Hey Zooppers! Our counterparts over in Brazil have a new contest up that they think would be valuable for you to participate in. The contest is for a product called Danone, a French multinational company, world leader in fresh dairy products. Danone’s mission is to provide health and nutrition worldwide.  You may recognize their hugely popular yogurt product Activia.

Danone is calling on Zooppers everywhere to create compelling arguments in the form of 60 second videos, as well as print and banner ads to promote the daily use of Actimel. So what is Actimel? Actimel contains the unique probiotic LC defensive acts on the intestinal flora by creating balance. According to experts at the University of Turku, this type of bacteria helps to regulate the gastrointestinal tract, the main entry of bacteria into the bloodstream and helps fight infection and disease. It is worth clarifying that probiotics work in gut flora which are 70% of our defenses. The intestine is the part of the human body that has more contact with the external environment and therefore the place where most of the attackers invade the body.

In completing the various forms of submissions, print and video, it may be worthwhile to target the ads towards mothers, for their own consumption as well as their families. Mothers are a families biggest protector against sickness and health issues, so these are the people we want to encourage to use Danone.

To compete for 12,000 dollars in prizes, and for complete contest details head to Brazil’s contest page at http://zooppa.com.br/contests/actimel-danone. 

1. Luke Sullivan’s Hey Whipple, Squeeze This

click here to order on amazon.com

About the Book: This is the new edition of the irreverent, celebrated bestseller, master copywriter Luke Sullivan looks at the history of advertising, from the good, to the bad, to the ugly. Updated to cover online advertising, this edition gives you the best advertising guidance for traditional media and all the possibilities of new media and technologies. You’ll learn why bad ads sometimes work, why great ads fail, and how you can balance creative work with the mandate to sell. This is a must read for anyone in the business or anyone who hopes to be one day.

About the Author: Luke Sullivan is an award-winning copywriter with thirty years experience in the business at many of the top agencies in the country such as, Fallon McElligott and the Martin Agency. Luke has over twenty medals to his name in the prestigious advertising award show-One Show. He currently is the Group Creative Director at GSD& M In Austin, Texas.

2. How to Put Your Book Together and Get a Job in Advertising: 21st Century Edition by Maxine Paetro

click here to order on amazon.com

About the Book: This book is great if you are in the process of putting together your first portfolio. Whether you are a copywriter or art director, this book provides you with everything you will need to know to guide you in putting together your first book. It is written by a very successful former creative department administrator. This is the 4^th edition, being updated in order to keep up with this ever-changing industry. This book will explain to you what a “professional” book consists of as well as tips on presenting your book and yourself effectively. The advice comes from someone who saw anywhere from 10-20 books a day, so she knows what creative directors are looking for. I promise you the tips, secrets and information in this book will help make the process of landing an ad job a little easier, and not so long.

About the Author: From 1975 through 1987 Maxine Paetro was a recruiter and EVP creative department manager at many large and successful New York City advertising agencies.

3. Pick Me: Breaking Into Advertising and Staying There by Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin

click here to order on amazon.com

About the Book: Many people might think they want a job in advertising, probably beacuase they watch Mad Men. However, it isn’t as easy as it is on TV. Advertising is a great industry to be in, but actually landing a job-or even your foot in the door, is very hard. So if you find yourself asking the question, “how do I get a job in advertising” –this book has the answers you have been looking for. The thing I like best about this book is that fourteen industry superstars share their insights and explain how they broke into the business. You’ll hear from Bob Barrie, Rick Boyko, David Droga, Mark Fenske, Neil French, Sally Hogshead, Mike Hughes, Shane Hutton, Brian Millar, Tom Monahan, Chuck Porter, Bob Scarpelli, Chris Staples, and Lorraine Tao. I always think it is interesting to hear everyone’s stories, it kind of gives your more inspiration to write your own. Bottom line about this book: Forget the clichés; forget the Mad Men comparisons, this is advertising as it really is. If you’re stuck on making it, this book will point you in all the right directions for a career in the most exciting businesses on the planet.

In Pick Me, the authors also answer all the ad career questions you have, like:

• Is advertising right for me?

• How do I build a killer portfolio?
• How do I get an interview with the elusive creative director?
• Should I accept an unpaid internship?
• How do I find the right partner?
• How do I beat creative block?
• How do I avoid burnout?

About the Authors: Authors Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin are veteran creative directors and longtime creative partners. Nancy Vonk is Co-Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto. She started at Ogilvy in 1988 as an art director. She had previously worked at shops in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Toronto. Janet has worked at Y&R, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy, twice, where she met creative soul mate, Nancy.  While working together their work has won Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils and Clios.

4. Russell Wiley Is Out To Lunch Richard Hine’s Debut Novel

click here to order from amazon.com

About the Book: Richard Hine’s debut novel Russell Wiley Is Out To Lunch is a corporate satire, set in the New York media industry, that looks at the challenges of print media in making the transition to the digital age. Written by a true media insider, the novel will be published by Amazon’s new AmazonEncore imprint this October, will connect immediately with readers throughout the media and advertising business, and will resonate with everyone who works in a troubled industry. Book reviews include Publishers Weekly: “Will make readers cheer… one part Glengarry Glen Ross and two parts Sophie Kinsella …a winner in every way.” And from Paul Steiger, Editor-in-Chief, ProPublica.org: “A rollicking satire about the slitherings of corporate snakes and the gambits of conjob consultants in the desperate world of modern media, where fickle advertisers and disgruntled readers breathlessly lurch toward the Next Big Thing.” The book will be available October 12, 2010, and in order to publicize the book launch, Amazon & Zooppa just launched the world’s 1st crowdsourced book-launch promotion contest. The mission is to Create video, graphic design or banner ads by following the creative requirements of the creative brief, that will spark interest in the release of Russell Wiley Is Out to Lunch and direct viewers/readers to order a copy from the main online sites or their favorite bookstore – VERY EXCITING! Click here to enter the competition on Zooppa.com. And click here to pre-order your copy of the book from amazon.com!

About the Author: Richard Hine was born in London and began his career as an advertising copywriter. He moved to New York when he was twenty-four, held creative and marketing positions at Adweek; Time magazine – where he went on to become the publisher of Time’s Latin America edition; and the Wall Street Journal, where he was the marketing vice president responsible for the launch of the Journal’s Weekend Edition. Since 2006, Hine’s work included, a marketing and media consultant, ghostwriter, and novelist. His fiction has appeared in many literary publications, such as London Magazine and the Brooklyn Review. He currently lives in New York City. (Amazon.com)

So there it is! All these books can be purchased on amazon.com by clicking on the link provided! I hope you enjoy them, and here is a list of some other must-reads when you are done with these 4! Have a great weekend everyone! Click on the title to order from amazon.com

-Juicing the Orange: How to Turn Creativity into a Powerful Business Advantage by Pat Fallon and Fred Senn

-Sagmeister: Made you look by Stefan Sagmeister

-Hoopla: The Story of Crispin Porter+Bogusky by Warren Berger

RetouchLIVE is completely free, and allows you to access 31 different projects Jason has worked on. They range from old family portraits, concert photos, wedding photos and many others. The great thing about it, is they are all live, hence the name, RetouchLIVE. You get to watch him go to work on each project, and he also explains every step along the way. The screen also shows keyboard shortcuts, so it is easier to follow along with what he is doing. Jason throws in many little tricks and tips in each video as well, not to mention he is pretty entertaining. RetouchLIVE is a great way to see and hear how a professional goes about solving photoshop dilemmas. With all the 31 different episodes, Jason goes over pretty much every tool and demonstrates how it is used. Watching this is like having your own private teacher! Another cool thing is that all the photos that are re-touched have been sent in by viewers. So if you have a photo you need some help with-send it in, and it might be the newest podcast!

Even if you consider yourself an expert photoshopper, I guarantee you will learn something from RetouchLIVE. Whether he is piecing together a ripped wedding photograph from 50 years ago, adding a hand to the lead singer in a concert photo or adjusting the lighting on wild Rams, Jason can do it, and do it very well. And with the help of RetouchLIVE, you can do it too!

So if your having trouble with any tools or just want some inspiration for your next print piece, check out RetouchLIVE, I’m sure it will help. If you don’t have the chance to take a class from Jason, the next best thing is to utilize RetouchLIVE… however he does bring homemade chocolate chip cookies to class, which is the only drawback of RetouchLIVE.

I hope this helps with whatever you are currently working on, and hopefully it will help if your working on our current Crocs competition, which has a print piece to it! Have a good weekend everyone! And if anyone has any topics they want me to cover in the future, feel free to let us know on here, facebook or twitter!

]]> http://blog.zooppa.com/2010/08/13/expert-photoshop-help-from-retouchlive/feed/ 0 http://blog.zooppa.com/2010/08/13/expert-photoshop-help-from-retouchlive/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Zooppa-BlogUs/~3/QJvhPCFYQck/ http://blog.zooppa.com/2010/08/06/kuler-color-from-adobe/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:41:10 +0000 zooppastaff http://blog.zooppa.com/?p=2519

You know when you’re having one of those days where you just can’t get started on a design? I guess you could call it, designer’s block? Maybe you’re having trouble with the layout. Maybe the typeface? The graphics? Or maybe it’s the colors that you’re stuck on. Well I have some good news and some bad news for you. Let’s start with the bad news, which is; you can’t use “designer’s block” as an excuse anymore. And the good news is, I found this really cool website called kuler, which is why you can’t use “designer’s block” as an excuse.

Kuler is part of the wonderful little world we like to call Adobe. Kuler is a web-hosted application that allows you to generate color themes and schemes, (I wasn’t trying to make that rhyme) that might just be the inspiration for your entire design. It’s really easy and fun to create your own color scheme with kuler. You can start from a single color, or from an image. So if you’ve already found your graphics, you can create a color theme that accents the images you are using in your design. If you choose to start from a color, you can then choose a rule, so monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triad, etc. You can also mess around with the shading, saturation, and pretty much anything you can think of. Once you’ve found something your happy with, you can name it, save it, and share it with the kuler community. Here is a theme I just made called “Western Avenue”.

Another pretty cool thing about this site is you can browse through hundreds of already made themes that are organized by most recent, most popular and highest rated. But, I think my favorite part about kuler is that if you go to the community link you can scroll through a list of featured members and look at all the themes they have created. Each member writes a little article about their work and how they get their inspiration. It also shows samples of the work and designs they have created with that theme. Below is the community profile for user “Swilder”.

The community profiles are a great way to look at a rough “sketch” of a design, starting with just colors, and see what it looks like as a finished design. Kuler is a very hands on site, and it is the best free site I have found to play around with color! Check it out and I promise you’re “designer’s block” will instantly go away.

You could even use this site as inspiration for the print challenge in our Crocs competition! You can sign up here: http://zooppa.com/contests/crocs-video-contest

Here is the link to Kuler…now go start creating! http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/newest?time=30

Hey Zooppers! Our Italian friends have a contest that they would love your participation in. The job is for a company called Casa.it, an online housing market that makes it easy to buy, sell, and rent properties via the internet. They are one of the biggest real estate networks in Italy and their site gets 2.5 million new visitors each month. So it sounds like a pretty great opportunity for you, the Zooppers of America, to globalize your amazing talent and get noticed in Italy!


Casa.it believes that a house is nothing if not a home. Their goal is to help each customer find a place where they can feel safe and secure, living their life in comfort and contentment with their surroundings. Casa.it knows that buying a house is an emotional decision that has more to do with a family’s lifestyle than a mere building. Your mission with this project would be to convey those values and emotions in a video or print ad. They are reaching out to you to develop an emotional attachment between the customer and the brand.


Think about the moments that tend to bring out the “soul” in your own home. Anything from a child’s birthday party to a funny moment at the dinner table or playing outside in the yard could make for a great ad. Dig deep for some of the reasons that make your house a home.


There are also some fabulous prizes that will go to the creators of the best video and print ads. $7,600 in total prizes will be awarded at the end of the contest. $4,000 for best video and $3,000 for best print ad. The extra $600 will be awarded to honorable mentions for various entries. The video ads should be 60 seconds max.


We know that we can count on you, our talented Zooppa members, to come up with some great ideas for this contest. Go to the Italian Zooppa site to check out the full brief and all of the details, so that you can get started on this sweet project: http://zooppa.it/contests/casait

We are so excited for our Johnsonville Share Your Ville contest—after all, what better way to kick off the summer than with a product that grills are practically made for? Of course, Johnsonville isn’t just about the summer barbecue, even if the summer sizzle is definitely on our minds during these more sultry months. You can smell and taste their signature flavors all over your vacations, festivals, warm winter meals, tailgating weekends, and more.

Really, though, it’s about the atmosphere of which delicious Johnsonville sausages can remind you and be an integral part. And that’s what the competition is about: the Ville! If it takes a village to raise a child, then these food babies are part of this village’s long tradition of “casual, comfortable, genuine, fun” excellence. Which is why the creative brief for Johnsonville’s challenge reads like a list of the good times and the people and places that have made those moments happen. Your ads are raising their tongs and skillets to the Friends, Family, Events, and/or Locations which hold the best memories, ones which wouldn’t quite be complete without the Johnsonville sausages bringing their mouthwatering flavors to the table (or napkins, or bare hands, or however you roll).

Johnsonville has been able to provide a ton of resources for you to look up and be inspired by. The following links should give you an idea of what kind of sentiments people have about Johnsonville, which you might want to think about as you create your ad. You can check them out on the Johnsonville Competition Page.

As you know, we’ve partnered with Johnsonville on this competition so they’re hosting their own competition over on their website for the grand prize of $10,000. But remember that any video submitted to Johnsonville is also up for the $3,000 in Zooppa awards, so make sure to submit your work to both pages!

In some ways the Johnsonville contest is pretty layered, because there are a lot of elements at work in combining food and the moment without getting too “warm and cuddly”, i.e. overly sentimental. There’s some spice here, after all! But in other ways this competition is simple in the best sense of the word. It’s all about the ’ville. Show us yours, hilarious or heartwarming, sassy and sincere, bring it all—because Johnsonville’s Big Flavor definitely does. We can’t wait to see them!