BrandNew*

Update on ’The Bucket Brigade’

2010-11-26T15:00:00.004+02:00

Earlier this year I have been posting on a book project titled ’The Bucket Brigade’ initiated by Bud Caddell. Now here is an update. I am looking forward to future development and results and am humbled to be part of this.

SIME Helsinki

2010-10-14T22:42:00.004+03:00

SIME Helsinki is coming up and hasan&partners got the chance to co host the event. Have a look at the speaker list and agenda here, read more about SIME in general from here and join in.

Let’s write a book together

2010-06-27T11:02:00.010+03:00

I supported a book project initiated by Bud Caddell launched on the KickStarter platform with 100 $. I would love to see the book published as it could be a manifesto for new marketing, based on the believe that cultural exchange between individuals and brands are the new mass media.

Have a look on Bud's own thoughts about the project here and browse through my latest deck on slideshare to get a deeper understanding.

If you want to change Marketing for the better, if you want brands and people having an exchange with each other, please support and promote the project and thinking. Although it makes perfect sense, marketers believing in push, quick sales tricks and old school thinking are still in the vast majority, causing pain to passionate forward thinking marketers and - last but not least - people.

This time, it is all about YOU

2010-06-22T23:19:00.004+03:00

Some ramblings on social media, Marketing and you.

Read more on slideshare.

Redefinition

2010-05-02T11:05:00.004+03:00

The years from 2010 to 2020 are the age of redefinition. Last time society and way of life changed so dramatically was during the industrial revolution, which started at around 1800. We are now having the ultimate thrill living the digital revolution, and the impact on society, business, environment and culture is massive. We are just in the very beginning in mayor fields as e.g. education, transportation, energy, health care, media and research.

The digital revolution is differing in one mayor point from the industrial revolution, though: The speed of transformation. Even companies which were supposed to be on the right track and in the right industry, e.g. US handset manufacturers Motorola and Palm, nearly lost everything in as short time as three years.

We need to change the way of thinking and working, if we want to play an important role in future. The game has changed for good. We need to reboot processes, brand and R&D now. We need innovative business strategies, digital roadmaps and marketing intelligence. We need to understand and to accept. We need to reinvent ourselves. And let’s don’t forget to have fun – we are living the digital gold rush. The most creative solutions will be royally rewarded.

Change is good

2010-03-27T12:55:00.006+02:00

Once again, some time ago since the last post. My work life has undergone some changes recently, and after an interesting and successful time with the guys from KING Helsinki I have joined forces at iconic hasan & partners. I am supporting the digital approach of the agency, the main goals are to strengthen brands’ position in the digital world by coining outstanding creative work, let it be marketing communications or business critical digital services. All in all it has been a great amount of work for me since November 2009, and I am just before a two weeks holiday in Boston and NYC to refresh my brains. Be sure I’ll be back with a clear mind and the right spirit.

Happy Easter to all of you, and don’t forget to go out and eat the world.

2010-02-20T17:51:00.004+02:00

Some ramblings on engagement and its strategic implications I recently had can be found and downloaded in a simple set of 8 slides from slideshare. Food for thoughts, not more and not less.

Here you go.

Thanks for the inspiration, IBM

2010-02-03T14:47:00.003+02:00

Working as strategist means being a change agent, so it is about changing things. Or less sophisticated: It is about bringing brands and business from A to B. Naturally we are just a rack wheel in a huge machinery, so the mission seems quite sometimes impossible. I am referring to all kind of change, reaching from change in brand strategy to activate a traditional business making sense of the digital world. Change processes are complex, and positive inspiring examples are rare. In IBM I have found such an example, a company with a great history and heritage which has recently reinvented itself. It takes a lot to do what they have done, reaching from a clear vision to a bold strategy, and maybe the hardest part, its implementation. So, congrats IBM for changing from selling hardware to being a service provider. Thanks for the inspiration.

Here some more beef and information.

Your five minutes of fame going on a hold

2010-01-13T22:25:00.007+02:00

Well, thanks for all the great entries, there have been about 300 comments from you guys visiting this blog in the last 24 hrs. I unfortunately could only post a view, as this blog is just a small hobby. The response to the ’Your five minutes of fame’ idea and the stuff you wanted to have promoted is brilliant, though, and I might publish the one or other comment later. Please don’t enter any more thoughts, I won’t find the time to go through them all and post them.

ps/
As the traffic is still flowing, currently about 5000 unique visitors per day, I will come up with some new stunt soon.

Your five minutes of fame [6]: Suddenly fourty

2010-01-13T21:46:00.003+02:00

I've earned my blogging stripes as a social/political commentator over the last 10 years and have decided to do something different. So I started a new blog:

http://suddenlyfourty.blogspot.com/

I plan to apply the same kind of vulcan logic I applied to socio-political commentary to, well, a more diverse range of more personal and interesting things.

:)

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [5]: Fiction Writing

2010-01-13T21:17:00.003+02:00

Tobias,

Interesting experiment. I'm a fiction writer and occasional essayist living in the U.S.--I'm not selling anything. I have links to a few published stories on my web site, links to other literary-themed sites, and a more-or-less literary-themed blog at

www.cbbernard.com.

If anyone wants to pass some time by reading short stories, please visit.
I look forward to reading about the results of your social experiment. Thank you.

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [4]: Finding Mr. Right

2010-01-13T09:58:00.002+02:00

Dear Tobias- am certainly mesmerized by your offer. I would love to promote myself in two ways.I am an attractive 50 something looking to find the ultimate product...Mr. Right. If you can not support the finding of love what can you support? I am also I fiber artist that works making silk bowls and also collages using techniques and materials I learned about in Japan. I am just starting to write my blog to support everyone in the arts and get them to think a little about the world and the universe.

http://lifeofasingleartist.blogspot.com/

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [3]: Save my company

2010-01-13T00:45:00.003+02:00

Hey Tobias! Let's see if this gets your attention. I own what was on its way to becoming a thriving business before I had a a deal go terribly wrong costing me everything and leaving me to start again. I have investors who are considering coming on board, but I had another, more creative idea as well. You seem to be someone who can appreciate one's creativity. I wrote a book titled; Save My Company, Buy This Book; A Business Guide to raise money and took some unique approaches to drive sales. Check out my story, if you don't mind, at:

http://www.saveourcompany.org/
and my blog, which really needs some traffic, at
http://mydesperateneedforhelp.blogspot.com/

I hope you don't mind lending a hand, or some traffic!

This is what the Birmingham post writes about a man who want to save his business by pre-selling a book about
how to save companies…

http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2009/12/book_is_capital_idea_in_fundin.html

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [2]: Free the children

2010-01-13T00:18:00.006+02:00

Hi ! i also found this blog by clicking the next blog button (can anyone really resist). I read your five minutes of fame idea, and thought, hey, what do i have to lose? Right now i'm just a 17 year old student, who just made my first blog yesterday. To provide some inspiration and some words to relate to, everyday, documenting my 2010 with pictures, quotes, and many rants: http://wordsweallneed.blogspot.com/

There is one cause i have recenetly become almost obsessed about. I do love to share the little money i have( and you should to !) to cancer wards, make-a-wish foundation, sick kids, UNICEF. However, I have recently started to become more educated and involved in Child Labour. Amazing how more than 80% of my wardrobe was probably made by a child, who probably had no choice in it to begin with.

http://www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/geteducated/childlabour.htm

get involved ! Ask if the clothes you're about to purchase may be made in sweatshops. We can change that, because these children, and any other sweat shop workers deserve a future too.

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame [1]: The hunger site

2010-01-12T22:23:00.004+02:00

Hi! I just happened to find this (via next blog as you described) and couldn't resist the possibility of being the first one to leave my mark. I'm currently still a student, so generally I don't promote much, other than a positive attitude towards life (hopefully). But once my education is finished, I hope to go into the world and promote volunteering and other social work in an attempt to make the world a more beautiful place. As part of this, I am a follower of the hunger site and rainforest site...

www.thehungersite.com/

The site is supported by various sponsors, which means that those who are interested only have to click the button and money from the sponsors will go to those in need.
I think this is a valuable investment of three seconds every day :) Thanks! xxxLisaK

Want your own 5 minutes of fame? Read more from here…

Your five minutes of fame

2010-01-12T21:19:00.006+02:00

Hei everyone!

As for some reason I get thousands of visitors to my blog every day via the ’next blog’ button since three days I gave a thought what to do with the traffic. Being an adman myself, placing random ads on the site is not an option (; As you guys visited here from 139 countries the last three days, targeted self promotion doesn’t make much sense either. So I decided to promote random people and their projects, thoughts or organizations. Naturally it must be something interesting to get posted here.

This is how the experiment goes:
You write some short description of yourself, your [non-profit] organization, your project or your thoughts. Then you comment your content to this post. If it is good stuff I will make an own blog post out of it, and link to the sites you mentioned. Or in other words, I give away this blog to your cause for a post, if you convince me. If you want me to add a picture to your post, add a link to the picture in the end of your comment, so that I can grab it.

Send me your stuff, I am curious to see what you want to have promoted!

ps/ If you are selling electronics from China or fake Viagra, it might be very unlikely to get a post… That’s why this action is moderated.

What’s up?

2010-01-12T19:00:00.004+02:00

Something intersting happening on this blog… more than 12.000 unique visitors in 3 days, a significant increase. What brought you here, what’s up?

Lecture

2009-12-18T12:09:00.004+02:00

Here some slides from my last lecture for this year.

Browse and download from slideshare.

Happy holidays, next year will be great!

Social Media and its effect on brands

2009-11-18T22:33:00.011+02:00

Social networks have always been existing, naturally also before the digital era. They were shaped by our friends, families, neighbours, sports clubs and so on. Word of mouth, the recommendation by a member of our social networks, has as well been existing, and was always the most respected and trusted way of communication. So what has changed, then?

The first thing which changed was technology. The paradigm shift we are experiencing right now is enabled by technology. But the dynamics and the dimension the shift reached is cultural. This is how it goes:

Our social networks have started to be digitalized recently, and the process gets faster and deeper every day with an ever growing amount and speed. I am talking about the large number of social platforms and the trend to get everything, anytime. Real time.

The digitalization of our social networks has turned them into a media. Or to be precise: They have always been a media. One to one. But now they are the new mass media. Many to many. From now on everything has to be true and real. That’s why the shift is a great thing for humanity. It’s hard for brands. But they will learn and evolve. Some on the hard way. Game over, old mass media.

In a nutshell:

The digitalization of our social networks has transformed them in the most powerful mass media. The other thing to remember: Everything is a media. Everything communicates. In this context I can also recommend some classics from Marshall McLuhan, although its heavy stuff.

Social Media is Boring

2009-11-10T20:09:00.005+02:00

Houston, we have a problem! It turns out that social media is great use for brands as e.g. customer service / interaction platform or corporate communications channel. Makes sense. But as we at the same time are preaching the end of advertising and the raise of social media, where did the creativity go? Of course I love the transparency and the communicative features social media offers, but I would not like to sacrifice the fun part for it. So here is a proposal: Let’s just stop creating blogs and facebook pages and twitter accounts and youtube channels for our advertising campaigns and reserve them for long term communication. Let’s don’t sacrifice that what once was advertising for it. Sounds clear. And still - useless pages and boring profiles are popping up daily like mushrooms, overloading social media services to an extent which makes them unpleasant to use. Just happened recently to facebook.

So I have to correct my headline: Social Media is not boring. It just gets boring like hell if we try to use it wrongly to extend our advertising campaigns. Just happened to me the one or other time recently. So I promise not to do it anymore ;)

World is changing – Search for great ideas isn’t

2009-10-19T20:53:00.005+03:00

Most of the work I am doing nowadays is resulting at the one or other point in a digital solution. However, there is always a lot of thinking involved before a solution comes to life. Communication must be based on a great and relevant insight, a bigger picture framework - let’s call it strategy - and a great idea. All that sounds very easy, but it isn’t. It is actually really hard. Digital media has given us more freedom and allows us more open minded thinking. But it should never lead us in the plain use of techniques. The real killer app for the future of marketing and communications is INSIGHT plus STRATEGY plus IDEA plus DIGITAL. Something we still have to learn.

Come on, let’s play

2009-09-20T19:02:00.004+03:00

When you are creating, you are vulnerable. To others comments, to failure, to having the right idea at the wrong time or the wrong place or the other way round. And sometimes the audience is just not ready for an idea, or the idea is plain shit. Anyhow. You will do foolish things. Important is only that you do them, and that you do them with enthusiasm and pride. There has never been created anything new out of hesitation. That’s why I respect people who have been failing. Because next time it will go right.

Come on, let’s play!

Twestival Helsinki – A Review and a Manifesto

2009-09-13T22:19:00.009+03:00

As you can see, my last blog post is already a month old – in blogging time this means a century. It is not that I have been giving up on blogging, I was just extremely busy with an endless flow of incoming projects. And as this would have not been enough, the last four weeks were also the time we got to organize twestival Helsinki.

So, this blog post will be about twestival Helsinki. Was it a success? Yes, definitely, and I will explain why. It is a story about social media in the true sense of its meaning, about good people and about a totally new way of raising awareness and funds for a good cause. It is a story of earned media and the ’plant’ twestival which will grow in time.

Let’s have the hard facts first. Twestival Helsinki and the cause chosen by the public got great awareness and PR. In first place on social media platforms and blogs, but also in traditional media like newspapers, magazines and radio. Further we had some great ad spaces like this 57 outdoor screens promoting the idea of twestival Helsinki and a cleaner Baltic Sea. In addition to that there were lots of flyers and posters. All this is particular remarkable as the overall twestival Helsinki budget was 0 euros. All what we got and achieved was due to great people with passion and a good heart.

We also raised some good money, although we do not know the precise amount yet. We had four different income sources: The donations made in the evening of twestival Helsinki itself, the money people donated straight to the account of our cause, 10 % of the turnover of the venue Nude and last but not least the contribution the Nokia N86 tour will make to our cause. Once again, 100% of the money goes to the Clean Baltic Sea – John Nurminen Foundation.

Coming to a more personal level, I had so many great discussions with people that I got seriously enriched and inspired. One hour of good discussion with Reino Nordin, who played a fantastic acoustic gig in the evening, ensured me to be even more active on an environmental and societal level. As we could read in today’s Hesari, young people are interested in the world, but don’t want to change it anymore. Where does that come from? Young people have always been a guarantee for challenging the status quo. Social media and networks give back power to people, and we are just in the beginning. How about demonstrations in social media channels? If people don’t want to go to demonstrate on streets anymore, they could make an impact via social media. Will work further on the thought. I have seen many people having great discussions during twestival Helsinki, and it was also a pleasure to see how the local twitter scene met IRL = In Real Life. Apart from that folks enjoyed themselves and had fun. People were dancing to the beats of DJ Jacques.

Other discussions were circling mainly around social media, what it has brought to us and what happens next. Rupert Howe, a video blogger from London touring the twestival world for Nokia put it in a great and enthusiastic discussion I had with him and Phil Campbell this way: ’We are living in the future’. This is true for many reasons. I find this piece of video promoting Charles Leadbeaters’ book ’We think’ a good indication for development in the future. We are talking about social wealth vs personal wealth or the concept of owning vs sharing. A true revolution.

Finally, I have one wish for the further development of twestival Helsinki: Take over the project and organize twestival next time. It will be a twestival global again, the date is set for 4th February 2010. Take over the twitter account, the website, the facebook group, the visual identity and the good spirit and make it bigger. There will be more active twitter users in Finland next time, and I would love to see this project grow over all boundaries, hierarchies and companies. Twestival is crowd-sourcing, twestival is social good.

Thanks for everything.

p.s./

Special thanks to Henna, Susanna, Mia, Erol, Teemu, Jukka, Delfin, Reino, Tuija, Jakob & Janine. You were building the bird’s nest and left your remarkable piece.

Twestival Helsinki

2009-08-12T13:16:00.004+03:00

After finding out that no twestival local (read here if you have no idea whatsoever I am talking about) was yet to be organized in whole Finland I decided to change that and took the role of twestival Helsinki’s main organizer. As the twitter community in Finland is rather small and the timeframe to organize the festival is short I have a small but classy twestival in mind, and let myself surprise by anything more than that. The twestival is organized with crowdsourcing methods where everyone leaves a small part to contribute to one big goal: Raise funds for a good cause. A good start is the logo created by Designer Teemu Kurko, thanks for that, we love it!

If you want to help out, contact me, follow the twitter feed @twestivalHEL, join the twestival Helsinki facebook group, or visit the twestival local website. So far there is a great active team of 5 people working on the event, and the more it will be the better it gets.

More information follows later, but for now, tweet for good!

Twestival local

2009-07-31T15:18:00.003+03:00

Twestival local (more info here) takes place from 10th to 13th September in more than 200 cities globally. If you want to take part or want to put your city on the twestival map, contact the organisers. I am currently checking what will happen in Helsinki, would be sad not to take part.

http://twestival.com/get-involved/

Give a damn!

2009-07-28T09:03:00.007+03:00

Hmm, a great summer holiday has come to an end and I want to share a couple of thoughts which came up while traveling the last weeks, related to the topics of marketing and creativity. After every travel, some things are sticking to one’s mind more than others, as they were more special. Let it be great nature, a restaurant, a sunrise, special service or a nice store.

Great things impress us for a certain reason: They are less compromising then others, they are simply outstanding.

Our goal in marketing, creativity and communications must be the same: Strong, sharp and uncompromising ideas and concepts, polished to perfection with undeniable logic and irresistible emotion, executed with love and great care.

We need Marketing professionals valuing the art and craft, investing time and money in the right projects – and we need to bring up these projects. So, let’s do just that until next summer, and let’s see where we end up.

Nothing great comes easy!

School’s out for summer

2009-06-13T18:05:00.004+03:00

Dear all,

as summer is approaching I will be on a (totally deserved) holiday in US and Canada from 17th June until 26th July. There won't be any blog entries in this time, after a long, hard and rewarding year of work I will mostly disconnect from the digital world during summer. So nothing happening on my two twitter-streams @tobiaswacker and @PalmerstonHEL or any other social media profile. The best way to connect with me in this time is via sms, as I won't read e-mail. I will relax, get new impressions, think, enjoy and explore to be back with great spirit. Until then.

Have a great summer. Life is now!

New York Internet Week

2009-05-29T10:10:00.002+03:00

New York Internet week is coming up, a week-long festival to promote NYC’s internet industry. Lot’s of interesting events, see the schedule from here.

And the winner is…

2009-05-29T09:44:00.007+03:00

…according to Alex Bogusky’s tweets…

… brammo.com, a company producing electric motorcyles. So, they won the CP+B intern summer auction, and get three month of blood and sweat from people fighting hard to start a great career. Nice client and a good deal, I would say – the final sum was 17.655 $ (12.700 €).

7857 € and it’s yours – but you have to be quick

2009-05-26T22:05:00.002+03:00

Let’s say, you have just about 7857 € (10.099 $) and let’s say, you need three month strategy- and campaign work from the best ad agency in the whole wild world… no prob. Follow this link, the e-bay auction is still open 23 hrs. If you make the bidding, no minor agency than CP+B itself will work for you. (ok, you have to trust their interns – but I guess they don't allow them to fail over there). Anyone?

Typo Berlin 2009 in full swing

2009-05-22T15:26:00.005+03:00

Type- and design conference ’Typo’ is currently in full swing in Berlin. As one of the biggest and most influential conference in Europe it features this year topics around the theme ’Space’. If you have the chance, visit! It’s great. How to get there you can read from here.

The Feast – Social Innovation Conference

2009-05-20T13:18:00.001+03:00

On 1st of October it is time for ’The Feast’, the great social innovation conference. It will be hold in NYC, and the invitation-only tickets are just 99 $. However, if you can afford it you can buy tickets for a higher price to micro-sponsor the tickets for great thinkers with small wallets. More information about ’The Feast’ in New York here.

The Twitter Book

2009-05-14T20:58:00.002+03:00

The internet is full of new applications around twitter and even fuller about people writing about them. The reason why twitter is not heavily used in European marketing is because twitter’s user base in Europe is not that big, yet. But facebook was also late, so twitter will be big here as well. Until then, take your time for preparing and read ’The Twitter Book’ from the inventor of web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly. Set up your own twitter account here, and don't forget to follow @timoreilly. If you want to understand the marketing potential of the web 2.0/3.0, it is essential to actively use the services. Be experimental, it’s fun!

Susan Boyle or how mass media works in 2009

2009-05-11T10:40:00.005+03:00

After many weeks Susan Boyle’s first appearance at ’Britain’s got talent’ was droppin from No.1 position at viral video chart, with 140 million views, 12.700 blog posts and 471.000 comments. Susan Boyle was featured in thousands of twitter streams, and in some countries the buzz around her appearance is still hot. The online and offline reaction from media around the world has been overwhelming, and has teached us a lesson about mass media in 2009, as the excitement from people on the web has been too strong to be ignored. So let’s have a look what we can learn from this case.

The news are full of negative messages concerning traditional mass media. Less and less people watch a certain TV program whilst more and more TV channels are born, and newspapers around the globe are in a deep crisis. Mass media seem to be scattered and audiences more difficult to reach than ever before. So, is this the end of mass media?

The answer can be yes, if we think about the classic media channels. It is the end of mass media, as we knew it. Anyhow, there is a new kind of mass media. The media of the masses – the internet.

’Twittizen’

2009-05-05T18:21:00.004+03:00

Twitter is much more than a status update in 140 or less characters. Companies are doing amazing things with twitter, and it is long time ago that I have seen so much creativity around such a small service. Janet Fouts has summarized nicely how to be a good ’twittizen’ and how to write interesting tweets. Well worth a read, here the summary.

If you want to check my twitter manners read the trend feed I am publishing for the Palmerston group @PalmerstonHEL or my own twitter feed @tobiaswacker.

13th annual ’Webby Awards’

2009-05-05T14:30:00.001+03:00

The winners are announced – see the best on the web from here.

The (branded) world is changing

2009-04-29T10:27:00.002+03:00

According to the today published Brandz Top 100 studies from MillwardBrown, google is the the most valuable global brand, now the third year in a row. However, there are also big changes in the ranking effecting brand values of car companies and banks. Nokia is ranked on position 13 with a loss of 20 % in comparison to 2008.

Read the whole study here (pdf)

Sofia Bank – Born wise

2009-04-22T18:04:00.005+03:00

Let me present some work I have been involved with recently in my function as planner for Finnish advertising agency KING Helsinki. The topic is Sofia bank, a new bank on the Finnish market founded by top professionals of the banking industry. For the launch campaign we chose to focus on that – a new bank with lots of experience. The images have been taken by Dutch top professional Paul Ruigrok and the campaign is focusing on print- and online media. The headline in the ad is best to be translated with the words ’Born Wise’.

Susan Boyle

2009-04-20T20:39:00.004+03:00

People love great stories, and people love the underdog. And everybody loves music. Susan Boyle, who made it from 0-100 in just one song at the casting show ’Britain’s got talent’, became world famous for these attributes. 60-70 million views on youtube, 1,2 million facebook fans, a global fan community and media hype.

Check out how Susan Boyle was touching the world!

JoPo

2009-04-17T12:04:00.005+03:00

JOPO – standing for ’JOkaisen POlkupyörä’ and meaning ’the bike for everyone’ is a Finnish design classic and at the same time a good example for great marketing. Produced by Finnish manufacturer Helkama and first introduced in 1965, jopo shows that taking great care of a product and brand pays off – in that case literally, as the bike is rather expensive for its features. However, a great concept, and since yesterday I joined the owner’s club.

Bobba

2009-04-14T17:53:00.002+03:00

Sulake has launched yet another community named Bobba. The target audience is much older than Habbo’s, and the community is meant to be accessed by mobile devices.

Here more information from Taneli and Arctic Startup.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-11T08:18:00.000+03:00

Business as usual

2009-04-06T18:32:00.002+03:00

Today is a tough day for everyone in media and advertising business. While in Finland advertising- and media agencies have announced heavy layoffs today, bad news are coming also from US. Shots magazine reports that JWT Chicago will be closed down, after 118 years of history, and the Boston Globe is under pressure from Times Co. to accept major cutbacks, otherwise is under threat of being closed down. I tend to see the opportunities in the crisis, but today things just look black. Anyhow, we all know if the upswing is coming (and it will come), media- and ad businesses are on the forefront of the movement.

Take care until then.

It’s a fake – Postmodern Mini viral

2009-03-28T12:25:00.001+02:00

Nicely played viral, bringing the theme a bit further. Lot’s of virals work in the same way, so it is a fun idea to play around with the clichés which are out there. The viral was shooted on Autobahn A8 in Germany, and the joy is in the dialogue, this time. Well done, Mini!

Check it from here

Ars Electronica Future Lab: Vision on e-paper

2009-03-27T10:50:00.009+02:00

I have blogged about the changes in newspaper industry, digital paper and alike quite frequently, as this shows us quite well that we are living in revolutionary times when it comes to media or advertising. First, I have to report more sad news, as San Francisco might soon be the first mayor city without a big printed newspaper, as the print edition of the Chronicle is under threat of beeing discontinued, something quite unimaginable some years ago. However, there is hope on the horizon: the Ars Electronica Future Lab has released some vision on digital paper – a quite convincing one. If you want to have a peak how a digital physical newspaper might look, go ahead.

Visit here to see the vision of digital paper

Visit here to see the US newspaper crash in a nutshell

Tesla Motors

2009-03-19T08:37:00.002+02:00

Interesting times – while other car manufacturers are struggling or close down totally, one small company seems to have some financial resources to expand and establish a new brand: The high end electric powered sports car firm Tesla motors, at home in Silicon Valley. The first car seems to be well in production now, and various showrooms and sales outlets have opened around US. Tesla is planning to enter the European market as well at some point. Hope this journey will continue nicely and ends up in a success story, I respect the brave and pioneering approach.

Check all about Tesla from here

Watch the roadster in action from here

Tesla on wikipedia

Sustainable cities

2009-03-15T12:00:00.003+02:00

According to research more and more of the global population will be living in urban areas, creating ever bigger and condensed urban spaces. That this can be actually much more sustainable than a rural setup is an interesting thought, and the CABE, the UK based Comission for Architecture and the Built Environment, has launched a program for sustainable cities in the UK. Very interesting, read more from here.

Röyksopp – Happy Up Here

2009-03-13T15:47:00.002+02:00

Hmm – Röyksopp goes back to the roots. I like that. Check the debut single ’Happy Up Here’, and enjoy the video directed by Reuben Sutherland. The upcoming new album will be called ’Junior’.

Wherever you are out there, relax.

The Light of Snow

2009-03-11T20:17:00.002+02:00

Check out some more pictures from Stockholm Furniture Fair 2009 on the website of Finland’s leading furniture producer Martela (one of my projects)

Here you go

ps/ Thank you Jukka & Tommi for the great layout & flash

Create or Die - Webinale 09 in Berlin

2009-03-10T18:50:00.004+02:00

The holistic web conference webinale is hold in Berlin from 25th - 27th of May. The theme is create or die, and on the agenda are topics around the web, see picture above. Sounds good, so here the link.

North Korean elections and a bizarre online store

2009-03-10T11:17:00.003+02:00

The world is crazy, and North Korea is even more. In the latest election state leader Kim Jong-il got 100 % of the votes, not that impressive when considering that he was the only candidate on the list. And if Kim Jong-il is not busy with ridiculous fake elections, he is practicing e-commerce, running a bizarre webshop. Unfortunately I can’t laugh about all that, as a whole nation is suffering so badly. Very sad.

Here the link to the most weird online store in the world
(only one server in North Korea, so the link does not work always)

Here the story about the most weird election in the world

Stop recycling – Start repairing

2009-03-04T22:41:00.005+02:00

Nice project from my former home city Amsterdam, organized by platform21, a platform for people curious about the future. Here more information on the project, and here background info on platform21. Cheers.

Hasta La Vista, Baby. It’s Cebit time.

2009-03-03T08:52:00.003+02:00

The Cebit will open its doors tomorrow, this time smaller and less optimistic than many years before. Anyhow, it is still the global lead fair for the tech industry, presenting as partner the state of California. For that reason governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made his way to Germany. California is hit hard by the crisis, featuring the highest unemployment rate since 25 years. Anyhow, native Austrian Mr. Schwarzenegger, who started his career as body builder in Munich decades ago, did not loose his very own way of dealing with the crisis. He finished his speech on Cebit opening by watching German chancellor Angela Merkel with his most famous words:
Hasta la vista, Baby.

”It is with great sadness that we say goodbye”

2009-03-02T21:11:00.004+02:00

The crisis is going stronger every day, and now things happen which have been predicted already ten years ago. In US and many other parts of the world newspaper publishers are facing an existential crisis, now causing the bankruptcy of a major US paper – The Rocky Mountain News from Denver, Colorado, which was awarded with the Pulitzer prize for times since the year 2000.

Please watch the moving documentation created by employees of the paper here

ps/ Needless to describe any further that we are beginning a new era.

Who uses twitter, and why

2009-03-01T11:23:00.003+02:00

Nice pie chart, and quite true. At least looks familiar to me and my twitter experience…

via Huffington Post

Young Global Leaders

2009-02-25T12:53:00.006+02:00

The World Economic Forum has published a list (pdf) with 230 young global leaders, Finland is represented by Misiter of Foreign Affairs, Alexander Stubb. The list includes also a good bunch of people from tech industry, like Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg. Times like these need new brains and new leaders, new ideas and new perspectives, and radical ideas. Just like Obama understood, we need change, let it be on a societal, political, economical or environmental level. The recession we are facing now gives us the opportunity to correct things which went out of hand. This fact is also true for advertising, where the industry is transforming fast after decades of standing still. Go, young global leaders, go!

ps/

Try to keep the rebel in you! By fighting for change there is a danger to assimilate to status quo pretty fast…

Read the press release here

The Light of Snow

2009-02-23T22:12:00.006+02:00

Two weeks ago Stockholm Furniture Fair closed doors, time to take a resumé for my work with Finland’s leading furniture producer Martela. The theme we created for the fair was ’The Light of Snow’, for obvious reasons: One of the product innovations Martela presented at the fair was ’The Tree W’, a light and space devider designed by Finnish design legend Prof. Eero Aarnio, the fair stand, designed by Finnish architect group Valvomo, was shining in total white while Stockholm was covered by a beautiful snow blanket. Or in other words: ’The Light of Snow’. Next to the theme we developed invitation materials, a press kit and the brochure, naturally all in simple and clear white.

Typoberlin 2009 – Space

2009-02-22T18:33:00.002+02:00

Over the recent years the ’Typo’ in Berlin has grown to be one of the most important international conferences on typography and graphic design. Next to the big names from the design industry the conference offers unique Berlin atmosphere and relaxed networking possibilities. Now the theme of the 2009 conference has been unveiled: SPACE. The conference dates are 21st - 23rd of May, and until 29th of February you can register with a 100 euros discount. Students get the unique chance to register to the conference for 250 euros until 29th, after that the registration fee is 645 euros for everyone. I really like the conference and encourage everybody to give it a go.

Why I am part of a global trendspotting network

2009-02-19T10:48:00.006+02:00

The Palmerston Group has set up a global trendspotting network operated via twitter. The system is ’live’ for a couple of days now, and the idea is to let people report about the latest trends, movements, atmospheres etc. from their homebase. I was asked to do the reporting from Helsinki, and as I benefit from tweets around the globe and as I like to promote Helsinki and Finland I am happy to do the job. As twitter allows you just 140 characters, the project is not very time consuming. My personal tweets are still available on this blog (in the box on the right) or on twitter, @tobiaswacker. For Helsinki tweets follow the link below.

Follow Helsinki trend tweets from here

No idea what I am talking about? Read more about twitter here

Microsoft forever

2009-02-17T21:35:00.004+02:00

Ok, I really don't like Microsoft, who does. Anyhow, now that the Mobile World Congress is going strong in Barcelona, I browse through news, watch press conferences etc. Microsoft launched a new operating system for mobile devices, Windows mobile 6.5, and called it Windows phone. Of course it is the same crap than Windows 6.1 mobile operating system, just some pimped surface. I thought that they should have learned something out of the Windows Vista disaster, but they didn't. But now to the point: I wanted to see the MS press conference, and they want me to download their stupid silverlight plugin, otherwise I can’t see the press conference. Never, never I will download this lousy flash imitation. Never. Microsoft, your power is vanishing, as you refuse to learn anything from the past. Good bye.

ps/

Pumping hundreds of millions in Crispin Porter & Bogusky advertising doesn't help. Not a bit. You Redmond guys will never be cool.

Recession is fun

2009-02-17T10:19:00.003+02:00

In media the recession is described as something extremely negative, and after thinking about it for a good while I take a contrary position. So, here my reasons why I like the recession: 1) We get rid of stuff we don’t need and want, like bad quality cars ruining the environment, greedy bankers with ridiculous salaries, extremely high consumption of natural resources, too many airlines, impossible to pay real estate prices and stupid women- and car magazines. 2) With the physical and mental ressources having set free in this process, people start to be creative again, doing things they want and they believe in, without trying to protect status quo. Naturally there is a downside in the recession, people who lost their jobs and have to struggle to make a living. I would support more social security for these people, accept higher taxes. If we care more for each other and support small businesses we can turn the recession in something fun.

Berlinale

2009-02-16T20:02:00.003+02:00

The 59th Berlin Film Festival Berlinale just closed doors, with the big win, the golden bear, going to La tete asustada (The Milk of Sorrow) from Peru. Check all the awarded films here, and read more about the golden bear winner from here. Cinema rules!

The beginning of twitter

2009-02-16T16:35:00.005+02:00

Just found this great document about the beginning of twitter, worth a read as it shows nicely how an idea turns into reality. Good example for business creativity…

Here you go

Twestival: New forms of charity

2009-02-15T18:05:00.003+02:00

Twitter managed to set up an event in 202 cities around the globe on 12th of February, named twestival. Under the theme ’Tweet. Meet. Give.’ fans and users of microblogging service twitter, the fastest growing social networking platform on the web, gathered to raise money for a good purpose, in that case for charity water. The money was mainly raised with an entrance fee of 10 euros, and is estimated to exceed the 1.000.000 dollar barrier. The official results will be available by tomorrow, Monday 16th. And hey, join twitter, it’s nice! And feel free to follow my twitter stream on http://twitter.com/tobiaswacker

Old meets New Romance: Google buys paper mill

2009-02-14T10:42:00.005+02:00

Like most of you have heard already google bought a paper mill facility close to the Finnish city of Hamina with the goal to have sort of a server farm there. I guess this will be one of the most referred examples how to turn a relict from the industrial age to new usage purposes. The news has sparked some reactions around the globe, here a couple of links reporting about the issue:

Tech Crunch, PSFK, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Reuters, Pakistan Tribune, Yahoo Deutschland etc.

The list could be continued endless, and shows how news distribution works nowadays. Find something interesting, and traditional media and blogosphere transport the news in a wave around the globe.

Bingo Bango… Bongo!

2009-02-13T21:18:00.003+02:00

Our dear colleague Mary Lee is planning to open a creative hotshop in Helsinki, named Bongo. She is currently recruiting, so if you need a job, check from here. The concept of a pure advertising agency without any strategy or such sounds interesting, although it is not made for a strategy thinker like me. Anyhow, welcome and good luck!

Read more on shots magazine or in creativity online.

Tweeting

2009-02-12T21:00:00.002+02:00

Feel free to follow my twitter stream, here you go. You can find my facebook profile here, the website and blog from the company I am working for is here, my last.fm profile is available from here, here and here you can find my xing and linkedin profiles, my travel dates are available from dopplr, and something regarding me and planning you can check from here. I don’t know where all that will end up, but we will see. It is fascinating living in pioneering times with lots of change in advertising and marketing. A great chance for all of us!

Sony’s new piece of s* that doesn’t f**** work

2009-02-12T18:48:00.002+02:00

Onion news network, America’s finest news source, reported about the latest Sony gadget you just need to have. Here you see the newsflash, but be aware, the news speaker is using surprisingly tough language. Check here to see what is behind the Onion, and enjoy the entertainment.

New e-reading devices from US and Japan

2009-02-11T21:44:00.004+02:00

There are lots of discussions going about the end of print media, and indeed magazines and newspapers are in trouble if we consider the global scale and volume. A blogger has even set up the magazine death pool, a collection of print titels which have gone over the river recently. The launch of Amazons’ 2nd generation e-book reader Kindle and a new e-newspaper reader from Japan developed by Fujitsu might not have calmed down fans of print solutions.

TED time

2009-02-11T21:36:00.003+02:00

It is TED time again, the legendary conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design. Great people tell how they changed the world, so very inspiring talks. In the last two days fresh talks are are shared online on the TED page, one of them given by Bill Gates. And yes, I recommend.

Total failure

2009-02-09T19:52:00.003+02:00

Sometimes in life things just go badly wrong, you can't help it. Thanks to fail blog we can share failures – sometimes tragic but always entertaining. So if you think you failed badly, visit fail blog, for sure somebody exceeded your doing!

Objectified

2009-02-08T20:29:00.002+02:00

Just like to give a hint about upcoming documentary Objectified by Gary Hustwit, the maker of typography documentary Helvetica. Like expected the film is about objects, giving some insight in industrial design.

Here the trailer

Gold-digger times for web 2.0 application mashups

2009-02-08T18:36:00.004+02:00

Mashups, originated in music field where the vocals of a song are combined with the melody of another, are finding their way to web 2.0 applications. The point is to mix different applications and create a new one. Common 2.0 mashups are e.g. the combination of google earth, youtube and flickr. A concrete example is a world of nirvana, where fans can see youtube videos on google earth to follow the steps of legendary band Nirvana. This is made possible due to open Application Programming Interfaces, and key players in 2.0 world have understood the creative power of mashups and opened their API’s. If you think that this is rocket science und just for real geeks you are wrong – even Microsoft is offering a free online game & mashup creator named Popfly, if you prefer another tool you can try Yahoo pipes. The mashup creators are as easy to use as a website builder. Regarding mashups it's gold-digger time now – people with the biggest imagination and the highest level of business creativity can make a fortune. How about?

Stockholm Furniture Fair II

2009-02-07T11:16:00.004+02:00

Stockholm Furniture Fair is over soon, so the international press starts to write what was going on. The lucky ones find themselves in the articles of the important magazines, payback time for interesting and pioneering work. Here a link to a Wallpaper-article about the fair, the image gallary is quite interesting. And very soon I post, like promised, what I have been doing for Finnish furniture producer Martela there.

Innovation Power – Why I love Brand Futurism

2009-02-05T17:59:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I visited Stockholm furniture fair, and like expected there were lot’s of big companies presenting nice furniture. The most interesting part for me was the so called greenhouse, the exhibition part for young designers and visionaires. It was the most lively part of the fair, and the young brains displayed real innovations. The University of North Umbria in Italy e.g. was having a look in the future – and showed among other things bricks made of rice from the year 2030. The visit to the greenhouse just showed me once again how important and interesting brand futurism is, and assured me in my approach to help clients to see the future. The benefit of that work is not seen in 2020 – it's seen today, challanging our thinking and activating our pioneering spirit, turning us to forerunners of our field.

Some information about the greenhouse

Taking the ’Youth’ out of ’Youth Culture’

2009-02-03T19:59:00.002+02:00

Here a link to an interesting post in PSFK about ’Youth Culture’, or better said about the defining term. It is pointed out that speaking about ’Youth Culture’ makes about the same distinction than speaking about ’Adult Culture’, and I couldn't agree more. Although we all know that we have to define target groups regarding their mindset, way too often target groups are defined according to demographics. When do we stop that? When TV channels stop talking to ’an advertising relevant target group’ reaching from 14 – 49 years? I know that it takes deeper knowledge to really understand, but it is money well spent. Everything else is just defining target audiences for the sake of defining target audiences. And that sounds really stupid.

Internet population

2009-01-31T12:36:00.003+02:00

Seems to be that January has been the month of statistics in my blog, so here some more: How many people live in a country, if we just count the interent users? And how much is that compared to the total population? We can see that internet usage is still surprisingly uneven distributed.

Here a link to the article of Justin Wehr, where more statistics are waiting

We think

2009-01-27T20:31:00.003+02:00

We think is a book written by Charles Leadbeater, describing the idea of social wealth. He points out that in the last century we were defined by what we own, and in this century we are defined by what we share. I like the idea a lot, as I am sharing things in my blogs and social networking sites which matter for me, so they tell a lot about me.

Here you can find a link for a video describing his book in brief, nicely done.

And because Charles Leadbeater is living what he is preaching, he shares the first three chapters of his book with us.

Here you can get them

Social Networks: Global data

2009-01-26T18:57:00.005+02:00

As my last blog entry about facebook user statistics in Finland has caused some interest, I would like to refer to data published recently concerning the global development of social networking platforms. Very impressive growth rates!

Here the global data

GM sold of its heritage and museum cars

2009-01-25T19:30:00.002+02:00

A nicely fitting but very sad counter post to the opening of the Porsche museum and German car temples I have been writing recently… now GM sold away their company heritage. For as little as 9 million $ they sold 252 cars from their company museum, carrying the heritage and DNA of the company. How they could do it? I guess that is the final sign of resignation. The last one will shut down the lights, then.

German temples

2009-01-22T18:35:00.005+02:00

On 31st of January one more temple is going to open its doors – to be precise, one more automobile temple. In the middle of the crisis, which is especially hitting hard the car industry, Porsche is opening its doors to a new museum. I guess money is not their problem, as they managed to make more profit than turnover last year. The German car industry is healthy and feels that it will be even stronger after the crisis, and I assure you that after a visit to one of these car temples you will be a fan of the brand – what else you can expect from your return on marketing investment?

Here some links to the latest openings:

Porsche Museum
Mercedes-Benz Museum
BMW Welt

Mr. Andrews,

2009-01-22T18:32:00.001+02:00

if I interpret your post correctly, these are your comments about Memphis a few hours after arriving in the global headquarters city of one of your key and lucrative clients, and the home of arguably one of the most important entrepreneurs in the history of business, FedEx founder Fred Smith.

The words above are the beginning of a response to a negative twitter post from FedEx to a social media advisor from Ketchum, a funny story telling something about transparency. So be careful if you are writing in blogs, microblogs, facebook or just about anywhere in the web… you are a public person then!

Read the full story here

Like Obama? Order one home…

2009-01-21T21:00:00.003+02:00

Yes, Obama is president, and the world and I am relieved. And of course his inauguration was a big media spectacle, CNN broadcasting on facebook with live comments from users, a merger of two media. But that is not my topic today… today I just would propose to all Obama fans to order him home. On this Japanese toy site he is available.

Brilliant!

ps/ You can order him as well with a samurai- or laser sword, if that suits you better

We’re all gonna die – 100 m of existence…

2009-01-21T00:17:00.002+02:00

… is the title of Danish Simon Hoegsberg’s last photography. It is 100 m wide and he worked 17 month on it.

If you want to see it, click here

Generation G – February trend briefing is out

2009-01-21T00:11:00.003+02:00

Generation ’G’ stands for ’Generosity’ – and is the main topic of the latest trend briefing on trendwatching.com. Interesting as always, so thanks for you trendwatching guys for being so generous with us!

Here the briefing

Facebook and IRC Galleria data for Finland

2009-01-20T10:16:00.003+02:00

Taneli Tikka has published some very interesting figures regarding facebook and IRC Galleria accounts in Finland. I recommend to read his article which you will find on his own blog.

Captain C.B. Sully Sullenberger

2009-01-19T16:54:00.003+02:00

Who hasn't heard of him, the hero from US Airways flight 1549. His fan base is growing rapidly, and his facebook fan page shows currently 365.605 fans. The really interesting thing about this observation is the growth rate, there are 3 new fans every second. The tendency is that the growth is gaining even more speed, so let's see with how many facebook fans ’Sully’ ends up…

’Art & Copy’ documentary at ’Sundance’ festival

2009-01-19T14:00:00.004+02:00

Legendary independent film festival ’Sundance’, this year hold in Park City, UTAH, is at halftime now. From 15th to 25th of January dozens of films are introduced to the public, for getting an overview on this festival visit the extensive website. As if the festival would not be interesting enough, there is a documentary about advertising, ’Art & Copy’ from Dough Pray. Quick description: ’Got creativity? Got manipulation? Got art? Advertising’s profound effect on modern culture is unquestionable. Art & Copy takes us inside a powerful, yet surprisingly unknown, industry to reveal the most influential creative forces tapping the zeitgeist of our time.’ Sounds interesting, so I propose that we all gonna watch it (-;

Here the full description of the documentary

Further there is a discussion going on about the truth in advertising. Maybe not the hottest topic any more, but still a high profile discussion with the biggest names in advertising and director Dough Pray.

Here the dicussion

Monocle Travel Top 50

2009-01-16T12:08:00.002+02:00

Here a link to Monocle’s latest travel top 50, featuring the currently closed Design Shop at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Nice to see the discoveries off the beaten track, travel fever is rising… Have a nice weekend!

LEGO digital

2009-01-16T10:10:00.004+02:00

According to this press release Lego is entering the market for digital gadgets. The target market are young people, and the nicest line might be the classic brick-built portable electronics. Sounds fun and might be a nice toy for adults as well… I was playing with Lego all my childhood.

Soviet Dior vs Whopper Virgins

2009-01-15T10:18:00.005+02:00

These pictures were taken 30 years ago on the streets of Moscow for Life magazine, initiated by the fashion house Dior. The idea is simple: Bring some models to Soviet Union, dress them in the lastest Dior fashion and let the huge contrast to Soviet ’fashion’ speak for itself. It somehow reminds me to the campaign ’Whopper Virgins’, where Burger King exposed the Whopper to people living in remote areas of the world. The campaign faced a storm of criticism, and people where wondering if this is ethically correct, or if the people featured in the campaign are abused for advertising purposes. However your view on this issue might be, if a campaign is still creating strong reactions after 30 years, something must have gone right.

Via EnglishRussia

Two magazines – One man

2009-01-14T11:10:00.002+02:00

Although people spend more and more time on the web and some content is published exclusively digital, the most enjoyable way to read is a beautiful print magazine, well designed and printed on a nice paper. The look, feel, touch and smell is unmatched by digital media as so far. Tyler Brûlé must have the same opinion, as he managed to launch two great magazines in his life already, Wallpaper was followed by the Monocle magazine. Monocle is a great example that things can be successful when working them out properly, no matter what the main trends are out there. And because all that is inspiring for me, I will buy the latest Monocle issue. Again!

10 friends for a Whopper

2009-01-13T11:32:00.002+02:00

I admire the work Crispin Porter + Bogusky is doing for Burger King. After ’Whopper Freakout’, ’Whopper Virgins’ and the bit weired ’Flame’ this time it is the ’Whopper Sacrifice’. It's just a facebook application, providing you with a free whopper if you delete 10 of your so called friends. Simple and effective viral marketing celebrated by the blogosphere. Respect!

Check the site here

Advertising on the edge – The Economist

2009-01-11T23:17:00.004+02:00

Media companies and ad industry is fighting against budget cuts in tough times, as their business is depending on marketing spending. Here some old school theory we all have heard before, still worth a read as it is presented by ’The Economist’.

The link to the presentation

LOHAS – Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability

2009-01-09T09:29:00.005+02:00

The megatrend I want to introduce today is called LOHAS, and although it is not a very new one it is strongly relevant also and especially during times of recession and economical downturn. There are estimations that 40 % of all US citizens and 50 % of German citizens can be counted as LOHAS, which is describing the potential of this idea quite strongly. After the decade of turbo capitalism, coming along with wild usage of natural resources and before unseen destruction of our environment, people have felt and experienced that things went to far. At the forefront and as symbol of this development stand the ’1 € stores’ selling items for just a euro – made to be thrown away just days after purchase. This products have been produced under uncontrolled conditions in China or India and travelled over the oceans to US and Europe. Fortunately more and more people are interested how and where things are produced, and they do care what carbon footprint they produce. And so do I.

LOHAS by wikipedia

Graphic Design Battle – Cut & Paste 2009

2009-01-08T16:20:00.005+02:00

It is again ’Cut & Paste’ time – a truly inspiring global event featuring a graphic design contest which can be followed live. After the brief the contesters have just as little as 15 min time to do the job, so action is guaranteed. Fascinating to see how the graphic artists handle the technique and creativity at the same time! The championship is structured in three categories: 2D Design, 3D Design and Motion Design, and the call for competitors is now open.

HERE you see the 2007 documentary

One did it – Ecological backpack test

2009-01-07T19:12:00.003+02:00

A very nice website, produced by a young start-up company in Helsinki. The main product on the site is a test measuring your ecological backpack, very interesting and useful, and perfectly fitting in our times. More and more people are striving for a sustainable and healthy lifestyle, forming a strong movement. But about that I will blog tomorrow.

www.onedidit.com

ps/ Nice artwork on the site, Antero!

Good bye 2008 – Hello 2009

2008-12-31T12:23:00.004+02:00

The year behind will be remembered as one full of action. In the first 6 month prices exploded and it seemed that everyday goods become luxury, in the last 6 month the economy slides into a proper world recession. As business is psychology for a big part, people were first manic and are now depressive. It would help us all if we would think a bit more balanced, unrealistic exaggerations in the one or other direction are causing disappointment. Every recession is also a good time to think about values. Are money and goods the only thing making us happy? Or the most important one? If so, we deserve being hit hard now. However: Good and bad times in economy happen in waves, so at the bottom line only one thing is sure: It can only get better.

Welcome 2009!

Taking web films to the big screen

2008-12-30T09:53:00.004+02:00

Some news from my former home town Amsterdam where the guys seem to be innovative without a halt. The latest initiative is called upload cinema, which is basically a film club bringing web films to the big screen in a real cinema. Once per month people are gathering and enjoying a new form of cinema. Sounds fun, and I am sure that the initiative can work as role model for other countries and cities as well. Anyone, Helsinki?

Berlin bars - or why it pays off to be different

2008-12-22T21:39:00.002+02:00

Berlin is different. Still. The city is unique in the world, also due to its history and also due to the creative mass of people. One part which makes Berlin unique are its bars and restaurants - especially the ones with a special concept. You can find basically something for any taste, and you can also find things you'll never expect. I have to mention the Finnish bar and restaurant which serves traditional snacks with original recipes – exotic for Berlin people. And one more tip: If you go to Berlin, make a stop in Pony bar. Happy holidays!

BrandNew*

Update on ’The Bucket Brigade’

SIME Helsinki

Let’s write a book together

This time, it is all about YOU

Redefinition

Change is good

Thanks for the inspiration, IBM

Your five minutes of fame going on a hold

Your five minutes of fame [6]: Suddenly fourty

Your five minutes of fame [5]: Fiction Writing

Your five minutes of fame [4]: Finding Mr. Right

Your five minutes of fame [3]: Save my company

Your five minutes of fame [2]: Free the children

Your five minutes of fame [1]: The hunger site

Your five minutes of fame

What’s up?

Lecture

Social Media and its effect on brands

Social Media is Boring

World is changing – Search for great ideas isn’t

Come on, let’s play

Twestival Helsinki – A Review and a Manifesto

Twestival Helsinki

Twestival local

Give a damn!

School’s out for summer

New York Internet Week

And the winner is…

7857 € and it’s yours – but you have to be quick

Typo Berlin 2009 in full swing

The Feast – Social Innovation Conference

The Twitter Book

Susan Boyle or how mass media works in 2009

’Twittizen’

13th annual ’Webby Awards’

The (branded) world is changing

Sofia Bank – Born wise

Susan Boyle

JoPo

Bobba

Happy Easter!

Business as usual

It’s a fake – Postmodern Mini viral

Ars Electronica Future Lab: Vision on e-paper

Tesla Motors

Sustainable cities

Röyksopp – Happy Up Here

The Light of Snow

Create or Die - Webinale 09 in Berlin

North Korean elections and a bizarre online store

Stop recycling – Start repairing

Hasta La Vista, Baby. It’s Cebit time.

”It is with great sadness that we say goodbye”

Who uses twitter, and why

Young Global Leaders

The Light of Snow

Typoberlin 2009 – Space

Why I am part of a global trendspotting network

Microsoft forever

Recession is fun

Berlinale

The beginning of twitter

Twestival: New forms of charity

Old meets New Romance: Google buys paper mill

Bingo Bango… Bongo!

Tweeting

Sony’s new piece of s*** that doesn’t f****** work

New e-reading devices from US and Japan

TED time

Total failure

Objectified

Gold-digger times for web 2.0 application mashups

Stockholm Furniture Fair II

Innovation Power – Why I love Brand Futurism

Taking the ’Youth’ out of ’Youth Culture’

Internet population

We think

Social Networks: Global data

GM sold of its heritage and museum cars

Sony’s new piece of s* that doesn’t f**** work