sparking curious mind

To start of your week, here are some really sexy prints for Lavazza Coffee. From now one my morning coffee will be a much more intense experience :)





The photograph is Eryk Fitkau, an Australian who thinks that ""A photograph does not speak, it does not smell, it makes no sound, it does not move, it is just a two dimensional piece of paper, but a good photograph can do at least one if not all of the above!" At the end of the day that is exactly what Eryk's images are all about.

via cup of java

This is a great tools! Free online file conversion. Just the kind of thing lots of us was looking for. Zamzar supports conversion between a wide variety of different file formats: text, image, music, video. You can even convert YouTube videos. This is the epitome of web 2.0.

Some friends of mine put together a interesting event. Mad Days is a mix of advertising, music and film. It will take place in Iasi between 22 and 24 March.
I look forward to the workshops held by Marius (on branding) Costin and Elena (planning) and the guys from Violet. Also there will be a fine selection of Romanian short movies and a concert with Al Jawala, a German band with an eclectic sound, mixing Balkan rhythms, drum'n'bass, jazz and funk.

Looks like fun. Come join the fun!

via iasi nights (ro)

I love this visual. It reminds me on the times I learned to ride a bicycle and the liberating sensation of my first meters on two wheels.

In an Adage interview, Bob Iger, CEO, Walt Disney Co. commented:

According to Mr. Kent Oldham, associate director and GBS consumer view solutions manager at P&G, “now more than ever, consumers are owning our brands, and we not only have to understand that they are owning our brands. But we also have to embrace that idea and understand the implications of it.”

Finally P&G admits it. The change in consumer's attitudes towards brands is irreversible. Consumers have the need to be in control, people are becoming more self-expressive on a scale not possible before -- with family, friends and even strangers on the Internet, thanks to new technology. “They have ways of networking with each other that they have never been able to before,” Mr. Oldham said.

Marketers don’t control all touch points, and those touch points, as a result, have a great impact on the way consumers view brands. The implication of not learning from every touch point a consumer has with your company or product or service can be costly. “No matter how much great brand-building work you do, and how much equity your brands have, all it takes is one negative consumer experience to destroy all of it."

After a long wait, I've got my blog back. Unfortunately, everything posted on the new blogger platform is lost :(
Now, I don't know what to do. Should I try to rebuild the blog as it was, or should I continue posting from here on? What do you think? Any suggestions?

Copy: "Because your brain is faster than DSL"

The tagline says "Discover the importance of reading"
Don't know the agency. Anyone?

In his new book, Grant McCracken deploys "complex adaptive theory" to track the movement of trends and new groupings of consumers. It applies complexity theory to the turbulence of contemporary cultures and markets.

He says, "Complexity has a theory. Commotion has a pattern. Dynamism has a system. We can continue to live by damage control, or we can change the way we play the game." To survive our own world of collision and speed, marketers need to see the world as "flocks and flows."

Brand: Happydent
Product: Chewing Gum
Client: Equinox (Ram Madhwani)
Agency: McCann Erickson

Great ad! Creativity personified!

A study by Winterberry Group examines how market and industry trends are driving systemic
change across the agency landscape, further transforming the agency/client dynamic.

Compiled in more than 70 interviews with senior-level executives, the study demonstrates that the traditional agency model is dying.

• - The complex demands of the multichannel selling environment require that agencies provide clients with a unified offering spanning both "“above-the-line"” and "“below-the-line"” marketing channels
- Compressed margin availability, expanded client scrutiny and the
emergence of alternative service providers are raising the competitive
pressure for agencies of all sizes
- Integrated service providers are seeking to command a greater
presence in the agency environment, but struggle to sell their strategic
and creative offerings to marketers who associate their brand with
other services
- Clients are increasingly leaning on internal strategy and creative
capabilities-—as well as procurement departments-—to support
marketing initiatives and generate leverage in negotiations with
external agencies
- The prevalent "“agency holding company"” model is poorly equipped to
provide the organizational agility and cross-channel service offering
that today'’s marketers demand.

The study sparked a lot of discussions around the blogosphere. The change is irreversible and those unable to switch will parish.

As Noelle Weaver says, the way forward is getting past the medium and get to know the consumer. Intimately.
Also, Blue Flavor'’s Director of Strategy, Brian Fling, in his post The Agency Model is Dead, says there are five reasons why the old model doesn't work anymore:

1. Segmentation (Too many choices, pervasive media weakened)
2. Big Ideas: They don'’t always reap big rewards
3. The Cost of Trial and Error
4. The Growth of In-House Resources
5. The Talent Pool

The study concludes that "Forward-thinking shops-—those that embrace media-agnostic planning and employ integrated "“across-the-line"” methods-—represent a model to which
many others are likely to convert in the years ahead. Merger and acquisition
activity may well drive this hybridization. Already prime acquisition targets, for
example, interactive agencies will continue to be incorporated into general and
direct agencies as they are likely too "“siloed"” to survive as standalone entities.

Despite the seismic shifts that have occurred on the agency landscape, the
results from this study confirm that agencies are adapting to the new rules of
engagement and even flourishing beneath them. It is impossible to state with
certainty how the terrain will change in the future, but these findings suggest
that agencies with accountable, innovative marketing programs will always be
in demand."

via experience planner

"Temporary means learning to care for things (and people) that are precious, and when it’s time, to freely let them go. As Gary Thorp says in his book Sweeping Changes: "the joy comes not from trying to keep things forever, but from keeping them well."

"Permanency breeds a state of fear. If you own something, there’s always the potential to lose it, while if you own next to nothing, you won’t worry about ending up with nothing."

From an excellent report on a new trend, cleverly named, temporariness.

You can download it here

Collaboration of W+K and Nexus Production with a GTA twist, and you get an unusually cool Coke ad.

via brand new

I've travelled 400 km to see Placebo in concert in Bucharest. I didn't like it. They are not very good playing live, and what was even worse, they delivered the playlist at a very fast pace, without any interaction/connection with the crowd.
I had high expectations and I left dissapointed. I will stick to the dvd and the cd's. This way I will avoid seeing Mr. Brain Molko's arrogance and platitude. Too much hype for too little.
They didn't played with the heart. It was professional and aseptic. Easily forgetful.

Pretty innovative form of marketing for the upcoming release of Snakes on a Plane that shows how just including a limited amount of user control can drastically affect a product.

The premise of the site Snakes on a Plane: Send a Message from Samuel L. Jackson is that you can enter a little bit of relative data and can then generate a call to anyone you want from Mr. Jackson asking them to see the movie on its Aug. 18 release date.

The site asks both your name and the name of the person you are sending the message to, the numbers of both, and the occupation, hobby, looks, and mode of transportation of the person receiving the message. When you complete the information, the site calls the person in question with a message from Samuel L. Jackson, addressing them by name and telling them to leave their job and hobby behind, pick up the person who made the call and take them to see Snakes on a Plane.

I'm curious if those who receive the call will go see the movie. Or it will just create a buzz, and only a percentage of them will go to the cinema.

I rely too much on technology. Maybe because technology seems more serious and professional than a pencil, so instead of writing or drawing, I, like many other creative professionals, turn to mechanical aids. I've used overhead projectors, stat machines, digital cameras, scanners or Photoshop to put my ideas on paper or screen. The more I come to rely on these tools, the less I trust my abilities to write/draw.
We are feeling incapable of producing images that approach the "perfection" of machines.

Like any physical skill, whether shooting baskets or driving a car, if we stop doing it, we get rusty. So on those rare occasions when we do pick up a pencil, the results are disappointing and we vow not to make that mistake again.

So what price are we paying for this? Why not just rely on stock-photo websites and Photoshop to present our ideas? My cell phone has a camera built into it, so why bother carrying a sketchpad?

That's simple.
Because our jobs, our happiness, our lives depend on it. Because our goal is not to produce slick compositions; it's to lead a creatively fertile life.

Client: Cancer Patients Aid Association
Agency: Euro RSCG, India






Client: History Files
Agengy: Graffiti BBDO, Bucharest

Hilarious account about the modern man. George Carlin is on top of his game!

The young people driving the markets nowadays got a name.

Colin Bates came up with C Generation, which stands for:

Content - creating and distributing their own content
Creativity - finding new ways to interpret brands
Community - sharing their ideas with friends

I think that is a good description of what this generation is about. More and more brands took notice and started to collaborate with their audience. Inviting customers to participate in the development of TV commercials, involving them in product development or promotions, allowing shoppers to customize the products, are some of the ways brands effectively build relationships with their customers.

So, brand owners should ask themselves:
Am I doing enough to collaborate with my marketplace to build my brand?

InBev Germany introduced two new brands in the segment of beer mix beverages.
Beck’s Level 7 is a beer and energy drink, a mix of guarana, coffee and beer.
Beck's Chilled Orange is mix of beer and Kumquat orange with fruit-fresh flavour.

Both products have an alcohol content of 2,5 per cent and are offered in transparent, white glass bottles. Both novelties are offered in the following bundles: Single bottle, Sixpack and 24er box of 0.33 litres (single bottles and/or four Sixpacks).

more info: www.becks-level7.de
www.becks-chilled-orange.de

After being awarded the prestigious BMW advertising account, fledgling creative hotshop Ireland/Davenport launched its first TV commercial for the brand.

Shot in the Netherlands using the moving sculptures of world-renowned artist Theo Jansen, the commercial, entitled "Kinetic Sculptures", forms part of a broader campaign which serves to highlight BMW's market leadership in the fields of technology and innovation.

Emphasising the strategic background behind the creative execution, newly appointed strategic director at Ireland/Davenport, Priniven Pillay, adds, "BMW is so passionate about innovation, from their design elements to their pioneering engineering concepts, and it was this passion that we wanted to capture through our TV commercial."

Truely unique & amazing way of bringing together art and engineering.

via guerrilla innovation

More and more companies are embarking the trend of mass customization. Following NikeID launched back in 1999, brands from different categories give their customers the opportunity to customize their products.

Celebrating its 130th anniversary, the H.J. Heinz Co. has created a special Web site where consumers can customize their ketchup bottle labels.

At Nordiska Kompaniet's food hall customers can hook up their iPod to the iFood terminal and download audio recipes.
The process is described in five simple steps: 1) Plug in, 2) Download, 3) Purchase, 4) Listen, and 5) Cook. After choosing from a wide range of recipes and downloading audio instructions to their iPod or other mp3 player, shoppers can purchase all necessary items from a colour-coded deli area.

iFood is an exclusive cooperation between Nordiska Kompaniet/NK, an upmarket Stockholm warehouse with an equally upscale food hall, and Ridderheims, a manufacturer and distributor of fine meats and delicatessen products.

Very clever and simple example of customer engagement.

via springwise

"We’re all drowning in information today. The value is no longer in collecting or even condensing it, but in transforming it. Your edge will come, not from knowing something your competitors don’t, but in applying creative intelligence to all the available information in order to create generative, profitable ideas." - Open Intelligence Agency

"What happens when an interactive agency goes to work for SUBWAY? Late nights, fun times, and lots of sandwiches. When Agency.com has the chance to win the SUBWAY interactive business, they immediately go to work... in the restaurants, on the streets, and, of course, on the internet. Check out their viral video, send it to your friends, and help them spread the good word of, um, mustard." - Agency.com

Agency.com makes a viral video about them for a pitch for Subway account. Then they post it on Youtube before going to Subway.

The move sparks all sorts of reactions around blogosphere. Coudal even made a very funny spoof.

Is this the right move to win new business?

via Adfreak

Assessing creative ideas effectively is a combination of art and science, subjectivity and objectivity. This requires: shared agendas and honesty, a deep knowledge of what communications does and a profound understanding of the brand itself, clients recognising and nurturing a great idea, the ability to handle difficult discussions about creativity, the need to appreciate the agency’s approach to presenting work, and making informed decisions based on agency advice and experience.

Ten-stage framework of shared criteria for closer, more effective relationships:

1. Be knowledgeable in advance – assess ideas in a broader context
2. Come to the meeting with a smile – be ready to be inspired
3. Back to the brief – use brief as a framework against which to evaluate the idea
4. Empathise – with the people bringing the ideas to you
5. Clarify – is it on brief? What exactly is the idea? How is the idea going to work?
6. Question yourself – be both subjective and objective
7. Question the idea – use open questions to encourage ideas to develop
8. Reflection – listen to the agency, go away, think, ask the ‘how’ questions
9. Refinement and the role of research – these are the ‘why’ questions
10. Relax – you’ve done everything you can to help the idea survive and flourish

To download the world’s first guide for Judging Creative Ideas click here

"The proposition behind both ads has been to communicate 'Colour like.no.other'. With both ‘Balls’ and ‘Paint’, our intention is to show the depth of colour that can be taken for granted if you have a BRAVIA high definition LCD TV. We know that consumers still value colour above all else when choosing a TV set so we’re continuing to promote Sony's credentials (Live Colour Creation technology etc) in all our communication about BRAVIA."
David Patton, Senior VP Marketing Communications, Sony Europe

From an interview at If!

Also, check out the Sony Bravia blog. They give access to "behind the scenes" footage of the next BRAVIA advertising campaign, "Paint". For the making of the advert they used 70,000 litres of paint - 358 single bottle bombs - 33 sextuple air cluster bombs - 22 Triple hung cluster bombs - 268 mortars - 33 Triple Mortars - 22 Double mortars - 358 meters of weld - 330 meters of steel pipe - 57 km of copper wire.

Quite impressive!

Montreal culture jammers Rob Maguire and Ezra Winton, the cofounders of the anticorporate activist collective berculture began sharing their recipe for berbr , an all-natural hemp ale, with Canadian microbrewers as a way of spreading a message and funding their work.

Two microbreweries in Montreal and Vancouver are making the "uncorporate" beer, and about a dozen bars and cafés are selling it. The profits are split with berculture, which produces political documentaries and film festivals, and campaigns against corporate giants like Wal-Mart. Like open-source software code, the ale's recipe is free for anyone to use and modify, so long as users in turn share any changes.
To support local enterprise and cut down on pollution from shipping, Maguire and Winton want berbr to be made locally, from mostly local ingredients, wherever it is sold.



Überbr isn't the world's only open-source beer, nor is it the first. That title is claimed by Vores Øl (Our Beer), a meaty brew with a caffeine boost from South American guarana beans. The beer was created last year by a group of students at Copenhagen's IT University in a workshop on copyright and intellectual property taught by artist Rasmus Nielsen. The project applies the logic behind open-source software, which flouts Microsoft's corporate hegemony by tapping the creativity of the masses to design ever-evolving programs like the Linux operating system.

"If I am to succed in leading a person towards a particular goal, I must first find out where he is now and start from there. If I cannot do this I am deluding myself when I believe that I can help others. In order to help somenone it is true that I must understand what he understands. If I cannot do that, it is of little use that I can do more and know more.
If , however, I want to show how much I can do, that is because I am vain and proud, because I really want to be admired by other people instead of helping them. All true helpfulness starts with humility towards the person I want to help, and for this I need to understand that helping is not wanting to dominate, it is wanting to serve."
Soren Kierkegaard

This is what a planner should be about. To serve the consumer, we first must understand who he is, how he lives and so on.

Client: Guinness
Agency: BBDO / New York

The prototype of a revolutionary new type of vehicle only one metre wide specially designed for cities has been developed by a team of European scientists. The vehicle combines the safety of a micro-car and the manoeuvrability of a motorbike, while being more fuel-efficient and less polluting than other vehicles.

The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) is a tilting three-wheeled vehicle that is fully enclosed and has seats for the driver and a passenger. Its strengthened frame protects the driver in a crash and the vehicle has a top speed of approximately 60 mph (about 100 kph) and an acceleration of 0-40 mph (60 kph) in seven seconds.

via TechEBlog

From Jetta Official Backseat Driver’s Manual.
Inserted in magazines, the guide, done by Crispin Porter+Bogusky, informes us that "being a backseat driver is not a right. It’s a privilege. And a responsibility.”
It also includes a quiz and an official backseat drivers license at the end.


At Brettner you can view the scans from each page.

Tres cool.

This is a little piece done by Piers Fawkes from PFSK about the omnipresent urban spam around us.



You can also download Piers presentantion - "Gathering Inspiration - Being Random"- delivered at the AAAA Account Planning Conference in Miami.

Hurry, is free until 1st of August!

Never hurt a woman's feelings. It may use outdoor advertising to get back to you.
And good copy and the right exposure it does the job.

Great and fun idea!

More logos here

Client: Volkswagen
Agency: DDB Berlin

Copy says: Maximum power. Minimal consumption. The new TSI engine

Companies strategize at the highest levels – push the marketing and communication teams to craft customer messages, invest in expensive marketing campaigns – yet employees are often the last to truly understand their company’s brand.
Companies are learning that their brand stands or falls on the internal relationship with its employees as much as their external promises to customers.

Still, many organizations fail at enfranchising their employees in their branding. They are so externally focused on the customer, and the shareholders, that they are pursued above all others, excluding the actual messenger of the brand – the employee!

Not long ago, I was at a sales training for the sales force of Coca-Cola Romania. The company just introduced two new products to the market and they organized this conference to familiarize the sales people with the new drinks. Around 900 hundred people were present, the company brought Ilie Nastase and Nadia Comaneci to deliver these motivational speeches, a well-known TV star was the host to the entire evening. They introduced the new drinks, the communication campaign; competitions among different teams were held ad-hoc. The audience was hyped-up.

My role there was to hand out these promotional objects as gifts from the company for its employees. The plan was to give a mob style hat to the guys and a feathers scarf to the girls. That was the plan. Unfortunately, when the show was over, the crowd just erupted from the venue and literally grabbed in total disorder the gifts from the boxes. It was like a herd of wild beasts running amok! In 15 minutes the place looked vandalized and we were incredulously asking each other if those were people from Coca-Cola?!

There and then I promised myself that I will never drink again anything made by Coca-Cola. I still keep my promise.

Explore and play and confuse yourself. The perfect way to while away the hottest period of the year.

Great fun with words at Uncontrollable Semantics

Click on 'play' and take it from there, in a whirl of words and colours.

Created by Jason Nelson

"Good copy also is grounded in consumer insight. Through efforts ranging from quantitative studies to consumer interviews, brand marketers and agencies must gain an understanding of consumer preferences and develop creative executions that flow from those insights.

Understanding consumers' life stages will guide informed decisions about tone, vocabulary and content. The challenge is for a brand to be courageous enough to choose a focused target audience and speak in their language, rather than speaking in a vanilla vocabulary that tries to reach everyone.

Trying to target everyone is like targeting no one."

Rob Depp, VP of client services Deskey

from P-O-P Times

Go face-to-face with the giants of advertising. Watch interviews and archival videos of the industry's top creatives and inluencers.

via Creative Classics

Client: Electrolux
Brand: Zanussi
Agency: BBH London

The newly launched "Get a life, Get a Zanussi" is the first pan-European marketing campaign of the brand. The campaign's total investment stands at EUR 10 million for the year 2006.

WPP has struck a joint venture with a social-networking service, Live World, to build out blogs, buddy lists, message boards, chat rooms and community sites for its clients.

The joint venture, named LiveWorld-WPP, will be equally owned by each company and is exclusively dedicated to collaborating with WPP agencies to offer, create, and deploy LiveWorld’s online community and social networking services as marketing venues for WPP’s clients on a global basis.

Peter Friedman, CEO of Live World, says that "consumers aren't reluctant to be part of a community formed around a brand as long as it's a venue in which the consumer can build relationships with other people who have common interests. For the brand, it can be the ultimate research tool."

I believe that this is going to work. Brand focus and strategic objectives will determine the characteristics of the content offered on an online community . However, the science of community is far more difficult. Communities are delicate collections of people with varying opinions, experiences and prejudices (both positive and negative) on technologies and companies. Traditional uses of marketing and PR are entirely inappropriate for community relations, and it instead requires a deep understanding of community, people and a commitment to the principles that the community is ingrained in. If there is an attempt to subvert these principles, the relationship breaks down.

Cool campaign launched online by HP. The ads are available on a variety of video sites, including YouTube, iFilm, and Google, as well as HP's own microsite for the campaign.

The video clips represent the latest phase of the online portion of HP's current branding initiative, which carries the slogan "The Computer Is Personal Again," and aims to promote computers as expressions of users' individuality.







Goodby, Silverstein & Partners created the units and designed the microsite, which was built by Agency.com.

"Creative without strategy is called 'art.' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.'"

Jef I. Richards, advertising professor, The University of Texas at Austin.

Dubbing the movies that are shown in movie theaters is something that varies from place to place. In some countries all movies are dubbed, whereas in others you hear the original language. There may be advantages and disadvantages in both systems.

I believe that movies are best watched in the original state. I am a big fan of sarcastic jokes, puns and all sorts of refined word/mind games. All these are often spoilt by translation. Some things just can't be translated into another language. In other cases there's a natural double meaning to a word or a subtle connotation, which gets lost in the process of translation. I've noticed many erroneous or lousy translations, and usually have some fun about the translation besides the meaning of the movie. Dubbing the movie would deprive me of the chance to hear the original and would leave only the imperfect translation.

Voices are, indeed, a very important part of any movie! I can remember a ubiquitous annoying voice that dubbed most Hollywood movies into Russian in Soviet times. It had a monotonous, mumbly voice that seemed to belong to a phlegmatic person with a chronically clogged nose. Furthermore, the same irritating voice dubbed all the characters! So, on one hand, I think it is best to hear distinctive voices rather than a single one speaking on behalf of all the characters (both women and men)! On the other hand, I want to hear the genuine voices, which some of the actors consummate to real art! I would never want to hear the annoying phlegmatic voice of some lethargic dude instead of listening to the real voice modulations of Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, or especially Anthony Hopkins! By the way, think of Brad Pit's voice when talking to the old lady in the hospital in "Meet Joe Black"?

Now, of course, Germany has their own Woody Allen voice-impersonator, Italy has its Harrison Ford, Spain has it's own Sharon Stone (most of France's has the common sense not to dub its films), but generally these country's citizens grew up with these voices matched to these actors and they've gotten used to the strangeness of it all. But aren’t these people missing the genuine experience of movie going?

Client: Sony
Brand: Playstation 2
Agency: TBWA, Paris

David Lubars is Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of BBDO North America, and this year's Titanium Lions Jury President at the Cannes Advertising Festival. He started his career in 1981 and has since won every major creative award out there several times over, including a Cannes Titanium Lion, an award especially created to honor the outstanding achievement repre­sented by the internet films for BMW produced during his time as President of Fallon Worldwide and Executive Creative Director of Fallon North America. He has also won 17 "regular" Cannes Lions and the Emmy for Best TV Commercial in America no less than three times. He has been named Crea­tive Director of the Year 2000 in Ad-week, and his BMW films are now part of MoMA's permanent collection in New York City . David Lubars answered questions put to him by Michael Weinzettl for Lurzer's Archive, covering everything from his career and future plans for BBDO, New York , through to his views on advertising today.



L.A. : What, in your opinion, makes a good advertising creative?

David Lubars: Extraordinary natural talent, of course, but also an almost, but not quite, debilitating insecurity. The best people have trouble living in their own skin because nothing is ever great enough, nothing is ever smart enough. They worry someone else is doing something better, they're afraid of disappointing the client, and on and on. It's a tough way to live but the best ones are like that. I once heard a saying to the effect that the best peo­ple are afraid of being fired, whereas the mediocre ones are always shocked when they are.

L.A. : How do you view the state of advertising in the US at present as compared to, say, 15 years ago?

David Lubars: A couple of months ago, Peter Souter of AMV/BBDO flew to New York to work on a project together. Unfortunately, he came down with a nasty flu on the plane so, in­stead of going to dinner with us that evening, he stayed in his hotel to recover. The next day, he felt better and came into the office. The first thing out of his mouth; "I watched primetime American television for 6 hours straight last night, the first time I've had the opportunity to do that. The hotel had 50 channels and I flipped back and forth between them all. I didn't see one brilliant commercial the entire evening. In England , I'd have seen five or six." Depressing, but he's right. We and our clients must con­stantly remind ourselves that brilliant creativity will bring disproportionate results, that it is an economic multiplier. Creativity is the best tool we have, in whichever medium we apply it.

Some like it, some hate it, others are not so sure.
The logo, designed for the 2010 event in South Africa, represents the shape of Africa in the colours of our flag. Superimposed over it is a somewhat abstract figure of a footballer, possibly inspired by San art, executing an overhead "bicycle" kick.

Graphic designers in Cape Town said they were generally disappointed feeling that it had had potential to be much better.

What's your say?

Simple, powerful, unique!

In a report titled “Soccernomics 2006,” economists at the bank ABN Ambro picked Italy as the “economic favorite” to win the World Cup.

According to Charles Kalshoven of the ABN AMRO Economics Department: 'The Italian economy is hampered by an inflexible labour market and deteriorating competitiveness. An Italian victory in the World Cup final would boost consumer and producer confidence, and thus lead to more spending and investment. 'Made in Italy' would also reap more benefits abroad. This may well push economic growth upwards, which would then give the government scope to introduce economic reforms.'

Well, they were right. And I wonder why I didn't place a bet on Italy.
I only hope that the history repeats itself and AS Roma will win "Il Scudetto" next year. Like in 1983, the year after the italian squad became world champion for the third time.

Between You and Me, a award-winning short film composed entirely of digital still photos. Brilliant!

Vodafone mobile office
Diesel denim guide
VW Jetta choose you model
The Vodafone journey
Orbit good clean feeling

Take a look! Very nice!

Excelenta ideea lui Cristi Manafu! Hai sa umplem Romania de bloggeri cu tricou! Lista creste pe zi ce trece. Join in!

Sing along! Hilariuos karaoke style commercial.

Brand: Onitsuka Tiger

Agency: Strawberry Frog

1. from consumers → to people
consumers buy, people live

2. from product → to experience
products fulfill needs, experiences fulfill desires

3. from honesty → to trust
honesty is expected. trust is engaging and intimate. it needs to be earned

4. from quality → to preference
quality for the right price is a given today. preference creates the sale

5. from notoriety → to aspiration
being known does not mean that you are also loved!

6. from identity → to personality
identity is recognition. personality is about character and charisma!

7. from function → to feel
the functionality of a product is about practical or superficial qualities only
sensorial design is about experiences

8. from ubiquity → to presence
ubiquity is seen. emotional presence is felt

9. from communication → to dialogue
communication is telling. dialogue is sharing

10. from service → to relationship
service is selling. relationship is acknowledgment

from Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe

Copy in fold: "designed to move"
Client: Adidas
Agency: TBWA, Hong Kong

German brewer Karlsberg (not to be confused with Danish Carlsberg), is convinced that it can get more women to drink beer.
So they created Karla, marketed as improving health and well-being.
The mixed drink is attractively packaged, and comes in two varieties. Both are low in alcohol content (1%) and a blend of beer and fruit juices. Karla Balance claims to provide 'peace and balance' by mixing hops with lemon balm, an herb well-known for its sedative properties.

Emphasis on health prompted an unusual distribution channel: Karla is sold through pharmacists. After a soft launch in 2005, Karlsberg recently teamed up with neutraceutical manufacturer Amapharm to distribute Karla to pharmacists across Germany. International expansion is in the works.

This could be a (niche) hit with health-concious consumers across the world.

Match.com is billing the commercials as the first-ever live TV advertising in Britain and the first-ever live reality TV advertising.

The dating site has bought all the space in the three ad pods of a one-hour episode of "Love Island," which is a reality TV show focused on romance. Match.com’s three ads, a one-minute spot and two 40-second spots, will be the only ads to air during the show.

Those working on the campaign believe that in this world of fragmentation and ad skipping, advertisers will have to make their ads increasingly creative to get viewers to watch. Creating ads that function like content, by being entertaining in their own right, is one way. Going live is another.

via PSFK

"The hardest thing that marketers and brand managers have to do right now is simplify. Marketing and branding need to get back to first principles -- people, feelings, stories, and things. Tangible things. Not weird words."

Paul Bennett - Creative Director of IDEO

I found this database of American Proprietary Eponyms, or brand names that have fallen into general use. Some of the names on the list are so old or in such common use (thermos, vaseline) that I didn't even know they had been brands.