to. wa.- walking on the insight road (and not halfway there).

1803 comments to date at the website of Austria’s liberal daily “Der Standard”. Countless protest mails and calls at their headquarter and supposedly a call to boycott the brand in some parts of the internet that I’m not familiar with. And all because of what? Because NÖM - the milk brand from Lower Austria - decided to exclusively supply 300 Turkish supermarkets with bilingual milk packages. Every product in Austria has a multi- or at least bilingual packaging, but mention “Turkish” once in affirmative way in Austria and you provoke a public outcry.

As another little confirmation that most of what is being written about “models”, “theories” and “new thinking” in communication, management and all those other funky disciplines has been more or less eloquently written before, a quote from the research for a paper I am supposed to be writing instead of this …

It has been found that a properly recruited, properly educated staff whose loyalty has been adequately ensured will work not only eight or more hours a day keeping up the Bell System’s public relations, but further, even in personal contacts and friendships, on company time and off, will serve as an efficient agent in spreading the Bell ideology and securing the sympathies and allegiance of groups and individuals to the Bell System.

Bell System, Public Opinion Quarterly 1937 vs. Twelpforce, Cannes 2010.

What did we really do in the 73 years between, except for changing some words?

Speaking of models, there’s a rather innovative one that TheKaiserII was kind enough to share with us:

(What comes now should probably be filed in the category: “Topics that I have no business writing about”, but anyways.)

One of the good things about being away from home is that you have an incentive for getting to know “home” better once you return. Things always change, some more subtle, others more visible and dealing with the whole “coming home” situation makes you more aware of stuff that you wouldn’t even have noticed before leaving. However, when I came home to Austria after my semester in Vancouver, I hardly spent time in Vienna. On the weekends I played tennis for my hometown and during the week I studied for a big exam. Then, in July, I took off to Budapest for three months. The only thing I saw from Vienna during that time was its train station.

So, looking back at the year since I came back, what has changed?

A lot, obviously, but what I think is really amazing to see is how the music scene in Vienna has built some sort of cluster at the edges of laid-back but energetic, raw but sophisticated, oldschool but innovative funkyness - can I get a “Ho!” for that? - and I don’t only mean the tonality of the music. Now of course, there’s always been underground Hip Hop and electronic music (sic!) in Vienna, and I’m most definitely not in a position to educate anybody about that. What comes out of Vienna recently sounds like that:

(It appears that Dorian Concept and The Clonious are only two of that bunch of producers that are pushing Vienna next to LA and Detroit as the hot spot of this intersection of Hip Hop and Electronic music. You know, Flying Lotus, Nosaj Thing, Hudson Mohawke and all.)

What I find interesting in all this are two things.

First, it seems like it took the opening of a third club right in the same are to ignite that breakthrough on a bigger scale. The “Fluc” had been home to Techno, Dubstep, Drum and Bass, Hip Hop and all kinds of other stuff for some years but it was always a little too alternative for a lot of people. The “Planetarium” right next door had its share of House, Techno, Hip and Hop and other stuff but was always a little too posh for others. So when the “Pratersauna“, a former sauna with outdoor pool and a ”legendary” grimy heritage, opened in July 2009, suddenly 3 of the most popular alternative music venues in Vienna were all in a 5 minutes walking distance. And then, in fall, Planetarium and Pratersauna took part in the 5 days minifestival RUN VIE - a week “by the heads, for the heads”, organized by Supercity, one of the important platforms for what I’m writing about here. Sneakerness Vienna - a sneaker fair for the “sole culture” also was happening as part of that thing.

RUN VIE, The Festival 2009, Vienna from supercity on Vimeo.

Now, almost a year later, another collective has formed that will bring Vienna its first electronic “festival”, with Austrian and international acts from Techno, to House, to Dubstep to Hip Hop, in exactly those three locations.

Proximity and momentum. Kind of interesting.

The second thing that I find interesting is the tonality, the look and feel of this ever-more attractive scene. At the intersection of all those genres I left it to you to determine the right words for the sound itsself.

However, apart from the sound I think there is something at the “core” of this scene with its different venues (and it’s not the toilet architecture as you can see). The clubs themselves are of course different from each other.  Of the three clubs, one is under the ground, one is in a real planetarium and one in a former sauna (and/or swinger club). All of them, however, are improvised and minimalistic.

They are raw in the way how they approach interior and sophisticated/rich only in the music they play. All of them are in a district until recently famous only for the Prater, Vienna’s prototypical and stangely-famous entertainment sight, and prositution. So all of the clubs “benefit” from this “dirty” halo of the district and its grimy flair.

All of them are laid back in the sense that there’s no dress code, people from all kinds of backgrounds hang around there and that the whole thing is not taking itsself too seriously yet. They are oldschool in the fact that they are letting the patina survive - both in the sound and the style - and in building and innovating upon that.

And why funky? Well, a week ago I went to another one of the “fresh” venues, Club Morrison. This one’s not in the same area, but it is also in a former brothel and at least as improvised and raw. Ever since, I can’t help but link this whole movement to this movie that I saw in fall at the Viennale:

The patina, the sophisticated rawness, the disco flair, the grimy atmosphere, parts of the sound, the not taking it too seriously…  I can’t help but think of it all as Black Dynamite, remixed Viennese style.

Years ago, when I moved to Vienna, I asked bounce!-records sage Plaq why there were no Grime gigs in Vienna. He answered that Vienna wasn’t raw and tough enough for Grime. Now, years later, we might have found our thing.

(Apart from the fact that I shouldn’t be writing about music - sorry to all you real heads out there-, this posting shows how limiting text is when writing about culture. I’d need way more pictures and video to properly get across what I mean.)

Now I haven’t posted an ad here in a while.

I have to admit that I’ve been a little fed up with advertising recently. Not because I’m surfing on the “advertising is the price that you pay for a bad product” wave. I don’t. Or because I’ve been preaching “social media” on a daily basis only to see people now abandoning their former golden calf. I don’t do that a lot either. Not even because I’ve typed myself silly about the “new customer“, agency models or how innovation is the new black. I think I’ve kept all that to a reasonable minimum.

Rather, it’s been precisely those debates and discussions that have made me a little tired of the bulk of the advertising discourse. Looking at twitter, blogs and AdAge It seems like everybody who’s holding at least a senior planning position in agencies big or small is busy hopping from conference to conference talking about the demise of the industry. Of course, not every stream of that discussion is dull and I’ve learned a lot from reading people who are incredibly smart and generous with their knowledge and experience. I’ll attend a planning barcamp myself this summer. And anyways it’s probably more an outsider perspective than an informed insider view. But still, my impression is: a lot, a lot of talk.

(Disclaimer: The next sentences may come across as a little bit of ass-kissing. And I agree. But then again, credit where credit is due.)

When I talk about exceptions, one of the agencies that has always been impressive in my eyes is - of course - W+K. Yes, they blog. Yes they retweet when their work is mentioned. Yes, they even have an opinion and voice it from time to time. But in general, their planners seem to be more busy (unsuccessfully) helping Labour to win elections than further contributing to the echochamber. Or repeatedly doing awesome stuff. And this is, in my humble opinion, a very good thing.

Now that was a very long prelude for a video. Here it is: Nike “Write The Future”.

This fully integrated campaign, spanning TV, cinema, print, digital, out-of-home and non-traditional executions is the culmination of an 18-month long collaborative effort led by W+K Amsterdam with support from W+K London and W+K Portland. While digital teasers were released on May 15th to build buzz ahead of the campaign, the official unveil is this epic 3-minute film called “Write the Future,” launching online tonight. The global broadcast will debut during the May 22nd European Club Final, a feat that required seven versions and 30 cut-downs to accommodate distribution to major networks in 32 countries.

Put simply: it’s an awe-inspiring peace of film. (Read their full background info here.)

From what can be seen in the admitedly media-biased twitter search people are loving it. They talk about it. And they will implement it in their lives. Heck, the whole set-up with different slices and pieces of film for different culture is brilliant. This is probably what Ehrenberg meant when he wrote about “Advertising as Creative Publicity“. This is what Lannon/Cooper meant when they wrote about humanistic advertising and asked the question “What do people do with ads?” - in 1983. And this - too - is advertising.

Am vergangenen Donnerstag fand im Redroom am Stubenring eine Diskussion zwischen Amir Kassaei, CCO der DDB Deutschland Gruppe und Mariusz Jan Demner, Chef der größten österreichischen inhabergeführten Agentur Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann zur Zukunft der Werbeagenturen statt. In relativ gemütlicher Runde gab sich dabei die gesamte Führungsriege der österreichischen Werbebranche ein Stelldichein.

Es wurde also viel geredet. über Veränderungen, Verrechnungsmodelle, die rosige oder weniger rosige Zukunft der Werbung, Apple, Obama und Marmeladen. Amir Kassaei wiederholte auch in Wien sein Mantra, wonach Werbeagenturen zu kreativen Unternehmensberatern werden müssten, um nicht in den Geschichtsbüchern zu landen. Demner sieht die Zukunft der Werbeagenturen rosig und weiß nicht von welchen Problemen alle sprechen. (Abgesehen davon, dass weniger verdient wird.)

Die Frage jedenfalls, wie die Werbebranche wieder in eine Position kommt, in der die Kunden auf Augenhöhe mit den Agenturen sprechen und in der auch wieder mehr Geld zu verdienen wäre, wurde an dem Abend mit dem Hinweis auf den “Anspruch” den die Branche an sich selbst stellen müsste beantwortet.

Wie so oft ist es aber spannender sich anzusehen worüber nicht gesprochen wurde. Im Redroom war dies das Thema “Nachwuchs”. Zwar bemerkte Rudi Kobza dass die guten Jungen fehlen würden und auch Sebastian Loudon fragte Demner und Kassaei explizit welchen Nachwuchs man bräuchte - darauf eingegangen wurde allerdings nicht.

Wo sind also die Jungen, die die Werbebranche wieder dort hinführen könnten wo sie sich in den 60ern wähnte? Die Frage die sich Herr Kobza stellt lässt sich eigentlich sehr einfach beantworten.

Wenn ich mich an den verschiedenen Fakultäten umsehe an denen ich studiere oder studiert habe, egal in welchem Land, dann stelle ich fest, dass die wirklich talentierten Leute die Innovatoren und Leuchttürme in ihrem jeweiligen Feld kennen. WIrklich motivierte Wirtschaftsstudenten kennen McKinsey, Booz, Apple, Microsoft oder junge Unternehmen die sich nie leisten könnten DDB zu engagieren, die IT-Nerds kennen die heißen Web-Start-Ups der jeweiligen Stadt, Google und co, die Designer kennen die “hot shops” die großartige Dinge für kleine Unternehmen machen oder Game Studios und viele schlaue - als Beispiel für Orchideenfächer - Anthropologen wissen viel über sehr vieles. Aber DDB interessiert sie alle aller Voraussicht nach nicht. Und im Gegensatz zu oben genannten bemüht sich die Branche auch herzlich wenig um sie.

Worauf will ich hinaus? Viele der smartesten Leute die ich in den letzten Jahren persönlich oder durch das Lesen ihrer Blogs kennen gelernt habe arbeiten bei Google, bei Microsoft, bei Nokia oder bei McKinsey. Andere, bis oben hin mit Fähigkeiten die für die Branche nützlich wären, arbeiten lieber auf ihrem Institut für die ESA, streben Firmen wie AdaptivePath an oder machen gleich etwas ganz anderes - von Gedenkdienst, über Lehrer bis zu Entwicklungshilfe. Die, die in der Branche sind oder sich für sie interessieren schauen zu Unternehmen wie Anomaly, Droga5, RGA oder AKQA, wechseln in die PR oder bauen Innovatives auf. Was sie alle gemeinsam haben ist, dass sie ihr Hirn dafür einzusetzen wollen um etwas verändern, nicht um “nur” Werbeideen zu generieren, in einer Branche die wenig bewegen kann und die - wie auch Tibor Barci erwähnt hat - noch dazu auf einer verstaubten Theorie aufgebaut ist.

Warum ist das so? Von den 60er Jahren bis in die 90er mag Werbung eine der treibenden kulturelle Kräfte gewesen sein. Definitionsmacht über Bedeutungen, conquest of cool, Rock&Roll und Mad Men. Heute hat die Spieleindustrie die Filmindustrie eingeholt, jeder kann immer kommunizieren (“Really simple stuff with objects looks like magic. Really hard stuff with screens still just looks like media.” - Russel Davies) und die Werbung ist nur noch ein kleiner, bei der Gesellschaft unbeliebter und für die meisten irrelevanter Teil der Creative Industries. Eine Branche die glaubt immer noch wahnsinnig interessant zu sein, der sich auf eine Werbeakademie als Nachwuchsschmiede verlässt wo viel mehr notwendig wäre und die - auch das sei gesagt - vergleichsweise miserabel entlohnt.

Klar, es ist immer noch ein unbeschreibliches Gefühl, wenn man mit seiner Arbeit ein Millionenpublikum beeinflussen kann. Aber muss man dazu heute in die Werbung gehen? Wie viel von dem was die Werbung macht ist denn wirklich gesellschaftlich relevant? Bei wie viel von dem was da an “Kommunikation” entsteht hat man das Gefühl an etwas großen beteiligt zu sein? Die Wahrheit ist: bei herzlich wenig. Darum, lieber Herr Kobza, interessieren sich die meisten meiner Kolleginnen und Kollegen nicht für “Werbung” an sich. Und darum fehlt Ihnen guter Nachwuchs in den Agenturen.

Kobza:

“mach dieselbe beobachtung. agenturen werden wieder interessanter werden. erlebs bei pr, strategy und digital. der einstieg in die agenturen wird aber auch von anderen bereichen als bisher kommen…”

Ich: Die Zukunft nicht im eierlegenden Wollmilchschwein, sondern in kleineren Spezialunternehmen? Wo sitzen dann die Strategen?

Kobza:

Sowohl als auch. Ich sehe 1. Spezialisten: machen Strategie und begleiten. Execution von Agentur oder Kundeninhouse, a la markenstern . Reines Consulting mit hoher Wertschaetzung. Gilt auch für Spezialisten rein digital, pr etc. Dann 2. Agenturen die im Kern Strategie, Big Idea Conception, Execution 360 und tägliche Idea Generation haben. Das die neuen Agenturen wo sich in meinen Augen noch eine große Konzentration abspielen wird. Und Kulturchange in den Agenturen. Dieser Agenturtypus hat sicher auch eine starke Agenturbrand, ist angesehen und wertgeschätzt weil top people. Auch durch laufendes proof of concept - große Kampagnen, Momentum, Innovation, Strategie, Performance etc. daily proofed. Ja und dann seh ich 3. die klassischen Kampagnenmacher die sich auf den Kern der Idee reduzieren. Da fallen mir jetzt schon manche Agenturen ein, die sich plötzlich im Wettbewerb mit freien Teams befinden. Meiner Ansicht zu eng. Die Kategorie der Executoren hab ich bewusst weggelassen weil die können vom Studio bis zum Kunden überall sitzen.

Fazit: 1. und 2. Find Ich persönlich interessant 1. Soll Markenstern, kobza integra abdecken. ad 2. wird sich Lowe GGK als eine der stärksten Agenturen hinentwickeln inkl digital.

Das mit dem Nachwuchs stimmt. Ist aber wieder eine Bestätigung meiner These. Weil wir nichts mehr zu bieten haben, kommen auch nicht mehr die talentierten Leute.

Ich: Ich stimme der These ja zu. Aber für mich muss das auch mit einer Änderung im Recruiting einher gehen. Und das tut es nicht.

Ja, wobei ich sogar so weit gehe zu sagen dass think tank der modernen Prägung ohne Erbe aus der Kommunikationsbranche durchstarten müssen. Heißt auch ganz andere Jobprofile und Menschen. DDB ist und bleibt ein Kommunikationsdientleister das was ich meine hat aber nichts mit DDB zu tun. Auch nicht mit dem Berufsbild des Kommunikationsprofis.

Ich: Davon rede ich ja. Für “back to the roots”, ob als “Think Tank”, als “kreative Unternehmensberatung” oder in einem Modell wo man Joint Ventures eingeht braucht man andere Leute als die Kommunikationsbranche. Und Wandel aus dem Inneren ist unmöglich?

Ja, weil KFZ Mechaniker dich nicht verstehen wenn du zum Mond willst.

In order of subjective importance.

10. The beer is better than in the US (I know, there are microbreweries …)

Granville Island makes an almost bavarian Hefeweizen. So you are not doomed to drink American light beer.

9. The seafood is awesome

They basically invented Salmon and Tuna here. And they definitely learned how to make great stuff with it.

8. Hawaii is as close as it gets

Chances are, you are not getting much closer to Hawaii anytime soon. (That doesn’t meen the flight from Seattle is actually getting you there quickly but fair enough …)

7. You are not strange if you are actually interested in the stuff you study

More students than in Vienna actually want to study what they study. In addition, the professors I had take pride in teaching the stuff they do. They are disappointed if people fail their exams and they talk to you if you don’t perform to their expectations.

6. Vancouver is a city, but it’s not really big

There is a downtown with skyscrapers, but you can bet there are some wooden houses right across the street.

5. You get a chance to see bears and all kinds of wildlife

A 10 hours drive gets you to the Canadian Rockies, four national parks that are recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (If you are more into whales and dolphines you can also go to the Vancouver Aquarium or whale watching.)

4. There are mountains, island, beaches, parks and forrests right around the corner

Mount Seymore, Cypress and Grouse. Bowen Island, Vancouver Island. English Bay, Kitsilano Beach. Stanley Park and the Pacific Spirit Park.

3. The people are really nice

They even say “Thank you” to the bus drivers - something you’d be laughed at in Vienna. In return, the bus drivers tell you where to go and even drop you off between stations at night.

2. Vancouver is a very progressive city

There’s the West End, Vancouver’s gay community. There’s Wreck Beach, the famous, hippiesque nude beach. There’s 4-20, the marijuana holiday. So whatever is your thing, there’s probably a place for you in Vancouver.

1. Most people arrived “just recently” (in historical dimensions)

Most people here are first or second generation Vancouverites. Multiculturality is a core part of Vancouver’s identity and I haven’t even heard debate or negative sentence about that while I was here. This is so different to Vienna, where you have to face racism in political campaigns and even newspapers.

I have mentioned before that a lot of people in Vancouver tell me about the quality and importance of B.C. marijuana and how the laws or rather their enforcement is lenient compared to the US and Canada’s east. I think I also mentioned that on the other hand alcohol laws and their enforcement are extremely strict compared to those in Austria. So I was already kind of used to seeing the reverse image of Austrian culture: people smoke weed in public or at concerts where there’s a strict “no tobacco” policy, people get arrested for drinking or being drunk in public.

Anyways, when it came to April 20th I was still stunned by how different our two cultures deal with the two drugs. April 20th or 420 (4-20) is a (supposedly) global counterculture holiday to celebrate the use and demonstrate for the legalisation of marijuana. It obviously never made it to Austria, a country where April 20th is more related to the birth of a rather unpleasent historical figure.

So - how would you expect this counterculture holiday to look like? Secret private gatherings? Think again.

(Nope: I do not have original video material as I was not downtown …)

Please take a second to imagine a demonstration like that in Vienna, preferably 1st district.

On the same day, maybe remotly connected in terms of ideology, I agreed to attend a bluegrass concert. The Yonder Mountain String Band was in town and I got some insider information that they would be absolutely amazing live. And they were. (Music starts at 1:40)

The folks at the IDEO Lab are kindly sharing their experience at EON Reality’s immersive 3D room.

You can see technology in action in this little video. Read their blog post to learn how it works.

Amazing 3D immersion technology from IDEO Labs on Vimeo.

Looking at this, the amazing video razorfish has recently released, showing their surface, gestual interface physics simulation (emerging experiences) and recent augmented reality research makes you think about the endless possibilities the combination and fine-tuning of these technologies are going to offer in the near future.

Levni (Lev) Yilmaz creator of the “tales of mere existence” with his take on procrastination, at a time way before the word became common in german speaking countries.

At the very end of our intercultural training for my exchange semester in Canada, the professor showed us a little video to loosen up and cap our session.

We had talked about culture and intercultural communication in general before, about Austrian an Canadian culture in particular and we had even discussed about some “strange encounters” between Canadians and Austrians. We had heard lots about the “Britishness” of Canadian culture, and how it is different from the US in some way. And still, when we watched the video (which is from 2000 by the way), we had really no clue what it really was about (or “a boot”).

Almost four months and some Canucks games, pints of (not very well-tasting) Molson Canadian and “intercultural interactions” later, I feel like I know a great deal more about Canada. (more…)