Daniel Brainin

Brain storm! New ways and means in problem solving

2008-09-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Simplify and Focus is the first order of business.

Don't plan on doing everything - plan on doing one thing very well. "Underdo your competition" is a unique statement, but they make a very good case for it, as we will discuss.

What exactly IS your problem?

Once upon a time, most of us started our business because there was a need - either we had a need, or someone else around us had a need. I don't mean just a need for money. We found something that met a need, became passionate about it, and built a business around it. It might be programming, nutritional supplements, multimedia, online marketing, but whatever it was, it convinced you that it was a viable the answer to some problem.

Are you still focused on solving that problem?

There is a saying among Christians: If you feel far away from God, you're the one that moved. If you feel displaced or far away from where you started in your business, maybe you have moved. Maybe you need to revisit the original problem and restructure your business products and services so they are back in alignment with the problem.

2008-07-04T17:35:00.001-07:00

testing out various blogs and information pages:

Busy day

2008-06-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Kinda busy today so just a short post. You might find these links interesting

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Outstanding new campaigns

Diversity in Broadcasting

Television Bureau of Canada

International Year of Older Persons

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Pinball and Products

2008-06-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Rubbermaid wanted to get across how wide their range of products are in a 30 second spot. The solution was one word: pinball. A guy pulls the spring on a pinball machine and we see the ball bounce off different kinds of Rubbermaid products inside the machine, until the ball falls between the flippers, (Rubbermaid kitchen brushes,) and into a Rubbermaid garbage can. The spot ran on Citytv.

Tuna and T.V.

2008-06-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

Television shows and tuna may seem a strange pairing, but that idea won Clover Leaf Tuna’s business. I wrote two 30 second television spots that ran back to back; the first features Clover Leaf’s Flavored Tuna line, the second their staple, plain tuna. The 60 second spot starts off with a parody of America’s Top Model; beautiful girls dressed as different flavors of tuna wait breathlessly to see who will be a member of Clover Leaf’s Flavored Tuna Family, Canada’s Top Tuna. This is followed by the winners joining a Marilyn Monroe-like lady on a talk show, as she is introduced by the jovial host as The Mother of All Tuna’s. Clover Leaf extended the campaign beyond television, and used the tag line ‘There’s tuna, and then there’s Clover Leaf ’ across various media.

Man in the Chair

2008-06-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

I developed a promotion for Maxell Canada that extended Maxell’s iconic ‘Man in the Chair’ branding in a slightly surreal way: a man sitting on a chair on the roof of an urban building throws a CD like a frisbee, which hurtles through the sky to be caught by a woman on a beach – only now it’s a DVD, representing the two products that Maxell wanted to highlight.

Based on this taste of television, Maxell Canada decided to create their own brand sell, and invited agencies to pitch. They chose my spot, which starts off with the ‘Man in the Chair’ getting windblown in a laboratory test of their cassette tapes in the 80’s, followed by a more current ‘Man in the Chair’ getting literally blown off the screen in a laboratory test of their DVD’s. Both spots ran on MuchMusic.

Ummm Steak

2008-05-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Europe’s Best is a company that makes and distributes frozen fruit and vegetables. I won their business with a series of ads, the most successful of which was voted TVB’s Best in Category Award for Branded Products A family has dinner in a kitchen. We see the ease with which the frozen vegetables are made before Mom, Dad and Son sit down to eat. Mom and Son watch with some alarm as Dad hoovers his vegetables like a hungry child, after which he pushes his steak around his plate like a petulant child, until Mom says sharply, “Jack. Eat your steak.” The spot ran on CTV.

Random quotes:

"It's like putting your brain in"

When the stakes are high

2008-05-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Kimono Condoms, based in California, are well known on the West Coast, but less so in the East. I won the creative for their East Coast television campaign by coming up with a spot about a poker game with two players left. A woman has one chip left and a man has a huge pile of chips. The woman bets her chip. The man meets her and raises a chip. The players who had already folded look at her: now what, she’s out of chips…the woman reaches into her purse and slides a Kimono Condom across the table. The other players look back at the man; he’s all in and pushes all his chips into the pot, with the tag line ‘Kimono Condoms. When the stakes are high.’ The spot ran across the Eastern Seaboard, as well as extending to Miami, with Spanish graphics. It was featured in a New York Times article as an example of Poker’s rise in popularity.

The Daniel Brainin

2008-05-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

After ten years at CHUM Television, where I worked as an Account Executive, Marketing Manager and Producer on the way to becoming Director of Business Development & Commercial Production, I currently hold the position of Executive Creative Director at ZoomerMedia, a multi-media company that encompasses a suite of Print, Broadcast and Digital properties.

Daniel Brainin

2008-05-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, My name is Daniel Brainin. I live and in Toronto, Ontario. After ten years at CHUM Television, where I worked as an Account Executive, Marketing Manager and Producer on the way to becoming Director of Business Development & Commercial Production, I currently hold the position of Executive Creative Director at ZoomerMedia, a multi-media company that encompasses a suite of Print, Broadcast and Digital properties.