The Farm Second Edition - Karavan Gitane

Young talent on it's way...
— The Farm Second Edition

Hire the younger, and better

"We hire from a generation of people, younger than me, who understand the way the world is currently configured and want to be the first people to create an app or redesign something rather than just get a 30-second film out of the building shot by the latest director."
— Laurence Green, Fallon London

Proximity BBDO announces it's Best Of Class - Strategist Nicolas Moerman - The Farm edition 2009

We have appointed Strategist Nicolas Moerman for the Best Of Class scholarship.

Nicolas will soon be send to The Mothership in London. After 3 weeks of learning, sharing, interacting and creating we had to elect 1 chosen one. Our first edition of The Farm ended yesterday. A series of interviews and observation sessions stacked elaborate files on each participant, which led us to a long and tiring meeting. I guess I mustn't tell you that all participants contributed the strength of the Team. But, as we promised, only one of them could be granted that €1500 lot and seat in the London office. To select the Best Of Class we considered a broad range of criteria.

Nicolas proved his strengths as a Strategist being able to shape Client input to a tight Creative Brief, he proved to be a premium Digital Native because of his thorough knowledge of technological possibilities and Social Media. He knows who to talk to. He was responsible for one third — 4950 people have visited The Farm blog since August 7 — of the platform's traffic and about one fifth of the content. One might argue that he is a noisy bastard — and he is — but luckily he has learned to keep quiet when needed. We don't blame him for his youthful enthusiasm of course. He is able to jump-start the creative process and mostly assesses good ideas correctly. Overall he is fascinated by marketing, technology and advertising which, we believe, is a good mix. Nicolas has a natural appetite for selling products and services the new media way.

He considers himself to have weird sense of humor and is without any doubt a major a geek. A marketing addict, bitten by the interactive advertising bug. No doubt he'll blend into the British Empire squad in no time. We wish him all the luck, and Godspeed.

Proximity BBDO opens a new agency called The Farm

The Farm is an exclusive summercamp for graduates.

Talented and ambitious starters will be challenged to start a new agency. Proximity BBDO will train 12 graduates and take them through the world of digital and interactive marketing.


Last Wednesday we screened 56 graduates and selected 12 to form two teams this summer. 1 team contains 6 profiles: an Account Executive, a Strategic Planner, an Art Director Online and one Offline, a Copywriter and a Web/Graphic Designer. This summer our 12 recruits are: Laura Verstraeten, Olivier Berger, Helen Bogaerts, Sofie De Clercq, Tom Vingerhoets, Nicolas Moerman, Kasper Vandenbussche, Sven Augusteynes, Jolijn Gijssels, Sven Thierie, Maarten Lauwaert and Bram Ceuppens.

In 3 weeks, the 'intensive program' will cover interactive workshops about social media, viral marketing en brand building. Amongst the tutors are many celebrated leaders of the Direct & Interactive divisions of Proximity BBDO, one of Belgium's largest full service agencies.

The Farm is a professional intensive training program, offered free of charge. Attendees will be housed in a supplied mansion just outside Brussels - http://www.villakortenberg.be

The 'best of class' will be send out to one of the networks' best agencies abroad.