Some of the work featured in Friday's NY Times piece
If you haven’t seen it yet, you should all head over to the New York Times, where the SaatchiNY team’s new work for Lenovo got an awesome write-up on Thursday. The central idea of the campaign comes from the essence of what personal technology should be and how communities use it in specific ways. Lenovo makes tools that ignite human accomplishment. Not just potential, not just possibilities, but real action and tangible achievement.
Assuming you haven’t already reached your Times pay-wall quota for the month, you’ll see that the campaign’s not only getting praise, but that our very own Claudine Cheever is quoted a number of times. The Lenovo work is scheduled to start rolling out this month, and we couldn’t be more excited to showcase all the hard work that’s gone into it!
2011 started off on a magical note yesterday with the announcement that SaatchiNY has been selected to create the new global brand advertising campaign for Lenovo, one of the world’s largest and most innovative makers of personal computers, including the renowned ThinkPad notebook.
TEAM EFFORT
This was a huge agency effort that prevailed over Crispin Porter and Ogilvy & Mather. The pitch team in Las Vegas this weekend during the Consumer Electronics Show included Mary, Con, Claudine, Jane Wagner, John Dunleavy and creative director Roberto Lastra. But we couldn’t have won without the help of people across the entire agency and Saatchi agencies around the globe – this was a team effort in every sense of the word. SaatchiNY will be responsible for the campaign idea and activation across television, digital, print, OOH, and internal communications.
LENOVO 101
Lenovo showcased 22 new products in Las Vegas including the new Android-based “Le Pad” slate. Lenovo was created in China in 2003 by melding the “Le” from Legend with “novo,” the Latin word for “new.” In 2005, Lenovo Group’s acquisition of IBM’s PC division was heralded as a watershed event in global business with the potential for integrating two disparate cultures, languages, processes and markets.
We enjoyed the above spot from Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi so much that we wanted to share it with everyone in the SaatchiNY network. Jessica Wildman is VP Regional Strategic Planning Director Latin America for Saatchi & Saatchi, and since she led the strategic planning side of the Playstation pitch for us, we thought it was appropriate to get her thoughts on some of the great new work on the account.
LIVE IN A STATE OF PLAY
For many people in Latin America, PlayStation is a Lovemark– and they aren’t all pimpled teenagers playing in the basement. Adult men, women and kids are incredibly passionate about the PlayStation brand. But PlayStation had never advertised regionally before in Latin America. For the first campaign, the clients wanted to announce our presence in the region with a campaign that captured the essence of the brand and the experience it promised to deliver to consumers.
After weeks of Xploring in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, hundreds of hours of video game play (man this job sucks) and the most amazing creative energy in the world, Vive En Estado Play was born — translated as “Live in a State of Play”
PUSHING THE LIMITS
The insight behind the campaign is that there is an unfortunate human truth that excitement quickly fades. Human beings naturally become accustomed to things quickly and lose interest: a beautiful view, a new gadget, even a new lover… nothing is ever as exciting as the first time.
Especially now, with the endless distractions and entertainment on the internet, YouTube videos, Infinite TV channels, gadget upgrade after upgrade… we as a society have developed a tolerance to amazing things. We live in an age of pleasure obsession and the irony is that we are bored stiff. The more we get, the more we want, the more it takes to impress us.
KEEPING EXCITEMENT ALIVE
But PlayStation is always pushing the limits of entertainment with groundbreaking innovation, technology and gaming experiences, so it’s always a thrill. It’s never-ending entertainment that you can’t get used to. PlayStation is constantly breaking limits to keep our excitement alive.
The campaign first brought this to life with the anthemic spot, Victor (at the top of the post). It is a metaphor for how using PlayStation is always a new, thrilling experience, like seeing the world through a child’s eyes. When you are a baby, everything in the world is exciting, provocative and pumps you full of emotion.
The spot has gotten tremendous buzz. And the clients are wearing PlayStation jackets that read “Vive En Estado Play” on the back.
THE PITCH
The PlayStation pitch and the development of the campaign embodied the Saatchi spirit that nothing is impossible and one team, one dream. It was all hands on deck with creative brilliance from Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi and digital and account leadership from Conill. We are thrilled about the work and feel we have only just begun to scratch the surface of what we can do for the brand.
As a bonus for the hardcore gamers out there, we included the PlayStation symbols hidden throughout the spot. See if you can find all 7 occurrences of them. Warning. It aint easy.
Editors Note: For further information on the campaign & Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi’s work with Playstation, be sure to check out the PS Blog.
Scott Buckley is EVP, Global Equity Director at SaatchiNY. Below he shares details on a new partnership between SaatchiNY & The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. For more info on the new campaign, be sure to check out the NYTimes piece from yesterday. Above Image from The Daily Mail.
A NEW PARTNERSHIP When have you ever had a chance to start a movement for social change? Well, that is just what the food & beverage industry has entrusted Saatchi & Saatchi to do. This week we kicked off a great partnership with the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a food industry co-op dedicated to helping create a generation of kids who lead active healthy lifestyles.
DIGITALLY DRIVEN Our strategy for creating social health activism is rooted in digital content that promotes “energy balance,” helping people understand the relationship between what they eat and how they expend energy. Currently, the majority of people don’t understand this relatively simple concept.
The perfect example of the problem: research shows that many of the “at risk” populations for obesity don’t have an understanding of what a calorie is. We want to help the food & beverage industry engage moms and households within these populations to grasp basic-knowledge info like this. Doing so will be the focus of our digital campaign. For more information on the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, be sure to also check out their Facebook page.
Thanks to our team, Shel Kimen, Mark Sherwood, Micki Boas, Rick Dow and Laura Sammartino, for the great work on this project.
Sustainability is part of our language and an increasing part of our everyday practice. Adam Werbach is leading the effort across out network – in new business, in thought leadership (with his book Strategy for Sustainability published by the Harvard Business Press) and in our personal sustainability practices (DOT – Do One Thing). We’re coming close here in New York to our rooftop garden – Erin Lyons will be keeping you posted on progress. Here’s a short video from Adam updating us on the sustainability program.
