Une conception très différente du pouvoir

Le récent rachat [l'article date de 2000] du groupe de communication Seagram par Vivendi et l’absorption de Saatchi & Saatchi par l’agence Publicis mettent en lumière le poids grandissant des entreprises françaises dans l’économie mondiale. Cette montée en puissance n’est nulle part ailleurs aussi évidente qu’au Royaume-Uni : la France y représente, avec 13,5 milliards de livres, 11 % des investissements étrangers, contrôlant 1 600 entreprises britanniques, soit 250 000 salariés. Quel que soit le secteur d’activité, on finit tôt ou tard par avoir affaire à une entreprise française.
Et pourtant, même si la France est notre plus proche voisin et notre destination de vacances préférée, il existe toujours un océan de méfiance et d’incompréhension entre les hommes d’affaires des deux côtés de la Manche. Comme le disait récemment un dirigeant, perplexe après que son entreprise fut passée dans le giron d’un groupe français, “ce sont des gens charmants et raffinés, mais leurs décisions paraissent arbitraires et capricieuses. Au début, il nous était impossible de comprendre pourquoi ils faisaient certaines choses ou ce qu’ils allaient faire ensuite. Un vrai cauchemar !”
Les différences entre les mondes des affaires français et britannique tiennent non seulement à des raisons religieuses, qui sont évidentes, mais aussi à des raisons philosophiques. En France, par exemple, on est bien plus interventionniste et corporatiste. Les syndicats français sont régulièrement invités aux plus hauts conciles de l’Etat pour boire un verre et casser la croûte, alors qu’un gouvernement britannique, même travailliste, penche plutôt pour un libéralisme économique à l’américaine.

Les méthodes sont également divergentes. “Le pouvoir et le monde des affaires sont beaucoup plus liés qu’ici. Et le style français est bien plus autocratique et bien plus formel qu’au Royaume-Uni, surtout dans la vieille génération”, explique Brett Gosper, patron d’Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper, une agence de publicité londonienne filiale de Vivendi.
Dans l’Hexagone, le pouvoir circule exclusivement du haut vers le bas. Résultat, les cadres passent beaucoup de temps à deviner les intentions de leurs patrons. Cela n’est pas sans répercussions sur les réunions, qui sont considérées au Royaume-Uni comme le principal outil de développement. “Pour nous, c’est là que se prennent les décisions. Pour les Français, c’est un lieu où l’on avance des idées, afin que le patron puisse décider en dernier ressort”, poursuit M. Gosper. Cela explique la mésaventure connue par de nombreux Britanniques, qui croient être parvenus à un accord avant d’apprendre, à leur grand dam, que leurs partenaires français ont par la suite changé d’avis.
De plus, au cours des réunions proprement dites, les Français se comportent de manière très différente. “Ils sont tellement plus formels qu’il ne faut surtout pas hésiter à faire assaut de courtoisie, recommande M. Gosper. Et à la différence de ce qui se passe au Royaume-Uni, où plus on se situe haut dans la hiérarchie, moins l’atmosphère est rigide, c’est tout le contraire en France.” De leur côté, les Français ont parfois du mal à comprendre l’humour et l’ironie britanniques. “L’art britannique de l’autodérision et de la litote leur apparaît parfois comme de la malhonnêteté, d’où une réaction agressive, incompréhensible pour nous”, prévient M. Gosper.
Les difficultés surviennent aussi à propos du traitement réservé aux femmes. Les Françaises sont parfaitement capables d’être à la fois féminines et professionnelles. Conséquence : leurs confrères britanniques risquent fort d’interpréter de travers le fait qu’elles portent des jupes ultracourtes et des décolletés plongeants, habitués qu’ils sont à plus de rigueur vestimentaire. “Je pensais autrefois que les Françaises étaient très en retard par rapport aux femmes britanniques en matière de féminisme”, commente Dan O’Donaghue, directeur de la planification stratégique chez Publicis. “En réalité, c’est l’inverse. Les Françaises sont libres d’être ce qu’elles veulent, tout en se faisant respecter.”

Alex Benady – The Sunday Telegraph -12/10/00

Orangenpunsch, Kokusnusspunsch, Apfelstrudelpunsch, Birnenpunsch, Turbopunsch, Absinthpunsch oder auch Tequilapunsch, ist eine kleine Auswahl an Punschsorten welche ich gestern auf einem Weihnachtsmarkt erblicken durfte. Mit einigen Sorten wurde ich sogar direkt konfrontiert. “Lecker”, lautet mein Resümee!

Fliegender Themenwechsel:
Zum bereits vierten Mal wurden die besten PR-Bilder aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz mit dem obs-Award gekürt. Hier ist ein Video um ein grundsätzliches Wissen über jenes Thema zu erlangen:

Eine Fachjury aus Bildjournalisten und Kommunikationsfachleuten hat dabei aus ungefähr 1300 eingereichten Bildern eine Shortlist der 60 besten Fotos zusammengestellt. Die Sieger in den einzelnen Kategorien wurden unter anderen durch eine Online-Umfrage ermittelt. Zu gewinnen gab es für das “PR-Bild des Jahres” die digitale Spiegelreflex-Kamera “Canon EOS 50D” im Wert von 1.099 Euro. Die Gewinner der einzelnen Kategorien erhielten immerhin noch einen Einkaufsgutschein im Wert von jeweils 500 Euro für Fotoequipment. Namensgeber des obs-Awards ist übrigens der Originalbildservice (obs).

„Das beste PR-Bild 2009“ und Sieger in der Kategorie Produktfoto: „Panasonic Toughbooks CF-30″ von Panasonic Marketing Europe GmbH

Sieger in der Kategorie Unternehmenskommunikation: „Licht für Afrika“ von Publicis GmbH

Sieger in der Kategorie Events und Kampagnen: „Schwimmer/Vorstellung“ von Hornbach Baumarkt AG

Sieger in der Kategorie Portrait: “Zehnder / Die Zeiten sind hart” von Palfinger AG

Sieger in der Kategorie Programm- und Zeitschriften-PR: “Buddhas Warriors” von Turner Broadcasting System Deutschland GmbH – CNN International AG

Sieger in der Kategorie NGO`s: “Ich verändere die Welt” von Kindernothilfe

Quelle: obs-awards.de

Die anderen 54 Nicht-Gewinner-Bilder, welche aber auch sehenswert sind, findet ihr auf der Webseite von obs-Awards.

Un Natale fuori stagione, magari con una battaglia all’ultima palla di neve in piena calura estiva: una gigantesca illusione collettiva? No: piuttosto colpa di Orange, brand di France Telecom, e delle sue incredibili offerte in materia di telefonia mobile e Internet. Regali a tutti gli effetti.
La creatività è di Publicis Conseil.

The Apprentice

What if Christmas lasted all year long?

Werbeagentur: Publicis Conceil, Paris, Frankreich
Creative Director: Frédéric Royer
Text: Olivier Dermaux
Art Director: Mathieu Vinciguerra

via Ads of the World

CEO-ul Publicis Group, nemultumit de cota detinuta de operatiunile de PR, va uni toate agentiile de public affairs, financial communications, events si celelalte firme specializate sub o singura retea, in speranta ca va reconfigura actuala ordine mondiala. Noul grup de comunicare astfel creat va purta numele de MS&L Group.
Restul de detalii pe adage.com

LATER EDIT

Si cum bine zice @hoinaru: si asta ce o sa insemne pentru romania?

Asadar, vom vedea o fuziune pe piata romaneasca intre The Practice si Saatchi PR ?

Nu stiu daca va mai aduceti aminte, dar prin vara un alt grup a facut o miscare asemanatoare, si anume: Ketchum si Pleon a fuzionat in Europa.

Short film. One of the 2009 Cannes Lions winners. Created by Publicis Mojo. Superb. Makes me run at the corner supermarket, buy a Schweppes  and daydream. If only it wasn’t raining.

Por tercer año consecutivo, San Miguel confió en nuestra productora Only925 para producir su campaña veraniega sobre la selección española de baloncesto, campañas que han sido preludio de éxitos deportivos. Así, en 2007 el spot rodado por los “Gasol boys” junto a Paquito, el repartidor de cervezas, significó el pistoletazo de salida para una memorable actuación en el Eurobásket celebrado en España, que concluyó con la medalla de plata. Al año siguiente, la selección protagonizó dos spots especiales como preparación a los Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín, donde se repitió el éxito de alcanzar la plata.

Y por fin llegó el oro, en el tercer intento: el Eurobásket de Polonia. Al igual que en los dos años anteriores, Fernando García-Ruiz fue el realizador del spot para San Miguel diseñado por la agencia Publicis, bajo la dirección creativa ejecutiva de Fabio Mazía, con Alfonso Morillo y Óscar Martínez como directores creativos y Gustavo Samaniego y Carlos Sánchez como producers de agencia. Por parte de Only925, Mª Jesús Horcajuelo dirigió la producción en colaboración con Geles Santiuste, siendo Kiko de la Rica el director de fotografía. Esperamos seguir contando también en 2010 con la confianza de San Miguel y su agencia creativa cara al Campeonato del Mundo que se celebrará en Turquía.

Unsere Spühlmaschine am Montagmorgen: Randgefüllt mit Publicis-Kaffee-Bechern. Sonst nichts.

Nach der erfolgreichen Beendigung einer 65-Stunden-Woche und einer sonntäglichen Nachtschicht bis in die hellen Montagmorgenstunden bin ich zu dem Entschluss gekommen, dass es vielleicht an der Zeit wäre, sich von Dallmann’s Gute Nacht Geschichten zu verabschieden und meine ungelesenen Publikationen unter einem anderen Titel zu sammeln.

Durch den Kopf gegangen sind mir dafür unter anderem:
“Ich werbe, also bin ich”
“Mit der Maus verheiratet”
“Essen, Schlafen, Werben!”

En la sociedad indonesia (y en la del resto del mundo) cada día se exige más a los niños a nivel académico. Por eso los padres les apuntan a actividades extraescolares que, con toda probabilidad, los niños odian. Para concienciar a los padres obsesionados con la preparación de sus hijos Publicis Jakarta creó un totem interactivo en el que una niña que está siguiendo un curso de piano se acerca a la pantalla cuando alguien la toca. La ñina virtual pone la palma sobre la mano de la persona que toca la pantalla y le pide que involucre a sus hijos en el proceso de decidir qué tipo de actividad quieren hacer. Una idea promovida por Nestle Dancow durante el día nacional de la infancia.

Vía Advertolog

Publicis London recently approached Alison Carmichael to help out with their new Poster Campaign for the new Renault Megane.

Alison worked closely with the Art director and Design department at the Agency to develp a ‘blueprint’ style of lettering which reflected the styling details on the car – she also illustrated the little architectural details on the layout and generally made the whole thing go with a va-va-voom.

I was struck by WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell’s comment on the marketing services industry at ad:tech this week. “The people who run agencies tend to be of an older vintage – to put it politely,” he said. “They tend to be resistant to change and want to spend the last three to four years of their careers travelling around the world rather than dealing with fundamental strategic issues on a daily basis.”

They should be so lucky to reach “an older vintage” these days. The number of people over 50 who are active in the ad business is a vanishingly small figure, according to Incorporated Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) figures, and it’s getting smaller all the time. One particularly endangered species seems to be the heads, or group heads, of UK network creative agencies.

To take a small but illuminating sample, Gary Leih, group head of Ogilvy (just over 50), and Tim Lindsay, president of TBWA\London (53), have both been put out to pasture recently. We could perhaps add the case of Bruce Haines, group chief at Leo Burnett, who managed to stay the course until the ripe old age of 55. And the comparatively youthful former chairman and group chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, Lee Daley, who moved on in his late forties to an all-too-brief spell as marketing director of Manchester United. While we’re there, let’s tie in the long time management void at the top of Lowe, and the problems in filling the top slots at Publicis UK a couple of years ago when the self-same Lindsay left for TBWA.

To go back to Sorrell, I’m not sure anyone – other than himself perhaps – is capable of dealing with “fundamental strategic issues on a daily basis”. Just one or two over a two-year period is usually enough. As far as I can see, that’s exactly what Daley, Leih and Lindsay tried to do. They all instituted fairly far-reaching management changes in an effort to meet the digital challenge subverting traditional agency structures. With hindsight, the problem seems to be that they were judged not to have gone far enough. Or, put another way, they may indeed have embraced a “fundamental strategic issue”, but they were not allowed long enough to savour their triumph. The truth is, if an agency doesn’t bring in enough big business in the first two years of your tenure, you’re likely to be turfed out in the third. The digital challenge may simply have made it a little harder to win that business in the first place.

Lindsay was probably on skid row once his agency lost the advertising account for McCain to Beattie McGuinness Bungay. He was lucky to survive the subsequent – abortive – attempt to buy BMB. Nissan had also begun to look shaky. Pinning the Media Arts rebranding fiasco on him sounds like the thinnest of subterfuges employed by a management that had long since lost confidence in him – fairly or otherwise.

Publicis (Kolumbien) hat gerade ein neues Anzeigenmotiv geschaltet, welches noch nicht mal ansatzweise Sinn macht. “Traveling with Renault, is traveling protected. 13 of our models have received 5 stars in the euro ncap security tests.” So lange Renault nicht besonders tolle UV-Filter hat, kann es dem Fürsten der Finsternis an sich ziemlich Wurst sein, wie spitzenmäßig die Wagen im Crashtest abschneiden (außer es handelt sich um einen Zusammenstoß mit einem Holzpflock-Lieferwagen). Da Kolumbien (Ort der Anzeigenschaltung) und Frankreich (…Renault) jenseits von Rumänien (Transilvanien) liegen, gibt es noch nicht einmal einen lokalen Bezug. Ich würde ja nun gerne den Award “Bullshit des Monats” vergeben aber der November ist noch viel zu lang.

Werbeagentur: Publicis Kolumbien
Creative Directors: Juan David Vallejo, Jaime Solano
Art Director: Álvaro “el chamo” Padilla
Text: Gerardo Quirós

via Ads of the World

Publicis (Kolumbien) hat gerade ein neues Anzeigenmotiv geschaltet, welches noch nicht mal ansatzweise Sinn macht. “Traveling with Renault, is traveling protected. 13 of our models have received 5 stars in the euro ncap security tests.” So lange Renault nicht besonders tolle UV-Filter hat, kann es dem Fürsten der Finsternis an sich ziemlich Wurst sein, wie spitzenmäßig die Wagen im Crashtest abschneiden (außer es handelt sich um einen Zusammenstoß mit einem Holzpflock-Lieferwagen). Da Kolumbien (Ort der Anzeigenschaltung) und Frankreich (…Renault) jenseits von Rumänien (Transilvanien) liegen, gibt es noch nicht einmal einen lokalen Bezug. Ich würde ja nun gerne den Award “Bullshit des Monats” vergeben aber der November ist noch viel zu lang.

Werbeagentur: Publicis Kolumbien
Creative Directors: Juan David Vallejo, Jaime Solano
Art Director: Álvaro “el chamo” Padilla
Text: Gerardo Quirós

via Ads of the World

Este anuncio de Orange, obra de Publicis Conseil (Francia), tiene todo la pinta de una “declaración de intenciones” sobre cómo aborda y qué significa Internet para la marca.

Síntoma éste que nos sitúa en un panorama en el que, probablemente, sus competidores (a diferencia de en España) estén pasando de la fase “técnica” a la “identitaria” en sus objetivos estratégicos, y sea momento de destacar características y visiones más emocionales sobre la comunicación digital.

Como comenta Janes en su Tumblr (donde he visto el spot), y como también apuntan algunos comentaristas en YouTube, la diferencia entre la realidad y la promesa que plantea el video será, como mínimo, sustancial. De ello no cabe duda.

Pero sabemos que no va de eso, y por eso nos gusta. Para qué negarlo.

Si algo tienen este tipo de piezas, cócteles de romanticismo narrativo, poesía visual/sonora y guiños contraintuitivos, es que su objetivo principal no pretende pasar por el cedazo del realismo analítico, congruente.

Buscan seducir, emocionar, contar una historia que motive e implique (el llamado engagement) al espectador (o usuario) y, a fin de cuentas, conseguir que se hable de la marca y su actitud ante “la vida” (que tiende a reflejarse en la del propio consumidor).

Como consumidores seguimos (y seguiremos) pretendiendo o esperando encontrar racionalidad en aquello que una marca nos comunica y ofrece en sus propuestas, para así hallar un elemento racional justificante en el que anclar nuestras decisiones de compra.

Y bien al contrario, abundan los ejemplos y estudios que señalan la Emoción como driver principal, como factor primario que inicia todo proceso de decisión, ya no digamos de compra (luego veremos si las necesidades concuerdan, pero eso pertenece a un plano posterior).

Este anuncio guarda su fuerza en que mediante una sucesión de sugerentes escenarios y apelaciones a la emoción, logra que encontremos en nosotros esa razón por la que preferir la marca.

Si Internet es tan significativa y diferencial para Orange, no será menos para nosotros ¿no?

“Armani, Ferragamo Expand Online” (WWD)  

Salvatore Ferragamo SpA on Monday became the latest fashion company to launch its own online store, while Giorgio Armani went one further and unveiled plans for mobile commerce. Customers of Florence, Italy-based Ferragamo will be able to shop on its redesigned Web site ferragamo.com in Italy and the U.K. immediately, and in the U.S. and other European markets in the next few months, Ferragamo said. 

“Retailers Get Ready for Social Shopping Experience” (eMarketer)

People have long shared product opinions with friends and family through word-of-mouth. Today, social media tools enable consumers to extend their connections and conduct commerce in powerful new ways. As people spend more time on social networks, retailers feel pressure to be there as well. 

“Publicis Reports ‘Most Terrible’ Results, Claims It Is Becoming An ‘All-Digital Agency’” (MediaPost)

Paris-based Publicis Groupe, which currently boasts that 25% of its revenues are derived from digital advertising and media services, ultimately plans to become an “all-digital agency,” its Chairman-CEO Maurice Levy said in an interview following the release of its third quarter earnings this morning.

“How to Develop the Right Communications Strategy for a Conversation Economy” (AdAge)

What does the worldwide, technologically enabled drive for conversations mean for marketers? It means you’re no longer marketing products or services — you’re marketing conversations. It means marketing-communication planning should be driven by a conversation strategy.

Maurice Lévy, CEO des französischen Werbekonzerns Publicis, kündigte am Dienstag an, dass sein Unternehmen ab Mitte 2010 wieder ein organisches Wachstum verzeichnen werden könne. Der Werbemarkt habe seine Talsohle im Juni dieses Jahres erreicht und würde den Erholungsprozess, der im dritten Quartal zu beobachten war, bis ins nächste Jahr fortsetzen. Damit ist Lévy einer der ersten Werbe-Chefs, die Entwarnung für die Branche geben. Nach einem Rückgang um 8,6 Prozent im zweiten Quartal konnte Publicis im dritten Quartal ein leicht verbessertes Minusergebnis von 7,4 Prozent bei den organischen Einnahmen verzeichnen. Auch Akquisitionen in China und Indien sollen Publicis stärken.
Quelle: WSJE

A: Wo sind denn Birte, Erik, Roland und Sinje?
B: *klickt weiter am Rechner rum* Die machen gerade Kissenschlacht.

Sind mehrere Leute “in einer Kissenschlacht“, so bedeutet dies, dass sie frei von jeglicher Körperspannung zwischen Legosteinen und Kaffee-Tassen auf der Hauseigenen Kissen-Liege-Wiese fletzen und nach möglichst verrückten Ideen, für total abgefahrene Werbekampagnen nachdenken. Die Kissenschlacht ist oft initiativer Teil des Prozesses der Werbekreation, kann jedoch auch dazu dienen, bereits fertige Ansätze weiter zu führen.

I’m just back from a week’s leave, mostly spent enjoying my home and surrounding environs, but that’s another story.

As part of catching up on general industry news first day back, I stumbled across Craig Davis’s (Chief Creative Officer and Co-Chairman of Publicis Mojo Australasia) keynote address at the 2009 Caxton Awards in Noosa. For an industry that is fighting to stay relevant in the ever changing communication, marketing and economic landscape I think his take on our collective role, is incredibly insightful and relevant.

His keynote address is attached for any of you that have a good 20 minuets or so to get enlightened. Congrats Craig on a great keynote address…..

Download keynote here

“The New Media Making tomorrow” is the title given to the mid-day plenary session of The Israeli Presidential Conference 2009 – Facing Tomorrow, which took place last week in Jerusalem.  The session featured a panel of distinguished international media leaders who presented their personal viewpoints and responded to questions from the moderator.

In this post I highlight some of the themes that came up and present some thoughts on the one that generated some controversy.

Panelists:

• Dr. Yossi Vardi (moderator) – leading high-tech entrepreneur;
• Dr. Mathias Dopfner – Chairman & CEO, Axel Springer AG;
• Tom Glocer – CEO Thomson Reuters;
• Max Levchin – Chairman & CEO, Slide, and co-founder / former CTO of PayPal;
• Maurice Levy – Chairman and CEO of the Management Board, Publicis Groupe;
• Josh Silverman – President, Skype;
• Jimmy Wales – Founder, Wikipedia; and
• Dr. Ruth in a special guest appearance.

Everyone agreed:

• The growth rates in both availability and speed of distribution of digital media generated and uploaded by on-line users is just staggering!  It’s hard to understand and assimilate what’s going on with this pace of change.
• People expect content generated by other people on-line to look and feel personal.
• Context has become, in some ways, even more important than content as a factor that determines what gets consumed.
• Traditional media is not dying, but transforming to embrace change, adopt new ways, and thereby become the new media.  Those who are dying are those who are not able to make this transition.

Controversial topics:

• Who’s going to ensure content quality? Is Crowd Wisdom wise enough?
• Does the deluge of available content hurt democracy?
• Do people need commercial compensation to encourage quality content creation?
• Does electronic communication negatively affect meaningful human contact and relationships?

See below for sample panelist quotes and my 2 cents on each topic.

Pace of change – exponential growth rates in availability and speed of distribution

One of the panelists said that his 8 year-old daughter has 3 blogs, communicates via instant messaging and Facebook, and does not watch broadcast TV at all.

Dr. Mathias Dopfner: “Change is good, but what is going to remain?“

My 2 cents: There is a strong ingrained human need for stability, affecting many aspects of our life. While today’s youngsters grow up and learn to deal with constant fast-paced change, I don’t believe that this basic human need for stability is going away – at least not in anywhere near the current speed at which technology, information, communication and jobs are changing.  Isn’t this going to channel our need for stability to other aspects of our lives?  Are loved ones, family, friends, core beliefs and values (e.g. religion), hobbies and favorite places going to become even greater anchors of stability for people?

Expectation that content should look and feel personal

Panelists agreed that there is an overall expectation that content generated by individuals and distributed via social networks should at least appear to be more personal than content that is sourced from companies, news agencies etc.  This is because your friends on the network have chosen to listen to you – not to just anyone…

Maurice Levy said TV will stay with us the longest, but it become totally irrelevant in 15 years.  This is because people will find the video content they want in real-time, when they want to consume it.

My 2 cents: I think that this expectation applies not only to individuals in their personal capacity but also brands, individuals in a professional or public role, news agencies, experts and the like. The biggest difference is that what used to be a course-grained categorization of a relatively small number of information sources (e.g. Le Figaro as a conservative daily French morning newspaper) has become a very fine-grained “persona” of a humongous  selection of available sources.  Personalization is therefore not just about “pushing” information assumed to be of interest to an individual, but also about each individual electing to give a slice of his/her time to very specific information sources, selected based upon this fine-grained persona.

Context more important than content

Josh Silverman: “Video is only a little less than actually being there“. Well, I think that also depends on the context…

My 2 cents: It’s not one or the other, but the degree to which they match. To me, the content – delivered from & within the context of the source – actually has to appeal to the reader’s context.  Whether or not content is relevant really depends on what the reader is trying to do, i.e. “what they’re seeking to take away”, as put by Larry Brooks in his recent blog post Why Content is No Longer King (And Who’s Taking His Place).

Traditional media is not dying

Dr. Mathias Dopfner: “It’s a mistake to talk about the newspaper industry as dying“.

Jimmy Wales: “Print magazines aren’t dying – just traditional magazines“.  Reportedly he had recently signed a cooperation agreement with HP’s printing on-demand service, saying that this will allow communities to “produce print magazines of higher quality, and of a more timely and customized nature than traditional print magazines can.“

Tom Glocer mentioned Reuter’s increasing use of photos and news reports originating from the general public in order to cover events in real-time that could not otherwise be covered on time.

My 2 cents: It’s the vision of the traditional media company and it’s determination to get there which will decide its future.  Lots of people will continue to like to read papers, magazines and books for a long time.  However, the companies that produce them have to become new media companies at the same time.  The underlying need to identify and use trusted sources will remain, and so will the incentive for those distributing news on-line to maintain the integrity of their brands.

Content quality – is crowd wisdom wise enough? Does the deluge of available content hurt democracy?

Tom Glocer: “The question is if you trust the source that gives you the news? We need to find the way to combine the old and new media.“

Jimmy Wales: “35% of the Internet users in Israel use Wikipedia.  Only in Norway the usage ratio is higher.“

Maurice Levy: “Having too much information hurts democracy.“

My 2 cents: No – it does not hurt democracy, but “crowd wisdom” is not enough. In democratic societies, the quality of many types of products and services we consume is safeguarded either through self-regulated professional associations or through national / state-appointed regulatory bodies.  While such quality controls certainly have their flaws, they do provide a fairly consistent and universally-understood level of protection to the consumers of such products and services, including the ability to complain, investigate and pursue legal action or other sanctions against violators when this becomes necessary.

In many cases, such safeguards either don’t exist or become totally ineffective on the Internet.  A false piece of news can travel lightning-fast through social networks – convincing millions of people that it’s true, like the recent “baloon boy” disappearance.  Anybody’s views on topics usually requiring official certification or licensing can become more influential than the opinions of acknowledged experts.  In Wikipedia this issue is resolved by a combination of the fact that the system highlights opinions lacking justification to warn readers; and the fact that errors are likely to be quickly corrected by people who care and who know about the topic – and there are enough of them on the web.

Moreover, in many cases quality is in the eyes of the beholder.  If you select information sources you know personally; sources whos associations and connections you are aware of; sources that are popular with groups of like-minded people; or sources whos “persona” matches your context and style preferences – then your finding sources that meet your own personal quality measures.  It’s up to you to decide how to find and screen them, and search engines will continue improving on their capability to match results to what each individual is actually looking for – though there’s still a long way to go.

Do people need commercial compensation to encourage quality content creation?

Tom Glocer: Reuters pays people for news-worthy pictures and information it’s unable to gather there and then.  Glocer sees this trend expanding, and more people being encouraged to contribute in exchange for micropayments.

Jimmy Wales (if I recall correctly): Says micropayments are not needed.  Millions of people contribute loads of content today because they want to share their expertise; want to express themselves; want to help others; or simply care about a certain cause.

My 2 cents: I think it depends on the type of content in question, although there’s no question that much more detailed and high-quality content is available for free today than one could have ever imagined only a few years back.

Does electronic communication negatively affect meaningful human contact and relationships?

This was Dr. Ruth’s main concern.

Max Levchin: met his wife on ICQ.

One of the other panelists asked: what sounds better – meeting your spouse physically after many electronic exchanges sharing views, likes & dislikes, experiences etc; or meeting your spouse in the campus bar?

My 2 cents: a great guest appearance that livened up the session!

Congratulations, if you read all the way to here – you’re a true warrior!

Que tal estampar um Volvo C30 inteirinho com imagens que tenham a ver com você?! Pois bem, essa é a proposta do novo FB application “The Volvo C30 Personalizer“. Graças ao serviço de busca de imagens do Bing, da Microsoft, o aplicativo rastreia todas as imagens referentes às palavras-chave que você digitou, e as insere na lataria do carro virtual. A idéia faz parte da campanha internacional da nova versão do C30, que comunica a ampla gama de opções fornecidas. Ou seja, deve sempre haver um Volvo C30 que é do seu jeito e tem a sua “cara”.

Colaboração de Fernando Bamberg @flickr.com/bamberg86

Coca-Cola Enterprises, the UK’s largest bottler of Coke products, has kicked off an advertising review and shortlisted three agencies to pitch for the business.  The company, which manufactures and distributes more than 80 different Coca-Cola products, has invited WCRS, Publicis and the Coca-Cola GB roster agency VCCP to pitch for the account. The pitch, which is being handled by Agency Assessments, is expected to result in a decision by the end of the year.

CCE, which works closely with Coca-Cola GB, is looking for an agency that will create advertising to inform audiences about its achievements and leadership in corporate social responsibility. Advertising will run in CCE’s key European markets, including the UK, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The brief is also thought to include a substantial public affairs element and comes barely a month after the company appointed Mandate Communications to oversee a European public relations drive. CCE owns the Coca-Cola bottling factory in Wakefield, Europe’s largest soft drinks manufacturing site. Earlier this month, it announced plans to invest £13 million in a new can line at Wakefield. The company employs around 4,500 people and has six manufacturing sites across the UK, plus a number of regional offices and depots.

As well as the main Coca-Cola brands, it also manufactures and distributes products including Capri-Sun

http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/947388/Coca-Cola-Enterprises-reviews-Euro-ad-task/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNewsBulletin

Art direction/illustration: Nicolas Ermakoff