Tudish Piip is Back with REVENGE

I can´t believe they did it. I don´t understand it, I don´t want to understand it and I´m little scared. The whole situation reminds me of "Return of the Killer Tomatoes" - sequel to one of the silliest and the funniest low-budget flicks ever, but not in a good way.

It did not make sense the first time around and it´s not gonna work this time either, but they will not give up. Persistence - not always a good thing. Makes me wonder though, next year - they gotta do it - right? Right?

In case you forgot, here are my past thoughts about RIMI advertising efforts - Rimigratsioon.

Best Marketing Esimene Eesti Internetiturunduse Kongress

DAY 2


LIKED:

Cherry and white chocolate tartes.


Will McInnes, sotsiaalmeedia agentuuri NixonMcInnes tegevjuht - Somewhat likable, teddy-bear resembling stage presence. Made an effort with limited success to get the audience involved in the process.


DISLIKED:


Will McInnes, sotsiaalmeedia agentuuri NixonMcInnes tegevjuht - Kept it real basic,considering that the event was called Internet Marketing Congress I would have to say insultingly basic.

Used out-dated slides in his Power Point, realized and apologized for it. C'mon, is it really too much to ask for you to go over your stuff the night before?

Kept showing example Virals that date at least year an a half ago.

Talked and talked about what has happened in the past few years. It's Online Marketing man...nobody cares what has happened, we want to know what's gonna happen next and next and next. If you don't know - you should stay off the stage. You got nothing.

That pinkish brownish substance offered at the lunch buffet. Oh, the catering was done by Bonaparte. Good to know.

Best Marketing - see you next time.

Best Marketing Esimene Eesti Internetiturunduse Kongress

DAY 1

LIKED:

Reval Auto turundusjuht Rivo Saarna ja ADM Interactive loovjuht Erki Peinar - Online Marketing Old School, but done real well and with big money. New ideas on integrating Online CRM with Home-Page experience ( ability to access maintenance records for example).

DreamGrow tegevjuht Priit Kallas annab 10 nõuannet paremate tulemuste saavutamiseks veebiturunduses - Short, fluent maybe self-explanatory for some, but a lot of value for most.

Paul Clements, Cannes Lions 2008 Cyber žürii liige, TBWACopenhagen loovjuht - Energetic, fun, loved the look of true disbelief on his face when it hit him, how little most of the audience understands what his talking about.


DISLIKED:

Miguel Moreno Toscano, EU Interactive Digital Consumer Marketing Manager - Using stats from 2006 in his PowerPoint when talking about Online Marketing. Why not 1906?
What an idiot.


Aleksander Smigielski, Unilever Central and Eastern Europe Media Director - Not showing up and sending a really dorky video interview instead. Where's my partial refund?


Marta Klepka, Gemius International Brand Manager - Puts Time Spent up on the big screen and then doesn't answer my question about the possible insignificance of the Time Spent and Page Views metrics. Also sensed hostility from her even 20 rows away.


Overall atmosphere : Would it kill everybody to have at least little bit of fun. You got out of the office... Why not to smile or something?


I'll be back tomorrow. To find out more about the Best Marketing Conference click here

I'll be tweeting a lot, so if you're half as bored as I will be, you can check my short format rambling going to my Twitter feed

OOPS

Oops, forgot to include this one in the September 12 post " Best Video Ads Ever Made "
Got to be my all time favorite. Spike Jonze at his very best.

%%% JOOP %%%

WHAT A F%%K IS J%%P THINKING?

DO THEY THINK WE ARE %%%%ING BLIND?

ARE THEY TRYING TO MAKE US %%%%ING BLIND?

DON'T THEY REALIZE THAT WE ARE WAITING FOR 100% OFF?





As you can see I didn't use a single " ! ", lots of question-marks though.

Best Video Ads Ever Made

Funny = Best in my book.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Brand Tags - Fun with Brands for Everyone

Brand Tags. I stumbled upon this without any help from StumbleUpon and liked it right away. It's simple, easy to use and fun. Yes, you're probably not gonna use hours on the site and not visit the site over and over, but the concept in it-self is absolutely ingenious. So I got curious and ran a search that came up with this great article about Noah Brier and the way he came up with the idea during a sleepless night. Gotta give it to him, not everyone get's epiphanies like that when they can't get any sleep. I'm jealous.

Try it, have fun with it. I specially like the battle mode, it's like a childhood card-game "War", but with today's brands.


http://www.brandtags.net/

AS Starman - Efficient Customer Service with a Smile

In case you don't remember, I had a bone to pick with Starman back in July. In my post "AS Starman Can You Hear Me Ground Control" I was complaining about how I had no TV channels and an Internet connection that was not as continuous as I had hoped for.

Here's living proof that I can be fair if compelled to do so. Today I woke up in a battle mode so I decided to take my fight into the Lion's Den - AS Starman Customer Service Office.

Well...there was no line. A customer rep was dealing with a customer when I walked in, but she acknoleged me with the nod and that's enough for me. In about 20 seconds an another rep showed up, invited me to sit and then did something I was not prepared for - She smiled. I almost dropped the cable-box i was holding.

The rest of it is just as incredible, sure I did not get my problems solved right then and there, but that was my fault. See if I would not have forgotten the remote to the box they would have replaced everything at that very moment. They did give me directions though to their mid-town office, so I wouldn't have to drive back to them and told me that they will inform the other office about my visit.

Other than a little hick-up on a part of a trainee at the mid-town office everything went real smooth. She was asking for a document nobody should ever ask for, but sitting right next to her was another customer rep, may I add a very attractive one, who told her that they did call from the other office and she should just give me the new box.

And then she smiled. WOW. Customer service with a smile really is the best type of Marketing. No need to mindlessly spend money on mindless advertising. Thank you Starman for not ruining today. In case you didn't know - there's enormous value in that.

Tony Hawk, Shaun White and Jeep Wrangler

Birdman and Flying Tomato. How cool is that? Jeep Wrangler and Birdhouse. Not once does anybody mention the brands during the program, but they're always present. How cool is that?

Product placement combined with advertising that's not intrusive. That's the way to do it.

See more Tony Hawk videos at Shred or Die

OK maybe I'm not being completely objective since Shaun White is possibly my favorite athlete.

I Love My Car

I do. I love the way it looks, I love the way it drives, I love that it's not an expensive car, I love that it's not a cheap car, I love the looks I get from passersby, I love the way kids smile when they see it, I love when other people driving the same make wave at me( specially the pretty women ), I love the way pretty women know after seeing my car that I'm not overcompensating and I just love my car.

For everybody who's not seen my car, I drive a black Mini Cooper with speed stripes. How did they do it? Pretty much every brand, every company is looking for this kind of customer loyalty, this kind of customer devotion. This is it - the Holy Grail of marketing. People who paid money and have no regrets, people who will not be shy about telling others about not having any regrets. Unbelievable.

In todays marketplace that is usually over-saturated with competition and looking for an easy way out with plain stupid advertising it is hard to imagine that a brand can accomplish this. Does that mean that everybody should quit? I beg you, please don't.

Just think about it, you don't have to make the best product or the cheapest product. All you should shoot for is making a product that your customer cares about and maybe , just maybe they will call it Love.

Estravel - When is a travel agent not a travel agent.

Here's my situation - I need to be in New York for Christmas and New Year's, since that is my time with my kids and I am already looking forward to it. Unfortunately that is very much the most expensive time to travel and that's exactly why I was pleasantly surprised when I opened a forwarded mail from a friend about a special travel offer from Estravel. See, usually these year-end dates are as blacked out as possible. Now, I also received the same forwarded mail from couple of other friends, but that is a totally different subject matter. I am not price conscious - I'm value conscious.......
In any case I hope you have friends like I do.

Estravel would probably be considered an elite travel agency offering elite travel service in Estonia and one of the better recognized brands in the country. I don't really get the whole " We got a new logo" thing, but hey lately I've been discovering a lot of that - not getting it.

I have used them quite a bit in the past and do have their gold card and found out today that ownership of that card does qualify me as a frequent client, for what-ever that's worth.

So here's the offer - because they have some kind of birthday or anniversary thing coming up, they will get me across the Atlantic for less than 4000 EEK's and that's less than $400. WHOAA. That is not bad. Maybe even great. I know as well as you would've known to wait for the catch. So here it is - THE CATCH.

The travel starting point has to be Stockholm. Hmmm...but I'm here. OK not the end of the world, but then the next absolute must travel check point is London and even though I want to end up in NY, my travel itinerary needs to somehow include Miami. Did you get this? It took me a while.

Anyway being value conscious....I decided to play along. Not really proud of myself right now, but I kinda had a plan to take my kids to Florida anyway, seeing Grandma and going fishing off the Keys and so-on.

After listening to fake finger nails abusing the keys for let's say five minutes I was informed that almost everything I was interested in was possible except flying on the dates that I had requested and the New York - Miami leg would have to be in business class and that would actually cost more than all of the rest of my trip.

That's when it hit me - Deja Vu, I had been sitting in the same chair disappointed before. I mean the same exact chair.

So when is the travel agent not a travel agent? Is it when they make promises they can't keep and do it knowingly? Is it when you want to go to a certain place and they tell you to go somewhere different? Really, C'mon if they would have included Prague in my travel arrangements I think they should have offered to pay me.

Travel agent is not a travel agent when they can't help you to travel, to get from point A to point B. That's exactly what traveling is. Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ESTRAVEL!

Vapiano

Vapiano is a flagship of inefficient customer service. Not only that, they are a perfect example of how customer does not matter for lot of businesses in Estonia. Usually it's just not as visible.

OK, in case you have not eaten at Vapiano, here's a quick explanation of the operation they're running.

You walk in the door - you are handed a plastic card that will keep a record of your orders - you will walk towards a counter - you will wait in line - you will order your food when it's your turn - you will wait for your food to be prepared - you will receive your food - you will realize that this will not be enough - you will get in the next line - you will wait in line - you will order your food when it's you turn - you will wait for your food to be prepared - you will receive your food - you will take your food on a tray and look for a place to sit and consume your food - you will find a place to sit - you will realize that you would like a glass of beer or wine with your food - you will walk up to the bar and wait in line - you will order your drink - you will wait for your drink to be poured - you will receive your drink - you will turn around and realize that you have forgotten where was the place that you found for food consumption - you are very smart and find the same place you had set down your tray - you will eat and have your drink - you will get up and be surprised since you realize that they don't make you bus your own tray - you will wait in line to hand in the plastic card - you will pay - you will grab some gummy bears from a bowl and leave - you will feel all warm and fuzzy inside because of the gummy bears while walking away.

I see the same attitude everywhere - at my gym, at the grocery store, at the bookstore, at the car dealership when trying to explain to them that my car really should not behave all freaky like that and so on and on. The personnel thinks that they are running the show while I'm being naive and thinking that it really should be me - THE CUSTOMER.

Is it a remnant of a Soviet era, is it a Nordic style of interaction or just giving a finger to everybody because you don't care and the boss is not watching. Combination of things perhaps?

Bruxelles-Brussel-Brussels-Brüssel

It's not in a name, it's in an attitude. Brussels is a really laid back city, possibly too laid back for my taste, but in a good way. I know that I'm here in august and tens of thousands of EU representatives, officials and lobbyist are not, but I believe that the lack of them is actually bringing out the true spirit of the city.

And in the spirit of that laid-backness, not sure if that is a word in any language, I witnessed today an example of how businesses that could compete against each other can co-exist and co-operate in a perfect harmony.

Not far from the Square Marechal Montgomery where I'm staying, thanks to my good friend who was kind enough to offer his place for my accommodation, is Place Jourdan. An oddly shaped city plaza that has parked cars in a middle and is circled with cafes and bars on the outside.

Except for the parked cars there's something else in the middle. Maison Antoine is basically a kiosk that serves the best tasting french fries in Brussels. It doesn't matter what you call them - frites, chips or fries - one thing is for sure, everybody loves them. No surprise there.

What is different and maybe even special is the fact that not only do all the cafes and bars allow you to eat their fries sitting at their tables, but they encourage it with posted signs. It clearly states in French and Flemish that you are welcome to enjoy Antoine's frites at their establishments.

At some point they figured out that instead of taking on an impossible task of trying to compete with Antoine's fries they are better off supplying drinks to every thirsty Frites lover. You got to admit that this is somewhat unusual. Situation where everybody wins.

Maison Antoine is probably selling more fries because people know that they can enjoy them sitting down at the surrounding cafes and socialize with their friends while stuffing their faces with little sticks of heaven. Cafes and bars are probably selling more beer, coke and coffee because people who wouldn't visit them for no reason are there for the fries. Plus people are probably buying more fries and beer and coke and coffee than they would if they'd known that they would have to take the fries home. That's something that would rob the whole social aspect of dinner from them.

So here it is - everybody wins and everybody's happy. Perfect harmony. It's not that hard. It didn't take thinking outside the box or creating a Tipping Point for a Purple Cow swimming in a Blue Ocean. All it took was simple logic - if I let them do what they are good at and I keep on doing what I'm good at, everybody flourishes. Simple.

Now try to imagine an attitude like that with Mobile and Internet Tech businesses of Estonia. Impossible? Why not supply the users with free Wi-Fi wherever they go because of the potential traffic that will happen just because of the availability of free Wi-Fi? It's not that hard. Let's not forget that everybody loves fries. We do.

Planet Green Video ads - good for mother earth and funny

Here are couple of links. I personally love the second one with Tommy Lee and Ludacris. Sure, we all assume that he doesn't shower, but it's still funny and just check out the look on Ludacris's face - priceless.

THE MAN WITH A SOLAR POWERED SWIMSUIT

LUDACRIS AND TOMMY LEE IN A DINER