Sometimes some things take balls to post, when you're in advertising sometimes some things take balls to publish. I'd like to file some respect to Koen, Johan, Jonathan en Carl and of course all others at Famous who participated to this project as well.
So, Famous is back huh. Not only are they re-participating in award-shows (read here: dutch newspaper extract, sorry), they've recently filed something that smells to like cyber-award potential, IF. Yes, if.
The IF Proximus Generation Movie Project is one of those projects that relies on crowdsourcing (*). It is one of those projects that needs YOU, the crowd, the audience, to sharpen the raw diamond, to accomplish the mission. Last year Doritos posted a contest asking all Doritos lovers to post their 30sec spot to Crash the SuperBowl. The producers of the winning spot would win a grand money prize and of course become famous because of the broadcasting of their spot at the SuperBowl. But crowdsourcing (*) isn't your key to success. The WIFM is often overlooked because these projects often come with a lot of maintenance and need a huge push in media. And just being a participator isn't always enough as a push to get people into posting their stuff. Also, if the project entirely depends on the participation of the crowd than the idea melts away like snow under a blistering sun. So far there hasn't been too much activity at the PGMP but that might pick up as the spot has just been launched. The WIFM here is to see yourself on tv,... and that's it. I really wonder if people will be eager to invest their time to embrace Proximus. Proximus claims to be the "official sponsor of friendship". They smartly cover their ass from launch calling it "an experiment" :)
Let's dig into how the project works, fairly simple. The CTA: Participate and we'll broadcast you and your friends on tv, starring our commercial. First choose a layout-frame on the timeline. Take a picture of you and your friends exactly like the frame you selected. Post your picture to the website and admire yourself on tv within a few weeks.
Common crowd give it your best spot and pinch that creativity otherwise we'll be eating some very crappy tv-stuff in april. Luckily the frames for the final vid will be rated by the visitors.
(*) Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.
This morning, Famous has released a creative inauguration speech on advertising. The 'creative inauguration' is published on a sub-page of the Famous website. A widget is offered to implement the text onto blogs and other digital media, so it is made portable, nice. But the entire text was published in the form of a ticker which scrolls just too fast to be comfortable for reading. Therefor I posted it here in this post. The text is a very nice example of creative writing. Would you wonder. Tim Driesen is Co-Creative Director @FamousBrussels, an agency renowned for obtaining many creative awards through the years. Though last year they've announced not to participate to creative award-shows anymore. I thought that was a joke at first, but it wasn't.
Former Creative Director Paul Wauters left Belgium to train new Creative Directors for the TBWA Group in Italy. And so Tim and Joeri will take his place as Creative Director team. Tim and Joeri aren't new to the Famous crew. They'd worked there for over 5 years before moving to Mortierbrigade about 2 years ago. So now they're back at the agency that helped them grow to become Belgium star team in advertising. Tim and Joeri got famous when the agency was still called LG&F. They struck numerous creative awards including many Gold Lions.
My guess is that Tim and Joeri will introduce a new young drive of enthusiasm @FamousBrussels and soon will take part at bigger competitions like they did before. I briefly worked with them when I was at Snow by LG&F, they're great, good fellas. To insiders they're also know as 'the usual suspects'.
“My fellow creatives: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust advertisers have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our creative ancestors.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Advertising is at war, against a far-reaching network of scepticism and fear. Our creativity is badly weakened, a consequence of irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare advertising for a new age. Freshness of mind has been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our productions are too costly, our art schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use or don’t use our creativity threaten our agencies.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our industry — a nagging fear that advertising’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation of advertisers must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, fellow creatives — they will be met.
In reaffirming the greatness of our industry, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of the rich and famous. Rather, it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labour, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and creativity. These men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked until their heads almost exploded so that we might become better creatives. They saw advertising as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions.
This is the journey we continue today. We serve the most prosperous, powerful brands on Earth. These multinationals may be less productive than when this crisis began. But our minds are no less inventive, our services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our creativity remains undiminished. But our time of standing still, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking the advertising business.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of our industry calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new ads, but to lay new foundations for fresh creativity. We will build more and far better websites. We will restore television and print advertising to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise CRM’s quality and lower its cost. And we will transform our art schools and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that advertising today cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this industry has already done; what creative men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the same arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our advertising is too creative or too dull, but whether it works — whether it helps products to be sold and brands to be made heroes. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, campaigns will end. And those of us who manage the advertisers’ budgets will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between advertisers and their agencies.
To the advertiser’s world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those marketing directors who seek to sow conflict, or blame their companies' ills on advertising — know that consumers will judge you on what you can build, not what your agency can sell.
For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
For as much as the advertising industry can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the people in every agency upon which our industry relies. It is the selflessness of workers who would rather work long hours than see their company go down which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the creative team’s courage to start all over again, but also an account handler’s willingness to question the client’s demands, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and creativity, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and research — these things are old. These things are true. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every person working in advertising, that we have duties to ourselves, our industry, and creativity in general, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of working in advertising.
In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our trainees' trainees that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of creativity and delivered it safely to future generations.”
Tim (Driesen) & Joeri (Van den Broeck), het top creatief team van LG&F dat de afgelopen jaren de meeste prijzen won, heeft aangekondigd naar Mortierbrigade over te stappen. "Na vijf jaar bij LG&F waren we toe aan een nieuwe omgeving en nieuwe uitdagingen," vertelt Joeri. "In het enthousiasme van de bende van de Mortierbrigade herkennen we onszelf. Ook hun manier van werken is zoals een reclamebureau er volgens ons uit moet zien: klein, flexibel en met de focus op ideeën. We hebben er nooit een geheim van gemaakt dat we sympathie hebben voor de Mortierbrigade. We kennen Jens, Joost en Philippe goed. Met Joost hebben we zelfs nog samengewerkt bij Lowe.
Twee jaar geleden hebben Tim en Joeri nog een aanbod van TBWA Parijs afgewezen om bij LG&F te blijven. "We hebben toen bewust gekozen voor België," reageert Tim. "En daar is de keuze voor Mortierbrigade opnieuw een bewijs van. België is goed bezig, maar het kan nog veel beter. Daaraan kunnen meewerken, dat doen we nog het liefst van al.
Joeri is begonnen bij Kadratura, en daarna naar Lowe gegaan om er in team te werken met Joost Berends en Dominique. Tim deed stage bij Lowe, en samenwerken leek hen bijzonder goed af te gaan. 5 jaar geleden is Joeri bij LG&F begonnen, en kwam Tim al snel achterna om samen in team te werken. Vandaag nog steeds dus. De samenwerking bij LG&F was vruchtbaar, getuige de 4 leeuwen in Cannes, 3 gouden eurobests, verschillende zilveren en bronzen eurobests, een 20tal ccb-hoedjes, de ccb-diamond en een gouden Effie, om de belangrijkste wedstrijden te noemen.
"Het is natuurlijk verre van leuk om onze creatieve prijsbeesten te zien vertrekken," reageert Marc Fauconnier van LG&F. "We zijn hen overigens dankbaar voor alle goud dat ze hier achterlaten. Maar het is ook geen drama. We hebben gemerkt dat de creatieve cutuur van LG&F mensen doet groeien in hun job. We hebben vaak jonge gasten aangeworven die mits een goede omkadering doorgegroeid zijn naar toptalent. Paul en Christophe zien dat als hun belangrijkste opdracht."
For english, use Babelfish or move to Belgium and get a dutch course.
