Allstate's Bowl Spot

Leo Burnett’s new Allstate spot, airing during College Football BCS games, celebrates a football team’s most overlooked player: the kicker. The humorous commercial give viewers a glimpse into a kicker’s life as he is trampled by cheerleaders, mistaken as the towel boy and snubbed by female fans. In the end, the game is placed in the kicker’s hands, or more appropriately – at his feet - connecting how the value of a kicker and car insurance are related: they’re never truly appreciated until you need them.

Felicidades!

On December 13th, LB/Mexico olfficially ranked #1 in El Circulo de Oro (the Golden circle). According to AdLatina, "The agency where Marco Colin is president was the most awarded with, 1 Grand Prix, 3 Gold, 6 Silver and 24 Bronze." Bueno!

Smile - Hi! Is Watching!

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc., Sri Lanka, has created an integrated campaign for the country’s no. 1 society magazine, Hi! The publication pioneered society magazine culture in Sri Lanka and is the industry leader. It's well-known for taking a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards high society, so Leo Burnett wanted to give a slightly subversive yet fun-loving tone to the communications.The work is focused around the tagline, “Everyone smiles for Hi!" and inserts moments of humor into serious, even life-and-death situations. Research evealed that the audience for this magazine is a very up-market group, including celebrities, socialites, and debutantes. The humorous angle that Leo Burnett Solutions use is a departure from the norm for existing society focused magazines and pages currently available in the market. This approach aims to generate additional interest among a wider audience, making it more approachable to the general public. It also targets its growing audience of young socialites who are becoming increasingly captivated by Hi! The campaign's unprecedented approach is deployed across three TV spots, Press, Magazine, Posters, Viral mailers, and quirky activations for use at high society functions. The TV spots feature three situations, each opening in a very serious setting such as a riot, a surgery, and even a funeral. The viewer is taken by surprise when halfway through, everyone starts smiling and posing…because the Hi! photographer has appeared! The tagline was inspired by the insight that a common feature of all the photos in Hi! is people smiling at the camera…no matter what the situation.

A reminder to not get "trapped" this holiday season

Here's a recent installation created by Lime, part of the LB group in the UK. It's called "Trapped," and it was designed for the road safety campaign on behalf of DfT Drink Drive. The team produced a giant replica pint glass with a man "trapped" inside to show how drinking and driving can come between you and your holiday celebrations. Nice visual reminder, if you ask me.

Bernardin at Businessweek Forum

If you weren't able to travel to China to hear marketing leaders discuss the future of the marketing industry at the BusinessWeek Forum, click here. Our WW CEO, Tom Bernardin, does a great job of discussing Leo Burnett's approach to people and the future...enjoy!

Hungary On Fire

Last week, Leo Burnett Budapest received two bronze prize in two very prestigious festivals, EPICA and Eurobest. Among the Hungarian agencies that participated in the Eurobest Festival, Leo Burnett is the only agency which was honored – for the Secretjewel project in Direct & Sales Promotion Category done on P&G’s Secret brand. (The Eurobest Awards, now in its 20th year, is a celebration of European creativity and excellence in all forms of advertising and takes place in November/December each year.)

Also, LB/Budapest was the only winning Hungarian agency at the EPICA Festival, too (for their work for Samsung).

The agency has been on fire, winning Agency of the Year in 2007 at the prestigious Hungarian Golden Blade Festival, with more than double scores over the second place agency -- a historic first for the show.

Claudia - thanks for the laughs

Thank you, LB/Brazil and magazine Claudia, for making me laugh so hard this morning. Hope all of you enjoy these ads developed for this Latin American ladies mag...

Campaign Brief AWARD to Earth Hour

For those of you who don't live down under and may not get to see the beauty of the AWARD Campain Brief issue, I wanted to share it with you. Yes, that's a lovely Earth Hour logo on the front cover. The massive campaign was named the "State of the Art" winner. See more here. :)