“this notion of creatives coming together with technologists. It’s not about just the art director and writer anymore, it’s about technology, the interaction designer, all these people coming together. It’s probably been happening for a while, but that’s now entering larger agencies.”

Amen.

To create truly outstanding work, this needs to happen. However, before it can happen the artists and the technologists and IA designers must want to come together and truly mesh. It’s not something that can be forced upon anyone who doesn’t have the will to embrace this new co-existence and that’s what is holding so many people and agencies back currently.

Everyone knows that in order to do business, agencies need to expand to digital. Problem is, on a personal level very few senior creatives and agency execs really want to start learning.

No matter, nature will take it’s course in any case… Evolve or fade away.

The end of winter 2009, UNIQLO launced a small blog widget and bookmarklet made huge movement.

A nice follow-up for the Super Sexy CPR by Forthnight lingerie.

Great concept!
————
Now that we’ve got you interested in learning CPR and the abdominal thrust, go get properly certified by taking a class through one of the many certifying authorities in your local area.

Wonderful rebranding of the historical Claridge’s Hotel in London.

Personally, the encounters that I’ve had with brands with a long heritage, seem very cautious in doing something that might shake the perception of the brand and it’s perfectly valid point of view.

However, the case in question is a superb example how a traditional brand can be modernised to reach new customer base without upsetting the esatblished customers.

The design is by a London agency Construct and you can read the case study from Creative Review.

The Super Sexy way to learn CPR.

In case of an emergency, please follow the procedure described in this brilliant viral campaign for Forthnight lingerie.

It’s nice to see that other lingerie brands are capable of doing clever advertising besides Agent Provocateur.

This was left behind in my drafts folder. Since it’s still quite feelgood commercial, I’ll post it in case you missed it when it first came around.

One thing in particular has caught me by surprise and it is the relative cost of campaigns. Some of the clients have house policy of media vs. production costs and it does make sense in traditional medias, where the media it self is valuable.

However, it does create a challenge when you apply it to digital, since the media is much cheaper. What I’ve noticed is that in many cases it is expected that everything is included in the given budget. Photography, illustration, animation, video and sound. And usually clients are shocked when it becomes clear that those are separate costs.

In advertising agency no client expects that these things are included in the agency cost. Having been involved in many large productions (in our local scale) and knowing how much is spent on that, it does seem quite distorted.

Clients are used to expensive photo shoots and film productions with the ad agency and, for arguments sake a photograph costing 25.000 is still doable, but building a service with rich media content or a business model… “15.000?… seems unreasonable. Yes, we are determined to revolutionize our industry, but 15.000? You must be joking”.

Also it seems that right now clients are willing to pay for media and production, but not planning. In many cases that’s because they’ve already paid the agency for that. Why should they pay for it again? Well, my opinion is that if it’s working, there’s no need. But if what’s been done so far isn’t working, someone should think about it and come up with something that does work. And they should be rewarded for it.

Until next time.

My phone number remains the same, but email is joni.kukkohovi(at)fwd.fi

It’ll surely be an interesting and challenging. I’ll post some updates in the upcoming weeks.

The paradigm change that still hasn’t registered with most of the Finnish Ad agencies is once again proved, by the merger and strategic statement by Alex Bogusky.

“We 
believe 
that 
digital 
is 
at 
the 
center 
of 
everything 
going 
forward,” 
said 
Alex 
Bogusky, 
Co‐Chairman, 
CP+B. 
“We’ve 
made 
digital 
the 
focus 
of 
our 
US 
business 
and 
with 
the 
acquisition 
of Daddy, 
it 
will 
now 
be 
the 
center 
of 
CP+B
 Europe
 as 
well”.

I hope that the authority and vision that Bogusky has over the whole industry resonates to all of the brilliant creatives and executives in Finnish agencies and drives home the fact that each and everyone who has an ounce of professional dignity, must embrace the new skill sets that are required to do our job in this day and age. It’s a matter of personal development and change that can not be outsourced.

To quote Katie Chatfields presentation;

“The challenge with this is that competent people resist change, because it threatens to make them less competent. And competent people like to be competent. That’s who they are and sometimes it’s all they’ve got. No wonder they’re not in a hurry to rock the boat.”

With this in mind I leave behind my dear colleagues and partners for over five years at Bob Helsinki and welcome the change that has driven me for some time now.

My thanks to all the clients I’ve worked with over the past and in words of Bob Marley… “good vibarations, man” …to all the Bobs as well.

I will continue my work in Finnish advertising and marketing industry after the holidays and keep updating this blog as things develop. For a bit more casual encounter, check out my travel blog Citizen Plane.

Sources:

CP+B|Daddy press release

Katie Chatfields presentation