A l’Agence on aime bien s’envoyer des fleurs.

C’est pourquoi je vous renvoie à la dernière ligne (prémonitoire) de mon dernier post:

Encore un coup à faire passer le duo Malkovich/Clooney de Nespresso pour la campagne de l’année (EFFIE J-3).

En plein dans le mille!

Faute d’Oscar le beau George devra en effet se contenter d’un EFFIE (Bravo à McCann Paris).

Le palmarès complet à découvrir ici.

Quel bonheur que de se retrouver avec ceux qu’on aime, de partager ces grands moments de la vie où toutes nos aspirations tristement individualistes s’unissent autour d’une onde positive qui éclaire notre quotidien et transcende nos différences.

Je ne dois pas cette envolée lyrique aux récents “exploits” footballistiques de mes compatriotes (d’ailleurs merci mon Dieu, Gillette ne laissera pas Thierry Henry tomber: à lire ici ), mais plutôt à la dernière campagne Tassimo qui sent bon les retrouvailles, les diners entre amis, les bouquets de coquelicots et les bisous partout…

Une chose est sûre, le claim “le café ça resserre les liens” est vieux comme le Monde (cf. saga Grand Mère), et l’anglais ne faisant pas tout, le fait de conclure sur “Together is Better” ne suffit hélas pas à renouveler le genre.

Et alors que certains me répondront “Et alors ?” je suis tenté de surenchérir et de m’interroger:  “Y a t’il encore un seul consommateur de café qui se préoccupe de ce qu’il achète en fonction des amis qu’il va hypothétiquement inviter chez lui et avec qui il craint de ne pas passer un bon moment si son café n’est pas bon ?“: ma réponse est non !

Qu’aucun café n’ose défendre son bénéfice principal (le coup de fouet)  passe encore. Mais alors qu’ils préfèrent pour la plupart nous vendre un imaginaire (Carte Noire), un standing (Nespresso), une diversité (Dolce Gusto) ou encore une praticité (Senséo), j’ai vraiment du mal à voir jusqu’où Tassimo veut en venir.

J’ai bien peur que cette dernière prise de parole, loin de nous faire oublier la candeur des poncifs/poussifs “Tassimoments” (voir vidéo ci dessous),  semble en effet sombrer dans une miévrerie à des années lumières de ce qu’on pourrait attendre d’un café…

Encore un coup à faire passer le duo Malkovich/Clooney de Nespresso pour la campagne de l’année (EFFIE J-3).

Mise à jour: Pour ceux qui voudraient approfondir le sujet, voici un lien qui m’a été transmis par nos confrères de chez Buzzman. (Pardon d’avance).

It’s been a while, I know, but I’ve been distracted by my new acquisition – a horse named Effie.  Actually, I haven’t bought her, I am just leasing her from a lady who seems to acquire horses like most people acquire bags for life.  She is mildly eccentric, over seventy but does not look or act it and drives her husband mad with her horsey endeavours.  She had to hide a black eye from him the other day after one of her horses bashed into her.

For my part I am  finding the whole, owning a horse thing, (even though technically I don’t own Effie) rather odd.  I have always wanted a horse, I have had visions of galloping  with gay abandon along sandy beaches, through woodland and across fields since I was about eight years old.   The reality, of course, is enormously different.  Freedom and horses do not go together at all because, as I have found out,  it’s all about control.  Controlling risk, controlling speed, controlling your urge to say Yee Hah! and race up the country lane which probably has a slow moving tractor round every bend.

Effie is, however, a real sweetie.  A lady of a certain age who had a foal last year  and now needs to be “brought back into work,” a horsey phrase for ridden again. I try and see her everyday even if it is just to bring her into the yard for a groom and pamper and she seems pleased, if not slightly bemused, by these well meaning attentions by a complete stranger.

I was warned by others who have horses that once you make the commitment to the equestrian lifestyle that is wholly addictive but  I worried that, in fact, the experience would quickly become a drag and a chore especially through the winter months. 

I am now three months down the road of horse leasingship and I am hooked.  The farm where she is stabled is but 10 minutes up the road from me and once I am there it is total chill out time.  Just me, Effie, a strong cold north east wind, and a strong, warm smell of horse.  Usually there are other horse owners at the yard but I have learned that having a wee chat  is not the done thing.  It’s all about you and your horse, not how your day at work went or how the kids are doing at school.  As a result I know very little about the people up at the stables except for their name and name of their horse.

I expect this is something I will just have to get used to even though it goes against all my natural instincts of engaging people in inane banter at any given opportunity. 

Anyway, Effie is great, will post a picture soon. I have one but it’s on my camera and the plug thing to download from the camera is dodgy and Ruby, one of dogs, is sitting begging me to get off the computer and put some food in her bowl!

Munchee biscuit brand won top place as brand of the year, while Panadol, a paracetamol product, bagged the gold for the international brand at the 8th annual Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) brand awards.

Ceylon’s Biscuits Limited’s Munchee also walked away with the award for the top export brand. Diva won silver and Tiara bagged bronze in the local category.

DIMO Batta, a half-truck manufactured by TATA Motors of India, distributed by Diesel and Motor Engineering Company (DIMO) won a silver in the international brand category.

Switch and bulb manufacturer Orange Electrics won Gold in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) brand of the year, while Munchee came in second place.

Celco’s, Mobitel and Dialog Telekom bagged gold in innovative brand of the year category. Ritzbury Chocolates, another Ceylon Biscuits brand, won the bronze in the category.

The Upahara package opened for state sector employees by Mobitel, a unit of Sri Lanka Telecom bagged gold in best new entrant of year award, while shoemaker DSI and Dialog news services, a text based new service, won silver.

Werbung wirkt. Kommunikation verkauft. Der Gesamtverband Kommunikationsagenturen GWA hat seine Effies 2009 verliehen und belegt anhand der ausgewählten Kampagnen, dass gute Werbung zur Wertschöpfung im Unternehmen beitragen kann. Denn erfolgreiche Kommunikation muss nicht teuer sein und kann dennoch erheblich zum Unternehmenserfolg beitragen, eine Philosophie, die wir voll und ganz teilen. Bei der diesjährigen Preisverleihung wurden folgende Kampagnen mit Gold ausgezeichnet: BMW „Verdichtete 1ntensität“; Deutsche Telekom „Erleben, was verbindet“; Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat „Runter vom Gas!“; Edeka „Wir lieben Lebensmittel“. Weiterlesen.

I was pleased to see that the library has acquired copies of Never the bride, the very amusing first book in a series by Paul Magrs. This stars the delightful Brenda, who runs a B&B in Whitby on the North-East coastline of England and her friend Effie, who has an antique/junk shop next door.

I heard a BBC radio interview with the author, where he talked about coming up with the character of Brenda for another radio show, and how she kind of hung around in the back of his head until he finally wrote her book. He had so much fun with it that he has gone on to write another three: Something borrowed, Conjugal rites and Hell’s belles! which is not yet available, but should be soon. (I’m waiting with bated breath.)

It’s hard to talk about the book without giving away a key element of Brenda’s past which she is quite keen to keep hidden…. but suffice it to say that if you love classic horror stories, and you think there is definitely something creepy about canned Christmas carols and beauty salons, then Never the bride is for you.

Whitby is a strange little seaside town in North Yorkshire – its narrow streets and old buildings cling to the base of the East Cliff beneath the looming ruins of Whitby Abbey. It’s famous for the weirdest things – Captain Cook found his sea legs there; the Synod of Whitby in the seventh century set the calculations for the Catholic Church’s celebration of Easter; and the semi-precious stone of jet, loved by Queen Victoria as suitable for mourning, is found in the area, along with thousands of ammonites and fossilised pterodactyls.

Best of all, it was at Whitby that Bram Stoker’s Dracula first arrived in England, leaping in canine form off a shipwreck, in a storm, and racing up the 199 steps to disappear into the shadows of the abbey’s ruins. Because of this lovely literary link, Whitby was a natural choice for a group of Goth penpals looking to get together back in 1994. Fifteen years later the Whitby Goth Weekend is now run twice a year (April and October – or should that be Walpurgisnacht and Halloween?) and is an international event.  

So Whitby is just the perfect place for anyone as….. unique as Brenda.

If you fit the profile I mentioned above, have a read – I guarantee it will make you laugh.

It was a Pretty Woman experience for me Saturday night at the opening of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Although, I was sans one Richard Gere. Sigh). One of the many perks of my new job is being able to attend events that I wouldn’t otherwise go to—red carpet, black tie, beautiful gowns, gorgeous people. Alas, I knew I’d have to wear something amazing. Rather than buy an entire outfit, I decided to jazz up a vintage dress I bought for New Year’s Eve two years ago, but never had the chance to wear. Normally, I would have searched for the funkiest of shoes to counter my solid black dress, but in this situation, I decided a classic shoe was best. The event was traditional, yes, but I needed a shoe that could be worn beyond the weekend. One that would outlive the fall, winter, and possibly spring, trends because of my job. I was looking for longevity. I ended up snagging the Effie by Nina, a 4-inch, black satin shoe with a slight peep toe. Despite my nerves, I felt comfortable in my new purchase. And when opera singer Renee Fleming busted out her rendition of West Side Story’s “I Feel Pretty,” I can honestly say, I did. Practicality isn’t utilized in the fashion industry often, but in some circumstances it can be quite nice.

Effie by Nina

Una de las oportunidades maravillosas que me ha brindado Costa Rica es el poder ser parte de ASCAP (Asociación Costaricense de Agencias Publicidad), porque no sólo he tenido oportunidad de conocer a gente realmente interesante de la que he aprendido poco a poco (o de almuerzo en almuerzo), sino también y sobretodo, porque allí estoy formando parte de un comité para organizar y traer los premios Effies a este hermoso país.

Para quienes no lo conocen, el Effie es un festival que premia la eficiencia en la publicidad. A diferencia de los festivales tradicionales, en el Effie se evalúan casos, en los cuales se detallan los objetivos planteados, la campaña que se elaboró y, lo más importante, los resultados obtenidos. Como  segundo rasgo distintivo, en este festival la participación de los anunciantes es clave, tanto en la elaboración y postulación de los casos, como en la evaluación sobre la efectividad de los mismos. Se trata, como puede verse, de un festival sui géneris.

En su página, se puede leer lo siguiente:

Effie Worldwide exists to provide information regarding effectiveness and results in marketing communications. Its main priority is to educate and share with the industry (and all interested parties) its wisdom and definition of effectiveness by spotlighting great ideas that work and encouraging thoughtful dialogue about the ever-changing world of marketing communications.

De lo anterior queda claro que la iniciativa de ASCAP de traer el Effie a Costa Rica constituye una fantástica noticia para el mundo del mercadeo y la publicidad del país. Significa no sólo que las agencias Ticas están comprometidas con creatividad de alto vuelo, sino también que están conscientes del importante rol que ésta juega en el alcance de los objetivos de negocios definidos por los anunciantes. En clara sintonía con la misión del Effie, ASCAP está proponiendo un nutritivo diálogo para que todos (agencias, medios, anunciantes, productores, etc) conversemos sobre lo que significa hacer comunicación hoy en día.

Los que me han leído o escuchado saben que soy un férreo defensor de la creatividad, y que desde mi humilde trinchera psicológica he buscado validarla como una estupenda herramienta de negocios. El Effie representa ahora una nueva forma de darle a la creatividad la legitimidad que merece y demostrar, con nuevos argumentos, que la creatividad no es un capricho, es una necesidad.

Por estos lares hablaré con frecuencia del tema.

¡Salud!

I went to a performance of La Sylphide put on by the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Warning: plot revealed.

I did not like the fact that the cast list is no longer handed out. The cast list from the web site differed from the cast list shown on the monitors in the foyer spaces.

Roll on the Company’s Peter Pan in October!

so…

date: August 2, 6.16 AM.

location: Effie’s apartment.

host: Effie.

involved: 4 ordinary, catchy, charming ladies.

case: 4 teen girls, in a state of elated bliss and party mood, cooking, playing silly games, watching horror movies and disturbing the neighbors.

upshot: They found other interesting, incentive and amusing games on miniclip. It’s confirmed, the neighbor on 4th floor beats his wife… [umm...:-??... but they could also be sado-masochist... whatever. we'll keep investigating]. Diu’s hair is red now. They also realized that hungarian pasta tastes so damn good.

verdict: According to the legislation, pajama parties are legal, but we’ll certainly keep in touch with the neighbor on the upper floor.

Heyah is a pay-as-you-go brand of  PTC mobile network (or “prepaid brand” as we call it in Poland). PTC, which is partly owned by German T-Mobile, is currently the third biggest network in Poland and embraces three main brands: Era, Tak Tak (the first pay-as-you-go brand) and Heyah. Heyah was launched back in February 2004 with a massive advertising campaign which still remains a category benchmark for a successful introduction. The campaign was created by agency called G7 and planned by Optimum Media OMD.  Heyah was introduced by a teaser campaign which displayed only the extremely characteristic logo which is the red hand with a youthful graffiti-like typeface.

Heyah logo

PTC’s strategy for launching the second pay-as-you-go brand was to create a very sharp image for this new brand and thus capture the very young target group which preferred the two rival pay-as-you-go brands: Polkomtel’s Simplus and Centertel’s Pop. After two weeks of teaser activities which involved mostly out-of-home media, ambient and internet, the new brand was officially introduced on March 13, 2004. 

Heyah launch - ambient campaign on balconies / 2004

The new brand used some premium locations to capture the media attention – e.g. the big red hand appeared also on The Palace of Culture in Warsaw, the most recognizable Soviet sky-scraper in the very center of the capital city.

Heyah launch - the red hand on The Palace of Culture in Warsaw

The slogan that was used after the new brand was revealed was:  The pay-as-you-go alternative. The short and simple cartoon-like TV commercials were aired on TV and in cinemas. The new brand had a very distinctive visual style and used only red, black and white colors.

In the following spot Heyah greets its dear competitors, but the word “dear” in Polish has two meanings: dear and expensive…

Heyah had the cheapest pay-as-you-go offer in Polish market when it was launched – it also started the one-second billing, communicated only gross prices (at that time all competitors showed net prices in their advertising), clear and simple pricelist, and focused on the very low-priced text messages (called “SMS” in Polish) which were highly popular way of communication among Polish teenagers. The launch campaign turned out to be a huge success as Heyah managed to attract over 1 million users in the first months after its introduction to the market. The campaign itself won several awards: Gold Cannes Lion 2005 (category: Media Mix) and Golden Effie Award 2005 – both received by Optimum Media OMD, the media agency that works for PTC.

In 2005 Heyah had some of its best advertising campaigns to date in my opinion. I’ll discuss below my two favourites. In July 2005 Heyah caused some publicity with its TV spot created as an alternative version of the famous fairy-tale “The Little Red Riding Hood”.  We don’t know how to tell fairy-tales  was a slogan of this campaign and it again strengthened the transparency of Heyah’s offer. The shocking and drastic ending of the spot caught the attention of the State Council for TV & Radio (KRRiTV), a governmental organization that supervises TV and radio stations in Poland.

The Council claimed that the idyllic mood of the first part of the spot attracts children who are then strongly disturbed by the accident of the Little Red Riding Hood. Heyah was forced to withdraw this spot from TV stations as its broadcast was banned by the Council.  A new version of the spot was aired later with black board and subtitles at the end. 

The next big campaign kicked off in the Fall of 2005 and was focused on a fictional character called Johnny 11 Fingers.  The main message and slogan of this campaign was: Be like Johnny 11 Fingers and check how it is when you always have 10% more. 

Johnny 11 Fingers - print lay-out

The TV spot which was made to look like a documentary film told the story of a Polish pianist from Podlasie area who was born with 11 fingers. Johnny moved to the USA with just 2 dollars, but soon after his arrival in New York he was spotted by Miles Davis and had a big time American-style career under his nickname Johnny 11 Fingers.

The narrator in the spots is Wojciech Mann, a very popular Polish jurnalist and comedian who is known for his thorough knowledge of jazz and rock’n'roll music.  The objective of this campaign was to promote Heyah Club, a loyalty programme, as members of this club always get 10% more to each topping of their account. This campaign also managed to win several awards, e.g.: Grand Prix of Złote Orły 2005 and Golden Watch award at Golden Drum ad festival.

Voor de Effie uitreiking hebben we een filmpje gemaakt over Calimero en de Grootbanken. Bij de dubbing hebben we ook een experimentje gedaan met dezelfde tekst maar in het dialect en ik moetzeggen het resultaat is hilarisch. Spijtig genoeg hebben we het niet kunnen gebruiken wegens een tweetalig event maar ik wou het jullie toch niet onthouden.

De eerste versie is het origineel, de tweede die in het dialect.

De homosuggestieve clip van “De Standaard. Ongewoon interessant.” (TBWA) heeft de Gouden EFFIE gewonnen. Dat is een reclameprijs.

Gisteren wonnen de collega’s van Het Nieuwsblad een Bronzen Effie voor de campagne waarmee Het Volk opging in Het Nieuwsblad. TBWA, het reclamebureau van Het Nieuwsblad, maakte er het volgende filmpje voor:

Trouwens, de collega’s van De Standaard wonnen maar liefst een Gouden Effie voor hun ‘Onverantwoord Interessant’-campagnes.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky som var på väg att lyfta Microsoft ur civilingenjörsträsket (längst ner här, och flyttar till Europa här) vann precis reklamtävlingen Effie. Effie-priset är lite speciellt för det väger oxå in själva effekten av reklamen och jämför alltså affärsresultatet efter en kampanj. Whopper Freakout är en smygfilmning av kunder på Burger King när de får höra att Whopper är slut.

Spoof på dito; McDonalds Freakout

Campania realizată de Crispin Porter + Bogusky pentru Burger King a obţinut premiul cel mare în cadrul festivalului Effie Worldwide.

Video-ul cu reacţiile consumatorilor la scoaterea din meniu a hamburgerului Whopper:

via IQads

Aici ar fi trebuit sa fie un post despre EFFIE.

Dar mi-am dat seama ca mi-as pierde timpul, rabdarea si nervii, scriind despre acest eveniment pe care il consider irelevant, lipsit de credibilitate si cu o reputatie de toata jena pentru ceea ce ar fi trebuit sa fie de fapt.

Asa ca am hotarat, plagiind subtil un filozof, EFFIE a murit!

Aseara a avut loc festivitatea in Fratelli de pe lac. Masa si dansul (aka afterparty) – la Fratelli in centru. 

Pe scurt, premiile au fost impartite intre Papaya si Next si/sau Cap, cu Grand Effie pentru Cava d’Oro (Papaya). Nimic pentru McCann, Ogilvy, Head, Cohn&Jansen (hm…). Evident, au mai fost si alte agentii care au luat, dar dominarea Papaya a fost covarsitoare, doar Next/Cap au tinut pasul (impreuna si separat). 

Cu cateva mici exceptii, campaniile care au luat premii de eficienta au fost si campanii foarte ok dpdv strategic (asta era de asteptat) dar si creativ. Ceea ce intareste idee ca advertisingul bun vinde, de fapt. Intr-un fel sau altul. 

Urmatoarea borna – AdOr. Cate din campaniile de la Effie vor fi si acolo?

Aseara la effie next advertising a luat silver effie la Banca Transilvania, silver effie la Babanu si gold effie  la Matache Macelaru’.

Felicitari colegilor!