By now, you’ve probably heard about the hype of Clubhouse, the new audio-only social network, or platform I don’t know yet, that gets all the hype and has people like Bill Gates and Elon Musk appearing and talking in live sessions. Yes, Clubhouse is so hot that Bill Gates used an iOS device to use the platform.
Clubhouse offers something unique right now. Low friction shared experience — a simple yet essential chance to share the same experience in real-time.
Recently thanks also to Covid, shared experiences became rare. …
Everybody seems to be looking for the next thing for ad agencies
They are correct in doing so.
Things aren’t right in Adland.
Google and Facebook are out for our lunch money. Clients are building in-house teams. Big conglomerates are shedding personnel and building a new narrative selling consulting services and, yes, even tapping the CRM bandwagon. The same area they were making fun of till a couple of years ago.
Let’s face it. We managed to put ourselves in the spot, and for once, we cannot campaign our way out of the problem. …
We’ve all seen the Mad Men episode where Mr. Cooper suggests to Don Draper to read Atlas Shrugged (Season 1 Episode 8, The Hobo Code). Later in the season, Don appears to have been influenced by the book’s philosophies, saying, “If you don’t appreciate my hard work, then I will take it away and we’ll see how you do.”
But Atlas Shrugged is not the only book featured in Mad Men. Inferno by Dante Alighieri is also seen on Don’s hands while he is on the beach, Mark Twain is regular and many more.
The reality is that if…
In times of crisis, communication is not an option. One cannot put a pause and stop communicating, waiting for the “back to normal” condition.
Τhe coronavirus pandemic has imposed an acute restructuring of the communication environment, deeming companies and brands to adjust and voice their stand.
Amid this turmoil that has put the total of the economy in halt, and the individuals in awe, the need for brands and companies to adapt and react is a one-way road. …
Covid-19 demands decisive moves. Almost all advertising agencies in Greece moved to remote work. We were, I believe the first to implement it, but we were ready for it all along. All the tools needed to have a lot of people from different divisions working seamlessly from home were already there.
We pride ourselves on being a truly digital and ready to work from anywhere team for many years. We haven’t tested it till this past week though. We’ve been collaborating from various locations due to business travels, having multiple locations on two countries with common resources for creative, handling…
In the agency business, a good year is something that goes beyond P&L and revenue. For me its something more. Over the years I created a list of the things that can make a great year for an ad agency. The list is as follows
- Do great work for amazing clients
- Do work that goes beyond your reach and extends your capabilities to other countries and cultures
- Work on projects you love with great partners
- Watch talented people develop into amazing employees
- Hire new talent that will fit right in and will grow the agency’s creative abilities
- Don’t lose talent
- …
Safari now blocks retargeting ads. Others will follow soon.
Users are annoyed with retargeting ads. At first it was a revelation. Oh look the shoes I show yesterday on that site are now on sale. Its kismet. I want them. I’ll get them. Cool.
Conversion the thing works. Yeah!!!!!!!
But now. Nada. Zits. Nothing. THEY DON’T WORK. And furthermore soon they won’t even be an option.
So start doing your job. The one that you set out to do in the first place. Stop relying on liquid ad formats and start (again) thinking of innovative ways to cut through the clutter and offer consumers a valuable experience that they…
There was a time when the ad man was the CEO’s conciliere. The role of the ad man went beyond the traditional “create amazing ads sell lots of stuff” and extended into business decisions, product development and much more. The close relationship between advertising and pop culture was a medium to extend the creative output beyond the perfect campaign and helped shape business ideas and decisions.
Nowadays Advertising is just that. Ads. And for what its worth its not even that creative anymore. The business has shifted more in the last 10 years than it did the previous 40 but the truth is it didn’t evolve. Actually it lost ground.
Losing sight of the business side is one thing but we even missed the point of what technology and data can actually do for us. …
What content should be all about
Recently while working with a couple of coworkers on our keynote for the #smcgr event in Athens we where trying to figure out how to explain in an elegant and elaborate manner the way we think around content on digital platforms at avakon+. We pitched a couple of ideas to each other over burgers and pizza and went back to the office.
A couple of days later Andreas came back to me with the first draft of the keynote. In the first couple of slides he nailed the essence of what we stand for on content strategy.
Content should be…
Running a digital agency in Greece
Let’s start with the facts. I run a digital media agency in Greece. We work in Greece & Cyprus and we would like to do work in other countries as well. Our clients are big brands (e.g. VW, Audi, Vodafone, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Media Markt, Oriflame etc) and some might say that we do all right and we do great things but actually what we are constantly trying to do is just keep up with our own expectations.
Our expectations are obviously to do amazing things in the digital space but unfortunately trying to do so in Greece (or Cyprus)…
Stavros Kontaktsis
With a diploma in Chemical Engineering I ended up in Advertising and Communications. I like gadgets and snorkeling. Opinions are my own.
