Very Nice Social Campaign

I encountered news about this campaign here and it's a really compelling communication activity.

A clean execution, very emotional and, I think, quite involving. The message is clear and title: The girl effect

Just take a look:

What would you want Santa to bring you?

Me, for instance, I would like the childhood Christmas spirit back...I want the old time white snow back on the streets, I want to wake up in my grandparents warm house, I want to hardly wait to go down the hills on the sledge, I want to go with my friends to sing carols...

I want to believe n Santa again !!!

The more one grows old, it becomes harder and harder to keep the Noel magic alive :(... We all in advertising industry are talking and preaching about emotional communication approaches, but in the end it's all about the money and the power...no emotion whatsoever (besides frustration and anger).

Pretty sad

Just read this sad all grown people's Christmas wishes:

Moray MacLennan IPA President, Chief Executive, M&C Saatchi Worldwide
"For Christmas I want a law to be passed that forbids newspapers and television news programmes from reporting anything on the ‘economic downturn’ or the ‘credit crunch’. The thought of all the ‘reviews of 08’ and ‘predictions for 09’ packed with misery and despondency. We’ve got the point. I do understand that coming up with something uplifting would require a good deal of creative thinking, but it would make Christmas much jollier."

Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive, WPP
"For channukah and Christmas - a one per cent improvement in WPP margins and bowling Clive Lloyd and Mike Proctor again."

Dylan Jones, Editor, GQ
"I would like a Tory government - pronto!"

Claire Beale, Editor, Campaign
"Can I have a rolling pin, some knitting needles and a trowel please Santa; it's going to be a self-sufficient 2009."

Ita Murphy, Managing Director, MindShare
"Each year the thing I most want for Christmas is anything that comes in a little velvet box.....sadly my hubby has interpreted this as sat nav!"

Gerry Moira, Chairman & Director of Creativity, Euro RSCG London
"Some f***ing goodwill. Is that just too bloody much to ask, for Chr***'s sake? One sodding shred of p**sing goodwill? Eh? (Sorry, it's been a long year)."

Lucy Barrett, Editor, Marketing
"I awake on Christmas morn, only to discover that this recession has just been a rather sinister dream. In fact the industry is in boom. Less of Father Christmas still exists and more of Concorde still existing please.... Sadly I was born a couple of decades too late wasn't I?"

James Wildman, Managing Director, Interactive Digital Sales
"In these straitened times all I would ask for is good health, fun company and inspired decisions in media agencies. Everything else will then fall into place."

Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy & Mather, Vice-Chairman, Ogilvy Group UK
"I'd like people - especially people with budgets - finally to take mobile marketing seriously."

Cilla Snowball, Chairman Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
"Big hot holiday with my kids, all the books on the Booker shortlist( with time to loll around reading all the books on it) and buckets of energy for the year ahead."

Stephen Allan, Worldwide Chairman & Chief Executive, MediaCom
"Good health for my family and a $2billion global account win for MediaCom."

Tess Alps,CEO, Thinkbox
"My Christmas wish list includes the following:
a tin-hat
laughing gas
a third series of Green Wing
Peter Field and Les Binet, both dipped in chocolate and subject to my every whim."

Hamish Pringle, Director-General, IPA
"May we all have grace under pressure."

Source: IPA

Happy Christmas!

Understanding consumer's mind research

Great video about researching...one of the ways it should be done



Via thehiddenpersuader

Enjoy

No comment

Am vorbit despre lectia de marketing politic data de echipa lui Obama, uitati si o lectie de "mare clasa" din politica romaneasca...de-asta nu merg la vot...

Found very interesting Romanian site

This is the new Suie Paparude site, very funky approach done by some pretty cool guys from Atelier105.

Enjoy!!!

Found great tag cloud source - me happy :-)

Obama vs. McCain on www

Second day after the US elections...from Sprint Nextel's site

Obama and Climate Change vs. Terrorism

I will start by saying
1. CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!!!
2. Congratulations Obama, don't let any of us down... A whole world has voted for you, so the hopes are the highest.

Speaking of the whole world, now, that the elections are over and we have infos on the main issues on a global scale - just take a look at the Top Issues for each Country - the CLIMATE CHANGE is a perceived danger far bigger than TERRORISM or IRAQ WAR...
Interesting...

For those interested in qualitavite research

Here is a very interesting series of posts on qualitative research started by Katie Harris, qualitative research director at Zebra.
Basically, she announces a set of posts with the purpose to clarify issues on qual research from what the characteristics of this type of research are to the implications of qualitative research on social media...so seems to be quite interesting...

Stay tuned for more on this subject :)

Enjoy

Dacia mai tare ca BMW

...sa vezi si sa nu crezi... cel putin asa indica unul din zecile de widget-uri de pe site-ul celor de la Sprint Nextel din cadrul noii lor campanie de comunicare. Am scris despre asta aici.

Uitati si dovada :))

Enjoy,

Romanians vs US Elections

Now, that the elections are on in the US, nobody is really expecting any surprise and Obama's crew is preparing to open the champagne bottles...

I already wrote a post on this very interesting site, but now I would like to reopen the subject, this time with an emphasis on Romania, the (small) number of virtual voters and their main areas of interest that, as far as I'm concern it is a quite relevant list...

It seems that we are an Obama country :)) - we're aligned with the rest of the world on this one...

The site can show statistics for each country and in Romania the numbers are like this...

Let's take a closer look:


The male respondents between 25 and 40 y.o. seems to be the most interested of the subject...

As for Top issues, for 90% of the 192 of the respondents are:
1. Economy
2. Health care
3. Civil liberties
4. Education
5. Energy policy
6. Climate change
7. Terrorists
8. Iraq War

Romanie, ia aminte!!!

Acum, mai mult ca niciodata avem nevoie de astfel de campanii si in Romania!!!
Video via blogul lui Mihnea Miculescu

Big mistake or disruptive outdoor panel

Yesterday, at the Stefan cel Mare metro station , in Bucharest, I've seen this:

A reversed outdoor panel...

It might be a mistake - because even the words were up side down - but is surely caught my eye...

So, one way or another, this disruptive outdoor did his job very well

How to do an efficient&involving election campaign

This is really involving, I think that this is a campaign that really makes you value the worth of your vote...made by the Obama's superprofessional marketing staff



Here in Romania, we are approaching Parliament election and I think that something like this with the message "go to vote" is more than necessary...

The power of internet

Another great digital campaign, this time from Goodby, Silverstein who has managed to create an interesting and quite appealing approach for the US communication company Sprint Nextel: the widget site...


Basically, the site assess under the message "This is now" the easiness to "stay connected" thanks to the Sprint's wireless devices...

Sprint is going through a tough time right now, after losing a lot of its customers, according to The New York Times... So, in a such a shaky macro and micro economic context the communication becomes more than important...

Take a look at this site and see the Goodby, Silverstein approach of the matter.

I am expecting the moment when such digital projects will be implemented/created also in Romania...

Enjoy

W+K+Nokia

These Wieden&Kennedy fellows never stop to amaze me with their fresh approaches; I guess their "Embracing failure" philosophy really makes the difference. Here is their multimedia campaign for Nokia, Supernova, based on a great insight: The telephone contains a big part of your life...Click here: www.somebodyelsesphone.com

This is a great communication approach of the branding process for a mature brand, focused on bonding with the target...
The campaign targets the youngsters and it really manages to depict a very appealing brand personality.

Great job, W+k's !!!
Here are the clips for promoting the project...
Enjoy,

Everybody, let's vote

Someone had this idea to give the chance to the whole world to virtual vote in the US election. :)

Obama seems to be by far the worldwide favorite... you can move the mouse on the world countries and you can see the number of voters and their preference.

Interesting initiative, this one...


Let's see what the rest of you has to say about it here...vote, everybody!!

Dave...Ogilvy Dave...

Laudabila initiativa celor de la Ogilvy Grecia - punctarea intr-un mod viral a aniversarii lor - , insa nu stiu ce sa zic despre executia in sine...

Judecati si voi:


I only add: Happy birthday, Ogily Worldwide

Funny History Lesson

This guy, Eddie Izzard, is really something. A lot of insightful infos on history and all put together in such a charismatic way... More about him here (it is written in Romanian).

Enjoy...

Mad Men characters twittering away...

That's some surprise...or not...Everybody is mad about Mad Men...just check out the twitter links in this post from Adland... We are living in a crazy crazy world

It could also be a very clever marketing gimmick

I don't really feel like working...

Journey from the train station in Craiova to my parent's house

Entered the city...Entered the train stationGot off the trainHere are some fantastic view from the exit of the train stationAnyboby wants a "covrig"?
This is the train station
Took a cab...
that took me to the district of my childhoodMet some friends... and had a fantastic, not at all healthy shaworma :)

Mad Men vs. Real Life

Very interesting this TV series...I enjoy it even better because it dramatizes a world that one way or another I'm actually living: Advertising.

Yes, I might say that one can find some relevant insights about what the life of an ad person is, but what's really interesting is the characters' typology.

The people behind these series have really managed to capture some relevant types of ad people. Of course, there are also a great deal of other personality types as interesting as the ones presented in telling a entertaining story about the advertising world, but we are only in front of the second series...

Here are some photos where if you work in advertising you can search for the character that best suits your personality...

For more on Mad Men here

Enjoy ;)

Later edit
Great line in the 2nd episode of the 2nd series: "There's life and there's work"
And also, I've just realized there are no PR persons...hm

A relaxing sunday in Circului Park (Parcul Circului)

I love this place...

On branding

In the last 6 months I have been involved in a lot of branding projects and I really enjoy giving a hand in brand development...

On this subject i would like to talk a bit about what real branding is (at least from my point of view). Is it about a really great visual presence, a breath-taking slogan, or stated brand philosophy (mission, vision, values), what about a nice big logo present everywhere...

As far as I'm concerned, I can't agree with this...

Take a look at these pictures...


...this is a small sweets laboratory on Pipera Street, in Bucharest, near the place where I work. No fancy logo, no superb slogan, not even an always smiling personnel, just very, very, veeery good products... That's all.

This place is open even on Sundays until 8 pm and ALWAYS you have to wait in line to get your portion of heaven made sweets.

The word-of-mouth for this little shop is astonishing, one of the first lines I have heard about the new location where we were about to move was: "Oh, over there, near the Maria sweets shop..." and i heard referrals to this so many times that I just wanted to see what was all this fuss about...

Very good, freshly made products indeed and a real and authentic feel, in other words a natural born brand...

If you pass through Bucharest, go and visit this marvelous place. For directions, just ask any passer by about "Cofetaria Maria" :)

Nu asa se face o campanie...

...sau cel putin inca ma mai amagesc ca asa nu...

Daca vreti sa vedeti despre ce este vorba click aici

Opera Romana iese in strada

...si iata cum isi si face cunoscuta intr-un mod neconventional aceasta initiativa laudabila cu ajutorul colegilor mei de la Lowe&Partners... gasiti mai multe imagini aici








Dupa asa un efort frumos, eu zic sa va grabiti si ajungeti sambata pe esplanada din fata Operei Romane pentru ca s-ar putea sa nu mai gasiti scaune goale...La 9 incepe "cheful" de catifea

Auditie placuta!!!

branding de tara...country branding

I enjoy observing the multitude of gatherings on the subject of country branding is held in Romania and at some point some "creative" concept such as "fabulospirit" see the light of day only to be obliterated by the great mass of advertising/communication/marketing specialists...

I am surprised to see that as far as I know, all the approaches were about what to say to the potential visitors...no communication whatsoever to us the Romanians (basic branding mistake)...

The communiation with/to the Romanian public is much more important today when with the help of all this social networking tools (bloguri, myspace, facebook, twitter, blip.fm etc) the ones that can disseminate the best the information, and can really build a positive brand attitude on the country are THE ROMANIANS...

Doar daca va intereseaza publicitatea...

Gasiti aici un o tema de reflectie foarte interesanta in legatura cu incotro se indreapta publicitatea asta...

I'm back

OK!!!!

Dupa ceva vreme de pauza, hai sa mai bruiez si eu pe careva cu aberatiuni de la serviciu...mult de munca, lucruri facute, apoi desfacute si refacute si tot asa de vreo cateva luni incoa. A trecut peste mine si o vacanta in grecia care a fost atat de tare incat m-am intors total "depresat" in Bucurestiul asta parca tot mai galagios...

Nu mai am timp sa scriu....

...cred ca ma apuc de audioblog...