US and THEM

“Nationalism is the feeling that your way of life, country, or ethnic group are superior to others” – George Orwell

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” -  Dr. Samuel Johnson

We all have traditions, moral values, habits from our national country that we take with us when we travel around the world.The same thing is happening with brands they promote themselves with the help of their national identity.You can promote your brand through national identity but you can’t denigrate other countries in your ad`s. You should check this ad’s:

- Smart: No Americans wanted (outdoor)

- chevrolet the accessible american dream (ad)

- Seat: Ein, Zwel, Auto Emocion – is a fusion between audi and seat (ad) …..and some rules to REMEMBER:

- it’s not where you are FROM, it’s what it says ABOUT YOU…..so be true to yourself

- POSITIVE about YOURSELF, not negative about others

- AVOID crude STEREOTYPES, cliché , and CHEAP JOKES

- THINK of a DREAM-STATE RATHER then a NATION-STAT

Ioana Popescu

Young Creative is the most wanted position for students thet want to gain recognition in te fields of advertising. Toay we had seen the best students all over Europe that had to come witha solution in 48 hours for a brief given only 2 days ago. the had to fullfill heir asigment at their full poential in order to win the competition. We’ve saw te creative solutions as the students performed on a stage. The soltions they came up with were very good, one better than another. From our opinion, the romanian team (Mihaela Mihai & Ruxandra Mateiu) had the most coherent speech and we wish hem the best of luck and have fun at the after party.

Popescu Ioana. Loriana Marchetanu. Evelin Bundur

Before I went to AMSTERDAM I googled up “amsterdam gaffiti” and I randomly selected a picture.

It didn’t have any address or anything useful that would help me find it. This is the link from the picture.

My ideea was to find that house during the four days I stayed in Amsterdam, and guess what? I FOUND IT! (while I was looking for the hostel we all stayed in)

Or I could as well say that THE HOUSE FOUND ME!(Very happy times for my general mood)

Evelin Bundur.

Hi there!

Today there was a series of workshops and seminars that were absolutely delicious.

Our top favourites were:

1. Leo Burnett and the Brand Union(Tutssel $ Tutssel)

2. The networkone (Zero Budget Campaigns)

3. BETC Eur RSC6 (Creative Artificial Inteligence)

4. AQVA

But w ill share the experience provided by BONGO Advertising (king Kong vs. Godzilla). Ina time limit of 5 minutes we had to interact with people who were standing behind us and more important people who we never talked to before.

The interaction concept was based on doing things that you like with people you like. It is very important to find your “match”, that person that connects with you in a natural way. We consider that a profesional relationship function in the same way as it does in any kind of human relationship.

” If you do things that you like you’re probably good at it … and if you do it with the people that you like it’s ever much funnier and much easier in hard times”

INTERACTION is the key!

Evelin Bundur. Loriana Marchetanu.

Here are some photos with the general atmosphere at Eurobest, AS SEEN FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE and also photos with US – The Alternative School of Creative Thinking TEAM.

Networking after Dark Party!(Thursday 26 November)

After a day full of seminars and workshops, mindblowing each and avery one of them, Eurobest organised a party for all of us at the Bureau Pindakaas. It was a great party with great music, eaven grater people and a fantastic atmosphere.

We also enjoyed the invitation which was at the same time A MENIU entitled

” A HEADY COCKTAIL SERVED UP IN THE HEART OF EUROPE’S CREATIVE CAPITAL”.

Here are some of teh cocktails on the list ( entitled after the workshops and seminars):

- TAXI ON THE ROCKS

- BOOZE LEE

- 1-2-3 ACHTUNG!

- BONKERS BLOODY

- DIRTY 180

- TRUTH WELL TOLD

- SLAMSTERDAM WORLDWIDE and many others

We had a lot of fun dancing, drinking and networking with creative people from all over Europe.

At the end they gave us a special drink made for the morning after the party. It’s named G-TOX and it really works!!!)

Evelin Bundur. Ioana Popescu. Loriana Marchetanu

Good vs. Bad

180 is about:

Having the idea

Making sure it’s the right type of idea

Having the idea ice

Believing in the idea

Being relentless with the idea

Being right with the idea

It’s about analyzing a situation from many angles.

A good idea sustained by a good execution it’s ideal but sometimes you don’t have the resources, so the idea will lose it’s value.

So it’s better wait, rather than to rush thins and do a bad execution. Everybody at one point in their lives made a few mistakes, but it’s important to learn from them and not to be ashamed because al the things from the past made you who you are today.

Popescu Ioana

Last day at Eurobest…

15 of the best young creative teams presented their solution to the brief they received only 48 hour ago.  It was extraordinary to see how the jury evaluated every single presentation. We got an insight scoop of how to deliver a successful campaign in a very short time. Also interesting was to see how one problem got almost 15 different approaches.

The brief asked the young creatives to design a campaign for joinTheTap.org that would help persuade LOGOC that tap water should be the official drink of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

We liked the Swedish team for their clean cut campaign proposal.  The winners are yet to be nominated, we keep our fingers crossed for our team!

Greetings from some ad-addicts

Nicoleta Ivascu

Robert Surpateanu

Stefan Condurachi

2^nd day of Eurobest was as hectic as the first. A lot of famous campaigns, ads and people I never thought I’d got to meet. Even if we hardly have the time to eat or sleep everything is way to interesting to feel it J. Imagine the feeling you had when you were little and you finally got the toy you craved for… this is exactly how it feels only that the toy gets to be much better then you thought it would be….

If I had to make a top of today’s workshops and seminars, it would look like this :

1.    Leo Burnett

They were absolutely  outstanding.

2. Zero-Budget Campaigns

The key phrase of the seminar was: MAKING SENCE.  It was about campaigns that have the same impact as big budget campaign but with 0 costs. I found it very interesting as we were showed a few projects that managed to achieve the same impact a traditional high-cost campaign would. I got to see : 
Julian Boulding, Founder – thenetworkone
 Willem van der Schoot, MD – Lemz, Amsterdam
 Alex Baixas, Head of Digital – Shackleton. They emphasized the importance of “ having a little bit eye for the world not the money”. They proved their point by showing us some of their 0 bdget campaigns: “ The Neighbor Day”- Doweur Egberts Coffe and Omo’s- “ Outside play”. Also something I caught from all of them “ viral is the consequence of a very well done  campaign not a campaign itself”

3.Naked Communications had a very interesting presentation to, they focused on the importance of storytelling and how creative talent is borne from popular culture. Another issue was “ Mysterious coincidences in advertising”. They were talking about campaigns that were inspired by user generated portals done with no commercial perspective.

4.Cai program was a very exciting program that proved the importance of human thought by creating a machine that was able to make a print just by introducing the brief’s main points. I found it very interesting because it emphasized how important interpretation and human contact are.

All in all, I had a blast! No other place I’d rather be right now. We also went to a party and made some friends from Miami Ad School. They insisted to come to a club but some of us decided to take a rain-check because in we were eager to see the young creative’s presentations in the morning.

All the best from Eurobest

Nico ( Nicoleta Ivascu)

The two Leo Burnett Big Brothers
Showed us in a great manner of style, how important is the story telling, and the way we should think and act before we create an Ad, a TV spot, a logo, or if you are in love with crafting let’s say packaging as well..
One of the important things, The Brothers highlighted, screams like this : “Don’t think about selling the product! Think about connecting to people, and your product will be sold out!”

What I’ve learned?
People don’t buy things because they need them, people buy things because they want them…In order to have success, you have to make the people want your product…

How?
Give them the story!
Robert Surpateanu

Stephane Xiberras, the president and executive creative Director – BETC Euro RSCG Paris came up with this crazy, but not that crazy idea – to invent a machine that generates ads only by entering in a kind of search engine some key words.

The result of the experiment was weird, funny and useful in the same time.

It proved both that machines can have a weird kind of black humor, but also proved that genuine, human creatures are somehow better. The only difference between the man and the machine, from that point further ?

the necessary time.

 The Stephane’s demonstration ? Le me use his words: creativity too often resembles a mediocre recombination of already existing things.

Our machine demonstrated only one thing – we should never become like it.

ps: we just loved the Stephane’s kind of Louis IVX outfit.

Meet The Talents

http://www.hyperisland.se/

The goals of the Hyper Island school:

- students to become cutting edge

- we support our students to learn and develop skills, not just software.

- to manage CHANGE, because in a company or project, CHANGE is a constant.

- we give students tasks they don’t know how to resolve.

- they need to increase the entrepreneur skills and attitude in team work.

- we encourage to embrace failure and then to take that experience into the next projects.

- we encourage to leave the daily ruttiness and to challenge their own way of thinking and doing things.

Amsterdam, a little rain, 11 hours  of workshops and seminars with some of the biggest advertising names in Europe, 10 minute brakes, running between classes, half an hour  for a fast meal = the perfect environment for a little ad-addict like me !

If  I had to pick, I’d say my favorite two were : Decoding Email Marketing and The Hardest-Working Swedes in the Business give You a Peek behind the Scenes.

Leave me alone Harry and hold my hand Larry!

The first focused upon the importance of creating a proper direct marketing content and concept for the online environment. Besides the well known advice that any direct marketer gives : NO SPAM, Michael Leander ( FEDMA’s CEO) showed us solutions to avoid it. He started by talking  about “one to one marketing” and proved how the best 2% marketers ( “ motor people”) manage to stay on top. According to him, the three main considerations a successful direct marketer should always remember are : Create an experience for the consumer, Engage your target and Tell the target exactly what you want him to do. At the last one , he told us about his own philosophy regarding consumer’s behavior:  Leave me alone Harry and hold my hand Larry- Harry is the consumer that takes his own decisions and prefers to explore on his own the platform or content, and Larry is the one that needs to be given exact directions. Michael Lander also emphasized upon the importance of using multiple tools for the online direct communication like newsletters, offers and promotions , and alerts. The idea is that even if you lose one, you still have two left. An other interesting part of the workshop was a case study he showed us about an opera that made a little experiment to analyse the target’s behavior : they made two Stage Passes, the first had four types of discounts and was called ( Stage Pass) and the other one had 5 extra discounts and was called Stage Pass +. After six months, they realized that even if, both were free, to everyone’s surprise, 60% chose the pass with less options. Another tip we got, was to include the preview sample at a newsletter subscription in order to give the target the opportunity to “touch” the product before “buying” it.

5 Ad-Gurus in one small room!

This was a dream came true! In this workshop I met 5 people that I have read about , admired and never thought I would get to know or see so close. Sweden has some of the best advertising people in Europe.

The first were the B-Reel guys : Oscar Tillman and Lars Bjurman- you might remember them as the ones who did Hotel 626, the first advertgame built on the concept of interactive film. ( Doritos Campaign). They proved one again that creativity and innovation have no limits with three of their newest campaigns

Axe

Talk Talk Brightdancing

Asylum 626

Then came  ACNE Digital : with Klas Jonsson and Max Ahlban. They had a very interesting way of structuring their presentation, they chose to explain us the rules of interactive storytelling using their campaigns as an argument.

1. Let the user be part of the story  : Change perspectives at Saab Campaign
2. Let the user be the story : The Lynx Roar
3. Let the user create the story : BBC Blast Get Creative

Also, a quote that stick to me was what they said regarding to the future of storytelling and advertising : “ The next step forward is to take a step back and understand the past and presenting order to create the future.

The last was world known North’s Kingdom CEO: David Erikson who presented his last campaign for Germany’s National football team : A graphic novel game – Adidas

All in all, I got to run to take some pictures with Amsterdam’s  ginger bread  like .

buildings that seem to be sinking in the water.

The ad-addict always on a hurry: Nico  (Nicoleta Ivascu)

HEARTBEATS INTERNATIONAL AND MASSIVE MUSIC

Shortly,  we’ve been perfectly  explained, nice professional and clear, how great music  can help, support, or even be the key of success in to some advertising campaigns, a perfect example, it’s the old Pepsi commercial around the 80’s, which was a great success just because of the great  king of pop Michael Jackson, and his famous song Billie Jean…

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd15YVb2M6M

Robert Surpateanu

8:30 am – coffe || 9:30 – first seminar || 13:00 -second coffe and yet another one until 15:40 (size:small|| price:2 euro each).

From  this point of the day TWO seminars took place at Eurobest, Amsterdam

and I will now be sharing some insights,mainly the ones that interested me most.

FIRST Seminar – GLUE (Being Irresistible)

The first project that really cought my attention was Bacardi’s campaign B-LIVE BEATOLOGY

a very interactive website with a GREAT ideea behind it. Check it out for yourselves!

They also developed a campaign for a drink named OASIS which practically

began as a story of a real life love affair between a gril and a cactus boy

(the headline of the campaign being “for people who don’t like water”).

Unlike the usual campaign strategy which implies a 20% buget investment

to get the campaign ready, this one took a risk and raised the buget limit with 30 %.

AND THEY SUCCEEDED!

SECOND Seminar – THE BERLIN SCHOOL OF CREATIVE LEADERSHIP

The seminar consisted of three leading European creatives who presented their latest work in understanding the world of advretising.

Every one of them were great but one did catch my full attention. Gideon Amichay’s speach is the moment I’m talking about.

SUBJECT—-The CREATIVE Consumer: GREAT or THREAT?

He had a great point of view about the digital tsunami which is approaching.The main ideea is wether a creative consumer is becoming as important or

more important than the agency’s creatives.

There are two threats to this sittuation: 1. Abssolute control is over( an age of dialog instead of monologue) and 2. the BIG denial and one solution so far

TO AMBRACE THE UNKOWN AND TRY TO WALK TOGHETER DOWN THE SAME ROAD!

I AM still in amSTERDAM and write you some more of Eurobest tomorrow night (before I go OUT with my classmates:p).

Evelin Bundur

Stefan Iordache and Claudiu Dobrita are judjing now, together with few of the most influential creative minds of today’s advertising at Eurobest. Miki (Mihai) and Ruxi (Mateiu) are solving the brief they received yesterday, we are sure they will do their best and to challenge their fellow competitors.

In the rainy Amsterdam bicicles are huge and almost threatening:-). But who cares, after all ? The rest of the big team from The Alternative School is exploring the seminars together with the rest of the senior romanian delegates, few of them teachers at The Alternative. We will join them right now and we promise to keep you posted with pictures both cool and hot,the latest news and the vibe of the North.

they go to Eurobest.

definitely.

and what they actually do is this: “Each team has two days to create a winning campaign that fulfills the brief using at least three different media. The brief for the campaign is set by a charity client appointed by Eurobest. Teams of young creatives work to create a unique, eye-catching integrated campaign in only 48 hours.”

do you find it challenging enough?

read more.

Photo taken in Cannes. Where else?

Speaking of Eurobest, as you already know, Razvan was the Romanian juror in 2008 and made a fabulous impression behind the scene.

The Eurobest festival is close.

The deadline to apply for the Alternative School is also getting closer.

It is simple. If you want to prove how much of a creative are you and get into the Young Creatives competition at Eurobest, you should apply faster, think wiser, work harder.

It is worth it. To be the best at Eurobest is not something to ignore.

Really.

We recently received congratulations for the Alternative School campaign.

It is not, although, our merit, but our students’.

And if you want to know the story behind it, here it is:

Every year we organise a competition on a School-related campaign brief. We truly think that the visual and the copy should not only reflect what we want to transmit about this challenging educational project, but also should reflect the taste and vibes of  the generation we work with. After all, it is dedicated to them, not to us.

Our 2009 winners are Cristi (Costea) and Carmen (Dobrescu) from Publicis. They attended the school in 2008-2009 period.  They won the competition for Dubai Lynx and explored the event as delegates, they were on the second best place at our young creatives competition for Cannes, attending it again as delegates and they finally made it as our heart winners with this year Alternative School print &web campaign.

We loved the warmth, the idea, the funny approach and the attention dedicated to the details of the execution.

…so, big thanks to this team and also to their creative director – Razvan Capanescu from Publicis. We always say that behind great young creatives teams is always a great creative director.

I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to learn, compete and enjoy Amsterdam. Would you ?

In the end, we are not only the school that is offering a huge learning opportunity to young people, but also the school that opens them the door to high quality international events, such as eurobest.com.

Work hard, be a fair competitor, be intelligent and use your gifts wisely; you could join the Romanian young creatives team in the most vibrant European festival and enjoy it.

Dear candidates to Eurobest semester,

Please use the email gradinita@canneslions.ro in order to ask any details you might want to know. We can assure in that way that we receive all your messages and we can provide a full and complete set of info.

In order to be accepted at the school you need to solve a brief (ask for it using the above address). Send along with it a cv and a portfolio of works that you are proud of.

Remember, we encourage you to apply as a team, able to generate ideas and to implement them.The advice is addressed especially to those who have as a goal to compete in the international contexts of Eurobest, Dubai Lynx or Cannes.

We remind you that on every semester we offer scholarships for remarkable applications. The selected persons for the scholarship will not need to pay the fee, instead they will work with some of our partner agencies in a internship system.

In order to be completely motivated, see what a great experience is ahead at Eurobest-www.eurobest.com.

after having made this school, you never want to stop. you take challenges, apply for competitions, try to prove something, make your way, evolve, grow.

it is the perfect start.

while the following year starts very soon and the inscriptions are on the run, i take a moment and talk about something i did after cannes. they asked me to write about it and i said, why not. it is something good to remember.

something that made me quite happy. the i feel slovenia competition within the golden drum festival. i found my entry on the top 3, after a selection and a short list and that was really nice. didn’t won though, another romanian guy was the winner. still, when your writing is appreciated is a big step. above all the things in advertising, this is what i value the most: copy.  when others do to, it’s great.

what was the competition all about?

write a letter of invitation for Slovenia. which i did. 

“Dear bliss hunter,

You may think of each road you take as the next adventure of your life. Good for you. Nevertheless, if you choose to visit Slovenia, well, you may need to reconsider. Seriously. Before stepping foot into the Republic of Slovenia, you should be fully aware of the consequences: this country has strong effects on people. Unconscious tourists returned home heart-broken, severely torn by heart-aches, doomed into never wishing to visit anything else. Such serenity in the mountains will be breathtaking. The medieval touch or the narrow streets can cause alienation. You will feel strange, like you are in some kind of different world, where time has stopped for a huge second. One look at the Mediterranean will simply put a spell on you. The gastronomic mix will change your eating habits forever. The Slovenians may even razzle dazzle you into not leaving the country at all. They may trick you into doing things that cause adrenalin explode. You will not be able to choose. Going with your instincts will be risky.

But if you are that stubborn and really wish to go, I urge you to prepare. Check you heart pressure. Your heart beats can jump way high. See an eye-doctor. Decide if your sight is up to all this. It will be painful to stare for hours. Consider a psychiatrist. You will definitely want to talk about everything you saw. The bare sight of a rare place will haunt your thoughts night and day. Don’t make me say: I told you so.

Still, let me rephrase it: Slovenia can cause love crushes. It’s like abracadabra on your tiny little heart. You won’t even see it coming. Bam! Love at first sight. Flaming sparks and all. The wicked place is very much alive. Alive like Santa Claus, on Prozac, in Disneyland, getting laid (as my Friends seem to think). Therefore, beware. Sit on it for a while. If you still feel the need to visit and put on the tourist clothes, then God speed. I wouldn’t want to stay in front of true love. If you can deal with the love issues, then Slovenia really is for you. Go get yourself a crush. Feel Slovenia.

For a second opinion, tourist guides always come in handy.”

so, after this, i just have to keep on walking. walking towards all kinds of such opportunities.

in the meantime, good luck to all the applicants. this school is going to be a great ride!

Ana Maria Vasilache

Get ready for a new challenging year at the Alternative School for Creative Thinking.

First stop – Eurobest, Amsterdam.

Subscriptions are open till october 24.  If you want to know more about the application steps, contact us at gradinita[at]canneslions[dot]ro

Successful creative work includes:

Chemistry

Respect

Ambition

Fear

Trust

Stupidity

Emotions

Revisions

Vanity

Insanity

Complementarty

EGOLESS

Malina Neagu – Empowered by TEMPO

Once again, attending to Cannes Lions Advertising festival was a mind blowing experience, a free connection to an abundance of useful information.

From advertising and design trends that placed outdoor, happening and digital to a higher level as before this year we had a strong call to action from Act Responsible with Kofi Annan. During a 45 minutes seminar Kofi Annan Nobel prize winner and President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, David Jones Global CEO of Euro RSCG Worldwide and Global CEO of Havas Worldwide and Bob Geldof, Humanitarian, Pop Star, Broadcaster and Businessman talked about climate justice and appealed to the creative community to take a stand in this crucial matter.

A powerful message was send out through the Tck Tck Tck campaign presented during the seminar : we have to act now without hesitation.The solid proof came from placing a block of ice with the campaigns name Tck Tck Tck near the Palais de Festival that melted in less than an hour.

Some other interesting feeds came this year from Sawa seminar that showed new ways on  how brands can interact with the audience through smell, touch, sound, taste and sight with 3D commercials,  the smell of the product and the taste, interactive games and relevant sound selection.

Dentsu seminar presented this year by three female creative directors showed a interesting  perspective not only on the Asian advertisements but also on the social trends of the region.

Cows in Jackets  workshop presented by Daniela Krautsack and Marco Bevolo had an interesting view on how modern culture,  urban art and design will influence the way that advertisers will communicate to the audience.  The cities become a landscape for a new way of  interacting with the brand and outdoor becomes the only relevant way of communicating.

So these are a few of the greatest seminars and workshops for 2009 at Cannes Lions festival enjoy the feeds!:)

Alexandra Anghelache empowered by Tempo

As we promised, we are back with more information about the Young Lions Media Competition. First of all, we should say that we are still pleased with our presentation, with our work, although we didn’t get any prize. And I believe this is very important. Not to be ashamed with your work. As each of us knows, we may have done things we are not so eager to show, but this is not the case. We actually focused all our attention on this competition and besides a couple of hours spent on eating and buying soda, juice and stuff to keep us fresh, our mind was all into this. It’s no secret we wanted to do a great job and come back home with a prize.

After receiving the brief, we started to brainstorm. We did a bit of research and then went on looking for ideas. On the beach, on the rocks, in the apartment, in the park, everywhere we could get our inspiration from. And indeed, it was inspirational.

The day of the presentation, we barely  moved from the computer. As long as you think you have time to do it all, you actually don’t. Time is such a relative thing, especially when it comes down to using Mac and Keynote for the first time and also Illustrator to do some drawings. Because we wanted to be different, to have a special presentation instead of the standard Getty Images. We should have thought about it twice. Our first attempts may have been fun, but then it became kind of stressful.

Anyway, after finishing it all up, we gave it a print and took it home to sleep on it. We had some moules marinieres, which actually gave Adina an allergy afterwards and started to think about the oral presentation we had the following day. We had to sum it all up in 5 minutes only. We gave it a try, it was getting better and better, the speech I mean and then went to bed with our hopes up. Before the speech, the next day, we prepared also a board, with a few steps of our gaming competition (as you can see one one particular slide). As we had quite a lot of text, we thought of making it more easy for the jury. And that was it. Adina says the jury was delighted and my speech was no more than 5 minutes, which was great.  All in all, we were pleased.

After finding out the results in the evening though, we became more disappointed. But what was there to do?! Besides think positive and get motivated for the next competition, hoping to win something there. The experience was overwhelming indeed, very motivational for our future careers and we would recommend it to anyone. With or without a prize in the end. By the way, the winners are here.

As far as am I concerned, I have never been so stressed in my life. But at the same time, I have never participated so fully motivated into something so great.

Therefore, I should also thank Adina for the lovely and efficient collaboration.

Ana Maria Vasilache & Adina Stanescu. Empowered by Impression.

We were more than 20, as I recall, this year at Cannes Lions. And I believe it was great for each of us. Besides the common motivation and the eager to learn and find out new things about advertising, we had a great time together. Great people make for great fun!

Here, we were improvising and taking loads of pictures!

Ana Maria Vasilache. Empowered by Impression.

The Leo Burnett guy, Mark Tutssel, Global Chief Creative Officer, told us a little bit about how to creats acts that engage people, insted of general ads, that don’t involve anyone.

He told us to focus on  the next thing: “Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything”. As to do anything, one needs a purpose. A strong one. He set the best example he could give, as far as I’m concerned, the Cadbury Gorilla, which is indeed an act of joy! That means, that in such an act, people get involved, get active, they participate, therefore they are entertained.

This is what a people brand does: entertains people: engages, touches, involves people. Another good example was Museo Efemero, made in Lisbon. It was something that created value. It created a bond, a relationship with the people. See it also on youtube.

One of best things Mark Tutssel suggested, was to be always a sponge of life. So, don’t forget to bring back stories and use them. Especially in your work.

Ana Maria Vasilache & Adina Stanescu. Empowered by Impression.

cannes lions 2009 closed its doors. palais de festivals is actually host to another festival these days. but the great atmosphere is still on and the advertising festival scent has not left us. we had the best time at cannes lions, although we didn’t get any award at the Young Lions Media. I’ll talk about that experience in another post. but as for the rest, I, for example, had a favourite seminar or master class each day, and that is something enriching and worth spending your free time indoor the palais, although the weather was good for the beach. I had nice chats with my colleagues and people I met in cannes, and that was another good thing.

the last day was actually about a mix between novelty, storytelling, networking, conversation, stories, all of them related to efficient creativity. as funny as it was, the lean mean fighting machine seminar, as insightful it was the POKE seminar. on one side i heard about having fun -at the office, at any kind of work, in your daily tasks, in your free time-, about inspirational policies that some companies have, about incentives that break creativity loose, depending on the moment, the job and the agency. for more details the speakers indicated their blog: leanmeanfightingmachine.blogspot.com.

On the other hand, at the POKE workshop, i heard some good pieces of advice:

Create things worh talking about – in order for people to start a conversation

Great stories never end – so create stories!

Success comes from: Simple / Unexpected / Concrete / Credible / Emotion / Stories. So keep these in mind!

Novelty is good – look for new twists in conversations

Read this book: “Made to stick”

More to come, from the seminars I haven’t talked about, but loved very much, these next days. Never too late.

Ana Maria Vasilache &  Adina Stanescu. Empowered by Impression.

We all know advertising it’s about life itself. All the brilliant ads that we love have a piece of their maker(s) soul. In the Y&R seminar, Roger Daltrey and Harvey Goldsmith tried to talk about the bounds between advertising and music and how The Who build their brand. They even succeded but this seminar was more than how The Who managed their brand over the years. Rock bands such as The Who, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Cream, Pink Floyd inspired hundred millions of people not only with their music but with their messages, their art and energy. They inspired many other bands that came along the way, many directors that made brilliant movies, many fashion designers and artists. They inspired life and also advertising.

For who doesn’t know, Roger Daltrey is the lead vocal of The Who, the legendary britain rock band. He is also one the greatest voices in the history of rock.

For those of you who know about Roger Daltrey I can tell you that he is more than fine! After the dialog with Harvey Goldsmith he sang 2 songs though only one was in plan! He played guitar as well on Who are you and Ring of fire. What a performance! We all sang with him as backing vocals at Who are you and it was a dream.

Alexandru Hariga
This article is brought to you by the curtesy of Impression, our Cannes Lion Cyber Sponsor

I am not going to tell you what Cannes Lions Festival can be for you if you didn’t experienced it until now. What i am going to do is to tell you how it is for me. I’ve been at many seminars, award ceremonies and screenings and though I didn’t like all of them, they all went somewhere in my head. All the ideas that I’ve heard, linked each other in my head without even me knowing. I saw people that won many awards and deserve it, people that lead gigantic companies, modest people from whom I’ve learned much. Above all it’s the few ideas that will arise from this experience! Want to know what this are?

Can’t tell you!

Come and experience it next year, your ideas will be different but as well positive!

Alexandru Hariga,
This article is brought to you by the curtesy of Impression, our Cannes Lion Cyber Sponsor

This was a light and fresh seminar, presenting the mechanisms of the eureka moments. These were known even before, but the scientific base of them was less famous. As it turns out from different research, there is a part of the brain that helps us making connections between different elements, thus resulting in creativity. When the mind is relaxed, the results are better.

So, the suggestion was to take into account the innovation time off from Google. That means getting 20% from your daily job and do something different, thus enhancing creativity.

Cristina and Coanda, empowered by Tempo

Said Eric Schmidt, the Googke CEO in the Publicis Seminar directed by Maurice Levy. There were a few other interesting things that he said, like:

Google is still giving all the three meals for free to it’s employees (Google yum yum) It’s better to keep your employees satisfied  than to hire new ones.

Google hires only people who have already done a mistake and learned something out of it. I think that it’s great that a company understands that people aren’t perfect, but the important thing is that they try to become.

People work in companies to make a difference not absolutely for the money. The company has to stand for something greater and so will its employees.

The internet is a great resource to start with if you are not a popular brand and Obama’s campaign did that.

The mobile phone is the future. Many of the speakers here, in Cannes, this week also said this. The mobile phone is very personal, it’s interactive, it’s the portable internet, it’s also a camera. So, get prepared for the mobile era. I have been also to some screenings and I have seen how “Editores online” implemented a campaign using the QR codes and the phone. Check it!

Diana Ichim

empowered by Tempo

Try to keep your ideas as simple as possible.

Be coherent.

Use the right channels and don’t choose the channels before you find your  idea.

A good campaign continues even when the actual campaign is over.

There are a few interesting campaigns that you should take a look at:

Pampers’ village, Garron’s DaRes, GO Miniman, GO!

Diana Ichim,

empowered by TEMPO

What’s there to remember of the speach of Kofi Anan, Nobel prize winner and fighter for climate change? First, clinate change should be actually called climate justice. Cause nations are changing the way they live because of the climate changes. And this is, more than over before, a grown up political issue. Presenting the tck tck tck campaign, we learn that there is no room for pessimism or fatalism. That we can take this open source campaign, for free – and try to make Copenhagen the new Kyoto.

TCK TCK TCK!

Cristina, empowered by Tempo

Key learnings from a seminar whose introduction was that not only designers know designer, but also common people.

- design is the hope of the world, and when it’s bad, it’s terrible (the Corbusier inspired buildibgs, awful to live in, are actually designers’ fault)

- we are not just ad men, we are all designers

- design follows a universal language, beyond all borders and languages

- real people really care about design, because they understand it

- design is a very very public affair

- design is participative and engaging

- it’s the handmaiden of innovation

- our children live by it and they understand it critically (just think about Lego)

- it’s the bedrock of modern businesses

Coanda, empowered by Tempo

Your mood and interest… even if  the first impulse is to look for arguments or facts refering to what had happened.

Who is the speaker ? How he presented What he said? Was the public involved? Was an interactive presentation? Was an interesting subject (for you)? Did you like it?

But, stay a moment to reflect …

It’s very easy to put an etiquette. Especially, when you dislike something. Sometimes you even get disappointed. But, have you ever thought to look inside you?

What you were thinking before the presentation? What expectation did you had? Did really wanted to be there? Were you present or your thoughts were flying somewhere else?

Were you engaged to be receive value?

Before attending to a seminar or workshop, take some time to think WHAT IS IN FOR YOU? Be focused on your objectives and in the same time keep your mind opened to see WHAT ELSE A THING COULD MEAN…

Enjoy!

Malina Neagu – Empowered by TEMPO

The workshop held by LBI about the future of brands was really interactive. In the speaker part, we streamed into a few tips for creating belivable brands. First of all, you shouldn’t decide beforehand the platform, but be flexible and open to what works with the idea. You have to be conscious about the fast pace in which things change and try to join the online and the offline worlds in your campaigns. You have to set up a conversation, not just send your messages to the audiences. Also you need to know your audience, where they hang up, what gets them excited etc. Thirdly and most importantly you have to live up to your brand promise.

In the interactive part of the workshop we had to work on a brief for the imaginary Frizzeles, an organic sweet with three different flavours, which merge when you chew it. We created the whole identity of the product in an integrated campaign, by using as many relevant channels for the audience, as possible.

Anca Muscalu, empowered by TEMPO

1. Compare

2. Tragedy

3. Overcoming the conster

4. Voyage and Return

5. Quest

6. Rags to riches

7. Rebirth

Malina Neagu – Empowerd by TEMPO

1. Socially active

Being socially active may increase feelings of self-worth and emotional validation.

Communication and relationships are indispensable.

2. Entertaiment driven

3. Need for personalisation.

Being different is a way to express tates and personality.

Pay attention to details that define cultural diferences.

Spot consumers heart.

Malina Neagu – Empower by TEMPO

Well I can see how diversity is an attribute of the spots presented.I like to see different creative ways by using different digital platforms to promote a brand! The spot made for Adidas had a funny way of combining comic,ironic situations from reality. It is effective because everyone can find himself in that kind of situations,so it’s a good way of getting consumer attention. Animation and different characters are used in spots and digital image has a key role in this process.  A good example are the spots made for Scrabble, the project called”Pain without borders”,the works of Aaron Duffy and Antonio Balseir.

Ionut Radulescu empowered by Tempo

What i liked about this workshop was the interactive spot for mtv.It was intersesting to see how an motion graphic concept made in black and white,can have such a strong way of communicating a message.I liked the good syncronization betwen the artistic copncept and the atributes of the brand.That’s a creative way of promoting a brand uisng this kind of digital black-and white piece of art.Fanta had also a funny and catchy artistic concept with their animation spot and their character design.That’s a good way to achieve succes,selling a product because is’t about having  fun and enjoy life!Now that’s a good way to start a campaign like this and you will be sure that consumers will be attracted. 

Ionut Radulescu empowered by Tempo

The projectionism is an art.

The projectionism is more then a trend.

The projectionism is the new face of the urban places.

The phenomenon of projectionism must be interpreted as a form of expression, not only as the technology of projection.

Even if we can find projectionism everywhere, the city which is most exposed to this culture is Vienna, unofficially considered the world’s capital of projectionism.

Talking about trends and changing, we can discuss about emotional cities and cities who will live the message – Life’s for sharing.

The future will be of that urban areas which are personalized and technological.

Adriana Burlacu, empowered by TEMPO

Anca Ghinea, empowered by TEMPO

Let’s Play

‘Put your brand in the game” was the main message of the MICROSOFT workshop.  The gaming space is relevant for companies because involves a win-win situation: the comfort of the costumers and the benefits of the brands. This is the reason why advertising games is a huge industry which attracts more people everyday. If you wondering why it has that dimension, a simple answer will be something like that: because it is cool to put your brand in the games, because has the power to reach more people than others think and because opens creative opportunities.

Adriana Burlacu, empowered by TEMPO.

Anca Ghinea, empowered by TEMPO.

Key learnings from David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, in short:

- digital was the DNA of the political campaign

- they did not accept the electorate as it was, they always tried to add up to what they had initially

- Obama was a truly spectacular candidate, but finally it was “people talking to people” that won the elections

- they took people as adults, stating problems as they trully were

- they believed and implemented alignment: if Obama was giving a speach about energy, then the supporters coming to your door and the TV ads of that day were also speaking about energy

- media are now diffused, so people trust human contact more and more

- all in all, the winning equation consisted of a sound candidate, a sound strategy and a sound message.

Cristina & Coanda, empowered by Tempo

The Microsoft Masterclass showed us a little part of what the new technologies have in store for us. We were told about the new developments of the Xbox, such as silver light, about windows 7, which will be available this fall, as well as the digital canvas, a great tool for creating ideas. It is a screen, which responds to multi touch commands, it has the ability to recognize who you are and has a great rate of response. Soon I will post the pictures.

Anca Muscalu, empowered by TEMPO

Today i’ve attended a really great workshop, held by Accenture Marketing Sciences. Apart from the WORK part of the workshop, which was the most interactive and usefull so far, we actually learned about some now cool tools, not only for advertisers. 

Kluster costs but, I think it’s worth it. Anyone can register, no matter if they are accounts, strategists, art directors and no matter their experience and position. Only ideas are evaluated and not people. It works like this you post a brief and people offer ideas on it solving. This ideas are evaluated, offering a great way of testing and improving your work. More details can be found on www.kluster.com

Google Wave  hasn”t been launched yet, but it will be a great collaboration tool, which can be used especially for team work, since you can get your feedback in real time.  http://wave.google.com/.

Sentiment Analysis Manager is a tool turning sentiment into metrics and it analyzes digital content live from consumer reviews on sites like Amazon and social media sites such as blogs and Twitter. It captures the overall opinion of the combined assessments. The results are captured in graph form so that a company can gauge positive/neutral/negative feedback, but also tabulate the results about specific features in a product. http://www.teragram.com/solutions/sentiment-analysis.html

Anca Muscalu, empowered by TEMPO

Was a Herman Vaske seminar wich illustrated through examples what user experience, engaging and a good understanding of your target is. The campaigns you should check out (if you don’t know them already) are: The Mini Dominatrix, the Heidies, the Wooper Facebook capaign and others.

Diana Ichim,

empowered by TEMPO

The Schematic seminar on Sunday got me very worried about the future of technology and implicitly the human race.

The seminar was partly about the fragmentation of media and partly about the latest development in user interface technologies. First of all, we have changed or TV consumption habits in such a great way that we’re now in a phase where we mix TV content with, internet trailers and infos about our favourite shows and actors. Basically, we consume a dynamic assemblage of various info, but not on the same screen.

In not a very distant future, with the overlapping Internet and TV – Internet connected televison sets have been around for some time now – each of us will have a personal channel. It will definetely be broader than televison, including internet based information, branded content, promotions, etc. The content will be chosen by us, but based on our choices, producers will have a better profile of us, thus targgeting their products more precisely.

What really got me worried was the way we’re going to interact with the above mentioned channel – gestural controls. We’ll be able to sit on the couch and navigate the controls by waving our hand one way or another – no more buttons, no more clicking, no more multiple remote controls – ultra intuitive technology.

I’ll always be a great fan of buttons and clicking. Gestural controls means losing touch with technology and making it available for absolutely everyone. There won’t be such thing as computer illiteracy. So will have the edge then? Are we bound to become supersized hand waving couch potatoes? The most frightening thing for me is that gestural controls and motion detection cameras are already here and it’s just a matter of time until it’ll be mass produced.

So, what do you think? Are gestural controls the future? Will technology fans retaliate and boycot this new user interface?

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

The ancient war between men and women has most recently been taken to another level – the internet. With the advance in internet advertising we have to understand that men and women consume the internet in completelly different way because – obviously – we’re very different.

The latest studies by BBDO worldwide have shown that the internet could be more efficient for women, because studies have shown that the blogosphere has reduced dramatically the time women spend reading magazines. Internet advertising for women should be about making friends, socialising and the message should come second. On the other hand, men are interested on the direct benefits of the product.

For a successful internet campaign we must understand that the internet for men is more about consequences, while women enjoy the journey.

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

The mobile phone has penetrated almost every market while gaining more and more functions each year. However there is a great gap between acceptance and availability. We have phones packed with all kind of applications, yet we mostly use it for voice calls and messaging.

For people around the world, the mobile has different meenings and they have developed different behaviors regarding the phone – mobile codes. For the success of a mobile campaign one must know the mobile code of the audience.

In Korea, people are very fond of their mobiles. They have turned them in a medium for expressing their personity and a medium wich keeps them in touch with their friends. They even have mock funerals for their broken phones. Thus for the Koreans the code is mobile blood.

From another perspective, in India, the fastest growing mobile market, the mobile has the unique advantage of being a social equaliser. Keep in mind that India is a very stratified society, even though it’s a democracy. The mobile has allowed women and people from the lower classes to begin chasing their destiny. There are some simillarities with the Romanian society too, like the missed call culture – the missed call or the ”beep” have various meenings depending on the context.

So, for a successful mobile campaign we should research mobile behaviour in the target society. And keep in mind that technology is not that interesting, people make it.

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

When your client calls you and tells you ”take that advertisment down, i can’t produce anymore,, that’s effective advertising. If your not there you should work harder.

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

It’s been said again and again, but only because it’s true: the society is shifting to digital. That’s the reason why every competitive company should integrate digital in their DNA and use innovation as their lifeblood. As media is shifting from traditional to new channels, there’s a big opportunity for brands to shift from campaigns to owned platforms of communication.

This is where clouds step in. Anyone who has ever uploaded a picture to Flickr, posted a video on YouTube, put up a personal profile on a social networking site like Facebook or LinkedIn is living in the cloud. In cloud computing, digital assets like pictures, videos and songs are no longer tethered to the technology hardware that is personally owned. Instead, these assest live in the “cloud”, the vast network of servers that make up the internet.

Michael Mendenhall from Hewlett-Packard and Bob Greenberg, CEO of digital agency R/GA, have shared with us their vision for how brands can embrace the cloud, transform their relationship with consumers and build susitanable platforms for cutting edge marketing programmes, like Nike+ or the excelent Nokia ViNe.

Toni Gherca – empowered by Tempo

Today’s first master class, “Branding with Youtube and Google” generated applause, gazing moments and some interesting questions (with or without answers) in the end.

Andy Berndt, Managing Director at Google Creative Lab, introduced as into the world of creative applications and fun to watch campaigns using mainly Youtube. Talking about the webbys, about sprint, lauren luke make up sessions, boone oakley website, t-mobile dance, YouTube symphony, inBflat, karaoketube, the Chrome experiements and so on, he actually made us optimistic about the future. which by the way, he named it “a glorious mess”. the future, i mean.:)

the interesting presentation, with links and everything can be found here: bit.ly/ytcannes

it’s worth more than one look.

Ana Maria Vasilache &  Adina Stanescu. Empowered by Impression

Fernando Vega Olmos in his “Mother of crisis” seminar shares an optimistic view about the world wide economic crisis ans feels that it’s a great time for exploring new ways of expression and for coming up with bold, new and refreshing ideas.

Coming from a country like Argentina that went through a strong economic crisis along the years Fernando showed that successful campaigns can be done. So with case studies  from China, India, Latin America, JWT San Paolo  Fernado  closed up what was yet  anther a tonic presentation at Cannes Lions festival.

Alexandra Anghelache empowerd by Tempo

COWS IN JACKETS

Daniela Krautsack and Marco Bevolo joined forces this year to analyse the art of projectionism and the future trends for advertising in what was one of the best workshops that I’ve been in at Cannes this year.

In a world that constantly changes the two speakers spoke of the use of public space, cities, streets in making inovative outdoor advertising.Whether if it’s LED lighting or projectionism or interactive digital platforms if we speek of technology Daniela K. and Marco Bevolo through their manifesto say that the future of creative strategies is in the end outdoor. A fresh workshop in terms of content hope we see more of that!

Alexandra Anghelache     empowerd by Tempo

Impossible is not a fact, is an opinion!

Create time!

The brands of the future are the brands whose consumers tell the best story about them!

Create the DNA of a brand begining from inside. Thus the employees are engage to be the company image and brands speakers!

Greate diversity engage great energy!

To be efficient, you need a special plan for eficenty!

Viral is a consequence of a good idea!

People are connecting bassing on their passions!

When was the last time when you did something for the first time?

Malina Neagu – Empower by TEMPO

It is well konwn that games have impact specially on young men,but starting from this point,gaming has developed a lot in advertising.In game advertising they can be dynamic or fixed.Game ads offer cuting edge interactivity,and the gamer is verry active in this process.Realism in gaming is a main point of getting attention from gamers.Putting ads in a game makes a cool image.A game image has to be bold and exciting,with clear message,and a large bond logo!

Ionut Radulescu empowered by Tempo

City flashing lights, la la goes the song. In the Cows… seminar the city

is formed out of lights. The art of projectionism goes back into the past

and we can connect it to the occidental culture of the Eye. Nowadays,

we are revolving more and more around the eye, especially the eye

entertaiment. Technology delivers every day something new to watch

and interact with through this specific sense. The guys from the workshop

introduced us to amazing artists and performers around the globe who

see a city like Tokyo from the light perspective. This is

the ultimate example of a city which is by day just an architectural mass

but in the night time, comes alive and gets a definite architecture.

The list is long and interesting.  Vienna is The Host of most projectionist

events due to its light, open space buildings. Projectionism is not just that.

The future is flashing already, from t-shirts to augumented reality. Search and enjoy the Mini launch of its Cabrio model.

Carmen Dobrescu powered by Tempo

IKEA did at Cannes something really revolutionary: for the first time in history, they gave the product right on the plate, without us having to screw a nut, shed a sweat or carry a box. The rest of the presentation was totally ikea-ish: simple, humble and with a nordic sense of humor. Claudia Willvonseder, Head of Marketing at IKEA Germany, talked about the company’s DNA: integrating the consumer in creating the creating value chain. Over time, they have been consistent with this ideea in communication, so we can see this engagement of the consumer in brand building also, with user generated and directed content.

Ingmar Bartles, Creative director at Nordpol Hamburg, shared with us the phenomenal results IKEA and Nordpol had with the “Nils” project. For 21 days, a guy lived on the internet, in front of the cameras, live and in realtime. Users could talk to Nils on the phone and send him emails or letters. The number of 95.000 attempted phone calls and the delivery of over 50 million live streams makes it the biggest ever viral campaign in Germany and clearly demonstrates how a marketing campaign can gain attention simple by letting the consumers take the control.

Power to the people!

Toni Gherca, empowered by Tempo

First time is usually hard. Then you get older and you don’t get so nervous anymore. But some first times are like in the old days of school. But this time it was a school on a beach with beatyfull girls an lots of boats. A school where we have teams of two and we compete against other teams like in a championship of encoded messages. Each culture decoding everyday realities. I haven’t felt so nervous since the first time i was on an archaeological site. But this time it’s all in the present. And of course there are also magic coke robots and giant screen spells. And the best wizards they keep seminaries which sometimes smell and sometimes they are musical or interactive. And today it brought me a 24 hour banner with young lions from most of the countries that i’ve heard of, except USA Spanish, with no sleeping and many pages written with the same three sentences in different words to finally agree with my team-mate and the dream of getting to meet Mr Annan, which will probably never happen.[...] And here I took a break, I left urgently to see the Media and Outdoor Media Awards which were mind changing and now I’m back finishing this post. I told myself I will only use applause if necessary and I ended up also smiling like it was my birthday seeing all those beautiful people bringing their craziest or most noble ideas to life. And last but not least I have togive my loudest round of applause to those people who thougt of a live concert in an internet banner.

Stefan Parcalabescu empowered by Impression

The principles of marketing in a recession are very different to those that work in more prosperus times. In recessions, consumers are above all anxious, confused and unhappy. Brands that recognise this can prosper.
The guys at Wunderman have prepared a list of 24 actions that can help a company survive and even thrive in the recession. What should the brands do in these dreadful times? Basicly to turn to digital and reinvent relevance in the realtionship with the consumer. So, without further ado, i give to you Wunderman’s 24 commandments:

1. Offer certaninty. Review yout brand proposition to ensure it promises the certainty that confused and desperate consumers crave.
2. Offer value, not low,low prices
3. Don’t rely on habit. Ensure that your brand is being bought for reasons more than just habit.
4. Don’t be pointless. Make sure your brand is not a pointless purchase.
5. The destructive power of the internet.With Google, price comparison websites and eBay, consumers have better bargain-finding technology in this recession than in any recession in history.
6. Watch word of mouth
7. Follow the money. If you want to continue to sell to poeple with money during a recession, look for where people with money congregate.
8. Forget the reckless. In times of recession, the reckless are the first ot seek bankruptcy protection. Stay away from them.
9. Educate the next generation
10. It’s the rich that gets the pleasure
11. Consider de-segmenting your market
12. Watch for overstrech. Companies that overstrech themselves financially disappear in recessions. The same is true for brands.
13. Think in terms of price layers
14. Get people to try your service
15. Promise better service. Give consumers the best table, the best room or the best car. You allready have them vacant.
16. Do flash sales
17. Watch out for tough new companies
18. Wait for clearing time
19. Think Spartan
20. Rethink the way you use computers. Computers now are a thousand times faster than 10 years ago, but in offices they’re used the same. Work out how to use them better.
21. Innovate and cut cost at the same time. It can be done
22. Get more ruthless on media efficiency. Digital can help here.
23. Look more critical at your research
24. Recessions can be good for you. They clear the stage and let new ideas be seen.

Opportunities exist. We just need ideas.

Toni Gherca – empowered by Tempo

Who would you describe a city like a Cannes?

It’s simply alive. It has its own personality. Walking on streets you are suprised to discover that it has a spirit, beside all the events which are happening here, beside all the people who cames and goes. Its something in the air that seams like magic. On the one hand you have peace and quite, on the other hand you have parties, noise, aglomeration and agitation.

Looking at the buildings, you can easly see who the modern style meets the classic and the old one.

Looking at the people, you discover a great diversity of cultural influences.

The result is simply amazing.

Exploring a new city may be an adventure, but certainly is a different experience for every person. I’m curios to know what is your impression….

Malina Neagu – Empower by TEMPO

This place, where people urge you to Ignite your Creativity, you also hear so much more about so so many things.

Relevant. Value. Credibility.

Consistent content. User generated content.

 Digital. Tehnology. Creativity.

Social networks. Innovative media.

Global vs local. Cultural enviroment.

Personality!

Malina Neagu – Empower by TEMPO

Visual branding is not just about the logo,the sign,the typography.You can communicate a strong message by using colors,forms by making an intercation between consumer and product.Actually is branding without visual branding.Colors and shapes can have a verry strong influence if you know how to create a strong way of interacting.A good example of strong influence of color in trademark is Tiffany and Co.an intresting visual solution of using color in their advertisments and packaging designs.Another example of  “branding without visual branding”is Odeour a fashion brand which uses form as a visual impact.So visual creative barnding can easily transform a product with a nonconventional  way of transporting a message!

Ionut Radulescu empowered by Tempo

Watching Isobar seminar I was impressed how you can built a design concept in a campaign so you can achieve an influence regarding this relation betwen consumer and product.Tesco-Cath Kidston designed ecological bags with a catchy image by conving people to reduce plastic by using this kind of bags,offering something better.This campaign was for Marie Curie charity.An example of using packaging and graphic design in advertising.

Ionut Radulescu empowered by Tempo

BBDO Worlwide & Proximity, “The battle of the sexes”. There were a lot of numbers and procents involved but also loud laughs. Men brains’ are like boxes, women’s are like wires, everything is connected trough emotions. This is the reason why women, unlike men, tend to remember everything. Men use the internet to have fun, to play, to score. Women are online for keeping in touch with friends and family. The Facebook users’ chart looks like that: 63% Women, 36% men. Women like to listen to others, to talk and share thoughts, gather opinions about what to wear or do. Facebook has such a feature, were women can ask their friends if they should buy a product or another. Women empathize, men score.

Diana Ichim

empowered by TEMPO

Finally, there’s a new title song in town. The battle of the sexes is now in online field. The classic war zone is now in new territories. Men want scoring, women relationships. Men fantasy, women reality. Men destination, women journey. And of course, men’s brains are made out of boxes that don’t touch and women’s brains are made out of wires that are interconnected.

Research confirms reality.

Cristina Calota, empowered by Tempo

Daniela Krautsack and Marcolo Bevolo, wonderful speaker for a really inspirational workshop. Multidisciplinary lookout on the future of urban advertising. If PriceWaterhouseCoopers outlook on the communication market said the advertising won’t be coming back… the 2 authors in the workshop added it up to this. Advertising will be urban or it will not be. That’s the future. Projectionism, public space add-ons, mixing virtual and reality, in a way that maybe in the future we won’t be calling advertising at all.

A fresh approach and a fun and involving team of speakers.

Cristina Calota, empowered by Tempo

If you are going to Cannes, do not miss SAWA Seminar. If we had the capacity to use more then 13% of our brain we would probabely be able to do what SAWA did for us yesterday. In the mean time, we have 3D technology.

While enjoying the SAWA Seminar we had the feeling that we were watching a show that was playing with our five senses. It is hard to describe the experience in  few words, you had to be there; briefingly, the main idea was that creatives must be aware of the transformations observed by the audience and to operate accordingly. In order to obtain the desired effect on the audience we have to explore our five senses at maximum, and we can do that using 3D technology.

Adriana Burlacu, empowered by TEMPO

Anca Ghinea, empowered by TEMPO.

Go Viral 2009

A common topic this year at Cannes Lions festival is about video and TV platforms on the web.

Jimmy Maymann also speaks of the “growth of video” but in the terms of adapting advertising format to user being “always on”.

So when talking about cases like T Mobile “Launching dance” happening or the transformation of a king for Burger King Jimmy H. speaks of good ideas placed on a relavant platform.

Alexandra Anghelache  empowered by Tempo

This is a resume of the Dancing T Mobile campaign, presented as a case study in the Always on seminar. And not just an one-off, but an idea built into a platform. So, once again, just putting something on an website or just putting it on youtube is no longer enough. You have to put it out there. And if consumers are always on, we have to be always on. Not just in June.

Cristina Calota, empowered by Tempo

As someone used to say in a previous meeting of the School, old school is very similar with the new one. If one knows how to work old school, one knows the tricks of the new fancy ones. And the PWC seminar was just about that: the universal old-school question of the consumer what’s in it for me? – now presented as i’m gonna give you guys my personal info in exchange for personalised content.

Ah, and one more. Advertising is not coming back, at least how we know it. What’s next?

Cristina Calota, empowered by Tempo

The hunt has begun. Outside Debussy seminars, the world of advertising is going crazy for the new improved new school latest design wow Coke vending machines. Design in its purest form. It’s amazing how ad people are going digital, playing and letting themselves entertained, dancing in front of the almighty vending machine. Not just a coke, but experience.

Ionut Coanda, empowered by Tempo

Have you ever thought of an adverising medium that could literally ignite all your 5 senses – sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing? All at the same time? Welcome to the age of cinema entertainment advertising!
The wonders of 3D digital cinema, 3D sound, cinemascent and interactive audience gaming make all this possible. Too cut a long story short, I have experienced the most involving and entertaining form of advertising – audience interactive entertainment. The product virtually pops up into your face. At the SAWA seminar I saw an ice cream commercial for a norwegian brand wich involved 3D images, vanilla scent being spred all over the room and at the end of it some product sampling. I definetely got hooked up on that icecream .
Is this stuff real and viable? Sure. The technology is here already and there are over 30k theatres which have it already. Cinema preshows will never be the same again.

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

In the PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS seminar we said so long to the ”old advertising” and we welcomed the new age of advertising. This recesion isn’t a cyclical but a structural one, that will change everything deeply. By the year 2013 there is expected an upturn in economy and there for in advertising but the charts showed that the increase reaches only the one in 2004. By that time the shift in mentalities, both brands and consumers should happen. There is a more picky consumer and he wants more things for free. So advertising as we know it isn’t coming back anymore, don’t sit around and do nothing, just waiting for the recession to end cause the time isn’t anymore in our favor.

Diana Ichim

empowered by TEMPO

We are all excited and we all want to know how future looks like. A few years ago we were wondering what future will bring to us, but now we learn how to bring things into the future.

Today, 21 of June, we aimed to understand how to deliver competent and prompt solutions for future problems because people are chainging and “future is now”.

At the first workshop the WGSN experts talked about how we can approach the youth market. One thing was made very clear: “youth does not mean young” because youth is a state of mind; we can even speak about the youth culture.

The markets can communicate with youth generation by being authentical, transparent, relevant and thinking outside the box.

Why is this generation different from others? The difference stands in the way they communicate and in the fact that they understand that being active on-line means having a voice and having a voice means having power. Where do the ordinary people come in this ecuation? Everyone is on his own. If you understand web generation you understand the future.

The workshop also delivered to us a great perspective of the youth fashion, (considering the demographic market), because finally how you dress speaks about you and your personality.

Sapient and Coca-Cola seminar presented their campaigns: First Coke of the Year, Burn After Ego, Happiness Factory and Coke Interactive Machine. First coke of the year engaged a masive number of people in interacting with the brand Coke, on-line. Who is the person that you are going to share your first Coke of the year with? That was the question that received more than 2 million answers.

Burn After Ego involved social media where people interacted with the brand. The campaign gave you the option to create your own avatar that was having its own life on-line. Happiness Factory brought the experience to the consumer on the internet. The real success was with the Coke machine that needed to be improved. Technically it worked very well but it would not communicate the brand properly. What was the solution? A creative, interactive relation between the Brand Coke and the consumer was created through the Coke Machine. It is about making things work naturally for the human being.

Mr. Richard Rosen presented to us the importance of convergance marketing, by bringing the power of the brand direct together. We understand that brand is not the most important thing, but relantionship is. In order to create a great relationship we must use a better ballance of the brand&direct.

The business world has, from a while, a new challenge, a new opportunity: to exist also in the Linked In. The seminar emphasized the fact that every individual is now an entrepreneur.  But why bussiness companies must be interested by the Linkedin In? Because social profiles put human faces on the companies.

That’s all for today, we will see tomorrow.

Adriana Burlacu, empowered by Tempo

Anca Ghinea, empowered by Tempo

2009 seems to be a fantastic year for Romania, making all the lobby and energetic efforts look meaningful.

Alex Strimbeanu and Gabi Gherca are THE BRONZE  WINNERS at YOUNG LIONS COMPETITION – PRINT.  They won this place, with their wallet solution, on a brief oriented through changing menthalities among high end buyers for expensive luxury products made of fur and leather of endangered species.

The first place came from Portugal while the second from Costa Rica.

Romania is today officially on the map of young creative people all around the world. We are so, so proud of them.

Their result is a living proof that all the eforts we did in the last 5 years in lobbying for those competition positions and investing in high level education were not for nothing. Big thanks to the visionary suporter of the team, Geo Baraian, Impression.

proudly, with another dream come true feeling, teo migdalovici

Today’s workshop by Ohslonsmith, a Stockholm-based design studio teaches as that design should be intuitive, playful, curious, expressive and daring.

So here are the seven rules of Visual Branding:

1.  What is a brand?

A brand is a person’s gut and feeling about a product, service or company.

2. Visual misspelling

A brand can’t afford to make any visual errors

3. Same, same or different?

If you want to stand out don’t follow generic visual codes

4. Spell is broken

If your employees don’t get it, neither will your customers

5. Moving a brand

When your company or products change so should your branding

6. Brand  concept

I’s vital to claim something in order to differentiate

7. The whole picture

A brand needs to be held togheter by a visual idea rather

Cristian Costea empowered by Tempo

Credibility. Not just a “a good looking” word. In a turbulent period this is one of the most important piece of the puzzle that leads to success.  Still, most brands didn’t have it.

So, what can they do?

The answer came easily.

In first place, advertiseres should offer quality messages. Considering the great amount of informations, consumers got overloaded. Therefore, a brand should create space. A space, where to pun relevent content, a message that really makes a difference for the target.

Speaking about brand credibility, what about ours?

One interesting aspect discusted was reffering to personal branding.

How you do it? How you create your own brand? Proiect your personal presentation strategy like a marketing one. The product is YOU.  And you need a proper channel that effectively delivers your message/ USP to a specific target.

Linked in is one presented solution for building your proffesional brand.

Using properly your profile page, you can benefit of  a provocative  ground. Pools on specific topics. Promoting your books or writing and giving visitators samples. Giving relevant informations or links about a certain subject.

If somebody “googled” your name, what will he/she found? All about your personal life? Hoobies like drinking and parties? Are you sure that your online business card is presentable?

Malina Neagu – Empowerd by TEMPO

Great seminar happened today with representatives from Philips, Wiliams F1 team and Eurosport. Topic of the day was how can brands increase their value by partnerships with elite motorsport such as Formula 1.
First of all Formula 1 is a glamorous and highly exciting sport wich gathers huge ratings every two weeks. It is only surpassed by the Olimpic games and the Soccer world cup, but these two happen only once in four years.
However most of the brands we see on F1 cars are top brands with high levels of awarness. So why do they fund such partnerships? Because their not after that. They want to increase their brand value.
With its partnership with Williams F1 and Eurosport for the hit TV show ”The Factory” – a documentary depicting the behind the scenes life of the Williams team, Philips managed to increase employment engagement, strenghten relations with key customers and improve their promotions and retail. Being a F1 fan myself, I would be prone to buy a brand wich gives me the chance to drive a F1 car .
Yesterday in the New Content workshop it was all about branded content. The Factory is a TV show broadcasted in partnership with Philips, but only 18% of viewers stated this. And the guys over at Philips didn’t minded it at all. Their objective wasn’t raising awarness, but improving brand value. Clever move, if you think of the times we’re going through.

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

The Brandwood seminar showed the way to a new land. No Bollywood, no Nollywood, not even Hollywood, but a bit of all in the same time. It’s the land where branding and entertaiment have created a new breed of advertising that takes the values and essentials of your brand and combine them in a real performance. The boys are very financially wise: they use sponsorships, joint branding and a special model of revenue per views+sales leads. From one year to another they have succeed to convince brands on this way of delivering their message. Examples are many and diverse. We could mention Becel with the campaign Love your Heart, measuring the pulse of candidates at The Apprentice show or Minitv, a show in a the car, driving all over the major cities. It’s fun to discover the inner mojo of the brands and create a show around them, a very integrated experience using the medium and the forms appropriate for your tone of voice. Brandwood is still a virgin, but fertile land. Let’s explore it.

Today I found out that they have added one more species on the endangered species list: the creative director. In an age where we’re moving on from the broadcast of the few to the narrowcast of the many, great creative ideas can come from basically anywhere. Striving for survival, the creative direcor must start to look for ways in wich brands can amplify consumer culture, in order to be relevant for the customer. While the Internet makes marketing work harder, creatives must empathise with customers and give them the opportunities to have a conversation with the brand.
However, this does not mean that starting tomorrow everyone will become a creative director. Even though the paradigm is changing, old talents are still very relevant.
Thanks LBi for enlightment.

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

Some of the experiences in our lives have become so dull and automated that we have come to take them for granted. Buying a product is just one of them: give the money – take the product. There is no such thing as true aquisition experience. The marketing people at CocaCola have thought a lot about this thing and come up with a way to change this.
They have begun to use one of their biggest marketing assets – their vending machines. These ‘red boxes’ have been turned into one of the most dynamic forms of OOH advertising. First of all they don’t use big fat buttons as a consumer interface, but a 80 cm wide touch screen computer wich has you totally emerge in the Coke buying experience. Because sticking notes into the machine might still turn you away from buying, you can use your mobile phone to pay – they’ve been doing so in Japan for at least a year.
Even though these new multimedia vending machines cost the company 3 times more than regular ones, they have the potential to generate 10 times more revenue, while building customer loialty.
And they look absolutely fabulos

Costin Marcu, empowered by Tempo

Sunday morning, the end of the traditional monolithic creative director. The seminar ends in applause, as we are shown how brands should take on the culture and amplify it. Lego has taken the notorious Darth Vader all’arabiato and turned it into a campaign of its own. It’s funny how the first seminar in the festival stated that the revolution we’ve been talking about for so many years is no longer happening. It happened.

Cristina Calota, empowered by Tempo

Nice emotional project on behalf of Coca Cola China. And one that is to remind us that, in some market, Coke just skipped the traditional internet and passed on to the mobile.

Cristina Calota, empowered by Tempo

The Happines Factory campaign has a central ideea of communicating their message:”tangible experience-tangible products”.They try to create a more appropiate relation betwen consumer and product.Speaking about design concept as a main visual message,I noticed how motion graphics,product design(the vending machine),graphic design can have an impact for consumers.It’s about making an interactivity betwen target and product.

Ionut Radulescu empowered by Tempo

After attending this seminar I believe that I should erase some of my social media accounts or make them somehow even more personal(option-friends only). You should be very thoughtful when writing something about yourself online because an employer can always look you up as fast as your saying “Google” and find embarsaing things about you (why you hate your ex-husband or things that only friends should care or know about). You are a person but also an employee. Always remember that!
A company can greatly benefit from creating a more personal relation with its customers by using their employees. Employees can be a powerfull,relevant and believable communication tool, but choosing to do so, they should be aware that they represent the company in everything that they do. Talk to people and listen to them. It’s not the brand that is addressing to them, but people. Give a more human face to your brand.

On LinkedIn you can do all of these and even more.

Diana Ichim,

15 for Cannes empowered by TEMPO

The LBI seminar was a summary of  all the confrences about changing trends in marketing, I attended post financial crisis. In order to survive the creative director needs to adapt to the new context. We  all know what that is:  emerging channels with fragmented ownership, all-over-the place audiences and people who distruss the channels the have little control on. The CD’s work needs to be belivable, it has to listen to what is going on and respond accordingly. Most important he has to collaborate insted of generating ideas on his own. He also needs leadership skills and generate ideas that are simple and offer high engagement.

Anca Muscalu, empowered by TEMPO