Help the blind to experience a smile for Listerine
The team at JWT London have created a rather special film and designed and built a bespoke app that lets blind people know when someone is smiling at them, to launch Listerine’s Advance White mouthwash. The campaign explores how blind people experience smiles and shows through their partial absence just how powerful they can be. Using facial recognition technology and a smartphone camera, the app can detect a smile up to 5 metres away and notifies the user via audio and vibration feedback. The app has been endorsed by the RNIB, to ensure it is accessible and functional to blind and partially sighted people, and is available now on iOS and Android.
JWT London have created a rather special film and designed and built a bespoke app that lets blind people know when someone is smiling at them
The app is being promoted by an emotionally charged short film called “Feel Every Smile,” which was directed by double Oscar nominee Lucy Walker, who bagged the gig due to her “Blindsight” documentary about a blind mountaineer leading six blind children up a mountain. The film stars four blind people and begins with them talking about smiles and what they mean to them. They are then given the Smile Detector App and we get to see their true-life reaction to being given another way to experience someone smiling at them. “Feel every smile” also includes an original track composed especially for the film by Wake the Town. The idea for the app and film came from the JWT creative team Will Helm and Will Brookwell. John Cherry, creative director on the project, said: “Smiling isn’t just a smile, it can affect your life, and the lives of those around you, often in small but meaningful ways. Smiles really are more powerful than we realise.”
Appoint new head of planning in Melbourne
JWT Melbourne has announced the appointment of Simon McCrudden in the role of head of planning. He said of his appointment: “I’m excited to be joining Michael, Angela and the team at JWT Melbourne. They have a huge hunger to produce the kind of work I love, an impressive client list and a great track record of new business wins. I’m looking forward to helping the agency continue its positive momentum, through the delivery of highly effective work for its clients.”
JWT Melbourne has appointed Simon McCrudden as head of planning
National executive planning director, Angela Morris, added: “I’m delighted to be welcoming Simon to the J. Walter Thompson team and really looking forward to partnering with him to execute our vision for the Melbourne office. He’s a great strategist, with a history of effective creative work. Moreover, his way of thinking is beautifully aligned with the way that we are evolving planning and the collaborative ways of working that we have embraced across the agency.”
Put a 360 degree spotlight on style for TRESemme
In the wake of last year's successful “Runway” project TRESemme, along with Mirum Jakarta, the digital agency set up by JWT in Indonesia earlier this year, are back with the second leg of the campaign, which this year features Indonesia’s first completely interactive 360-degree virtual runway. Users who visit the bespoke web portal setup for The Runway campaign are invited to a behind-the-scene 360-degree experience of a model preparing for a show. Visitors will experience a photo session, wardrobe fitting, make-up, and hairstyling session (all of which showcase TRESemme’s products) before finally hitting a virtual runway. The video is shot in a way that puts the viewer at the heart of the action, with the ability to move around, and enter different rooms at will. The experience will go live on 19 September 2015 at Senayan City, Jakarta, where they are invited to walk along with thousands of other models. Viewers can register for the event on the campaign website.
TRESemme and Mirum Jakarta have created Indonesia’s first completely interactive 360-degree virtual runway
Leading up to the fashion show, Mirum has also created a motion graphic LED installation set during Jakarta’s signature pop-up market event the Market Museum. The installation simulates a real-life runway on where people can walk and receive cheers from a computer-generated crowd. The Runway’s ultimate winner will also be crowned as the digital face of TRESemme and awarded with a modelling school scholarship, a fashion spread at a renowned magazine, and a year’s supply of TRESemme products. Mirum Indonesia’s managing director Garth Parlimbangan, said: “Being given another chance by TRESemme to give birth to the second The Runway project is absolutely an honour. Last year, we reached the top with The Runway breaking the record for the biggest runway ever created and this time, we’re so looking forward to step on another milestone, with the country’s first interactive 360 degree runway.”
Acquires majority stake in Webling
JWT Australia has acquired a majority stake in Webling, an independent digital agency based in Sydney. Webling offers an end-to-end service covering strategy, ideation, design and development across web, mobile, social, digital OOH and experiential channels. The agency has delivered projects such as the Tic Tac Shake & Share app; the first mobile peer-to-peer engagement campaign of its kind, a shopping app for Coles, Coca Cola Amatil’s multichannel ordering platform and a mobile led augmented reality campaign for Fanta that has won awards including IABs, AIMIA and Festival of Media. Webling’s “My Garden” app for Yates recently won Australia’s prestigious IAB creative showcase award, and took home the Best Digital Advertising Award, in the lifestyle category, from the Digital Industry Association of Australia’s AIMIA Awards. The agency was founded in 2004 by Deniz Nalbantoglu and Darren Clark, who will stay on in their respective positions of managing director and technical director after the acquisition.
JWT Australia has acquired a majority stake in Webling, an independent digital agency based in Sydney
Nalbantoglu said: “Darren and I knew that this was the right opportunity for us as soon as we experienced the incredibly strong alignment between JWT and Webling. The two agencies complement each other perfectly from a skills and services point of view, but even more importantly our cultures are so similar, with key values being almost identical. We both strongly advocate collaboration, passion and curiosity, and truly stand behind these values.” John Gutteridge, JWT Australia and New Zealand CEO, added: “Deniz and Darren, along with the team have much to be proud of. They have created and sustained a terrific business over the years driven by an instinctive and inquisitive appreciation for technology and its application for marketing and advertising. We have worked with the team at Webling across multiple projects for a few years now. Our collective skills will help broaden and deepen our offering and importantly enable us to realise some exciting plans in the near future.”
