Daily Forum: Epica Awards, Old Navy, Redskins Twitter Fail, DDB & Groupo ABC, Cyber Monday, Tumblr Woos Ad Agencies, and More

Epica Awards Wraps Up in Berlin, Check Out the Highlights:

Founded in 1987, Epica is the only creative prize awarded by journalists working for marketing and communications magazines around the world. It offers an independent jury and global press coverage. Launched as the first European advertising competition, today it is an international celebration of creativity, attracting thousands of entries from more than 70 countries. Learn more about the winners at Epica Awards.

The Gig Is Up, Walmart: Let’s Just Call Holiday Shopping for What It Is

“Here’s a proposal: why don’t we toss out all the special names for the big holiday shopping days and just accept the fact that retailers are going to throw sales at the public before, during and after Thanksgiving? Walmart seems cool with that, as it’s moving its Cyber Monday sale-a-palooza to Sunday. If the early bird gets the worm, then Walmart is betting its feathers that it’ll scoop up shoppers excited about online discounts to its sales before other retailers have a chance to hawk their Cyber Monday deals: the big box store says its first round of sales will start at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 29, as part of its “Cyber Week,” which starts Nov. 28 and runs through Dec. 4.” Read the full article at Consumerist. 

Omnicom Group's DDB Worldwide Acquires Brazil’s Grupo ABC

“DDB Worldwide, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), announced today that it has acquired Grupo ABC, the largest independent advertising and marketing communications group in Brazil. Grupo ABC's versatile group of agencies consists of best-in-class brand advertising agencies as well as specialized offerings in public relations, CRM, digital, promotion and events. The group has a diverse network of agencies including DM9 (Sao Paulo), in minority partnership with DDB; Africa and Loducca, each recognized among the best creative advertising agencies in the world; CDN, a leading public relations agency; Sunset, a specialized digital agency; and Newstyle, a leading promotion and point of sale (POS) company in the country.” More at PR Newswire. 

Haha: Old Navy Thanksgiving Ad Features Snoop Dogg, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Kumail Nanjiani

"Can ya'll wrap this up and get the hell out of my house?"

Huh: New Metrics Demonstrate We’ve Been Overcomplicating Metrics This Whole Time

(Image via engagingcomms.com)

“Here may lie the key to measuring brand value and how marketing affects it -- and it's probably simpler than you thought.” Read the full story over at Ad Age. 

Fumble: The Washington Redskins Provide a Clinic in Social Media Failure

When you’re playing an undefeated team at home in the NFL, it probably isn’t a good idea to talk smack about the game—especially when you haven’t won a single game on the road this season. Also, it’s probably not a good idea to promote the idea of “Redskins Country” when the rest of the nation is waiting for your organization to stop embarrassing everyone with a franchise name that is set to be a lesson in racism and advertising tone deafness in marketing textbooks published the future. Read the full story at NESN.

AdForum’s #AdoftheDay: “Find Christmas” by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

Job of the Day: Manager, Business Leadership, at Momentum in New York City

We believe that what a brand does is more important than what it says—we want you to help brands do amazing, unprecedented, wild things, creating experiences that people never forget. You will play a critical role on a collaborative team on an exciting, fast-paced client in the ever-changing entertainment space. Partnering with big-name shows the Theater and Family Entertainment team selects strategic partnerships for our client and then negotiates, manages and promotes the partnerships. The successful candidate will need to demonstrate a proven track record of how they possess the skills and vision to assist in further evolving Theater/Family platform during 2015 and beyond. More details at Momentum. 

Ogilvy & Mather's Tham Khai Meng Discusses Creativity in Japan

(Image via Campaign.)

“On a trip to Japan last week, Ogilvy’s global creative head Tham Khai Meng spoke to Campaign about what he sees as the market’s greatest strengths and weaknesses, and why he wants to see more experimentation with technology in the outdoor space. The trip is Tham’s second visit to Japan this year and is centred on reviewing the agency’s work and developing its creative talent, which he describes as "quite a spunky lot." Full article at Campaign. 

Tumblr Gets Proactive about Impressing Ad Agencies

“Tumblr has been taking over ad agencies. The Yahoo-owned blogging platform is on a charm offensive this fall: showing up at agency offices, setting up taco stands, GIF booths, and basically reintroducing itself to the ad world. Ad creatives and buyers like Deutsch Inc., 360i and Razorfish have been targeted with this #TumblrTakeover in recent weeks.” Full story at Digiday. 

Agency of the Week

DDB Worldwide: We believe that creativity is the most powerful force in business- it stirs emotion, influences minds and builds brands. The combination of brilliant creative ideas and extraordinary results is what sets DDB apart. We are not satisfied to be simply the most creative agency network in the world, but hold our creative ideas accountable for delivering business-building results. Our vision is to maintain our distinguished position by developing remarkable creative that transforms communication clutter into communication currency. Learn more at DDB Worldwide’s AdForum Profile.