Archive for the ‘Announcements/Polls’ Category
Happy New Year 2010!
To all our readers: HAPPY New Year.
2009 was quite a ride. I hope you all fared well and enter the new year with new zest!
Also, we hope to see you here on our blog again.
All the best!
31
12 2009
October Cultural Fuel Trends Download available
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12
11 2009
Consumer & media interaction - a European study
According to the study two-thirds of German consumers under 25 want to interact with their favorite brands on socialmedia platforms. But they are more likey to double check facts uncovered online in the traditional media.
So as online media is fast growing and becoming a part of our lives - it still misses credibility if the only source of information. Online advocacy (user reviews and recommendations) is the most influential source if information and is up to 26% and even more important then recommendation from (real-live) friends and family.
Another finding was that Germans - from all the surveyed countries - are the least influenced by advertising. Which points out the importance of not doing something for but with people if you want to be a relevant brand in Germany.
06
11 2009
Cultural Fuel Summer Trends Wrap-Up
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08
09 2009
LB Germany proud to help bring back TLC to the neighborhood convenience store
A few days ago, a new convenience store called frischwerk opened up in Düsseldorf.
One or two more stores will follow by the end of the year in Düsseldorf.
In this integrated endeavour, we from Leo Burnett Germany were responsible for brand strategy consulting, corporate design, shopper marketing consulting, POS materials, in-store communication tactics, store opening campaign and website design.
When the project started in spring this year – there was just an enthusiastic client with the idea to design a convenience store that would stand out of an emerging but still small market. And LB Germany, glad and excited to be part of this undertaking but also a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of such a huge project.
The journey entailed several workshops and presentations, lots of work and intensive discussions. We were even invited to test some products that were supposed to be listed. In the end, the result was pretty impressive.
The new store addresses two major human needs: On the one hand, people have very limited time to go shopping and so want their shopping needs to be satisfied quickly. On the other hand, people want quality goods and premium service like it used to be in the good old days. And currently, no concept exists in Germany that successfully meets both of these needs in one compelling offer.
And so, we built the store’s mission to marry what today is still scattered into different formats: a modern offering with traditional values, a retail atmosphere with culinary propositions, convenience with a smile, lifestyle with unpretentious coziness, organic products with taste, craftsmanship merged with digital services. In short: “Supplies for Body and Soul”.
This desired store experience is reflected in every single item and aspect – people are able to experience with all senses that it’s made with a lot of love and care – just take a look on the photos below.
Even if it sounds like we’re chumming up, this has been one of the most exciting projects – due to a passionate client team who stopped at nothing to bring their ambitious idea to life.
01
09 2009
Strategic Planning: can we finally integrate? Yes, we can.
Last weekend some strategy and long-term digital agency career friends (Dirk Reinhardt, Shailia Stephens-Würsig, Björn Sternsdorf, Gerald Hensel and Angela Becker) and I held a seminar at our Leo Burnett offices on digital planning for traditional planners.
To be honest, we were a bit sneaky. To most of us, there ain’t no such thing as “digital” strategy. Or can you tell me what “analog” strategy is?
Fact is, there is so much confusion and mystery regarding the term “digital”, even to supposedly “channel-agnostic/media-neutral” strategists, that it seemed like a great strategy (haha) to offer a course in “digital planning”. In doing so, we had the pleasure to work with the top 20 of Germany’s planners who don’t just hide behind the hackneyed term “channel-agnostic” for lack of their own change-ability, but rather exercised their confusion tolerance and went into the whole thing full-on. The most engaged folks I had the pleasure to work with in a while!
Hence, our aim wasn’t sneaky at all: debunk the myths around digital planning, its complexity and hopefully provide some pointers that alleviate some angst concerning new terrains in research, discovery, strategy development and shaping the creative outcome. And above all: make the segregated planning community come together.
Therefore, the day started with the statement:
“Digital” strategy doesn’t replace traditional strategy. Strategy is strategy and always was. It simply rams home the point that we need to extend strategic planning overall so it can remain relevant as a discipline that can lead brands to success by making a qualitative difference in people’s lives again.”
Techniques and tools (such as information architecture, touchpoint analysis, contact planning, purchase funnels, etc) have existed for a long time before the term “digital strategy” became the mot du jour. They may have given us an irritatingly confusing mess of terminologies, but also a gift: we can make brands relevant again, without unsuccessfully and repeatedly pressing the “mass media onslaught” button because we’re out of ideas.
Therefore, we see digital strategy as a way to go back to the roots and deliver what strategy was always about: know what to do, not just what to say. This is the most relevant job a strategist can do in a time when people wonder if they should listen to your brand.
Therefore, we try to make digital the stuff that adds a PLUS to your strategic effectiveness versus being a completely new discipline:
Each section of the workshop then explored each PLUS with practical exercises and theory moving along the planning process from research to strategy to creative briefing and team constellations.
Result of the workshop:
At the end of the workshop, we had a discussion on whether we succeeded in offering an intergrated approach to planning, and if indeed digital (and other) planning methodologies in fact can be seen as a plus or if it isn’t really something different out there.
Here are excerpts of the discussion:
On brands:
“I think one of the biggest issues is still that brands and their clients feel that they have to be perfect. But people don’t expect you to be perfect. They want a conversation about your products. I mean, would you trust a person who disappointed you and walks away when you want to talk to them?”
“I think if brands didn’t understand the importance behind people’s digital behaviors before, flailing a dead business and brand model, the recession could end up helping in finally understanding it. There didn’t seem to be enough pressure to have to change. Maybe now marketers will understand that it’s not them that change everything, but rather the people themselves. Strategic planning needs to accompany that.”
On Technology:
“Traditional planning has been moving this way anyway, but there seem to be so many barriers still for brand planners because they think they can’t do something that in the end requires a technological solution.”
“I am so relieved the new planning isn’t about technology. On the contrary, I am happy that it is even much more about people than before. Looking at human behavior and having all this detailed insight instead of just asking people is what we should do anyway!”
“For brand planners, it is second nature to look at trends in categories. It might help to think of technology as a thing that keeps generating trends that change people’s behaviors. It is much better than getting scared about technological details. And we need to know what people do anyway. How else can we plan for anything?”
On the planning process:
“What really helped was to understood that my team just got so much bigger and what the different roles are. It helps me because I now that my brand strategy is not seperate from digital stuff and I feel there are people to talk to about my strategy and get it working everywhere else.”
“Digital always seems so overwhelming when you don’t know you don’t have to know everything. Knowing there are experts really helps.”
On taking clients into the digital space:
“I am still worried about being able to give a client security about delivering, so he moves forward into the digital space, but to be honest was I ever able to give him this security before? My client spends loads of money on TV and I can’t really say if it works anymore either.”
“In a way, tradititional planners have an advantage: they speak the brand and marketing client’s language better than some digital agency people. Using that advantage, also in terms of tradititional techiques to make them feel comfortable to try out new stuff is a big opportunity.”
“It makes sense to think in little steps and strategies instead of trying to solve for everything at once and selling the client a holistic castle in the sky. Taking the client on a journey with achievable milestones and giving them a sense of success in the space and growing from there works better.”
Conclusion:
While not all myths can be debunked in one weekend, not all issues solved, we feel we started a discourse in the right direction and everyone involved feel that this kind of collaboration can open doors to better strategy with less siloes. As workshop participant, Stephen Rothman, Head of Strategy Saatchi Frankfurt said:
I believe that as the world of marketing and communications moves forward, the work will demand that we come to the place where classic vs. digital planner will become an anachronism. Because “consumers” aren’t digital or classic. This seminar got us all started in that direction.
17
08 2009
Digital Strategy: Let’s start the discourse (repost)
Reposted from davaidavai.com
You know how these things start.
You discuss with friends, you drink wine and finally you’re convinced you got a ‘really good idea the world definitely is waiting for’…
About 6 months ago, the people on this picture asked themselves what digital strategy is. Is there a digital planning? If yes, what makes it different to what we did since the 1970s? There were a lot of question marks.
The only thing which was clear was, none of knew if there is a real genuine digital planning approach. We knew we did something different…but we didn’t exactly know what. And I believe this open question made us structure a workshop for traditional account planners which took place last friday and saturday: An open discourse in which we asked
As I said earlier: This workshop wasn’t only about ‘teaching’ digital to traditional planners. It was about defining something for us. About understanding challenges in nowaday’s traditional agencies. Simply because we don’t believe digital planning (if there is one) is ‘winning’. But because we think traditional planning simply evolves and turns into Planning +, 2.0, XP, Vista or iPlanning (you get the idea) as digital turns into mainstream.
Strategy is Planning…kind of
20 senior strategic planners followed our invitation to the event at Leo Burnett, Frankfurt. The forum for it was the account planning group Germany (apg) as the association for the small group of planners in Germany. And it was our group in the first place which did already show that the traditional planner business is changing – Planning = Strategy? This formula doesn’t work anymore. Strategic work has to be done on different levels. AND strategic thinking in digital is to some extent part of the creative process.
Nevertheless, we believe planners will stay the core of strategic thinking in digital era agencies – but in a broader strategic realm. The mixture of professions in our group showed that
- Björn Sternsdorf – Freelance Digital Consultant
- Alexander Wipf – Head of strategic planning at Leo Burnett, Frankfurt
- Dirk Reinhardt – Senior Planner at Leo Burnett, Frankfurt
- Shailia Stephens – Freelance Strategist, Coach and constant Motivator
- Angela Becker – Brand consultant at Ogilvy, Frankfurt
- Gerald Hensel (myself) – Social Media Strategist, Neue Digitale / Razorfish, Frankfurt
Acts not ads
Personally I think the Leo Burnett slogan of ‘acts not ads’ comes close to what we tried to define as the new era of planning. As nowaday’s planning takes place in a dynamic environment with feedback mechanisms, you have to think 3D as a Planner 2.0. No matter whether you plan for traditional, digital or 360° projects – it’s not about what we say, but what we do. Brands have to fulfill a purpose in nowaday’s environment. They cannot simply say ‘We’re good’, they have to make the consumer solve his personal problem or they will fail.
- Planners will have to create useful stuff with a purpose, not ads
- Planners need to listen to their consumers, conversation is taking place in a concept we call ‘reality’
- Planners aren’t strategic monopolists anymore in this struggle to build products, not messages
More than ever, consumers want to get a sense why to spend money. To be able to deliver brand experiences and interaction (in digital and real life) Planners have to accept that the strategic sphere has grown bigger over the years. Many new specialists work strategically and are key interfaces to be able to develop acts, not ads:
- Tech consultants – Define what’s possible in this complex, technological world
- Information architects / Concept developer – Micro strategists for specific task-based strategic decisions
- Content strategists – Professionals in rolling out a message over time
- Social Media Strategists – Interfaces to the conversations which take place out there
- Business Analysts – As people defining why, when and how a strategy was right or wrong
- Etc.
In fact, some of the most interesting insights for our traditional colleagues were the many, many new job description we introduced them to. What is an information architect? How does he interact with a strategic planner? Sometimes it’s the little, obvious things (for us) which have a stronger impact than complex models on Powerpoint Charts.
What I hope we achieved
I am a bit proud of our work, I have to admit. Strategy is a key discipline for every major agency and the definition of what lies ahead cannot be summarized in one of the many ‘Everything’s going to change’-decks and videos (I especially hate this one!!!). 
In fact, I believe that the new found arrogance of too many (especially social) webworkers is a big barrier to a reasonable development of a common understanding of strategic work in our age. Twitter….alright. But there a couple of other things which will still be valuable and core elements of strategic work – traditional planning elements which will continue to exist and continue to be essential.
Traditional planners aren’t old school now. They simply have to understand the new dynamics of the environment, they are part of. They should understand that they stay key players in modern communication, but that they interact in a broader strategic framework together with other players from different disciplines. Strategy will be one, not digital and traditional. I hope we brought this message across. And I know that all of us digital guys have also learned a lot from this open, interested and inspiring group of strategists.
I would be happy to continue this discourse. The first workshop already showed that it’s not about teaching tools, it’s about getting a common understanding of what we do. And this is essential in the way agencies approach clients and define their role and their products.
If any traditional ad people read this article, I am happy for input on what you’d be interested in next time. Give us a feedback on more specific questions (use comments under this article). And maybe we might want to discuss this in a future workshop.
Thanks a lot to Shailia, Angie, Alex, Dirk and Björn. It wasn’t always easy to do what we did. But it was definitely fun, inspiring and exactly the right thing to do at the right time. It’s great to know people like you.
16
08 2009
Publicis to aquire Razorfish
Today, Publicis and Microsoft announced the purchase of Razorfish.
I am pretty excited about the potential behind a collaboration with Razorfish in the future. Our push into digital experiences and marketing solutions can only get a boost through this acquisition. I think it will allow our clients access to the best-in class communications solutions all around.
Says Maurice Lévy:
More than anything, this acquisition should demonstrate that Publicis Groupe now presents a wider pool of resources, talent, and expertise that will help our clients market their products or services in a way that takes maximum advantage of the new digital world. Our capabilities will be further enhanced by the great talent throughout Razorfish, and we are happy to welcome this new addition to our family.
