Brands everywhere are tapping influencers as a key part of marketing strategies, but the Ad Council and global creator commerce company Whalar are partnering to take that to the next level–driving change on America’s most pressing issues -with the launch of the Creators for Good Ambassador Program. Comprised of a selection of trusted influencers who have deep passions for social issues related to areas of focus for the Ad Council including mental health awareness, gun violence prevention, substance use disorders and racial justice, the Creators for Good Ambassador Program is part of Ad Council’s influencer marketing division, Creators for Good, formed in 2015. The program applies the Creators for Good Ambassadors’ lived experiences and career insights to overarching strategy, platform messaging and overall execution of Ad Council’s Creators for Good campaigns. It is the first time in the Ad Council’s 80-year history that trusted messengers will play such a formative advisory role across various campaigns, now further driving social impact efforts at scale. Led by the Ad Council’s Creators for Good team, in partnership with Whalar, initial creators in this new program include: Jonny Morales; Chase Brown; Kahmora Hall; Tiffany Yu; Jo Beckwith; Cienna Ditri; Sasha Hamadani, MD; Rowan Ellis; Matthew Maxfield; and Matthew Schueller. This program is designed to invite in the strategic thinking from creators, allowing these influential leaders to play a critical role across various national PSA campaigns, bolstering the effectiveness of Ad Council’s trusted messenger strategies and social impact initiatives. As the ambassadors lend their insights to the strategies of campaign activations, the Ad Council will also equip these creators with issue expertise, research-backed messaging and social impact best to fortify their work speaking out on causes they care about….
Smode Tech, the Paris-based company behind real-time compositing and media server platform SMODE, has brought Damien Gaillard aboard as channel manager and Jean-François Ballanger as sales engineer. Gaillard’s main responsibilities will be developing relationships with Smode Tech’s international partners and helping them develop in their respective markets as well as identifying new partnership opportunities globally. Ballanger comes from a technical background as a cameraman. His primary responsibilities will include sales operations in France and French-speaking countries, product demos and relationship building with Smode Tech’s longstanding partners….
Review: Director Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece”
A movie documentary that uses only Lego pieces might seem an unconventional choice. When that documentary is about renowned musician-producer Pharrell Williams, it's actually sort of on-brand.
"Piece by Piece" is a bright, clever song-filled biopic that pretends it's a behind-the-scenes documentary using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it's a bit of both.
Director Morgan Neville — who has gotten more and more experimental exploring other celebrity lives like Fred Rogers in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?,""Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" and "Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces" — this time uses real interviews but masks them under little Lego figurines with animated faces. Call this one a documentary in a million pieces.
The filmmakers try to explain their device — "What if nothing is real? What if life is like a Lego set?" Williams says at the beginning — but it's very tenuous. Just submit and enjoy the ride of a poor kid from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who rose to dominate music and become a creative director at Louis Vuitton.
Williams, by his own admission, is a little detached, a little odd. Music triggers colors in his brain — he has synesthesia, beautifully portrayed here — and it's his forward-looking musical brain that will make him a star, first as part of the producing team The Neptunes and then as an in-demand solo producer and songwriter.
There are highs and lows and then highs again. A verse Williams wrote for "Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect when he was making a living selling beats would lead to superstars demanding to work with him and partner... Read More