JWT/New York is augmenting its Hairapy TV campaign for Unilever’s Sunsilk with an online execution that lets the hairapists stretch out in long form videos.
“In the :30s you only get an introduction to the characters, but the web gives us a place to expand on that story,” said JWT creative director Brian Carley.
The result is a series of three hairapy sessions in which the actors from the TV spots elaborate on how women can solve their hair problems with Sunsilk products. “It’s tongue in cheek, how people take their hair so seriously,” Carley said. “The hairapists interact with girls on a one to one basis to cure their hair problems.”
The hairapists are dressed in different colored outfits to promote different Sunsilk products and behave differently to promote the products, too. One of them is “always adjusting things,” which relates to people with kinky hair, Carley said.
Grant Janes, director at lookfar films, said the company provided props to help the actors play their roles.
He coordinated the job with the TV shoot. “We had access to images from the TV shoot and we were very cognizant of trying to match the TV spots for brand consistency,” he said.
He shot the videos at Ceco Studios in New York, which provided an interior space that looked like a therapist’s office. The hairapists sat there and spoke to viewers with encouraging words, such as “And remember, each step you take, you’re one step closer to perfect hair.”
He used a Panasonic Varicam DVC-ProHD for the job.
The new videos, which run for about 45 seconds each, play at www.gethairapy.com. They aren’t playing anywhere else yet, but a MySpace version is planned with different videos. It will start in two weeks and include additional rich media banner units, Carley said.
The new videos replace a former Hairapy campaign that included hairapists who were “fun, playful characters who didn’t extend the idea of hairapy,” Carley said. “They were standing on colored disks with a white background and looked like they were out of the Jetsons.” Janes, who shot both versions, said, “The earlier stuff was improvisational, the actors ran loose. This concept is more specific and tighter.”
Carley said the hairapist idea “extends the brand to show we understand in a playful way. We differentiate from other hair brands that show photos of hair on gorgeous models that’s unattainable. We identify with people and say, ‘We’re here to help.'”
The agency plans to expand the campaign with new TV and online video ads.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More