When your agency wins in Cannes, please fire them.

I've tried to convince my friends and fellow colleagues of the advertising industry about how the business was changing and how one could react on that.
Well, I'm sorry to say... I failed.

At least, it's that what I was thinking when running around at the Salone del Mobile in Milan this year, where I obviously ran into a crowd of friends and people from the design industry, but apparently none from the advertising scene.

Has Milan turned into the center of branding? No, of course not. There are too many buyers and sellers and salesmen around that try to convince you of a new leather sofa.
But when you look beyond the dead cow covered sitting objects, you can see a parallel inspirational branding universe.

I admit: the abundance of chairs, tables and whatnot's is painful for the eye and the eco-friendly heart. Since who needs a new chair anyway? But when that chair comes with an added value, a story to tell, a function to add...

I realise I'm wandering through design heaven (or hell) with branded eyes, discovering gems of parasite branding and guerilla marketing tactics. Seeing inspiration for brands to get experiences across. That's why I can not understand that agencies are still choosing the Cannes beach in stead of the Zona Tortona.

Next time when your agency wins in Cannes, please fire them.
Don't get me wrong. They have proven their added value and we should honour them for that. On the advertising industry's funeral, we should speak with respect. The skills of the industry should be passed on by parent on child, and occasionally exhibited in museums over the world.

But a brand needs all senses to become a brand. In view of sustainable change, brand innovation and a holistic brand approach, you, dear marketer and/or CEO of a company, should look at other resources.

In fact, when using any creative resource for any project for your company, it should always be used with the bigger picture in view. This turns the advertising industry into craftsmanship and skills, and leaves a big space for true strategic and holistic brand consultancy, using a model of genuine collaboration, out of the box thinking and respect for the brand's surrounding environment.

I can be wrong and all the intelligent people in the advertising industry can still be right. In fact, I received yet another email from a big budget brand just now 'that we might be looking at a test project in 2010'. So when looking at what I earn today as compared to what I did when in advertising, I'm completely wrong.

Apparently it's waiting for the recession and it's fall-out to have companies realising the need for change. And if that doesn't do the trick, consumer behaviour will.

I hope I won't be painting sunsets in Namibia, by then.




Milan - some pics & thoughts.
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A female stand-up urinal. I'm not sure if this will make it to the market. What do you think? For me it 's a proof that tangible ideas can generate change.
In it's best, these concepts have a brand - and- social potential that can be enormous.




Ok, I was in Milan and I thought of recession when I saw this badly printed A4. (Chances are it's not the Mr Ferrari, but for the sake of my story, I need to believe it's the real one :-)




Our friends of .MGX / Materialise who will produce our Pine Cone light, had a collaboration with Renault. By far the most impressive work, tucked away in a small room at the Zona Tortona. Obviously deliberately anonymous, but with a potential to fill a complete hall.






A Retro-vintage ifoon.
For me this has brand relevance: dive into your heritage and past. It might need some tweeting and adjusting, but you'll have a unique story to tell and have a commercially successful project that goes with it.



The People Parking. Now here I saw a solution for the earth's global warming and a witty lounge concept, all in one. I also ran into a friend 'parked' there :-)



Diesel and Moroso. Combining fashion and design, and succeeding big time.



When looking at the following concepts, try looking beyond the physical object, but grasp the creative twist that makes up the story.








For more brand thoughts and help, a Creative X-ray or Brand Inspiration Shower, visit and/or contact www.addictlab.com

#recession? Addictlab takes over high value but empty shopspace.

As you may know, I have been working on the further development of Addictlab, here in South Africa. An interesting experiment, as it allows me to test certain processes, learn from mistakes and implement maybe later the best findings in other countries and creative regions.

Have a look at the OpenLab3.0, a physical yet guerilla style evidence of Addictlab in a public & popular shop environment. (pictures on facebook)

In short, this is doing the following:
• Select, discover and accelerate local creative talent (What we call LABINPUT)
• Collect stories & people for journalists in the different creative scenes.
• Educate a large audience about design, innovation and other cultures.
• Interact and marshal a large crowd for ideageneration, via interactive tools. (The difference with 'crowdsourcing' being that I think it's important to know everybody in the process - preferably personally. I'll do a blog one day on crowdsourcing and the difference with addictlab.)
• Create a physical space, as an inspiring lab environment, for companies that need to tap into our lab when looking for new ideas, coherent brand consultancy and innovation. (LABOUTPUT)

It's an amazing space and it has a pretty important commercial value. Yet it was empty. One of the evidences of economical change is the rise and fall of shop concepts, shopping malls etc. Consumers have an abundancy of choice. But when you're shop/product/brand falls out of their Top of Mind, you better hang on. In tough times as these, it immediately results in empty venues. Causing less people to come, causing even more shops to close down. Empty spaces are the symptoms of economic downturn.

Resurrection thanks to recession?
So these OpenLabs must be seen as a solution, turning those proofs of recession into a positive story, with PR, brand, marketing & inspirational value for everybody involved. The addictlab methodology could work, yet it requires a lot of collaborative power, energy, and dynamics. We need people, artists, brands, to really WANT. (I'm not mentioning budget. Money should not be an issue when everybody shares a vision.)
A physical space as a metaphysical definition of innovation and hope. I can be very lyric on it all.

There will always be incomprehensible things in collaborative processes. I offered a - free - space to Danone, to name but one. I need to calculate the value of my gift: the PR value of collaborating, the brand value in the space, the number of people who would be in contact with their brand & product. We're talking about an A location space, so lot's of traffic. We already had national radio doing an interview.
It didn't happen. Timing? Vision? Budget? Lack of Respect? Ignorance? - It's in those moments that I like to take over the company, and force it in the right direction. But it's ok. I'm over it. I understand you need two to tango. And I have other things to do then to win someone else's battle. Certainly when I offer it for free.

Then again, during last week's opening, I was touched by a whole bus of visiting Soweto based artists coming to the design mall. Read: rich environment. I need to be thankful to everybody helping out, like Marike, Jaylily, Sean, Dan, Joanna, Haldane, Clive, Michaella, Open. There was an interesting mix at the opening, yet I will be looking with the help of those great labmembers here to see if we can organise a specific brand/innovation related workshop.


Having this space now, opens up even more possibilities. From a content point of view, we could do this all the time. We have the great talents to showcase. And companies need now more then ever innovation to get out of the dangerzone.

Business Opportunity / we have extra lab-capacity for brainstorming sessions, workshops & innovation idea generation.

We have this space only temporary. If your company or others you know are in need for new ideas, we can bring in creative talent almost immediately to start thinking completely out of the box. This gives us a unique opportunity for our brainstorming sessions.

As far as the selection we made for this OpenLab, I believe all are very talented, and useful in most creative processes, but more specifically there are labmembers that can be very valuable for your company when you're active in :
- Automotive
- green-eco design
- womenslab
- branding & marketing
- business travel
- SouthAfrica 2010
- kids

When interested, do not hesitate to get in contact.

[Would an OpenLab in your region be a good idea too? Have a place? A network? An Empty space?]

Why big agencies need to be afraid of 3 guys in a township.

When you receive an email, stating that you would have 'a valuable input in clearing the path to our destiny in terms of developing the work we doing' then you most probably think it's spam. In this particular case, it was genuine.



Every now and then, I get completely blown away by human ability to create.
It's a rare yet strong emotion, that brings me happiness, since I realise the addictlab concept of discovering great creative thinkers from any culture or discipline is actually working. It makes me proud, and it makes me frustrated, all at the same time. Frustrated since I see the restrictions of what it is I can only do.
Even when it's my eternal Addictlab pledge that we need to do all - and preferably more - that is in our powers to push their talent.

Meet Sibusiso Justice Dhladhla, living in a township called Thokoza in Ekurhuleni, working in a group called Kasi Custom Rides, made out of three members namely Sibusiso Dhladhla, Jabulani Ngwenya and Enerst Sibeko.

They use paper and cardboard to build cars. The models are about 7Ocm, with perfect curves. The windows go up and down, the rooftop window slides in the roof, the seats can go out, the wheels turn when using the steering wheel. All out of cardboard in a perfect physical visualisation of autocad computer wireframes. Made by hand, not by processor.


When they arrive by taxi and humbly present me their concept, my brain activity is at its highest, my mind is in a thousand places. This is why I do what I do. If only they could benefit from the projects that I have been doing in the car industry. Visiting the design center from Rover and looking at the CAD and the clay models, when doing all campaigns for Daewoo in Belgium. Working on idea generation for BMW or Lexus, setting up projects with Chrysler or Renault.
They should have been involved. They need to be involved in the future. Any car company that is not busy getting broke and/or looking for innovation (I guess this covers them all) should call me now. PR or AD agencies working for car companies looking for innovative ideas, should see me tomorrow. Car manufacturers, call me now and invite them to come.


Because I don't see just a car. I see living proof of a much needed serious reshuffle of how companies should use their creative resources. It's time to stop showing creative respect to agencies who do not respect creativity.

It's time to have respect for authentic creative skills and use creativity in a much needed win-win system for all: client, brand, environment and thinkers.

Let this be yet another call to companies to use creativity for all the good purposes. For their own benefit, sure, but also for the benefit of the people and society that surrounds them.


As for now, I will do whatever I can to accelerate their talent. In case you wonder, no, no one is paying me to do this. And I'm not even sure what I will get in return. I will exhibit them in our Open Lab. I will post them on blogs, put them on our homepage and I will get frustrated when I don't get a call from car or design companies wanting to see how we could get that talent in for design, communication, PR or other projects.

I want them to be in Milan next year. I want journalists to write about them. I want companies to pay them the right amount of money for their skills. Christmas should come early this year.


You can see the cars at the OpenLab3.0 event in Johannesburg. Check www.Addictlab.com for more.