As executive creative director at McKinney in Raleigh, N.C., David Baldwin has had a hand in assorted notable projects, including endeavors that have broken new media ground, a high-profile example being last year’s “The Heist” for Audi, an all-encompassing experiential ad vehicle event that blended fiction and reality, turning prospective consumers into interactive participants.
Now on behalf of Sony’s Bravia line of liquid-crystal-display TV sets, he leads a McKinney team that tackles the DVR quandary, making a commercial that tempts viewers to pay attention, using the TiVo or an equivalent system–noted for its ad-skipping prowess–as the means to access alternative endings to the spot storyline.
“Basically we’re trying to use the TiVo experience to our advantage,” related Baldwin. “DVR users can click a button on their remote control to select an ending to watch either male or female-oriented.”
The original commercial–sans alternate endings–debuted during the 2005 Academy Awards telecast. Directed by Scott Vincent of bicoastal/international Hungry Man, “Trailer” featured a man and a woman gazing through a storefront window at amazing cinema-like images displayed on a Sony Bravia LCD TV set. Unaware of each other, the man and woman simultaneously say, “Nice picture,” at which point they finally notice one another.
Fast-forward to today and McKinney has crafted different conclusions that take us past where the initial commercial left off. DVR users can select either the “Ending for Men” or the “Ending for Women.” The female endings consist of a 1950s-era musical centered on shoes and an emotional tale about a female doctor saving a man and an orphan. The male-driven ending is either a funny clip from a sports drama or a cartoon spoof of a martial-arts movie. The endings were directed by Frank Todaro of bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures.
“We’re bringing the genders together,” quipped Baldwin, noting that the HD television set marketplace has become “an inherent battleground” between the sexes. “The guys want the giant TV set with the awesome picture while the women think it’s too big for the room and don’t want it….We’ve used our campaign to bridge that gap and more deeply brand Sony Bravia as the TV for both men and women.”
And that entertaining, engaging concept has legs, according to Kevin Berman, marketing manager for Sony Electronics. So much so that the agency and client waited until now for the other shoe to drop. “We always intended to have this second part of the campaign–with the alternate endings for DVR users,” said Berman. “But we don’t traditionally have a heavy media summer….so we decided to come back with the alternate endings now this fall when our media play is heavy.”
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