MediaMind is pleased to share a conversation we recently had with Jan Bikkembergs, Digital Production Director at TBWA/Agency.com about inspiration in digital advertising and some of his favorite campaigns.

When does your muse visit you?
I get inspired every single day. That can happen in coffee corner chats with my colleagues, reading the newspaper, watching television or during walks with my dog and girlfriend. When playing soccer and of course by doing my job. 

As we work in digital advertising, we are in touch with a lot of creative people, innovative projects and in our business you have such a wide range of different touchpoints. 

Our clients are active in automotive, sports, FMCG,B2B,NGO’s and Governmental oriented organisations, so every aspect of working for this wide range of brands can be interesting and inspiring. And it can be very cool to apply the experiences you had for one brand into inspiration for another brand or product.

What is your favorite brand experience?

First of all I want to explain my favorite experiences with MediaMind. In Belgium, we work together with the Dutch easyconcepts /MediaMind team. Working with them is a real pleasure. They are very well experienced in the MediaMind platform and they are always available for help , feedback or pushing publishers to the limit whenever we need to go live with new campaigns.  That’s where I became a fan of MediaMind and even more. I became a brand advocate for the MediaMind tool.
The tool works like a charm and possibilities are endless. 

My favorite brand experience is the launch campaign of the Belgian national lottery online. 2 years ago we were responsible for the launch campaign for e-lotto.be , a platform that allows you to play online Lotto and Euromillions. We needed to collaborate with a lot of different publishers, the client and the media agency. We were building non-standard takeover events with real time screen grabs and dynamic ads because the amounts of the jackpot are dynamic. Every draw is a new jackpot. We had to make sure that the draws were updated immediately after the jackpot. A hell of a job but it was fun working on that campaign. Because of the difficult ad build-up at that point we had to cooperate very closely with the MediaMind team and the client but due to the MediaMind technology we completed the project and it was a great success.

Other cool projects we did with MediaMind are the following ones : 

Playstation Takeover for the Lauch of  GT5 : https://vimeo.com/26065416
BMW Mini Takeover for the launch of the Mini Countryman : https://vimeo.com/25767930
Bpost : Change brand identity from De post to Bpost : https://vimeo.com/26066074
National Lotery : Second draw for EUM : https://vimeo.com/26065871
National Lotery : Duobranding Campaign EUM/SuperLotto : https://vimeo.com/26063692

…And many many more cool campaigns with MediaMind.

How did you start working in digital advertising?

I started working in digital advertising in 2004 due to a friend. He was working for this company and I was looking for a job and he said, “I think advertising is right for you. Why don’t you come over and talk to the management because we’re hiring new people?”  SoI did.  But I have to admit that advertising was my first love during my studies. The only class I liked to go to. So I can definitely can say: Like! It’s just about fun, passion and brand love.

OMD Madrid was looking for a differentiating format with which to build brand awareness for automaker Renault. The agency wanted a format that offered multiple opportunities for interaction while giving users quick access to in-depth information.

OMD selected the new IAB Filmstrip interactive format for the Plan Vive Renault Campaign. The Filmstrip format consists of five interlocking 300×600 panels that reach a total dimension of 300×3000. The Filmstrip loads when the user visits the page and functions in the same way as a conventional 300×600. From the first panel, the user can interact in three different ways:

• Clicking the areas indicated at the lower or upper part of the panels.
• Scrolling the page so that the Filmstrip moves automatically from one panel to another.
• If the user has previously interacted with the ad, the Filmstrip automatically shows them the next frame in the sequence. 

The Filmstrip format, co-developed by Microsoft Advertising and MediaMind, is one of six innovative solutions designated as an IAB Rising Star format, an initiative to promote the development of a new generation of online advertising standards.
The interactive ad for Renault was managed by OMD and developed by the Orbital creative agency using MediaMind technology. As a new, large format with loads of content in a single unit, the Filmstrip format grabs the user’s attention, leading to excellent results.

Click here to download the full Renault Case Study.

MediaMind recently spoke with Entertainment Executive Jonathan Tavss about two high-profile promotions for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment – the launch of the Extended Collector’s Edition of AVATAR and the Blu-ray release of PREDATORS. For both launches, the client needed break-out creative to match the intensity and innovation of each film. We spoke with Tavss on his experience with MediaMind and the creative minds at Think Jam.


MM: What were your key goals for these two campaigns?
JT: “For both of these, we were really looking for increased engagement and surrounding buzz. In the case of both executions, my goal was to convey the narrative of the film while expressing some of its best features to connect to those consumers and, hopefully convert them to purchasing or, even better, advocating to their friends.”

MM: How did you plan to measure success?
JT: “Measurables for the effectiveness of the creative were time spent and games played for PREDATORS and Videos Viewed and Time spent for AVATAR.”

MM: What was your concept for Predators?
JT: “In the case of PREDATORS, the interesting thing to me was the pervading question of “who is the predator and who is the prey?” Based on that, I felt the perfect match for our young, gamer target audience was to provide the feeling that they were dropped directly into the action against a kick-ass foe – The Berserker Predator. My previous experience in building these above-and-beyond rich media units with Think Jam and MediaMind led me easily to this type of execution. In addition to the awesome full-screen game play and interaction the units offered, we also enabled users to seamlessly enter a global MPG – transferring any points they scored within the unit into the game.”

MM: How about the AVATAR release?
JT: “In the case of AVATAR, our marketing strategy was to show off as much video content from the special features as possible. The no-brainer for the presentation of that content was in trying to recreate the interface from the Basecamp control desks. The direction to everyone was ‘You know those scenes where people moved video elements around the screen at those desks in Basecamp? That’s what we have to do here.’ The final execution on the desktop was elegant and the iPad version was simply sublime.”

MM: Both campaigns performed well above benchmark; how did MediaMind contribute?JT: “MediaMind allows marketers and creative to really shoot for the stars in their rich media campaigns. My experience with MediaMind on these campaigns – and what led to Fox using MediaMind in the States and our other markets – really turned me into an advocate.”

Check out the campaign details and performance data for AVATAR here and for PREDATORS here.

Superhero-style partying into all hours of the night marked MediaMind’s Tenth Annual Rich Media Awards in New York City.  But the nominees and winners were from around the world.  Here are the winning campaigns:


The 2011 People’s Choice Winner

Personal PC Store – Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Microsoft Windows, Universal McCann

 


The 2011 Smartest Ad Winner – Americas

White Collar – Glow Interactive, USA Network, Ignited

 


The 2011 Smartest Ad Winner – EMEA

Specsavers 2011 – Infinite Corridor@Annex, Specsavers, MEC

 


The 2011 Smartest Ad Winner – Asia Pacific

Yellovator – Clemenger, Millipede, Yellow Pages, OMD Melbourne

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The 2011 Smartest Homepage Customization Winner

Allstate Mayhem – CBSi, Leo Burnett, Starcom

Congratulations to all the winners!