sparking curious mind

Imagine my surprise when I saw the headline in the mailbox! God (Dumnezeu in Romanian) is now following you on Twitter!
What a relief. I feel so much protected now :)

Study finds that brand building is no longer a priority for marketers. The report, which aims to provide a timely insight for marketers to take a harder look at how their marketing dollars are performing, surveyed 3,000 marketers worldwide on a number of aspects of their role.

The report points out that driving customer demand has overtaken brand building in developed economies, such as the UK, Australia and the US.
Fournaise Marketing Group, one of the world's leading marketing effectiveness tracking companies, tracks both offline and online marketing effectiveness.

The report findings are not for the faint hearted:

• 65% of all marketing spend in 2007 had no effect on consumers.

• Estimated wastage rates varied from 45% for business-to-business marketers, through to 65% for business-to-consumer.

• Just one in ten of respondents have automated systems in place to track the effectiveness of their spend.

• Of the 55% of marketers who do track the results of their spending, 80% do so manually, spending hours capturing, compiling and analysing data.

• Questioned on strategy, 70% of marketers believe that short-term revenue-boosting and lead-generation campaigns are more important than long-term intangible brand building (15%). A clear indication that marketers are under pressure more than ever before to generate results.
  

• Tracking marketing effectiveness topped the 2008 wish lists of 35% of marketers, and made the top three for 70%.

That's not very flattering for the industry as a whole.

Indubitable(Origin...

Ia si ascultati! Shiii faciiiiiiii in varianta electronica! Si nu suna rau deloc.
Doi tineri DJ talentati, Katoline si Adrian au muncit o luna la piesa asta. A fost chinuiala mare sa capteze sunetul din clipuri. Asta pentru ca nu reusisera sa intre in contact cu nimeni din echipa care a facut "Indubitabil".

Mai multe puteti afla aici

Anyways, great job guys!

Apologies for not blogging for quite a while. I've lost the tempo, been busy offline. I think it’s time to get my act together again.
I promise to recover my usual blogging pace during the week. Stay tuned!

"Dear Mr. Barroso,

Would you like to hear more about Systembolaget and our perspective on this matter?
As of right now you have a standing invitation to join us for lunch or dinner at your convenience.
Just contact us a few days in advance, and we'll make it happen."

This is a great way to fight against alcohol consumption and alcohol related problems!

The initiative comes from Systembolaget. The Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly, exists for one reason only: To minimize alcohol-related problems by selling alcohol in a responsible way, without profit motive. (They're supposed to make a certain profit, but if it's too big they have to lower their prices.)

This has worked well: Alcohol-related problems are smaller in Sweden than in comparable countries where alcohol is sold freely.

The Swedish model isn't always convenient for the consumer - the stores aren't open all night, and you won't find one on every corner.

But a majority of the Swedes are supportive. Partly because they appreciate our significance for the public health. And partly because they like our stores. (They offer one of the world's biggest selections of alcoholic beverages, and their employees really know their Chardonnays from their SauvignonBlancs.)

Built by Kolbrener, corporate branding experts

This one is beautiful. Charming, magic, enchanting. It's like the dreams I used to have when I was a child. That's how I used to see the world back then.

Carmen si Cristi au demarat editia 2007 a RoBloggers Survey. Chestionarul este online. Aveti timp pina pe 13 octombrie pentru al completa. El poate fi completat o singura data de la acelasi IP. Intrebarile marcate [*] sunt obligatorii. Timpul de completare este de 8-10 minute.

Aici gasiti chestionarul

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.