LoveEvent

New Year

2010-12-31T09:36:00.005+01:00

Well, as you all may have noticed, I haven't updated this blog very often lately. I feel a bit sad about not having the time to do it, due to my daytime work, and also due to my weekly commuting between Stockholm and Göteborg.

I will not make any new year's resolutions about posting more often though. LoveEvent will live on, but more quietly and not so actively, waiting for better times. Times more suitable for me to pick this up again...

I'd like to end this year by writing a short post about two companies who I have written a lot about this past year: ICA and A Non Smoking Generation, who now have a campaign together.

Read more on A Non Smoking Generation's blog, or at ICA's facebook page.

(My older posts about A Non Smoking Generation and ICA.)

Until next time; Happy New Year and I wish you alla 2011 full of energy and new opportunities!

Com Hem repeating themselves

2010-09-25T07:06:00.000+02:00

Com Hem (I have written a few posts about them before) have made another TV commercial. Still funny, but they have now gone with the same concept for quite some time. Maybe it's time to renew?!?

F**king brilliant commercial

2010-09-24T13:00:00.001+02:00

Yeah, well, I'm sorry for swearing, but this is the best commercial I've seen in a loooong time! A friend of mine shared it on FB today, but the video has been uploaded on YouTube since the end of August. My only regret is that I haven't seen it until now.

I'm not going to spoil it for you, so just enjoy! :)

Eco Wedding

2010-09-24T07:00:00.000+02:00

Want to get married without making an impact on the world? Looking for ecological food for your wedding? Needing tips on how to make your wedding more eco friendly?

Look no more! Check out these sites: Eco Bride (in Swedish only) and Eco Wedding . Full of ideas, and tips for ecologically aware brides.

Also check out The Natural Weeding Company, a directory of companies and products that are ethical, eco-friendly, vintage, organic, green, handmade or local, in the UK.

And as a last tip: Hällsnäs, a lovely wedding venue just outside of Göteborg in Sweden. They arrange eco friendly weddings, and even if you're not getting married, check out the lovely pictures. Enjoy!

Photo by Jina Lee.

Logotype from hallsnas.se.

The power of social media

2010-09-21T10:05:00.000+02:00

Sunday evening, one of Sweden's more "non-politically correct" political parties, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, were voted into the Swedish parliament. This rose a lot of protests, and just a few hours after the results were official, several Facebook groups were created, encouraging people to demonstrate on Monday evening.

In Sweden's three largest cities; Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö, around 10 000, 5 000 and 2 000 people gathered in the town centres, protesting. And this was less than 24 hours after the results! The power of social media!

(English article here.)

SAS Gay Wedding

2010-09-20T18:06:00.000+02:00

Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, are right now having a nice wedding campaign. In December, they hope to host the first same-sex wedding in the air!

Couples have submitted photos and their stories and people can vote for the couple that they think should get the opportunity to be married aboard one of SAS' fligths from Stockholm to New York. The happy couple will of course also receive a honeymoon package with hotel nights etc.

A good way for SAS to get traffic to their web site, to get some media attention and also to get some goodwill in showing where they stand in HBT issues. Go SAS! :)

Picture from SAS.se.

Funny diva

2010-09-01T20:05:00.003+02:00

I just saw the funniest Snickers commercial on TV. It's not that new, but hilarious if you haven't seen it before! :) Enjoy!

Sounds like branding

2010-08-04T09:10:00.007+02:00

So, it's vacation time here in Sweden, and that for me means a lot of reading.

I've just finished reading Sounds like branding, by Jakob Lusensky.

It's a book, that talks about how your brand "sounds" and how that affects your customers and can make them interact more with your brand. Very interesting, and I really like that he talks about lovemarks. Lovemarks is one of the reasons I actually decided to start blogging, because when I read about the concept, on a trip to New York some time ago, I got amazed and wanted to explore the marketing/branding world more. The word in itself is also what inspired me to name this blog (and my company) to LoveEvent.

Picture from Bokus.com.

Now this blog has come to be about a lot more than lovemarks, but nevertheless, the word means a lot to me. :)

Check out the Sounds like branding blog.

What a wedding!

2010-06-20T12:04:00.002+02:00

The bride looked absolutely stunning, the guests were fabulous, the people cheered and applauded and neither the groom nor the bride hesitated when reading the vows in church. It was really pretty, and we watched the wedding ceremony on a big screen in the middle of central Stockholm. Afterwards we tried to watch the happy couple who went to the city in a horse-drawn carriage, but there were so many people lining the streets, wanting to see and vawe. I managed to get a few seconds of film, but that was all.

The peak of the evening was Prince Daniel's speech to his wife, Crown Princess Victoria. It was one of the most beautiful, well written, thought-out speeches I've ever heard, and the applauses didn't want to stop. It was such an utter declaration of love, and of course I cried like a baby. ;)

All the best wishes to H. R. H. Crown Princess Victoria and her new husband H. R. H. Prince Daniel!

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

2010-06-18T13:18:00.003+02:00

I love you, tomorrow. You're only a day away....

So, tomorrow is finally the big day. The Royal Wedding. I'll of course be there to wave to the happy couple after the ceremony, and I'll report some more on Sunday.

Mr. Daniel Westling's coat of arms, from www.royalcourt.se.

Star Wars Wedding

2010-05-28T12:08:00.004+02:00

If you're a Star Wars Fan, and you happen to be in Florida in August, be sure to check out Star Wars Celebration V, a (what seems to be) huge convention for Star Wars fans. At the convention, you can actually choose to get married, Star Wars style. Choose between a "light side" or a "dark side" ceremony and enjoy yourselves! (Please note that the ceremony isn't legally binding. ;)

Wedding at IKEA?

2010-05-09T22:15:00.004+02:00

IKEA is running a campaign right now, where you connect to their campaign site through your Facebook account, propose to the love of your life, and the funniest/best proposal wins the couple a 50 guest reception, complete with food, decorations, flowers and everything.

I think it's a fun idea, so if you're about to propose; check out their site! :)

Picture from IKEA's campaign site.

Speculations were correct, unfortunately

2010-04-30T15:02:00.002+02:00

The speculations about H. R. H. Princess Madeleine and Mr. Jonas Bergström having problems in their relationship, unfortunately seem to have been true. A few days ago, the Royal Court announced that the young couple will separate. That means only one royal wedding will be held in the near future, so that gives me another few years to try to land the account of the next one. ;) I don't mean to be disrespectful, I feel sorry for Princess Madeleine, but I'm sure she will find happiness soon!

Ice cream wedding

2010-04-26T12:54:00.007+02:00

I've been meaning to write a blog post about ice cream. Not only because I simply LOVE ice cream, but also due to the fact that the whole of Sweden wants to ride the wedding wave created by the royal wedding to come. GB Glace, Sweden's largest ice cream manufacturer, have a clown, Clovve, as their mascot. Clovve will get married to Clovina, at Sweden's largest amusement park, Liseberg, on the 16th of May. Cute idea, and to honor their marriage (or possibly to sell more ice cream ;) GB Glace have come up with a special wedding ice cream cone; "Bröllopsstruten". And kanal 5 (a TV station) has created a whole campaign site, and will live stream the wedding on their site on the 16th.

Picture from GB Glace.

So, why I decided to write the ice cream post just today was that I saw (on Facebook, thanks to Anders Sporring) that 7Eleven/GB Glace give out one free ice cream cone per person (they have 5000 to give out) if you log on to their site using your Facebook account. Then you enter your phone number and get an SMS coupon that can be used in 7Elevens all over the country. (On the site they also have a counter, that counts down so you can see how many of the 5000 free ice creams are left.)

So, first they have a campaign to draw more attention to GB Glace (Clovve getting married). Then they give out free samples to even more strengthen the brand and make people love it. Clever. They even get your email address and phone number; you give them up voluntarily, because you know you'll be getting one of their delicious ice creams, for FREE! Even more clever.

Picture from GB Glace.

But what happened next is a short tale on how marketing campaigns make people (me) buy something they maybe didn't need.

I'm on a no sugar/no carb diet. I do it for multiple reasons, but I try, as best as I can, to keep sugar/carb intake as low as possible. So I don't buy ice cream. But then I saw the offer on Facebook, and thought: "Wow, a free ice cream. I can't pass on that, diet or no diet." I went to the site, entered my information while my mouth was watering form the thought of the ice cream. I got the SMS coupon sent to my phone, and went off to the nearest 7Eleven. Since I am in Stockholm right now, you're never far from one. On the way there, I call my husband, to tell him about this great offer. He had (of course) already seen it on Facebook and said; "but here in the north, were we live, we don't have any 7Elevens, so I won't bother." We had a short argument about whether he was right or not (and I must admit that I think he was), but this also made my craving for ice cream even bigger. I arrive at my 7Eleven, happy, thinking about the smooth ice cream running down my throat, only to find that they were all out of the wedding cone, Bröllopsstruten. Total disappointment. So, I take the next best route; I buy another ice cream. Of course I am disappointed, but I still have my coupon, I'll get my free ice cream another day, and I also have another delicious ice cream to munch away at right now, in the sun.

Picture from 7Eleven.

So GB Glace and 7Eleven "win". I fell for a cheap PR trick, went into the store, and came out with something I really didn't need or was planning on buying. Good job! ;)

Now, enjoy your ice creams out there, and I'll try to be present at Clovve and Clovinas wedding to give you a report.

(And yes, Liseberg wins too, since I'm actually considering paying the entrance fee just to go watch a fictional wedding... ;)

(And of course you can "like" Clovve on Facebook...)

Picture from Clovve's page on Facebook.

Royal wedding web

2010-04-15T16:44:00.004+02:00

Yesterday, the Swedish Royal Court released the royal wedding web. A web site with information about H. R. H. the Crown Princess Victoria's wedding to Mr. Daniel Westling. Check it out if you're curious about the program or anything else.

No royal wedding

2010-04-13T13:21:00.006+02:00

For those of you who were hoping for double royal weddings this year, it looks like you might be disappointed. H. M. the Queen announced to a Swedish newspaper that Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine won't be getting married to Jonas this year, as previously planned, due to many issues around the royal family.

In my opinion, this is probably better for Princess Madeleine. She gets more time to plan her wedding and she will hopefully not have to worry about two royal weddings being too much for guests, family and the country of Sweden.

Unfortunately this statement also causes a lot of speculations about the young couple breaking up etc, but let's hope that's not the case.

My previous post about H. R. H. Princess Madeleine and Jonas.

Picture from Wikimedia Commons.

Courageux

2010-04-05T21:23:00.005+02:00

Last week I went to Åre Guld, the jewellery store in Åre, to talk to Magnus who owns the shop. Magnus is also a jewellery designer who designs for a brand called Courageux, and I thought I'd just share some of his ring designs with you. Enjoy!

Åre Wedding Village

2010-03-07T17:08:00.009+01:00

I've started up a new project in Åre, called Bröllopsbyn (The Wedding Village). In, and around Åre, all suppliers needed to plan and have a beautiful and unique wedding, are present. Åre has photographers, hair dressers, flower shops, a wedding planner, hotels, restaurants, caterers, activities suppliers, jewelers, churches and gorgeous surroundings. Simply put; whatever you need to create your dream wedding.

I got an idea from Anna, at Hotel Diplomat Åregården, to try to gather all suppliers, and market Åre as the perfect Wedding Village. So I contacted a few of the suppliers, and we decided to try to apply for some fundings from the Leader program, which is a EU program. The plan is to create a marketing material for the village and all it's suppliers, and to go on different wedding fairs, marketing all the advantages of getting married in Åre.

I've just finished the work for the initial application, and will send it in Monday. But browsing the news today, I noticed that another region had the same idea. An article in GP tells about a few wedding suppliers in Sävelången area, who are starting up a wedding project, applying for money from the EU Leader program.

Well, hopefully Åre will still be able to get a positive response on our application. *keep your fingers crossed* :)

Weeding at the Central Station

2010-03-01T08:10:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, me and my husband took a weekend trip to Copenhagen. At the Central Station in Stockholm, I noticed a big red mailbox that I had to check out closer.

It turns out that Jernhusen, a real estate company, is hosting a wedding contest. You can win a wedding at the Central Station during the Easter weekend, all expenses paid for. (Well, almost all: hair, flowers, cake, music and a few more things are included.)

Before the 8th of March you can send in the story of your funny/different proposal and answer three questions, and you have the chance of being the lucky winner.

Jernhusen also have a few "love spots" all around the station.

On the contest's web page the company encourages couples to send in photos of themselves kissing or hugging at the love spots, and the photos will be published on the page. (Though I haven't seen any pictures yet, nor any link to pictures.)

A cute initative, and I wonder how many couples want to be married at the Central Station... I'll see if I can join the happy couple at the wedding on the 3rd of April, to take some pictures.

Happy balloons

2010-02-26T19:47:00.005+01:00

Yesterday, while driving my little vitamin car around Stockholm, I noticed that someone had been placing colorful balloons on various lamp posts around the city center.

The balloons had different messages on them: "Hakuna Matata", "Feed the birds" and "Say hi to the palace guard".

I have no idea whose idea this is and what purpose the balloons have, but they sure brightened up my day. :)

(And sorry about the poor quality of the pictures. It's kind of hard to drive a car and take photos with your cell phone at the same time. ;)

eBay wedding reception

2010-02-15T07:42:00.005+01:00

Do you live in Brisbane, Australia, and are planning to get married? Then check out this auction on eBay, starting at 99 cents! A hotel in Brisbane, the Normanby Hotel, is auctioning out a wedding reception for up to 80 guests, in order to celebrate the opening of the hotel's restaurant, Bovine.

Half of the income from the auction will be donated to the Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital so you're making a good deed while getting a (hopefully) good price. So go on now, start bidding! ;)

Photo from thenormanby.com.au

Read more in this article from The Courier Mail.

And thanks to Weinrauch Photography for the tip on twitter!

The "missing" video from ComHem

2010-02-09T18:09:00.006+01:00

I have had a few very busy weeks working on my "daytime" job, with Glacéau vitaminwater, but I found the video I blogged about a few weeks ago, from ComHem. It's funny, but unfortunately only in Swedish. Enjoy! :)

And check out someone who used ComHem's song, but the real TV intro's:

My other posts about ComHem.

And again....

2010-01-27T08:34:00.000+01:00

I just have to blog about this ICA commercial. In my opinion, ICA keep making hit after hit after hit. This time they "copy" the commercial for Gina Tricot, a clothes retailer. The TV commercial was released in the same day as the news that Gina Tricot's model for the last 7 years, Pernielle Holmboe, is being replaced with Brasilian model Emanuela de Paula.

There are different voices to be heard about the commercial. Many think that the agency behind ICA's commercials, King, is making it easy for themselves, parodising everything. I on the other hand, find the commercials funny. So what if they are "just" parodies? They get attention and people adore the ICA "family". Why not credit the agency for that?

Wedding fair at Grand Hôtel

2010-01-24T23:43:00.009+01:00

This past weekend I helped Bröllopsakademin at a big wedding fair at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm. It was great fun and I got a lot of inspiration. I'll share a few of the more interesting things with you:

Aldestam's custom make garters, in any possible color you want. I've seen many custom made garters in American web shops, but these are the first Swedish ones I see. They also carry all other sorts of bridal accessories.

Gorgeous hats/head pieces from Cecilia Olsson, who works as a hat maker for Fancy Lola.

And these roses are just the cutest. You can "print" on the outside of the rose, on the petal, any kind of message you want. The company Speaking Roses can also send the rose to someone for you.

Pilates, anyone?

2010-01-20T20:45:00.005+01:00

The other day, when I was driving up Odengatan in Stockholm, I spotted some green balloons on lamp posts along the street. I had to stop and see what they were.

They were a guerrilla marketing campaign for Stockholm Pilates Center, who will host an open house event this Friday, to celebrate that they moved to new and bigger premises. The folder attached to the balloons said something like: "Help us puncture the myth. More than just balls, individual training for the whole body." I must say I thought the slogan was quite catchy, and today when passing by again, many of the ballons were actually punctured...

Catchy and eye-catching. And probably not too expensive. That's my kind of guerrilla campaign! :) Well done, Stockholm Pilates Center!

Make sure to also check out Stockholm Pilates Center's Facebook page!

(And if you look closely in the second picture, you can see my Glacéau Vitaminwater car in the background. Yep, that's the car I'm driving around in Stockholm all day long... :)

Driftig!

2010-01-12T18:32:00.002+01:00

Me and my company LoveEvent, are from today featured as "member of the week" at Driftig.nu, Sweden's biggest community for women entrepreneurs. I'm flattered. :)

EDIT: My feature.

Driftig means something like enterprising, and next week I'll be attending Driftig.nu's Beautiful Business Awards, an award for exciting entrepreneurial women. It will hopefully be great fun to mingle around and see who will be nominated the winner!

Judit & Judit are late?

2010-01-11T20:06:00.009+01:00

Today I saw a very funny TV commercial from ComHem. It featured Judit & Judit in various movies and TV shows, advertising TV "On demand". I liked the commercial, and decided to blog about it (check out my previous post about ComHem's Judit & Judit here.)

Though, I was a bit surprised to find that the commercial can't be found anywhere on the internet. I googled, and checked ComHem's YouTube channel, but didn't find anything. I was a bit annoyed. In my mind, if you release a TV commercial, why not release it in social media at the same time as well? I decided to call Judit & Judit (since they are the spokespersons for ComHem's customer service ;). I talked to a nice boy who didn't know much, just that the TV commercials were released today, and if I didn't find it on YouTube, ComHem probably hadn't had time to upload it there. He suggested me to take a look on ComHem's web site (which I already had of course) but he said he wasn't sure the commercial could be found there. Quite disappointing actually.

The picture in this post is from comhem.se, so apparently there was a launch event held in Stockholm, but then, even more so, why not follow up with a YouTube upload?

So, instead of a blog post about a funny (possibly viral) commercial, it resulted in a blog post about Judit & Judit being late with their uploads. Or am I wrong? Is there maybe a strategy behind this? Please enlighten me! :)

ICA does it again :)

2009-12-29T20:41:00.003+01:00

ICA have come up with a new TV commercial, making a parody out of a Swedish video blogger (Amanda) who is quite "popular" on YouTube. Some like her blog, and some find her posts being quite meaningless. Anyway, many have heard of her, and many will certainly find ICA's commercial hilarious (as I did). Unfortunately, both clips are only in Swedish, but I am pretty sure the ICA one will become a viral video soon...

Check out one of the "original" clips from Amanda's Youtube channel.

And here is ICA's commercial:

My previous blog posts about ICA.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T18:17:00.004+01:00

Merry Christmas to all of my readers! I won't be so active on the blog during the Holidays, trying to have as much time off as possible, since I start a new job in Stockholm the 4th of January.

But please enjoy a picture of our Christmas Tree, and a page with some Christmas wedding ideas.

Peace out... ;)

Glacéau Vitaminwater launch party

2009-12-18T12:32:00.000+01:00

Some pics from Glacéau Vitaminwater's launch party at Summit:

Finest.se

Rodeo.net

Some bloggers about Glacéau Vitaminwater:

Fast Food Lovers

Who cares it's only fashion

Fashionguide.se

Glacéau Vitaminwater "Guerrilla" Campaign

2009-12-17T11:56:00.006+01:00

On Monday, Glacéau Vitaminwater was launched in Stockholm. The hydrating, great-tasting vitamin enhanced beverage comes in 6 different flavors and functions, and is only promoted through sampling and PR activities. No commercials on TV or in magazines. Interesting. Read more about it in Dagens Media.

Picture from glaceau.se.

Of course, I might be a bit biased reporting about Glacéau Vitaminwater, since I'll be working for UMG with the PR activites... but, hey, I wouldn't be human if I had always been objective. ;)

The only downsize is that the glaceau.se web page is not finished yet, apparently due to the IT guys playing too much online poker. ;)

ICA and Jamie Oliver

2009-12-08T20:30:00.003+01:00

ICA is a grocery chain in Sweden, and they have made theirselves a name out of making short TV commercials building up a story about their employees. Many of the commercials are very popular, and the most recent one features Jamie Oliver. I like it!

Follow ICA on Twitter.

Gay marriage in New York

2009-12-03T23:29:00.003+01:00

Unfortunately, yesterday, the New York State Senate voted against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state of New York. Apparently the New Yorkers aren't as liberal as I thought....

Short article in Swedish.

My other post about same-sex marriages.

The difference between good and bad customer service

2009-12-02T22:01:00.012+01:00

My suitcase got broken the last time I flew. I reported it to SAS who would replace it with a new. This post will however NOT be about SAS' customer service.

SAS couldn't replace the suitcase with one exactly as I had (since it had a pretty cat design on the outside, corny, I know, but very easy to spot on the luggage conveyor). So, SAS told me I could go to the store where I bought the suitcase, buy a new one and get refunded.

I had bought the suitcase at an accessories chain called accent, this April. I remembered I've seen the suitcase a few months ago, so I was hoping they would still carry it. So, I stepped in to an accent store, at a mini-mall in Stockholm. I asked the vendor lady about the suitcase (which I couldn't see anywhere in the store) and she confirmed that they didn't have it any more. I asked her if she could check if any other store had it in store (haha). She looked at me like a question mark and said: "No, we don't have that kind of computer system." OK, that is understandable, not all retail chains today have that kind of system. So I asked her if she could provide me with the phone number for the accent store in Östersund (the biggest town close to Duved, where I live) because it was there I'd last seen a suitcase like mine. Vendor lady picked up a paper with something scribbled on it, looked through it and said; "No, I just have a few phone numbers for the stores in Stockholm, you must use a computer to find the number yourself." At this point, I got a teeny bit annoyed and told her that maybe, in the future, it would be good to have a catalogue with phone numbers to other accent stores, in case customers would need them. I was on my way out when vendor lady half yelled after me; "Well, our headquarters tell us to tell the customers to go find the numbers themselves."

Picture from accent.se. It's not really my suitcase, but it's a similar one...

I got a bit more annoyed by this statement, and wanted to go to another chain to find my suitcase, but since I have a Samsung Galaxy phone, with unlmited internet access, I decided to check the phone numbers for the store in Östersund as well as the rest of the stores in Stockholm myself. I called Östersund without any luck, and also two other stores in Stockholm. When I reached the third, and last store in central Stockholm, a girl answered. I asked her about the suitcase and got the answer that they didn't carry it anymore. I was on the verge of saying "Thank you anyway" and hang up, when she asked me; "But do you want me to check if it can be found anywhere else?". And she didn't just do that. She took the time to find the article number for the suitcase, to check the computer system for which stores still had the suitcase in store, AND she gave me the phone numbers to those stores. I was amazed.

It all ended up with me calling a store in one of Stockholm's suburbs, having them hold a suitcase for me, driving over there and buying it.

So, I just wanted to write this post to show the HUGE difference between good and bad customer service. I could hardly believe that the two persons I encountered today actually work at the same company! So, this should go without saying, but, your reputation as a company all depends on how you treat your customers, and especially how you treat your customers when something has gone wrong.... Good thing for accent that they have someone like the last girl (don't remember her name though) to work for them, otherwise this post would have been much harsher in it's judgement... Thank you, nameless girl, for making my day! :)

Winter Wedding Photo

2009-11-30T07:54:00.002+01:00

I was browsing around the net and ran across Vimsmamman's blog. She has this lovely photo in one of her posts, and she writes that this is the best photo from her wedding. The best photos are taken when no-one is really prepared... I must of course agree, it's such a beatuiful photo, full of joy! :)

Vimsmamman is from Jämtland, the county where LoveEvent is based, so you get an idea of how a wedding in the North of Sweden could be...

Picture from Vimsmamman

True Blood Guerrilla

2009-11-27T16:39:00.005+01:00

I ran across this inventive guerrilla campaign for True Blood season 2 (in Sweden the series apparently airs on Canal+).

This lightboard is at a bus stop, and the picture of this guy is advertising some shopping mall. Oddly enough I didn't even check what mall, I was just so amused by the True Blood campaign... Anyway, someone attached a transparent sticker to the guys neck, making it look like he's been bitten by a vampire. There is also text saying "True Blood, season 2, Wednesdays at 20.00, Canal+". I liked it and it made me smile! :)

The show has been aired since September though, and I wonder if I'm just slow on noticing the campaign, or if Canal+ needs more wievers?

An older blog post about True Blood can be found here.

Chocolate!

2009-11-22T22:23:00.007+01:00

In Sweden, around the holidays (Christmas in particular), there is a custom to buy boxes of chocolates named Aladdin. The Aladdin chocolate boxes are manufactured by Kraft Foods (the largest producer of chocolate in the Nordic area) and Aladdin has been sold on the Swedish market for 70 years.

Picture from kraftfoodsnordic.com

Next year, Kraft Foods will exchange one of the chocolates in the box, for a new one. So they created this website called Rädda Julen (Save the Christmas) where you can vote for your favorite chocolate, and the one piece that gets the fewest votes will be the chocolate exchanged for the new one.

I think this is a good way of Kraft Foods to engage people in their product. People are voting to keep their favorite chocolate in the box. Nice looking website too! And there is also another cliffhanger (besides from the obvious one of which chocolate will be exchanged), and that is; what will the new chocolate look and taste like? People will probably check back to find out... Now, go save Christmas; vote!

P.S. I voted for gräddnougat :)

Be a hero!

2009-11-18T10:11:00.010+01:00

In Sweden, if you own a TV, it is mandatory to pay a fee for public TV and radio. There are two commercial-free public service TV channels that are bascially run by the government. The money is used to produce and purchase TV shows, and the news are (supposedly) objective.

The problem is that many people don't pay. It is kind of hard for Radiotjänst, as the name of the company that handles payments is, to check every home for a TV. So, they make commercials in order to get people to pay. They have previously run a few fun campaigns, including the popular "En snigel på ögat" (A snail on the eye) and Hembesök (House Call), and now they have a new one out.

Picture/logo from radiotjanst.se.

I saw a link on Facebook, from one of my friends. I clicked it and was redirected to a (Swedish) movie, where a woman, in an international press conference, asks how we can be sure that what we see on TV is real, and how we can be sure that even the little voices get heard. She explained it was due to one person, a hero, and she opens en envelope with a photo of my friends dog. You then see people all over the world cheering for the Swedish hero, and more photos of the dog, in different crowds, beeing hailed as a hero. I was amused, and curious, until the end of the movie, because it wasn't until then that it was revealed that why this dog was a hero was because it paid it's TV fee! So, the whole site, where you an upload a photo of yourself (or of your dog) and become a hero, is a campaign for the Swedish TV fee.

Ok, so the idea is maybe not new, but I like it nontheless, and here is my Hero movie (and yes, we do pay pour fee... ;) and here you can be a hero!

Footnote: Hembesök (House Call) actually won the Guldägget award for best film. Guldägget (The Golden Egg) is a competition hosted by The Swedish Association of Communication Agencies, an organisation for independent companies active in the business area of advertising. Here is a previous post about Guldägget.

Paint, or insurance, anyone?

2009-11-14T17:56:00.001+01:00

I stumbled across this lovely guerrilla/ambient marketing campaign for Nationwide insurances, called "Life comes at you fast". The campaign is quite old, from 2007 or so, but I think it's really funny so I decided to feature it anyway.

I found a post about it at adsoftheworld.com, and that's also from where I borrowed the picture.

The agency who created the campaign was TM Advertising, in Texas.

Trash the Dress

2009-11-12T13:40:00.003+01:00

On Twitter, I follow Weddingistas, a wedding planning service in Connecticut. Through their tweets and their blog, I came across this absolutely GORGEOUS Trash the Dress photo shoot. Check out photographer Michael Maler's mini web site with pics from the session. Fabulous!

Follow Weddingistas and Michael Maler on Twitter!

Lindex downsizes...

2009-11-10T22:57:00.005+01:00

So it turns out, Lindex' new collection, Affordable Luxury, designed by Ewa Larsson, has gotten some criticism due to the fact that it is only sold in the sizes S and M (Swedish sizes 36-42).

PR expert Paul Ronge thinks it is discriminating, (web TV from Aftonbladet.se, unfortunately only in Swedish). Lindex claims it is a limited collection, and that 36-42 sizes are the sizes that are mostly sold in their stores. Lindex have written an explanation (in Swedish) here.

I agree with Ronge, it is discriminating. Thumbs down for Lindex.

Link to my Lindex post from the other day, where I comment on their Party Collection dress sizes.

ComHem <3 YouTube

2009-11-10T10:29:00.002+01:00

ComHem, a Swedish internet and TV supplier, have made the coolest commercial viral video ever! ComHem's spokes persons are Judit & Judit, two middle aged women (twins?). Anyway, the latest commercial features popular YouTube clips, but with Judit & Judit acting out in the clips instead. The commercial is hilarious if you are interested in viral videos and their spread, and if you have spent some time on YouTube, you have probably already seen most of the original clips...

The video is, according to ComHem, a tribute to everyone contributing to the internet, making it what it is. Check out ComHem's campaign site (in Swedish). Here is a link to the English version of the commercial, and if you want to compare Judit & Judit's clips with the original clips, I suggest you try this YouTube link.

And I'm guessing this will become a bit of a viral video itself, since it has been played over 240 000 times since it was uploaded on the 28th of October. ;)

Ashes

2009-11-08T21:23:00.004+01:00

A Non Smoking Generation (ANSG) have started a collaboration with Swedish jewelry retailer Glitter. In order to celebrate ANSG's 30th anniversary, Glitter have created a jewelry collection called Ashes. Ashes will be sold during the month of November in all of Glitter's 80 Swedish stores.

In the press release you can read that according to a survey, 41% of second year high school female students are smoking. 41%! That's a lot!!!!. You can also read that half of Glitter's income from the Ashes jewelry line will be donated to ANSG and their work. Good intiative Glitter, way to go! :)

A Non Smoking Generation's blog.

My previous posts about A Non Smoking Generation.

Lindex goes SM?

2009-11-06T10:48:00.011+01:00

Lindex is one of the biggest fashion retailers in Sweden. They recently announced that they will be selling some of their clothes on Tradera (Swedish eBay). The winner of the auction will get a code that they will use in Lindex' web shop to purchase the clothing item. A good idea to drive more traffic to their site perhaps? Way to go Lindex! Check out the Lindex Tradera store to see what items are up for grabs.

Lindex have quite recently started exploring social media. On May 4th they started a Twitter account, with news from their stores and from their web shop, but, they only have 359 followers! Even I have more followers than that, and I wonder why? But maybe it's just the fact that Twitter hasn't had quite the impact in Sweden as it has had internationally yet...

Lindex are also present on YouTube (20 followers) and on Facebook, (4360 fans) and you can easily follow from Lindex' web site.

Cute dresses are always appreciated, and Lindex did recently come out with a very nice collection of party outfits. What is not equally appreciated is that the dresses can only be bought up to Swedish size 42. Not nice, Lindex! Why not make the dresses up to size 44, or even size 46?!?

Gay marriage in church, finally

2009-10-23T21:33:00.008+02:00

Yesterday, the Swedish "State Church" voted YES to allowing people of the same sex to get married in church. (Article in Swedish from GP, and an article in English from The Local.)

I think this shoud have been done many years ago. I mean, why shouldn't all people have equal rights?!?!

"Wedding of Mathieu Chantelois and Marcelo Gomez, one of the first same-sex marriage in Canada; Toronto, 3 July 2003. Personal snapshot." (From Wikimedia Commons)

This ad cost nothing

2009-10-12T11:14:00.003+02:00

Marketing agency The Via Group donated a guerrilla campagin to The Salvation Army in Portland, Oregon. They used local businesses, and the campaign was known as "This ad cost nothing". The campaign site can be found here. (Picture borrowed from the site.)

The campaign was quite inventive and cute, and the agency embraces one of the trends that is growing bigger and bigger; CSR, Corporate Social Responsability.

An article in English, from Springwise, and an article in Swedish, from CSR i praktiken.

And by the way, The Via Group probably has the coolest tagline ever: "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible will be done by Thursday." I love it! :)

Gorgeous wedding pictures

2009-10-06T21:58:00.004+02:00

From time to time I check out this blog: Style me Pretty, a wedding blog well worth reading.

Today I just wanted to share with you some gorgeous wedding pictures taken for Brides Northern California. The sets are styled by Gloria Wong and photographed by Lisa Lefkowitz, and they are absolutely fabulous! If I would get married now, I'd want my wedding to look something like this!

Enjoy! :)

Starring Maja (Prinsessa)

2009-10-02T18:38:00.004+02:00

If you want to see a good movie, and also maybe catch a glimpse of me and my husband (filmed at our wedding) go check out Starring Maja (Prinsessa in Swedish).

In a hopelessly small town somewhere in long and narrow Sweden, lives Maja, 18 years old. Her life’s dream is to become an actress. She wants everyone to see her, the beautiful person she is on the inside. Only, it’s a little hard to see. Heavily overweight, clumsy and socially inept, Maja struggles to realise her life’s dream during her final term at high school.

Young not-so-successful documentary filmmaker Erica runs into Maja by chance and sees the opportunity to make entertainment out of Maja’s seemingly hopeless struggle, but she is soon captured by Maja’s warmth and never ending enthusiasm.

Maja’s road to success is lined with comedy and tragedy, as she constantly has to face the prejudice against someone with the ”wrong” appearance. Yet she struggles on regardless, trying to find the strength and self-esteem necessary to really take center stage – on her own terms.

Prinsessa at Wiki in Swedish.

Prinsessa at IMDb.

Prinsessa's official web site.

Photo: SF Film

From True Love to True Blood...

2009-09-26T11:00:00.007+02:00

I just got hooked on this really nice TV series called True Blood. The show is about vampires being part of the normal society (yeah, I've always had this thing for vampires ;), due to a newly invented "fake blood" drink, called Tru:Blood, substituting real blood, allowing the vampires to live amongst "normal" people and feed without having to kill their neighbours. When I did some research, it seems that they did a quite massive marketing campaign for the series before it aired.

Picture from hbo.com.

According to Wikipedia, the marketing company created an "viral marketing/alternate reality game" campaign, and they sent out encoded letters to bloggers. They placed "Sorry, we're all out of Tru:Blood"-cards in some beverage vending machine spaces. They also started selling blood orange drinks called Tru:Blood (like in the series) at HBO.com (truebeverage.com), and, not to mention, Vampire jewelry. More about the jewelry at Brandfreak, and more about the campaign at Marketingshift blog, (Marketingshift blog post is from last year, but the series just started airing in Sweden...)

True Blood is starting to be a hype here in Sweden, the series becoming a buzz (since only the 4 first episodes from season 1 have aired) and I really recommend you to watch it. (Check out SVT Play for some of the alreday aired episodes.)

Göteborg Guerrilla

2009-09-23T14:38:00.004+02:00

This post should have been published some time ago, but here goes...

I was in Göteborg a few months ago, and found these really funny signs in different locations. They looked like road signs but had other meanings. The signs were art work, from a Danish duo, Bosch & Fjord, , but they also doubled as guerrilla marketing for the exhibition in which they participated, at Göteborgs Konsthall.

A quite funny and startling intentional (?) guerrilla campaign.

Bored?

2009-09-16T22:26:00.002+02:00

If you understand Swedish, and are a bit bored, check out this blog: Nummeruppplysaren. It's a person working for a number information service, who blogs about funny situations from his/her work. You can also check out Nattpass på Nummerupplysningen, on the same theme...

Divorce Dance

2009-09-04T10:53:00.003+02:00

A few weeks ago, this YouTube video, of a couple dancing their way into church before the wedding ceremony, was widely spread over the internet. It was quite viral, at least within wedding businesses.

So, a few days ago I found that the same couple made a divorce video, really funny, and a bit more choreographed than the wedding one. Enjoy! (And don't worry, they're not REALLY divorcing ;)

True Love?

2009-08-23T23:36:00.004+02:00

This hoodie design is called True Love, and can be found on Zazzle.
True or false? Funny anyway! :)

Picture from www.zazzle.com

Commercials

2009-08-22T13:10:00.003+02:00

The blog has had lot's of posts about weddings lately, and not so much about advertising and viral videos, so I thought I'd share one of my favorite commercials/viral videos. This commercial for Volkswagen was never aired in Sweden, but it is hilarious! Enjoy!

Double Wedding pics

2009-08-16T00:48:00.014+02:00

So, here are finally some pictures from last week's double wedding in Kall, Åre. I so much enjoyed working with the happy couples, and getting to know them and their lovely big family!

I wish all the best and long happy marriages to Kathrine & Peter and Carolina & Erik! I will so miss our planning
meetings and I really appreciate that you had the confidence and trust in me, to let me be a part of your lovely day!

Royal Wedding number 2

2009-08-12T10:25:00.004+02:00

So, yesterday it was (finally) announced that also Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine of Sweden is getting engaged. Congratulations to her and her fiancé Jonas! They have been a couple for 7 years, but I guess the poor thing had to wait for her older sister to get engaged first... Anyway, if I don't get a chance to work at Crown Princess Victoria's wedding, I might get a chance to work at Princess Madeleine's ;)

Wedding!

2009-08-09T21:05:00.003+02:00

And, oh what a wedding! :) It was a success, I have found my calling! Pictures to follow...

Last day preparations

2009-08-07T19:20:00.004+02:00

Tomorrow is The Day!
Today was rehearsal at church, and further down you can see my very busy couples, finishing the last details before going off to the hotel for some pampering (the brides) and some beer on the porch (the grooms).

Wish us luck tomorrow!

Wedding coming up

2009-08-05T18:11:00.009+02:00

So, this Saturday I have the double wedding coming up. That's why it has been so quiet on the blog. I've been quite busy sewing tulle, polishing wine glasses, printing seating charts, chasing musicians etc.

Almost everything is done (yay, my time plan seems to hold up!), now it's just the big question left on when to set the table. We were supposed to do it tomorrow, but it turned out to be quite damp in the party tent during night, so maybe the table cloths will be destroyed? Saturday is totally out of the question, but maybe Friday? We have a few hours between church rehersal and nail/manicure appointment, but is that enough? Will the grooms with some relatives manage to set the table Friday evening (when the brides are relaxing at the spa)? Stay tuned to learn the answer! ;)

Wedding Dance

2009-07-24T21:50:00.006+02:00

Since I'm working with these two lovely couples for the double wedding in Kall the 8th of August, I really can't think about other things than wedding stuff (not that I wish otherwise ;)

Today I started thinking about wedding first dances, and there are a ton of them on YouTube (of various qualities). I like this one, since it is a bit different than the other ones. I really love lindy hop, the dance, and the music. I wish I could dance it, but there is no time to take classes right now. Anyway, enjoy the show!

Me and my husband's first dance? A friend of ours choreographed a tango for us, to the song "Roxanne" from the movie "Moulin Rouge". If I manage to make the video smaller, I'll post it here one day.

Glass

2009-07-19T00:15:00.007+02:00

I went the other week to speak to the two lovely girls at Åre Glashytta, to see if our companies could have a cooperation in the future (me wanting personalized glass items for my wedding couples).

The girls are both really sweet, and one of them has a cousin who is a wedding planner in Gotland (an island off of Sweden's east coast (Sweden's largest island actually), very popular for weddings). Check out Bröllopsdrömmar.

Picture from http://www.areglashytta.se

I think I really need to start thinking about pricing, so it's good to get tips about other wedding planners around Sweden...

Wedding Sneak Peek

2009-07-12T16:35:00.027+02:00

Yesterday I did my first job as a Wedding Planner!
It was so much fun, and here is a sneak peek on some of the photos. The rest will be on my new web page (launching soon!), and I will also post as soon as I get the "official" photographs...

Best wishes to Sanna and Oscar!
I am so glad I had the opportunity to help you with your big day! I am confident the two of you will have a great life together!

Blogger's block...

2009-07-04T22:02:00.004+02:00

Well, I haven't blogged for a while, I've been a bit busy.

I have taken on two wedding assignments, pro bono, in order to use the couples as future references. The first wedding is Sanna's and Oskar's. They will get married the 11th of July in Åre.
The other wedding is a double wedding: Kathrine and Peter and Carolina and Erik are getting married the 8th of August in Kall. Here are some pictures form the beautiful Kall church, where the wedding ceremony will take place. Isn't it beautiful?

As well as these weddings, I am also working as a Liaison Officer for the Swedish Presidency of EU, so I'm travelling all over Sweden, helping out with the Romanian delegation at informal ministrial meetings. Very interesting, but also time consuming....

So, I apologise for not blogging every day, but I'll do my best to keep the posts coming....

An also, soon, a new web site will be up, be patient! :)

Wedding cake advertising

2009-06-28T22:33:00.000+02:00

Click here for a very nice collection of wedding cake themed ads. I like the Axe one best, which one do you like?

Ambient marketing

2009-06-27T19:15:00.003+02:00

I found this blog: Crooked Brains, where they have lot's of interesting marketing blog posts and also lot's of not so much interesting, but even so, sometimes hilarious, blog posts with cats that look like Hitler.
Anyway, this post was of particular interest for me, since it has lot's of funny examples of ambient/guerrilla marketing. Check it out!

Boilerplate

2009-06-22T09:50:00.001+02:00

Learned a new word the other day: boilerplate. It is a describing text (for example about your company) that you can print on the bottom of letters/web pages etc, without making lot's of adjustments to the text.

Boilerplate @ Wiki.

Social Marketing

2009-06-21T18:56:00.002+02:00

I will read this "handbook": "Social Marketing Playbook" as soon as I get the time.
360i Social Marketing Playbook
It seems very interesting, but I have other interesting stuff going on! Will let you know as soon as I can... :)

American phone number

2009-06-20T11:06:00.002+02:00

I saw that the Swedish Price Waterhouse Coopers offices have got a cool phone number: 0771-PWC PWC (0771-792 792). The number is of course a good way to strengthen the PWC brand. For those of you that are Americans out there, this might not be so newsworthy, but in Sweden it is quite unusual to have phone numbers formed from words.
Upcoming trend maybe?! Mine would of course be 056-8338368 :)

In-game advertising

2009-06-18T09:20:00.001+02:00

At the airport the other week I picked up the magazine Gate, and I read a very interesting article about in-game advertising (IGA). It's quite amazing all the stuff I find interesting in airport magazines...

Anyway, the article discusses IGA as the new (and possibly only) way to reach the target group of men, 18-34 years old. They play computer games more than they watch TV, and apparently the target group find that IGA make the games more realistic. According to the article, one of the more famous usages of IGA was the start-up of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, where his picture and the slogan "Vote for change" was seen on billboards in 18 different computer games. This was the first time IGA was used in a presidential campaign, and apparently it was quite successful, right?! ;)

Ed Bartlett from the company IGA Worldwide thinks that IGA is very successful due to two different aspects: 1) when you play a game, it is multi-tasking-secure. You must be 100 % focused on the game and focus on what's going on on the screen. 2) IGA Worldwide has a way of measuring the size and screen time for each advertiser, and so the client is only invoiced for actual exposure. These two aspects combined with the high concentration of wealthy 18-34 year olds and the strong growth within gaming segment gives a very potent mix in advertising. But Ed might be a bit biased ;)

Even so, it might be that IGA is something we will see more of in the future, or what do YOU think?

innocent storytelling

2009-06-17T12:37:00.006+02:00

Last week, I attended an event hosted by Passion for Business magazine and Casall Sportswear. The event was catered by Blueberry. They served sandwiches and innocent smoothies. With the smoothies came a small information booklet. I was going to just throw it away but decide to flip through it. In the booklet you could read the story behind innocent smoothies.
Picture borrowed from innocentdrinks.se.

Three London guys bougth a whole lot of fruit and rented a stall at a music festival. They made smoothies of the fruit and had a sign on the stall saying "Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?". In front of the stall they had two waste bins, one for YES and one for NO, so their customers could vote. By the end of the festival the YES waste bin was full, and the next Monday the guys quit their job and started a smoothies company called innocent. Read their full story here.
This little story, true or false, made me feel like there are real people behind the company, and it made the company more trustworthy. When they state that their smoothies contain only fresh fruit and nothing else, I am prone to believe them!

Innocent now is represented all over the world, and seem to be keeping a very familiar tone in ther marketing strategy, they even call all their customers 'family'! This is something that appeals to me and I will sure continue to buy innocent smoothies...

Wedding invitation inspiration

2009-06-10T22:24:00.004+02:00

Some wedding invitation inspiration for you! And if you need more, check out these links;
Bella Figura, Kate's Wedding or Hello Lucky.

Branding by Tony Apéria

2009-06-06T13:32:00.006+02:00

Last week at the airport I picked up a copy of the airport magazine "Inrikes". It featured an interesting, but too short, article about Tony Apéria, and his Nordic Brand Academy. Each year they publish a list of the most successful Swedish brands. This year IKEA was number one.

Apéria states two important perspectives when building brand strategies: first, the managment needs to have a clear vision and get the employees to feel as a part of the corporate culture, and secondly, the employees need to engage the clients as part of the vision.
Apéria also speaks of building emotional connections and trying to get the brand's personality to shine through.

Interesting, but, too short. I will have to check out some of Apéria's books... Pick up the magazine at the airport if you are flying within Sweden the next few weeks!

Extraordinary events blog

2009-06-04T08:29:00.001+02:00

Need inspiration, as well as hands-on planning tips for that extraordinary event? Check out ready 2 spark blog! Really my kind of stuff! :)

Boot camp for event planners (Canada)

2009-06-03T21:16:00.002+02:00

If you live in Canada you might want to check out the Special Event Boot Camp, a series of workshops for event planners.

A few guerrilla marketing tips

2009-06-02T09:02:00.001+02:00

Find some guerrilla marketing tips in the article: Guerrilla Marketing Isn't Just Monkey Business, from TheStreet.com. (Though the site itself doesn't seem to be marketing related...)

Since I believe in the cause...

2009-05-29T14:10:00.011+02:00

...yet another blog post about A Non Smoking Generation. Previous posts tagged A Non Smoking Generation can be found here.

Just in time for 31st of May, World No Tobacco Day 2009, A Non Smoking Generation together with agency Tank/Y&R, have come up with a new brilliant campaign. Food products, with warning labels on them, are being distributed to food stores, in order to make the owners of the stores reflect about what kind of products they are actually promoting and selling to their customers. All in the name of name of a good cause; trying to make it harder for young people to start smoking! I like it!

No press release from A Non Smoking Generation yet, but read an article in Swedish, from Resumé, here.

Picture from the web page of A Non Smoking Generation

Italian Guerrilla Blog

2009-05-29T08:17:00.001+02:00

OK, so it is all in Italian, but you can pretty much figure out what they want to say anyway, thanks to the many YouTube clips. Check out the Italian Bloguerrilla blog!

Billionaire wedding by Swedish agency

2009-05-27T08:04:00.000+02:00

The Swedish event agency Initiativ were in charge of the billionaire Charles Simonyi's wedding in Göteborg last november. One of the guests invited was Bill Gates. Security was massive. Read a Swedish article about it here (at Resumé).

I wonder if any private agency will be asked to help out with the Swedish Crown Princess' wedding?!?

Habit Fashion Summit 2009

2009-05-26T09:17:00.002+02:00

Tomoorow is Habit Fashion Summit.09, a day for the fashion business, packed with internationally renowned names within brand development. I really wish I had something to do with the fashion business, so I could attend the day for a "real" reason ;) Summary of the Fashion Summit in English can be found here.

And by the way, I did my training (within the event management program that I'm attending) at the company behind the magazine Habit and the Fashion Summit event; Mentor Communications/Mentor Online for 11 weeks this spring. It was so much fun, I learned a lot of new things, and I really miss my colleagues there!

Kreafon on Twitter

2009-05-25T20:17:00.003+02:00

So, it turns out it really does take up a lot of your time trying to keep up to date with everything that happens on the internet and in all social networks and blogs...

Only a mere five days after my blog post about communication agency Kreafon, where I kind of dissed them for being, according to themselves, "in the front" when it comes to social media, though they did not even have presence neither on Facebook nor on twitter, they actually started a twitter account and are now official twitters! Well done, Kreafon! :) Follow them on twitter here, I know I will.

Shame on me!

2009-05-25T16:25:00.001+02:00

I'm not thoroughly updated! Miami has a new website design and a blog! Check them out! NOW! It's an order! ;)
I love their website design so much! It really makes me long for sugary breakfasts at American 50's style café Egg & Milk in Göteborg (no website, but contact information can be found here).

Swedish Guerrilla Marketing blog (My Quest)

2009-05-25T14:59:00.006+02:00

Yay! I found this blog: Icke-traditionella medier (translates: non-traditional media) that has posts about, yes, you guessed; non-traditional media, such as guerrilla marketing and ambient media. The blog is in Swedish, but contains lot's of pictures and film clips. It's hosted by a communication agency in Malmö; Crowd, and from what I can read on their webpage, they do quite a lot of guerrilla marketing campaigns. Me like!

Well, Crowd did a mini campaign together with one of my favourite agencies; Miami. It was during Eventdagarna, a Swedish fair for, amongst others, event agencies. The fair had the subject of "Event Marketing", and neither Crowd nor Miami attended. They sprayed water logos on and around the fair area, stating "Guerrilla and ambient are not events", in order to make a statement that they would have liked to have representatives from guerrilla agencies there, and that maybe the fair should not have been called Eventdagarna (The Event Days). Read an article about the campaign, from Dagens Media here.

I do agree that guerrilla and ambient are not events, BUT I do firmly believe that you might need to incorporate many different parts of different media in order to get a campaign that reaches your target group to a full extent. It is normally not enought to just buy an ad in a magazine or newspaper, you need to follow up with TV, maybe radio, a few events and maybe som attention-creating guerrilla actions.

How to build your pesonal brand (Swedish)

2009-05-24T14:10:00.003+02:00

An article from IDG, describing in detail how to build your personal brand with small means, such as presence in social media. Unfortunately the article is only in Swedish, but if you are Swedish: read it!

Wedding dress trends

2009-05-24T12:42:00.004+02:00

An article in today's Dagens Nyheter (one of Swedens largest daily newspapers) show some of the trends for wedding dresses this year. The text is only in Swedish, but there are also pictures!

The three different styles portrayed are: the hip bride, the stylish/modern bride and the romantic bride. Which one are you?

Winter wedding inspiration

2009-05-18T12:39:00.009+02:00

So, it's spring here, and what suits better than... winter photos?!? ;) (I appologize for the quality of some of the photos, they are taken with a mobile phone camera. Sometimes when "perfect photo op's" show up, I tend to not have my regular camera with me...)

Business plan

2009-05-13T12:12:00.003+02:00

So, a few days ago I just finished the business plan for my company: Nordic LoveEvent. I put quite a lot of work in it, and I just submitted it to the city of Åre, to apply for fundings. The city of Åre gives out grants to newly started companies for development, marketing etc. And yesterday I found a post by Tim Berry, at OPEN Forum. The post deals with what your business plan should NOT contain. Fortunately, it seems like my business plan would have passed! :) Now, just keep your fingers crossed that the city of Åre thinks it's good!

Sassy!

2009-05-11T20:29:00.003+02:00

Need some sassiness in your life? Check out America's sassiest life style guru, Steve Kemble's website! I sooo wish I could work for him, it seems like his events are so much fun! :)

best YET

2009-05-11T17:08:00.007+02:00

One of the two Swedish teams competing, stole the third price in the European finals of the newspaper advertising contest best YET. An article about the Swedish team, consisting of Philip Frendberg from B9 Advertising and Tobias Grönberg from Deasign, can be found here (Resumé), and also: the Swedish site for best YET. But I tried to find another (international) site about it, or something about who is behind the award, but I couldn't find anything! Strange! Anyone out there who know where to look?

Oh, and the team that won was from Belgium; Ross McCurrac och Arnaud Bailly, working at Saatchi. Saatchi & Saatchi is one of my favourite agencies (due to Kevin Roberts and his concept "Lovemarks", which is one of the catalysts for this blog...) (Find earlier posts about Saatchi here and here).

Swedish wedding inspiration photos

2009-05-08T12:55:00.013+02:00

How about getting married in Åre? I'm going to share some of my photos, and I'll start with autumn. The church is the one in Duved, a very pretty one.

Branding agency Brandflight

2009-05-08T12:16:00.001+02:00

Check out Brandflight, and their 4D brand model. Quite interesting, and "hands-on". They sort of take Lovemarks ideas a few steps further...

Wedding inspiration blog

2009-05-07T18:36:00.002+02:00

Check out PreWife, for some nice wedding inspiration. Love the Darth Vader Helmet cake and the Shrek Wedding!!!!!

Looking for an event job?

2009-05-06T20:52:00.001+02:00

Check out this site: event-jobs.net. Mostly jobs in the UK, but you can find the one or two odd international jobs as well!

Wedding inspiration

2009-05-05T10:58:00.003+02:00

First of all, check out this blog with lot's of daily wedding inspiration!

And if you live in the states: dont miss out on all the vendors, suppliers, wedding enthusiasts and brides-to-be that hover this new networking site: BridalTweet.

Wedding favor. Photo: Eva Quirbach

McDonald's brand

2009-05-03T15:52:00.003+02:00

I saw this strip (originally here) and, wether you want it or not, McDonald's is the 8th most powerful brand in the world, according to this report.

And even though McDonald's must be pouring tons of money into advertising and PR, they also seem to spend money on their employees.

I heard that a manager, starting up a fast food pizza chain in Stockholm, wanted to get experienced fast food employees, and thus tried to recruit personell from the three big hamburger chains in Sweden: McDonald's, Burger King and Max. He offered them a better salary, hoping to attract competent people. The employees at Burger King and Max didn't have any problem at all switching work places, but the manager could not get a single employee to leave McDonald's. The McDonald's emloyees all stated that the personal and work related development opportunities at McDonald's were so good, that they didn't want to leave the company. So maybe we should learn from McDonald's: money isn't all that counts...

No smoke publicity

2009-04-30T16:51:00.005+02:00

Since I am personally a big fan of people NOT starting to smoke, I am very pleased to see that Fredrik Söderhielm, Secretary General for A Non Smoking Generation, has written a debate article in Aftonbladet (Swedish daily paper) asking the government to take harder action against tobacco companies and tobacco advertising, such as hardening the rules on exposing tobacco products in food stores. (The article can be read here, and here is an earlier press release about it.)

I have earlier posted about A Non Smoking Generation's anti-tobacco campaign and also a post about them winning an advertising award for that campaign.

I like that the organisation keeps getting publicity, because I do really belive that smoking is bad for you, and every kid that can be prevented from starting to smoke is so worth all the work I imagine the organisation is putting into their PR campaigns. The article was almost a full spread, and is probably read by a lot of people. Go Fredrik and A Non Smoking Generation!!!

Event manager blog

2009-04-29T14:22:00.001+02:00

Sometimes I check out Nicole Jensens blog. She is an event manager from Brisbane, Australia, and she has useful tips for event management in her blog posts.

Virality Communication

2009-04-27T16:59:00.000+02:00

Virality Communication is a Swedish communication agency. Their blog shows different viral phenomena all over the world (and of course also some of the stuff the agency did for clients...)

A nice "viral" inspiration!

Speaking of viral marketing...

2009-04-27T10:39:00.002+02:00

YouTube can lead to many hours of fun, and if you, like I, enjoy Starwars, this YouTube-clip is quite hilarious!

Oh, and today LoveEvent blog is featured at Mastercom blog, check out this post!

1st of May Guerrilla, cont.

2009-04-24T08:54:00.006+02:00

They May Flower organisation (Majblomman) is continuing the campaign. They have posters/boards all over town promoting Majblomman and the fact that you actually can vote for next years colour. Resumé has an article about it (in Swedish only). The fun part is that on the outdoor posters/boards, you can press a button to cast your vote, so people can vote while waiting for the bus. Fun!

I wonder if I can find a poster somewhere?!?

YouTube

2009-04-23T09:40:00.009+02:00

I was just checking out YouTube, and this video clip of Susan Boyle on Britan's Got Talent has had over 40 million views! 40 millions!!! Thats quite huge!

And speaking of YouTube, a bunch of Swedish boys performed an "almost naked" dance, covering their privates with crisp bread, on the Swedish show "Talang" (Talent). The YouTube clips of their performance have also had a lot of impact, and they have even been featured by international blogger PerezHilton.com. You can read the blog post here, where you can also watch the clip. I got the tip from this article by Swedish Expressen (where you also can watch the clip).

The crisp bread reminded me of an old Swedish TV commercial, featuring Knäckehäxan (The Crisp Bread Witch). The commercial was made as a parody, and it wanted to make us buy more Start Muesli. I don't know if people did, but one of the lines from the commercial really stuck to people, and is still today used sometimes: "Sluta jiddra, börja trolla!" Watch the clip here.