Break Through Buzz is the creative stuff that impressed Ketchum’s creative community this week. Check out what captured our imaginations and inspires us to keep pushing the boundaries of possibility.
You’ll Have This Song in Your Head All Weekend
Selected by Shirley Symister
What it is: Norwegian comedian/musicians Bård Ylvisåker and Vegard Ylvisåker, also known as Ylvis, made a promotional music video called ‘The Fox’ for their upcoming talk show’s season premiere on TVNorge.
What makes it Break Through: The video contains general components of pop music: a lively techno-beat, simple yet memorable lyrics and costumes. What makes it genius is that they make fun of pop culture while being catchy at the same time, and make the audience think a great deal about something as simple as animal noises.
Let’s Get Serious and Break Out the Crayons
Selected by Jeff Lewonczyk
What it is: Illustrator Mica Angela Hendricks invited her four-year-old daughter to finish some drawings she had started. The results are unexpected and extremely endearing.
What makes it break through: That kids exhibit more unfettered creativity than adults is a truth too sturdy to dismiss as a cliché. But what’s especially lovely about this piece is the way that it shows how compromise, trust, an open mind and a willingness to take risks are essential to any creative collaboration. The most creative thing you can do is make something golden from the surprises that come your way.
The Greatest Rock/Lodging Collaboration Since the Chelsea Hotel
Selected by Sarah Unger
What it is: A hotel (the Redbury Hotel in Los Angeles) and a band (Aussie group the Rubens) partnered to create a music video as part of larger campaign.
What makes it break through: Upon watching, it’s not clear whether this is ‘a video clip for a boutique hotel that is also promoting a rock band’ or ‘a video clip for a rock band that is also promoting a boutique hotel.’ In other words, it’s synergistic marketing at its finest – which foreshadows how we may approach truly valuable and engage content creation in the future. Campaigns as entertainment!
Creativity Takes to the Streets
Selected by Angelica Carter
What it is: Here’s a link to a few ‘oldies, but goodies‘ that I came across this week. One of my favorites is from when [client] FedEx announced that they were now carrying office products by splashing the city with jumbo-sized supplies.
What makes it break through: This was clever not just because the oversized products garnered attention right away, but because the products featured were tied into what consumers actually needed. The link also contains several other ideas that will surely get your creative juices flowing.
Pump Up the Volume
Selected by Charlotte Haigh
What it is: Swedish home entertainment retailer, Pause, recognizes that not everyone is looking for a ‘quiet’ neighborhood. The brand partnered with Swedish ad agency Åkestam Holst to create The Stockholm House Equalizer, a real estate website that identifies neighborhoods across Sweden by their noise levels and recommends specific Pause sound systems that would fit the decibel levels of each community.
What makes it break through: This website is a fun and interactive way for Pause to engage with its core audience of music lovers when they are thinking of moving – which means they might also be thinking of purchasing a new sound system. I love the non-obvious connection between noise levels and real estate, and how it all plays into the brand’s claim to have a speaker system for everyone’s sound tastes.
