Washington Square Films directing duo Ben/Dave (Ben Hurst and Dave Thomas) amplify a routine Saturday night to kingpin status in the :60 “Crushing the Competition” for Bowlmor AMF out of Concept Farm, NY. The trick-filled spot mimics a television infomercial and features bowling pro Jason Belmonte dazzling a captivated live audience with demonstrations on how to “crush it” on a Saturday night by aiming his skills at scenarios positioned directly on the lanes. He disrupts typical weekend activities with a well thrown bowling ball, derailing an intimate dinner at a fancy French restaurant and smashing through a crowded bar and a noisy club, leaving the audience calling for more of this brand of Saturday night action.
The spot is part of a planned three-year TV and digital campaign that seeks to establish Saturday night as “Bowling Night in America.”
IAB Seeks To Foster Workforce Diversity
“The Diversity Dividend and the Looming Skills Gap in the Interactive Media Industry,” a report released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the IAB Education Foundation, summarizes the current state of the interactive media and marketing workforce and reveals next steps the Foundation is taking to educate and sustain a growing industry that embraces racial, gender, economic and cultural diversity.
Through its efforts, the Foundation intends to establish a dedicated initiative called iDiverse, which will train 2,000 entry-level candidates, increase the diversity of the ecosystem’s candidate pool by 50 percent and increase total employee diversity and retention statistics by 25 percent by 2020.
The publication crystallizes the findings from “Voices United,” a four-month, multi-city diversity workshop and listening tour co-led by AOL chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, who serves as IAB Education Foundation chairman of the board, and Freada Kapor Klein, founder of the Level Playing Field Institute and co-chair of the Kapor Center for Social Impact.
“For the first time in U.S. history, the majority of K-12 students are ‘minorities’; this is our future workforce,” said Armstrong. “Collectively, we need to connect with all of our customers, and diversifying the industry is the only solution. The establishment of iDiverse will put the digital media and marketing arena on a path of growth in lockstep with our audience.”
The paper also features findings from a national Ernst & Young study which estimates that 25,000 jobs will be added to the industry in the next two to four years, calling for candidates with solid backgrounds in math, technology, science, and programming. But schools are not emphasizing these areas enough in their curriculum to develop the much-needed talent pool.
The IAB Education Foundation and iDiverse plan to build relationships with science, technology, engineering, and math-focused nonprofit orgs serving underserved populations to attract a more diverse applicant pool, and partner with educators online and on-the-ground to recruit, train, and qualify candidates.
People On The Move…
San Francisco-based smart space design firm Stimulant has appointed Mark Coleran as exec creative director and Sherri Nevins as an exec producer. Coleran is a multi-disciplary designer known for the creation of fantasy user interfaces in films such as Children of Men and The Island. And Nevins will help Stimulant work in a more integrated way with architects, experience design agencies and experiential marketers….
