Case study – Your kids and advertising

Here is an overview of the brochure I develop with my team at Egzakt for public information from the government. The objective is to inform parents about the effect of advertising on kids and to gain awareness about the law that prohibits advertising for children under 13 years old.


Client: Consumer Protection Office and Éditions Protégez-Vous

Brief: Inform parents in a fun, accessible and efficient way.

Award: Achievement in Consumer Education - National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (NACAA), for the “quality of the text and graphic design, the relevance of the message and the usefulness of information for the public.”

The brochure has already been distributed in all Quebec regions, with 275 000 copies in 2009. Reprints are on their way.

Case Study - Newspaper Signature

Here is the case study of the line I found with my team at Egzakt for the Quebec daily newspaper Le Devoir.



Client: Le Devoir (www.ledevoir.com)
An independent daily newspaper, without ideology or politic affiliation. Values: freedom, equality, solidarity, integrity. Mission: to inform readers and nourish societal reflection.

New positioning

What is Le Devoir?
1. It’s a must: This is the only independent newspaper in Quebec and it has the deepest contents.
2. It’s accessible: Thinking is not boring. Everyone can read and enjoy Le Devoir.

What can we do with Le Devoir?
3. Think. Go beyond facts.
4. Share. Exchange point of view and ideas, discuss, react.

New signature: Libre de penser
(It is quite hard to translate a good French line… let’s say: Free to think. Libre de penser is close to the French noun libre-penseur, a person that refuses religious compliance or dogmatic influence.)

Le Devoir is free to think.
Readers are free to think, or aspire to be free to think.


Some more details in French...


Positionnement
INCONTOURNABLE : Grâce à son indépendance et 
à la qualité de ses contenus.
ACCESSIBLE : Ce n’est pas parce que l’on réfléchit que c’est ennuyeux. Tout le monde peut lire et apprécier Le Devoir.
RÉFLÉCHIR : Au-delà des informations et des faits.
ÉCHANGER : Partager des idées, des points de vue, discuter, réagir.

SignatureLibre de penser

• Le Devoir l’est.
• Le lecteur l’est ou veut l’être.
Il est content de lire une publication qui l’est.
• Référence directe à l’indépendance de la publication.
• Une invitation au lecteur à aller au-delà des faits, 
à proscrire l’endoctrinement.
• Accessibilité : l’exercice de penser librement est accessible à tous; il est encore plus facile avec Le Devoir.
• Empowerment : le lecteur peut s’approprier les idées,
les contenus, les faire siens, réfléchir, réagir, y prendre plaisir.

Quelques jours après le lancement du nouveau site web et de la signature, nous recevons ce courriel de Jean-Jacques Stréliski, maître-penseur de la publicité au Québec :

Mon coup de coeur va à cette nouvelle signature « Libre de penser » que j'aurais humblement aimé trouver moi-même, donc mes félicitations à l'auteur de cette trouvaille. Si vraie et si simple à la fois, comme toutes les bonnes signatures.

Case study - Fashionable green

Here is the case study of the concept I develop with my team at Egzakt for the "green" campaign of the local shopping center.
Client: Les Rivières Shopping Center (www.lesrivieres.com)
Brief: Find a way to show ecological or “green” initiatives.
Insight: Use the purpose of the shopping center – fashion – to communicate the green side of center.


Baseline: Vert, une couleur qui ne passe pas de mode = Green, a colour that will never goes out of style.
Visual: Created by David Gélinas, Art Director at Egzakt.
Award: Silver Maxi at the International Council of Shopping Centers Awards.

See full campain and case study in French.

SaveTheWords.org

Being a copywriter, you probably assumed that I love words. Well, you guessed right. Of course, French is my first love, but I am very found of English as well. I discovered this website developed by Oxford Dictionaries, and encourage you to go once in a while.

Which words need to be saved? Old words, wise words, those that has lost their meaning in our lives.

Look around, click, discover, learn, have fun. Some words are even asking for your attention. If you fall in love, you can adopt a word and make a pledge to use it as much as you can.

How can you do “spread the word”? Use it as a name for your pet, or a nickname for your partner; play it at your next Scrabble game; get a tattoo with the word; draw a graffiti, what else?

Mine: hymnicide. Killing of hymns through alteration. So be careful if you sign around me!

Music - My voice is officially recorded!

I’ve been signing in choirs for more than a decade now. My alma mater group, Vocalys, has finally released its first CD. I was lucky enough to do the recording just before leaving for Europe.

Vocalys is a small choir ensemble (usually 16 voices), specialized in baroque and a cappella music, but always exploring all kinds of repertoire, from Gregorian to Modern.

Our first CD is a new piece of music inspired by ancestral ones. The composer, Marc Langis, is more known for going around the world as one of Celine Dion’s musician, but is also a talented composer. A wrote a cycle of 20 canticles based on Christmas Liturgy.

Excellent for a contemplative moment. Excerpts are available online.

Books in French - Comment voyager avec un saumon

Umberto Eco - Comment voyager avec un saumon, Nouveaux pastiches et postiches
[pastiche : imiter la manière ou le style d'un autre auteur, parodie]
[postiche : fait et ajouté après coup; pour remplacer artificiellement quelque chose de naturel; mélange]
Comment voyager avec un saumon regroupe une cinquantaine de chroniques du célèbre auteur du Nom de la rose. Écrivain, historien, philosophe et sémiologue accompli, Umberto Eco écrit d'une façon que l'on peut parfois trouver laborieuse dans ses grands romans. Mais ce petit recueil nous réconcilie avec l'homme, puisque ses savoureux textes présentent essentiellement des modes d'emploi pour le commun des mortels, voire des indications pour aider ces pauvres gens dits intellectuels.

Comment ne pas utiliser le fax; comment manger en avion; comment reconnaître un film porno; comment user du chauffeur de taxi (ponctuer le discours de quelques «Non, c'est pas possible, des gens pareils, on n'a pas idée » afin de tirer le chauffeur de son autisme fabulatoire); comment justifier une bibliothèque privée (« Que de livres ! Vous les avez tous lus ? »); sans oublier mon passage préféré, comment mettre des points de suspensions.

À vous de découvrir l'histoire qui se cache derrière le titre.
Petits délices rigolos fort agréables à lire.

Disponible auprès des Éditions Grasset.

PRO – MAC – 8 values of creativity

We had the chance to have a class with an ex-creative in advertising agencies, who became an even-more-creative with his new business IQudo (IQ – you – do?) in Germany. Since I like to share simple theories, I can’t resist telling you about what Robert Gerlach presents as the 8 values of creativity.

1. Talent: Skills, development, competition and synergy
2. Autonomy:Freedom, trust, responsibility
3. Recognition: Appreciation, incentives, respect
4. Identification: Security, loyalty, purpose, affiliation
5. Fun: Enthusiasm, challenge, play
6. Tolerance: Openness, understanding, diversity
7. Environment: Equipment, technology, interior design, fitness and relaxation
8. Transparency: Communication clarity and speed

Do you find this in your life and job? I am lucky to say that I have most of them. Or at least that I aspire to these values.

And by the way, to my (ex)bosses at Egzakt, two thumbs up. It looks like you based the company culture on those values. Not bad for an advertising agency… Keep it up!

PERSO - Books in French - Les Thanatonautes

Thanatonaute, du grec thanatos (mort) et nautês (navigateur) : Explorateur de la mort.

La vie après la mort a été le sujet de bien des réflexions, mais de peu d'explorations, encore moins d'une démarche scientifique.

Une petite équipe de chercheurs se lance à la découverte du continent des morts en utilisant des techniques de médecine et d’astronautique. Les textes sacrés sont les seuls repères laissés par les explorateurs spirituels précédents. La carte géographique du paradis prend peu à peu forme, avec tous les bouleversements qu’une telle découverte peut entraîner.

Science, spiritualité, philosophie, humour, inattendu : des armes que l’auteur manie à merveille.

Le livre m'a réconciliée avec le plaisir de la lecture.

Les Thanatonautes
Bernard Werber
Éditions Albin Michel 1994

PERSO – My favorite campaign : Words Matter

Once in a while, you see something and wish you'd been the one behind it. The Gazette (Montreal's English daily) is one of them for me. My favorite in the last couple of years. Chapeau bleublancrouge!

Many executions, many prizes. I'll show you two of my favorites: the video about Paris (since I’m here!) and the daring no words front page. The back of the front page featured the slogan “Words matter”, and the real front page, with articles, appeared on page three.

PERSO - Big meal for Ad Eaters

A couple of hours ago, I was still sitting in the Grand Rex movie theatre. I spent the night (23:00 to 7:00) with hundreds of people who share one great passion: advertising.

The opening of the evening was dedicated to music in advertising, with a (too) long medley of songs created for ads or used in ads, with a live band. The idea was interesting (especially I have an assignment on that subject coming up), but the performance was average. When the lights went out – of course, there has to be something going wrong! – the crowd took over the ambiance, and it was probably more fun!

Then, 5 sequences of advertising movies were presented. Mostly award winning advertising from 2008, but also a couple of very old ads, as far as the 50’s. Ads were mainly from France, United Kingdom, Lebanon, Dubai, and a couple extra countries (with some noticed absences like New Zealand). Being used to the Cannes Lions formula, I found these intrusion of “historic” documents or sequence with famous actors very interesting. But there were no guidelines; some sequences could have use a better selection and more logic in the order. However, I made some very interesting discoveries.

For example, I knew the original transformer effect for Citroen, but not the Chevrolet answer. Loved it!

Also, I was very surprised by the “Here today, goo tomorrow” series for Cadbury’s cream eggs. Pure imagination!

After so many hours of advertising, I guess I’ll be able to do some on my own… speaking of which, a quick nap, and back to school projects.

PRO – MAC – Advertising history in 5 points

I got to admit, my International Creativity teacher made an impression on me. Filippo Dell’Osso has the typical I-am-a-creative-working-in-a-big-agency look, which is obviously shaved head, glasses and dark shirt. Well, he is not an art director, but can tell a lot about it.

His first class was about people who made advertising history. It turned out to be how we conceived advertising over time. And notice that all of the following are still being used.

1. Unique information
Rosser Reeves (1910-1984)

2. Unique character
Leo Burnett (1891-1971)

3. Unique attitude
Bill Bernbach (1911-1982)

4. Unique surprise
David Ogilvy (1911-1999)

5. Unique insight
Stanley Pollitt (BMP-DDB) and Stephen King (JWT)

What’s next?
Sir John Hegarty came with mind+heart; Dan Wieden sees advertising as creation of popular culture; David Droga motto is don’t say, do.

Advertising is changing. Look up for the next way we'll define it.

PRO – MAC – Classes in Paris

After more than 8 years working in the media and advertising, I’ve decided to go back to school. Not any school thought: a specialized school in advertising, offering a master degree in two of the best cities ever: Paris and London. My program is called Master 2 in Advertising Creativity, or MAC.

Chapter one is already started. Class began last week in Paris, in the brand new offices of the Sup de Pub, on Quai de Seine, 19e. There are about 10 of us in the specialized master (MAC). There is also more than 30 students in International Advertising, with whom we share many classes.

From October to December, we have more than 10 different classes adding up to 166 hours, plus competition and exams.

Among our teachers:

• Filippo Dell’Osso, Strategic Planning Director for Europe, TBWA
• Florence Balducci, Art Director, formally Saatchi & Saatchi and many more
• Samuel Cranston, Marketing and Advertising Consultant
• Carole Moy and Karen Schekler-Wilson, two Americans in Paris specialized in design.
• Robert Gerlach, IQudo - Academy for Creative Intelligence (Germany)
• Gilles Nakhle, brand specialist and international trend spotter, former Young & Buricam, BBDO, Dentsu and more
• Sonia Ratto, strategic and creative planner at Carré Noir
  

I’ll post interesting notions, flashes or discussions we had in those classes.

PRO - Places I’ve been – Borealie

(Winter 2008)
St-Felicien Zoo, Quebec

PERSO - Places I’ve been - Nicaragua

(Winter 2008)

PERSO - Places I’ve been – New York

(Summer 2007)
Yellow is the new Black.

Buildings piling up in the Financial District.


My favourite Matisse painting is just a staircase ornament at the MoMA.


One of the first Guttenberg Bible to have cross the ocean is shown at the NY Public Library (you know, the one with the famous lions seen in Ghostbusters).

PERSO - Places I’ve been – Boston

(Autumn 2007)


My own version of Magritte’s “Empire des lumières” in Beacon Hill.

Perfect architecture on perfect blue sky (the Stata Center at the MIT).



The Federal Reserve Bank Building, in aluminium.