Presidental elections – round two?

Glorious… Scandalous…

I’m not totally into politics, but I like to stay in touch with things and the (tragic)ironic state of politics in Slovenia. This year we have the presidential elections, we are deciding who’s going to be the third Slovenian president in our “great” history. I wanted to comment the campaigns of some candidates, but haven’t found time for it. And now, it’s too late I guess. Why? Because it doesn’t matter who’s going to win, because once more our great political system revealed its glorious face. Yes, once more, there is a scandal hanging like a shadow above our so called democracy. We don’t even know if there’s going to be another round or if the elections will be annulated, because there were some “big” issues with voting tickets for Slovenian people leaving abroad etc… It’s not tragic, it’s tragicomic! But, who cares, let’s take a look at the campaigns of mr.Türk and Peterle.

And if? Campaigns in general

OK, let’s assume we’ll have the second round with Lojze Peterle and Danilo Türk battling for the prestigious title. There were already some great articles (especially in Marketing Magazine) about the campaigns, but there is not much said about the strategies (from both candidates) on web sites and blogs. Almost everyone will agree that Lojze Peterle has (had?) by far the best campaign, and it’s because he arranged a marketing agency (Arih) which really did a fantastic job. Oh, forgot to say, I’m not Peterle’s fan, even more, I wish and hope he’s not going to win. But if I was not aware about the background and would decide only because the image and only upon the first impression… Shit, I would vote for him.

And dr. Türk? Well I admit, he’s my favourite and he was from the beginning. But he’s got the worst campaign. From jumbo posters to the TV spot. The only smart choice was I think the “magazine” which almost every household got in its mail. Hell, but he still managed to reach the finale. If there’s going to be a second round off-course. Ah… mr. Turk… You look totally introverted, mysterious and completely NOT-friendly on you photos. And the colors… it looks like the photos were taken without any lightning and without professional touch.

And ON-LINE?

I think that on the “on-line war front” both candidates are more equal. Perhaps Peterle is in slight advantage with the looks, but hey, he’s got professionals taking care about that. But otherwise, Türk is well presented on the web. I guess it’s because he’s got the support of THE expert – mr. Vuk Čosić. He’s page is easy-looking, transparent, and very WordPress-like. Mr. Türk has even links to his Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Del.icio.us profiles. Very “blogy style” and web 2.0-like and I like it. And I’m not the only one, for example Had shares the same opinion. And the most important thing; it looks like mr. Turk is refreshing he’s blog more frequently than mr. Peterle and I got the feeling that he’s actually writing about “personal” things which is common for blogs. Because mr. Peterle is writing very political, very “shallow” and not honest. Ok, this is only my opinion, I know.

WHICH HORSE WINS?

We’ll see. I have made my decision, and you know which. All I can say is that, both candidates have still a lot unused potential. Especially in the direct “marketing” and perhaps even more on the internet. It’s not enough to write something on your blog, you have to do something to attract the untouched masses – the youth, not interested in politics… So, let’s lay your bets and wait.

Award winning stuff?

Yesterday at the award ceremony at Golden Drum Mister Ami Hasan (president of the jury) was shocked in he’s speech, because there were two entries that were as he said: “A disgrace for all the advertising industry.” The two print ads were for Sony Playstation and the motive was the concentration camp in Auschwitz. I didn’t see the controversial ads because I arrived at Wednesday when they already removed them. Mr. Hasan was shocked and so was the whole audience, and yes, so am I. But what I noticed was that there were at least several ads that were also controversial.

Especially THIS ONE (please follow the link because I couldn’t post it here)

I admit that the ad is somehow funny and it delivers the message. But hey, hold on! What really is the message? If you watch it carefully (hell, you understand the message even if you look at it very quickly) the message is simple: If you got acne problems you can become a Muslim. But if you don’t have the problem, then you could show your face and therefore “don’t have to convert”. You can call me conservative, which I’m definitely NOT, but I think the message here is blurred and some kind of controversial. Especially if you look at the creative’s: McCann Tel Aviv (Israel). You could easily take this ad as a joke carried to far, a joke on Israel Muslim neighbor countries. And the news of the day is, that this add was awarded yesterday. Hm… I’m really confused where the lines are, where is the ethics or better said: Should we stick to it or not?

But hey, don’t take me wrong, I like new controversial ideas. All I meant to say was that I think you shouldn’t proceed with your idea (motive or whatever drives your creativeness) at all costs. Especially when the matter is delicate as in the before mentioned ad. But, McCann Tel Aviv was awarded also for another great (this time even appropriate ) ad in category self promotion.

Well done guys!

Here are some other winnig TV spots… Really great. And funny. Enjoy it!

http://www.goldendrum.com/en/showcase/entry/22353/details.html

http://www.goldendrum.com/en/showcase/entry/22421/details.html

http://www.goldendrum.com/en/showcase/entry/22632/details.html

Golden impressions found beyond the horizon

Just arrived from Portorož (Golden Drum festival) and despite I’m tired like never before, I’m feeling motivated, full of energy and great impressions. How was this year’s Golden Drum? Amazing. I was there from Wednesday till Saturday and everyday was something special.

Shot by Alenka.art

The lectures/program

The lectures were fantastic, and on much higher level than on the SOF festival. Yes, partly because the lectures were held by advertising gurus like Ross Sutherland, Michael Conrad and others. And what was the main theme? Every lecture tried to follow the red line of the festival: Beyond Horizons, and I think they succeeded in masses. We didn’t hear amazing, revolutionary stuff, but we heard some great ideas and have seen executions of those ideas. I especially liked the “round table” with Michael Conrad, where Linda Locke presented the shocking Earth Hour. Oh, and there was my idol Pius Walker from Swice, who presented his agency (the smallest in the world he said ) and some outstanding yet very cheap campaigns. And there was the Mythbusters “lecture” held by the Grey group, which was also very interesting. From that lecture I think the best part was the lecture from Per Pedersen from Uncle Grey agency (Denmark) who was showing a 360 campaign for company Fakta.

“Other” part

Yes, there were some great parties, a lot of parties. And I guess Romania won not only the Golden Rose for the best agency (McCann) but also the award for the best party. OK, the Austrian guys had THE BEST food (Wiener snitzel). Beside the partying part, there were the exhibitions of works (Corbis photography award, all the selected works, OpenAd award…) and of course the social part – meeting new people, making connections…

The competition?

OK, here’s the hardest part. Perhaps I’m too tired to write some good comments, but in general, I think the jury did a fine job. Well, I have to look at the winners again in peace and I will certainly share my comments with you in the near future.

Conclusions?

Estonia rocks. Come again. Well done Romania. See you next year.

Golden Victory!

… well at least from my point of view.

Yesterday was my lucky day! Why? Because I will have lunch with Ross Sutherland (chief creative director at Corbis) on wednesday.

What and why? Yes, I’m going to the Golden Drum festival in Portorož on wednesday. Thanks again to my bosses at Vobis who gave me the opportunity and means to participate. And when I got the newsletter from the festival office which encouraged everyone to select three persons to have lunch with, I immediately decided to put Ross Sutherland on the first place. Why? Because he’s from New Zealand? Or is it because he is one of the creative masterminds on the global level? Or maybe because I love photography and he happens to be one of the executives at the biggest stock photo agencies? There are many reasons… And I really am excited!

I must admit, that I would be also extremely happy to meet any of the guest “star creatives” at the Golden Drum. Hell yeah, you don’t get chances to meet the best creatives and specialists in advertising every day. And you have to use the chance to get the most of it. What exactly? I guess knowledge, experience, fresh ideas…

Well, if there’s someone in Portorož from Wednesday till Saturday, let me know and let’s have a drink (or two).

The right Vibes? Netvibes – my media?

Once again I came home to late to see the news, once again I missed the dinner and the afternoon tea. And once more I seat and stare at my “To do list” which is not getting any shorter. I check the commercials, if there are any new companies that could sell me perhaps, I don’t know, an extra hour or two per day? Haha. Perhaps commercials offer all sorts of things, they promise wonders, changes and experience extraordinaire, but none of them can offer you to buy time. From all the things, time I miss the most.

So, what’s the recipe to stay tuned even if you don’t have time to kill? For me, personalization and customization do the trick. What do I mean with that? It’s simple, make some filters and get only the news you want or are interested in. How? With feed readers you can easily get all the new posts from your favourite authors. Ok, but what if you want some general news also? Some time ago, I found the perfect solution for me – Netvibes. I bet you all know it, but for those of you who don’t; Netvibes is as Wikipedia says: “… a multi-lingual Ajax-based personalized start page. ” It means you can choose which content you would like to have on your “personal page” – which feeds, which news… I use Netvibes, but am also trying out the similar platform Pageflakes.

Both, Pageflakes and Netvibes are very similar – They both allow almost complete customization of the layout and you can even choose between the color themes. But if you like to read about the differences between both of them, here is a link

http://www.rotorblog.com/2006/05/05/netvibes-vs-pageflakes-design-and-basic-functions/

HOW CAN I ASSIST?

Netvibes is doing great for me. At first I used it as an alternative to my FeedReader, but now I use it as my start page. And it’s great that you can access to your “personal page” from any computer. So, if I’m at work, drinking my deserved coffee , I can check if there’s something new on my favourite blogs, access my Gmail, check the stats on both my blogs and more. No wonder Netvibes and also Pageflakes are getting so popular. In May 2007 Netvibes had more than 10 million users as Josh Catone mentioned in his post. The number has definitely drastically increased since May. And that’s why Josh Catone, Richard MacManus and others pointed out that Netvibes and Pageflakes could become the next Facebook or Myspace regarding popularity. I agree that it is only a matter of time, when they’ll introduce full social networking support. Pageflakes already made the first move with Pagecasts and today it says that there are already 135718 pagecasts. Pagecasts are similar to Myspace and are a personal page, which can be seen as you profile or “web page” to everyone. Netvibes also introduced something very similar – Universe, but Universe is not available to all users – yet.

WHAT ABOUT GOOGLE?

Yeah, what about iGoogle, My Yahoo and others who provide exactly the same platform? Why don’t they enjoy the same success? And hell, we are speaking about the great Google and Yahoo? What have Netvibes and Pageflakes offered SO distinctive or special? The answer is not simple, and neither is it definite. It’s not that iGoogle for example is not good enough, it also offers almost the same (maybe even more or better) widgets and modules, but…

CONLUSION?

Is Facebook really endangered by the likes of Netvibes and Pageflakes? It’s hard to say, but I don’t think they intend to directly compete with Facebook, Myspace, Cyworld and others. Because, for example, Netvibes offered a module to connect through it to you Facebook account. But, I think that with Pagecast and Universe they can start to compete with Myspace, because Myspace is (at least I think so) the weakest, or better said the most vulnerable player on the field, although it has still the biggest “home base”. Why? That’s another story. But it desperately needs modernization and a change in design and functionality.

But with every day, I am more certain that platforms like Netvibes are the future of Media. The trends say that, the media will become more and more user generated and if Netvibes is not the definition of it, than I don’t know what is. Ok, maybe I’m to enthusiastic, but, that’s how I see it. I ask for your opinions, I provoke you to participate and counter my arguments. And… the most important thing – take a break, relax and take it easy (stolen from Mika ).

Lisica revealed the PhotoFox ;-)

Because I don’t want to mix my passion with my research, observations and disscusions I decided to launch my photo blog. Why? Because I love photography, because taking snap shots makes me calm down, and when I’m down I take my camera and go “shooting”. Sometimes for fun, sometimes for business. And, because I have a lot of material, at least some photos deserve to be seen. So, check it out at:

photofox.wordpress.com

World Wide War?

UPDATE:

I was going to turn off my PC, but my Feedreader blinked and I read this article on writeweb.com. 

It’s a wrapup of Adobe MAX conference, and I great summary of the things presented by Adobe. What’s the buzz? Hell, it’s the same with Adobe and MS – all about web applications.

Yesterday I was on lunch with my coworkers. It was interesting, because I was once more talking about Adobe and it’s agressive campaigns (buy everything that’s showing at least some potential) and that Adobe is becoming more and more dominant. Perhaps, that’s why they produce so superficial software – like new Adobe CS3 which is full of cool and actually usefull stuff, but also full of bugs. Well, I’m once more going off-topic… Story told short, the debate was going about Adobe buying Virtual Ubiquity the creators of Buzzword and Adobe’s intentions of going into war or at least going for the victory on the web office front. On the Max conference 2007 Adobe presented where it’s heading in the future, and it looks like Adobe is getting hostile towards Microsoft.

Adobe gained a lot by buying Macromedia – they almost formed a monopoly on the web design and design per se front. Corel is battling hard, but, Adobe won because they successfully packed a great deal into their Creative Suite CS3. They can guarantee compatibility between it’s software, which is great and is one of the main reasons why Adobe is so popular. And hell yeah, that’s why I use it. With Adobe Share , Adobe Media Player and other annoucements Adobe is looking to hammer especially Microsoft. But is THE BIG one just going to stand and watch? Hell no!

ANSWER WITH STYLE

Old boy Microsoft is still the biggest player in the worldwide software industry. It’s money makers are OS Windows and MS Office, which is still the leading steed in its branch. MS is also very strong in other fields (web applications, server technologies, media support…), but Bill’s company has not shown any interest in hitting Adobe on Adobes home field – design. Well, at least not ’till now. Microsoft is surprising us all in past few months with announcements about new applications and constant inovations. Besides long awaited Silverlight (rival of Adobe Flash) they presented Office Live Workspace and Microsoft Expression, which amazed me the most.

MS EXPRESSION

Expression, the rival to Adobe CS3? Hm, I would like an answer to that, and I would like to find it out myself. That’s why I downloaded the trial version of MS Expression Blend and MS Expression Design. MS Expression Design is going to compete with Adobe Illustrator and the ones alike, because it is a vector based graphic software. I can’t write anything concrete yet, because I installed it this morning and have been “playing” and testing it for only 5 hours. I most admit, that I use Photoshop much more than Illustrator, and therefore it is harder to pinpoint the difference between MS and Adobe. What I like about Expression Design is that it is slick, intuitive, isn’t packed with bunch of features which you don’t need and is not THAT different than for example Illustrator. Yeah, sometimes it is good to come out with something totally new, but not here, and thank god that MS didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. And one thing I noted and is very important: Expression works much faster than Adobe CS3 applications. Sorry Adobe, but…

So, for now, I must admit (though I’m not a MS fan); Expression Design looks and feels good. The biggest problem seems to be the compatibility, because you can’t open the files in Illustrator or in another third party software. Yes, soooo Microsoft.

But, if Expression Design is nothing special, I think MS hit the jackpot with Expression Blend and Web. With Blend, they compete with Adobe’s upcoming Thermo application. And Web has its rival in Adobe Dreamweaver (former Macromedia). I tried MS Expression Blend, because it impresed me, when I read that it enables creating web based applications without any coding! Yes, I hate coding (but have the deepest respect for it and therefore deeply respect all programmers) and that’s why Blend and Thermo are like Christmas for me. And here, I think MS has a slight advantage of Adobe, because of all the support and experience in stuff like server technologies, data bases, coding etc. Anyway, what is BLEND actually about? Well the MS page says Blend is: “… the professional design tool to create engaging web-connected experiences for Windows.” All I can add is, that it’s easy to learn and you can produce amazing results in no time. And almost without coding And NO, with easy to learn I don’t mean I’ve learned it already.

STILL TESTING

Again, I managed to post a totally confused article, with no real conclusion, or? I tried to point out, that there’s some great software waiting for us to try it out. Ok, and I pointed out a war between MS and Adobe. I’m still testing the new MS Expression Studio package, but for now I must admit that the future does look very bright for both; MS and Adobe. Hell, Adobe presented some of the coolest stuff and is going really big. But, Microsoft, is already the biggest. And with aditions like Expression and Silverlight, they are fighting harsh.

I can hardly wait for the report from MS reMIX which will take place in Boston (US) on 8-9.10.’07. I bet that MS is going to bring some new players on the “war front”. But then again, Adobe is prepairing the European AdobeMax conference in Barcelon (15-18.10). So, we’ll see… I challenge everyone to post your own opinion about it. Be a part of the war

Tourist in Ljubljana

To celebrate the beginning of long awaited process of “getting better” from my illnes I went with my Spela to our beloved capital – Ljubljana. Ok, te main reason behind our trip was that I finally got my brand new Crumpler Match Maker from Špelas uncle from London. It’s an amazing piece of photographers equipement and did I said it is pretty, pretty as a double cheesburger after a week without meat . And as a tribute to my new backpack, I will post some pics from Ljubljana. Yeah, nothing specaial, becouse we used the perfect sunny weather (yeah, sunny in Ljubljana) for a pensionary trip – without the camera. But, I could’nt resist, and I took some shots with my also rather new (ok, not that new, but it feels new because there’s no time to take a real test) camera – Samsung GX-10.

All the photos are taken with before-mentioned camera and with my Sigma 28-300 lens, which is not a pro lens, but I like to take it on my trips for casual photography because it’s more flexible. If you want, you can see more photos on Flickr, but I must warn you that I’m only beginning to organize my account there. Comments are warmly welcome. And if you are interested in more, don’t be afraid to contact me via e-mail (damjan.obal@gmail.com) or post a comment here. Enjoy and I hope you like it – hell let me know