The Write Stuff

MIDEM 2010 campaign image

In 7 years of creating the campaigns for Midem, we have seen the world of trade fairs transform at an unbelievable rate. It’s not unfair to say that many trade fairs until recently had been seen by their organisers pretty much a way of renting space to companies. Yet Midem, part of the Reed MIDEM group, has blazed a trail and is re-inventing the way trade fairs see themselves and engage with their audiences. Read more »

Here’s a challenge. Take a shot of the client that actually means something, and will stop people in their tracks. The Tagora agency in Brussels did just that recently with a brochure for EAS, the European trade fair for the attractions industry. They put the owners and managers of attractions onto and in one case into their attractions. The two managers on the photo are actually on a ride, and it’s not Photoshopped either. They also got the manager of a water park to sit under a cascade with her laptop and in a business suit. It’s a simple, fun idea that makes for the best corporate portraits I’ve seen in ages. All you need is a good idea, a great photographer and clients that are willing to play ball.

I should also point out that the EAS was a success and The Write Stuff did the copywriting for the brochure of the next edition

It’s that time of the year again. MIPCOM, the world’s foremost content trade fair, will run from October 13-17 in Cannes. This year (like last year, in fact), we worked on the collateral with the Consorcom agency in Brussels, producing the brochure, key visuals and a few ads. MIPCOM also has a smaller event called MIPCOM Junior, entirely focused on kids’ and youth entertainment. You’ll find them at MIPCOM and MIPCOM Junior.

I think we have all heard that the music business is in pretty bad shape (and just today, it was revealed that figures are down 15% in France). As the foremost music trade fair, Midem obviously has had to reconsider what role it plays in the new music business. This has led to them providing a whole range of conferences and networking events that enable people to get new ideas about surviving and moving forward over the coming years. With this in mind, the concept we developed with Consorcom for this year’s brochure and ads is “Think Louder This Year” – reflecting the business’ need to be loud and brash, but with a little more brains. Incidentally, I’ll be in Cannes myself Jan 26-29. Look for me under The Write Stuff in the MidemWorld database.

I must admit that I’ve been a reasonably slow adopter over the years. Our telly tends to be old, we have no air conditioning and the rollers are wound up and down by hand. So I was interested to hear about IO-Homecontrol through the Polygone agency. Their client IO-Homecontrol markets systems that enable a number of home appliances, such as blinds, alarm systems, heating and doors or gates, to work together. Polygone produced brochures, ads and a website for them to which we contributed. You’ll find more at IO-Homecontrol.

Anyone involved with the audiovisual sectors probably knows MIPCOM, which is billed as “the global content event for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content across all platforms”. It’s one of Cannes’ most senior trade fairs and will attract some 12,500 people between October 8 and 12. This year’s communications were again produced by Consorcom, with The Write Stuff handling all the original copywriting. Given the extraordinary rate of change in entertainment content and the fact that a lot of it involves mobile and digital platforms, the slogan this year is quite simple: “Content is on the move”.

I can’t take any credit for this, but Belgium picked up 13 awards at the Cannes Lions this year. That’s one more than Holland and (gulp) three more than France! So the Creative Club of Belgium launched a cheeky campaign to point this fact out to European advertisers under the title, “We’re lousy at football these days, so we beat our neighbours with something else”. Em, who says long headlines don’t work? (To be frank, I might have condensed it to “Belgium 13: neighbours less”).

I quote: “So how did we manage it? It’s simple. Constraints make us creative. Being
a 10 million people federal state with three languages, we deal with smaller
budgets, tougher clients and delicate cross-cultural issues.”

I can vouch for that! Click over to the Creative Club for more.

By all accounts, Cisco is a pretty funky place to work. Through the Antwerp agency 10, we had the opportunity to interview people from Cisco and Scientific Atlantic in Belgium. What do you get when working there? How about challenges, independence and opportunities to move from one field to another if you think you can handle it. As part of their drive to present themselves to the right sort of future employee, they asked us to conduct interviews that were then edited into short films and 5 print ads. Check their mini website.

This is another one of those times when I think, “Now if ever I get a real job…”

“Content” is the new buzzword, as we don’t really have that many ways of describing music, images, games, ringtones, TV shows, films and stock market information or restaurant reviews in one word (“entertainment” doesn’t count). Increasingly, the TV trade fair MIPTV has become interesting not just for producers and broadcasters, it also enables the mobile sector, brands and social networks to hatch up plans for new revenue streams together. So MIPTV this year went under the headline of “Capture content”, developed by The Write Stuff and Consorcom. We developed the concepts, brochure and print ads.

After celebrating its 40th anniversary last year (with a campaign that won an award within the Reed Midem group), the music trade fair Midem started a new decade with another good year. Attendance figures were up despite a very difficult business environment.
The Write Stuff again provided the copywriting for the brochures and print ads on the theme, “I’ve Got the Music in Me – Come to the Source”. Agency: Consorcom.

Plans are already afoot for the 2008 campaign!