Fueled by burn…

Our good friend burn PRO Anders Backe has been shredding Norway, beaten a world record, and simply just fueled his fire this season. We just want to share a couple of snapshots of pure coolness with the rest of you, and let you know what we do in Norway when not working…

Pictures have been shot by Daniel Tengs – check him out at: www.tengsphoto.com

Marketing is dead, but so was God…

It seems that if you declare something dead you get your front page, and access to the masses. CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi Kevin Roberts has declared marketing dead, the “big idea” dead, and strategy “dead”. A lot of death at a time you might say, but let’s break it down.

(photo: Scanpix)

Nobody knows what’s going to happen in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world, Roberts claims. And we agree on that. Consumers are alienating themselves for the very sake of it – and to find some kind of identity in a culture that is doing the same. In a world like that strategy and the “big ideas” are dead, says Roberts and addresses his annihilation to brands and agencies. Now it is about creating movements, thus consumers exchange and share ideas with brands. It is not big news in itself, and it can be a part of your marketing strategy… Some would call it community marketing. But Kevin Roberts’ statement is that marketing is dead and as always we have to look at such claims in the right perspective.

Kevin Roberts is CEO at an advertising agency, and he has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands and successes. Thus he is a man of advertising, and that is the filter he puts down on this claim as well. It is not a new thing to declare something dead. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche declared God dead in 1885 and French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes announced the death of the author in 1967. The writer’s opinion in this context should be clear: something is not dead just because you say so! You can deconstruct marketing, authors, and even God, but there’s of course more to it than that. And Roberts knows that though it seems he has been tangled up in his on strategy. Of course he has a point: the market is fragmented, and we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but that is why your strategy should be just as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous as the consumers/target audiences are – between the lines he says that as well, but it drowns in the statement: statement and message don’t seem to be coherent.

The bottom line is that there are no big ideas left because of this VUCA world – now it consists of a lot of small ideas, which eventually could form a big idea, hence there is a strategy and a “big idea” in the long run. And then strategy should still be dead? You do the math.

A New Partner in Town!

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed a new partner at Very. A warm welcome to former Managing Director at media agency PHD Danmark, Morten Kristensen!

“We are experiencing increased demands for community marketing, which are driven by more focus on long lasting relations to the target audience than thinking in traditional campaigns. Adding Morten as partner is an expression of our high ambitions for Very both locally and internationally. Morten is able to give Very an extra dimension due to his background in a large media agency. I’m proud that Morten has joined in on this journey,” explains Very founder Thomas Bjerg.

Morten has been Managing Director at PHD Danmark since its launch in 2006 before joining Very, and he has high expectations for the future of community marketing…

“I know Very extremely well as they represent something quite unique in the Danish agency landscape. They have a special way of implementing key assets and personalities from relevant communities in their clients’ communication strategies, which insures that the target audience becomes an active part of the solution. Very has a strong technical and creative digital setup that creates effective solutions for our clients. The agency has expanded rapidly over the last year, and one of our main objectives is to establish the agency in Scandinavia, hence we’re able to continue this growth. I’m looking forward to being a part of this successful team,” says new partner Morten Kristensen.

We’re all happy to have Morten on the team – not only is he a great guy and we share the same ambitions, but his competencies generate perspectives for both clients and colleagues. Welcome to the jungle, Morten!

So there is a pulse…

DSB S-tog has got a new voice! ‘Byens Puls’ has been launched on Facebook to give young passengers and the people of Copenhagen all the great stories that play out in and around the trains and stations. Byens Puls presents various competitions, events, articles, and background stories brought to you by young editors that focus on providing young passengers with great stuff from everyday life and party going in the weekends. And there is a special focus on weekends. Why not make the trip to a party to a party in itself? That is exactly what Byens Puls intends to do. First party in the trains will be Friday the 4th of May where upcoming rappers Niklas and Young will kickstart the party train!

For more info and great stories follow Byens Puls on Facebook!

Distortion with style!

Last year’s Distortion Festival in Copenhagen was a smashing hit, but also quite trashy because people dumped their trash in the streets. That’s no so cool, so this year you can support the festival, yourself, your friends and the people working on making it a great experience for you, by rocking Distortion with style. So how do you do that? You get the “God Stil” (translation: be-a-nice-person-who-cares-for-others-especially-those-trying-to-provide-you-with-great-experiences) wristband! It has a fair price of DKK 100. Well, we just wanted to raise the flag for this great initiative, and were looking forward to Distortion!

Follow Distortion on: facebook.com/cphdistortion

And get your wristband here: billetto.dk/cphdistortion

DBU Launches Twitter Boycott

A debate is sweeping across the kingdom at the moment. The issue: DBU (Dansk Boldpil-Union) has decided on a social media boycott of the Danish National Team in football during this summer’s European Championship.

The argument is that the players should stay focused on what happens on the pitch more than updating their Twitter and Facebook profiles.  Within the last couple of years the national team has communicated with arrogance and close-mindedness towards the public – and that is not really coherent with a NATIONAL team in a freedom-of-speech-country like Denmark.

It seems that DBU has missed the point of both a national team and opportunities of new media platforms.

Social media is a splendid opportunity for the National Team to become the people’s team again as it was in the past. The media could be the direct way to a more personal team that people can relate to and experience the rush of the tournament with.

It seems rather odd that a high profiled organization as DBU uses an East block communication strategy in 2012. Well, the advice from us is (as everybody other than DBU mentions): give the players inspiration and ideas for making good content via Twitter and Facebook  – the result would be a massive support from young fans of the team and the players.  In the long run they could even establish a more public profile and a team for the people rather than a team for DBU. It would be such a shame if these great opportunities were to be missed…

Let’s Talk About xxx

Today is a very special day. One of our good friends (and a client btw) launches a new hottie in the class… YEAH! Thrilling on the outside, seductive on the inside: vitaminwater xxx – triple berry is launched in Denmark today! It is a sultry threesome of acai, blueberry, and pomegranate with antioxidant vitamin c that launches an attack on microscopic oxidative forces. Call it a preemptive strike to help keep your insides clean and those pesky enemies can just call it a day – a hot day! Launch party tonight for invited guests, but we’ll pull down the pants and show some dirty deeds later on.

Keep yourself updated with your daily digital vitamines on Facebook/vitaminwater or on glaceau.dk. Cheers!

A Golden Surprise!

It is a joy having Guld Tuborg in the fold, so of course we were happy to help them give good friends a golden surprise. On a beautiful Friday in Copenhagen our Very own Senior ‘Gangsta’ Planner, Kaare, delivered lovely canned ladies to shops around the city = Surprise Fridays!

Filmed and edited by facebook.com/Mr.Babdellahn - give him a high-five (that is a ‘like’ in Internet language, you know). He’ll give your News Feed good stuff in the future!

New consumers in a media culture vol. 3

Please allow us to introduce: The Modus Consumer

In the previous two chapters we’ve seen how consumers took form in western civilization. The ending of the saga leads us to conclude that a new consumer has seen the light of day. We introduce to you: The Modus Consumer!

At the end of the 20^th Century several typologies were mapped out. The most notable are the post-modern and the imaginative hedonist consumer (from André Jansson’s Image Culture, 2001). These types focus on emotional experiences, and defining and redefining themselves in the way they consume. With the arrival of social media in the first decade of the 21th Century these typologies have and will transform into a new type that very well could be called The Modus Consumer.

It’s not groundbreaking that typologies transform nor is it choking that new comers are extensions of previous types. The interesting thing in this context is that a new media platform fast and furious affected consumers to reconsider themselves and redefining their way of redefining.

Social media rely on many characteristics of the core essence of fashion. As soon as ideas/news/topics are presented they are already old and gone – people see them and seconds after everything is forgotten. As soon as a designer gets an idea for a new collection it is basically already aging. Social media constantly strive towards new stories, new goals – a new modus. Just as we’ve seen fashion doing it for centuries. It is never present – it doesn’t exist in the moment, it is always moving forwards.

That is what we see happening to consumers these years. They are never present, they are moving forwards towards a new ‘goal’ – a new wish for something else. People, and thus consumers in the media culture, are defined by the way they speak, act, and through the given cognitive system in which the live. And that is very much through social media.

• The Modus Consumers will not remember what a brand is telling them.
• The Modus Consumers will decode the living f… out of a communication strategy.
• The Modus Consumers will not read this blog post to the end.
• The Modus Consumers will define themselves through communities wherein they are comfortable, accepted, inspired and feel that they are able to grow as individuals – and in the long run as a group/community.
• The Modus Consumers will not listen to brands; they will listen to cultural signs, which are integrated in their communities, interests, and social frame.

People don’t just want to hear a story anymore. They hunger for a redefining of storytelling! Brands have tried to establish themselves with stories that people could relate to, hence bring forth an emotional connection. But we’re all able to decode that now. It’s not good enough to get the attention of these new consumers. Brands need to become what The Modus Consumers are: The very signs of media culture…

So how do you become a cultural sign? Well, ask yourself what you want to receive from and give to the culture/community you are living in – there’s a big chance that you are the modus consumer. Is it an easy question to answer?

Maybe we’ll see a chapter 4 soon…

We want you soul

Looking a bit inwards we have to admit it: We want your soul!
Just as the lyrics in Freeland’s song. We’ll take from you everything whether you like it or not.
Still.. You are free to do as we say!

Very Housewarming 2012

Friday the 23rd of March we held a housewarming at our new office in Købmagergade… And holy moly what a heat up! Good friends, clients, lovers, and random hangarounds made it a crazed out evening with drinking (responsibly ofc), dancing, slapping man ass cheeks, teddy bear hugging, standing in line at the toilet, and talking to great people. Take a trip down a very short memory lane, you probably don’t remember that much anyway. Thank you, hope to see you soon!

And the winner is…

Our Community Planner Hans-Jakob Brandt just won DM in Slopestyle 2012 in Tignes. YIIIEEHAAAAA! Grats to Hans-Jakob!!

Was it really that social after all?

For the last couple of years social media has somehow become bigger and better than bacon, and each time creative agencies advise companies to engage on these platforms it’s the same tune playing:

• Make conversations with people or FANS!
• Create closer relationships with people or FANS!
• Get likes! The more the merrier
• It’s better to be there than not, people will talk about you anyway (Rly?)
• Create a more personal profile of the brand

And the newcomers:

• Content is king!
• Give people something (extra) they can make of use

And it’s all very meaningful as a strategy, but the fact is that it’s far from the truth. Everything is about creating dialogue with the audience, but the dialogue is not created for the sake of socializing, it’s for the sake of numbers – as always! Social media marketing was never social; the conversation strategy became publishing! But we all know that, right?

So the question is: How do companies approach these platforms without failing into the hunt for numbers?

Content is king of the castle, but what is content? There’s a thin line between sucking for numbers and creating some true value content for brands on social media platforms. As of now it seems that creating an authentic brand personality is harder than brands and agencies assumed to begin with. At Very we focus on merging our community marketing strategy with our client’s presence on e.g. Facebook. This means looking for that authenticity that somehow is getting lost out there in the hunt for great numbers. Of course we also strive to reach best performances, but there are many roads towards that holy digital grail. What if you could create great numbers for the client, building a strong authentic brand personality, and give people that follow you something of real value?

To establish a stronger social media (for all of us?) in the future, brands and agencies have to:

• Stop making media noise – use the media if you have something to say…
• Stop calling “likers” fans – it creates a distance, it works for artists, not brands
• Stop calling “likers” friends – you might have a common interest, but friends? Find another angle!
• Tell people about your passions – that’s kind of a social paradigm, right?
• Think in both frame and content – do they match?
• Engage in communities behind your brand – this is not a TV commercial, let’s start making it the REAL deal!
• Forget about edgerank once in while – tell a story because you think it is worth telling… That’s how it all started anyway
• Give in to courage – if you dare to open up, diehard loyalty will return to sender

The future of a meaningful social media relies on the responsibility of brands and agencies – do we (brands and agencies!) actually want to make something special and create better stories for audiences? We are all responsible for making the most of this media platform – for the time being we have not yet reached the full potential of social media because old strategies and viewpoints have tagged along. We interpret the future with the past, and that’s not a bad thing, but social media has created new consumer types and behaviorism, thus both people and media mutate and evolve. That’s why brands have to become what audiences are: integrated products and actors of the culture we’re living in. Brands that are able to merge with culture and establish themselves as signs in a given cultural structure/frame will by any means be key players in the years to come.  So do you know how to do it? Well, just start bulking up ambitions then we’ll get to it…

Coma Chameleon

Coma Club always fuels the bonfire of “more is more”. This time around DJ Kenneth Bager celebrated his 50th birthday, and the vintage charmeleon Boy George wore a hat and made the dance floor spin. A colourful party needs a colourful sponsor, thus glaceau vitaminwater drowned the happy audience with a damn good time.

Check out more pix from Coma Club at www.glaceau.dk

New art + ancient art = awesomeness!

It is not that often that you stumble upon new art that really gets to you. But it happens, and that is the thing with Tarik Arnautović. He has created some highly original pieces of art influenced by inca style artwork. The result is something new, something ancient, something personal = something original. We like your style, son! Explore Tarik’s inca zoo on: facebook.com/215.dk or on his website: www.215.dk!

New consumers in a media culture vol. 2

We created a monster…

The Reformation and secularisation started a spiritual and somewhat philosophical revolution for modern man in Europe. We were free of God and now isolated as individuals – destined to find our own way. That very moment kick-started a movement where we didn’t saw ourselves according to the world, but the world according to ourselves. We went from one truth to plural truths. And that meant trouble in the long run: We started something that eventually came out of control…

An important factor in our development towards neo-modern humans was of course also the industrialisation. Production boomed with electrified machinery and we went from agrarian to industrial society.

A more-is-more paradigm was established and became a part of everyday life, the way we saw ourselves, and our possibilities in society. A potent world order of producing and consuming was created. Consumerism was not a new thing (it goes all the way back to Mesopotamia), but for the first time in history products were available in outstanding quantities, at outstandingly low prices, thus being available to virtually everyone. We became consumers.

The next big leap was the individualisation of consumers leading to the fractures typologies we see in 2013. Coming up: the story about the Modus Consumer in the media culture we know today.

The art of cleaning…

Just stumbled upon this impressive piece of street art! Think about it next time you curse the waste of time it is cleaning the floor. Give it up for the sweeping beauty!

Keeping ‘em cool

It’s no secret that we are very happy about our FMCG clients, but that’s a given. We have moved into a new office in Købmagergade 26A, Kbh K, and we’ve been trying to decorate it in a “living the brand” stylish interior. First step in that direction was to present our clients in the best way possible – by keeping ‘em cool!

Facebook Timeline for pages

Soon Facebook pages will appear with a new layout, and with that a farewell to landing pages and hallo to a new set of page rules! As many personal profiles on Facebook have shifted to Timeline so will pages for brands, artists, organizations etc. From today admins on pages can play around and publish the new design, but from March 30th all pages will automatically be rolled out with Timeline. Of course we had to test it right away – and as good (marketing) scientists we’ve used ourselves as crash test dummies! This is what Very looks like with the new Timeline design: