Flexible working conditions becoming global norm, but adland still missing out

Flexible work environments have been on the radar for a long time and new research suggests it’s fast becoming the norm globally. Used both as a tool to save costs and to attract and keep talent flexible work environments, where employees are in charge of when and where they work, they are also playing an important role in improving work-life experience of many employees.

Going Dutch

Amsterdam has established itself on the international ad arena with its creative upstarts and numerous small but super-hot shops doing international work. It’s also positioning itself at the forefront of industry change with a collaborative model penned by Roger Beekman, founder of 60 layers of cake, the collaborative agency he launched in Amsterdam in 2005 and which last year spawned an office in Cape Town, as well as several competitors.

Pete Case – finding heart in digital

Pete Case needs little introduction to the larger creative or digital community. His name is intricately linked to that of the multi-award winning digital agency Gloo, AdReview’s Digital Design Agency of the Year for the past four years running, where he serves as founding partner and Executive Creative Director.

With apologies to Cell C

Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt published a second full page apology this past weekend after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that Cell C must stop using the term “4Gs” in its advertising material. Cell C earlier this year punk’d consumers and commentators with an ad apologising to comedian Trevor Noah for lapses in service in what later turned out to be part of a marketing campaign involving the positioning of Noah as Cell-Cs ‘chief experience officer’. Lars (not the real one this time) seems to be at it again, as I explain on BizCommunity.com, rather cheekily.

The waning influence of ad award shows

The statues are stacked in neat rows along office walls. It’s come to define our industry. Kids are told they need to win ’em to impress the creative director and secure that job. Creative directors are told they needs to win ’em to impress the MD and prove their relevance in a competitive industry. MD care because they are told the talent cares, and with a bit of spin and a celebratory lunch, the client might be induced to care, too.

That’s a lot of caring taking place right there, so why am I seeing more and more stories along the lines of ‘Death to Design Awards’, published on the influential design blog Design Observer, or “What’s wrong with advertising award shows?”, published on Adsoftheworld?

80 buck notes – win one of 10 sets

Every so often you find a campaign which a jpeg simply doesn’t do justice. You need a hard copy in your hands to admire the detail and the printing or to get a real sense of how effective this can actually be.

One such campaign was created for Art South Africa magazine by Y&R Cape Town. Executive Creative Director Clinton Bridgeford explains the concept: "We created four different 80 buck notes (the price of Art SA magazine) each illustrated by different artists and all carried the line "Get the latest issue of Art SA and see how art is making money, or not". Whenever a customer bought a magazine or book in the store that also sells Art South Africa, the store staff slipped our notes in amongst the customers’ real change.

Executive Creative Director – Clinton Bridgeford
Art Director – Andrew O’Donoghue
Copy Writer – Emily Veitch
Illustration – Word of Art (Faith 47, Paul Senyol, Bison, Wesley Van Eeden)
Printers – Trident Press

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