sparking curious mind

This year’s “World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™” are:

• Akzia in Moscow, bi-weekly, circulation 200,000

• Expresso in Paco de Arcos, Portugal, weekly, circulation 140,000

• Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Frankfurt, Germany, weekly, circulation 320,000

• The Guardian in London, daily, circulation 355,750

1. Products are made and owned by companies. Brands, on the other hand, are made and owned by people … by the public …by consumers.

2. A brand image belongs not to a brand – but to those who have knowledge of that brand.

3. The image of a brand is a subjective thing. No two people, however similar, hold precisely the same view of the same brand.

4. That highest of all ambitions for many CEOs, a global brand, is therefore a contradiction in terms and an impossibility.

5. People come to conclusions about brands as a result of an uncountable number of
different stimuli: many of which are way outside the control or even influence of the product’s owner.

6. Brands – unlike products – are living, organic entities: they change, however imperceptibly,
every single day.

7. Much of what influences the value of a brand lies in the hands of its competitors.

8. The only way to begin to understand the nature of brands is to strive to acquire a facility which only the greatest of novelists possess and which is so rare that it has no name.

9. The study of brands – in itself a relatively recent discipline – has generated a level of
jargon that not only prompts deserved derision amongst financial directors but also provides
some of the most entertaining submissions in Pseuds’ Corner.

10. It is universally accepted that brands are a company’s most valuable asset; yet there is
no universally accepted method of measuring that value.

11. The only time you can be sure of the value of your brand is just after you’ve sold it.

12. It is becoming more and more apparent that, far from brands being hierarchically inferior to companies, only if companies are managed as brands can they hope to be successful.

13. And as if all this were not enough, in one of the most important works about brands published this year, the author says this: “Above all, I found I had to accept that effective brand communication …involves processes which are uncontrolled, disordered, abstract, intuitive … and frequently impossible to explain other than with the benefit of hindsight”.

by Jeremy Bullmore, WPP, 2001

"We live in an increasingly uncertain world, where the tools that served us well for so long no longer do. Technology isn't sufficient; we can't simply add features to attract an audience. There is no more efficiency to squeeze out of our operations, nor defects to remove from our products.

How do we deliver great products and services in an uncertain world? The thing to keep in mind, not just in the abstract, but truly and viscerally, are your customers and their abilities, needs and desires. When you do that, when you truly empathies with the people you serve, you'll realize that for them the experience is the product we deliver and the only thing they truly care about." - from "Subject to change - Creating Great Products and Services for an Uncertain World" by Peter Merholz, Todd Wilkens, Brandon Schauer, David Verba

Study reveals that a very small group of consumers who are not representative of the total U.S. online population is accountable for the vast majority of display ad click-through behavior.

Starcom, Tacoda and comScore’s “Natural Born Clickers” findings suggest “the click is dead” as go-to measurement of effectiveness for brand-building display advertising campaigns. The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public.

Judging a campaign’s effectiveness by clicks can be detrimental because it overlooks the importance of branding while simultaneously drawing conclusions from a sub-set of people who may not be representative of the target audience.

Ben Hourahine, UK Leo Burnett’s Future’s Editor, has summarized 8 trends that cumulatively see this year as being the one where people see a real change finally hitting the mainstream; where the industry wakes up to the power of the community and starts to understand the value of branded utility.

Mass is back (Say hello to the Swell Society)
The power of mass culture will be back in 2008. At the turn of the year online downloads were included as part of the UK Christmas pop chart for the first time ever. This trend of online popularity being institutionalised shows that mass appeal will once again define marketing attitudes. Where once the watch-words were fragmentation and micro-targeting, Google, YouTube and Del.ici.ous are new gauges of mass appeal, a fact marketing will wake up to this year. The goal is the same; reach a mass audience, the difference is how to achieve it. Say hello to the Swell Society. How do you create ‘swells’ in pop culture when the audience is not necessarily captive and waiting in the first instance? How do you make sure that your film or viral grabs a spot in YouTube’s top ten guaranteeing the attention of millions? The marketing means maybe changing, but the objective is the same.

Community Commerce
Community connections will become more central to business practice in 2008. Retailers will seek to bring the community further inside the store, with more coffee shops, banking services and pharmacies within supermarkets. On top of this, a revolutionary development in the relationship between commerce and society will take place this year, when Sainsbury’s opens a police station inside its Fallowfield store in Manchester . On the other side community connections are being used to create new businesses for established brands. The Sun newspaper online bingo community was set up in 2005 and is now the biggest Internet game in the world . From an experimental brand-stretch three years ago, the community is now News Corps biggest digital cash cow . Expect to see more established brands following suit this year. You never know, we may see Bisto using its family connections to become the new Butlins in 2008!?

Screen Saturation
2008 will see the explosion of screen-based media, with screens on the side of buses, in petrol station, supermarkets, the home and the pocket. While the medium may remain the same, the reach, context, audience and role of the media will be tweaked. There will be more broadcast screens than ever in 2008 and things are only going to get bigger: According to Sharp - the electronics manufacturer - the average television screen size will be 60” by 2015

Gender Reversal
More women in work and the increasing role played by men within the family will see marketers change their focus this year. Three years ago the Office For National Statistics discovered that women outstripped men in UK further education enrolment , which means most will be graduating this year and looking to enter the work force. Men’s interest and investment in the family will continue to rise as well, morphing the gender balance and changing the advertising context. In 2008 expect to see more and more campaigns aimed at women at work and men in the home. With gender differences diminishing, new forms of identity will be emerging in 2008.

Brand Guardians
The role of brands is evolving and will enter a new phase in 2008. With growing concerns over how to be healthy, safe and happy, mixed with a real confusion about how to achieve this, we will see brands increasingly attempting to take on a guardian role this year. Forward-thinking policies, honest brand ethics and a general ethos of wellbeing and comfort in one’s choices will be promoted by the most leading-edge amongst them. We have already seen the beginning of this trend with campaigns like Kellogg’s Bran Flakes’ ‘Three Step Program’ and Pedigree’s ‘Adopt a Dog’ initiative, but as public confidence and trust levels continue to waver we will see a lot brands striving for guardianship status, making this a significant trend in 2008 and, indeed, perhaps years to come.

The brands of the future will live out the interests of their consumers. Consumers will help brands make their own lives better. We will then know our customers better than ever and, in turn, they will trust us to use their information to create a better future for both.

IP Idols
Artists are grabbing control of their creative product. Intellectual Property (creative works – ideas, songs, movies, TV shows) used to be owned and licensed by studios, record labels and other commercial institutions, but we will see artists back in the driving seat this year. At the end of 2007 Madonna signed to the Live Nation label, giving her unprecedented control over her albums, concerts, tours, merchandise, websites, DVDs, sponsorship, TV shows and films. Other IP idols will grow in power and commercial clout this year. Simon Cowell has shown himself to be bigger than the pop charts by taking over the Christmas number one spot via a TV show. You may not like him, but you wish you’d thought of it. The man has taken over an entire industry through success in another sector, proof of the power of IP Idols, even over entire media channels.

The Data Awareness Era
In 2008 the public will be more aware of their data exposure than ever before and privacy concerns will be a defining issue in 2008. Until now the disarming novelty on social networks, like MySpace and Facebook has generally overridden concerns about the potential hazards of full disclosure. That could change this year. High profile data leaks like the British Government’s recent loss of computer disks containing child benefit records have raised awareness of privacy issues. As more employers and university admissions officers troll social networks for potentially embarrassing revelations on candidates, users may decide that it is better to leave the Saturday night snap-shots in their mobile phones

Expect this trend to accelerate with the introduction of GPS location based information, the explosion in online information storage and social networking increasingly reflecting real life…

Social Networks Get Real
Social networks like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have been virtual playgrounds for some time, but in 2008 they will start to plug directly back into the real world. This year we will see social networks beginning to dictate everyday life, influencing who people do business with, which parties, movies and gigs they go to, where they meet and with whom. Accelerating the shift to life itself being organised through Facebook or MySpace, is the advent and take up of mobile social networking: 14m people did it in 2007, and forecasts suggest it could hit 600m by the time the Olympics hits London in 2012 . Allowing people to participate on the move; mobile applications will turn Facebook and the like from a method of meeting old school friends to a real time diary of their very real lives. Never far off the pace, Google is rumoured to be launching ‘Google World’ this year, using Google Earth as the framework, this is the Internet giant’s answer to Facebook and Second Life.

Social networks in 2008 will no longer be simply voyeuristic frivolities; they will help us participate in actual activities with our existing friends and acquaintances, in real life, with sunshine, colour, oxygen and everything.

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 :)