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Advent calendar: Martin Cedergren

on December 7, 2007 by Martina comments

Time to start moving South today… from the UK we flight to The Netherlands, to meet Martin Cedergren, Executive Creative Director at AKQA Amsterdam. 1) Which is the digital project that impressed you more this year and why? My favorite pick is the very smart idea that Jung von Matt, Germany did for SIXT. In a time when the web is flooded with flash sites it’s a big relief to see such an innovative approach. 2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year? Maximize it! If you are going to do an experince, do it all the way. Make people cry for more. Or if you are going to do functionality, make it super simple and very easy to use. Everything in between belongs to the trash can!

Advent calendar: Rob Ford

on December 6, 2007 by Martina comments

We don’t have to travel today, as we stay in the UK to meet with Rob Ford the “brain” and the owner of the site we all love, The FWA. Here are his 5 answers… 1) Which is the digital project that impressed you more this year and why? I really didn’t have to think too hard about this… Get the Glass! by North Kingdom and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is the most outstanding digital project I have seen in a long time. It actually made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I first saw it. The production levels impressed me the most, not forgetting the super-creative ideas behind the whole project. This is a definite contender for Site Of The Year. 2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year? Print and TV are dead. When you read that one of the world’s leading creative magazines has a monthly readership of only 13,000 you know there is no contest between print and web. Sites like Digg probably get that many people in twenty minutes. I’ve been really and surprisingly impressed with Facebook. Was never a fan of MySpace, took up LinkedIn but found it rather pointless but Facebook has actually been useful and is one of the reasons I am actually writing this.

Advent calendar: Daniele Fiandaca

on December 5, 2007 by Martina comments

I’m impressed by the enthusiasm the interactive Advent calendar is generating! I’m already thinking about publishing two Q&A per day, or to make the Advent last longer Today we travel to the UK, to meet Daniele Fiandaca, COO of Profero and founder of Creative Social. 1) Which is the (European) digital project that impressed you more this year and why? If I’m honest the best work for me in 2007 has come from outside Europe in particular from Japan with my favourite being the Uniqlock campaign for Uniqlo. Not only was the content beautiful (I still have the screensaver on my machine) but I loved the way it tapped into the blogosphere for global distribution – over 15,000 users in 76 countries have posted the qlock to their blogs so far. 2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year? There is an amazing opportunity for agencies born out of the digital era to become those agencies of the future that advertisers will increasingly be working with. After all its not about making traditional channels work harder but about finding new ways to engage with the consumer.

Advent calendar: Armando Alves

on December 4, 2007 by Martina comments

Today we go West (but we stay in Europe) and in Portugal we meet Armando Alves who is the Head Of Interactive at Draftfcb Lisbon. He also writes a blog, called A source of inspiration. 1) Which is the digital project that impressed you more this year and why? Orange Unlimited, for reminding us that simple is beautiful, and building a successful integrated campaign. Other notable projects include the Heidies by Diesel or the recent one by Renova Power, Spain, “Quien Es Fermin“. As for agencies, Northkingdom and FarFar still amaze us with outstanding work, with some great work coming from Eastern Europe, like ParkStudio‘s work for Fanta or Nokia. 2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year? I’ve learned to quit looking at my own bellybutton, and start looking to what regular users are doing online. Call it interactive etnography or something like that, but the truth is that we professionals are so much self-absorbed that it all feels like a big echo chamber. For instance, it amazes me the tons of people that don’t have a clue what twitter is, but instead use regular email to keep their friends updated.

Advent calendar: Gregory Pouy

on December 3, 2007 by Martina comments

Today the guest is Gregory Pouy, a French blogger, and the CEO of Buzzparadise an agency specialised in creating and deploying alternative marketing campaigns. 1) Which is the digital project that impressed you more this year and why? In fact, I’m pretty amazed by the numbers of digital projects which happened in 2007! Companies are beginning to really understand that there’s really something going on there. I would say that the one which impressed me the most is the Dove advertising. This is not the most powerful buzz of the year (which would be the Iphone) but the creativity and the different spots were really great ! 2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year? That’s an interesting question. I’ve learned many things this year. The most important might be that companies are discovering what I would call “the relationship capital”. The “relationship capital” is the capacity of the brand to be loved, what is “not said”, how far it is close from its customers. They now have to learn how far it is important for them and how to handle it. In fact, we are here to explain them what is going on. 3) As a digital marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008? First are listening and watching what is going on and keep updated. I think this is a basis in a fast moving environment to understand what is going on. But what is on the top of my agenda for 2008 is to better understand the blogs as media with an analysis of their reader and so on. People are always interested in who the bloggers are, I would like to know who the reader of the blogger are. I think this demand will grow very soon.

Advent calendar: Mark Ashley-Wilson

on December 2, 2007 by Martina comments

My first guest in the interactive marketing Advent calendar project is not really a guest but, rather, a host, like myself. Mark, Ashley-Wilson who is the Head of Digital & Interactive Australasia for Lowe Worldwide, is in fact a regular contributor here on Adverblog. Let’s find out his answers… 1) Which is the digital project that impressed you more this year? The Rice Project, The Heidies and ElectroCity. 2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year? That more and more budget is now online focused. The TVC is NOT the first thought any more. We have repositioned our agency to include the interactive team on every briefing. Agency’s need to do this otherwise their clients will go to specialist shops. 3) As a digital marketer what’s on top of your agenda for 2008? It’s still “client education”. When our clients ‘get’ the potential of what interactive can offer they will spend more and reap the rewards. On a platform level I think that mobile marketing will dominate the discussions. 5) Which book would you give as a Christmas present to Adverblog’s readers? Adland: A Global History of Advertising. Weird but not many in our field know about where it all began. Go back in time to see the future…

Interactive marketing Advent calendar

on December 1, 2007 by Martina comments

Eventually I’m back blogging. Apologies for the long break, I promise not to disappear again! In order to be back in a “proper”, interesting way, I’ve decided to kick off December with a small project: everyday until Christmas I will be publishing a short interview (5 questions, always the same) with an Adverblog’s friend working in interactive. It’s going to be a sort of Advent calendar so to speak, with the idea of analysing in brief what has happened in 2007 and what we can expect from 2008… As usual here on Adverblog, I’ll keep the focus on Europe, but there will also be friends from all around the globe, to give you a global view on this crazy interactive world we love. Actually, the first interview is with myself… it’s not to show off, but rather to give you my point of view, so let’s start! 1) Which is the digital project that impressed you more this year and why? In my position, it’s a tricky question… I would like to answer “The Diesel Heidies”, because when I was working on the campaign I really had the feeling I was making the history of interactive marketing (and all the awards we’ve won now tell me that I maybe I was right…). However, I realize it’s not fair nor nice to be auto-referential (even if I’ve just done it, ops! also, in order to answer this question I thought it could be a good idea to browse Adverblog’s archives and look for some inspiration, but I realized this wouldn’t have been the right way to proceed… so, to cut this story short and get to the point, I will indicate the first two interactive ideas that come into my mind. If they are the first I recall, it really means they impressed me…

File under: advent calendar

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