… Be gaming

Video gaming is now a bigger industry than DVDs, box office revenues, movie rentals, music or even books. Mario killed the Ringo Starr, but you probably didn’t even know it.

Well, once again, we’re here to help. Advertising Pawn presents another world-exclusive – and word-elusive – report from the Super Task Force United (STFU) commissioned by notorious advertising agency RDA International.

54 oh-my-god-this-is-awesome slides packed with dare, motherly affection, and a good dash of future; to better grasp where gaming stands today.

WARNING: This deck does NOT include the words “insight”, “aspirational” or “proactive”.

You can find the deck embedded in Slideshare-quality below, but we strongly recommend downloading the full PDF (complete with keynote comments) from this page.

And if you’re still on a video games rush after digesting this PowerPoint, please feel welcome to read our exhaustive and exhausting brand tribute on PlayStation, too.

… Be Mobile

And I obeyed.

If you’re scared of people ridiculing the size of your wee-wee because you have no bloody idea what mobile marketing is all about, this article is for you.

Not because we’ll provide you with useful tips on how to enlarge your machine length, but because today, we reveal in glorious self-ointment an exclusive study from the STFU (Super Task Force United) commissioned by the advertising agency RDA International.

87 easy-to-digest slides packed with love, care, and dedication that will introduce you to the tortuous world of advertising on cell phones – from SMS to Quick Response Barcodes – and how the vibrator function can help rekindle the lost intimacy between a brand and its consumers.

Since we knew you might be mobile marketing virgins, we were gentle and included many case studies of companies that already successfully embraced the third screen as a commercial channel. It’s always best to watch first.

You can either view it here in crappy Slideshare-quality embedded below, but we strongly recommend downloading the full PDF (with keynote comments included) from this page.

… Be stof

And I obeyed.

“What happens after death ? A best of” – Chris Martin from Coldplay.

Click on each thumbnail to get to the desired article.

… Be organised

And I obeyed.

2006. July 7th. The day our master organised a cycle of conferences to promote itself and allow people from the industry to get familiar with the notion of Integrated Communications Marketing and its implications.

From Strategies’ newsletter :
“Conférences sur la communication marketing intégrée à Dauphine Les étudiants du master de communication marketing intégrée de Dauphine organisent, le vendredi 7 juillet, une journée de conférences articulée autour de quatre tables rondes qui porteront sur la communication intégrée, ses enjeux, le rôle d’Internet aujourd’hui et demain, et l’éthique dans la publicité. Parmi les participants : Jean-Pierre Teyssier, président du BVP, Christian Vince, président de l’Agence V, Marco de La Fuente, vice-président en charge du développement de BDDP&Fils, Matthieu de Lesseux, président de Duke et de l’AACC Interactive et Yseulys Costes, présidente de 1000Mercis. Pour en savoir plus“

Some participants eventually were replaced at the last minute – one of them for being drunk – but would it be a true event without snags ? You can download the press book here.

Credits to : Camille Autin (responsible of the whole artistic direction & visual identity of this event) and Beatrice Menuel (for the website).

… Be webmastering

And I obeyed.

But I hung up.

After hundreds of daily news and articles written for the likes of several amateur websites. After numerous press conferences, private shows (Nintendo’s unveiling of the Game Boy Advance SP) and public exhibitions (London’s ECTS).

After an final attempt at crafting a different – yet humble – take on videogames which felt like a stillborn swan song. May it not rest in piece (see below).

(Click to enlarge)

… Don’t be Zappa

… Be verbose

And I obeyed.

“Is advertising still capable of answering marketing’s problematics ?” That was the question we had to tackle on in the selection procedures of our master’s degree. Find an answer here – with George Michael making a desperate appearance, victim of a shameless gamble with someone who eventually became a co-graduate.

… Be agité

And I obeyed.

This rigorously serious document is all about wicked people, red wine, drunk people, french food, second family… and cocks.

Credits to co-workers : Meryam Benjelloun, Beatrice Menuel, Mathieu Millet and – pictured above – Biquette.

… Be PR savvy

And I obeyed.

It might seem outdated now as the whole videogames industry moved leaps and bounds ahead ever since, but this press review will provide you with very good insights of how the industry was shaped in the beginning of 2005.

… Be clean

And I obeyed.

You are young ? You stink ? Your body is changing. Don’t panic. We have the solution.

… Be successful

And I obeyed.

Choc was the name of our virtual company. We were manufacturing flat screens in a similarly virtual fashion. 5 competitors. All trying to play the game by their rules. One would be delighted to observe how much of a personality you can guess by just looking at his/her way of leading a company. Betrayed promises, overzealous sales estimates, missed opportunities… The virtual world is as unforgiving as its real counterpart. As gratifying too, as you might discover in our final take on this competition we proudly won. For real.

Credits to the board of administrators : Mathilde Campinchi, Raphaele Benoit and co-founder Camille Autin.

… Don’t be Monica Lewinsky

… Be off-topic

And I obeyed.

You know him. Even if you don’t, your life is ruled by the results of his studies. In a way, he owns you. Everything you never wanted to know about Vilfredo Pareto is just one click away from you. You might want to miss it.

… Be boring

And I obeyed.

I could probably have become an econometrist. And belong to those peculiar people you would bet they always were wise and wore grey.
I tried (study on Game Boy Advance’s US sales).
At least twice (study on French families’ main expenditures).
If only to learn how to prove a point. The essential lesson of economics remains : “Thy shall never let your intuition finger alone”.

… Be healthy

And I obeyed.

Pitch : find 5 ideas that could potentially lead to the exponential growth of specific natural sports.

Execution : hard thinking, late and lone brainstormings, a horde of red bulls.

Reward : a job offer at JWT and incredible nasal pains.

Download the presentation here.

… Be free (or unexpensive at least)

And I obeyed.

How to promote a niche music label with virtually no communication budget at all ? What kind of tricky media can we trigger to seduce and convert new publics without rubbing the core audience the wrong way ? Potential answers lie there.

Credits to co-workers : Guronsan.
Credits for the picture : Skopje Jazz Festival “Sunset” campaign

… Be happy (i.e. gay)

And I obeyed.

Younger, I used to act as a journalist. Or rather as an amateur wannabe for several videogames websites that led to some exotic memories – the 2002 ECTS exhibition and conferences in London being the climax of them all. Until…

Credits for the picture : Tulipan’s campaign “Are you thinking about sex ?“

… Be Dr. Evil

… Be fidus actif essensis

And I obeyed.

Marketing is all about passion (some might argue that “advertising is all about sex, tu compwends ?” but you get the idea). There is no debating that marketing rusks is undoubtedly an adequate and challenging goal for a summer internship (all the more at Danone). Some proofs stand below :

#01 – Supervision of an animation in 60 superstores to support an key product launch completed with promotional tools and (self-designed !) vouchers.

#02 – I left the company with a gift for my managers : 5 revolutionary ideas to rejuvenate the market (click the thumbnail to enlarge).

#03 - You’ll learn a whole lot more by flipping through this exhaustive document (including a guide to how to make an ironically iconic packaging and a self-made internal four-sheet publication on bread-making secrets, lucky you). Happy reading.

The appropriate question remains, though : Would you do this your whole life long ?

References at LU France / Danone : Clémence Blanc – Product Manager and Nicolas Marotte – Head of LU’s Business Unit.

… Don’t be Uncle Sam

… Be versatile

And I obeyed.

In the 80’s, video killed the radio star and MTV was born.
In the 00’s, free daily newspapers stabbed the old ones and this was born.

Credit to coworker : Anne Philippon.

… Be corporate

And I obeyed.

CLM BBDO (November 2005 – July 2006).

We are very sorry to announce the death of our beloved apprenticeship at CLM BBDO, which suffered from international aspirations. To celebrate and ease the pain, you will find below a quick overview of what was done during its golden age.

We’ll miss you.

#01 – National census campaign – Client : INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economics Studies) – 2005 – See : www.insee.fr

#02 – Promotion of microcredit – Client : Finansol (French Social and Solidarity Finance System) – 2005 – See : www.finansol.org

#03 – New brand identity – Client : FRAM (First French Travel Agency) – See : www.leplaisirengrand.com

#04 – Militant eventful billboards displayed on Paris’ town hall and parodying the famous 1950’s Doisneau’s “Kiss By The Hotel de Ville” – Client : SOS Racisme (French most influent association against ethnical discrimination) – 2006 – See : www.sos-racisme.org

#05 – New business contributions, including SAGEM’s rebranding and a strategic note on fragrance industry’s main threats, the latest of which is downloadable here.

#ALL - For more in-depth insights about this tremendously enriching (sadly not in a materialistic way) experience, enjoy both parts of my apprenticeship book : here and there.

References at CLM BBDO : Pascal Couvry – Head of the corporate department, Angélique d’Estève – Head of the PR department, Clément Chovin – head of development/new business.

… Don’t be Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (it’s unpronounceable)

… Be disruptive

And I obeyed.

Dis·rup·tive – adj. – Relating to, causing, or produced by a cessation of continuity or regularity.
See : unique, special, different, original, singular, remarkable, abnormal, new…
Example.

Pictured above : “Le Grand sommeil” from Claude Lévèque, MACVAL (Vitry-sur-Seine)

… Be mini

And I obeyed.

We had to invent something new. Fate (in this case, our teacher’s free will) decided we had to ravigorate the DVD market with a fresh marketing mix. We felt 10€-mini-dvds-with-no-useless-bonus would please those who are unwilling to pay for content they will never watch.

You will find the details in these Power Point and Word documents. Dailymotioned below lounges the 60” advert we created to hammer our point.

Credits to coworkers : Camille Autin and Mathilde Campinchi.

… Don’t be E.T.

… Be exhaustive

And I obeyed.

Please find downloadable here a 40-pages report on advertising’s main trends of 2005-2006 in France.

Credits to coworkers (and, over and above, best friends) : Laure Vasco and Mathieu Millet.

… Be playful

And I obeyed.

Today, I woke up (and worked up) in the mind of a Nintendo employee, expected to explain to his advertising agency what truly defines the brand he grewed up with and is now working for.

You can download the diaporama here.

Today, I had a great job. A bit too virtual, maybe.

… Don’t be Johnny Cash

… Be juicy

And I obeyed.

In the beginning, it was just a mere new business competition : Orange’s rationalization of its French brand portfolio. Some eventually labelled it as the “pitch of the century” only because we thrive in hyperboles. It also happened to become our master’s degree’s Final Year Project.

They came. They saw. They pitched.

To prove our point, we went video-interviewing, digging into society trends, studying customers’ habits and insights. We became successive account planners, creative directors, webmasters, media strategists… for far cheaper than the sum of it all (for free, in fact).

You can download our final presentation here.

YouTubed below sits enthroned the “moodboard” we created to sex up our strategy based on “Feelinks” (Feelings + Link).

Credits to coworkers through this epic experience : Meryam Benjelloun, Béatrice Menuel and – last but not least – Mathieu Millet.

… Be ginning

And I obeyed.

5 years ago, two worlds collapsed in the morning. 5 years later, whether fate or coincidence, my passport is being delivered. My little finger told me : “If you don’t come to New York, New York shall come to you”.

And, again, I obeyed to my 3-inch dominatrix : from the 12th of October to the 22th, I will devour Big Apples with fever (and a freshly renewed resume) and hope I’ll be doing this for a living next year.