Tuesday Turbulence

+ Creative Showcase, a part of the Interactive Advertising Bureau UK, turns one year old this month. It's a way for interactive ads to be showcased (fitting for the name, huh?). "Danny Meadows-Klue, chief executive of the IAB, said: "This is a wake-up call for anyone who thought online media didn't give creative impact. Creative Showcase is filled with outstanding work. Our young digital creative industry has risen to the challenge and the IAB's CreativeShowcase.net gives us a best-in-class resource that every marketer should refer to."" They named the "Trojan Games" campaign by The Viral Factory the Online Creative Campaign of the Year. Each month the site updates with new winners and runners up.

+ "ESPN Shorts" signal a possible change in advertising.

If you're a regular "SportsCenter" viewer, you likely saw the first of these initiatives: a four-part series called "The Scout." It was filmed as a six-minute short feature brought to you by Sears Craftsman products. In it, a baseball general manager sends out an older scout to bring back a major league prospect "or else." Instead of a player, he brings back a young groundskeeping prospect -- towing a Craftsman tractor behind the car.
Next up is a Miller Lite series titled "The Squeeze." It revolves around the Red Sox but also around too many old themes: 1918, curses, fans dying without seeing the Sox win it all.
In Part 1, the Sox are in Game 6 of the World Series when Uncle Mack, too antsy to watch the end of the game, steps outside as his three nephews watch the Sox force a Game 7. Unfortunately, Uncle Mack won't live to see it. He has had The Big One during the last at-bat. Now, Game 7 is the same day as Uncle Mack's funeral.
What are the nephews to do? Stay tuned for Parts 2-4.

Seems to be the way to go these days. Take Adult Swim...they have created a following for their "bumps" which really just is another form of this, intended to keep the viewer watching for just a bit longer.

+ Fallon loses Subway account...gee I wonder why? (*wink*). Most of the work coming out from David Lubars' shop is rather good. I'm not quite sure what caused them to miss the mark so terribly in the "It's OK, I had Subway" campaign. My guess is that their ads didn't connect really to the food aspect...and showing people being jerks because they ate a sub doesn't really make a connection for the consumer. There's a big leap and something missing. Plus it gives the impression that all those who eat at Subway are assholes. Probably something that the client doesn't want to come across. Granted, it was a nice break from having to watch Jared blather on about his weight loss (which, as noted in a previous post a while back, isn't even sanctioned by Subway). MMB, Boston is going to be handling the account while another creative review takes place this summer.

+ Olympic Sponsors for the Athens 2004 Games, only 80 days away:
Top V Sponsors: Coca Cola- Official Soda/Non-Alcoholic Beverage, Atos Origin- Official Information Technology company, John Hancock- Life Insurance/Annuities, McDonald's- Retail food services, Panasonic-Audio/TV/Video equipment, Samsung -Wireless Communication Equipment, Sports Illustrated/Time Inc.- peroidicals/newspapers/magazines, Swatch- Timing, Scoring systems and Services Category, Visa - Consumer payment services, Xerox- Document Publishing, Processing and Supplies.

Grand Sponsors: ALPHA Bank (Greece), Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (Greece), Heineken/Athenian Brewery, HYUNDAI HELLAS (will provide vehicles needed), DELTA and FAGE (Greece's two leading dairy companies), ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) (for the TV and radio category), Hellenic Post, Olympic Airlines, Public Power Corporation S.A. (for the electric energy category).
Official Supporters:
Adidas-Official Outfitter, SHELL HELLAS S.A. for petrolum based products category, JET SET SPORTS for the hospitality management/travel agencies category, ABB-AREVA-SIEMENS-DIEKAT for the electric power distribution plants category, Ticketmaster for ticketing services category, General Electric International Inc. as the supply of services for back-up power with the necessary studies.
Global Olympic torch relay sponsors: Coca-Cola and Samsung; the Official Supporter for the International Torch Relay is Eurosport, and the Official Supporter for the National Torch Relay is Gefyra S.A.

Team U.S.A. Supporters and Sponsors:
Allstate- Home and Auto Insurance Sponsor, AT&T and AT&T Wireless- Telecommunications Services, Bank of America- Offical Bank of the US Team, Budweiser- Official Beer of the US Team, ChevronTexaco- Official Fuel provider of the US Team ("Fueling the Dream"), Gateway- Official provider of computer hardware for the team, coaches, and athletes, General Motors- Official Automaker for the US Team, Hallmark- Official Supplier of Personal Expression Products to the US Team, Home Depot- Home Improvement Sponsor for US Olympic and Paralympic Team, Jet Set Sports- Official Hospitality Package Sponsor for US Team (and Olympics), Kellogg's- Official Breakfast maker for the US Team, Lucent | Marker | Monster- Official online career management services sponsor of the 2004 US Olympic Team, Office Depot- Official Office Supplies Supplier for US teams and committee, United- Official Airline for the US Team, Kotex- Official Feminine protetion for US Team, Dasani- Official bottled water,
Coca Cola- Official Soda, Budweiser- Official Beer, Kotex- Official Feminine protetion, Kodak, Dasani- Official bottled water, and Visa, an Olympic "top partner", and the Marriott- Official hotel of the U.S. Team.

A lot of the information on the US Olympic Committee site has yet to be updated. There's still a lot of old info there. So there might be some errors in the above listing.