South Coast Plaza’s Fall Portfolio, featuring Gucci model Nadia Bender, highlights a different sort of south.
The catalog’s refined images were shot by fashion photographer Diego Ucitel at Gaillard-Bennett House and Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, S.C.
It showcases products by more than 60 designers with a presence at the Costa Mesa-based mall, including Oscar de la Renta, Versace, Ralph Lauren and Ermenegildo Zegna.
“The fall winter collections from our boutiques are full of fun and fantasy,” South Coast Executive Director of Marketing Debra Gunn Downing said in a statement. “The romance, magic and history of Charleston couldn’t have been a better backdrop to display the season’s gorgeous collections.”
The catalog is sent out with the New York Times, U-T San Diego, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal.
Screamin’ Good
Del Taco LLC’s TV commercial for its new “Fresca Bowls” got its main actress screaming for more—sort of.
The Lake Forest-based fast-food chain’s 30-second spot features a young woman enjoying her lunch “jam-packed with delicious ingredients, like fire-roasted vegetables and freshly grilled chicken.”
At just $4, the bowl is full of surprises, the narrator said. The punchline comes in the form of a tiny farmer speaking out of said bowl, causing the actress to—you guessed it—scream.
In another, tamer version of the ad, the farmer dives back into the bowl after asking the actress “what the key to a fresh farm is,” and she responds, “a fresh farmer?”
The ads were produced by the brand’s agency of record, San Francisco-based Camp + King.
Adding Good
Forge 54, a marketing event organized by Torrey Tayenaka of the Sparkhouse creative agency in Newport Beach, brought together 81 volunteers last month who put in 3,000 hours to create a mobile app and promotional materials for Playworks SoCal.
The nonprofit group sends coaches into about 800 elementary schools across the country to “create more inclusive and healthy play opportunities for youth” during recess.
Not every school can afford to participate, so the Forge 54 team created an app that “allows people to use all of Playworks’ games free,” Tayenaka said. “You open the app and [select], ‘I have four kids, this age, I have a large field, or I’m in a classroom, I have 30 minutes, what games can I play?’ And it comes up with all these games and instructions on how to play them,” he said. “All of our marketing materials help facilitate the announcement of the app. We also made a TV commercial, instructional videos inside the app, press releases, a microsite for people to download the app. It was amazing.”
The 54-hour marathon marketing event was held at Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising & Communications’ headquarters.
The team, which also included members from OC-based agencies BeCreative Marketing, Device, Xtopoly, Blue C, MEDL Mobile and others, contributed $308,000 worth of donated services.
Off The Wall Branding
Cypress-based Vans Inc. continues to add interesting characters to its Living Off The Wall documentary series, which “chronicles the unique aspects of its brand of youth culture through original video projects and exclusive content exploring skate, surf, snow, BMX, girls’ lifestyle, art and music.”
The latest batch of 15 videos features young people, such as cabinet maker Jeremy Willi-amson in downtown Los Angeles, who repurposes wood to make furniture and skateboards; Ah-reum Lee, “a member of a psychedelic rock band based in Seoul, who grew up estranged from her family in Korea where family is everything;” and Italian photographer Lele Saveri, who roams the streets of New York City to photograph interesting people.
If it wasn’t for the #LivingOffTheWall hashtag, one could easily forget this is brand-sponsored content.
The four- to six-minute videos can be seen on Vans’ offthewall.tv website and its YouTube channel.
