The text is in Swedish, with an abstract in English and an introductory text in Swedish which presents the project and the witness seminar as a qualitative method.

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Right now we’re in the middle of an intense period of article writing. Oskar has written a paper juxtaposing the role of network- and market-oriented strategies as routes to success in digital advertising. The paper will be presented at a session on the history of advertising at the biennial meeting of Swedish historians in Gothenburg on 7 May. Gustav is working on a piece on creativity in advertising, targeting advertising researchers. Whereas the mainstream of advertising research tends to take creativity as something given and reified which can be categorized and measured, we use our study to illuminate how creativity is deeply contextual and especially how award shows – like Guldägget, but especially the international ones – are at the centre of a set of rules for what constitutes creativity and governs inclusion and exclusion in the creative field.  Ann-Sofie is working on a paper on the multiple and divergent motives of digital advertising entrepreneurs, in contrast with the focus on financial rewards in the mainstream of entrepreneurship research.

Inspired by this event, Gothenburg’s main daily, Göteborgsposten, devoted most of the front page as well as an entire page in the Economy & Politics section to the digital wonder, featuring one interview with Kokokaka founder Jimmy Herdberg and one with me (Gustav). Somewhat ironically for an article on the importance of digital media, it was only available in the print version of the newspaper. In my Swedish-language blog I speculated that this might be a revenge for Jimmy’s claim that print newspapers are obsolete. Fortunately an English, shorter version is available from Göteborg daily.

We’re of course delighted at the interest in our project. However, there is sometimes a discrepancy between our perceptions of what we do and the medial representation of the project. The title of the ADA seminar was ”Why are we so good” and GPs take was in the vein of a Gothenburg success story – whereas what we do to a large extent aims at deconstructing and reinterpreting the digital wonder and avoiding oversimplified interpretations in terms of success. This is an inevitable tension in the sense that our research project in itself is a marker that Swedish digital advertising is important and worth spending some SEK 2 million studying. We do believe that, but we also believe that such a research project benefits from not taking the straightest route.

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 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.

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.

- 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

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!