Advertising

Reinforcements Arriving To The Trad-Side

August 11, 2008

Turns out Tove and Olle Langseth, who left Lowe Brindfors earlier this month, are going to heavyweight trad-ad agency DDB Stockholm. Not entirely surprising, and a move that strengthens DDB’s position as the main traditional advertising agency in Stockholm.

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The Message is The Meaning, Or is It?

August 7, 2008

A few Swedish blogs (here they are 1, 2, 3) have spent some time discussing if advertising needs a message. I believe it was all sparked by this article by Paul Feldwick. For those of you who can’t read Swedish (don’t worry, we’re only 9 million people), I can just quickly recap the discussion: They [...]

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Often Wrong, Never in Doubt

August 7, 2008

Three years ago, advertising zillionaire Donny Deutsch wrote a book called “Often Wrong Never In Doubt”. And even though he perhaps didn’t mean it in the way I’m going to describe it here, I think it may describe one of the more profound truths of advertising today. Not least in Sweden. If you think about [...]

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Communication Driven by Design

June 24, 2008

In Cannes I got the question several times why I worked in the design business and not in the advertising business, and for how long I intend to stay. My answer was: I intend to stay with it forever. Regardless of how long I work in “the design business”, I will always keep design as [...]

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Increasingly Social Media

June 23, 2008

I think that perhaps the most buzzword-laden and empty talk in Cannes might have been Go Viral’s one. I shall here provide a vizualization in support of my thesis. The vizualization shows the text from the seminar program and is provided by Wordle. “Social” and “Media” are the biggest buzzwords, no surprise there, but note [...]

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The Agency Void

June 22, 2008

I have mixed feelings about Cannes 2008. It felt like maybe, just maybe, things are starting to move ever so slightly. I would say that there is a growing void between two different schools of advertising. Myself, I’m clearly on one side. It seems to me that the majority of the world’s advertising juries are [...]

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Cannes 2008 Day X: Invasion & Psychology

June 19, 2008

Cannes is now under siege. There are so many advertising people here now, from Sweden and elsewhere, it’s just ridiculous. Counting days doesn’t feel relevant anymore. It’s just intense. Seminars seem to have picked up ever so slightly in quality. MRM Worldwide at least had the sense to put psychology at the center of their [...]

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Resumé TV From What Felt Like The 80′s

June 6, 2008

Our Swedish advertising newspaper Resumé are running a documentary about the Swedish advertising world. In the first episode they visited first the Swedish Consumers Association (advertising skeptics) and then the Advertising Association of Sweden (pro advertising). They also visited some Swedish politicians. What was noteworthy was the prevailing view of advertising as something that people [...]

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The Nextopia Stalker, Part 1: The Joy of Next

June 2, 2008

So. A few weeks ago I got an email from the publishers of Micael Dahlén’s upoming book Nextopia, asking me for my comments on the book. Besides being incredibly flattered (Micael is after all Sweden’s first professor in advertising), i’ve also had a bad conscience ever since for not finishing my comments. But I think [...]

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Winning

May 28, 2008

“Winning” is a concept that fascinates us humans. Especially men seem to be fascinated by it, and have been since we were still just mamals butting heads. But there are really three types of winning. The first type is when you compete with your friends, family, spouse, girl-/boyfriend, or even kids. Not a very rewarding [...]

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The CopyCat Agency: How To Become Rich And Famous In Advertising

May 23, 2008

Good artists borrow, great artist steal, right? Why put all this effort, strategically and creatively, into putting out new campaigns when you can just steal an old one? Stealing the ones that are tested and proven is just so much cheaper! And they work! Most of the customers out there are not pathological followers of [...]

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Transformator and The Role Of Product Design In Brand Communication

May 22, 2008

Industry design consultants Transformator made it into Dagens Media yesterday with a statement that they’re better than the advertising agencies. I’m sure they ARE better. At product design, design of the user experience, the brand in it’s physical product appearance. But that is not what advertising agencies do. What Daniel Ewerman (CEO of Tranformator) is [...]

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Some Fresh Air Into The Stale World of Internet Advertising

May 12, 2008

It feels like the advertising industry is lagging behind when it comes to the Internet. When looking around I get the feeling that campaigns winning prizes and fame have all been done before, and that the core idea has been around for years and years. I don’t know why. Perhaps the jury people don’t know [...]

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The Death of Web Agencies

May 10, 2008

A creative at one of Sweden’s biggest agencies insists that web production is heading the same way as film production. That advertising agencies will get treatments from several different web production companies and get to choose which agency will get to produce. I’m not so sure. First of all, in the sort term, demand for [...]

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Some Of My Blog Favorites

May 6, 2008

For you Swedish people out there – here are three Swedish blogs that I like:BisonblogPlease Copy MeBeta Alfa And of course, my all time favorite – I bow humbly:Nextopia I would also encourage certain advertising agency blogs (not the blogs above) to adhere to the blog code of conduct and link back to the source [...]

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Brand Attraction

May 5, 2008

Why am I so obsessed with this business of brands and communication? And exactly what is it that I’m doing? I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and I think I’ve figured it out. I’m in the business of Brand Attraction. When I think about it, that’s really what it boils down to. So [...]

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Heads Up Agencies, Here Comes Google TV Ads!

May 5, 2008

Google is in the Internet business, right? And if they are, you can imagine them talking down on television as a medium, right? But it’s just not Google’s way to do things. They never whine, bitch, or complain. Instead they attack. Google TV-ads is their latest product. It lets anyone with a valid credit card [...]

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Join The Conspiracy

April 29, 2008

When we aired the first set of Join The Conspiracy WeSC commercials that we shot in Stockholm, we were harshly criticized by the advertising community. How could we make something that didn’t make sense?!?! People were angry. People were mocking us. But the films turned out to be immensely successful on MTV and delivered way [...]

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Innovation, Discrimiation, and What Einstein Has to Say About It

April 29, 2008

“What does a fish know about the water in which it swims all its life”? Smart guy – that Einstein character. I’m telling you – Einstein would have made a great planner. It also says something about the value of interdisciplinary endeavors. It reminds me of the Ronald Jones seminar we had at an agency [...]

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Innovators, Painters and Poets

April 27, 2008

So I read that the Finnish agency 358 are drafting players from agencies like KesselsKramer, CPB and 180 (was with all these number names?). I also read that they’re going to work with ideas rather than advertising. Hmm… ideas rather than advertising… It sound ridiculous, but you know – I think they’re right in wording [...]

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