Easy reading.
Kurt Beren Geiger on advertising, politics and my life in general.

I’m a kind of a me-too football fan. When everyone else gets excited, I do too. The European Championship, the World Cup – that’s the kind of football I get into. Small doses of positive nationalism. At least that’s pretty much the way it’s been. Up until now that is. The World Cup 2010 is different. It’s simply missing that something “special”, that dose of uncontrollable… anticipation… And more specifically, it’s lacking a team to cheer for.

You see, the Swedish team didn’t make the cut this time around. And looking back, they really didn’t deserve it either. But that’s another story. And even if Scandinavians usually feel a slight sense of pride when one of our neighbours performs well in an international competition, there is no way in hell that I’m going to support the Danish team. They are after all the ones who won, I mean took, Sweden’s slot. Buggers.

So I’ve had to weigh my options. Now my girlfriend is from Brazil, and they always do well. High-spirited fans, Pelé, a real football nation. But then, Brazil’s the team that everyone who doesn’t know anything about football cheers for. Brazilians excluded of course. So I’ve crossed them off my list.

Then there’s Germany. Just so there’s no misunderstanding, that’s where I currently live and work. But at times it feels more like a tour-of-duty in the trenches than a place to call home. So sorry guys, it’s just not happening. But wait! There’s always that fact of life called citizenship. Besides my Swedish passport, I have an American one as well. But honestly, American football is something completely different and American soccer is something for moms in minivans, not footie fans. So my options are thinning out…

Luckily, there were two Swedes in the running. Well, sort of. Sven-Göran Eriksson is coaching the team from the Ivory Coast and Lars Lagerbäck is the coach for the Nigerians. And since I know absolutely nothing about either of those teams, let alone those countries, they too have been crossed off my list. However, there’s still hope. My family and relatives live in Switzerland and the little nation of Alpine bankers actually made it to the World Cup. Now there’s a possibility. Not. Switzerland is a beautiful country, but c’mon… They can ski, they can curl, but football is a hard game to play on mountainous slopes.

So finally I came to the conclusion that I am left with no other option than to adopt a country. A team to cheer for, a flag to wave.

And to all my German co-worker’s horror, I raised my gaze and looked west. Just over the border to be exact. The Netherlands. The country that gave us Johan Cruijff and the belief that orange is in fact a primary colour. And more importantly, the archenemy of German football. Which of course simply adds to the excitement…

Toshiba shouts louder with McCann Erickson Düsseldorf
27 July 2009, Düsseldorf, Germany

Together with Toshiba Europe, McCann Erickson Düsseldorf has produced a webfilm to support the Toshiba laptop “No Matter What Guarantee” programme. Currently available in the South Eastern Europe region, the “No Matter What Guarantee” programme is setting industry standards and reinforcing Toshiba’s reputation for high-quality computing products. It guarantees customer satisfaction and covers accidents, theft and even purchaser unemployment.

Created by McCann Erickson, the humorous webfilm depicts a Toshiba user that is constantly having his computer broken or destroyed. But despite this reoccurring problem he never gets angry – however he does loose his cool.

Goran Kurt, Regional Marketing Manager at Toshiba Europe stated “This guarantee is exceptional in the marketplace. But as with everything else, we need to shout it out as loud as we can. McCann has really helped us do this – and push the boundaries in our pan-regional communication.”

The webfilm “No Matter What” can be seen online on all major social media platforms and is being seeded by Go Viral Frankfurt.

Client: Toshiba Europe GmbH
Regional Marketing Manager: Goran Kurt
Marketing Coordinator: Deborah Scharnhoop

Agency: McCann Erickson Düsseldorf
Creative Director: Thomas Keil
Creatives: Kurt B. Geiger & Holger Pfeifer
Agency Producer: Inge Dickewied
Account: Mira Gorsic

Director: King Kahlil [Jens Junker & Simone Schirmer]
Production Company: Bakery Films Hamburg
Producer: Hans Lechner

The film:
Toshiba – No Matter What

The awards:
:: Featured in Lüzer’s Archive, Nr. 6 2009 [Spot Nr 7, page 162] ::
:: Mobius Awards 2009, Certificate for Outstanding Creativity ::
:: Viral Film Festival 2009, Présélection pour le Prix de l’extrême ::

The response:
Ad Brand Etc: Toshiba: No Matter What Gaurantee Campaign.
Ads Of The World: Toshiba: No Matter What.
Adland: Toshiba – No Matter What.
Advertolog: Toshiba: No Matter What.
Aaron’s Bright Idea: Top Ten Funniest Ads Ever: Toshiba Laptop “Will Survive”.
Best Ads On TV: Toshiba: No Matter What.
Café des Ignorants [in Italian]: Toshiba, pc a prova… di nervi.
Coloribus: Toshiba: No Matter What.
Coups de Pub [in French]: Je vais bien, tout va bien !
The Creative Brief: Toshiba: ‘No Matter What’.
www.duanmu20.cn [in Chinese]: Toshiba（东芝：No Matter What.
Great Ads: Toshiba “No Matter What”.
Gesamtverband Kommunikationsagenturen [in German]: McCann Erickson Düsseldorf flippt für Toshiba aus!
I Have An Idea: Top 10: Toshiba.
Mauro And Sylvia: Toshiba “No Matter What”.
PubCreativo: Toshiba: No Matter What.
Sostav [in Russian]: Для Toshiba не важно, как был разбит ноутбук.
Valor Primi Lab [in Italian]: Toshiba: No Matter What.
WiCKedD Thoughts: Toshiba: No Matter What.
VIAD: Toshiba: No Matter What.
Werben & Verkaufen [in German]: Toshiba: Die Botschaft kommt an.
xipax: Toshiba: No matter what.

McCann Erickson Düsseldorf entwickelt neue pan-europäische Kampagne für NESTEA.
16 Juni 2009, Düsseldorf, Germany

Nachdem NESTEA den Sommer in Europa bereits werblich eingeläutet hat, wird die bisher lancierte, Produkt-fokussierte Kommunikation der führenden Eisteemarke nun um eine Image-Kampagne verstärkt.

Aufbauend auf die bisher intrinsische Kampagnen-Botschaft.
„Tee + Frucht = NESTEA“ zeigt die Image Kampagne, dass die perfekte Kombination von natürlichem Tee und leckerer Frucht nicht nur den Körper erfrischt, sondern auch Inspiration dafür ist, alltägliche Dinge in einem neuen Licht zu sehen und somit das Leben spannender und unterhaltsamer macht.

Kern der Kampagne sind diverse TV-Spots, in denen ein junges Pärchen, das augenscheinlich banale und alltägliche Beobachtungen zu humorvoll, skurrilen Gleichungen zusammenfügt und sich so mit NESTEA die Umwelt zu ihrer virtuellen Glückswelt gestaltet. Dieses positive Lebensgefühl ist unterlegt mit dem Chart-Erfolg „Suddenly I see“ von KT Tunstall. So ist der TV-Spot nicht nur visuell modern und eigenständig, sondern geht durch die Dynamik und Fröhlichkeit des Songs auch mächtig ins Ohr.

Heribert Hubmaier, NESTEA Marketing Director, sagt, dass „die Idee der überraschenden Gleichungen mit ihrer unterhaltsamen Art uns ein unbeschreiblich positives Feedback aus unseren wichtigsten Märkten in Zentral- und Osteuropa gebracht hat“. Stefan Bächle, Executive Creative Director bei McCann Erickson Düsseldorf, setzt fort „wir haben eine integrierte Kommunikationsplattform entwickelt, die die täglichen Bedürfnisse der unterschiedlichen Märkte mit einer starken und wieder erkennbaren Idee verbindet.“.

Neben TV umfasst die Kampagne auch Print, Outdoor sowie POP Maßnahmen und Online-Aktivitäten, die den Claim „Enjoy the combination“ auf jedes Werbeumfeld zugeschnitten aufgreifen und weiterführen.

Die Spots wurden Ende April unter der Regie des Engländers Andy Lambert in Buenos Aires gedreht und von Sterntag in Hamburg produziert. Die entsprechenden Printmotive wurden vom Kölner Fotografen Jochen Manz in Szene gesetzt.

Realisiert wurde die Kampagne unter der Leitung des Creative Directors Stefan Bächle und seinem Team, Kurt Beren-Geiger, Silvia Zohm (Copywriters), Holger Pfeifer und Diana Butas (Art Directors). Für die Beratung zeichnen sich Barbara Kühne, International Client Service Director, und Jacqueline Runkler, International Account Director, verantwortlich. Heribert Hubmaier, NESTEA Marketing Director EMEA, und Samir Bhutada, Marketing Manager, leiten die Kommunikation bei BPW.

Use: 2009, Pan-European
Agency: McCann Erickson Düsseldorf
Client: BPW
Creative Director: Stefan Bächle
Copywriters: Kurt B. Geiger/Silvia Zohm
Art Directors: Holger Pfeifer/Diana Butas
Director: Andy Lambert
Production Company: Sterntag Film
Post-Production: Weareflink Hamburg
Music: K.T. Tunstall “Suddenly I See”

Der Film:
NESTEA – Virtual

Der Presse:
Ströer: Eisteemarke startet Imagekampagne.
GWA: McCann Erickson Düsseldorf entwickelt neue pan-europäische Kampagne für NESTEA.
Sostav [auf Russisch]: Удивительные сочетания в новой рекламе Nestea.
Los mejores anuncios de televisión [auf Spanisch]: Las matemáticas de Nestea.
Advertolog [auf Englisch]: Nestea: Virtual.
Diegozilla [auf Italienisch]: Le sorprendenti combinazioni dell’idiozia.

During the months of October and November I had the opportunity to freelance with the nice people over at Pool, an up-and-coming digital agency here in Stockholm. While I was there, I got to meet the Swedish rock legend Janne Schaffer and make the following film for an Evening of Guitar Hero Decandence. That was a lot of fun. But not nearly as much fun as the project that I was actually getting paid to do. And that was a campaign for none other than Scandinavian Airlines…

Scandinavian Airlines “Get Your Facts Straight”.
5 December 2007, Stockholm, Sweden

“Get Your Facts Straight” is the new advertising campaign from Scandinavian Airlines EMEA and the Stockholm-based digital advertising agency Pool. Great fares on a world-class airline might not seem like a hard bargain to sell. But if those fares are to Scandinavia in the middle of an icy, northern winter, there may just be a problem convincing all but the heartiest of travellers. Especially if they come from warmer climates.

According to Cina Andersson, Regional Manager of Business Development at Scandinavian Airlines EMEA, “Our new web-centric campaign is all about finding out that there’s lots of fun and interesting things to do in Scandinavia – even during the coldest months of the year and that Scandinavian Airlines is the best way to travel to and from the region.” Arvid Axland, Communications Strategist at Pool further explained “In order to reach 20 EMEA markets we needed to create a concept that contained emotional touch points for a very diverse audience. It was also important that we developed a concept that contained elements that could be used in non-traditional channels.”

The “Get Your Facts Straight” campaign boasts three films that play upon some funny misconceptions that Europeans have of each other, and especially of Scandinavians. Together with the extensive use of social media and networking websites, the films are designed to drive traffic to the campaign centrepiece, www.scandinavianfacts.com. The campaign also employs widespread banner advertising and a contest to win a weekend trip for 4 to a Scandinavian capital.

Concept: Get Your Facts Straight
Use: 2007-2008, Pan-European
Client: Scandinavian Airlines EMEA
Marketing Director: Cina Andersson
Agency: Pool
Creative Director: Jenny Åberg Hüttner
Creatives: Kurt B. Geiger/Fredrik Jeppsson
Director: Henrik Kindgren
Production Company: Delorean Film
Producer: Haakon Vislie

Contact:
Pool
Arvid Axland, Communications Strategist
Surbrunnsgatan 33
113 48 Stockholm
Sweden
T: +46 8 545 582 19
M: +46 70 449 5219

Check out the films:
Antique Dealer
Ski Bum
Homemaker

Visit the website:
www.scandinavianfacts.com

And see the response:
Pool [in Swedish]: Get Your Facts Straight.
Ads of the World: Antique Dealer, Homemaker and Ski Bum.
Adland: Scandinavian airlines mocks stereotypes with…stereotypes.
Update Or Die [in Portuguese]: Get Your Facts Straight.
Reklamfeber [in Swedish]: Håll koll på fakta.
Coloribus / Advertolog / AdMe: Ski Bum, Homemaker, and Antique Dealer.
Copy & Paste [in Spanish]: Get Your Facts Straight.
Liquid Blender: Get your facts straight.
Apartment 47: Get your facts straight.
The Swedest Thing: Scandinavian Facts.
Add Shots: Scandinavian Airlines - Get Your Facts Straight.
Resumé [in Swedish]: Pools senaste kampanj för SAS.
Werbenews [in German]: Scandinavian its bad.
The Web Awards: Get Your Facts Straight.
Ideenverteiler [in German]: Fakten Fakten Fakten.
My Daily Bread: For Simone.

As usual, it’s been a long while since I’ve written anything here. To my defence I can only say that I’ve been busy. Busy because, as many of you already know, I finally removed my thumb from my backside and left Düsseldorf and Germany to venture back to my safe harbour of Stockholm. And a move like that entails a lot of work; organizing, packing, unpacking and then organizing again. To top it all off, I left the comfort of JWT without a clear idea of where I’d start working again, or what I’d actually be doing there [wherever there may be] once I started. And at this point in time it’s still not any clearer – even if a good number of very nice people want to show me the way. But the fog is beginning to lift…
Anyway, I’m going to do it again and mix business with pleasure. You see, the months before I left Düsseldorf were obviously very hectic. Moving’s never easy. But to make matters even more complicated than they already were, while I was finding a mover and cancelling all my contracts I was also completing my final campaign for Mazda. I was actually in Prague on a shooting up until the weekend before I left Germany. Luckily I’m fit enough to handle that kind of stress. Which brings me to:

Mazda2 - Fitness comes as standard
Use: 2007 Pan-European
Agency: JWT-Düsseldorf
Client: Mazda Motor Europe
Creative Director: Eddy Greenwood
Creatives: Kurt B. Geiger/Igor Karpalov
Agency Producer: Marie-Louise Seidl
Director: Paula Walker
Director of Photography: Rolf Kestermann
Production Company: Hager Moss
Post-Production: ARRI
Music: The Infadels “Can’t Get Enough”
Print Photography: Hervé Haddad [models] & Mert Dürümoglu [cars]

Check out the cinema version of the TVC:
Mazda2 - Fitness comes as standard.
Check out the Making of the TVC:
Making of Mazda2 - Fitness comes as standard.

And here are some of the ads:
Mazda2 – Fitness comes as standard Silhouette Teaser.
Mazda2 – Fitness comes as standard Sixpack Teaser.
Mazda2 – Fitness comes as standard Acceleration Ad.
Mazda2 – Fitness comes as standard Braking Power Ad.
Mazda2 – Fitness comes as standard Compact Ad.
Mazda2 – Fitness comes as standard Balance Ad.
Mazda2 – Fitness comes as standard Lightweight Ad.

And it’s a skirmish in the blogosphere between the target audience and the industry critics:
Back in skinny jeans: Fitness comes standard with the new Mazda2.
The Infadels: Infadels On The New Mazda Advert.
The Infadels MySpace page: Mazda Advert.
The Infadels forum: Mazda Advert.
Digital Spy: Entertainment Zone Forums > TV Programmes.
TV’s Worst Adverts: Mazda2 - It’s Fit.
The Careless Gene: Shame about having no TV for this one.
TV Ad Music: Mazda 2 ~~ Fitness.
Motive: The New Mazda2 is High on Life… or Something.
Adland: Mazda2 - Fitness comes standard.
Adrants: Mazda Still Makes Cars? Well, It Sure as Hell Can’t Make Ads.
And the same rant on AdGabber: Mazda Still Makes Cars? Well, It Sure as Hell Can’t Make Ads.
Digital Out of Home: Mazda2 - Now that’s Zoom-Zoom.
UTalk MArketing: Mazda2 website creative.
The Ad Pit: Zoom Bloody Zoom.
Spotanatomy [Italian]: Essere al 100%… inutile.
Música do Anúncio [Portuguese]: Aquela Música Anúncio Mazda 2.
TV-CM.NET [French]: Mazda 2.
Mogkumo [Spanish]: Cuánto Tiempo!
ROFL Forum: Anyone seen that Mazda advert?

For my Swedish readers:

Som ni kanske känner till har jag varit i Tyskland nu för lite mer än fyra år. Och det har verkligen varit en upplevelse. Jag har träffat en massa nya människor, lärt mig ett nytt språk och fått sådana arbetslivserfarenheter som jag aldrig skulle kunna ha förkovrat mig i Sverige. Bland annnat har jag varit med om att skapa reklamkampanjer med budgetnivåer som endast en paneuropeisk kund kan erbjuda. Ja, kort sagt, min tysklandsvistelse har varit jätte kul och mycket givande.
Men nu har jag bestämt mig – tiden är inne att åka hem. Och med lite tur kommer jag att fira midsommar i Stockholms skärgård…
Och det betyder att jag snart ska ge mig ut på den svenska arbetsmarknaden och söka jobb. Är du, eller någon du känner, i behov av en idéstark copy som har lika lätt att skriva säljande texter om invecklade B2B-tjänster som att utveckla integrerade kampanjkoncept för konsumentprodukter? Som har varit med på stora filminspelningar, mindre fotoshoots och vet hur kunder resonerar? Då ska ni kontakta mig! Eller åtminstone titta på min online portfolio på www.kurtgeiger.nu.
Vi hörs. Och ses. Snart.