superbowl – an extended version in fact. Double-click!
<One minute and sixteen seconds later>
What I saw was one minute of a fat dog exercising so he can chase the new Beetle before cutting to the infamous Cantina Bar (now taken over by the Sports Café with TV screens dripping from everywhere) where space pirates debated which of the ads was better. Star Wars Kid from last year or this year’s Fat Dog? The debate was quickly settled though by a returning Lord Vader, fresh from the sales at PC World - pink Dell notebook just £399 - with a good old-fashioned death pinch.
Is it possible to be angry about an ad? I shouldn’t be but I am. I feel let down and hurt. I wanted Ewoks and Death Stars and AT-AT’s, and all I got was an even older cliché about dogs chasing cars. If you’ve paid all that money for the Star Wars franchise, you don’t bolt it on to the end of another ad. You essentially just wasted $15 million ($1million a second) on a gag that wasn’t funny to start with. All you’ve done is drag Star Wars into it. Just because everyone loved it last year doesn’t mean they’ll love it this time around. I think part of the charm of last year was that it was new. Now we’ve got Yoda selling mobiles, R2-D2 shaped washing machines and the Sith Lord telling us to turn right at the next set of traffic lights. I think the tide of Star Wars endorsements is well and truly out for the time being. It does make you think though -
I wonder what Bill Bernbach would think of the ad? Personally, ‘Lemon’ is a pretty fair description.
Saying all this, it could be a fake, a rouse, only for them to reveal a full Jedi epic at half time on Sunday.
As a 34-year old who grew up wanting to be Han Solo and now looking more like his sidekick, I hope it is.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by an employee is not shared with that of CMW. We love everybody’s work, and would never stoop so low as to put down/diminish/belittle/criticise/degrade or slag off any piece of creativity : )
GL