Other > 17/5/2013
Lessons from AmsterdamThis year’s Adforum Summit was held again in Amsterdam. The last time we were there was in 2007, and this was where I came face to face with the advertising agencies which were not “Dutch”, but based in Amsterdam and winning business from major brands... READ MORE
Pitching > 18/4/2013
GE called a Taxi. Will it be a Mercedes or a Felicia?Following my previous blogpost, which took a sceptical view of the apparent arrival of Taxi in the Czech market, I was invited for a chat about my remarks by Jarmila Placha, CMO of GE Money, and Petr Havlicek of Y&R who had announced the launch of Taxi’s... READ MORE
Other > 6/2/2013
Three questions for Libuše ŠmuclerováAt the time of writing, Mindshare has still not received an apology from Ringier over the anti-Schwarzenberg ad (see previous blogpost). This cannot be because the boss of Ringier, Libuše Šmuclerová, has not been thinking about the affair. READ MORE
Other > 28/1/2013
Ringier should apologise to Mindshare.The Presidential election is now over, and the result was decisive. It is however reasonable to be concerned about some aspects of the campaigns, so that lessons can be learnt, and perhaps legal changes enacted to tighten the rules about the use of the... READ MORE
Other > 20/12/2012
The “Balkanisation” of Marek SingerIn an interview last Friday in HN (which is unfortunately not available on-line) Marek Singer of TV Prima was asked his opinion about the common ownership of Medea, the country’s biggest media buying agency, and an increasing number of media organs,... READ MORE
Other > 19/11/2012
The “Balkanisation” of Czech MediaBy the time Forum Media ended on Thursday, there were a lot of people leaving in an angry mood. This is not unusual. Forum Media seems to attract a lot of negative reaction every year. Overall it creates an extremely ambitious agenda for itself, which is... READ MORE
Other > 8/10/2012
Freelancers, ad. agencies, AKA, and the labour lawIn the last year, agencies have expressed to us their extreme nervousness about hiring people on a freelance basis. There is some perception that tax offices are actually targetting agencies for audits, knowing that there are many freelancers there. No... READ MORE
Pitching > 28/8/2012
OBI tender was too transparentAgencies who do not win tenders often voice complaints, and most clients assume that they are just ‘bad losers'. READ MORE
Other > 25/5/2012
Introducing the Agency GalleryThe Agency Gallery allows agencies to upload -one at a time - a campaign of which they are particularly proud. They can upload video, print work and a short summary of the campaign rationale. They can put up a new campaign whenever they choose over a twelve... READ MORE
Other > 5/4/2012
PIAF - See, hear, shareAt RRA we believe in the idea of Prague as a "creative hub" for Central Europe. READ MORE
Pitching > 3/2/2012
Can an agency really 'choose' its clients?I recommend Petr Vaclavek's article in this week's MaM, in which he claims that his agency Lemonade will only work with clients which "it chooses". READ MORE
Remuneration > 25/11/2011
How the State should manage its advertising budgetsIn his Final Word for 23 November, "Economia vs Medea" Erik Best refers to some truly preposterous recent pronouncements about how State advertising budgets should be managed. READ MORE
Pitching > 20/7/2010
Choosing an agency (#2): Agencies don't like creative pitches...or do they?For years, agency associations have argued that pitches which depend upon speculative creative work are not good practice. READ MORE
Pitching > 12/7/2010
Choosing an agency (#1 in a series): What, exactly, are you choosing?The answer is devastatingly simple: a group of people. Yet it does not seem that simple to those who have to make the choice. One reason is that the big networks have successfully created a "brand aura" around themselves. What stands behind these brands in... READ MORE
Pitching > 18/6/2010
There are no prizes for coming second. But it’s good to know why you failed.I have recently noticed a trend in agency tenders. READ MORE
Other > 3/6/2010
Can an agency really be a "business partner"?This is a suggestion that is greeted with cynicism by clients in this country. Often the agencies have only themselves to blame, since they use the phrase without really demonstrating that they can contribute more than advertising proposals. READ MORE