Get out of the ivory tower – learn for life!

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2 Min.

Fresh from university and already know how things work in professional life? That doesn’t have to be a contradiction. Especially in the field of marketing and advertising, there are numerous committed initiatives in Germany in which students can gain tangible practical experience during their university education.

Student agencies such as Töchter + Söhne in Berlin, Die goldenen Zwanziger in Jena or Werbeliebe in Pforzheim offer prospective marketing specialists, media designers, business economists or computer scientists the opportunity to work on concrete projects for clients from the private sector while still studying theory. And sometimes such a student enterprise actually turns into a “real” advertising agency – this is what happened with the Bielefeld Media Lab, which focuses its communication on the fields of law and politics.

Such projects can only be realised if there is enough “breathing space” in the course of studies to find time for work in the agency in addition to the seminar room and lecture hall. Actually, this should also be the goal of our education policy – after all, it is often enough complained that university education in this country lacks a direct connection to professional practice.

Nevertheless, the continued existence of the committed student agencies is currently under acute threat: universities are increasingly focusing on tightly organised bachelor’s and master’s degree courses, in which students can complete their degrees more quickly, but also have to put up with tightly packed timetables. As a rule, there is no more room for a practice-oriented “sideline activity”. Perhaps it would be appropriate to pause and reflect on whether further “schooling” of academic training courses really makes sense from an economic point of view. Or whether it would not be much more efficient to release “immediately practical” graduates into the world of work after a more flexibly designed course of study?

Curious now?

Our contact person will be pleased to help you:

Matthias Brinkmann
+49 (0)911 / 47 49 49 49
brinkmann@twobe.de

Well prepared for success

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2 Min.

Advertising that is supposed to work is not something you just shake off the cuff. Meticulous planning and a clean, focused implementation with clearly defined goals is the prerequisite for measurable success.

Step 1: the in-depth analysis of the current state – what distinguishes the company, who works there? What are the values behind the brand? What message should be brought to the people?

Step 2: Define the target state – the conception phase provides clarity about the goals to be achieved with the advertising action or campaign. Is it a matter of increasing brand awareness per se or of getting customers excited about a particular product?

Step 3: implement the concept – a “process map” helps the agency to work out the core message and responsibilities in detail – right through to communication with the client.

Step 4: Implementing the concept – only now, after all details have been fine-tuned to optimally convey the core message to the target groups, does the implementation of the actual advertising measures begin: Internet pages are programmed, advertisements and flyers are designed, trade fair events are organized.

Step 5: Measure the success – Of course the customer wants to know which successes could be achieved with the advertising measure, whether the investment was actually worthwhile for him. The best way to show him the effect of the advertising campaign is to provide him with tangible figures in a very transparent way: for example, was he able to significantly increase the number of qualified contacts at the trade fair? Has he succeeded in generating new business through his website? But even if the details may not run smoothly at the beginning, the evaluation of the measurement results offers clear advantages for customers and agencies alike: Based on the figures, weak points in the concept or implementation can be detected very quickly and ideally eliminated during the advertising campaign.

Conclusion: Advertising does have a pronounced emotional component. But it leaves nothing to chance.

Curious now?

Our contact person will be pleased to help you:

Matthias Brinkmann
+49 (0)911 / 47 49 49 49
brinkmann@twobe.de

Is it all commercial already?

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3 Min.

If you work in the advertising industry, you never get off work. I had to find that out again yesterday, when I just wanted to throw myself on my old living room sofa with a cold beer and stare at the TV for an hour. Finally, a bit of a switch off. No way! At the sight of the golden-yellow brew in my glass, images of trench-coat types falling backwards into the dune sand on the beach popped into my head. Scenes of styled zeitgeist adventurers sailing “away” on an all-knowing ship. And then you get to hear: “Look only. Don’t touch.” Or something like that. But can I really still assign all the images and words that spread in my mind as soon as I hear the trigger “golden yellow” to the right products? I’ll put it to the test: my hit rate is shameful. What’s the matter?

When I was a kid, the advertising world seemed clearly defined to me: Ads with pretty pictures in magazines. Clementine with her detergent on TV. The Marlboro Man on the billboard. Today, on the other hand, everything seems to be advertising – the ringtone for the cinema spot for the cinema film with the brand of car the hero drives, the cinema advertisement for the computer game for the football World Cup with the perimeter advertising and the club sponsor logo on the jerseys for the exclusive beer brand of the event in the Easycredit Stadium next to the Arena, the home of the Sinupret Ice Tigers …

… and as I write this, various banners are flashing at me in my browser window (no idea for what). I click away several pop-up ads to finally read in peace. At the same time, on the supposedly so neutral TV news, a well-known politician poses in front of a car whose manufacturer is acutely threatened with bankruptcy due to the financial crisis …

Advertising permeates all areas of life today. This makes it hard to keep track of everything. If you want to attract attention these days, you have to come up with something special – like an annoying screaming child who just slams dairy products at your ears. Or just guerrilla marketing, the magic word of the last few years. This can go well, like an advertisement for a charity. There, on a live news broadcast, a person would periodically show up to steal a glass of water. Donations poured in because the whole thing was likeable, funny and wacky. Or the guerrilla campaign is a complete failure because no one understands it – for example, when fake Internet pages created especially for a campaign look so “real” that the user never realizes the actual purpose.

In general: the transition between reality and advertising is sometimes so fluid that one can almost feel queasy. For example, when in the middle of a midnight sale for a cult computer game, the bloodied victim of an assassination staggers through the crowd and everyone initially thinks it’s a publicity stunt.

But let’s face it, aren’t we all a bit of an advertisement already? With the cool Jägermeister T-shirt. With the red Ferrari baseball cap. With all the claims that have already found their way into our everyday language.

Are you still alive or are you already advertising? I’m not that stupid!

Curious now?

Our contact person will be pleased to help you:

Matthias Brinkmann
+49 (0)911 / 47 49 49 49
brinkmann@twobe.de