Miami Ad School, the global advertising college, will open its doors in Sydney on 2 April, with two study programs: Art Direction and Copywriting.  

Sydney will join other world cities Miami, New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, Istanbul, to be the 11th  city to host a Miami Ad School.

Paul McIntyre from AdNews reports that Publicis Groupe is about to acquire the remaining 40% of Australian and New Zealand based Publicis Mojo (including its ZenithOptimedia media unit) for $50 million.

Mojo's largest local shareholder is Graeme Wills (far left, with deputy chairman and fellow shareholder Craig Davis). Other shareholders include Nicholas Davie and Belinda Rowe.

Hack Forth & Multiply is a 24 hour design challenge taking place from 12 noon Feb 1 to 12 noon Feb 2, 2012 (London time). 

It is giving designers around the world an opportunity to work on a 'live' brief from Not For Sale - the global campaign to fight human trafficking and slavery.

Participants will be required to name a Not For Sale project, create its identity and then apply that identity to specific media.

More than just a chance to create work that matters, there are also some fantastic prizes on offer.

More info and details on how to sign up

Entries are now open for the 2012 Cannes Lions Awards with a closing deadline of March 9, 2012.

Entry to the Creative Effectiveness Lions is by invitation only, with a deadline of 17 February, 2012.

This year, two new categories have been added to the international competition - Mobile Lions and Branded Entertainment Lions.

Now in their 59th year, The Cannes Lions Awards continue to set the benchmark for international excellence in creative communication. The award winners will be announced at this year's Cannes International Festival of Creativity, 17 - 23 June.

Write yourself into the future of D&AD - enter the 2012 Awards now

The final deadline for entry (without incurring a 20% late fee) is Wednesday 1 February 2012.

Voyage through the extensive Awards Archive to showcase 49 of some of the very best shortlisted work over the last 50 years.

Friday (New York time) is the final deadline to enter the New York Festivals International Advertising Awards

ENTRY DETAILS.

This year, the International Advertising Awards streamlined its competitions and categories for efficiency and to reflect the current work being produced in the industry.  With 131 unique categories, this restructuring resulted in a 43% reduction in categories across all competitions. In addition, New York Festivals also enhanced the submission process, improving the user experience across the board and allowing entrants to simultaneously enter a single piece in multiple categories.

Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas), has launched a Chinese New Year television commercial and print campaign concurrently as part of its corporate social responsibility programme to drive home the importance of rice in Malaysian's daily life.
          
The "Reunion Sek Fan" commercial, created by Ogilvy & Mather Malaysia, was beamed over TV3, Astro and major channels and appeared in major Chinese and English dailies beginning Monday this week. It will be appearing until the end of this month in between programmes in all major Chinese and other language television stations.

Petronas wanted to highlight the values of Reimagining Energy into festivities. In this Chinese New Year campaign, via Leo Burnett Malaysia, the core essence of human spirit to excel is highlighted. The ability to adapt, being progressive and the courage to take charge of one owns destiny.

VIEW THE FIRST SPOT
VIEW THE SECOND SPOT

Rosie Arnold, President of D&AD and Deputy Executive Creative Director at BBH London, will be at AdFest this year to present a speaker session titled 'D&AD: 50 Years of Inspiring Creativity'.

"I have always wanted to travel to Thailand so I'm really looking forward to coming to AdFest to showcase 50 years of inspiring creativity at D&AD," says Arnold. "D&AD Black Pencils are still the hardest awards to win in advertising bar none, and winning a Black Pencil represents the pinnacle of an advertising creative's career. At Adfest 2012, creative professionals from across the Asia Pacific will have the chance to feast their eyes on five decades of Black Pencil-winning work."

Arnold's presentation will address how D&AD helped her get her first job at BBH, and how it inspired and provoked her. She will showcase some of the work that she admires from D&AD's history to the present day, touching on other influences she has gleaned from living a full and hectic life.

Colenso BBDO , Auckland planning director James Hurman is leaving New Zealand to pursue a new role as planning partner at Ogilvy Shanghai.

Says Nick Garrett, Colenso BBDO's managing director: "It is with a mixture of great sadness and excitement that we say farewell to James. We are sad to be losing a colleague and a friend who has played an instrumental part in the agency's success.

"However we are excited for James and we know this will be a great adventure for him and his family. I'd like to thank James for his incredible contribution over the past four and a half years and we wish him well for the future."

If you love your sneakers you will love this insurance from Sneaker Freaker Magazine via Ogilvy & Mather Japan.

Executive Creative Director: Shingo Ichimura. Creative Directors: Satoko Takada, Chris Gurney. Copywriter: Satoko Takada. Art Director: Tatsuya Kuritsuka. Photographer: Takakazu Aoyama.

BEST TV
I enjoyed the NY Lottery spot, but it came down to two. Lurpak or Nike? I really like all the Lurpak work and this one's a goody too. Simple, insightful, good classic TV stuff and watching it makes me want to cook and eat and I'm not even hungry. Lovely writing and the gruff American singing VO feels really right, even though it's a bit odd. The chopping red cabbage bit is my favorite part.
The winner for me is Nike KobeSystem. It's a big, ridiculous idea. I love the funny self-help guru gobbledygook writing. It's a cool way to sell a shoe and doesn't really feel like an ad. And I like the famous people endorsing a basketball shoe that have nothing to do with the sport. I saw the teasers the other day and they're even better.

It's been two years since the world's worst-ever attack on journalists, and BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Manila got twenty columnists to shut their eyes to the problem. This unprecedented editorial spread takeover that dominated the heart of the Philippines' largest newspaper for seven whole days was an effort for The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

VIEW THE HI-RES AND CREDITS

On Friday, January 20, 2012, David Droga, founder and creative chairman at Droga5  was honored by the American Australian Association & G'Day USA.

Each year the AAA as part of Australia Week celebrates 2 prominent Australians. Previous G'Day honorees include Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and James Gorman.

The award ceremony took place before a crowd of more than 800 people at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Hosted by Jamie Durie, an Australian television personality, the evening featured performances from the Qantas Choir, Jack Vidgen and Guy Sebastian.

Other guests included The Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Wayne Swan and ambassador to the United States Kim Beazley. Droga was introduced by Bob Isherwood, former worldwide creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi and now an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University.

Fifty-six of the advertising industry's most acclaimed professionals from around the world have been selected to judge the 37th annual One Show, One Show Design and One Show Interactive Awards.

Produced by The One Club, the renowned international creative awards competitions will be held during Creative Week May 7-13, 2012, in New York City.

 

Piyush Pandey (left), Executive Chairman & Creative Director, South Asia for Ogilvy & Mather India, has been named as Chairman of the Print/Out of Home/ Innovative Media/Direct Mail jury for this year's CLIO Awards. The juries were announced today and also included from Asia are Sonal Dabral (Bates Asia), Noel Yeo (BBH Singapore), Prasoon Pandey (Corcoise Films Mumbai), Nelson Ng (Touches Hong Kong), Joji Jacob (DDB Singapore), Trong Tantivejakul (Y&R Bangkok) and Connie Lo (Leo Burnett Hong Kong) amongst others.

"The CLIO Awards has forged its reputation as the world's most influential advertising competition thanks in large part to the caliber of our jurors and the integrity our judging process" said Richard Beckman, CEO of Prometheus Global Media, parent company of the CLIOs. "These jurors represent the very top talent in their respective fields and will bring the highest standards of excellence to the CLIOs." 

In 2011, CLIO simplified the entry system by reducing the number of categories from over 360 to just 64.  In 2012, CLIO is making it even easier for entrants by eliminating the need to provide credits until work has been shortlisted. To celebrate these changes, CLIO tapped Euro RSCG New York to create a campaign to reflect the new streamlined approach. The 53rd Annual CLIO Awards will be held Tuesday, May 15th in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History.

The Art Directors Club of New York has announced the full juries for the Advertising and Integrated categories of the global ADC 91st Annual Awards, which is open for entries at www.adcawards.org. The list includes three creative directors from Asia - Akira Kagami (Dentsu Japan - pictured left), Santosh Padhi (Taproot India) and Keith Ho (Grey Hong Kong).
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Previously a sub-category within Advertising, Integrated has for the first time this year been elevated to its own separate category.  Entry deadline for both categories is February 10, 2012.  Deadlines for other categories have been extended: Design, Photography, Illustration and Motion entries are now due by January 27, 2012; Interactive deadline is now February 3, 2012.
 
The complete list of ADC 91st Annual Awards jurors for the Advertising and Integrated categories is as follows:

On May 23rd, 2012, the tenth edition of Portfolio Night, the world's largest advertising portfolio review will take place.

Your agency or local advertising association can get involved by becoming a City Host.

Cities so far locked in:
Athens hosted by Bold Ogilvy
Austin hosted by Latinworks
Budapest hosted by Kirowski & Umbrella
Helsinki hosted by Skandaali
Montreal hosted by CloudRaker
Philadelphia hosted by Philly Ad Club
Stockholm hosted by PS Agency

For more info visit portfolionight.com or contact Brett McKenzie: brett@ihaveanidea.org

Twenty four up-and-coming directors from eleven cities in the Asia Pacific are in the running to be this year's 'Fabulous Four' showcase of emerging directors at AdFest this year. Every year, new Directors and Assistant Directors are invited to submit a five-minute short film script based on the theme of AdFest - this year's theme is 'Fast Forward'.

ADFEST received 24 short film scripts this year, including five scripts from Dhaka, four from Tokyo, three from Shanghai, three from Sydney, two from Melbourne, two from Beijing as well as others received from Jakarta, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Quezon and Selangor Darul Ehsan.

"We are delighted that 24 aspiring directors from 11 different cities are in the running to be selected as this year's Fabulous Four," says AdFest President Jimmy Lam. "Fabulous Four is remains the region's top career launching pad for up-and-coming directors - a chance for them to make their first 'big break'," says Lam.

Advertising Age has named TBWA\Hakuhodo Japan as its 2011-2012 International Agency of the Year.
 
Tom Carroll, President and CEO TBWA Worldwide said, "TBWA\Hakuhodo's recognition by Ad Age is the culmination of a successful relationship that began 21 years ago between two companies, TBWA and Hakuhodo. In a market that has seen numerous joint ventures of varying structure come and go, the results that TBWA\Hakuhodo has delivered since its creation just over five years, are spectacular. Congratulations to Ichiro Zama, Luis DeAnda and everyone at the agency."
 
Hirokazu Toda, President and CEO of HAKUHODO Inc. commented, "TBWA\Hakuhod is a beautiful fruit from the amazing partnership between TBWA and Hakuhodo. I recall every step we made to this day and would like to congratulate everyone at the agency. I am confident in their continued success as they are standing on the firm ground of trust and friendship."
 
The 21-year history of working together in a relationship that began in Europe in 1990 to handle the Nissan Europe business. In March 2000 the two agencies established a joint venture agency, G1 Worldwide, to support the global branding activities of Nissan.

US online trade magazine Creativity - owned by Advertising Age - has named  Droga5 New York as its 2011 Advertising Agency of the Year.

The agency's work in 2011 presents a surprising new dimension. As Droga5 founder and Creative Chairman David Droga himself put it: "Last year we had fewer, higher peaks. But I feel like we had bigger degrees of difficulty and we did better."

There are only two weeks left to enter the annual D&AD Awards, with entries closing on 1st February 2012.
 
Over the last 49 years, D&AD has celebrated outstanding design and advertising that has influenced generations of creative talent. This year, the organisation's ambition is to make the 50th D&AD Annual the ultimate benchmark in international commercial creativity, setting the standard for future generations of designers and advertising creatives.
 
Unlike other shows, D&AD only awards work of the highest standard, meaning that the quantity of top awards given fluctuates year on year and that D&AD juries will not award any entry if it does not merit the highest accolade. The scrutiny and rigour imposed by the internationally acclaimed judges is legendary, and ensures that only very best work receives the coveted Yellow and Black Pencils.

Since the Japanese mobile phone market is very saturated & Market needed to show its uniqueness not only in retail services but also in the brand design itself. To illustrate this Hakuhodo Japan designed the retail shop interior by only depicting the balance of brightness between black and white, without any heightened colour.

VIEW THE IDEA

Sydney creative agency Colman Rasic has launched a new two-minute educational film aimed at increasing awareness and prevention of human trafficking.

The spotm, which will run on TV internationally and online, specifically highlights the strategies human traffickers use to lure victims into slavery and targets potential victims directly by providing information and warning signs to look out for. The film will be translated into different languages, targeting people at risk of being trafficked.

VIEW THE SPOT

JWT Gurgoan has created a new print campaign for Airtel Broadband that shows how things come alive at home with Airtel.

Credits - Executive Creative Director: Priti Kapur, Kishaloy Basu. Art Directors: Sumonto Ghosh, Kishaloy Basu. Copywriters: Iraj Fraz Batla, Priti Kapur. Digital Imaging: Imagerom.

The Association of Women for Action & Research (AWARE) has launched a campaign, via Lowe Singapore, in support of the cause of battling domestic violence against women.

The 'Stop the cycle' campaign is designed to educate women to stand against physical abuse the very first time it happens. It encourages women to seek help and advice so that abuse can be nipped in the bud.

The campaign is based on a simple insight that usually, when women encounter abuse for the first time, they think it is momentary and brush it aside. But more often than not, this might just the start of an on-going suffering. The print campaign shows a woman's pitiful future lined up behind her present when she's being abused the first time. The campaign will be implemented across multiple physical and digital touch-points in the coming days.

Y&R and The Campaign Palace Jakarta have been named joint Agency of Record for consumer hygiene brand Softex Indonesia. The agencies won the business following a three way pitch with incumbent BBDO and Grey Indonesia.

Established since 1974, Softex Indonesia has grown into an innovative consumer products business, specializing in female, baby and elderly care products.  Y&R and The Campaign Palace Jakarta will work on all five Softex brands - Softex, V-Class, Sweety, Confidence and Softies.

The International Festival of Creativity - Cannes Lions - will reward creativity in branded content & entertainment, defined as the creation of, or natural integration into, original content by a brand. Avi Savar, founder and chief creative officer of Big Fuel, a full-service global social media marketing and communications company based in New York that takes brands from content to commerce, will chair the inaugural Branded Content & Entertainment Lions jury.

STW Group, Australasia's leading marketing content and communications group, has announced that WPP Group, via Ogilvy & Mather Asia, has acquired a 33.3% position in STW's leading digital communications firm, DTDigital.

DTDigital, one of Australia's largest and most successful digital agencies, joined STW Group in 2003 and during the next eight years grew revenues from $1 million per annum to forecast revenue for 2012 of $14 million.

For the past four years, DTDigital has been working alongside BADJAR Ogilvy and OgilvyOne in Melbourne.

Today DTDigital has 110 full-time staff in its Melbourne office.

STW Group CEO Mike Connaghan (pictured) said: "It's not in our nature to sell parts of our prized assets but the logic in this instance was overwhelming. DTDigital already partners closely with Ogilvy Group Melbourne, and there are intentions to expand this partnership with Ogilvy to other markets. The integrated nature of many of our client campaigns make it absolutely right for Ogilvy that we have DTDigital even further aligned with that business. It's a good deal for all stakeholders."

The Store, the global retail practice of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY) today launches "The Shopper Marketing Store," an offer that harnesses and provides easy access to world-class agencies and experts in the field.

Shopper marketing encompasses a wide variety of different capabilities and touch points including, but not limited to, shopper insights, store design, customer relationship management, in-store communications, packaging and e-commerce.

VISIT THE WEBSITE

BEST TV
So I sat down to look at Best Ads and to my delight, the first thing I saw was a sexy cop girl running through the streets. Hot as balls. I think there might have been a guy in it to. This Axe spot ended up being my runner up.
As I moved through the spots, I made this note: the "dog in a nighty" spot for Jeep is good but just wrong.
Grrrr. Weiden and Kennedy and ESPN. How can this still be this good? Winner.

Play Films Singapore has recently signed director Nicholas Reynolds for exclusive representation for Singapore and China. Having previously been linked with the company, Reynolds is looking forward to re-uniting with the team at Play.

Said Reynolds: "It was me who approached the guys. I've always liked working with Julie and David but my relationships in Australia always got in the way of this... I'm now free of those restrictions so it was all a bit of a no brainer to be honest ... I also knew that by aligning myself with Play, I'd have some of the best people in Asia in my corner and would be now safe in the knowledge that the right people, in the right agencies will be seeing my work!"

Reynolds has worked in various markets around the world for brands such as Axe, Chupa Chups, Coors, Clairol, Ikea, Mastercard, Molson, Optus, Virgin, Toyota and Tiger Beer.

TBWA\TEQUILA\ Hong Kong and TBWA\TEQUILA\ Shanghai recently launched the Sina Weibo driven 'Red Envelope' digital campaign with the aim to help fans share well wishes of good fortune and prosperity with family and friends during the Chinese New Year season.

The 'Red Envelope' campaign, housed on the Coach China website, enables users to write their own Chinese New Year message or choose from a template of traditional greetings to share with their friends, displayed against an animated backdrop of swirling red envelopes. 

The official press release has gone out over the move of Sachin Ambekar to Leo Burnett Solutions Sri Lanka. Campaign Brief Asia is not certain why the release has taken so long but, for the record, Ambekar joined Leo Burnett in Colombo in October last year as Chief Creative Officer.

Ambekar resigned his previous ECD post at Y&R Jakarta early in 2011 and was replaced in April last year by Kevin Le.

Ambekar started his career in Mumbai. A few years and several awards later, he moved to Singapore and since then, has worked with some of the top agencies in Asia Pacific. He has successfully handled multi-million dollar projects on brands including LG Electronics, Danon, Kalbe Nutritionals, Maxis HotLink, McDonald's, Michelin, Tiger Beer and Fevicol.Ambekar has been Course Coordinator for the Australian AWARD School in Singapore and has served as a member of the Grand Jury at The New York Festival 2010. Under Ambekar's leadership, Y&R Jakarta won Indonesia's first ever Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity; as well as collected more than 23 international awards between 2010 and 2011 -- leading it to become the number one creative agency in Indonesia based on Campaign Brief Asia's creative rankings. He also helped doubled the agency's accounts and headcount in 18 months.

The deadline for the 2012 The One Show is January 31. Send your best, most creative work, to be judged by some of the most prestigious members of the international advertising and design community. This year's shows have several brand new categories, so see where your onederful work fits in.

ENTER HERE

Here's one for the guys Ogilvy & Mather Singapore.

Campaign Brief Asia spotted this homage to 2004's The Economist 'Brain' poster - created by the Ogilvy team working under then CD Craig Smith and ECD Andy Greenaway.

The Geon ad (shown left) appears on the back page of the latest issue of Publish, the official magazine of Publishers Australia.

The original Economist poster is shown below.

IDBI Federal Childsurance is a child plan in India that helps parents save money for their child's college education. Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai.


Credits - National Creative Director: Abhijit Avasthi, Rajiv Rao. Creative Director: Amitabh Agnihotri, Sameer Sojwal. Copywriter: Amitabh Agnihotri. Art Director: Swapnil Kambli, Sameer Sojwal. Photographer: Raj Mistry.

A computer desktop is a busy place. This print ad from BBDO Taiwan for Melchers Travel clearly shows that it's time to take a vacation and spend some time with the family you've been neglecting.

Credits - Executive Creative Director: One Chang. Creative Director: George Liou. Art Director: Tom Huang. Copywriter: Ivy Lu

Australia: Photon Group Limited - the publicly listed owner of Australian agencies BMF, BWM and Naked - which is currently trading at a lowly 5.5 cents per share on the ASX - has appointed BMF co-founder Matthew Melhuish as chief executive officer, effective 16 January 2012.

Melhuish has over 25 years' experience in the advertising and marketing industry, including at the most senior levels and is currently Head of Australian Agencies at Photon. Melhuish's appointment follows the resignation of Jeremy Philips as Photon's CEO in December.

BSUR, the Amsterdam-based creative agency, today launches the third episode of MINI's 'ALL THE WRONG PLACES', the adventure-filled five-part web series, created in conjunction with VICE and under the umbrella of the campaign 'Another Day. Another Adventure'.