4 - Internationalist

R E T U R N T O R O B U S T A D M A R K E T
“Germany still
universally stands
for quality — both
at home and in a
globalized world.”
Luc Samama, Client
Service Director ,
DAVINCI SELECTWORK GmbH,
Düsseldorf
luc.samama@davinci-selectwork.com
“The German consumer is
again willing to pay a bit
more for quality products
and is also willing to invest
in more expensive goods.
The German economy is
expected to improve over
the next year. This, of
course, will also lead
to higher advertising
budgets.”
Michael Monheim, Vice President,
Axel Springer Group Inc., New York
mm@asgmedia.com
Germany is not thought of first as an “idea”
market as many creative ad awards go to the U.K.,
the U.S., followed by markets like Brazil and Australia.
However, that may be changing. McDonald’s global
tagline of “I’m lovin’ it” did originate in Germany.
Are you noticing changes in approaches to creativity?
Can you cite an example of breakthrough work?
Michael Dunke, Universal McCann: From my point of view,
German agencies have won and win more and more creative awards.
A lot of media firsts and creative ideas have been developed like the
Opel Astra Blogging.
Lothar Rentschler, Mediaedge:cia: Clients are more and more
demanding 360° solutions, integrated communications ideas and
creative media solutions. MEC is currently developing a
communications plan for the recently-won client, Shoestring, with
highly creative solutions. The solution is hardly based on ‘old and
traditional’ media, but is focusing on integrated ideas including
below-the-line, as well as digital and viral ideas.
Luc Samama, DAVINCI SELECTWORK: In an extremely
competitive and cluttered environment, clients are trying different
routes to ‘stand out from the crowd.’ Some have even become
‘shockingly’ creative and polarizing. A recent example of this
technique involved advertising from a direct insurance company.
Their commercial showed a young daughter stating a wish for her
father to die, so she could finally cash his life insurance and get her
pony farm. The ad was stopped, but the amount of press mentions —
although negative — may have exceeded the monetary value
of a campaign.
Michael Monheim, Axel Springer: In the last decade German
consumers have been extremely price sensitive but recently there has
been a shift towards quality. For example, the electronic retailer
SATURN used to have a slogan (‘Geiz ist geil’ — ‘stinginess is cool’)
which explained the mindset of the whole industry at this time. The
new message (‘Wir lieben Technik, Wir hassen teuer’ — ‘We love
technology, we hate high prices’) shows the shift towards quality.
There is still a price consideration, but now mixed with
emotions and quality.
30 inter national ist magazine