Having worked all my adult life in advertising, I don’t know if an equivalent of the following conversation ever actually happens in other sectors …

Patient: Doctor, doctor, I have a sore throat

Doctor (after examination): Yes, you do. But also, you have a cancer. And diabetes. And you lead an unhealthy lifestyle.

Patient: thank you doctor. Can I now have some cough pastilles?

Translated to our business:

Prospect: could you please give us a new graphical design for our website?

We: yes, we could. But first of all, the structure of your website is incongruent, confusing and user-unfriendly. Moreover, there is no consumer insight whatsoever in your communication, and you’re actively not answering the most basic questions people ask when buying your product. How about we work on that first?

Prospect: No, thank you. We’ll go with the other agency that just proposed a new and very cool graphical design for our website.

And so we lost the pitch. Should we be sorry?

Vandaag, in De Morgen magazine, een heel artikel over iPhone-killers die de grote jongens op de markt gaan gooien, omdat de iPhone eindelijk de smartphonemarkt voor residentieel gebruik zou hebben opengegooid, en iedereen daar een graantje wil van meepikken.

Maar zowel voor de journalist van De Morgen als voor de makers van deze toestellen, lijkt te gelden: ze blijven maar niet snappen wat het geheim van het suces van de iPhone is.Het ligt niét aan de megapixels, het ligt niét aan het touchscreen, het ligt niét aan de applications. Het ligt aan het besturingssysteem. En excuseer mijn taalgebruik, maar het besturingssysteem van de iPhone is het eerste en nog steeds enige dat niet uitbundig suckt.

Een collega van mij heeft enkele dagen in New York gezeten en met zijn smartphone allerlei foto’s genomen. Bij zijn terugkeer heeft het - en dit is letterlijk! - uren werk van drie collega’s  (en niet van de meest digitally challenged), twee soorten geheugenkaarten en twee PC’s gekost om die foto’s ook effectief op de harde schijf van zijn pc te krijgen. Bij de iPhone: 3 minuten. Mijn dochter van vijf kan het.

Ter info: ik heb een jaar gewerkt met een HTC op Windows Mobile. En “werken” is het juiste woord. Wie zich dat toestel en dat besturingssysteem vrijwillig aanschaft, kan zich in de dichtsbijzijnde SM-club bij de overige masochisten aansluiten.

It’s not about the features. It’s about the usability. Je zou toch gaan denken dat ze het ooit zullen doorhebben …

Sometimes you see an ad, and you can only think two things

1) how the hell do they get away with such blatant in-your-face not-even-relevant sexism? how dare they, in these times and mores?

2) I want a piece of that. Burger, that is.

A few weeks ago I passed this bar in the centre of Antwerp. I noticed they changed the lettering on their windows. I was surprised about the choice of the typeface. Helvetica. One cannot underestimate the importante of this typeface created by the long forgotten Swiss typesetter Max Meidinger (1910 – 1980). It has guided us through various cities making them more comprehensible by signalisation. It has been used, over and over again, by great designers and noble amateurs. Used at its best it is artistic, almost elitist, in other contexts it may appear banal. But it is timeless. And, whilst it awaits to fade out again, it’s enjoying a rennaissance in its lifecycle right now. We paid it a tribute by using it as the leading typeface on our website.

PS: for those who hate Helvetica, look here.

Yes, we’ve seen it before. No, it’s not original.

But it made me smile. It moved and touched me. And it has a quality and authenticity to it that VTM so much needs …

Barely had I posted my thoughts on how we should define ourselves as the creators of symbolic value for a consumer and for brands, and then I saw this work for Stella Artois.

Apparently, Stella Artois has launched a 4% filtered beer, which they have set in an atmosphere of the French Rivièra in the 50’s. And now they have created a couple of movies under the theme: the movies Hollywood didn’t want you to see, i.e. the earlier versions of Hollywood successes like “8 Miles”, “Die Hard” or “24″. Enjoy for instance the trailer for “24 heures”, and smile.

Now, I like this very much. But is it good for the brand? What does it learn us? What will be the consequences?

Read more

OK, this post may be seen as whistling in the dark, but contrary to what has been stated by various authors (see my previous post), I don’t think advertising will be dead anytime soon. Having said that, what may emerge after the shock transition we’re now going through, may not look like advertising at all. And, as far as I’m concerned, that would be a good thing.

Here’s a few things I believe in. Read more

2 articles I’ve read today that, once again, spell doom on the advertising industry. And a third one to confirm the consequences. Are we all doomed?

Bob Garfield at Advertising Age puts a lot of data together to show that, even if the long-term perspective for the media and advertisijng industry may be positive, there is not going to be a soft transition period. We’re in the Age of Chaos (and no, Internet advertising doesn’t fare better, in his opinion).

Eric Clemons at TechCrunch goes one step further. Advertising will not be sufficient to fund the Internet and will be declining, because people don’t trust it, don’t want it and don’t need it. The advertising models in all other media are already dead and not worth discussing.

And, to conclude all this, the major advertising networks are, indeed, suffering.

Are we all doomed? I don’t think so. Give me a moment, I’ll come back to you.