Onze mobiliteitscampagne heeft brons behaald op de recente Best of Activation Award. Mocht dat iets meer geweest zijn? Bwoa, ja, maar we gaan niet klagen. Hieronder de beelden …

Vandaag in De Standaard: deze ad voor Acerta.

Kan iemand de grafici uitleggen dat er nog andere vormpjes zijn dan vierkantjes-met-afgeronde-hoeken , en andere kleurtjes dan de Mobistar-kleuren?

“The mere word ?commodity?strikes terror in the heart of most marketers. Whether it?s coal, chickens, or memory chips, commodity sellers struggling to differentiate their products often resort to price cuts. And that, of course, means savvy buyers can play one seller against another to extract the greatest price concessions.

To be sure, conventional marketing approaches like bundling products or appending value-enhancing services such as training and consulting can distinguish commodities. But while these strategies may head off price wars, they can be so expensive that suppliers often don?t recover their costs. What many commodities sellers don?t appreciate is that their customers frequently will pay a premium to the supplier that understands and reduces their risks.”

(Bron: A Smarter Way to Sell Commodities, by Robert S. Lurie and Ajay K. Kohl, Harvard Business Review, April 2002)

Recently, we’ve had a couple of reasons to think about how to sell commodities. Be it (legally obliged) insurances, fuels, or energy, both for clients and prospects, we’ve covered a couple of categories in which it is hard to make a relevant differentiation (and consumers typically don’t care), so you spend your time thinking more about distinguishing product or service propositions than advertising.

With all this in mind, I was impressed by this (at first sight somewhat silly) product: a new way of planting vegetables (in this case: radishes). At first sight, nothing is more of a commodity than plant seeds (at least for residential use). Still, someone found a way to go from selling “seeds” to selling “homegrown vegetables in your garden”, by turning ordinary seeds into a sort of “seed-ribbon”. Just put in on the ground, cover with some earth, water, and that’s it. The plants are automatically placed at the right distance and density, they’ve got all the food ingredients they need, it’s bloody simple.

So simple a child could do it (which could be a nice target group for this, I suddenly realise). Heck, even I could do it. As the picture above shows …

Last summer, I was hooked on Belgian politics - reading all the newspapers I could get my hands on when vacationing in France - much to the regrets of my (french-speaking) wife.

This spring, I was hooked on the Democratic primaries season in the US.

Lately, I’ve had the impression it’s all too slow and too long - kind of the Echternach procession - so I felt myself losing grip.

But his post by Laura Lies has got me all fired up again - at least concerning the American political scene …

Persbericht op de Mobistar-site: “Brussel - 16 mei 2008 - Mobistar bevestigt vandaag dat het bedrijf de iPhone in exclusiviteit zal commercialiseren in Belgi? in de loop van dit jaar. Dit dankzij een nieuwe overeenkomst tussen Apple en Orange.”

Niet dat ik er persoonlijk nog van wakker lig, maar als ik straks een accessoire of zo moet hebben, moet ik tenminste niet meer langs amazon of anderen …

ben niet zeker dat ik het m??r dan gewoon mooi vind, en dan nog wel op een licht clich?matige manier. Maar binnen deze sector is dit een aardverschuiving; je toont niet eens het product, stel je voor! Kortom, of iets opvallend is of niet, hangt dus duidelijk ook van de context en de categorie af - ook al zie je het gewoon maar passeren tussen andere spots in een reclameblok …

Interesting Brand Quizz (courtesy InThePictureDesign): do you recognize these logo’s by their first letter only?

Yes, I know, they’re some brands there that are not on our (Belgian) market, but you should still be able to guess 4 out of 5.

Look here for the answers.

Just came back from a couple of glorious Spring days in Paris, so expect some French advertising in the coming days …

But first this observation: free WiFi in one of Paris’ nicest parks. Don’t you just love this?

And before anyone says: “don’t you have something more interesting things to do than working, when in a park?”, it sure beats the alternative, which is working in an office, when it’s full spring outside.

Maybe somebody in Paris read “Cities and the Creative Class” …