Leading British actor Joseph Fiennes, renowned for his rendering of Shakespearean language, recently teamed up with rising grime scene rapper Devlin to orchestrate Sonnet 129, the Bard’s most famous, as seen above (high volume recommended!).

The challenge: find common ground between Shakespearian poetry and modern street language. The result, to be featured on Devlin's next album, is part of the New Thinkers Index, an interactive digital campaign from Hyundai, resonant of their brand positioning, "New thinking, new possibilities."Continue reading...

NBC's web-only series In Gayle We Trust has broken the barrier on digital series’ success and proven that an insurance agent, played by Elisa Donovan (Clueless, Beverly Hills 90210, Sabrina The Teenage Witch), can become a star.

A branded entertainment partnership between NBC Universal and media agency Mindshare, the series — backed by AmFam, or American Family Insurance — launched in 2009 and was renewed last year.

By season two, Gayle had doubled viewership from 18 million to 34.9 million. Season three, which launches this week, centers on a newcomer who is creating a musical, aptly titled Policies! Policies!

“In Gayle We Trust delivers quality entertainment in a manner that both keeps viewers coming back for more and aligns with the values of the sponsor. American Family Insurance beckons the insurance-buying public to allow us to protect their dreams,” said Telisa Yancy, advertising director.

Emmy Award-nominated actor Fred Willard and Richard Karn (Home Improvement) make cameos in season three, with Anthony Q. Farrell (The Office) as writer and Jason Farrand (Head Case) director.Continue reading...

One of the basic tenets of sales is to go where the people are. So when Kmart decided it wanted to put some bucks toward going after tween and teen girls, it didn’t just plunk some ads down in a few magazines and on a few websites.

Instead, the Sears-owned retailer partnered with Alloy Media to create an online series, “First Day,” that features well-coiffed girls, cute boys, and lots and lots of clothes that you can find at — are you sitting down? — Kmart.

Then they give it a YouTube channel and a Facebook page, Twitter feed and watch the magic happen.Continue reading...

With automakers, CPG manufacturers and many other brands becoming big producers of branded video content these days, it might be easy for them to drift from their essential message. Once you go Hollywood, it's possible for a brand to get so enamored of its creative capabilities online that it forgets to sell stuff.

Audi doesn't want to be that brand. So in its new collaboration with the FX network for a series of on-air and online videos called "Untitled Jersey City Project," Audi marketers are taking pains to make sure that the promotion gets the real job done: positioning its new, 2012 A6 as a smart, innovative vehicle choice for its target market.Continue reading...

“Verge culture,” as in young, digital, influencers and brand-savvy hip youths, is poised for a social media guerilla takeover — if Karmaloop TV has anything to do with it.

An offshoot of the Karmaloop.com retail site, KarmaloopTV.com is an online video-based network that's vying for broadband and video-on-demand distribution in the US. It aims to be a full-blown 24-hour cable TV network, and is now pitching cable and telco TV operators that it can help them “reclaim” the 18-to-34 year old audience that lives online, on digital, on mobile and on social.

In a similar vein to Vice TV, it aims to offer an in-depth look (and insights) into global street culture. The website also features exclusive interviews with designers, brands, artists and musicians — musician/producer Pharrell Williams signed on as KarmaloopTV's creative director in May.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola today unveiled The Great Happyfication on Facebook and Twitter, a six and a half minute film that continues its award-winning Happiness Project.

The animated short was commissioned for its 125th anniversary. Its goal: to reinforce its brand positioning of happiness ("have a Coke and a smile") and music, with the eye-catching piece bringing its audio branding (and signature audiomark) to live.

"We wanted to make the happiest 6 and a half minutes in film," says Jonathan Mildenhall, VP Global Advertising Strategy & Content Excellence of Coca-Cola, in a press release. "We also wanted to get the world singing the Coca-Cola 5 notes." Think it lives up to the creative brief?

The initial jarring element of Palladium Boots' (maybe) exploitative new campaign is the use of "3/11" in the same way "9/11" is used in the US to describe the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. While the earthquake and tsunami that turned much of Japan upside down in March 2011, the moniker "3/11" is hardly a mainstay, making Palladium's use all the more intentionally evocative… and exploitative.

Tokyo Rising, its new video "exploration" of the city hosted by Pharrell, faces "a new reality after the tragedy of 3/11." This makes Palladium, maybe, the first brand to heavily leverage the disaster for a brand campaign. (It is something American brands have already mastered with 9/11.)Continue reading...

Want to promote yourself as being hip and cool and all that? First, buy a $300,000 Maybach. Then get a blowtorch and heavy-duty metal cutter, film yourself destroying the body of the car and driving it around like a maniac with four models in the back seat while rapping like mad.

That’s what Jay-Z and Kanye West are up to in their latest video, “Otis,” from the new album “Watch the Throne,” which was released digitally a week ago and hit store shelves Aug. 12.Continue reading...