What we learned this week…
WestJet’s holiday viral spot split the creative community
Our comment section housed a debate this week over whether WestJet’s surprise gift giveaway was a worthy endeavor. Critics pointed to similar ideas for KLM and Spanair from a few years back. Mike Mills, a creative leader on WestJet’s viral, chimed in to provide some behind-the-scenes context (“We built out a full idea, sold it in, and then only deep into pre-pro did we come across the existing videos”). The whole discussion turned into a bit of a debate on originality’s place in public-facing client work.
Originality is obviously important to individual creatives and agencies, a matter of integrity. But how does that compare to meeting a client’s needs? Was a win for WestJet not the more important factor?
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Agencies: you’re not that original
Well, so says consultant and longtime P&G exec John Gleason. He, along with Target’s Edward McFadden, told attendees at an ICA event that the best way for agencies to avoid the commoditization of their services is to stop pretending they’re they only shop with a magic bullet. “Everyone is trying to do the same thing,” said McFadden, who added that a pitch is already in trouble if an agency uses the same first 10 slides in their decks as its competitors.
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Manitoba is hungry for tourism revenue
Its new campaign from McKim Communications Group is big, cinematic effort that focuses on the province’s unique culture and wilderness. Manitoba currently ranks seventh among the provinces in terms of tourism revenue. Its wants to be fifth by 2017.
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30 companies are eyeing each other warily
Marketing released the finalists for its three “Of The Year” awards this week in its Dec. 23 issue. As we did last year, we’ve unveiling our Agency, Marketer and Media Player of the Year at a cocktail reception in Toronto. Tickets are available for those who’d like to come fete the winners and rub elbows with some of Canada’s marketing elite. (Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for our first issue of 2014 to find out who took the top spot in each competition).
[Get your tickets now]
