MORE THAN ADVERTISING

Ok, this post has nothing to do with advertising or media, I just wanna say goodby to one of the greatest artist of all time: Michael Jackson.
His music influenced me a and my life a lot. This is a sad day in music history but I´m sure he will life on in our memories.

Rest In Peace Michael!

Let Gandhi Talk is Publicis’ latest campaign from India. It attempts to unmute every symbol that represents Gandhi. Aiming to breathe life back into the symbols that abound in the country, and resurrect his peaceful message.

A campaign that proofs you don´t need big budgets to engage people and spread the word.

Another great example of how a brand can reach out the people without wasting money on media . Instead of trying to compete with the big brands like Nike, Umbro, Adidas, and Puma via TV, print, POS or big sport events Nomis went directly to those who are actually using their products.

The agency Johannes Leonardo developed the Nomis Vanguard - a retail concept on wheels. They equipped a van with a mobile retail store and drive from sports club to sports club to give the local players the chance to test their products straight away. What I really like ist that the people who actually drive the cars are  coaching or playing football themselves. They can give useful tips and insights to the people testing the shoes instead of doing a stupid promotion only for the money.

In Europe are over 200 million registered footballers and in over 300 thousand clubs. This is a huge opportunity for Nomis. With campaigns like that the brand is not only creating a base of customers, but more important real fans and loyal believers.

via Brendan Miller - The Armory

From the past to the future Best Buy CMO Barry Judge tells the story of how Best Buy’s Marketing Capability talks (and listens) to its customers.
I really like their approach to help people to realize their “dreams”. Why? Because they focus on their customers instead of promoting themselves or their prices.
They also let them participate in their marketing decisions, for example they show unfinished ads and ask people for their opinions. For me the proof that even a huge retailers like Best Buy can participate in social media and join the conversation.

Let´s see if others like Media Markt or Saturn in Germany will get it too.

A few weeks ago I wrote the post “Tribes instead of target groups” inspired by Seth´s new book “Tribes”. Today I found on TED.com his presentation. Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and he always challenges the status quo. I love this guy…

Great to watch, very inspiring and the perfect video to end this workday.

“The Creative Revolution” was the theme this year at the ADC festival in Berlin. And they had invited some really good speakers to their conference which took place on Friday and Saturday. My personal highlight was Paul Bennett CCO IDEO and his presentation about the idea of thoughtless communication and Prof. Dr. Hans A. Wüthrich´s talk about how to break out of the ordinary. Unfortunately there was no WLan or mobile service available at the whole conference area, so it was hard to blog or twitter about it. But you can watch their talks on www.idee09.tv

Besides the talks I was interested in the awarded work. I was keen on seeing new innovative ideas and cases because this award is also an indicator about the status quo of German advertising.

But what I saw really disappointed me. Most of the campaigns were still very traditional print or TV ads and there where only a few truly innovative ideas.

One of them was the “23 Days- fan diary” from Kolle Rebbe which had won gold in the the category digital media and justifiably so.

During the EURO 2008, German director Detlev Buck and the YouTube community created the first fan movie made out of user generated videos. The movie was shown in cinemas across Germany.

Another great campaign was the Sony Ericsson “Fan Walk 2008″ from Serviceplan.

Sony Ericsson was searching for the biggest music fans on earth. More than 3500 music fans from all over Europe applied. Finally, 100 crazy boys and girls walked from London to Liverpool, to the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008. Documented online using all social media channels. The Idea was awarded silver in the category events.

The Project “House of Immagination” from Heimat was also awarded with silver in the category Events plus silver in media, gold in integrated communication and sales promotion and last but not least the grand prix.(I hope I didn´t forget anything)

A great campaign for their client Hornbach.

But my personal grand prix goes to Walker Werbeagentur and their project for Bindella “Tanti Aguri”. (they won silver in the category integrated communication)

To promote 31 local restaurants in Zürich the agency hired an author to write an book. The story plays in all these different places and in cooperation with local newspapers they created a lot of buzz and excitement to actually go and visit the restaurants in real life. The book became a bestseller. This campaign is for me one of the best examples for branded entertainment.

These are some great examples from the festival but it needs way more of them in order to start a “creative revolution.”  I hope that the success of those agencies will also shape the profile of German advertising and inspire other creatives to come up with ideas like that.

VIVA LA REVOLUTION

Tomorrow is the start of the 2009 ADC festival, wich is something like the springbreak for German creatives. The ADC is the most important advertising award in Germany so everybody who works somehow in this industry will be in Berlin during the next 3 days.

This years theme is called “The Creative Revolution” and the focus is on the major shifts that had taken place in our industy. The ADC team had invited some really interesting speakers to their conference like: Mario Testino, Sophie Clements or  Paul Bennett  co-Chief Creative officer of IDEO. 

So I´m looking forward to 3 inspiring days and keep you updated about what the german advertising revolution really looks like.

For updates in real time just follow my twitterfeed

“Markets are conversations.” - is the first of a set of 95 theses from the “Cluetrain Manifesto” written in 1999 by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger. This manifest is a call to action, for all businesses to join this newly-connected marketplace and transform their mass communication into “human to human” conversations.

What does that mean for advertising. I don´t believe that agencies could manage these “human conversations” for their clients, but I think that it is possible to be part of them if we create something that is worth talking about.

Here is Marschall Ross definition of advertising:

„I define it as a conversation starter. Interruption doesn´t cut it anymore…you either get people talking…or nothing happens.“ Marschall Ross CCO Cramer-Krasselt

And here is what you could achieve if you get the people talking:

Mark Ecko & Barry Bonds home run record ball:

Marc Ecko was about to launch a new sportswear collection. Therefor he bought  Barry Bonds‘ record-breaking 756th home run ball in the auction, paying $752,467 for it.  To determine the fate of the ball, he  started a website, www.vote756.com, and asked the American public to vote on what they think should happen to it. Visitors’ choices were giving the ball to the Hall of Fame, branding the ball with an asterisk before giving it to the Hall of Fame, and putting the ball on a rocket to be launched into space.

Mark announced the results live on TV:

With over 10,000,000 votes, 180.000.000 blog mentions and a lot of media coverage Ecko managed to be at the center of the greatest sports debate of all time. He gained so much public attention that he got over $80.000.000 of free media space. Not a bad ROI for spending originally $752,467.

Instead of wasting the money on a TV branding campaign, he created a national conversation among sports fans and honored his audience with giving them a voice in the debate.

A great strategy and it shows how powerful it is to create conversations instead of ads.

So I´m in Berlin now and the Republica09 is about to beginn. Looking forward to meet interesting people and listen to some inspiring talks. I´ll keep you updated.

Just found this presentation on TBWAs Media Arts Blog. They put together all the interesting and inspiring statements about how brands should change. Have a look and then start to change something!