Marketers rank among car salesmen and politicians as the least trusted professionals, perhaps with good reason. The history of advertising has been a witch hunt of seductive claims pursued by industry regulation, and the chase has seen some outrageous moves. But in this era of blogs and Twitter, the addition of the consumer’s voice has imposed a radical shift that suddenly has marketers caught up in a race for truthfulness. This entertaining and inspiring session will uncover some of the industry’s greatest deceptive blunders, highlight success stories, and ultimately prove why truth and transparency are essential to effective and long-lasting consumer relationships.

In this session, Adrian Hon will present a case study of We Tell Stories, a groundbreaking experiment in digital storytelling. For the project, created for Penguin books, six contemporary authors took six classic Penguin novels and re-imagined them as online experiences. Stories utilize such modern day tools as Google Maps, blogs and Twitter, and choose-your-own adventure devices to drive the narratives. www.wetellstories.co.uk

Game creator Guerrilla Studios and the digital production company Zoic Studios discuss an innovative production process developed in the creation of a “4-D” interactive commercial for the game Killzone 2. From this project’s inception, these two companies, along with clear guidance from Deutsch Advertising, strategized a multi-stage project that would simultaneously address the design and production of a 30-second television commercial with the eventual “4-D” user-playable commercial – which will be released on the PlayStation Network to bring this revolutionary interactive commercial directly to the consumer.

The presentation will examine the possibilities of immersive advertising as game play and game play as advertising. What do productions like the Killzone 2 project mean for the future? What does this mean for the future of consumer engagement? The questions pose intriguing possibilities for other industries looking to immerse the prospective buyer deeply and significantly into the advertisers’ desired experience.

In this session, FHV BBDO Head of TV Geertje Hoek will present six directors hand-selected by her and Heads of TV from the BBDO network from Germany, the UK and Belgium. The BBDO Director's Lounge is a well-known phenomenon in Germany, founded by BBDO Dusseldorf HTV Steffen Gentis many years ago. It’s proven to be a very inspiring and popular event where directors present themselves and their work and everybody’s offered the opportunity to meet them personally and exchange ideas in an informal setting. It originates from the simple idea that finding the right director for a job is the most important step in the production process. Attendees will be able to meet and mingle with BBDO’s chosen directors at the lunch break, immediately following this session.

The BBDO Heads of TV meet on a regular basis to discuss problems they all share and to exchange ideas. The BBDO Director’s Lounge is one of these ideas that now spreads out through the network.

Featuring:
MiniVegas from England (Mini Vegas & Czar)
Don & John from LA/USA (Caviar)
Olivier Babinet from France (Irene)
Who? from England (Great Guns)
Charley Stadler from Germany (Gap Films)
Woof Wan-Bau from England (Nexus Productions)

KesselsKramer wants to tell you a story

KesselsKramer believes that we're living in a new age of storytelling, a time when a brand can tell its tale not only through traditional media, but in whatever form most suits its message. So an idea can pop up in the form of a book, a film, an advertising campaign, an exhibition or a product. In other words, KesselsKramer stands for the propagation of good ideas, of imagination over traditional limitations. Its work is constantly trying to embody this philosophy. In the past, the agency' stories have included helping to launch international hotel chain citizenM, a huge amount of communications for fashion icon Diesel, and more than 12 years of notorious advertising for the world's worst hotel, the Hans Brinker.

In its occasional spare moment, the agency has created a range of projects, including the photography book series in almost every picture, championing every day (or 'found') photography. It's also invented do, a brand whose long-running mission is to help consumers engage more actively with the products they use. And KesselsKramer is responsible for The Other Final, a documentary film about football's two lowest ranking teams playing their own alternative World Cup Final.

Today's toolbox for telling stories is getting ever larger, with fresh opportunities provided by technology and the ever-expanding skill sets of young creatives. Kessels will explore these stories, new and old, in this one off lecture.

“I’ve never really been a Radiohead fan. But because of the things they've done online – the way they've behaved, the stories they've told, and most importantly the way that they've told them – that’s all changed. Now I find myself looking out for what they're doing. I check out their new releases. And I've bought their albums. I'm still not sure I like Radiohead. But I've started to love the idea of Radiohead.” – Iain Tait

In this entertaining and surprising session, POKE London co-founder Iain Tait explains why an idea, well executed, can convert naysayers to followers, and how the tools of the digital space might just be the way to capture imaginations.

Dr. Bob, a cognitive anthropologist, will describe epochs in human history, from the invention of TV to the various generations of digital marketing, in terms of how the mind seems to deal with – and people experience – not only the commoditization of connectivity and content, but also the commoditization of time. Examples will be given from chimpanzee behavior, Soviet propaganda, architecture and battlefield decision-making. A way through to the experience of 'time as luxury' will be offered, based on learnings from how a New Guinea shaman "branded" Bob. The lesson: a transition from purveyor to partner.