Heidi Klum stars in Arcade Singapore’s global campaign for Unilever’s Clear shampoo
Singapore-based hotshop Arcade has produced a new global campaign for Unilever’s Clear shampoo which launched in the U.S., representing a major paradigm shift for the brand.
The campaign not only stars supermodel TV personality Heidi Klum, but sees her leading a mindset change. The revelation is that in the longtime search for the foundation of strong, beautiful hair, women have been treating the wrong end of hair.
“Despite using lots of hair care products for decades, women are still dissatisfied with their hair. They now realise that they should start by nourishing their scalp, the foundation of hair. Clear is bringing to the market a real paradigm shift. Feed scalp! Feed the beauty of your hair!” says Francois Renard, Unilever Vice President for CLEAR.
The film featuring Klum was shot over two days in LA by John Rankin Waddell of Rankin Films U.K. Post production by Ghost Town L.A.. Music composed by Song Zu Singapore.
Arcade Creative Director, Gary Tranter said: “Heidi Klum was the ideal choice as the face and hair for this campaign because, coupled with her being one of the most successful supermodels ever, she combines the warmth and down-to-earth attitude that other women can really relate to. She isn’t talking down to, but talking with, other women, letting them into the secret of strong beautiful hair.”
Arcade’s core idea was also translated into a digital activation campaign on Facebook, with 300,000 new fans in the first month of launch.
Creative credits:
Client: Unilever Clear Scalp & Hair Therapy
Campaign: “Feed Scalp. Feed Beauty”
Creative team: Matt Cullen, Gary Tranter & Mark Taylor
Producer: Rebecca So
Account Team: Dorothy Yew & Yvonne Lee
21 Comments
Looks like you don’t need to be a clunky lumbering network to pick up a major US biz.
The day of the giant killers has come.
And it’s happening in our little backyard.
More power to you boys!!!!
“Feed scalp! Feed the beauty of your hair!”
Said Francois Renard, Unilever Vice President for CLEAR. It would be “a real paradigm shift”, except that various shampoo brands have been saying exactly this since the 1970s. But who cares, I’m only here for Heidi.
It is quite a business coup, and I hope they made money out of it. Congratulations guys.
But – ahem – hot shop or not, this is exactly the same fucking ad that any of the clunky, lumbering networks would have made. The same formula. The same everything.
…you’re absolutely right, 2.19pm.
Fact is, that this category has shackles that very few agencies have ever broken free of to produce work that’s truly fresh, though Unilever to their credit are getting more open-minded in some other markets. Kudos to a small shop for landing this assignment, though.
What is the point of creating a small shop if you’re going to make the same level of ad as you did at a generic big shop? A lame ad is a lame ad. Why are they refered to as a “hot shop”?!
I would give the guys at Arcade major props for deciding a few years ago that they were too good to be reporting to the idiots they had to at some big agency and starting out on their own. Most folks who say they’re doing their own thing…that’s a polite way of saying they’re freelance…these guys are running a full fledged agency that has become a thorn in the sides of many an AOR. They are smarter and way more buttoned down than most of the fools you see on award show lists. Otherwise they would not be operating with the financial backing they have now.
A) it’s not that lame
B) they don’t report to vain glorious blow hard regional overheads
C) they got to shoot with Ms Klum
D) they got to pocket all the profit
E) they don’t have to burn their weekends to scam …proactive creative ads for award points
F) they don’t have to finance the award entries from their bottomline
G) the clients support and not tolerate their work
And dear Jameson these are the points why they are a small shop….won’t stay small for long.
Some good points above by 9:12 and Albert.
Making the same crap as everyone else, but cheaper (sorry, more cost-effectively), and with less process and drama than the big boys is a valid business strategy. And its far smarter to occupy that niche than to try to occupy than trying to be the next great scammy ‘hot-shop’ with ads for a local bike, paint or sock shop.
@ Sadly. Yes, it is the client formula and the agency is just channeling it. I have worked on crap like this too. The great secret is that it is trivially easy and from the first briefing it is obvious exactly how the finished ad will look. It requires some craft skills and maturity but little thought and next to no creativity.
But somehow it takes 3 – 5 months of bs, being pushed between multiple layers of fuckwits before some director can take the money and replicate the last ad with new talent, and a few words changed.
If Gary and Matt can cut through that and deliver the goods quicker, cheaper, and with fewer layers of fuckwits, then they deserve all the success they get.
Look out big agencies. Someone is pointing out your lack of clothing.
He does have a valid point. I guess what Jameson is trying to imply is that it all boils down to how good the work is. If this is to be in your book and be seen by folks in Droga5 for example, you would be turned away instantly. They wod give a shit about you escaping from scams, shot Heidi or pocketing all the money.
Speaking of Droga5, it became what it is today by the merits of their quality work since day one. Every start up should strive for that level of creativity. There are more than a dozen of shops killing it like that, namely the monkeys, glue society, they, mistress, kinetic, kessels krammer, pereira & o’dell, those earned the rights to be considered ‘hotshops’.
A small shop that charges clients cheaper for the same shitty work that you would find in an equally shitty big agency is what made it all shitty in the first place. Success in advertising is measured by business results with creativity like what Droga5 NY does. If this is what we’re getting from Arcade, you’re right about they weren’t be a small shop for long, I’m afraid they weren’t be any shop in a few years. Just sayin.
The boys at Arcade are reaping what they have sowed over the years.
Building a bonafide client’s trust by coughing up strategic, hardworkig & stylishly excited solutions with no fuss and within budget & deadlines…..even after killer rounds of research filters.
If you think that’s a doodle, think again.
Not many can play in this segment.
Especially creative ‘legends in their lunchtime’ who accumulated ‘metals’ for ‘blink and miss it’ media buys on ‘unsuspecting’ clients.
If these out- on- the- street Cannes-whores think they can easily trade their former cushy network gigs for this, they are in for a brutal wake-up call.
I apologise for the obvious poor proofreading in my post at 8.04.
And its far smarter to occupy that niche than trying be the next great scammy ‘hot-shop’ with ads for a local bike, paint or sock shop.
Hate to point out to 11.12 that the boys at Arcade are the owners and in no need of a job at any of the agencies he listed.
Getting a book together to get employed is so way below the level they are playing at.
Arcade is here to play for the big bucks.
And it looks like they are doing not too shabby in this respect.
Truth is, it is bloody hard to start a business of any kind. So the boys at Arcade have huge balls to leave cushy jobs for starting their own company. Crap work or award winning work, it’s more than anyone here can say they have the guts to do.
It’s laughable that you lot are comparing mediocracy work with scam ads. It’s like you’re debating over Marilyn Manson or Lil’ Wayne to be the sexiest man alive. But of course, am sure one or two of the Arcades are here to defend.
You are missing the point about whether this is a piece of good work. It isn’t. It is in fact embarrassing. Non of the sexiest women alive are able to save this.
Interns would do a better job and would definitely be cheaper (sorry, more cost-effective) than this.
Nobody said the ad is good…in fact, if you asked the team they’ll probably admit it blows. But why should the big agencies get to charge clients a fortune to do this kind of work? Big agencies charge heaps to do this kinda work because someone has to pay for the CEOs Orchard Road pad, some pompous regional planners time, business class tickets to Cannes for the scammers, and of course the usual regional creative get togethers to discuss the work for award shows, each with 15-20 CDs attending….thats a lot of fcukin dosh.
With an Arcade, they will pay probably 40% less, get a product that ticks all their boxes and save some money…so both sides gain.
It is only natural that Arcade would be attacked by so many agency folks here in this thread…a very understandable reaction when someone steals your lunch at school…only difference being they stole it fair and square.
A quick peek at the Arcade website reveals that the average standard of their work isn’t too shabby, compared to a lot of people in network bondage.
I seriously doubt that they need to defend it, to Children Please or anyone else, for the reasons that Mr Python has listed, plus no clueless regional idjits are skimming off a % of their profits and contributing nothing but hot air in return.
Not so bad a deal?
I’m not a fan of big networks’ win-at-all-cost scam motive either, but what makes it a screw up marketing scene in this part of the world is that no one tries hard enough to come up with a piece of intelligent work and sell it to the client.
If it is the type of work that intelligently and truly solves their business problems they would buy it if you’re smart enough too.
The type of work that would also win awards, that’s how the real advertising scene works in other parts of the world. We do need a shop like Arcade to go up against the big boys, but creating a level of work like this is not the way to do it.
If this continues, sure there is a possibility of Arcade getting bigger, to become big shops like the Iris or the McCanns instead of the Wieden+Kennedys or the drogas.
Now, which type of agencies do we need more of?
Great to see the good guys doing so well.
Hmmmmmm, point taken Jameson.
It’s not a great step forward in shampoo ads (in fact a couple of things in there are a bit dodgy – the dubbing seems to be off and the purple CGI work in the middle is a bit icky, especially when it runs thru’ Miss Klum’s overpriced golden locks) but I guess the newsworthiness is that a small start-up agency in Asia gets work from a pretty large brand.
Now they can start pushing, and yeah, maybe become a W&K or droga5, even if it isn’t always on Unilever.
To be fair to the detractors too, the Arcadians are not exactly creative firebrands…it is EXTREMELY hard to be doing the work yourself and critiquing it too. Most ECDs are hands off and maintain a distance from work so they can objectively evaluate it…these guys obviously dont…yet. But they do know how to get the best out of others. I wish them nothing but good fortune,
What?! For an ECD of a small shop to already behave like an ECD at a big shop, good luck to them indeed.