The interviews are coming along nicely
Posted on | maj 18, 2010 | No Comments
This spring the research group focus on interviewing, and we have added a few more entrepreneurial life stories to our list. Last week Gustav and Ann-Sofie met up with Perfect Fools co-founder Tony Sajdak. Besides providing a fourth angle of what happened at Abel & Baker in the early 2000s (following Martin Cedergren, Ted Persson, and David Sundin), Tony gave us insights into digital advertising from the vantage point of a production company.
Next week we are meeting with, in turn, Matias Palm Jensen (Farfar), Jesper Kouthoofd (Acne), and Axel Bendrik (Deasign). We are not least looking forward to hearing about the rise and fall of Farfar, who set the digital wonder in motion with their 2001 Grand Prix Cyberlion, but were unexpectedly wound up by their owners, Aegis Group, about a month ago.
The Tesch brothers in London
Posted on | mars 31, 2010 | No Comments
On Friday 26 March I (Gustav) set out for London’s Farringdon district for successive interviews with Måns and Johan Tesch, two representatives of what has been labelled the export of the Swedish digital wonder, as several Swedish digital creators have been recruited by major foreign agencies over the last few years. The Tesch brothers founded Tesch & Tesch in 1996, which then became one of the leading web bureaus in Sweden by 1999. Following economic difficulties in the wake of the dotcom crash, the brothers sold their creation to the Lowe network in 2002. The firm, now under the name Lowe Tesch, won gold lions in Cannes in 2004 and 2005 for campaigns for Saab Automobile and 3. When the firm was merged with Lowe Brindfors in 2007, the brothers decided it was time to move on and headed for London, Johan as a creative director at BBH and Måns as digital strategy director first at Lowe worldwide and then at Fallon. They are currently working on setting up their new, yet unnamed, agency in London with the idea of combining the best elements of Swedish and British advertising practices. We can only wish them good luck.
The interview transcript from these and some 20 other interviews constitute the main source material for this research project. At the time of writing I am waiting for the next and fifth interview, with Speedway Digital Army, Abel & Baker and Great Works co-founder David Sundin.
Tags: interviews > Johan Tesch > Lowe Brindfors > Lowe Tesch > Måns Tesch > Tesch & Tesch
The internet, the IT boom and the advertising industry
Posted on | mars 11, 2010 | No Comments
The witness seminar ”The internet, the IT boom and the advertising industry in the second half of the 1990s” was held on 17 February. The panel – Mattias Hansson, Mattias Söderhielm, Johan Ihrfelt, Hans Sydow, Sven-Olof Bodenfors and Rolf Jansson – represented several of the important actors during the turbulent years of the late 1990s: new media (Z-magazine), government-owned companies (Telia, Posten), internet consultants (Framfab, Spray) and advertizing agencies investing in the new media landscape (Adera, Forsman&Bodenfors). During the seminar the participants were given the opportunity to share their experiences of the dramatic changes of business opportunities created by the emergence of the Internet. Their stories dealt with the interdependence of technological change, entrepreneurial spirits and the feeling of making history. The seminar was recorded and is now being transcribed. The results will be published in a report later this year. If you are interested in a copy, send us an e-mail (gustav.sjoblom[at]chalmers.se) and we will let you know as soon as the report is ready.
Welcome to the witness seminar on Wednesday 17 February
Posted on | februari 12, 2010 | No Comments
On Wednesday, 17 February, we welcome everyone to our witness seminar on ”Internet, the IT-boom and the advertising industry in the second half of the 1990s”. The seminar takes place between 1 PM and 5 PM at Sandlersalen, ABF-huset, Sveavägen 41, Stockholm. The purpose of the witness seminar is not only to give insights to participants and spectators, but also to provide a historical source material which will be used in our research. The seminar is recorded as audio and video files and will hopefully be made publicly available in some form.
What we want to achieve with the seminar is to recall the uncertainty that followed the breakthrough of the internet, as the boundaries between media, advertising, telecommunications, and information technology were blurred (at least temporarily). We have gathered a panel who will first share their personal experiences of the mid- and late 1990s, then comment each others’ statements. The panel consists of Mattias Hansson, Mattias Söderhielm, Johan Ihrfelt, Hans Sydow, Sven-Olof Bodenfors and Rolf Jansson.
The seminar marks the beginning of the ”public” phase of this project. So far we have mainly been working quietly with preparations, but hopefully you’ll see more of us from now on. If you’re interested in knowing more about the project, please come along to the mingle after the seminar, at the Swedish Association of Communication Agencies, Sveavägen 34.
The seminar is free of charge, but please sign up here.
A discussion of what makes campaigns successful
Posted on | december 10, 2009 | No Comments
On 18 November, the three researchers in the project and Morgan met up with half a dozen advertising professionals in Gothenburg, mainly from award-winning agencies Crispin Porter + Bogusky Europe and Forsman & Bodenfors. The purpose of the event was to improve our understanding of what makes an internet advertising campaign successful, innovative, and award-winning. Mathias Appelblad first gave his view of how F&B approached the internet and created a series of highly acclaimed campaigns such as Cannes Grand Prix winning Volvo XC 90 launch from 2003 and gold-winning Drömkök åt alla for IKEA from 2006. The CP+B (formerly Daddy) people similarly explained the background to their acclaimed commercials for Volkswagen, Burger King, and SAS. The panel also gave their view of other pathbreaking digital campaigns such as Farfar’s work with Milko, Nokia and Diesel, and Great Works longstanding collaboration with Vin & Sprit. Towards the end of the evening we had formulated something akin to a shared understanding of the milestones and breakthroughs of digital advertising – technological (Shockwave, Flash, XML, social media) as well as institutional (notably the 2000 IT bust). Thanks to all participants for sharing your time and ideas and helping the project along the way!
Further evidence of the digital wonder
Posted on | november 6, 2009 | No Comments
The original inspiration for this project was the GUNN Report 2007, where four Swedish bureaus (Farfar, Forsman & Bodenfors, Lowe Brindfors, and Great Works) were listed among the world’s top ten digital agencies. Since then, there have been number of indications of continued competitiveness for the Swedish agencies. To list but a few recent ones:
- the success story has continued at this year’s One Show and Cannes Lions
- in June 2009 the Gothenburg agency Daddy was chosen by world leading firm Crispin Porter & Bogusky as their new European base
- four of the top seven production companies on Creativity Online’s list last week were from Sweden
A new research project on internet advertising in Sweden
Posted on | oktober 2, 2009 | No Comments
Chalmers University of Technology, the University of Gothenburg, the Swedish Association of Communication Agencies and Hyper Island have been awarded SEK 2,143 million for a two- year project to study the digital wonder in Swedish advertising. The project is part of the research programme Young networks culture, funded by the Knowledge Foundation. The project is managed by Gustav Sjöblom at the Division of Technology and Society at Chalmers, and includes Ann-Sofie Axelsson from the same division, Oskar Broberg (Department of Economic History, University of Gothenburg) and Morgan Öberg from the Swedish Association of Communication Agencies.
By mid-2011 the project will hopefully have explained why Swedish agencies have been so successful at the big international competitions (Cannes Lions, Eurobest, AD&D etc) in the interactive/cyber/internet categories, but not in using conventional media. We will look at this from four different angles: the individual backgrounds of the leading creators and entrepreneurs and their networks; the macro environment for the accumulation of skills in using computers for creative and interactive purposes; the channeling of creative individuals to the advertising industry; and the implications for future policy and the understanding of the Swedish system of innovation.
In the meantime we hope to have a lot of fun and to provide inspiration for advertising professionals and others whom we’ll meet along the way!
