A while ago Bnox pulled a list of famous brand names on Facebook. Coke was clearly taking the lead. Yet, Clo marked that she felt the advertising strategy of Coca-Cola didn't push getting their story and ideas translated to web-based media. I replied on "Everything tastes better with Coke", commenting this:
In my opinion you're not wrong but Coke has to be credited to a certain point here. Maybe they don't need this leverage. After all they're already the number one popular brand without having to really engage in social media. I think they see no need to dip into that well this far.
Yes partly it's true, Coke doesn't seem to succeed, or even make effort, empowering their brand within social media. They don't quite engage with their customers, yet. And if they do it's rather poorly or unsupported. Coke doesn't shock us with distinct community campaigns in astonishing ways other brands have. On the other hand I think Coke should not be compared to brands like Dell and Adobe who have a much larger and more defined online audience, and also have a lot more and suitable content to make their mark for engagements in social media. Dell and Adobe need this presence online for support reasons, Coke doesn't really. But then again they are putting in much effort to do so: http://www.cocacolabelgium.be/showpage.asp?iPageID=2 I agree with you on the "entirely unbloggable websites" part as much of this website is flashcontent.
Also, Coke does ignite the audience in the online environment though. Some of their latest campaigns were picked up by wide range of people. Which resulted in lots of chatter online and thus raised value for the brand. I remember a social/charity campaign supported with some very nice photography which was plastered all over design and photography blogs a while ago. And I would also like to point to the campaign called the Happiness Factory. Although there is no real interaction campaign, not as far as I'm aware of, they have created some kind of cult (call it community) around the creation of their Hapiness Factory saga. The spots were produced by top motioncompany Psyop ( http://www.psyop.tv ) Lots of people, especially in Europe weren't even aware of the fact that these series ( http://www.cocacolabelgium.be/Happiness-Factory---The-Movie- ) of Coke spots were actually one larger story, credits due Wieden&Kennedy Amsterdam. Short after W&K had uploaded "the making of" ( http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2elp2_happiness-factory-behind-the-scenes_ads ) on their YouTube account it was removed kickstarting enthusiasts to repost the movie and rallying eachother to get there hands on a copy. Deliberate or accidental, maybe we should ask. Veerle Pieters wrote lots more on the Happiness Factory: http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/coca_cola_the_happiness_factory/ I'll just post the additional links to the .mov files here so they can easily be downloaded by ALT clicking them :) http://www.movedigital.com/go/veerlepieters/90874/psyop_coke_ad.mov http://www.movedigital.com/go/veerlepieters/90875/Mockumentary.mov http://www.movedigital.com/go/veerlepieters/90876/happinessfactory-hi.mov
Unfortunatly their interactive presence on this story so far is limited to a somewhat lame set of games you can play at http://hf3.coca-cola.com/?locale=be_NL
At Cannes this year Ivan Wicksteed, Global Creative Director of Coca-Cola, shed light on how the company turned a 30-second ad into a marketing platform that is expected to last for 30 years. Now that’s something gutsy to put in your creative brief. It should provide enough content for advertisers to leverage the brand in many ways using this platform as a jumpstart. For all I care all characters from these episodes can be brought alive in social media ways... Also had the redesign of the Coke identity, which mainly existed of symplifying the brandimage, was awarded with Gold in the design category at Cannes last year. I so loved it. But you were talking about social media, right. I'm sorry (*).
For Coca-Cola, so I've read, it’s not what people buy, it’s what they buy into. ( http://www.marketingwithmeaning.com/2008/06/19/cannes-day-2-coca-cola-storytelling )
A last something I would like to point out would have to make your doubt about their lack of online effort vanish somehow. In my point of view the CokeZeroGame ( http://www.cokezerogame.de ) really did establish a strong interactive value for the audience. Not a single drop of energy was send to be spared when Coke briefed North Kingdom to create the interactive version of a full blown action tv commercial. Word goes taht this is the 'largest' online campaign production so far, whatever that means of course. The choice for briefing North Kingdom was no random act since North Kingdom is considered to be The Number One digital agency in the world. And so, North did one hell of a job creating a fully online game that made my vain pump like raving madmen ( http://demo.northkingdom.com/cokezerogame )
Yet, I still don't drink CokeZero. I guess, to me, having a presence in social media isn't always key to better sales, buying behaviour or even to the relationship I have with the brand.
(*) Maybe Google should limit the number of characters in the Blogger commentsection ;) See you around
05 February 2009
03 February 2009
Art directors are the best kopiriters
I attended a lecture by Peter Ampe during the Copycursus 2008 (*) and enjoyed it so much I thought I'd share it with you.
Art directors are the best kopiriters
Peter, who currently works as a Creative Director @ DuvalGuillaume, told me that a good writer not needs to write without a spelling mistake. Correctors will sharpen the edges, thus the title of this post. Please note that I've expanded the content of the presentation with my own remarks as they ran along.
Peter Ampe, originally uploaded by Pieter Baert.
It's all about ideas.
Peter began his career in 1995. After studying Germanic Philology Peter started working as a journalist. But at the age of 28 his job dissatisfied him and he started looking for a new challenge. He had found that new challenge in advertising. The advertising business proved to be his new mission. The agency he started his career at was Young&Rubicam. He got enrolled there via the Copycursus. What stunned him was the fact that the people of the agency (Y&R) didn't ask him for a diploma when he applied there. All they wanted to know was: "what are your ideas?". Ever since then the most important thing Peter has learned is: "a good idea isn't quite just enough, it has to be well executed as well."
Why was Peter involved with this Copycursus?
Obviously because to him it kickstarted his career and because as he explains: "nowadays — in Belgium — all (most or more and more) creatives teams — traditionally an art director and a copywriter — are compiled out of two art directors." There simply is no training program for copywirters in Belgium. Because of this the Copycursus arose and formed to be a platform from which new adwriting talents step forward every year.
Who needs a copy of that copy?
So, Belgium lacks a decent education in creative writing for the advertising industry. Knowing this makes it not too hard to draw some conclusions. The most compelling conclusion drawn would be that this deficit makes copywriters the most wanted type of creative, in Belgium that is. Period. Peter pointed out that, even as he works with some of the greatest creative teams, he is often presented a strong visual concept lacking the finishing touch of an explanatory line that makes the idea sell. And as David Sable (this years Direct Lions Jury President) states: "if it doesn't sell, it isn't creative. In a year of turmoil - it's time to honour the truly creative." Which is why the Cannes Jury of this years edition has made some alterations to the judging scheme of the Direct Lions. They have improved judging criteria to place more emphasis on results. They've integrated clearer submission questions to help provide more accurate information for the jury. Added digitally focused categories and amended an Integrated campaign category to ‘Best integrated campaign led by direct marketing’.
It is often perceived that, because of our extensive visual and imagery minded ad-culture, the visual is more important than the accompanied line 'which nobody reads anyway'. Also a lot of art directors look only for a pretty ad hoc 'funny' idea. The idea: 'if it's funny it sells' is something a lot of students worship as omniscience when they enter the industry. And that's 'funny' as in 'it looks funny' (the idea is the visual joke). Of course there is some truth in this point of view. Jokes and funny things tend to work virally (people talk about it with other people) and moreover they stick (the product or brand gets remembered » top of mind) but humor is a very personal thing. You can't expect everybody to find everything funny, moreover it's hard to divide target audiences in groups according to what kind of humor they like. Of course being funny works just fine if it's not too slapstick, and yes copy can be funny as well. Anywway the point is that, more often than not, a strong visual idea needs a supporting line to nest the idea deeply into the minds of the audience. The line often brings along the strategic approach the ad wants to communicate next to being funny and visually standing out. According to Peter the line makes or brakes the campaign!
So why would you want to be a copywriter?
First, copywriters (in Belgium) are the most wanted type of creative at the moment and competition is rather scarce (compared to the competition an art director has, that is). The work of the copywriter makes or brakes the campaign. Next to that, Peter states, copywriters are most likely to become famous and they get to see lovely places as they get to travel along to clients and awardshows around the globe.
A good writer is a good reader. Good readers understand how good books are written. The first line of a book has to grab on you attention in order to get sold. Good copywriters know what line to pen down in order for something to sell. Selling more by adding a simple line of text will make you a superhero worshipped by all the clients you work for.
What does it take to be a good copywriter?
According to Peter, being a good copywriter is a lot about knowing when to stay invisible. Yes it is regarded as, and sometimes is, a complementary services to the visual idea but it can empower the idea as well. Thus the copy is fact no flavor. Not quite. In fact a good line always empowers the idea. And for some briefs the idea comes out of the copywriting. A good example is this. Think about it, you're working on the brief of a car-client. The car-client wants 'just' the best creative ad he has ever seen and the only restriction the brief has is using a packshot of the car with nothing to much sitting or standing next to it. Definitely the job that needs some strong copywriting wouldn't you say so?
The key to being a good copywriter is not explained talking over just one slice of pizza but Peter rounded up some - rather controversial - basics:
• A good copywriter writes like an art director. Well that kinda solves some problems doesn't it? 'Real' copywriters, as Peter poses it, often try too hard being a copywriter. They tend to write every bloody e-mail 'correct'. Every line is checked, double checked and well thought of. The need to always write 'good'makes lots of conversations (copy) too clean, simple, enforced, without feeling and warmth. Art directors do pretty good job writing as spoken just putting down what they feel. "Ok, so then why do we actually need copywriters anyway Peter?" - "Nobody reads bodycopies unless they are really well written, and that is something not all art directors are gifted to accomplish with success."
• Talking to the viewer is key to drawing the attention. You should not talk to everybody but to somebody in specific, namely you. I am talking to you. Using You is the most important word in bodycopy. You wouldn't want anybody to talk to you persuading you to buy his/her product while addressing a crowd would you. Or, let's pose it this way: do you like having a face to face with somebody looking the other way?
• Tell a story! Give people something to remember (humor doesn't always work to stick) The more you know, the more choices you can make, the more chances you have of finding an idea worthwhile. Peter here refers to David Ogilvy's story on Rolls Royce, perhaps the most famous headline in the car business – “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”. This, and lots of other remarks of course, make Ogilvy 'probably the most famous copywriter, eughm sorry, advertising man in the world".
• Don't try to hard to be a copywriter. Make your sentences direct, not passive but appealling. And stick to approximately 16 words, certainly don't go over 26 words.
How to become an adstar in one day?
You can't, I'm sorry. Not even with the greatest of ideas. That's because a good idea has to be well executed AND have your clients' full support. Also, a 'real' relationship is build over time. Work until it works. In other words: "one stupid line of copy is worth spending at least one day of work if the outcome is that it leverages tons of extra revenue".
One to learn by heart:
If you make good work you feel happy. If make lousy work you feel crappy.
— David Abbott
Q&A:
What is your favorite line? Let it be one that you've revised yourself as a creative director.
Good music makes good people.
(*) Copycursus is a workshop/masterclass about copywriting, organised by Sint-Lukas Hogeschool Brussels. This years edition was held at the offices of de Persgroep. This years Copycursus was a series of 3 sessions, a mixture of lectures and interactive workshop given by some of the most upfront leaders of Belgian advertising industry.
@Peter: if you'd end up reading this and find I've twisted some the content too much by adding my own please mark that in the comment section or drop me an e-mail. tnx
Art directors are the best kopiriters
Peter, who currently works as a Creative Director @ DuvalGuillaume, told me that a good writer not needs to write without a spelling mistake. Correctors will sharpen the edges, thus the title of this post. Please note that I've expanded the content of the presentation with my own remarks as they ran along.
Peter Ampe, originally uploaded by Pieter Baert.It's all about ideas.
Peter began his career in 1995. After studying Germanic Philology Peter started working as a journalist. But at the age of 28 his job dissatisfied him and he started looking for a new challenge. He had found that new challenge in advertising. The advertising business proved to be his new mission. The agency he started his career at was Young&Rubicam. He got enrolled there via the Copycursus. What stunned him was the fact that the people of the agency (Y&R) didn't ask him for a diploma when he applied there. All they wanted to know was: "what are your ideas?". Ever since then the most important thing Peter has learned is: "a good idea isn't quite just enough, it has to be well executed as well."
Why was Peter involved with this Copycursus?
Obviously because to him it kickstarted his career and because as he explains: "nowadays — in Belgium — all (most or more and more) creatives teams — traditionally an art director and a copywriter — are compiled out of two art directors." There simply is no training program for copywirters in Belgium. Because of this the Copycursus arose and formed to be a platform from which new adwriting talents step forward every year.
Who needs a copy of that copy?
So, Belgium lacks a decent education in creative writing for the advertising industry. Knowing this makes it not too hard to draw some conclusions. The most compelling conclusion drawn would be that this deficit makes copywriters the most wanted type of creative, in Belgium that is. Period. Peter pointed out that, even as he works with some of the greatest creative teams, he is often presented a strong visual concept lacking the finishing touch of an explanatory line that makes the idea sell. And as David Sable (this years Direct Lions Jury President) states: "if it doesn't sell, it isn't creative. In a year of turmoil - it's time to honour the truly creative." Which is why the Cannes Jury of this years edition has made some alterations to the judging scheme of the Direct Lions. They have improved judging criteria to place more emphasis on results. They've integrated clearer submission questions to help provide more accurate information for the jury. Added digitally focused categories and amended an Integrated campaign category to ‘Best integrated campaign led by direct marketing’.
It is often perceived that, because of our extensive visual and imagery minded ad-culture, the visual is more important than the accompanied line 'which nobody reads anyway'. Also a lot of art directors look only for a pretty ad hoc 'funny' idea. The idea: 'if it's funny it sells' is something a lot of students worship as omniscience when they enter the industry. And that's 'funny' as in 'it looks funny' (the idea is the visual joke). Of course there is some truth in this point of view. Jokes and funny things tend to work virally (people talk about it with other people) and moreover they stick (the product or brand gets remembered » top of mind) but humor is a very personal thing. You can't expect everybody to find everything funny, moreover it's hard to divide target audiences in groups according to what kind of humor they like. Of course being funny works just fine if it's not too slapstick, and yes copy can be funny as well. Anywway the point is that, more often than not, a strong visual idea needs a supporting line to nest the idea deeply into the minds of the audience. The line often brings along the strategic approach the ad wants to communicate next to being funny and visually standing out. According to Peter the line makes or brakes the campaign!
So why would you want to be a copywriter?
First, copywriters (in Belgium) are the most wanted type of creative at the moment and competition is rather scarce (compared to the competition an art director has, that is). The work of the copywriter makes or brakes the campaign. Next to that, Peter states, copywriters are most likely to become famous and they get to see lovely places as they get to travel along to clients and awardshows around the globe.
A good writer is a good reader. Good readers understand how good books are written. The first line of a book has to grab on you attention in order to get sold. Good copywriters know what line to pen down in order for something to sell. Selling more by adding a simple line of text will make you a superhero worshipped by all the clients you work for.
What does it take to be a good copywriter?
According to Peter, being a good copywriter is a lot about knowing when to stay invisible. Yes it is regarded as, and sometimes is, a complementary services to the visual idea but it can empower the idea as well. Thus the copy is fact no flavor. Not quite. In fact a good line always empowers the idea. And for some briefs the idea comes out of the copywriting. A good example is this. Think about it, you're working on the brief of a car-client. The car-client wants 'just' the best creative ad he has ever seen and the only restriction the brief has is using a packshot of the car with nothing to much sitting or standing next to it. Definitely the job that needs some strong copywriting wouldn't you say so?
The key to being a good copywriter is not explained talking over just one slice of pizza but Peter rounded up some - rather controversial - basics:
• A good copywriter writes like an art director. Well that kinda solves some problems doesn't it? 'Real' copywriters, as Peter poses it, often try too hard being a copywriter. They tend to write every bloody e-mail 'correct'. Every line is checked, double checked and well thought of. The need to always write 'good'makes lots of conversations (copy) too clean, simple, enforced, without feeling and warmth. Art directors do pretty good job writing as spoken just putting down what they feel. "Ok, so then why do we actually need copywriters anyway Peter?" - "Nobody reads bodycopies unless they are really well written, and that is something not all art directors are gifted to accomplish with success."
• Talking to the viewer is key to drawing the attention. You should not talk to everybody but to somebody in specific, namely you. I am talking to you. Using You is the most important word in bodycopy. You wouldn't want anybody to talk to you persuading you to buy his/her product while addressing a crowd would you. Or, let's pose it this way: do you like having a face to face with somebody looking the other way?
• Tell a story! Give people something to remember (humor doesn't always work to stick) The more you know, the more choices you can make, the more chances you have of finding an idea worthwhile. Peter here refers to David Ogilvy's story on Rolls Royce, perhaps the most famous headline in the car business – “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock”. This, and lots of other remarks of course, make Ogilvy 'probably the most famous copywriter, eughm sorry, advertising man in the world".
• Don't try to hard to be a copywriter. Make your sentences direct, not passive but appealling. And stick to approximately 16 words, certainly don't go over 26 words.
How to become an adstar in one day?
You can't, I'm sorry. Not even with the greatest of ideas. That's because a good idea has to be well executed AND have your clients' full support. Also, a 'real' relationship is build over time. Work until it works. In other words: "one stupid line of copy is worth spending at least one day of work if the outcome is that it leverages tons of extra revenue".
One to learn by heart:
If you make good work you feel happy. If make lousy work you feel crappy.
— David Abbott
Q&A:
What is your favorite line? Let it be one that you've revised yourself as a creative director.
Good music makes good people.
(*) Copycursus is a workshop/masterclass about copywriting, organised by Sint-Lukas Hogeschool Brussels. This years edition was held at the offices of de Persgroep. This years Copycursus was a series of 3 sessions, a mixture of lectures and interactive workshop given by some of the most upfront leaders of Belgian advertising industry.
@Peter: if you'd end up reading this and find I've twisted some the content too much by adding my own please mark that in the comment section or drop me an e-mail. tnx
31 January 2009
A layoff wiki called jobzzz
Tijs Vrolix, originally uploaded by Wolfr.
What I'm about to post, and did, is probably not going to make me popular with @tijs but frankly...you know. I'd like to start with introducing Tijs for a par. Although I've never met him, I can tell he's a pretty good webdesigner. With good I mean, all the designs are crisp, fresh, and layouts are 'pixelperfect' as I may say. Not to mention the solid rock of Standard CSS written. Splendid. I even follow the guy on Twitter though to me his content is a lil' off on the personal edge to be biting nail interesting. Let's skip the "he" and go for Tijs, seems to be occupied as an Interactive Strategies Manager at NOCUS for a living (or is that full-time job?). His thesis on "the influence of the mobile phone" won the IAB talent prize in 2007. At the very moment, according to his website, he's working on several projects (Twistory, Twiddict, Ttrack and some extremely secret projects that have yet to be announced).
It might backfire on me but I felt the unbearable urge to do so, so I did. And yes, I know my English sucks but bear with me... Tijs is also the administrator of a wiki called Jobzzz. And yes, I must admit, first time I found the wiki (some weeks ago) I was amused. Probably just like many other sarcastic mothers out there. Subscribing to the wikifeed I got updates as the slaughter went on. And somewhere last week it dawned on me. Some of these people that just got pregnant, bought a house or planned their holidays and now get sacked because of this damned crisis. No more sunshine over the rainbow for them I guess. I mean think about it, that list reported about 400 layoffs in total. just for the Belgian Creative and MarCom sector, in about a month... Ok ok, expected, but still. Who'd want to brag with that?
The wiki was set up "Just to get a clear view of what's happening and inspired by what Techcrunch is doing on a US scale" — "Just a little crowdsourcing experiment trying to create an overview of recent layoffs in Belgian creative/marcom companies". Hmmmn owkey, I will not focus on the word 'just' but let me emphasize the word 'overview' if I may.
The TechCrunch Layoff Tracker uses iCharts to visualize the data so it can be read out clearly. There is an overview. Not that I really justify the good means of that list but at least it's well documented, the data is processed, provided with sources and put in a nice list with the possibility to comment on what's happening. The wiki is just a loose record of 'possible' layoffs.
Up so far the wiki is pointless. It is pointless if it doesn't track or process the data somewhere. It is pointless because there are no reliable sources provided. It is pointless because it resonates disrespectful to the individuals involved. And it is pointless because any employee looking to hire any one of these layoffs is left out there in the dark. Except for that one tag-on at the Saatchi layoff entry: "but btw, they're hiring a senior digital creative" (And an Account Director as well, so I've heard)
Anyway to cut the long story short, Tijs, I'd like to turn the wiki around. And I beg you forgive my arrogance for I already did. I've changed the Jobzzz wiki into an unofficial "looking for" message board so all these people who got laid off can start getting a new job anywhere soon.
Thank you and good luck on the new job.
30 January 2009
BruTwestival
Let me tell you what I'm all excited about today. I became a father last Friday - but you knew that I assume, wiiihaaaaauuuuw... (I'll update that part in a next post though) Anyway 'because' of this new occupation I've locked myself out of the organizing part of the Twestival last 10 or so days. Thus my involvement will be much lower than previously indicated. Anyhow, I attended a lunch meeting with the @BRUTwestival group today.
We had lunch in the Cook&Book and although their website sucks big time and is written in only french... I so-o-o love the place. Adorable. My book fetish wet dream. Cook&Book is a full range bookstore (with a fair amount of hard to find art&design books on their shelves) combined with a wine&dine (not the best restaurant you'll be attending in the Brussels area but they'll present you a menu with a varied range of options and the dishes carefully served). It's almost as if you are having lunch with the books, love it. You are allowed to take the books from their shelves and flick through them as you await your order.
Being there for lunch with about 5 or 6 other excited Tweeters was one thing, being surrounded with books of all kinds another. I was pleased to hear that the organization of the event was in full development. Nice. I felt pretty relaxed since I've done nothing but being a father and pouring out champagne for the last several days. The meeting kicked off with everybody giving up the good news one by one. Funny. As some people kept on rattling on about everything they'd done so far. Off course organizing such an event isn't all sun where the shining is. The practicals the practicals the practicals...
Anyway after going back and forth cross several practical issues. We also talked about some questions that arose as we talked about it with people from outside the organization. Questions that need answers before we really get you fire started. The Belgian Twestival organization has agreed on one clear stance: it is definitely NOT about Twitter. Sure Twitter is the social glue. Twitter is the way we connected. Twitter is the way this group found each other. So thank you Twitter, and euh thank you Evan Williams or anyone. But our goal for this Twestival is helping people out.
The focus is NOT HOW the people that want to help, do charity, connect but WHY they want to help. And they want to help because they believe that clean water is a basic need for everybody. And anyone should have free access to it. A group of people that connect because they have a mutual interest, because they fight for the same cause. In this case that cause translates in fundraising for people who are living, or is that: trying to stay alive, without decent clean water facilities.
Why water?
Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water. It’s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without. It’s hard not to think about water today. In the western world, we face growing concerns about our stewardship of the world’s most precious resource. There’s talk of shortages, evidence of reservoirs and aquifers drying up, and of course, plenty of people who simply don’t care.
So in short Twestival is a fund raising event. Organized by people that connected via Twitter. The non-profit Twestival supports is called charity:water. Charity: water is a non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Scott Harrison, the founder of the organization, made his living in the big Apple. Promoting top nightclubs and fashion events, for the most part living selfishly, thoughtlessly. Unhappy, he desperately needed a change in his life... And so the story goes.
Oh and what about the Twestival then? Why the Twitter community stuff? Well in September 2008, a group of Tweeters based in London UK decided to organize an event where the local Twitter community could meet offline, meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment, have a few drinks and tie this in with a food drive and fund raising effort for a local homeless charity. The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, had close to 300 people in attendance (with a waiting list) and was able to do some good for charity in the process.
Please note that no one working on the Twestival is being paid. All the money goes to the charity. All costs are covered by sponsorships.
So thank you: ATTENTIO, BIZNESSENCE, NEW EUROPE and TARGET RECRUITMENT for being so kind to contribute, and thus support this project. But if you'll allow me — sorry can't hold myself down — please guys, talk to someone for a decent design on your websites or strategy of your online presence because the stuff I just saw clicking to your homepages makes me sick/. Sorry, again, I'm too honest.
We had lunch in the Cook&Book and although their website sucks big time and is written in only french... I so-o-o love the place. Adorable. My book fetish wet dream. Cook&Book is a full range bookstore (with a fair amount of hard to find art&design books on their shelves) combined with a wine&dine (not the best restaurant you'll be attending in the Brussels area but they'll present you a menu with a varied range of options and the dishes carefully served). It's almost as if you are having lunch with the books, love it. You are allowed to take the books from their shelves and flick through them as you await your order.
Being there for lunch with about 5 or 6 other excited Tweeters was one thing, being surrounded with books of all kinds another. I was pleased to hear that the organization of the event was in full development. Nice. I felt pretty relaxed since I've done nothing but being a father and pouring out champagne for the last several days. The meeting kicked off with everybody giving up the good news one by one. Funny. As some people kept on rattling on about everything they'd done so far. Off course organizing such an event isn't all sun where the shining is. The practicals the practicals the practicals...
Anyway after going back and forth cross several practical issues. We also talked about some questions that arose as we talked about it with people from outside the organization. Questions that need answers before we really get you fire started. The Belgian Twestival organization has agreed on one clear stance: it is definitely NOT about Twitter. Sure Twitter is the social glue. Twitter is the way we connected. Twitter is the way this group found each other. So thank you Twitter, and euh thank you Evan Williams or anyone. But our goal for this Twestival is helping people out.
The focus is NOT HOW the people that want to help, do charity, connect but WHY they want to help. And they want to help because they believe that clean water is a basic need for everybody. And anyone should have free access to it. A group of people that connect because they have a mutual interest, because they fight for the same cause. In this case that cause translates in fundraising for people who are living, or is that: trying to stay alive, without decent clean water facilities.
Why water?
Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water. It’s hard to imagine what a billion people looks like really, but one in six might be easier. One in six people in our world don’t have access to the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without. It’s hard not to think about water today. In the western world, we face growing concerns about our stewardship of the world’s most precious resource. There’s talk of shortages, evidence of reservoirs and aquifers drying up, and of course, plenty of people who simply don’t care.
So in short Twestival is a fund raising event. Organized by people that connected via Twitter. The non-profit Twestival supports is called charity:water. Charity: water is a non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Scott Harrison, the founder of the organization, made his living in the big Apple. Promoting top nightclubs and fashion events, for the most part living selfishly, thoughtlessly. Unhappy, he desperately needed a change in his life... And so the story goes.
Oh and what about the Twestival then? Why the Twitter community stuff? Well in September 2008, a group of Tweeters based in London UK decided to organize an event where the local Twitter community could meet offline, meet the faces behind the avatars, enjoy some entertainment, have a few drinks and tie this in with a food drive and fund raising effort for a local homeless charity. The bulk of the event was organized in under two weeks, had close to 300 people in attendance (with a waiting list) and was able to do some good for charity in the process.
Please note that no one working on the Twestival is being paid. All the money goes to the charity. All costs are covered by sponsorships.
So thank you: ATTENTIO, BIZNESSENCE, NEW EUROPE and TARGET RECRUITMENT for being so kind to contribute, and thus support this project. But if you'll allow me — sorry can't hold myself down — please guys, talk to someone for a decent design on your websites or strategy of your online presence because the stuff I just saw clicking to your homepages makes me sick/. Sorry, again, I'm too honest.
26 January 2009
Super Bowl Ad Showdown by MSNBC
McDonald's, Coke, Apple ... and the people’s vote for a flatulent horse.
The Super Bowl Ad Showdown was a nice way to check on the publics' view of the best ad "ever". Clicking the thumb shown above will redirect you to a nice app MSNBC launched last year.
The world is still about being talked about.
This year MSNBC has selected the 10 best Super Bowl ads of all time. The picks were heavily influenced by commenters on the MSNBC message boards, who discussed their favorite commercials and voted on the subject two years ago. MSNBC also considered the economic impact of the ads, which mostly consisted of disqualifying failed dot-com companies.
1. Coke — “Mean Joe Greene” (1979)
This advertisement became an economy in itself. Remakes were made in other countries with different athletes, including one in Argentina with soccer player Diego Maradona. There was even a 1981 movie based on the commercial called “The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid.”
2. Budweiser — “Respect” (2002)
Don’t be so cynical. It’s not always about the money.
3. Reebok — “Terry Tate Office Linebacker” (2003)
The nation’s jobless rate may be rising, but Terry Tate actor Lester Speight has plenty of work, including video game voiceovers and a guest spot on TV’s “Prison Break.” Rawson Marshall Thurber, who came up with the Reebok spot, now directs feature films.
4. Apple — “1984” (1984)
The Macintosh didn’t quite change the world as we know it — we’re typing on a PC, and bet you’re reading this on one — but Apple has managed to stick around and make a few bucks. While the original Macintosh is likely gone for good, Dolphin shorts have made a comeback.
5. Budweiser — “Frogs” (1995)
Anheuser-Busch didn’t just sell a lot of beer in the 1990s. For the next several years the company also sold the frogs on T-shirts, beer steins, key chains, neon pub lights and a motion sensor-activated frog lamp that repeated the catchphrase when anyone walks by. (It’s currently going for $500 on EBay.)
6. McDonald's — “The Showdown” (1993)
Larry Bird’s visible back hair in this ad didn’t seem to hurt sales. The 650-calorie sandwich continues to be a staple, and McDonald’s is posting solid numbers even in a rough economy.
7. E*Trade — “Money out the Wazoo” (2000)
E*Trade has had its ups and downs, but its mere survival puts it ahead of most of the dot-com companies that advertised in this era. “E.R.,” the television show that this ad appears to spoof, is currently in its 132nd season.
8. Budweiser — “Sleigh Ride” (2004)
A gassy horse and third-degree burns didn’t appear to make anyone switch to Coors. Anheuser-Busch will have seven commercial spots in this year’s Super Bowl. BUT there are many, many Americans willing to go to war in defense of a good fart joke.
9. Coke — “Parade Balloons” (2008)
“Family Guy” was mired in a writer’s strike, the “Underdog” movie was a box office disappointment and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade got Rickrolled later that year. Was this commercial cursed?
10. Master Lock — “Shot Lock” (1974)
Master Lock enjoyed record growth in the 1970s and is still an industry leader in the 21st century. It doesn’t hurt that Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” recently shot a bullet through a Master Lock and got the same result.
The crisis is in our heads not our wallets.
Nothing makes the economy appear sound like scores of corporations lining up to spend $3 million for a 30-second advertisement that may or may not help their company. Even after a year filled with government bailouts, Bernie Madoff and $4-plus gas, there’s still plenty of money for Super Bowl commercials.
Dull impact lacks contact.
Too often, today’s Don Drapers fail to look at what has worked in the past — mostly simple spots that involve animals, potty humor, violence, celebrities, sentimentality, a stupid catchphrase or some combination of the above.
Okey... now after seeing most of these ads I'm totally convinced:
LONG LIVE SOCIAL MEDIA, and the internet ;)
Thank you MSNBC for thoroughly investingating and polling the public on their pick of monsterads
20 January 2009
Shapeshifters, lectures on graphic design
Luc Derycke has an educational background in the arts, and works as a book editor and graphic designer. Since 1993, he has concentrated on the design and production of art books, thus establishing his international reputation. His aim is to create a perfect fusion between all aspects involved in the creation of a book: along with content and form, institutional and historical context, the relation to the canons, market, budget, technology and materiality are essential components of his design process. In 2005, he founded mer. Paper Kunsthalle, to investigate the notion of books as mental exhibition spaces.
Dutch spoken
Kim Hiorthøy is a graphic designer and illustrator from Norway. He is perhaps best known for his work for the Rune Grammofon label, for which he has made over 80 covers. Hiorthøy studied fine art at academies in Trondheim and Copenhagen, and studied film briefly in New York before beginning a freelance career, starting out by illustrating many children’s books. In 2000, he began releasing music on Smalltown Supersound, for which he has also designed many sleeves. He has worked for clients such as Drag City, Sony Music, Adidas and mtv. Tree Weekend, a monograph of his design work, was published by Die Gestalten in 2000.
English spoken
Wednesday 28 January 2009
Venue
Beursschouwburg
A. Ortsstraat 20 – 28
1000 Brussels
02 550 03 50
Tickets
Tickets can be ordered at 02 550 03 50 or tickets@beursschouwburg.be
Price
Single ticket: € 12/10 – presale € 10/8,5.
Subscription 4 lectures: € 40.
17 January 2009
Omega Code
Not just music, not just art. An ideology.
Omega Code believe that now-days music should be tightly attached to visuals, and that they should be based on a solid concept, to create a whole experience.
To absorb the content and not just pass through it.
Well I must secretly admit that I was already a big fan of 'em long before I heard their first spark of music. The visual buzz they have been spreading around for since the 21st of november 2008, is so thrilling that it already has conceived a certain status of being dark, mysterious and powerful. They have scrambled the leaders in design and visual arts the create their world, and now they have opened up and challenged the whole world to engage with the world they've created.
They have opened a Fan Art set for submissions. Artists can download a template and send their art. The artwork must contain the image of the OmegaCode logo somehow. All entries and official imagery for the posters you can check out on flickr
20 of the strongest illustrations will be featured in the upcoming OmegaCode book. Deadline: February 27th. Send artwork in your LOWRES 72 dpi to hello@omegacode.net
Their album "Ω" will be released shortly. Their album will free. The release will be accompanied with a series of free posters, made by some of the best designers around, together with a book and a dvd. Interactive installations, concerts and exhibitions will run in Sao Paulo, New York, Munchen and Lisbon (in Lisbon they'll play at the OFFFestival). Their also preparing a remixed album to explore the other point of view by fellow musical artists. Now the site is already featuring a remix by Michael Fakesch of the former Funkstörung.
Omega Code is Marcelo Baldin (Guitars and Programming), Lucas Baldin (Bass and Vocals), Danny Kopecky (Vocals) and Davi Ayres (Drums)
Amongst the visual artists they collabare with for this project are:
Joshua Davis, Si Scott, Motomichi, Peter Jaworowski, Ash Bolland, Hello Hikimori, Andreas Philstrm, Joao Oliveira, Mike Cina, Michael Paul Young, Robert Lindstrm, Nelson Balaban, Mate Steinforth, Tom Muller, Collectivo, Animatrio, Doomedo, Sebastian Onufszak, Nacionale, Matthew Curry, Unstru, Toms Pea, Christopher Hewitt, Esther Varella, Dimitri Lima, Stephan Alt, Robert Hodgin, Mr.Doob, Eduardo Recife, and Danny Franzeb
» euhm, yes, all of these links are worth bookmarking and clicking twice - believe me
Resistance, it’s the point of equilibrium between the whole album. It sustains all the purposes in one. Means equity. The point of perfection, holding everything on its shoulders. Peace.
About all major design portals (Surfstation, Cpluv, Reform&Revolution...) have already covered them so far...
15 January 2009
BruTwestival
What is Twestival?
Twestival is a series tweet-up’s with a social conscience - The events organised quarterly aim to bring together London’s vibrant digital media community, giving those who are normally communicating through Twitter the opportunity to meet each other face to face and build on the relationships they have made online. At the same time through corporate sponsorship and activities at the events Twestival aims to raise money for internet based charities.
Date & time: Thursday 12th February evening
Venue: To be decided (Brussels)
Twestival is a series tweet-up’s with a social conscience - The events organised quarterly aim to bring together London’s vibrant digital media community, giving those who are normally communicating through Twitter the opportunity to meet each other face to face and build on the relationships they have made online. At the same time through corporate sponsorship and activities at the events Twestival aims to raise money for internet based charities.
Date & time: Thursday 12th February evening
Venue: To be decided (Brussels)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)