It has to be said that most advertising agencies are pretty good at market sensing: we imitate, adapt and evolve according to the latest trends in communications. For a long time, this process used to be easily manageable, because trends only affected the output of the advertising agency, not the business model. And even if [...]

The Human Chain by Wieden + Kennedy.

There’s no perfect template for creative briefs. But with the iPad there could well be. This template would be interactive and customizable in real-time – just drag ‘n drop the elements you need. Or download new ones.
The name of this software? iBrief of course. Could somebody please invent this?

Entrance: Welcome to a British Gentlemen’s Club
Our advertising agency is expanding its offices next month, and discussions on how the interior design of the office should look like has been a topic of interest among many (including myself). As I’m quite allergic to Barcelona chairs and Arne Jacobsen, I’ve made my own concept boards. Here’s [...]

You have probably heard “Trust me when I’m saying this won’t work” or “Back in the Eighties when I started out in advertising…” echo in your ear. There are indeed a lot of old people in the communications industry. There is one key problem with relying on old thinking: today’s world of communications requires a lot of [...]

Picked up this classic Volkswagen ad in a vintage shop in Stockholm today (not sure from exactly what year it is, do you?). More advertising should be timeless like this.

Creating social or cultural conflicts is a great creative strategy for achieving communicative momentum. Especially when the brand allows for it. Above is a “promo trailer” for a fictive company called Sandhamnstek (part of a social media campaign to generate PR) we set up for our client TV3 who will air a reality show about [...]

Technology doesn’t only let us create wonderful new applications and platforms. It’s also a good friend for pushing good old content.
As technology becomes commoditized at a fast pace, there’s no intrinsic value of selecting media for any other sake than efficiency. The real agency challenge is therefore not to be innovative per se, but ability to exploit [...]

How good are nine-year olds at creating ads? A colleague of mine found out this weekend when the agency hosted a birthday party.
The Brief
Draw an ad for BMW or Mini. Write a slogan – why buy a BMW/Mini?
Tools and Deadline
A piece of paper, pens and 15 minutes.
Ideas
1. “Buy a BMW/Mini. So much power for [...]

This TED talk by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi about creativity and flow made me think about what actually determines greatness in life, both from an individual perspective and from a agency perspective. 
It all comes down to one thing: experience. Intelligence and talent is one thing, but becoming super-skilled is all about doing things many times over. [...]