Business

Force-Feed Clay Shirky To The Music Industry

September 22, 2008

If I could do one thing, it would be to force-feed this speech to people in the music business. And this, mind you, is from 2005.

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A Visit To Gaming Wonderland

September 3, 2008

The other day I visited computer game giant EA’s Swedish branch DICE. From their fantastic and huge offices, sprinkled with amazing Phillippe Starck designed lamps and furniture, I overlooked Stockholm from 100 meter+ panorama windows, while sipping away on a latte. Am I in the wrong business I wondered? This two floor mega office houses [...]

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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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As Black Turns To White We Discuss How To Turn A Negative Bias

June 10, 2008

Summertime is here. No more black on the blog. Did you know that we have a physical bias towards the negative? We can’t help it. Our brains have an easier time being pesimistic than optimistic about things. The brain is connected that way because of evolution of course. Reacting quickly and negatively upon meeting something [...]

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Crow Bar Just Took On a New Whole New Meaning

June 6, 2008

I got this from Saurabh (of Berns fame). What fascinates me about this is not so much how smart crows are (though the bending of the hook was really freaky), but how someone takes a fresh view on things. That’s what evolution is. And evolution is the business that I want to be in. I [...]

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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 New Coldplay Album and its Ancient Business Model

May 19, 2008

I’m sitting here listening to a track from the new Coldplay album Viva La Vida. It’s ok. But that’s not the point. The point is that I’ve actually pre-ordered the album from iTunes Store. Mainstream as they may be, I’m a bit of a Coldplay fan. Not just that, I’m also a lazy Coldplay fan [...]

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Gapminder is not new, but it’s brilliant

May 12, 2008

For any planner, the gapminder.org site is like a candy store. I’ve never seen anyone making sense of “boring” data the way Hans Rosling does, and I can’t help thinking how guilty we are of abusing data in this business. I’m not famous for being a numbers research type of guy, but it’s a secret [...]

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Clay Shirky and The Giant Cognitive Surplus

May 6, 2008

I picked this clip up from Beta Alfa. It’s Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, who speaks about the “giant cognitive surplus”. Watch it and marvel at facts like “An new Wikipedia could be created every week during the commercial breaks in television if people contributed instead of watching the commercials”. I am so [...]

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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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Judith’s Blog

May 5, 2008

My old classmate from Lund University, Judith, has started a blog (in Swedish) that I like. Read it here. She posted a recommendation to check out Marty Neuemeier’s Brand Gap presentation on Slideshare. Though perhaps not all new, it’s a great presentation that I highly recommend: | View | Upload your own I really like [...]

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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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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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I’m Not Lovin’ It

April 28, 2008

This is another one in the series of “visual wordplay” that DDB are turning out. I can’t help thinking they could really use a business brain in the team. What on earth is the strategy here? Believe it or not, this is supposed to sell a large coffee for 1 Euro to the McDonald’s target [...]

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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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WNOA: The World’s First Open Source Advertising Agency

April 22, 2008

What’s better than a free lunch? Well, sometimes, the lunch that you pay for is better. Here is why: Lionell Robbins’ definition of economics from 1935: “Economics is a science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses” doesn’t accurately describe the field of economics as noted [...]

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