First of all,  Happy New Year everybody!

It´s 00:01 and 2009 has just begun. It starts for me with some major changes in my life.
After 3,5 great years at BBDO I decided to take on a new challenge and set up my own business to work from now on as a freelancer.

Many of my friends and colleagues keep asking me why I want to change the good job at BBDO for a doubtful future as a freelancer?
Actually there is no rational reason for it but I just listened to my gut feeling. I believe there is a new area in advertising, I believe in my ideas and the way I work, so I want to give it a try and make my living with the stuff I believe in.

I don´t do this because of the money, the title on my business card or lunch with clients in fancy restaurants! I want to do this because there are so many opportunities out there. I want to get in touch with agencies, creatives and planners around the globe to work with them and learn from them. I want to see how advertising is in different markets and how people respond to these new ideas, campaigns and media channels.

This journey starts at the 6th with an big project for Interone Beijing.

I will be working in Beijing for at least one month, but afterwards I´m available for new challenges anywhere in the world. If this sounds interesting to you please contact me via email and I´ll send you my portfolio.

Can´t wait to give you a little update about advertising in China!

So have a good start in 2009 and VIVA LA REVOLTION

Steffen

“MINI CLUBMAN – THE OTHER TEST-DRIVE” scored again. We won Silver at the Epica Awards and Bronze at Eurobest 2008.

I want to thank everybody who believed in this idea and worked long hours to make this project possible and such a huge success. This was the first time for us to use this new technique for one of our advertising campaigns and due to Jacek Jonczyk and Tomas Sommer from DEON, everything worked out well.

And now I will open up a good bottle of red wine and enjoy this feeling

Here is the entry video again:

New Blood for the industry. This Saturday I gave the More Than Advertising presentation at the ADC Junior Seminar in Stuttgart.

In the audience: 30 young Art Directors and Copywriters who were hungry for new ideas and inspiration. After 161 charts and some questions they had to do a little exercise.

The challenge was to launch a new soft drink with the small marketing budget of only 200.000€. But most important, it was forbidden to spend any of this money on media. I wanted them to create ideas that attract an audience instead trying to buy attention through ads.

After 30min of group work every team presented their concepts. And what I heard really thrilled me! Every team came up with an innovative idea, they had created guerilla strategies, social media platforms, viral marketing, innovative promotions and some interesting collaboration concepts. Every one of it was a great new solution to this problem and I´m sure that if we had the time and the money (for real) these concepts would work.

That proofed me once more, that its not the lack of creative talent or ideas that avoids this new kind of advertising & marketing, it´s our old structure and the way we work. So we should think about ways to protect ideas like that and how we could sell them to our clients.

It was great to talk directly to this new generation of young creative, and I hope that they will go back in their agency and put it into practice.

And for all young creatives out there, who want to CREATE CHANGE INSTEAD OF ADs, join our More Than Advertising Facebook Group and continue to challenge the current status quo.

VIVA LA REVOLUTION

PS: @ Julia Stackmann and Norbert Herold, it was great to talk & work with you on this seminar.

A few months ago I was asked if I want to be an guest lecturer at two university’s in Stuttgart and talk about the future of advertising and the work of our innovation unit COMLAB. We already coached some bachelor and master thesises but to present in front of 30 – 40 students was a great new challenge.
I believe that the university is the best place to work on new and revolutionary ideas. There is no CMO or CCO who tells you what to do, or that your idea doesn´t fit in the budget etc.

So the goal for the presentation was to set the students on fire. I want them to challenge the current marketing status quo and explore the new possibilities for their concepts and communication strategies. Instead of writing their papers and thesises about common themes they should pick an innovative one and search for new ways to connect with consumers.

The first presentation took place at the ESB Reutlingen. Prof. Dr. Gerd Nufer invited me to his marketing class. After some technical problems (my mac book doesn´t get along with a few beamers) we started the session. It was a good atmosphere and we had some interesting discussions and questions afterwards.

The second one was this Monday in Prof. Dr. Christina Vaih´s PR class at the MHMK in Stuttgart. And again, after the presentation we talked about the current changes in the industry and that something needs to be done.

I promised the students to put the presentation up on slideshare so that they could download it and use it for their work.

Here it is:

It was a great experience to work with these students, and I have to thank Prof. Dr. Gerd Nufer and Prof. Dr. Christina Vaih-Bauer for their kind invitation. We need more professors like them to educate a new generation of marketers and advertisers. A new generation who has the knowledge and the abilities to change the industry for the better.

And for all students out there who need some inspiration or help with their thesis’s or papers. Feel free to contact me or join our brand new MORE THAN ADVERTISING facebook group

So, let us start today and I promise you that together we will succeed!

VIVA LA REVOLUTION

What a great way to start the day! Just got an email with the information that we had won the Intercontinental Advertising Cup in two categories.

Here is the entry movie: Mini Clubman. The Other Test-Drive

The project scored in Best of Products & Services / Cars and Best of Media / One2One plus Nominee in the category Best of Admaking / Use of Technology.

Congratulations to the other 38 cups category winners and especially to Stefan Nagel and Friedrich Tromm who have won also a Cup with their “Storys in Oil” concept.

So I´m back again from the Golden Drum Awards in Portoroz. And it was a great trip, not only because we had won 2 x gold and 1 X silver after we pitched our ideas in front of the jury and the audience, but because we  met so many interesting people from agency´s all around the globe. I had some inspiring chats with them about what and how our industry is going to change.

And tomorrow I´ll be back with some new postings about these thoughts and ideas.

Have a good night.

Steffen

Back from Amsterdam with a sketchbook filled with tons of things I want to blog about. Unfortunately this week was so busy that I didn´t have time for anything but work.

The reason for these long hours is, that we are shortlisted at the Golden Drum Award. And my colleague and I are flying to Slovenia on Sunday night to give two presentations about the projects we entered.

So, I´m looking forward to meet some interesting people there, and keep your fingers crossed for me that we come back with a price. – And as soon as I have time again I´ll write about all the stuff I saw at the picnic conference.

Cheers

Steffen