Casper Willer

A blogrocking naked goodbye

2007-12-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

This blog have been quiet for a long long time. Lot's of things have happened. In highlights I'm now a married man to my fantastic wife Cecilie. I given up my job for nearly 5 years at La Familia. I'm now a Naked Man.

More specifically I have just co-founded Naked Communications new Copenhagen office, where I will be a partner. We will be an office in Naked's Nordic & Central/Eastern-European offering. This exiting journey began officially in the beginning of december and we are going to document the making of an office in true flickr style on the below address - if anyone should be interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nakedcomms_cph/

So, this means this blog is going to continue to be quiet as I will devote my time to my new adventures. Blogging here has been one of the most valuable experiences in my time in communications. The blogosphere has given me such an outlook and my RSS feeds are still up to more than 100.

A part from our Flickr thingy - my new contact details are:

casper_willer@nakedcomms.com
+45 40 98 52 35

Naked Communications
Kompanistræde 10, 3'rd floor
1208 Copenhagen
Denmark
Att.: Casper Willer

Hope to see you in the real world.

Super Normal Brands

2007-07-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon an article discovering the design philosophie of Jasper Morrison (http://www.jaspermorrison.com/html/index.html) recently and what he has to say about design is very similar to a lot of the tendencies we see in communication and among brands these days.

Morrison’s main belief is that he - and people in general - are growing tired of an over designed world, where anything is put through the big branding and lifestyle machinery. He wants simple usable design without al the colours, attitudes and attention seeking surprise elements.

He and Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa has coined the term Super Normal. Super Normal is something that’s normal, yet very special.

(It’s all explained here: http://2021supernormal.wordpress.com/about/ , and you can see more on flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/supernormal/)

If we took his philosophies to the world of communication and brands, I think it could be a great way of explaining a lot of the tendencies driving through the more successful part of the brand landscape.

The brands that are not driven by differentiation through big ad concepts, but brands that has taken another approach often with smaller budgets and proximity to their customers.

Super Normal brands could be those who are - doing the normal real well – by being:

Function more than form
Authentic
Basic
Simple
Interacting (and inviting consumers to participate)
Utility based
Honest & transparent
Storytelling
Sustainable and CSR oriented (not just greenwashing)
Folksy (as John Grant put’s it)

I think Super Normal applies to brands like:

American Apparel
Muji
Vitamin Water
Ben & Jerry’s
3M
Innocent
Ikea
Target
Tesco
Apple (they are also of other things than Super Normal)
Micro Breweries (in general)
Howies
BIC
Moleskine
H&M
Most of the Web 2.0 companies from Flickr to Facebook.

And then lot's and lot's of others.

Off course everyone can't be super normal and everyone shouldn’t be – but, I think there are still a lot of opportunities in this belief and approach.

Likemind this friday

2007-06-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

Likemind is back, so come on you people - let’s have a chat and some good coffee.

Details are:

where: Risteriet, Studiestræde 36, Copenhagen (MAP)
when: friday, june 15 at 8am (PST)
The Likemind badges now comes in four different version - first in the house, first to choose. Once again thanks to the fantastic Likemind people - Piers, Noah & Amy – and thanks to the sponsors Anomaly (http://www.anomalynyc.com/home.html).

The Likemind movement is now spread to 25 countries (see them all here: http://likemind.us/).

The new musical generosity

2007-06-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

The music industry mostly get’s criticized for being caught in the last century – and often they are – but some players have really brought great value to all us music fans.

Apart from the constant innovations from iTunes and great brand utility initiates like Nokia’s Music Recommenders (

www.musicrecommenders.com) there are publishers that have understood that one free tune can lead to new fans and buyers more effectively than any other marketing ploy.

One splendid and legal generous site is http://betterpropaganda.com/ which is filled with great free tracks (may I recommend a free download from the likes of Albert HAmmond Jr., Arcade Fire, Ratatat, HOT HOT HOT, Cat Power, Klaxons, New Young Pony Club, Soulwax, MSTRKRFT, Man Man, Peter, Bjorn and John, Van She, The Softlightes, Wolf Parade)

Also recommendable is:
The free and very influential music blog (which you probably already know): http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/

If you ever need to write a lyric (or a rhyme full line of strategy for that matter): http://www.rhymezone.com/
Or have to find a specific lyric: http://www.azlyrics.com/

Can you buy that for money?

2007-06-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Either it’s a brand enthusiasm thing or Big Steve has been paying the big bucks to the Coen Brothers with them endorsing the new Apple Color feature on Final Cut Pro like this:

“Color is really revolutionary,” states Joel Coen about the new, professional color grading tool debuting in Final Cut Studio 2. In fact, the application “seems calculated to appeal to us.” That’s because the Coen Brothers enjoy being on the leading edge. Their highly praised “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” was “the first feature film where the entire movie was digitized and where we used digital intermediates as opposed to photo chemical grading.” Known for taking a holistic approach to filmmaking, the pair involve themselves in every step of the process. “We write our own scripts. We cut our own movies. And we’re involved in the process all the way to the end.” With Color, they can now sit down in front of a Mac and “play with contrast and de-saturation and approximate the look” they want for their film.

The probably got a couple of them for free but, I don’t think this is a case of corporate prostitution. What do you say?

Thought provoking statistical art

2007-06-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

Go check this art project out if you haven’t seen it already. http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php

The picture above is called:Jet Trails, 2007, 60x96". And it says:Depicts 11,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours.

No Likemind Cph. this Friday

2007-05-16T06:42:00.000-07:00

There is a bank holiday in Denmark this Friday, see you next time.

Diesel Wall in Copenhagen

2007-05-16T06:01:00.000-07:00

If there is a company that always dose great collaboration (or piggy-backing - depending on how you see it) with the urban influencers it’s Diesel. Their initiatives into art , music and - a bit closer to the jeans - in high fashion are always interesting and seems like they are coming from a brand that has creativity deeply rooted in the personality.
The Diesel Wall initiative is simple and cool stuff. You find a big wall in a city and make local artist compete for the space. Now it has come to Copenhagen, which yet another example of my hometown becoming part of the “must do cities” when it comes to international company selecting cool cities to launch their initiatives.

Their new explorations into the digital age with the “Heidies” campaign also works really well and seems to be really effective too.

And finally their Global Warming Ready print campaign seems to cause some stir – superficially exploiting the new found green consciousness or intelligently commenting on that - you decide?

Enough Renzo Rosso praise for now - here are the links:

Diesell Wall
www.dieselwall.com

“Heidies” underwear campaign results:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=116571

Global Warming Ready campaign discussions:
http://www.print.duncans.tv/2007/diesel-global-warming-ready/.

Likemind Cph. tomorrow

2007-04-19T05:33:00.000-07:00

where: Risteriet, Studiestræde 36, Copenhagen (MAP)

when: friday, april 20 at 8am (CET)

The first 10 will receive an exclusive badge sent all the way from our friends in New York – you don’t’ want to be late.

Great brand integration definition

2007-04-19T05:19:00.000-07:00

"Brand integration used to be saying the same thing everywhere. Now it's believing the same thing everywhere."

From the blog (http://zeusjones.blogspot.com/) of exiting new start-up company ZeusJones with people from Fallon. Check out their site http://www.zeusjones.com/ which is really communication 2.0. Thank to Gareth (http://garethkay.typepad.com/brand_new/) for the link.

Likemind Friday in Copenhagen

2007-03-19T05:08:00.000-07:00

Friday we had our first Likemind Cph. gathering at Risteriet.

Nine early risers made it this cold but sunny spring morning. Since it was our first Likemind I think it was quite ok to see that many faces for a premiere - mostly coming from the Danish planning community. The discussions where around many different subjects, the ultimate centre of attention though, where the Mattel Badge Maker - designed to make you do a badge on the spot.

Suggestions where many – from our Frenchman Bertrand’s “Vive La Stratégie” to the very optimistic Yes badge (Ja, in Danish) from Rikke. I’m sure we are going to see lot’s of very professional pre-produced suggestions next time.

Next time we hope to see lots of new faces and people from more diverse backgrounds (we would like to se both you Maria, and you Einar).

The Likemind date for next month is April 20th - same time, same place.

More photos on my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/casperwiller/

Likemind Cph.

2007-03-06T02:01:00.000-08:00

We have just been officially uploaded to Piers Fawkes and Noah Briers Likemind worldwide coffee morning mafia (http://likemind.us/). I’m one of the hosts here in Copenhagen and the details for the first coffee morning are:

where: Risteriet, Studiestræde 36, Copenhagen (MAP)
when: friday, march 16 at 8am (CET)
hosts: casper

For anyone not aware of the concept it’s an opportunity to enjoy coffee and conversation with likeminded people - likeminded as in people within the wider world of communication. Probably for the people that are both curious and conversational about topics like “what’s interesting in communication right now”. People coming from background as: planners, digital wizards, agency creative’s, designers, marketing department strategist or other similar backgrounds.

So please spread the word if you know anyone, who is in Copenhagen and ready to go.

Our newly formed CPG (Communication Planning Group) a Danish equivalent to the British APG is behind, amongst others. We are an association of planners from both advertising and media agencies who in the name of a more overall communication planning and media-neutral approach have gathered forces. So far it’s been a pleasure to have a closer collaboration and common agenda.

The Gondry Puzzle

2007-03-06T01:02:00.000-08:00

Here is two of my favourite pop cultural things brought together in a little puzzle countdown. It’s Michel Gondry vs. The Rubrick Cube.

Here is the clip you should see first where Gondry does magical things with his feats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiQXgmVVGNA&mode=related&search=

And here is the analysis and solution to the puzzle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaVsaWjzsds&NR

Youth Plnin

2007-03-06T00:54:00.000-08:00

I’m doing a project that includes understanding of the wonderful world of teenagers and their relations to cell phones and more specifically to text messaging. Text messaging for me includes no codes, no abbreviations and often a lack of understanding of the messages I receive written in that txt stylee. But here is a little help to embrace the txt language yourself or get the txt translated to plain English:
http://www.transl8it.com/cgi-win/index.pl

Method Planning

2007-02-20T07:19:00.000-08:00

How de we find those rare nuggets of insight or other creative thought starters. How do we dig deeper into either the consumer, within the cooperation, into the product, or tap into a broader cultural context?

How de we equip ourselves with enough knowledge to truly understand was goes on in the Herd?

What do we need to know about those brand communities to dive into the new vast world of transmedia planning?

How do we look at both advertising and media planning at the same time?

How do we truly disrupt the marketplace?

How do we add new knowledge, if the focus groups and the piles of data doesn’t do the job (with no intentions to rebel against the more data-driven rigour)?

I’m looking for the planning behind the planning out of a belief that real life experience and a more personal involvement close to where the action is at, can get us new perspectives to the problem solving we are facing.

Then a little while ago I came a cross Wikipedias explanation of Method Acting and intuitively felt there was something in that.

The fact that it was a possibility to give a little “Actors Studio meets Lee Strasberg meets Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro & Al Pacino coolness” to the planning profession was no downside. Even the fact that it could provide a new set of explanatory tools for the daily merits of the planner - in a dinner party small talk perspective - wasn’t bad either.

I simply tried to replace acting/actors with planning/planners, characters with brands and performance with communication. The definition is then as goes:

Method Planning is a planning technique in which planners try to replicate in real life the emotional conditions under which the brand operates, in an effort to create a life-like, realistic communication. "The Method" typically refers to the generic practice of planners drawing on their own emotions, memories, and experiences to influence their portrayals of brands.

Next up was to try to come up with some tools and tactics to come closer to a TO-DO list for Method Planning.

This could be the first 10 techniques of Method Planning:

1. Do a Cindy Sherman!
Become the target group, dress and behave like them. It’s not observing but experiencing through an active involvement in the crowd. I, realize this can be a bit hard and very weird if let’s say - you are middle aged male planner searching for the golden nuggets amongst young female cosmetic users in Asia– but probably still worth a try. If Cindy can, you can.

(See more on the woman that can make even David Bowie “chameleon envious” here: http://www.cindysherman.com/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman)

2. How may I help you?
Let’s forget all the explorations on how our messages, propositions, promises, reasons to believe fit into the realms of a specific crowd. Let’s instead find the utility angle. How could a brand improve our daily lives? What’s interesting? What’s helpful? What’s could be improved? Are there any existing online/offline utilities that could need the scaling from partnering with big brands?

3. La Source
How did they hear about a certain phenomenon or brand? It’s all about drawing a media pattern recognition map. How does the specific crowd work? What are the dynamics? Where are the touchpoints where the brand is welcome and effective? And where does the crowd want the brand to keep out and decide and discuss for them selves?

4. Lap observing
A really simple way of getting to know your target group, market, product is to simply spend a day or two in the production facilities, in the back of police car (I remember one specific law enforcement campaign as the result of a creative team doing just this), hang out with a certain crowd, be part of the new product development for a little while, do a stand-in for the personnel in a retail outlet etc. etc. This can be done more or less biased having a set of questions or totally non-interrupting.

The Staufenberger Repository had a great example of a creative team doing a project with this intention (see more here http://staufenberger.typepad.com/repository/2007/01/ollie_and_janso.html and http://www.spendadaywith.blogspot.com/)

5. CyberStalking (no resemblance to this sad phenomenon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking)
It’s hard to truly understand peoples cyber life’s if you haven’t been to Second Life, Myscapce, Flickr, Youtube and all the other social networks and communities. The easy thing to do is creating a profile and become a part of the fun – off-course steering out of the obvious immoral places for a thirtysomething to be.

6. The Cause
John Grants brilliantly coined term marketing enthusiasm should also go into The Method Planning fieldwork. Ask what they really care about in certain categories and areas both internally and externally? Opinions wherever they come from, are highly inspiring.

7. Do the real life Water Cooler
Stand right there in the spotlight of informal chat - from the infamous water cooler, to the stadium seats, the café corner, in the smoking areas, in the bus and off-course let’s hear what the cab driver has to say. Let’s hear what they talk about and what they think about what we’ve done communication wise in the past.

8. Find the Internet Zeitgeist
There are lot’s of online resources to tap into the cultural zeitgeist. The likes of Digg, Del.icio.us., Stumbleupon, Bloglines, Flickr, Youtube and off-course Google (and Google Zeitgeist) are all great resources of what’s top of mind in people lives. I remember doing a an experiment on brand affection some time ago looking at how many people had posted pictures and tagged brands on Flickr and it was indeed correlated to high scores in brand temperature measurements like Lovebrands and Brand Asset Valuator.

9. Prototype the product/service/communication
There is nothing more honest than standing with the actual center of attention in your the hand - whether is product or service - talking to people. Preferable having the thing explored outside of the unnatural frames of the focus group room and instead using people’s natural surroundings to create a realistic context.

10. Do the WHAT IF?
I’m a big fan of this method both as a standalone tactic and a way to ask question for several of the other techniques. Something always comes out of asking this way in my experience. One WHAT IF? leads to another and suddenly you are in another place.

That’s it for now. Love to hear from you if you have any suggestions or techniques to explore the world of Method Planning.

Calories, calories, calories...

2007-01-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

It’s 2007 - and happy new years by the way – and time for resolutions and all that jazz. For the first time in many years I’ve decided to take a little trip down the diet highway. Being somewhat focused on my daily food consumption I came across this What 200 calories look like website.

It’s photos of 200 calories-worth of various food, so you can fully appreciate the calorific density, as they say. Funny calculation can come from assembling the 2000 calories you need a day from the various options some more healthy than others.

See them all here:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm

Editing Extravaganza

2007-01-09T02:37:00.000-08:00

U2 has a new single out its called "Windows in the Skies " it’s from the U218 Singles Album. The director behind is Gary Koepke from Modernista (colleague of Brand New’s Gareth Kay http://garethkay.typepad.com/). I have already watched it ten times – engaging stuff.

Round the strange Christmas tree

2006-12-22T01:29:00.000-08:00

I wish everyone who should cruise by this little blog a merry Christmas & happy New Year. The tree is from this years Roskilde Festival. It’s sort of like Sony Bravia “balls commercial” being the inspiration for reinventing the Christmas tree.

Contagiousness

2006-12-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

The always inspiring magazine Contagious has its Most Contagious 2006 annual list of brilliant pieces of communication.

Here is everything from the landmark marriage of Youtube and Google to the Design Barcodes to the Second Life to the Graffiti on Air Force One to the Nokia Music Recommender to the life in Adicolors to the Lynx Jet to the Inconvenient Truth to the…

See it all here:
http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/MostContagious2006.pdf

And the person making all this contagiousness happen is no other than YOURSELF we are told from Time Magazine.

Which Cover?

2006-12-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

Should one go with the version containing 3D glasses or the one with the eyes?

My Beck album cover

2006-12-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

I have said before but Beck is one artist that makes it worth still buying your physical album – not only because of the brilliant DIY album cover thing but also because of the accompanying DVD with videos for all songs.

I’ve bought a couple of the songs on iTunes when it came out but since seeing thing in a record store a couple of days ago I decided that it was a must have.

My album hasn’t been individualized yet. It’s one of those really big aesthetic decisions I will have to give a little time.

There is a brilliant article in Wired featuring Beck’s outlook on the future of the album. It’s also a great read for the future of content and communication in general. Very forward looking man that Beck.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/beck.html

Three favourite questions

2006-12-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Brand Utility (everyone’s favourite non-internet application brand utility example – Nike Run London)
Brand Spaces (here is the cold room in the Burton Ski shop – brilliant)Sharing,connection and creating with Flickr Toys – here is Billboard creating toy (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/)

You know those kind of question that just get’s the discussion and thinking going. I have 3 current faves.

1. Question - How can the solution to this brand's problem also solve a bigger, more societal problem?"

It comes from Jack Cheng in one of the many brilliant post on psfk about Brand Utility - check out the post here:
http://www.psfk.com/2006/11/branded_utility_6.html (a Piers Fawkes presentation on the subject)
http://www.psfk.com/2006/11/branded_utility_1.html (nterview With Benjamin Palmer of Barbarian Group)
http://www.psfk.com/2006/11/branded_utility_2.html (Interview With Johnny Vulkan of Anomaly)
http://www.psfk.com/2006/11/branded_utility_5.html (Interview With Jack Cheng )

2. Question - How can we give consumers a real life experience of our brand?

There is a lot of great examples from the Trendwatching Brand Spaces study here:
http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/brand-spaces.htm

I, recently saw a presentation with Communication Planning specialist Jim Taylor where he took us through all the many possibilities in retail communication today. He points out to his current counting in the area with more that 80 in-store possibilities and 20 around the store options. Which is just the known option from established retail chains not counting all the creative possibilities with pop-up shops and so on. It's still an area with a lot of creative and innovative potential.

3. Question – How can we make people share, connect and create?

I know it's the engagement strategy again again. But it's always a great question to ask every time you sit there and think you have solved the business problem with your well functioning overall brand idea and brilliant insights.

Street Poster Poetry #3

2006-12-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

This could either describe an annual conference for ethnography/anthropology or just the top ten list on YouTube.

Copenhagen knows what’s NEXT

2006-12-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

Last week was time for another round of future explorations in Copenhagen with the NEXT2006 exhibit and conference. It was held at new spectacular IT University and since didn’t bring my camera here is a photo taken from from the Innovation Lab photo stream at Flickr.

A day filled with interesting projects, people and thinking. It’s always an inspiration to think about tomorrow, and wonder how quickly it becomes today.

Here is the blog:
http://next.typepad.com/

Here is the website and pictures:
http://www.next2006.dk/2006/en/index.php

Execution, Compression & a Visual World

2006-12-05T00:29:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like a trip to the museum. So full of great thinking, so much inspiration, so filled with interesting destinies, existential questions, so much breathtaking creativity.

What fascinate me about artist are the many roles they fulfil in a creative production compared to the amount persons and functions in takes in the communication business. The artist has all the hats on in the role of the researcher, the strategist, the creative, the implementer – a one man band.

Two weeks ago I was on a little romantic trip to Paris with my girlfriend among many other things we paid a visit to the always great Centre Pompidou – Modern Art Museum.

There where lot’s of great exhibitions going on but especially three of them got me thinking in the direction of some of the hot topics in the communication sphere.

Simplicity, Complexity and Compression

The on-going discussion around planning blogs have been on how to be both complex and nuanced at the same time as having a simple overall idea/essence/concept easily understandable even at a glance. Lately Russell Davies has talked about compression as the answer to something that can be both understood from a simple point of view and can be decompressed out into a much more complex understanding.

Yves Klein is simply a terrific example of this. He has his monochrome deep blue colour – which is even called international Klein Blue – and this colour goes through almost all of his work. What seems a little too easy and one-dimensional a first quickly becomes very exciting going through the exhibitions of his. The blue colour only acts as an over layer for his different experiments. It’s a complex variety of his different shapes, his paint methods like ballet choreography, his symphonic orchestra playing only one tone, him using blue painted models as brushes, his architectural projects, his “blue” sound works, his film sets and more.
More about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein
A visual world

Without downplaying the importance of the written word I’m probably not alone with the opinion that in a world of communication clutter we need more visually outstanding communication. Not just because it travels better across borders, but also because all new research point in the direction of emotions and pictures are more important than actual message understanding. Benetton’s Fabrica school is a great lab for thinking in this area. They held an exhibition to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. Lot’s of interesting stuff there.

There is off-course the classical Oliviero Toscani style above (which I admire more from a visual point of view – but have certain problems with on a more ethical level)
The exhibition seen from above

Lots of great stuff thought provoking stuff like the examples above.

Most interesting is the things they do in interactive/digital fields.

The 10x10 site (www.10x10.com) was created here by the near genius Jonathan Harris. An artist & digital designer. See his other brilliant stuff here http://www.number27.org/
An interactive news channel.
A wall that appears to be displaying you live, but is actually build out of different delayed pictures.
This a moving images wall that each shows your continuous actions frame by micro frame in front of a camera.
This is the big canvas electronic Moleskine.

Off-course there is quite a lot of the usual anti capitalism/anti Americanism/anti imperialism stuff. Which seems a little easy and tired compared to the other stuff.

Overall an interesting school and probably interesting people to hire.
Execution is strategy

Finally there was the museums repeating experiment to do new thematic presentations of it’s own collection. The exhibition was called Le mouvement des images (Art & Cinema) and proposes a rereading of 20th century art through the filmmaking. It’s based around organised around the basic components of film – frame roll, projection, story and editing. It clearly shows that art have been very inspired by the cinematic world and that your theme/strategy is seldom where the magic happens. This is great exploration into the magic of execution where your experiments with different techniques are the strategy itself.

So when in Paris go see all of this.

Street Poster Poetry #2

2006-11-22T01:41:00.000-08:00

There must be an insight in here for someone.

Street Poster Poetry #1

2006-11-22T01:33:00.000-08:00

A little counterculture comment to the hysteria that surrounded The European MTV Music Award held in Copenhagen a couple of weeks ago.

Air & Architecture

2006-10-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

There is a mini film about Nike design guru Tinker Hatfield about the creation of the Nike Air series. It’s all filled with all his nuggets of inspiration among these Centre Pompidou in Paris – interesting.
http://www.lamjc.com/movie/tinkermoviehigh

W+K London also has a post about his appearance with Michael Jordan in Nike Town.
http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2006/10/his_royal_airne.html

http://www.lamjc.com/movie/tinkermoviehigh

Good & Bad Generators

2006-10-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

In the holy name of engagement every advertiser seems to be offering consumer generating tools. Lot’s of them fail because the demand to much involvement and too little output.

The advertisers haven’t asked themselves the crucial questions – Would they spent time doing it themselves/their children? Who would spend time doing it at all? Iain Tait wrote a clever post about this a while ago (http://www.crackunit.com/2006/08/23/a-conversation-on-participation/)

You shouldn’t create your engagement tools because technology allows you to, but because you offer your something that’s worth something for someone.

The audio cassette tape generator (http://www.says-it.com/cassette/index.php) pictured above is a good example of something that’s really easy and really funny - I made special one for the old members in my high school rock band.

The Staufenberger Repository has a brilliant list of generators with little involvement and surprising output

It’s here:
http://staufenberger.typepad.com/repository/2006/10/the_generation_.html
And here:
http://staufenberger.typepad.com/repository/2006/10/more_generators.html

Gondry get's it

2006-10-04T03:05:00.000-07:00

I’m looking very much forward to the next Michel Gondry movie The Science of Sleep. As the multifaceted artist Gondry is, the movie is accompanied by a lot of interesting initiatives.

First is an exhibition in New York with Deitch Projects which allegedly should be - sculptures and creepy pathological little gifts. The further explain that a walk through the exhibition will immerse the viewer in the sculptural experience of the movie in three dimensions – not your usual movie marketing promo.
http://www.deitch.com/projects/sub.php?projId=195

The films website has lots of great features and material.
http://wip.warnerbros.com/scienceofsleep/

The best one is a project where Gondry invites people to share their dreams in the best of consumer generated spirit.
http://thescienceofsleep.imeem.com/

THE TO DO’s

2006-10-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

I have a thing with post-it notes in all sizes and colours. The are great at all sorts of things off course your to do list, brainstorming, remembering pages and places, little notes to the girlfriend, random thoughts and generally organising the chaos.

Above there is a consumer generated street art project from New York where people are allowed to write on the notes – interesting to see if there is some clever ones see more here:
http://www.rm116.com/2006/09/todo.html

Here is a similar thing I saw at Copenhagen’s A-House where an artist had written all the big philosophical, human and political subjects in the form of to do lists – always thought provoking.

Insight classics

2006-09-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

There is a great discussion over at Sidewalk Life about the growing problems with consumer research based insights where all too often communication lacks differentiation because it’s generated from the same overall research frames.

The post is here:
http://davidnottoli.typepad.com/sidewalklife/2006/09/the_tyranny_of_.html

This reminded me of a discussion I recently had with a creative team about the two absolute insight classics.

- Imagine a world without brand x

- What does brand x do to the world

The first one seems to be a creative favourite cause it’s quite easy to dramatize and is easy to put a funny, surprising, sarcastic, heartfelt angle to – and you can basically centre your communication on an empathetic look at people’s lives instead of having to be overly product oriented. It has been the insight for many great campaigns and one of the best planning insights ever - Got Milk - is a prime example. It works really well within generic areas whereas in over communicated categories people often love the communications but can’t remember the advertiser who so cleverly looked right into their souls.

The second one is a bit harder you have to really find the brands inner voice, the brands purpose, the brands opinion. There is a great chance you will get a dull corporate mumbo jumbo inside-out approach when it’s worst. But I really feel the last one has the best potential to create not only creative excellence but also communication that creates stronger associations to a brand. The Honda work from W+K London is a great example of this approach.

From 30 seconds to Tv-channel

2006-09-15T00:51:00.000-07:00

In a digital world where YouTube rules and everybody soon will have their own TV-channel on top of the media plan there is a piece of great advice from Chad Stoller and Chris Portella in Adweek.

Secure your brand channel and make it a destination
Brand channels offer a bit of a "safe haven" on YouTube, allowing you to have moderate control of your message and providing a platform for telling your story. A good example is Warner Bros. Records' Paris Hilton Channel. (In the spirit of full disclosure, Organic was the agency that arranged for Fox Broadcasting Co.'s show "Prison Break" to sponsor the Paris Hilton Channel in its first week.)

Respect "tribute-ors."
We define "tribute-ors" as those who pay tribute to a brand by making their own home-brew advertising. Think of it as consumer-generated media in the form of an ad. Like tribute-ors or not, they are on YouTube and they have their own opinions. By having your own brand channel, your story will be there to speak up for your brand.

Put it all out there
Remember, YouTube is the de-facto research for TV spots and video content. Make sure that you are well represented. Did you have a celebrity spokesperson for a campaign? Put some footage of the shoot or an interview up.

Haters hate
Demonstrate that you are a 2.0 brand by embracing all comments, tributes and ratings.

Reward loyalists
Surprise your favorite people with special content and exclusive offers. People love to be in on a secret. If they know one, then they're sure to tell a friend.

Have fun
If you're having fun, chances are your audience will too.

The reverse sponsorship deal

2006-09-15T00:20:00.000-07:00

The Barcelona deal with UNICEF is interesting for several reasons. First of all it’s the first time a club put on a logo on the jersey and pays - $1.9 million a year for five years – to do it. For Barcelona it’s the first time they put on a logo at all. It’s furthermore just one of many examples of the mass emphasis on CSR as not only part of corporate values but indeed as a main a communication driver. It really highlights the growing need internally and externally to have a purpose a part from making money and pleasing stockholders.
Studies amongst Danish consumers regarding the importance of CSR were just released today. It shows that 79 % think it’s a very factor important that companies the deal work with aid organisations and 90 % will rather give away possible reductions in the price to aid.

The UNICEF announcement is here:

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/spain_35644.html

We are sponges

2006-08-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

Just came back from a terrific romantic holiday with the girlfriend. The picturesque island of Symi is known for it’s shrimps, harbours and most notably it’s production of sponges and it reminded me of this great quote from Bryan Finke from Nike. It's about the simple road to innovation which I think could easily be translated into good planning advice – it goes:

Get out, be a sponge, gain insight, translate that into innovation in everything you do.
Taken from the on-line magazine- Reveries.com

Maybe the planning department should simply be renamed The Sponge Centre.

Going on summer holiday

2006-07-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

I’m going on holiday from Sunday and will be back 31st of July. It’s been a busy month so hopefully I’ll have more time to blog when I get back.

If I had blogged more the last couple of months from the worlds of rock’n’roll & advertising I could have reported from the always splendid Roskilde Festival

I saw Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, The Raconteurs, Roger Water (doing Dark Side Of The Moon), Wolfmother, Arctic Monkeys all in one day.

I could have joined the ongoing discussion around
Coherence vs. Consistency
Complexity vs. Simplicity
Myriad of Ideas vs. Big Idea

All extra provoked by Maurice Saatchi’s One Word Equity nonsense.
See some of the discussion here:
http://www.brandtarot.com/blog/?p=61

I could have talked about the really nice concert I saw with Gnarls Barkley

They gave an uplifting performance with their mixture of old P-funk, hip-hop, Motown and lots of more indefinable inspirational sources.

Or I could have joined Faris - at Talent Imitates Genius Steals - and his brilliant question on how to make better briefs. I would probably have said that you could add a point of inspiration to each of your what, why, who, how, when or whatever boxes. Stimuli like films, a drawing, a cartoon, a song, cultural phenomenon, a mood board etc. Or you simply answer the brief together wit the team with the help of question like you see in IDEO’s Method Cards.
See the discussion here:
http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2006/07/the_perfect_bri.html

I could have blogged more basically.

Join the team

2006-07-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Russell Davies has another one of his excellent projects. This time he will assemble - Six Things Creatives Need To Know About Planners.
Here is my humble advice which is all about advising creative’s to invite the planner into a true team formation – not cause the planners wants step on their creative turf but in order to collaborate like one unit and it goes.
Planners want “that invitation” as the 3rd member of the team (or the 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th depending on other creative disciplines are in the mix).

In trade for this invitation they are willing to:

- Do their best to be interesting
- Give lots of stimuli
- Find insights in the brand, corporate history or audience
- Freeze out the unnecessary and clichéd
- Work out the strategic argumentation for your solution
- Help you kill your unworthy darlings
- Share their outlook on new media and service channels
- Fight for your work

Really a rather helpful member of the team
The link to Russell’s post is here:
http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2006/07/doing_my_job_fo.html

Badges for creatives

2006-06-07T01:18:00.000-07:00

Here some badges for the creative types that wants to show-off on an everyday level. I think it’s a brilliant alternative for creative prizes that are standing at home on the shelf getting all dusty.

I should ad that it’s only my interpretation of the badges and they are made on a significant higher abstract and conceptual level and doesn’t refer to either creative prizes or the need to show-off.

Badges for planners

2006-06-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like a little flagging of your profession. Here displaying the part of the planning profession where people expect you to be the “Number Crushing Mr. Know It All”.

The badges are made by my brother for a potential placement in an upcoming book by Gavin Lucas of Creative Review. The book should contain the latest, coolest, most beautiful button badges around the world and is to be published by Laurence King.

See more here:
http://www.stereohype.com/pages/abookofbadges.asp

And if you like the badges I could probably have my brother do some for you (or you could hire him when he finishes ad school next summer).

I should ad that it’s only my interpretation of the badges and they are made on a significant higher abstract and conceptual level and doesn’t refer to anything remotely close to planning.

Learning the easy way

2006-06-07T01:12:00.000-07:00

Saw these at a book shop a couple of weeks ago. It’s a splendid little series of books featuring the essential phenomenons like modernism, physiology, Darwinism, Freud, Nietzsche etc. all in the form of cartoons.

So if you don’t have the time or ability to get through these topics the hard way this is a great alternative.

True

2006-06-07T01:08:00.000-07:00

This is always worth remembering.

Lot’s of listening

2006-05-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

The life of planner can sometimes - just as the cliché says - be one of the most varied jobs you can get. I had one of those days yesterday. I’m doing a lot of very different projects at the moment so my day started with a lot of very different listening and questioning. I started talking visionary architecture with some of the hipster architects of Copenhagen; afterwards I went to a school talking to 13 years olds on modern technology, “file sharing” and their willingness to exercise more (it’s an assignment for The National Board of Health), after this I went to a meeting with a bank talking changing lifecycles and the meaning for different loan types and finally I got to talk a bit about Chlamydia with a doctor.

Yeah Yeah Yeah

2006-05-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

Of all the blogs I visit mine is probably the only one without an insertation of a YouTube clips into the blog – this has to change.

So why not have this splendid little piece of video with Flaming Lips where Wayne Coyne describes the creative process technical details behind the video for "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song", the first single off the Flaming Lips new album, At War With The Mystics., At War With The Mystics.

Albers & Moholy-Nagy, great planners

2006-05-31T06:57:00.000-07:00

I found these pictures from a trip to the Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy exhibition at Tate Modern. Albers and Nagy where two of the pioneers of modernism and apart from working within a broad variety of media ranging from painting and moving sculptures to photography, film, furniture and graphic design, they where great thinkers and the exhibition was filled with thought-provoking quotes and statements – mostly encompassing their belief in art as an important tool for social change.

Many of the quotes are spot on planning principles (not strange with their thinking centred on a “consumer comes first” attitude) and more surprisingly on the current changes in how brands are communicating with consumers. It’s always great with quotes that show that current hype is based upon universal thinking that goes way back.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/albersmoholy/about.shtm

Written on the wall

2006-05-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

Always remember, never forget.

Are you generic?

2006-05-18T04:47:00.000-07:00

Probably a question most brands and the people behind them ask themselves everyday in the world of marketing - a world that cries for more opinionated, radical and imaginative strategic thinking - a world where the building of strong market positions - not only relies upon great creative execution for differentiation.

The “are you generic project” is funded on the same principals in the cry for better content in magazines. Content that is not dictated by advertisers, and is trying to set their own agendas.

See more here:
http://www.areyougeneric.org/confessions/

Promise not accomplished

2006-05-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

Just stopped by this car and I didn’t really feel like joining this prestigious club. Over promising names and communication has a rare ability of creating aversions or worse brand hijacking initiatives from consumers.

Also found this article on brand hijacking by the two guys Faris Yakob and Ben Richards from Naked:
http://citizenspin.typepad.com/citizenspin/2004/12/beating_the_bra.html

Flaming Lips, Jack White, Coca Cola & optimism

2006-05-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

I spent the first hours of long awaited summer in Copenhagen with an outside dinner in Tivoli Gardens (the rather famous Danish amusement park in the centre of the city) my destination was the newly redecorated concert hall – a truly magnificent place dating back to late modernism. The guest on the stage and the premiere act since the reopening - where the Flaming Lips one of my favourite bands out there. The Flaming Lips has a new album out and though it doesn’t top their 1999 masterpiece “The Soft Bulletin” it’s terrific stuff – with great songs like “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” and “Mr. Ambulance Driver”.

I was really expectant since I saw Wayne Coine & Co. back in 2003 and it was one my all time best concerts. And I was not let down this time either. The Flaming Lips have their own unique multidimensional show surrounding their psychedelic and dreamy pop tunes including dancing characters on stage, arty films and graphics on the back screen, confetti, hundreds of orange mega balloons all over the place and most importantly the charismatic Wayne Coine in the front singing, playing and conducting the epic sounds.

It’s a mesmerizing experience and as Wayne Coins preaches it’s all about creating an atmosphere of optimism between band and audience and throughout the whole concert hall. Really, kind of uplifting taken into context that most of the songs are about death and melancholic musings on life.

Most brands and agency folks could learn something from this rather complex multidimensional experience and not least the optimistic take on life.

And speaking of optimism which seems to be the key word for the new Coca Cola strategy I’m one of the ones really liking the new Coke/Mother spot with Jack White singing. The fact that the idea is basically a reprise of the director Director Nagi Noda own former work for the band Yuki on the song Sentimental Journey (which I have posted about earlier on this blog) doesn’t bother me. Call it an original idea, great pop cultural lateral thinking or simply a great stunt - it’s great to look at, it’s beautiful directed and it has a song by Jack White.

Here are the two films:

Coca Cola – “What Goes Around” directed by Nagi Noda for Mother
http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/2790/

Yuki – Sentimental Journey, directed by Nagi Noda
http://www.partizan.com/partizan/musicvideos/?nagi_noda

The Bloglines plumber

2006-05-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

This morning I was trying to access my bloglines account and was met with the picture above and this accompanying text.

Hi,

I'm the Bloglines Plumber. Bloglines is down for a little fixer upper. We will be back shortly. Bloglines will be all better when I'm done with it.

Thanks,The Bloglines Plumber

Even though I know it’s just a small little silly rephrasing of how other companies refer to problems with your log-in I, think it’s a very powerful communication tool to show a friendly and human face like this.

The other day I also heard that Flickr was referring to technical problems with the term “Flickr has the hick-ups”.
I like the tonality and grass roots feel about many of the “Web 2.0” companies. Even though their owners probably are multi billionaires by now, you still kind of like them because they are all about consumer empowerment and they are just here to help you – often free of charge.

There is a great article from Newsweek on the successful web 2.0 companies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12015774/site/newsweek/

Good communication

2006-04-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

I, don’t know about you? But given such a clear picture of the consequences of my actions, would definitely make me dump my thrash somewhere else. It’s a great example of the power of contextual communication.

I found this on Jan Chipchase’s blog – a great blog, where he kindly shares his many observations and insights, from his work as a researcher for Nokia.

Here is the URL for his blog “Future Perfect”:
http://www.janchipchase.com/

Nuclear family down the drain

2006-04-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

The sticker says translated “The Nuclear Family in Denmark”. The placement on the dumpster seems rather symbolic with divorce rates at a historical high level (approximately every second marriage ends in divorce in Denmark) and the rise of the mixed families brought together from several marriages and backgrounds.

Off course it turns out the sticker is just a promotion initiative for a Danish creative collective and has no symbolic meaning what so ever.

More about the anthropological history of “Families” and “The Nuclear Family” in detail here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_family

I’m a Grup, and I’m proud

2006-04-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

I recently turned 31 of age, and as an extra little birthday present my brother (who is on the safe side of 30 with his 27 years) sent me this article from the New York version of Metro about the “Grups Sociographic” (the name off-course coming from Star Trek).

Although being a bit NYC-centric the article perfectly explains the driving motivations for not wanting grow old and remain – sometimes pathetically – young at mind. The article was off-course spot-on a “thirtysomething” like myself working in the communication business and it’s shows some interesting rethinking on what it means to be a grown-up.

The article even includes a new series of “Exactitudes” from the Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek, which again shows the dress codes of a specific social group. It’s photographs of some of the people described in the interview and it’s the first "Exactitudes" project in New York.

Link to the article here:
http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16529/index.html

And to the Exactitudes project here:
http://www.exactitudes.com/

Join the überpositioning game

2006-03-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

In marketing world we often define the competitive situation within the boundaries of other commercial companies in the same sector. Some visionary companies see themselves being part of a broader context and hereby define themselves as being in the business of “documenting life” (film, camera, phones, MP3 functionalities and all sorts of file-sharing companies comes to mind”). Some even realize that brands can be a part of actual popular culture.

Below are a couple of the positions already taken if your company wants to join the überpositioning game (I don’t remember where this list comes from):

Anne Frank The Diarist
Philip K. Dick The Futurist
Gary Null The Nutritionist
John Brown The Abolishionist
Harold Bloom The Theorist
Malcolm Forbes The Capitalist
Colson Whitehead The Intuitionist
Helen K. Foo The Dentist
Jean Paul Sartre The Existentialist
Mahatma Gandhi The Pacifist
Thom Jones The Pugilist
Philip Johnson The Postmodernist
E.T. The Alienist
Thomas Pynchon The Mist
Robert Motherwell The Abstract Expressionist
Martin Dressler The Tobacconist
E.O. Wilson The Sociobiologist
Leni Riefenstahl The Propagandist
Dave Brooks The Loyalist
Edward Hopper The Realist
Chris Martin The Scientist
Robert Penn Warren The Formalist
Sade The Sadist
Donald Antrim The Verificationist
Norah Jones The Sitarist
Piet Mondrian The Colorist
Carole Maso The Masochist
Kurt Vonnegut The Satirist
Henri Matisse The Fauvist
Mrs. O'Leary's Cow The Arsonist
Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Magic Realist
Romare Bearden The Collagist
Martha Stewart The Imperfectionist
Oliver Sacks The Neurologist
Narcissus The Narcissist
Thomas Merton The Trappist
Peter Eisenman The Deconstructivist
Oscar Schindler The List
Evan S. Connell The Rapist
Juan Gris The Cubist
Paulo Coelho The Alchemist
H.D. The Imagist
Jonathan Franzen The Correctionist
Arthur Miller The Dramatist'

From street to gallery

2006-03-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

Barry McGee is one of those cool graffiti guys who made it from underground legend - with the notorious tag name Twist - to hot property in the art world. I saw his recent pieces in Copenhagen gallery Nicolai Wallner. I especially like the way he puts a three dimensional feel to his things combined with the theme of old frames with fresh graphics/pictures in them.

More about him here:
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mcgee/index.html

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow

2006-03-27T08:04:00.000-08:00

I went to this seminar the other day conducted by the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. I got to hear the excellent speaker “Mr. New Marketing Manifesto” John Grant. It wasn’t that much what he preached - having read his books and articles (and similar thoughts from other self proclaimed marketing gurus) – but moreover his ability to tell them in an engaging way. He was talking about the demise of the old marketing world with it’s fixture on positioning, image, trends & messaging and change into embracing uncertainty, brand realities, “being the trend” & “touching peoples lives”. Some of his newer thoughts should be released in an upcoming book. Anyway here are his 10 rules for building brands “in a Marketing 2.0 way”:

http://www.dontstop01.com/doc/John%20Grant%20-%20presentation.pdf

Mind map extravaganza

2006-03-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

From Henrik Werdelin’s Digital Notes blog there is this great link to free software where you can just dive in to the wonderful world of Mind Maps.

“http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Henrik Werdelin Digital Notes blog:
http://coolburger.com/linkblog/

Yuki, Malkmus, Beatles & Jay-Z & Beck

2006-03-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like those rare really good music videos – either intriguing short stories, new amazing technical features, cool graphics, surprising appearances etc. Stuff that often transcend into popular culture and soon after is to be found in adland.

Beck – Black Tambourine – directed by Associates In Science
http://www.partizan.com/partizan/musicvideos/?associates_in_science

Stephen Malkmus – Baby C’mon – directed by Lana Kim & Andy Bruntel
http://www.the-rivalry.com/lana/video/malkmus2.htm

Dj Dangermouse (Beatles & Jay-Z) – Grey Video – directed by Ramon Pedro
http://www.partizan.com/partizan/musicvideos/?ramon___pedro

Yuki – Sentimental Journey - directed Nagi Noda
http://www.partizan.com/partizan/musicvideos/?nagi_noda

Most of them by the way from excellent Production House Partizan se more here:
http://www.partizan.com/partizan/musicvideos/

Youth Report

2006-03-08T04:12:00.000-08:00

Energy/BBDO has conducted a generational report that has more interesting gems on the global youth tendencies and brand preferences overviews than the usual “next big defining report”. It’s called “Genworld" and there is more insight and downloads here:
http://experiencethemessage.typepad.com/blog/2006/02/the_future_genw.html

The get smarter guide

2006-03-08T03:58:00.000-08:00

In the Guardian there is an interesting article on everyday optimization of your brain – off course it comes with a “how to guide”. But the Tuesday advice “Select unfamiliar words from the dictionary and work them into conversations” should be no new exercise for people working within strategy and planning.

Here is the article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1723801,00.html

The week based “how to”:

Saturday
Brush your teeth with your 'wrong' hand and take a shower with your eyes closed.

Sunday
Do the crossword or Sudoku puzzle in your Sunday paper and take a brisk walk.

Monday
Have oily fish for dinner, and either cycle, walk or take the bus into work.

Tuesday
Select unfamiliar words from the dictionary and work them into conversations.

Wednesday
Go to yoga, Pilates or a meditation class, and talk to someone you don't know.

Thursday
Take a different route to work; watch Countdown or Brainteaser.

Friday
Avoid caffeine or alcohol; memorise your shopping list.

Thanks to Henrik Werdelin's Digital Notes(http://coolburger.com/linkblog/)

BBC joins the engagement age

2006-03-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

I’ve posting an awful lot about consumer engagement and co-creation projects lately and it’s not only because I personally believe it’s one of the most potent marketing trends but it seems a lot of foresighted marketers and media owners have seen the potential lately.

BBC has an interesting project here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/calc/1xtra/index.shtml

It’s explained as follows:

“Radio 1 Superstar VJs is part of a new kind of service the BBC is piloting, which is not just about enjoying its content but using it to create your own. On this site you'll find nearly 100 clips to download, watch, mix and share under the Creative Archive Licence, all chosen with VJ's in mind and including skylines, sunsets, seascapes, wildlife, time-lapse photography and retro gadgets. We will be adding more clips and programmes soon and have just launched the Open News Archive offering around 80 iconic reports for download.”

Moments & Mashups

2006-03-03T00:43:00.000-08:00

I recently saw an exhibition with the French photographer Brassaï who is famous for his uncensored, lyrical and sometimes raw pictures of Paris by night in the 1930’s. But what really caught my attention was a brilliant quote that summed up his philosophy and actually captures the wonders of the recent empowerment in mass documentary of everyday life provide by web 2.0 tool like Flick on the picture side and YouTube on moving pictures. The quote simple says “Extract the eternal from the momentary”.

Talking about Flickr there is an interesting article here in the online edition of Wired linking to the 10 best Mashups of Flickr. It’s a clear example of how strongest marketing efforts in the technology area today is the massive creativity from consumers that use data from sites like Google, Yahoo and Flickr. The probably most famous Flickr Mashup is the “spell with flickr (http://metaatem.net/words) which even a supposedly London creative hotshop has made its website front page graphics (http://www.bmbagency.com/)

A mashup, for the unfamiliar, is a hybrid web application that uses data from an outside source to drive a web service. Mashups can be created using data culled from RSS feeds, public databases, or any open data source.

Rock'n'roll & Advertising

2006-03-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

Virgin has done it again - doing a truly involving campaign for its digital music business. It’s once again Ground Zero who’s behind and this time it’s not print but a film. For me what’s better than something than combines the world of communication with almost nerdy music quizzing? It’s really difficult though, but then I guess you have to see it over and over again.

The film is at:
http://www.natl.tv/work/virgin/movie.html

Thanks for the tip to Crackunit.

The Future Marketing Summit Video Podcasts

2006-02-28T01:05:00.000-08:00

The Future Marketing Summit presented by IF/PSFK is being held these days in New York. Being far away it’s great that CoBRANDIT has been out with their cameras and is video podcasting the event with interviews. Here you will find clips with Paul Woolmington from Naked NYC, Charles Rosen from Amalgamated, Alex Bogusky from CP+B and others. The link is here:
http://www.obttv.com/

Old-school co-creation

2006-02-28T00:47:00.000-08:00

Co-creation and mass customization is not new to the sneaker world – most impressively demonstrated with the Nike ID feature. But now rival Adidas also wants their claim to fame in this field and it’s supposedly originates from a similar project dating back more than 20 years. Their initiative Adicolor is very non-technical but creative customization tool – that consist of acrylic paints, two paint brushes, a wooden palette and off course a pair of plain white sneaks ready to be forever individualized.

The full article is found at Sneaker Freaker here: http://sneakerfreaker.com/article.php?id=484

Einstein Me

2006-02-28T00:42:00.000-08:00

Always dreamt of having Albert E write your clever words on his blackboard? Here is the chance http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php

The original chef

2006-02-15T01:26:00.000-08:00

We are not talking about the Isaac Hayes character from South Park, but the original inspiration for the wacky Swedish chef from Muppet Show. Allegedly the inspiration came from a guy called Lars Bäckman and a performance on American television in the Seventies. Now he is back in an IKEA campaign to promote kitchens build around an ironic website filled with different film content and stuff. It’s the second IKEA UK kitchen campaign built around an entity far away from the actual products. Last time it was about stressing less and enjoying life outside of work. Both of them work quite well in my opinion. I think it’s made in collaboration between the Danish agency Robert/Boisen & Likeminded and Naked. The link is http://www.realswedishchef.co.uk/

Battle of the ad blogs

2006-02-15T01:11:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all that voted for me in Adlands “battle of the ad blogs”. I ended up on an honourable third place – very surprisingly. Thanks to all the other blogs in the category which are all filled with wit and constant inspiration – they are all on my Blogline. Congrats to Russell Davies - the locomotive on planning in the blogosphere.

Growing Pains

2006-02-15T01:10:00.000-08:00

Verizons CMO John Stratton gave a speech at the recently held Madison & Vine conference from Ad Age. This is a great piece of insight to the growing frustrations from a billion dollar advertisers on the changing media landscape and offerings from communication companies.

The points:

"Your clients are absolutely in trouble and they are looking for you to save them."

"What you've been selling for the last 50 years no longer works."

"Major marketing money is going to be in motion in the next decade and no one really yet understands exactly where it will land, if it even will land, or if it will just disappear altogether."

"Before they figure out where to put their money, your marketer clients will hire and fire agency after agency, seeking someone, anyone, who can tell them where they might go next."

"CMO average tenure, already famously brief, will get even shorter as CEOs begin to recognize how much money they are blowing on antiquated media plans."

"Your marketer clients are really seeking one thing and one thing only: an audience for the message they are trying to convey to the market place."

"But your clients actually need more than just an audience. One of the consequences of the evolution of our media-delivery systems over the last 10 years is that the audience you do ultimately find is much less receptive to the message you're trying to send. They are absolutely armed and ready to get to the content they want while avoiding the message you are trying to implant within it."

"They need much more than an audience. They need an audience that cares about what they have to say. They need their message to be relevant to the audience they are saying it to."

Clever Coffee table

2006-02-14T01:50:00.000-08:00

How about Rubric’s cube as your interior décor. Nice.

The future is LickClean

2006-02-01T01:05:00.000-08:00

Electrolux wants to know how the world looks in 2020. Instead of experimenting with the questions on the internal lines they have asked leading students around the world how they see consumer needs of tomorrow. This co-creation exercise is called “The Electrolux Design Lab 2005”. The various design projects on household appliances ranges from the more serious to the more obscure.
The pictured projects “LickClean” is from the UK students Timothy Yeoh and David Wilson based around an idea of a waterless house.. The “LickClean” is a funny tongue attachment which can clean your plates without the use of water. See all the projects here.

Skate Art

2006-01-30T15:51:00.000-08:00

One of the other guys on my Barcelona trip shot this great picture outside of the Macba Museum of Contemporary Art. The square outside of the museum looked like it was the local skater hang-out supreme. It’s nice to see different celebrations of urban culture gathered in the very same place.

Boat Names

2006-01-30T15:48:00.000-08:00

On my way to work I passed by Christianshavn (an area of Copenhagen very similar to the Amsterdam canals). It has a very charming atmosphere with a combination of old navy folks, hippies (most of them living in Christiania - the famous free city community) and the still more affluent regular citizens. The canals are filled with different boats – several of them house boats (which looks kind of cold in the icy waters). It made me think of the everyday equivalents to our choices in the communications industry.

In the real world “the boat name” is obviously one of your biggest personal branding decisions a part - off course - from the naming of your children or animals.

Most of the boat names I saw were either nautical references, female names or of course aspirations of how the boat can become your “Heaven”, “Happiness”, “Sea Chateau”.

Foodball

2006-01-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

Saw this funny little place in Barcelona. Found out its Camper’s version of a fast food joint - placed near their Casa Camper Hotel. The food is more organic and less fat, mostly formed like balls, built on rice and vegetables and is actually not meant to be very fast. I think this brand extension into the restaurant business is in fine conjunction with the Camper brand, which is all about authenticity and sticking to the shoe companies roots. It uniquely positions itself around a slower, gentle and more considered world that is not so obsessed with fast-paced modern technology. Embodied in the company endline and philosophy “walk, don’t run”.

Vote for me

2006-01-24T10:04:00.000-08:00

Adland – one of the most influential ad blogs in the world, has come up with the “Battle of the Blogs” a virtual award show in different ad blog categories.

To my very big surprise I just returned to my inbox with the discovery that this little blog is nominated in the planner/theorist category.

So give me your vote here. And never mind that some of the competition in this category comes from the very best planners out there.

Gracias Barcelona

2006-01-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

Ronaldinho, Messi, Puyol, Valdés, Belletti, Márquez, Larsson, Giuly, Maxi, Gio, Ezquerro, Edmílson, Sylvinho, Van Bommel, Gabri, Oleguer, Iniesta, Jorquera. Not to mention the modern day Coliseum that is Camp Nou, delicious tapas, Cerveza San Miguel, Great bars, lot’s of walking (which also included a little bit of more upstream cultural impact in the form of an exiting exhibition in the Macba – The Museum of Contemporary Art) and an overall charming city

This weekend I joined ten of my best friends for an amazing trip to Barcelona. We left the girlfriends at home so we could concentrate on nothing but pure enthusiasm for the Catalonian dream team. El Barca bested Alaves 2-0 and we saw sparks of genuine geniality from the world best player - the magical Ronaldinho. Our collective regret was that none of us made it as a sports commentator flying around the world just watching spectacular football like this.

One marketing insight occurred to me during the stay at Camp Nou and that is how strong football is in the era of battle for the best content on our multiple media platforms. Nike is present everywhere in the stadium area and they are also using Ronaldinho very cleverly in a lot of their advertising both traditionally and virally. But I think Ronaldinho and others could be used even more in the area of branded entertainment and even for more serious educational purposes. Why not have “Ronaldinhos Football School” presented by Nike and with a heavy presence online. Who knows maybe I’m not the only one wanting to learn from his tricks and tips.

Very Nice Magazine

2006-01-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

I just bought this very funny cross-over between a magazine and an art project. It’s by an artist called Brendan Michael Carey. This first issue has been made in over 17.000 unique versions (over the past 30 months) of these wooden magazines (it’s just different pieces of wood) in all shapes and forms. Mine is one of the rare versions called “The Fashion Shoot Issue” where he has shot a hole through the magazine accompanied by the actual bullet. The second issue is going to bee a magazine made on different mirrors so the buyers themselves are the front cover superstars. It’s an interesting project and quite provocative in it’s questioning of our obsession with the glossy surfaces of fashion and the cutting edge media.

Now that’s brand complexity

2006-01-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

I visited one of the Size sneaker shops in London last week. The store has a room that’s permanently used for certain advertisers to do small installations and exhibitions – in this case the Nike Air Max 95. It’s a great example of embracing the depth, nuance and complexity of a brand. Of course it’s not all brands that have such an interesting story about how a shoe was developed through explorations of bone musculatures. But most brands have more to tell than a simple endline - especially if the audience is experiencing the brand outside of the boundaries of TV advertising.

For the love of Polaroid’s

2006-01-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

A lot of the coolest initiatives on the web come from savvy audiences that embrace brands just as other cultural phenomena’s. The Polanoid.net site: is a great example of an audience loving this special depth and quality that a Polaroid has and has decided that the world should share their “instant moment” just as people are doing in the digital picture sphere. The results so far are more than 7.000 pictures.

Video Heaven

2005-12-08T02:49:00.000-08:00

It’s probably old news but I just found this file sharing site that is the Flickr of video. It’s called YouTube and you have lots and lots of videos both amateur stuff and official music videos. It’s off course filled with tags, video podcasting possibilities and other nice devices. My first experience was somebody that sent me a link to the brilliant Johnny Cash cover version of Hurt.

How I love this “open source web 2.0” world.

Colourful briefing

2005-12-08T00:56:00.000-08:00

Guess it’s good to have your good old “who, what, when, where, why & how” when briefing on a communication assignment. It’s the essentials and you can never really go wrong there. Having said I lean towards adding a few additional layers to the briefing sessions. It’s my experience that the classical one page word document can be spiced up a little bit. Do a book with just as many pictures as words. Do a book only with pictures. Have somebody draw the brief (or do it yourself). Make a brief package with lots of physical material that’s relevant for the assignment – maybe even the actual product. Do the brief as a game with lots of questions to be answered. Do the briefing in an inspiring location. Do something different.

Design to Improve Life

2005-11-17T03:56:00.000-08:00

The international design festival INDEX:.was held in Copenhagen a couple of weeks ago. The theme was design and innovation that can improve life. The winner team consisted of the Dane Torben Vestergaard Frandsen, Rob Fleuren from Holland and Moshe Frommer from Israel. The winning object was the revolutionary LifeStrawTM. The straw is aimed at the population in the 3rd world, and they will benefit by having the possibility of clean water with a pipe filter. The worlds greatest killer is diarrhoeal diseases from bacteria like typhoid, cholera, e. coli, salmonella etc. With a LifeStrawTM one person’s annual needs of clean water can be fulfilled and nobody needs to die from these diseases.

This kind of design and innovation that is so strongly based on human observation and use of both anthropology and ethnography is really inspiring.

Great concerts

2005-11-17T03:53:00.000-08:00

I have recently seen two concerts that instantly went to my all time top ten. One was with the Danish band Mew, who if there is any justice in the world of music charts will soon have their big breakthrough – there music is like nothing else out there – the concert was staggering filled with songs from the new album “Mew and the Glass Handed Kites”. On top of that I’ve known the guitarist Bo since I was kid – really exiting to follow them. The other one was with the behemoth of rock’n’roll these days and soon to be “soundtrack of Coca Cola” White Stripes. Jack and Meg where flying high that evening with an energy that get’s your whole system going whether you love or hate them. I’m personally sold to their mix of classic rock, blues and punk in it’s stripped but intense and explosive manner. Furthermore their new video from the überdirector Michel Gondry is once again aesthetically and technical innovative.

The Sony Balls

2005-10-31T15:14:00.000-08:00

Guess you have already seen the new spectacular spot from Sony made by Fallon with the 250.000 bouncing balls in the streets of San Francisco.

In my opinion it’s the perfect case for what a modern marketing campaign should contain for several reasons (sorry for the almost fan-like argumentation):

First and foremost it’s allegedly a great product (this review gives it 5 out of 5 stars and call’s it “a rich and powerful image”).

The client/agency/production company relation seems to have been profoundly collaborative build on trust and playfulness according to interviews with the director Nicolai Fuglsig and the Fallon creative Juan Cabral (I can’t find the link to the article)

There is clever pre-launch strategy with this “behind the scenes” web-site and a massive viral distribution of the content

It is sticky and highly infectious communication and works in both traditional and non-traditional media. First it hit the big blogs in the ad community, and more importantly is has created consumer buzz and transcended into popular culture as here with pictures on Flickr.

There is even a bit of the so-called open source creativity or co-creativity here (where the Sony has wisely been inviting everybody to take photos and film from the shoot in modern junction with the rules of “creative commons”)

And then the campaign messaging itself (obviously we have only seen the Online and TV stuff yet – I hope it is also going to include other intelligent media solutions – maybe a version of the film for video podcasting) it has a tonality of honesty and authenticity and (it is even done without tricks or computer graphics).

It’s build equally on strong insights on the product and into the consumers and their quest for imagination and almost infantile playfulness when it comes to technology.

It’s not building a formulaic brand concept but is rather embracing the magical complexity of colours. It has nuance and depth and leaves something behind for one’s own imaginary perception. It’s simply great communication that works as Velcro.

See the different versions of the film here.

Think small

2005-10-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is not an ode to the classic DDB VW ad.

It’s just a thought on the rise of the portable video/content devises. Weather the winner in this game is going to be the new iPod, the PSP, The 3G mobile phones, PDA’s, Sony MP3’s, iRiver or whoever is not that important.

The thing is video content is going to be in your pocket from now on.

Video content is going to be sold relatively cheap (Disney already sells through iTunes and MTV has just bought iFilm). But I’m just wondering whether content should be the same in every medium. It seems that what is created for the TV/Internet sphere is just scaled down when is goes down to the small screens. Maybe future music videos, ads, sitcoms and even movies should be done in different versions – one that’s works in the “old” media and one for this new genre. The introduction of the iPod is a good example where they have cleverly used a concert close-up of Bono instead of some traditional video where you could hardly see anything.

King of the Slacker generation

2005-10-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Back in the early nineties Stephen Malkmus was the guy behind Pavement on of the most notable bands in the Slacker Generation (or the Generation X if you want). Together with Beck and a couple of others (off course Douglas Copeland in the literary field) he had a new lo-fi aesthetic that a lot of young people could connect with.

Now he has gone solo and is playing much smaller venues, which is great if you happen to catch one of his shows. I did last week, and his songs from the so far three solo albums are great. He has lots of great little quirky pop songs. His accompanying band mates “The Jicks” is a great back-up for his imaginary guitar sound.

Challenging Dough

2005-10-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

For the third year in row Diesel in Scandinavia is having their much acclaimed Diesel New Art (DNA) which is a platform for innovative art and design. Thousands of young and relatively unknown artists are trying to get in to the exhibitions in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm and hopefully establishing them amongst art buyers and others. I saw it the other week and one of the pieces especially caught my attention. A pretty weird picture of a round table of people covered in dough. It was by an artist called Søren Dahlgaard with the title “Elliptic Touchdown 4” and was described as the challenge on dough- whatever that is. But that’s the thing about art and graphics you don’t always have to understand everything to be drawn into it.

Architecture for the masses

2005-10-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

It is hard to find a properly designed individual standard house (a least if you want it mastered by a top architect). At the agency we have a client that wanted to change this with his company M2. Together with a couple of the best architects in Denmark (PLOT, CEBRA, SHL, 3xN) he has made what you can call democratic architecture in the best of Scandinavian tradition. The whole project was launched last week and it’s quite exiting to se the massive reactions they have seen from both the press and more important potential buyers.

Just google it

2005-09-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

A new article from Xtreme Information poses the question whether the almighty Google are merely the public servants on the information highway or the result of innovative marketing spin. I think they are both – but most of all I think they are the masters of product innovation.

Their word-of mouth and consumer led approach to marketing is without a doubt the most impressive marketing (and business) case in years. I’m looking for more functionality like this:

http://kh.google.com/download/earth/index.html
http://scholar.google.com/
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

What woman wants?

2005-09-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

The recent female targeted campaigns from Dove and Nike have - with their quest for expanding the beauty ideal - proven successful in both media coverage and supposedly in ROI.

Now there is a whole book out by Martha Barletta Martha with key female marketing strategies (there is seven of them where the first one is equivalent to the Dove/Nike one)…thanks to The Hidden Persuader.

Better real than ideal:
"Female gender culture is all about finding something in common with others to build bonds, not aspiring to an ideal to set oneself apart."

Beware of talking about women's unique needs:
"The problem with this approach is that women don't want to feel different. They want to feel taken seriously. The risk with the women's unique needs approach is that, unless it is subtle and respectful, women feel stalked, not wooed."

User focus trumps product focus:
"For example, with cars, computers and consumer electronics (all categories where women make the majority of the purchases, incidentally), while a man may be mesmerized by the specs of high-tech widgets and gadgets, a woman is captivated by the person using the product."

Others matter:
"Not only that, but helping someone else, which isn't mission-critical for most men, is second nature for women."

Make the world a better place:
"She thinks you should be helping others as well. Numerous studies show women are more motivated than men by the goal of giving back"

Immersion instead of Topline:
"Whereas men 'see' more clearly when key information is extracted and ?extraneous details? discarded, women better absorb information when it's presented in context."

Show some emotion:
"Emotion-based advertising has a powerful pull for women -- people are always involved."

PersonalMBA

2005-09-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin and couple of other marketing and business high-flyers have compiled what they call the PersonalMBA . The concept is simple – you don’t need to take out the time, effort and money the conventional MBA requires. Instead with a well selected list of books and publications you’ll find the knowledge you need. In communication strategy and strategic planning an equivalent would sure have to contain a few classics but also a lot of blogs should be on the selected list.

Work environment

2005-09-28T08:56:00.001-07:00

The ever ongoing discussion whether there is a correlation between inspiring environments and the level of creative thinking is right now rallying at Ernie Schencks blog .

I personally don’t think an interesting agency décor can make up for lack of talent. On the other hand I think the mixture of untraditional offices and gifted people can sometimes get the thinking to places you wouldn’t have been elsewhere.

The other day we had a couple of ducks outside the agency door and we are only 5 minutes away from the centre of Copenhagen. That actually gave a little bit of unexpected inspiration to something we where trying to solve in a whole other ball game. Maybe we should set more briefing sessions in the zoo.

L. Ron Hubbard goes creative

2005-09-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Father of Scientology's book on Dianetics is here shown in the most creative way on a city wall in Copenhagen. I think the “spokesperson version” with Tom Cruise or John Travolta would have been better.

Human insight cliché alarm

2005-09-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

Clichés can be useful when you use them properly. Clichés can travel across borders. Clichés can be funny if they are cleverly turned upside down. But I find that the most clever insights and ideas are found out of the boundaries of clichés. There was an article today on BBC online where the writer John Camm has written down some of the clichés he hates in advertising. Funny reading but also a bit depressing since so much communication are actually based around these themes. See for yourself.

1. Men are obsessed with sex but will forego sex in order to watch football or drink beer.
2. Women are locked in a constant battle with their weight/body shape/hairstyle.
3. Career success is entirely based on your ability to impress your boss.
4. Mums are often harassed but NEVER depressed/unable to cope.
5. Any act of male stupidity (e.g. walking across a clean floor in muddy boots, putting the dog in the dishwasher, etc.) will be met with a wry smile, not genuine annoyance/anger.
6. Married men will flirt with other, younger women but NEVER act upon it.
7. Anyone with a scientific career will have a bad haircut and dreadful clothes.
8. If you work for the emergency services, you are a better person than the general population.
9. Elderly relatives NEVER suffer from senile dementia.
10. Scandinavians are, without exception, blonde and beautiful.
11. Women have jobs they never do in real life, e.g. dockworker (who looks like a model).
12. Children will not eat fruit or vegetables. Ever.
13. Both men and women find driving deeply pleasurable, never boring or stressful.
14. Men are inherently lazy/slobbish; women are the reverse.
15. Chocolate, however, will cause women to immediately fall into the languor of the opium eater.
16. High Street bank staff are (A) friends of the customers, and (B) of slightly above-average attractiveness (only if female).
17. Modern men own a cat.
18. Hot beverages have miraculous rejuvenating effects.
19. Professional people have strangely trivial preoccupations, e.g. a female barrister who is morbidly obsessed with finding a healthy snack bar.
20. All women (except stay-at-home housewives) have interesting and enjoyable careers.
21. Any over-the-counter medical product will work instantly and 100% effectively.
22. Children know more than adults.
23. Women never merely hop in and out of the shower, instead preferring to act out some sort of soapy Dance of the Seven Veils.
24. School is a happy experience for all children.
25. Tortilla chips are the most exciting experience any group of young people can experience.
26. Playing bingo is THE number one pastime among 18-25 year old British women.

Best Heinz ad this year

2005-08-26T03:45:00.000-07:00

In the brave new world of marketing where everybody’s looking for the next untraditional approach to advertise their product, sometimes the answer comes from unexpected places. In the newest Jamiroquai video “Seven days in June” there is a splendid piece of branded entertainment. The story is simply a slice of life in the best of locations – summer party in the country. It’s all fun fun fun until the crowd identifies a problem at the grill. Where is the ketchup? Problem is solved when a chopper comes along with a net containing “the slow ketchup” and to the crowds big applause jumps it of. Heinz should pay Jay Kay for that stunt, maybe they are.

See the video

Post a secret

2005-08-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

This is a great site http://postsecret.blogspot.com

It’s filled with people’s anonymous posted secrets displayed nicely on postcards. Here you have various insights to the most defining characteristics of people. Some hilarious, some quite horrifying, and some even rather sad.

lessons from first aid

2005-08-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

Last week we held an agency lecture in first aid including instructions on cpr, wounds, burns, broken bones and last but not least stopping fire.

It makes me wonder how smart we are when it comes to guidelines and instructions to something that really matters. It’s not like the guidelines in other aspects of life. Like your 20 different remote controls, software that doesn’t support each other, incomprehensible manuals etc.

The world would be a much easier place to live in if everybody thought of their guidelines and instruction as if it was a matter of life and death.

Great CRM

2005-08-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

Saw this at a restaurant this weekend. The food was good I’ll be back.

Summer reading 2

2005-08-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Being a big Kubrick fan and also and an admirer of many of the Taschen books. The Stanley Kubrick Archives is a scoop.

The book is mixture of background articles/interviews/essays with the auteur himself and then great still pictures from the films. (great review from Newsweek)

The book starts of with the ultimate Kubrick aficionado item- an original 70 mm film strip from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Going through the whole book it’s hard not see Kubrick as the best director of all times. Being a conventional coffee-table book at first glance it’s amazing how the book is actually an intelligent and exhaustive, film-by-film analysis.

I especially enjoy the part with A Clockwork Orange. I’ve seen the film more then 20 times over the years dating back to writing my main thesis in high school on the film.

Even seen from an advertising point of view it’s a must read/view on breakthrough art direction and graphic design and from a mere anthropologic view a brain picker into a masters dissection of the human mind in all its many forms.

Summer reading 1

2005-08-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

It’s summertime. Time to catch up on some of the books I have only merely glanced through earlier this year. On the strategy and planning front I finally got through Malcolm Gladwells “Blink” and Bruce Mau’s “Massive Change”. Great reads both of them because their both packed with possible analogies for how the modern world of communication works and how we can work differently as communicators and agency people. There’s a great little review of Blink seen from an advertising point of view over at Russell Davies site

Global brands seeking global agencies

2005-07-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Global campaigns no longer need agency offices in every capital of the world. Global campaigns based on solid and sometimes universal consumer insights leading to big ideas can deliver gravitas across borders.

Obvious truth some might say. Nevertheless there seem to be a growing number of global assignments that believes in this thinking. The last few days the Brand Republic newsletter has been filled with these stories. We’ve seen Strawberry Frog adding another cross border campaign to its recent string of wins. Both Wieden + Kennedy and Fallon have won a place on the Procter& Gamble roster with the Eukanuba pet food brand and the Gillette brand respectively. Lots of other shops with the same characteristics seem to strive these days – it’s mostly shops that have 4-6 regional offices that cover the world. Shops like BBH, Mother, M&C Saatchi and Red Cell.

And not so strange the most recent start-up’s has been born with the same global ambition. That goes for Anomaly, BMB (The new agency from the notorious Trevor Beattie). Marcel (the new shop by the creative superstars Fred & Farid backed by Publicis) and the newly merged NitroSoul. The future belongs to anti-bureaucratic, multinational oriented, medianeutral fresh thinking agencies – sweet.