Not thinking, doing

Advertising. We read about it. We watch it. Care about it. We make it. We're interested in reviewing ads, discussing them, liking them or hating 'em. Lately I noticed I care a small but unhealthy amount too much about this business. I try too hard…

It's like being 25 and having an idea what advertising is. Frankly, I shouldn't have an idea what advertising is. And I shouldn't care about finding out.

It's the hardest thing to obtain the view of a child again. To forget the textbooks and stop being a schoolboy. I'm not talking about going cold turkey on campaign magazine. The key shall not lie within ignorance but rather in an open mind for other things. Seeing more, and most importantly doing more. Not thinking, doing. Stuff. Whatever. But doing. Let's see where that takes me.

Wal Scissorhands

Halloween arrived pretty early this year, our lovely neighbours had a party with the topic Tim Burton. Anyone fancies a haircut?

Black Cat White Cat

What a wonderful day for no reason. Maybe it's Thursday approaching me unexpectedly with the feeling of the weekend in a hidden pocket. The delicious cappuccino coffee I usually miss out on in the morning? More likely the music I listened to during the battle of commute. I will share some of that on a distant day.

I have never written about a movie, I never intended to – there are enough movie review resources on the net. Yet there is Emir Kusturica, a director of sheer brilliance who made my single favorite movie picture – Black Cat White Cat. There is nothing else playing in a rectangular shape that can lift my mood into such joyous heights.

Every scene is packed with vitality and music, a purely beautiful combination that is, for me, Kusturica's trademark. The characters are escorted by a gypsy orchestra during all possible situations – old school portable music I say. A spectacle of absurd but amusing characters that has to be experienced with a Hollywoodless open mind. There was never a movie I thought about countless times and dreamt of watching it again and again. See for yourself, to get yourself in the right mood listen to Bubamara, the musical theme of this masterpiece that offers unequaled opportunities. You won't forget this melody after watching Black Cat White Cat.

I do not want to link to a trailer, as I don't like these short summaries of film in general, mostly they are unworthy – especially of this movie. I would not doubt that after this on screen performance you feel the urge to go o a journey and explore more of Kusturica's work, as there is way more to discover about this artist.

'This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship'.

Status from Publicis

One of the very first briefs I received at my current placement at Publicis Dialog was the creation of a new holding page for Publicis Agency since they are working on a new web presence. It's online now – lo and behold – somehow even my face made it on there. Can you spot me?

Agencies and their own websites, that's a difficult combination. There are great articles about this topic, read about digital masturbation on webink.com and here on the reasons why you shouldn't ever let an ad agency make a website. We'll see what Publicis comes up with.

Meanwhile, in the last couple of days I helped Nick & Lex, a great creative team, preparing bits and pieces for a pitch that happening pretty soon. Exciting, as pitches always are.

Publicis Dialog

Arrived here yesterday morning. Followed up the offer I received at the cream exhibition. I'll be at that place from now on for a couple weeks of placement. Let's see what I can learn here. First time on a placement without a partner – feels weird – I need to get used to it, or better, get someone in. Savour the raindrops today.

Games – the real new media

This has been on my mind for quite a time now. I am a big fan Games, all kinds of them. Chess (anyone fancies a match?), cards, board games and of course video games. I've started back with an Atari and played most of the 'important' video games systems in the last 15 years. Last evening I saw the hilarious Toyota ad for their Tacoma and tried the Yaris Video Game on Microsoft's Live, a multi player platform on the Xbox360. Here's the ad, it's running on US television and works very well as an online viral.

It made me laugh, since I used to play World of Warcraft back in the early days of the game. Nothing ground breaking though. Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam used the Grand Theft Auto look for it's brilliant Coke spot and set the first step in this direction. Games in ads – a concept to use a world familiar to the audience to tell a story. The flip side – ads in games, or adgames is also well represented – the Burger King games who've won Titanium Gran Prix at Cannes this year for example.

I preferred 7Up's game with Cool Spot from 1993, they didn't need an agency to come with the stuff back in time, the only thing they got for it was 'Best Cartridge Music of the Year'. Anyway.

I consider video games as the ultimate media, the best way to tell something and engage. Why? Let's see. If TV ads are to be considered old media, and Internet is the new revolution then movies are old hat and games are the way forward. Unlike films which tell a story to a passive beholder, games have the ability of interacting with the audience and tell the story in much more engaging way.

Wait, aren't games more about jumping from one platform to the other without falling down to be eaten by the pink giraffes? These times are long gone. There are games telling epic plots, the game series Final Fantasy had several main protagonists falling in love, experiencing adventures and dying – an emotional journey for the player – only squeezed by the pixelated faces with three expressions. Yet granted toady's technology flashing by as fast as a rabbit on speed, games can already keep up with production values of movies, the quality of sound and picture is amazing.

Take a look at Bioshock, a game experience taking part in 1960 in a fictional underwater dystopian city built on the mid-Atlantic seabed. This game is full of tension, great music score, intelligent dialogs and a story that draws you in from the first few minutes and forces you to take moral decisions later on in the game that effect the whole shebang. Watch the trailer here.

It is time that a brand makes a serious game, driving around in a pocketbike racer might be fun for a while but so much more is possible. Will we see Cadbury's 'Food Sabotage' or Apple's 'iAdventure'? Will we see a new type of creative agency emerge? One that specializes in telling the story of a brand in an epic game? Boy, I can't wait. I'd love to be a creative, responsible for making a great game for a brand. BMW could follow up its film series by asking different game developers to create a game with their brand, mmhhh…

Creative Portfolio 2.0

Okay, sorry for trying to raise the coolness factor of my topic with that number .0 thingy. It just fits and there is no other clever name for it – yet.

I'm thinking of setting up another blog dedicated to the development of a new creative portfolio. A blog that would establish a platform for an interactive online portfolio review.

It would start with the choice of brands along with the first thoughts. It would contain relevant research and links for the chosen topics. Propositions, strategies as well as first creative ideas would come next, followed by executions of the thoughts and media thinking.

During this whole process people are invited to leave comments to improve the ideas or point out weaknesses. The blog could function as documentation of the work in progress. As an application tool it shows one's thinking and what happened between the first idea and the finished campaign.

Of course there are down sides to this idea. Would people comment? This depends on the quality of thinking and the consideration of improvements.

Does this makes sense?

One day placement at VCCP

Thanks to NABS I participated yesterday in the one day live-brief placement at the London above-the-line agency VCCP. The day started early and was held by Simon and Nikki, the planner in charge was Micheal. They briefed us on an interesting project covering broad range of media. Creative starters helped getting the brain going and after some coffee it started to be fun. Three creative teams and five individuals attended. All together a good amount of work was created and at the end of the day it was a great experience. Get on NABS' mailing list in order to be informed about the next one.

Some of the young creatives in the workshop room

Simon reviewing some work on the walls

The blue walls provided a great canvas for creative ideas

Work we've done