Archive for September, 2010

Tide Loads of Hope

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Doing work in Pakistan

Pakistan Floods: Disaster is the Worst in the UN’s History

“The United Nations has rated the floods in Pakistan as the greatest humanitarian crisis in recent history with more people affected than the South-East Asian tsunami and the recent earthquakes in Kashmir and Haiti combined.”  
 
To help the families affected by the floods in Pakistan, P&G joined hands with HOPE, READ Foundation, and Pakistan Medical Association, three long term partners for disaster relief.  Through these organizations, P&G provided financial support to help mobilize relief efforts, distribute PUR packets (current commitment will provide 70M liters of clean drinking water) as well as P&G products to meet the hygiene needs of the affected families.
 
Loads of Hope – Global Initiative
 
P&G reapplied Tide Loads of Hope under the name Ariel Humwatan Humqadam (Nation Walking Together).  Eleven laundry stations were setup in flood affected areas of Punjab and Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa where clothes were washed, dried, packed and returned to families free of cost.   In addition, an Ariel Laundry Station was setup at a key Metro store in Karachi to allow consumers and employees to donate clothes.  The Ariel team in Pakistan was able to wash more than 10,000 garments each day, totaling nearly 300,000 clothes items for families in need.

Time & Time Again

This marks the 5th time the Loads of Hope program has been reapplied across lower income markets in the past 12 months, including the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, and Hungary.  In each instance, the program has been customized to best suit the local environment and needs of the people.  For example, in Haiti the team partnered with Frigidaire to supply washers, dryers, and Tide Coldwater to hospitals and raised $500,000 through the sales of Tide Load of Hope Vintage T-shirts.  The funds are being used to rebuild the laundry rooms of the National Hospital and Zanmi Beni home.    

Saatchi & Saatchi congratulates P&G for their leadership and encourages everyone to support the Loads of Hope program.  The families affected by the floods in Pakistan will need continued aid and awareness in the months and years to come.

Category: Sustainability

7×7 is Tonight

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Join Saatchi & Saatchi New York for our second-ever 7×7 tonight in the SSpace @ 7pM. We’re extremely excited to welcome such a diverse, influential and informative group of speakers for the event. If you haven’t yet reserved your tickets, there’s still a few left! Be certain to check out HudsonHouston.com/7×7

Event Details

Time: 7PM
Cost: $7
Location: 375 Hudson Street (on the ground floor)

Directions

By Subway
2-3-9, Varick & Houston
A-C-E, 6th & Spring

By PATH Train
Christopher St

Our Presenters

1. Claudine Cheever Chief Strategy Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi New York

Claudine Cheever is responsible for all strategic planning for the agency, including leading consumer brands such as Cheerios, Pampers, Tide, JCPenney, and Miller-Coors. Prior to joining the SaatchiNY team, she worked with Goodby Silverstein in San Francisco, and has provided creative planning for everything from Barbie to cable television. She has an MA in American Literature from the University of North Carolina.

2. Elizabeth Spiers Media launch consultant, entrepreneur and writer 

Elizabeth Spiers was recently named one of Fast Company’s 100 most influential women in technology. She was the founder of Breaking Media (DealBreaker.com) and has launched sites for other companies including TheGloss.com, Crushable.com and a number of blogs for MediaBistro. She was the founding editor of Gawker.com. Her debut novel And They All Die in the End is due out this year.

3. John Brownstein Harvard Medical School epidemiologist

John Brownstein is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and earned a PhD in epidemiology from Yale. He currently holds research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Canadian and Google.org. His research has been reported on widely including pieces in Science, Nature, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, National Public Radio and the BBC.

4. James Belich Historian, Rhodes Scholar and author

James Belich’s most recent book Replenishing the Earth dives into the massive British and American settler revolutions that gave birth to the ‘Anglo World’, and the rise of New York, Chicago and other great cities. A D.Phil from Oxford’s Nuffield College, he is Professor of History at Victoria University in New Zealand where his research interests are indigenous responses to European expansion, settler societies, and globalization.

5. Christian Menegatti VP of Global Economic Research, Roubini Global Economics

Christian Menegatti specializes in global macroeconomics, the U.S. economy, the U.S. housing sector, monetary policy and capital flows, and foreign-reserve accumulation and management. His views have been featured on CNBC, Fox Business News and in Forbes. He is VP of Global Economic Research at Roubini Global Economics in New York. RGE Chairman Nouriel Roubini is renowned for predicting the crash of 2008.

 

6. Paul Rieckhoff Executive Director of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America

IAVA is the first and largest organization for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Following his tours in Iraq where he led hundreds of combat patrols, IAVA founder Paul Rieckhoff has become a nationally recognized authority on issues affecting our troops, military families, and veterans at home. His book, Chasing Ghosts, offers a haunting look at 10 months in one of the most volatile areas of Baghdad.

7. Motel Motel Brooklyn indie folk & alt-americana quartet

Motel Motel is a Brooklyn based quintet who perform a mix of indie folk and alt- americana. They are self-described as “shwag rock” but their distinctive style has also been called “rattling, old-timey country” and “garage-Americana”. They were recently named US cultural ambassadors to Egypt. Their third album The Big Island is just out.

Mary Baglivo will again MC and we’ll be having the always-important social hour following the presentations

Category: Events, New York, Our People

ADCOLOR Award Win

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Kwame Taylor-Hayford: 2010 ADCOLOR Rising Star

 Last week, the 2010 ADCOLOR Industry Coalition announced the recipients of their annual awards, and SaatchiNY VP/Senior Sisomo Producer Kwame Taylor-Hayford has been named one of just three winners in the Rising Star category! This is exactly the sort of news we love to celebrate during Advertising week, and are ecstatic to wish Kwame congratulations.  

The Awards 

There are only 19 honorees who will be celebrated at the November 17th ceremony in Miami Beach, so this is a huge honor for Kwame. Award winners were selected from agencies around the country, and representatives from major players like BBDO, CNN, DraftFCB, Omnicom Group, Pepsi, Translation and many others will all be honored. CNN’s Soldedad O’Brien is slated to host the awards, which will kick off the 12th Annual Association of National Advertisers’ Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference.

The Model 

According to their media, Kwame and each of the other winners were selected based on “their ability to redefine diversity; deliver strong outcomes; their contributions to their respective companies, industries and/or communities; and their reputation as “best in class” by serving as role models for others.”

Congratulations Kwame!

The Winners: 

Rising Star Awards presented by Google & The Advertising Club

  • Kwame Taylor-Hayford, VP, Senior SISOMO Producer, Saatchi & Saatchi
  • Ronnie Dickerson, Interactive Media Supervisor, DraftFCB Chicago
  • Tiffany Edwards, Education & Diversity Director, The One Club

All-Star Award presented by Omnicom Group

  • Queen Latifah

MVP (Most Valuable Partnership) Award presented by CNN

  • RPM  Group & PepsiCo

Lifetime Achievement Awards presented by DIAGEO & American Advertising Federation

  • Roy Eaton, Former VP, Music Director, Benton & Bowles (retired)
  • Bill Lamar, Former CMO, McDonald’s (retired)
  • Douglass L. Alligood, SVP, Chairman, Diversity Council, BBDO New York

Legend Awards presented by McDonald’s USA & Association of National Advertisers

  • Carmen Baez, President, Diversified Agency Services Latin America, Omnicom Group, Inc.
  • Vita Harris, Chief Strategy Officer, DraftFCB NY
  • Frank Cooper III, Chief Consumer Engagement Officer, PepsiCo

Creative Award presented by Publicis USA & The One Club

  • J.D. Michaels, SVP, Director of Creative Engineering & Production, BBDO NY
  • Danny Robinson, SVP, Creative Director, The Martin Agency

Change Agent Awards presented by Microsoft Advertising & American Association of Advertising Agencies

  • Greg D’Alba, EVP, Chief Operating Officer of Ad Sales & Marketing, CNN
  • Kim Hunter, Founder & Chairman, The LAGRANT Foundation
  • Sallie Mars, Director of Creative Services & Chief Diversity Officer, McCann Worldgroup

Innovator Awards presented by Arnold

  • Coltrane Curtis, Founder & Creative Director, Team Epiphany
  • Kendra Hatcher King, EVP, Worldwide Director, Insight & Innovation, Initiative
  • Steve Stoute, Founder, Chairman & CEO, Translation

Photos taken by Sasithon Pooviriyakul, an Account Supervisor at SaatchiNY. You can see more of her wonderful work on her website.

Category: Awards, New York, Our People

Ping Pong Advertising Open

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Images from Douglas Ljungkvist's abstract Ping Pong series

As we mentioned recently, Advertising Week officially kicked off today. And just under 12 hours into the festivities, SaatchiNY’s own Interactive Creative Director James Cooper is playing host to one of the most anticipated events of this year’s schedule.

If you’ve followed Hudson/Houston for awhile, you’re already familiar with the fact that James is something of a Ping Pong connoisseur. If you weren’t already in the know, you’d be doing yourself a favor to check out one of his side projects, Celebrity Ping Pong (CPP). It’s filled with entertaining celebrity interviews and the latest news in the world of competitive ping pong.

The Advertising Open

Tonight, Celebrity Ping Pong, in association with SPiN New York present the first-ever Advertising Week Open @ SPiN. The tournament gives the finest players from agencies city-wide to go head-to-head for the chance to win $500 (for 1st place) and bragging rights for the next 12 months. Additional prizes include limited edition art work from photographer Douglas Ljunqkvist – see his ping pong collection here – and free night at SPiN for the agency that brings the best support for their team.

Entry into the tournament is $20 per team, but it’s free to attend, and there’s an open bar. Unfortunately, James won’t be able to flaunt his talents due to recovering from knee surgery, so this serves as an open call for the entire SaatchiNY team to stand and deliver on behalf of the agency.

Open bar for the event begins at 6PM. Play starts at 7PM. SPiN NY is located at 48 E. 23rd Street.

Category: Events, New York, Our People

King St. Q&A with Darla Price

Friday, September 24th, 2010

Darla out and about

Darla Price is VP, Management Supervisor at SaatchiNY. If you’re interested in learning more about her, feel free to check out her LinkedIn page.

What do you do at Saatchi & Saatchi?

I work for the meals division of one of our clients.

What was your first job?

Well that depends whether you’re asking about my first job in the biz, or my first job ever.  My first job ever was in high school as a babysitter.  But this wasn’t just any sitter job, I really had a good gig!  I babysat for two kids, a boy and a girl about 5 and 8 years old.  Their mother was divorced but still lived in the huge mansion she had once shared with her husband, and her new boyfriend was a club DJ.  So every Friday, I’d come over and stay overnight until Saturday morning while they were out late into the wee hours clubbing.  The pay was insane.  Best job ever (except that the kids were a bit bratty!).

Now, my first job in the business was through an internship I did in college that eventually turned into a part time job while I was still in school.  I worked at a small start up agency called BrownPartners

What motivates you most?

Most recently, I’m motivated by the blessing of having each day to do something different, unique, or crazy that sets me outside my comfort zone.  I believe in making my life mean something, whether it lasts for 40 years, or 100.  Case in point, I went skydiving a few weeks ago.  Just because…you only live once!

What blogs, magazines, books, papers or websites can you not live without?

Hulu for sure!  It’s where I catch up on my favorite shows that I’ve missed (i.e. General Hospital…Brenda is back!).  I’ve also recently discovered the Twilight saga.  Can’t put it down.  And the NY Times Arts twitter page.  Great updates and scoop on what’s going on in the entertainment world.

What are your Lovemarks?

Barack Obama, General Hospital, Sephora, Starbucks, SHOES!

What’s your best “nothing is impossible” story?

Tough one!  Ok so I’ll tell you the first thing that comes to mind.  It’s less my story, and more one about someone who touched me in a way that still resonates with me daily.

So, I volunteer when I can.  I’m by no means a saint but I love to give back when I have free time because it’s the right thing to do, and it helps remind me of how fortunate I am, and that those less fortunate are still human, and should be treated as such.  One day I volunteered at a homeless shelter downtown, in their soup kitchen.  About 75 people came in that day to have dinner (which was considered a slow day because of the rain).  I was asked to be on table duty and make sure all the water pitchers stayed filled, people had silverware to eat, etc.

This particular day, I was appalled by how the staff was very harsh with the people who came in there, and people were being essentially reprimanded for asking for “seconds.”  I stopped and chatted with one man in particular, who told me his story.  He had been homeless for some time, and his children had been taken away from him.  All he really wanted was to get back on his feet and be back with his kids, but he was having a hard time doing that.  Yet, he came in with a smile on his face, and said please and thank you – and stopped on his way out to say to me, “God bless you.”

He could have resigned himself to his situation and been a grumpy, evil person – but he chose to rise above.  THIS to me says nothing is impossible.  If you persevere and stay the path of positivity, you can overcome anything.

What is your favorite place in the world? Why?

Not sure if this counts as a place “in the world”, but I’ve got to say my favorite place is 13,500 feet up in the air with nothing surrounding me but a harness and parachute.  It doesn’t matter where I am in the world…could be anywhere.  The serenity of the sky and clouds is like nothing else.

Who do you most aspire to be like?

Hmm….you know, ultimately, I aspire to be myself and strive to simply be a good person.  The type of person who when I call someone, they want to answer.  Or when I ask a favor of them, they want to help.  There’s no one person who I’d aspire to be, but if I could assemble qualities I’d want to possess I’d probably want Obama’s courage, my old boss’s kind spirit; and Lindsay Lohan’s spontaneity (just kidding on the last one).

Tell us something surprising about yourself.

I’m a twin.

What’s your DOT?

Shutting down my computer every day.

What’s your favorite creative pursuit?

Making jewelry

When was the last time you gave a standing ovation?

In a bar the night President Obama won the election and I was watching (along with hundreds of others) on a TV screen as they announced he’d won.

EDITORS NOTE:

We want to meet everyone! To send in your King St. Q&A, please copy and paste the Q&A, overwrite with your own responses, then send it to the editors via the Contribute button on the bottom right.

Category: King St. Q&A, Lovemarks, New York, Our People

Advertising Week & 7×7

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Next week the ad industry is taking over New York. The festivities of Advertising Week 2010 kick off Monday morning (9/27), and the week is packed with hundreds of hours of exciting & informative events. If you’ve never been before, it’s a great way to network with other people in the field, as well as to learn about the latest trends, topics & innovations driving the industry.

7×7

To celebrate the occasion, SaatchiNY is hosting our second-ever 7×7 event on Wednesday evening at 7PM in the S Space. (9/29)For those of you who haven’t heard, RSVP’d or already purchased your tickets; check out HudsonHouston.com/7×7 for complete details.

Listen, Learn & Be Inspired

With events ranging from a “Battle of the Ad Bands” to Global CEO summits to Professional Development seminars, it’s hard to pin down the core of what Advertising Week is all about. Thankfully, their press kit does a good job of boiling it down:

Advertising Week is North America’s premier gathering of cutting edge communications leaders. The Week is a hybrid of thought leadership and special event programming; uniting clients, creatives, media and inspiring figures like Lorne Michaels, Ludacris, Jon Bon Jovi, Jimmy Wales, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Donny Deutsch, Lewis Black, Chaka Khan, Bob Greenberg, Emeril, Jimmy Fallon, Ziggy Marley. . . and many more.

Not a bad lineup.

Finding What’s Right for You

There’s something for everyone, so be sure to have a look at their events calendar to find the right topic for you. Stay tuned next week, when we’ll be providing some coverage of the events attended by (and in some cases: hosted by) the SaatchiNY team!

Category: Creative, Events, Thought Leadership

Has Technology Hit a Plateau?

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Above Image: Image of the Uniqlo Lucky Counter

So the summer and awards are over. I judged the One Show earlier this year and kept a pretty close eye on everything else as well. And although there were some good pieces, there was nothing earth-shatteringly good. The closest was Nike Chalkbot.

There could be a number of reasons for this. First up when the economy is tanking no one wants to take risks. Also maybe when the world is in a recession it’s also just a little depressing and you wonder whether you really care or not, you are reluctant to go the extra mile. Who knows?

But one thing I think is true is that there was nothing really new in terms of technology. With regards to technology and advertising we seem to have hit a plateau.

No Longer About New

It used to be that judging awards was pretty simple because changes in technology allowed you to do things that no one had seen before. So the first banner to house video: Gong! The first banners that talked to each other: Gong! Papervision doing jazzy things: Gong! Having fun with webcams or more recently Augmented Reality: Gong! First branded iPhone app: Gong! Of course to win really big it wasn’t enough to just use those new pieces of tech – you had to pair them with a decent idea or that was well crafted (sometimes even both!). But for a long time there was definitely a sense of, ‘ooh I haven’t seen that before.’ Gong! I’m as guilty as anyone in that regard. But this is changing.

And this is a good thing. For too long the interactive world has obsessed with technology and being first. When I award work I like to think it will last the test of time. So that means not blindly awarding something because it’s not been done before but actually studying whether it’s a decent idea and has some story to it. For example the technology behind Chalkbot is nothing special, it’s Twitter and a computer controlled spray can, but it has real emotion and tells a story. Bob Greenberg is famous for saying that storytelling is dead in the digital age. I can’t believe that he really believes that, I think he’s just fishing for headlines.

Back to Content

The flip side to this is that we have to stop dismissing something because it’s been done before – from a technology point of view. Saying a YouTube page takeover has been done and therefore is not worth awarding isn’t far off from discounting a great TV spot because 30 second TV ads have been done. Of course if the actual creative idea has been done, work should absolutely be marked down. What I think, is that we need to start awarding ideas and craft rather than “media firsts.” New does not necessarily mean good.

Have we really reached a plateau? I think so. People are now comfortable with all forms of Social Media, Geo Location & Augmented Reality. The changes I see ahead are more about convergence (Google TV, etc) than a new piece of technology breaking through. Some recent work that’s hit the headlines seems to prove this point. The Uniqlo Lucky Counter site (Image Above), where the price goes down the more you tweet about a garment, is a fine example of how technology has become mainstream. And the Arcade Fire Google Maps work (which although I think is interesting, is perhaps not as good as most people seem to think) is made possible through people feeling comfortable with Google Maps’ functionality.

The correlation of this is, of course, that if we are no longer obsessing about technology and being the first to use it (technology has become more democratic). The creative power – in theory – swings away from digital agencies and more towards ad agencies. In theory.

Category: Creative, Digital & Interactive, Thought Leadership

Westbeth Artists Complex

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Inside Jonathan Bauchs Studio

The corner of Hudson & Houston has been home to SaatchiNY since the agency arrived in America almost 25 years ago. Over the years the location has become a part of the SaatchiNY identity. Two of the SaatchiNY creatives, Jessica Raddatz & Jaclyn Marinese, put together a book about the local neighborhood to celebrate that connection. This is the fourth Hudson/Houston feature from the book. Westbeth Artists Complex is located @ 55 Bethune Street / 155 Bank Street

A Home for Art

Upon entrance to the Westbeth Artists complex, it’s easy to sense the creative history that the West Village building has been home to. Besides being surrounded by resident painters, writers, photographers, filmmakers, poets, sculptors, dancers, choreographers, musicians and composers, all of whom have dedicated their lives to the arts, there are also striking pieces of artwork everywhere. Paintings and sculptures line the walls of the Westbeth Gallery while dancers perform in the Westbeth Community Room.The building in and of itself has an undeniable history in discovery and invention. Built in 1894 by the Western Electric Company, it eventually became Bell Labs, and it was here that the first talking movie, the microphone, stereo sound, first binary computer, and the first TV broadcast were demonstrated. In 1970, with funding from the JM Kaplan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Westbeth Artists Housing was born to provide affordable housing for artists.

The Artist’s Take

Today there are over 300 artists in residence. Jonathan Bauch is a sculptor and painter who moved to Westbeth in 1970, moved out for one year, and then put himself back on the waiting list. He was reaccepted ten years later and has been there ever since. “To me Westbeth is a home because I’ve lived here most of my life, or a good part of it,” says Bauch. “It’s an incubator for artists. I moved in here when I was relatively young and it’s been nurturing to me as far as having space to work at an affordable price… It’s the best place I’ve ever lived and I wanted to come back to it.”

A Neighborhood Lovemark

Within the West Village, Westbeth has always been a community within a community. It is a Lovemark for artists like Bauch for many reasons. His life is there, his friends are there, and he’s been able to become who he is because of the supportive creative community that has grown there. Westbeth continues to be a haven for affordable housing for artists, and provides an artbased Lovemark for people in the community where they know they can find art at any time of day — whether it be within the walls of Westbeth’s galleries or simply through a conversation with a resident like Jonathan. There’s a lot to learn here, and it seems the whole neighborhood collectively shares that secret.

Category: Lovemarks, New York