For the next three days I'll be in Sf. Gheorghe, in the beautiful Danube Delta, at the Delta Music Fest. I finally get to see UNKLE live! One of my all time favorites. The line up is excellent and the location beautiful.
We'll be a bunch of going down there, so if someone of you guys will be around, come and say hi.

I won't stop here
I won't be still until the sun sets
On us all..

Today's edition of "Ziarul de Iasi". Claudia Craiu wrote a nice piece about our video and it's accomplishments on YouTube. Good start of the week :)

"Through away your best and start again".

So we've made a little video. It's the spoof from the previous post.We've had a lot of fun making it. We've had very little expectation. I mean, we've thought that once our friends will see it, the whole thing will be forgotten.
It turned out exactly the opposite. Right at this moment the video was seen by 33,707 people in two days. It was favorited by 117 people and linked by a whole bunch of blogs, forums and sites. The thing just blew out of proportion! Everybody talks about it, people from all over the country are calling us to congratulate. The media got interested and we going to be in the papers. Even the most viewed TV station in the country found out about it and now they invited us to be part of a program about media and advertising. And let's not forget that we are talking about a Romania spoken video. Even more, a Moldavian dialect!!!!

Now, I am really surprised by all this. And learned a lot from the experience. First of all a viral becomes viral if it's interesting, well written and beautifully executed. Then, like Russell (I think) once said, "build stuff that people want". Apparently, our little idea is something people from Romania want to see. And have fun doing it!

So be creative, have ideas, share, be inspired by your friends while having a beer. You might do some really funny stuff that other people love to see and talk about it.

This is a spoof after the well known "Budweiser - Wassss up" commercial. It was shot yesterday by my former mates from Rofilco. They also did the editing. The actors in the video are friends of ours. I'm also playing in it ;) Can you take a wild guess? ;))

I think that it came pretty good. It is in Romanian, so sorry guys, if you don't understand. I hope you get it.

"Bruneta, 1,78, sani mici, caut designer serios si experimentat pentru clipe de placere in compania unor domni generosi, de la o anumita companie. Posed departament. Nu raspund la fluieraturi."

CV sau Portofoliu tocmai la thegavrilescu@gmail.com

A major trend, and one which will undoubtedly impact on all marketing communications agencies depending on how prepared they already are, is the increase in demand from clients for better customer insights. This tallies with our own experience – the improved new business performance of agencies that embrace this point speaks for itself. Agencies should develop keener customer insights and communicate these energetically to their prospect-base.

According to Rainmaker Consulting’s “Intelligent New Business Survey,” the main factor for choosing one agency over another is "Quality customer insights." Not size, not creative capabilities, not client list, which are ranked down below.

This clearly shows the need for people with planning skills, with a keen eye and able to come up with quality insights.

After the "free and confidential" rectal exam, you would have scored two free tickets to a future Brewers game.

Odd promotional tactic!

At the Society for Parental Mind Control, we believe young people like us deserve the very best of everything. And more than anything else, we deserve wicked-sick computers that kick a whole lotta butt–serious butt.

We’re only here to help you do what you already do…only better. So take heart, friend…the future is yours…and we’re here to help you get the computer…that should also be yours.

Chrysler has a new logo. The Pentastar got a metalizing treatment. It was 1962 when then-Chrysler president Lynn Townsend wanted a new corporate symbol to represent all of the corporation’s brands. It had to be a symbol with a strong, classic look, instantly recognizable and universal. Wherever you were, in whatever country, that symbol had to say “Chrysler.”
Now Chrysler is being Chrysler again.

more here

Production house Sehsucht have created this mesmerizing spot for Konzerthaus Dortmund through the agency Jung von Matt.

The clip has been directed by Niko Tziopanos. Art Direction: Alexander Heyer and Martin Hess.

The title of the soundtrack is Kara Toprak (Black Earth) by Fazil Say

Advertised brand: www.AdOfDaMonth.com
Advert title(s): Playbox, Siat, Samose

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Budapest
Creative Director: Dalbir Singh

Short rationale: The ads are testing the knowledge of
the creatives. How much are you in the know? Can you spot the real one?

"Creative departments are the most hidebound and conservative departments in the agency"

- Adrian Ho, from Zeus Jones, at AAAA Account Planning Conference in San Diego

The oldest university in Romania, "Al. I. Cuza." from Iasi, got a new set of "special effects". I really like the way it looks. The light system is giving the old university (inaugurated in 1860) a touch of style and elegance, rightly deserved. Well done to whomever had the idea!

Irish spot that represents of a very original form what happens when filling a glass of Guinness. Aside from the visual effects, it is necessary to emphasize that the stunt men were thrown towards 8 real giant drums build for the occasion of the shoot, and the surprising synchronization between choreography and music. Enjoy it!

"Adobe's desktop brand system is a pragmatic & systematic approach to creating a cohesive functional visual language carried across our hundred products and their thousands of branded icons and screens. With a specific emphasis on clarity and legibility, this system expresses a singular focus of better enabling our customers and their work.
Our approach is pragmatic and utilitarian, literally "less is more". We have created a concise and coherent unified language in a deceivingly simple and highly distinctive visual system – from the branded desktop work through to interface and product design. Top-level point products (authoring environments eg. Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) follow a two-letter mnemonic 'nickname' system as their primary identifier... A product's icons are paired with a specific color, usually based on historical color association (Flash is red, Dreamweaver is green) and familied within a particular vertical. This color association is carried throughout the product's desktop brand in lieu of 'primary imagery', from install screens through app icons and reinforced through details on document and supporting icons." - John Nack on Adobe

Using video and authentic personal ads to promote jeans, Diesel and Wysiwyg employ Web 2.0 tactics. The page transforms into a real personals section. If the user is looking for a date, then he/she can send a photo and profile to the site gallery and, who knows, someone looking for a partner may contact them.

Gareth Kay (Modernista) and Mark Lewis (DDB, San Francisco) came out with this rather interesting list. They will elaborate on the subject at the AAAA Account Planning Conference in San Diego, next week.
I confess, I'm a sinner. Not because I commit the sins described above, but for not being good enough to help my clients understand that they are sinners, too.