El Gaffney

Back From The Whale’s…

Surprisingly I did not have any desire to bust out those lines these past few days at the AAAA Planning Conference in San Diego. What I have been doing is catching up with old friends and meeting virtual friends, people I read and respect, and some other mofos without blogs.

Highlights other than taking home a silver Jay Chiat award for Bahamavention (well, not quite home since Fallon took the actual hardware) include:

Speeches by Eric Ryan, Method and Sir Kens A Lot (can you mess with a knight’s name like that? oops - Ken Robinson
Breakout sessions led by Scott Lukas of Dosage and Mark Earls (linked above) of Herd Consulting and book
Dinners with peeps at our LA office

I’ve been blogging in a private space for Deutsch (yes, we’re a little late to the conversation, but taking the right step in testing out/getting comfortable before jumping in), so will transfer some of my posts from there and I twittered (twitter link) Day 2.

As a tease to more comprehensive and detailed posting, I kick it off with the same video that opened the conference on Creating Possibilities. After watching, is there any question that we are emotional beings first?

Tags: bahamas, deutsch, fallon, friends, planning, sandiego

Bahamavention Is Back

A moment for self- and others-congratulations. As those who know me know, I spent the last couple of years in Minneapolis working at Fallon and specifically on three great pieces of business. I use agency speak because it was not three companies nor only three people. I spent my days helping Purina Beneful, Travelers, and The Islands Of The Bahamas find the best way to move each of their respective brands forward. And I got to collaborate with some amazing people both at the agency (including the guys who did the Citi Identity Theft work) and client (including the visionary Director General).

So all sappiness aside, The Bahamas team got some really good news this weekend. Our TV campaign was recognized in Cannes with Silver Lions. The spots - Monte, Maureen, and Lyle - were in some really great company (The Mac and PC campaign and the Cingular dropped calls campaign, which you know from the US as well as other commercials from around the world). See the list here.

I’m really proud helping the Ministry of Tourism see the value in a differentiating idea both for the category and the broad advertising landscape. (Our integrated campaign had print, OOH, Online, a 30-minute infomercial, and Bahamavention kit.) Hopefully a planning award or two is in our future. Now here’s Monte:

Tags: awards, bahamas, fallon, planning

Getting Immersed In A Brand

In advertising, we often talk about brand immersion as a necessary step in (and often the starting pt. to) the strategic process. If you don’t know the company/product/service inside and out, how can you possibly understand its strengths, weaknesses, unique selling propositions, personality, etc.? Those working on the KitchenAid account spend a lovely week in Benton Harbor, MI at their corporate offices; Purina team members get to visit St. Louis (as well as Wal-Mart’s and Petsmart’s); other employees here did actually “stay in a Holiday Inn Express” last night (needless to say, they are the smartest people in the office). So The Islands Of The Bahamas is not an exception. 4 days in Nassau and Harbour Island-it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it…

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=plax7en.2f1h92pr&x=0&y=5np8wc

Tags: bahamas, beaches, brands, photos

Back from Colombia Update: Still Alive, More Tired

Meet Michel. Friend of my friend, Omar, from college. Met him a couple times in Madrid when I studied abroad. Other than that, haven’t seen or heard about him in 5 years… until during an IM conversation with omarp7, I learned that Michel now lives in Bogota. So I got his number (the easy part), and after work on Wednesday figured out how to call his cell phone from my hotel (the hard part). (The kind of easy and kind of hard part was deciding to actually holler at him - didn’t really know him at all and would have been completely content going to the pool in my hotel and getting a decent night’s sleep.) Back to the story though, he told me to meet him at his apartment (pictured above - yes, you get even more for your money than in Minneapolis) and we’d go out from there. And that’s what I, and we, did.

First we went to dinner at a nice little restaurant around his apartment (Calle 81), had some Club Colombian beers and empanadas. Then we picked up a friend of his and made our way to the center of town (26th Street) where we went to a bar/club called Socorro. There we quickly switched from beers to a bottle of whiskey, which you buy from the bar with a few plastic cups of ice, and went into the basement to dance it up to the spinning of some British DJ whose been living in Bogota for the past 15 years. Yes, you will get some details that you don’t care about at all, but some time down the line, I may be trying to find out the DJ’s name and be looking for a Latin American rather than European name. You will also get the story as a list of events because 1. my English gets worse and worse the longer I’m out of the country and 2. I’m too tired to recount the events so that you feel like you were there. Lo siento. At about 1, I considered leaving solo, but at the suggestion was handed a beer and told that we had to go to one more place, “the Wednesday night hot spot in Bogota,” before heading back to the hotel. And once again, that’s what I/we did. More drinking (whiskey straight in plastic cup, bottle in Michel’s back pocket) and more dancing until about 3 when we all (thankfully) decided to leave. (I may have had to get picked up at 5AM for my flight, but they all had to work full days, getting up only a couple hours later. Michel for the EU.)

Sorry about the lack of details, back let me say one more thing before I go (to sleep). I started off this post saying meet Michel, with the full intention of introducing him properly. I know I’ve failed, but at least understand this: Not only did he go out of his way to show me a great and authentic time (though out in Bogota at 2AM, there’s not really a “touristy” thing), but he made me feel like we’d been friends for those 5 years, during which we probably never even heard each other’s names. I was not just a guest or a guy he was bringing along, but a friend. He would not let me pay for a thing (minus the bottle of whiskey, which I insisted I had to do for the experience of being handed a bottle from behind the bar), he made sure I was having fun and made sure I felt included even if I couldn’t keep up with the Spanish. So, though he’ll never see this (though I should learn to never say never since I probably didn’t think I’d be partying in Colombia on a Wednesday night), I want to say thanks to him and let you know how much respect and care I was treated with in the “scary, gang/ kidnapper/ drug dealer infested” city. So, hotel a little after 3. Up a little after 5. Cab at 5:45. Flight at 9. Home at 6. Goodnight.

P.S. Update on Bahamas advertising: With posters coming down and others continuing to be stolen, The Bahamas has now made selected campaign creative available for download (legally) on their website. Use the link to the right or click here to go directly: http://www.bahamas.com/bahamas/about/general.aspx?sectionid=135762&level=2&lid=HOMEFMA_135787

Tags: bahamas, colombia, friends, travel

Controversial Bahamas

As you know, one of my clients is The Bahamas, specifically its Ministry of Tourism. Well, we recently launched our new OOH (out of home) campaign in New York City. With our “Escape Everyday Life” message, we’ve targeted heavily one place New Yorkers look to escape (and are part of their daily routine/life): The subway. Stations and trains alike. The rush hour commute. The weekday grind. Penn Station crowds. Our goal is to provide an escape (in the beautiful shots of The Bahamas and witty advertising) and remind you that an incredible and unique vacation destination is waiting for you (and not too far away - less than 60 miles from Florida). However when I was in Mexico, I learned that a few of our ads were stirring the pot so to speak. (And that’s not how I usually speak.) This one shown in particular has caused the most hullabaloo. (That’s definitely not how I speak.) Providing an “Instant Escape” this ad shows subway riders how to pass the time practicing their bonefishing technique. Harmless fun? Not at all. Read one recent review:
http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/02/01/bahama.php
Quick response: I can assure you that The Bahamas does not want you dead. Neither does Fallon. Just as the title’s quite clever, our communications were meant to be and thus, should not be taken literally.
However, a couple other ads have also been found “in contradiction to the rules and regulations of the MTA.” Note: CBS Outdoor/Viacom and the MTA both approved every single ad before posting. Those in question - turning your subway seat into a hammock (against one seat per person policy - Is it true they are now ticketing $50 for putting your bag down on an empty seat in an empty train?) and subway scuba (against moving from car to car while train is in motion), have been taken down (which we and The Bahamas advised - wouldn’t want the same people who didn’t know coffee was hot to actually toss their scarf and cell phone out onto the tracks).
Our ad that reads, “Just so no to pants,” is still up… for now. Please be advised that you should not hop onto the A train with your bottom half exposed. You can wear shorts… though you’d be more comfortable in minimal attire in The Bahamas.
See the NY Times article as well: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/01/nyregion/01ads.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
These bloggers may be in need of a vacation. Don’t worry many of Bahamas’ hotels have wireless internet.
P.S. For those concerned about our proposed NYC escapes, know this: it’s safer in The Bahamas.

Tags: bahamas, fallon, nyc, subway