sparking curious mind

No, it is not about a new drug. It's about internet. And according to a study by JWT, cell phones and the internet are becoming more and more an essential part of our daily lives. So essential, in fact, that the majority of 1,011 people when asked how long they would feel OK without online access, 15 percent of respondents said just a day or less. 21 percent said a couple of days and another 19 percent said a few days. Only a fifth more said they could go for a week.

"Mobility represents the next big shift," says Marian Salzman, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at JWT. "Older Americans are happy to sit in the same place to go online, while younger people expect to be able to connect anywhere at any time."

"Digital" is an essential component of life for a majority of respondents: Almost equal percentages of men and women (60 percent vs. 58 percent) agree that "Digital technology is an essential part of how I live." Agreement declines with age, from 66 percent of the youngest cohort down to 57 percent of the middle cohort and 49 percent of the oldest.

Specifically, the cell phone is essential to a significant minority of younger people: Overall, 31 percent agree that "My cell phone is an extension of me," with women slightly more likely to agree (31 percent vs. 29 percent of men). Agreement declines steeply through the age cohorts, from 43 percent down to 26 percent and 14 percent.

Men were more likely to say they could not go without the internet with 59 percent choosing one of the three options above; vs. 50 percent of women. Response did not vary significantly among age groups. Similarly 48 percent of respondents agreed that, "If I cannot access the Internet when I want to, I feel like something important is missing."

More than a quarter of respondents (28 percent) admit they spend less time socializing face-to-face with peers because of the amount of time spent online or otherwise occupied with their gadgets-a full 20 percent said they're spending less time having sex.

Cell phones win out over television in a question asking which device people couldn't go without. The internet, however, trumps all and is regarded as the most necessary.

The text reads in German: "Wer sagt, dass männer nicht gerne lesen ?"
I guess we men are always positive in reading females :D I'm sure we do not understand them. We should probably just love'em.

Client: Playboy
Agency: Philipp & Keuntje GmbH, Hamburg
Copywriter: Heiko Notter
Art Director: Holger Lindhardt / Oliver Brkitsch

I've first discovered Fisherman's Friend back in '94, when I was working in Germany. I instantly fell in love with the invigorating qualities of the small lozenges. It'll wake you up! i know it always works for me.
Unfortunately, I can't find them in Romania so I kinda miss the little wonders.
Check out the new ad for the extra strong Fisherman's Friend.

Evensys and APG Romania put together a very interesting event dedicated to planning. As you can see from the picture, the main speakers are experienced and distinguished planning and marketing* professionals.
I'm very excited about the event. Looks like the APG Romania is on the right track to become what Romanian planners always wanted. An association able to raise the professional standards of planning, to educate and inform.
Good luck guys! I'll see you on the 9th and 10th of October in Bucharest.

*Update - Unfortunately, Miel Van Opstal wont come to Masterplan

TreeWorks launched Ze list, a top of Romanian blogs ranked by popularity. The ranking algorithm is similar with the one from Google, but this one calculates only the blogs universe, so is more precise.

via Tree blog

BTW I'm on 128th place at the moment :)

Beautiful graphic commercial for Pontiac.

Agency:Leo Burnett, Detroit
Post production: Stardust
Voice: Matt Dillon

When I'm thinking about movie poster design, the first name that comes to mind is legendary graphic designer Saul Bass.

"Saul Bass brought a designer’s sense of iconography and purpose to film posters, and more importantly, to film-making in general. The man who created the AT&T logo designed only a few film posters in his early career, but his designs were enough to change the direction of film key art. When looking at his poster designs for films like Anatomy of a Murder, Vertigo, and Exodus, one can see how Bass was able to encapsulate a film’s narrative direction in a visual identity through graphic design." from Posterwire

The titles of great classics such as Anatomy of a Murder and The man with to golden arm had made design history, being very deep rooted in our collective imagination(as testifies a recent HP advertising campaign).

In 1954 he was asked to design and create a title sequence to the film Carmen Jones. Saul Bass saw this as an opportunity to enhance the film goers experience. He didn't want to just have his sequence inform the audience, nor did he want to use the time to do some fancy graphical work that would show of his talents but add nothing to the film.

"My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it" -Saul Bass

Episodul II. Moldovenii au luat-o razna. Febra "ci faaaaaashiiiiii?" a cuprins toata tara!

ATENTIUNE! Comunicat important pentru toti cei carora le-a placut spooful "Budai Beer".

Duminica, 16.09.2007, ora 14.00, la Apropo Tv, pe Pro TV va fi difuzat in premiera episodul II.
Pe linga faptul ca emisiunea este cu noi, Tudor (scenarist), Edi (actor) si eu, veti avea ocazia sa vedeti si partea I pentru prima oara la TV.

Partea a II a va fi incarcata pe Youtube, imediat dupa emisiune. Asteptati-va la cei mai rau ;) Totul o ia razna in acest episod.

"…Overall planning has continually become more exciting. So many of the normal rules don’t apply, and there are now more opportunities to consider anything to be the answer for a brand. Just as creative teams are no longer restricted to a 30-second TV commercial, planning isn’t restricted to any particular way of thinking about brands or how they should express themselves” - Guy Murphy, Global Planning Director at JWT

"If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular." - David Ogilvy

Easier said than done, but highly important.

Why is it so hard for so many of us to write the way we speak?

Because we've had it beaten out of us repeatedly, from kindergarten, through high school, college and sometimes grad school.

We've been criticized so many times for not following an artificially rigid writing format that we've internalized the critic.

But... that critic has been working overtime. The critic needs to go on vacation when you're writing copy.

Some pictures from UNKLE's show at "The Delta Music FEST" last week. It was great fun! All the bands and dj's were incredibly entertaining. I'm looking forward to the next year edition.

And if you want the hear how it was, thanks to Kee, you can download the UNKLE show.

Part I
Part II

Enjoy it!

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.