Great Ads. Sony PS3, Long Live Play.

Oktober 6th, 2011 • Ads, Games
Tags: Ads, Agencies, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Funny, Gaming, Ideas, Lifestyle, sony, visual, We like

Some campaigns are different. Sony’s “Long Live Play” PS3 Campaign may be one of them. Playstation brand’s ad agency Deutsch Inc. really did a great job. But just check it out…

Planner Survey 2011. The State of Marketing-Strategy Worldwide.

September 18th, 2011 • 1 comment Strategy
Tags: Agencies, Jobs, Money, Planning, Report, Salary, Strategy, Study, Survey, Truth, World

I have to admit I am a bit late with this post. But I have been travelling so please forgive me if you know about the ‘Planner Survey 2011‘ already. Many of you know this survey which my colleague Heather LeFevre conducts annually. Heather is Head of Planning at Strawberry Frog Amsterdam and for the seventh time she has tried to shed some light on the state of Marketing-Strategy worldwide – a remarkable effort for such a niche ‘industry’ within a ‘niche industry’.

I don’t want to say anything about her research. Just check out the 2011 document below. But I really want to thank Heather for her continuous curiosity in this topic. Great insights. I particularly the more localized character of this year’s survey compared with 2010′s data.

By the way: If you want to follow Heather on twitter, do it here.

15 Years Later. A Conversation with my first Creative Director, Steffen Herbold.

Juli 24th, 2011 • Allgemein, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Agencies, Experimental, Germany, Interview, People, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Media, steffen herbold, Strategy, Trends, WOB

A couple of weeks ago I talked about first jobs with a friend.

WOB was/is the name of my first employer/agency. And before anyone asks: Yes, Werbung und Organisationsberatung sounds awfully German. But I still think this dedicated B2B agency from the south of Germany is one of the most professional agency brands I ever worked for. B2B is tough. B2B is rarely considered as cool. And even though marketing Supply Chain Management Software or Nanotech solutions is definitely not for everyone, I am still happy I took my first steps in the agency world as part of the team from Viernheim (yes, Viernheim). It was one of the best ‘schools’ for a young marketing guy like me.

Back in the days when I realized I am better in copywriting than in Project Management there was one guy who thought I might be right. Steffen Herbold is Creative Director at WOB (pretty much since God created the Earth). He is a great copywriter, a very, very smart man, and he is one of the people I definitely do not meet as often as I should.

I kind of rediscovered Steffen (sorry Steffen) two years ago. After not being in contact for a while, we connected on Facebook and hold a steady dialogue since then. I was really interested to find out about how a dedicated B2B agency like WOB perceives the challenges by the Digital revolution in general and the social web in particular. And Steffen was so nice to answer a couple of questions. I am sure if you leave a comment he will gladly answer your questions as well.

Hi Steffen. Which role does Social Media play for a B2B agency like WOB nowadays?
A big one.

How different are B2B and B2C in this regard?
Well, obviously buying a chocolate bar and a ERP software have absolutely nothing in common. Apart from one thing: There are emotions involved. But whereas the purchasing processes of FMCG’s are individual and impulsive by nature, the buying process in a btob context is collective and reflected – so it is no wonder that these differences become manifest in social media too. I would put it this way: In b2c social media are capable of creating something like a “virtual nearness” between a brand and its target group, in b2b they’re an adequate tool to truly deepen existing relationships. You might as well say: b2c is brilliant flirting, b2b is serious marriage.
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Blast Radius. Strategy Summit Europe 2011.

Juli 8th, 2011 • Allgemein
Tags: Agencies, Amsterdam, Blast Radius, personal, Strategy

So I just spent two great days with about a dozen strategy colleagues from our five European Blast Radius offices. The agenda for the first Strategy Summit for our (massively growing) agency was to share our individual perspectives on how to further develop strategy for our clients. And of course getting to know each other.

Quite impressive to realize that the agency I joined in 2010 really has become a major player in (and beyond) Europe. Even more so considering the fact that we built this in just one year with a number of really cool major brands as clients. Thanks to the whole strategy team for this insight. And of course thanks for following me to my local dive bar. But that’s a different story.

Blast Radius Europe has offices in Amsterdam, London, Hamburg and Paris. We are always looking for smart people. Check out our vacancies here. And feel free to tell your friends in case you stumble upon something interesting.

The Truth. This Time about Banner Advertising.

Juni 6th, 2011 • 1 comment Media
Tags: Agencies, banners, Funny, Media, Truth, World

Thanks to Anna Rosekerr for suming up this simple truth in a diagram. (via SellSell)

White Bull Army. Everything that was ever wrong with Ad Awards in just one Video.

Mai 8th, 2011 • 14 comments Brands, Experimental
Tags: Ads, Africa, Agencies, Alcohol, Awards, Beer, Brands, Future Lions, Ideas, Politics, Strategy, Sudan, Viral, visual

A little update to this article: After bashing the video below as “either an extremly sarcastic subtle protest against ignorance in advertising. Or the saddest thing in the industry” I was now contacted by a couple of people who commented that anyone (except me) found it extremely obvious that it is not the saddest things but a very subtle protest. But what is it that this video wants to achieve?

Is it taking the piss out of award videos? Pink Pony does that without touching the Sudanese civil war. Is it supposed to remind us of South Sudan? Not really. So in fact whatever it was that this video wanted to be ironical about – it crossed the line from irony to cynicism.

To make my point I. I don’t give a damn if this is an official award video. I just think it’s extremely tasteless and stands for a very acultural cynicism typical for too many people in this industry. Generate buzz no matter through which method. That’s pathetic.

Follow the rest of the conversation on adland.tv

——————————

Actually everything that was ever wrong with ad awards can be studied in the video below. It is a submission to the Future Lions, a sub-award of the well known Cannes Lions. And it is given to anyone (you can be a private person) who comes up with a hypothetical idea for an existing brand that wasn’t technically possible five years ago.

So the following video showcases a hypothetical idea on how to promote a beer in the soon to be independent state Southern Sudan. Key elements of the story are true. White Bull Lager is in fact the first major locally produced beer in Southern Sudan. But the hypothetical campaign described in the film gave me Inner Mouth Vomit.

It does not just show a deep lack of historical and political understanding – it’s just cynical (even worse than Jung von Matt’s great guerilla stunt that took the piss out of German anti Nuclear protestors…2 months before Fukushima).

Stuff like this is the end result when ignorance meets fake caring. Seriously? This is either an extremly sarcastic subtle protest against ignorance in advertising. Or it is one of the saddest things I have ever seen coming out of the industry. Two million people died in Sudan and some hipster presents beer logos on T-72 tanks to win an award. Oh…the best part: In the end they even dare to dedicate this to the people of South Sudan. Makes me want to kill myself.

Good Morning. The Return of ‘The Media Award Tram Station’.

April 29th, 2011 • Media, Underway
Tags: Ads, Agencies, Amsterdam, Awards, Funny, Ideas, Media, Outdoor, Truth, Underway, visual, World, WTF

It’s not always easy to work in the center of Amsterdam. Well, most of the time it is. But then there are days when you step out of your tram at the central Leidseplein square and the first thing you think is WTF?

Quite often this has got something to do with my particular tram station which I call ‘The Media Award Tram Station’. Simply because it serves as award entry for pretty much any Media angency in the world. You know…when they spend EUR 1 million on media…and EUR 995,000 run just into this installation there to make the campaign look great in Cannes?

I have seen everything being built on top, attached to or dug underneath the tram station. But I haven’t seen what I have seen this morning. It looked a little something like this…

Campaign + LinkedIn. Just a more serious Facebook Connect?

April 27th, 2011 • 2 comments Brands, Experimental, Social, Tech, Tools
Tags: Agencies, Amex, Amsterdam, Brands, Creativity, Experimental, Ideas, LinkedIn, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends, Volkswagen

Yesterday I stumbled upon the first major digital campaign that builds upon LinkedIn’s open API – Volkswagen’s LinkedUit campaign here in the Netherlands (Source). The online special builds up on the Volkswagen Passat campaign ‘Nogal vol van zichzelf’ (‘quite full of himself’) and uses your LinkedIn connections to discover profane information in your profile and compares it to an opponent’s data in your LinkedIn circle of connections. The more information your profile contains the more likely you will win against an opponent of your chosing.

Volkswagen’s online special is light weight fun, looks nice and is well integrated with LinkedIn – which is of course the actually interesting aspect of this digital campaign. Because of course – Achtung Amsterdam and Volkswagen could have alternatively used Facebook Connect. But they went for innovation and decided to use LinkedIn’s open API.
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HORT. An Interview with Eike Koenig.

März 14th, 2011 • Friends, Interview, We like
Tags: Agencies, Berlin, Cool, Creativity, Design, eike koenig, Friends, hort, Interview, People, We like

Many of my readers probably know Eike Koenig and his Berlin-based design studio HORT. And some of you may probably know Eike personally. Eike hasn’t just created one of the most innovative design studios in Europe, he has also created a professional creative playground for himself. An extremely interesting guy to have a conversation with and definitely one of the most fearless designers in Europe.

This is an interview of Latvian design blog Plikums with Eike who visited Riga’s Latvian Art Directors Club and talked a bit about his aspirations in work and design (via Better taste than sorry).

Daddy? What is a Corporate Community Manager?

März 9th, 2011 • Jobs
Tags: Agencies, Amsterdam, Blast Radius, community management, Interview, Jobs, People

I work as a digital strategist – a job profile that did not exist 5 years ago, as many of my colleague’s professions are also more or less new. One of my colleagues here at Blast Radius Amsterdam is Henry Greaves, a fresh Amsterdamer who originally came from the UK. Henry is a full time Community Manager and my real time counterpart on one of our key accounts. It’s still not too common for an agency to employ full time Community Managers. And I think some of you are pretty interested in a similar position.

Time to ask Henry what he actually does.

How did you become community manager?

It was a happy accident. I graduated with a degree in Theology five years ago, and then worked in various jobs in the media. I worked in PR for Amazon, but also loved writing and got published by some reputable magazines, like Dazed & Confused and Monocle. That led to work as part of two-man team writing a blog for French Connection, Manifesto. From then on my focus was working in Digital. The fact that there are no rules in Digital, and that you can try so many new ways of getting people’s attention makes it an incredibly exciting area to work in. So I was keen to stay in it.

Eventually Blast Radius offered me a job as Community Manager for a major client. I think they liked me because my experience of cultural writing suited the client. And the fact I had a small bit of digital experience helped. But I lacked many skills a CM needs at that time, but it was relatively easy to pick up, as the team at Blast is full of experts. So the SEO specialist taught me a bit of SEO, strategists taught me how to deal with analytics, and I could pick up all the specialists bits and pieces a Community Manager needs to know as I went along.

Henry, we are working together for quite some time now. Can you describe your daily routine as a corporate community manager?

I think the most important thing to point out as a Community Manager is that there is no all-encompassing job description. I solely work on my account, and other CMs work entirely on their projects. Each role is entirely dependent on the job and client specifications. So there is no “Community Manager’s routine”.

In my job, I spend most of my time planning and making content. Whether that’s blogs, or helping to concept for competitions, or writing creative briefs. I spend roughly half a day each week compiling statistics relating to the performance of the site, and monitoring Listening platforms. And whatever time I have left I am seeding the site, pushing the social media aspects, and dealing with individual queries from members of the community.
It’s quite a full-on job, as by its nature you can never be finished. There is always more work you could do to try to bolster community growth etc.

Do your parents understand your job? What do you tell them?

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