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 new thinking – just to stay in business. To prove my point: David Ogilvy might have been a star 60 years ago, but his agency the way it was set up in 1950 wouldn’t survive for two seconds in 2010. One day your knowledge will be outdated and irrelevant, if it isn’t already.

Remain dissatisfied.

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 an island outside Stockholm that gets invaded by a certain group of people during summer. Unless you’re Swedish, it may be hard to fully appreciate this, but the strategy is to create tension by addressing real issues that are opposite to Swedish norms and values. Not to be confused with simply pissing people off, although there’s a fine line between the two.

This guy is.

ffffound

Salt or pepper shakers are usually pretty dull. Unless you can make believe it’s heroin you’re sprinkling on your pasta.

Here are the results from the Swedish planner salary survey. Many thanks to everybody who took part! I hope you’ll find it useful. And here’s a downloadable PDF.

 
I'm currently conducting a salary survey for Swedish planners. Hopefully, we will be better prepared for next year's salary talks. So, if you're a planner working in Sweden, go here. And do spread the word! 

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 innovation.

Two of my favorites when it comes to content:

Get your Basketball and The Life for Halo ODST 3.