Following a blog post written by Gareth Kay, Razvan and I were talking about a comparison that we keep making lately: Effie vs. UK IPA Effectiveness Awards. Which one is better? It’s not rocket science to see that the good answer always seems to be the IPA Effectiveness Awards. IPA Awards are just better. A more strict, more rigorous approach that obliges participants to isolate the effect of communication on business. Still, come to think of it, we’ve realized that actually (as research is supposed to happen) the Effie Awards somehow replicate reality better than the IPA Awards. Because, in the real world, only a few clients invest their money in order to be able to isolate the effects of communication and to prove that indeed it was communication that helped build the business. Yearly, clients choose the agencies they work with and reward them based on arguments that are actually even weaker than those that one needs to fill in the Effie formats. Is this a decent argument in favour of the Effies?

Have you heard of The Escapist? According to the website of the magazine "The Escapist covers gaming and gamer culture with a progressive editorial style, with articles and columns by the top writers in and outside of the industry". And when a colleague sent me the link I ran across this great written article about OGMs (online guerilla marketers). Read the thing here.

After the Tuborg Tonic Water and Tuborg Club Soda thing, I found out more weird stuff: Tuborg Squash. A some sort of orange juice. Moreover, talking about brand elasticity, I've also ran across Carlsberg mineral water. And I was naive enough to think that Carlsberg was only a beer brand. It all happens in Copenhagen.

HolyCow pointed out to this movie from 2001 that I never got to see. Maybe you didn't either.

All 20 of you. :)) Who's next?

This is very funny. Russell and John met and it seems (here and here) they've talked about being in Romania. I just thought somebody should put these pictures together. It also occured to me that, at some point, it would be quite interesting for all the Romanian planners to go to London to attend a conference called "Planners who've been to Romania". Or maybe a different name, but using the same concept. No speaker should be allowed there if he/she didn't visit Romania. Am I being too radical? :)

The second edition of Leo Academy is starting. It's very likely that account planning is included in the courses list.
For more details visitLeo Academy's website.

Fara ca sa imi amintesc de unde o am, am gasit in calculator o lista care s-ar putea dovedi utila atunci cand incerci sa ajungi la un mesaj esential.

- build up
- eliminate
- work forward
- work backward
- associate
- generalize
- compare
- focus
- purge
- verbalize
- visualize
- hypothesize
- define
- dissect
- symbolize
- simulate
- manipulate
- transform
- adapt
- substitute
- combine
- separate
- vary
- repeat
- multiply
- invert
- transpose
- unify
- distort
- rotate
- flatten
- squeeze
- stretch
- abstract
- translate
- expand
- reduce
- exaggerate
- understate

Februarie 2004
IPA stage 4 – Excellent Account Planning – Cred ca a fost unul dintre cele mai solicitante si mai inspirante traininguri la care am participat. Eram singurul roman intr-un grup de planneri britanici, atunci mandria si viitorul unor agentii ca Fallon sau DDB UK. Asa cum va puteti imagina, exemplele prezentate acolo erau numai din publicitatea britanica, iar dialogul lor era plin de glume de industrie de acolo. Dar a fost super tare. Tema centrala era “Plan your planning style” si am venit de acolo cu multe intrebari la care am gasit raspuns. Atunci am vazut multi dintre castigatorii APG Awards, i-am vazut pe baietzii de la Naked cu celebra lor campanie “Sex Lottery”. Si l-am intalnit pentru prima data pe Russell prezentand Case Study-ul Honda...era “fierbinte” (abia lansata), atat de “fierbinte” incat nu am putut primi o copie a “The book of dreams” din motive de confidentialitate. Asta se intampla la ei atunci. In Romania eram vreo 6 planneri care incercam sa punem bazele acestei industrii si care raspundeam la intrebari de genul: “diferente intre media planner si strategic planner” sau “ce faceti voi intr-o agentie”, sau la rautati de la unii colegi de genul “pe tine de ce te-au angajat?”. Zilnic eram tentati cu tot felul de oferte de a ne schimba jobul...si unii au cedat atunci...pentru mai multi bani sau pentru mai multa glorie sau pentru mai multa liniste...sau pentru ca nu au mai sperat ca planningul va deveni important in Romania (si by the way planningul a ramas in anonimat in multe tari).

Noiembrie 2004
Russell Davies vine la Bucuresti. Cred ca a fost prima data cand un planner de afara a vorbit in Romania si primul eveniment la care participantii vorbeau despre planning in pauze, la cafea...primul an cu Effie in Romania...termenul “strategie” incepea sa umple publicatiile...

Septembrie 2006
Russell Davies se intoarce la Bucuresti. Lucrurile s-au schimbat in Romania. Planningul a “decolat”, avem multi oameni care fac jobul asta in Romania (cel putin aspectul cantitativ incepe sa se rezolve) si cativa care il fac chiar bine. Bine dupa standardele noastre si bine dupa standardele lor. Avem know-how, avem lectura si avem benchmark-uri. Am creat asteptari pe care trebuie sa le satisfacem ... ne mai lipsesc multe lucruri si inca nu suntem acolo (stiu ca Jeffre Jackson a spus ca acolo nu e mai bine), dar s-a micsorat “gapul” si pentru mine intalnirile pline de inspiratie cu Russell imi confirma asta ...

...si totusi se pare ca inca ne lipseste ceva. Nu are legatura cu informarea sau cu know-howul si nici cu experienta (un planner in Romania are expunere pe foarte multi clienti si este expus la mult mai multe situatii de business decat afara...asta e, avem cresterea accelerata).

Si sa revin la intrebare...ce ne lipseste noua ca disciplina? Oare nu avem inca destula forta in organizatii? Oare nu am reusit sa castigam inca increderea clientilor? Oare nu facem suficient research exploratoriu? Nu avem destul timp? Nu putem inca sa inspiram creatia?

This is all I've got! :)

Yesterday, I had one of my most interesting advertising experiences. I had the chance to see and talk to two great account planners, to one great managing director and one great graphic designer (sorry, but I couldn’t find a fancier word than “great”). They were all sitting at the same table, in the same room, all having great experiences to talk about and share. I’m referring to Jeffre Jackson, Russell Davies, Ben Terrett and Neil Christie who came to Bucharest for the Napoleons conference. It was all possible due to Headvertising (thks Bogdana) who were so kind to invite me for an interview that ended up with one of the most memorable advertising chats I’ve ever got into. It might have not been like this due to the content of the discussion (which you are going to see as soon as possible in the form of a video interview), but due to the charming way these guys talk about stuff.

I’ve written down some of the most worthy thoughts that I remembered after this day. I haven’t structured them in any way, so it’s just random thinking, sometimes written in poor English. You’ll see that all that I’ve written below are ideas that I’ve came across while listening, so I have nothing to do with them. It’s just parroting what I’ve heard, so others can think about them too.

1st Thought – Can people catch two tennis balls at the same time?
We always talk about one word briefs or one word brands; about brands that stand for one thing rather than for more things. And to illustrate this kind of thinking we seldom use the metaphor of tennis balls. If you throw three tennis balls to one guy, it’s more likely that he’ll catch only one of the balls. And we tend to believe that this is what is also happening with advertising messages. If you have a single-minded message it’s more likely that people will remember it. But when you start thinking about brands like Honda, things become more complex, because it shows that sometimes people require complexity rather than simplicity. After seeing a movie, you don’t hear many people saying “Well, I really loved this movie. Everything was so clear”. They often love the complicated set of events and the scenarios that get you thinking and encourage you to make your own stories.

2rd thought – no title here
We should permanently reconsider the way we think about how advertising works, because this influences a lot the process of developing advertising and, therefore, our relationship with the client.

3th thought – Don’t be afraid of redundancy
If you want to get people to realize that you have a fantastic idea, one that is worth all the money they have, then, whenever you have a presentation, you should follow this simple rule: “Tell them what you want to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you just told them”.


4th thought – no title here either
People watch what they want to watch and seldom it’s probably something that has to do with depth, humour, subtlety, irony, anger, romance or drama.

5th thought – “Execution is strategic. But we never really think about it”
One of the most important meetings in the process of developing advertising (from a strategy point of view) is the pre-production meeting. And Russell was complaining about the fact that advertising agencies spend so little time in the pre-production meeting and so much time doing strategy and doing creative ideas that, eventually, they end up with good ideas, yet with lousy advertising. This idea on the pre-production meeting sounded a bit weird at first (especially coming from a planner), yet if you come to think of it, crafting a good execution is sometimes the key element of the whole process. Because planning should not be only about finding a good message and putting words about a brand in a PowerPoint Presentation to describe its personality, but also about making sure that people get to have a feeling (or more) about your brand. And this is not something that you can always do by using words or simple propositions. It is rather a thing that you transmit by using a lot of non-verbal communication, which is something that has a lot more to do with execution rather than with strategic or creative ideas.

6th thought – Clients have clients
You should always remember that clients have their own clients. And that they also have to sell ideas, especially the ones that they have already approved. So, you should always remember to give clients “selling packs” along with your ideas.

7th thought – Have good explanations
It’s not always the best ideas that win pitches; it’s the best explained ideas that usually do it.

I must have skipped something.

As Bogdana gladly informed us, there's a big planning event coming very soon. Read all about it here and here.