“Go World builds on the concept that ran so successfully in the United States during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,” said Antonio Lucio, Chief Marketing Officer of Visa Inc. “To connect with Olympic fans globally, we’ve taken this platform and created a campaign that transcends borders, resonates with fans’ sense of national pride, builds our own business and that of our clients, and advances the spirit of the Olympic Movement.”

The Go World campaign celebrates athleticism and human triumph through unique athlete stories. It features a wintry blue tone throughout all creative executions and will be customized to maximize local relevance in key markets. The campaign also includes merchant offers, enhanced social media applications and a deeper focus on Visa-sponsored athletes (Team Visa – Vancouver).

See the athlete’s stories below. I challenge you not to well-up at Dan Jansen’s story!

You can also follow Go World on Facebook, visit their YouTube channel for more behind the scenes and training videos with the featured athletes or check out the microsite.

Alexi Salamone:

Jamaican Bobsled:

Dan Jansen:

True football fans don’t just sit there, they live for the action. TBWA\RAAD Dubai created a one-day event dubbed ‘soccer meets art’: a unique platform for true fans to go out there and play, to celebrate their passion for football.

A 5 x 2.5 meters blank canvas was installed at the center of Dubai International Academic City, a neighborhood housing 13 universities.

More than 8,000 students – many of them die hard fans – were invited to take part, to kick paint covered sponge balls on to the canvas.

All this was to create a unique art piece to be displayed during the FIFA Club World Cup 2009 UAE, held in Abu Dhabi.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email David Finley.

Le Figaro: Why did you make a digital specialist your right hand man?

Guillaume Pannaud: It springs from the absolute and essential metamorphosis of our industry. Philippe Simonet is one of the pioneers of the digital sector, yet this is the first time in France that a talent from that area has joined the management team of a large agency. It’s an upheaval – there will be a ‘before’ and an ‘after’. Fifty years ago, agencies were trying to integrate television into their offering; today it’s the turn of the Web. This process must be carried out at every level of the agency – and not via external growth or complex agreements. In that respect, two different visions are confronting one another in the market.

You’re subscribing to a logic that has already been adopted by TBWA at a global level.

GP: Branches of the group worldwide have recruited digital specialists and that has borne fruit, as TBWA now handles the interactive accounts of Pepsi, Visa and Adidas internationally.

Why not create a separate digital entity, like TBWA Interactive was before?

GP: That agency was founded within our marketing services arm, Tequila, two years ago. But today interactive must be anchored in a permanent and strategic manner at the heart of agencies. As for production tools, they can be externalized or outsourced – as is the case with regular audiovisual production – or indeed integrated. These are tactical or secondary choices that will be driven by the evolution the market. But TBWA certainly doesn’t want to get involved in a digital agency acquisition spree. That results in a juxtaposition of businesses and, inevitably, in the departure of talented people. On the contrary, TBWA wants to integrate them.

How do you explain the scarcity of digital talents in such a vibrant sector?

GP: You can count on the fingers of one hand the pure digital agencies whose breadth and savoir-faire are compatible with our mission as brand advisers. Their managers are sought-after by the entire market, because there’s such a huge need for them. And the talent battle has only just begun, because it’s not the production tools that count – they’re available to everyone – but the genuine advertising talents who are capable of responding to the new challenges of communication.

Read the full interview in Le Figaro or click HERE.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

Visa at Domodedovo in Moscow

In his conversation with Advertising Age Mr. Lucio especially pointed to his great experience across the world. “We were incredibly surprised with the success of the campaign in Russia, which was a big concern at the beginning. “Go” was not translating very well within the Russian language, so a lot of local adaptation was required. There are about 20 words in the Russian language that could imply the “go” message. [But] Russia is delivering some of the highest equity growth and brand links scores that we’ve seen. That was a big surprise [...]“.

Enjoy the complete interview online.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email to Natalia Abbasova.

AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR

BRAND BEHAVIOR Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Digital Officer for TBWA\Worldwide, challenges marketers to “advertise at the speed of culture”— making the case for designing constant communications at the intersections of product, culture, news and events. It’s a fleet of micro-initiatives as ongoing communication programs with your audience in response to culture 365 days a year. It’s about being opportunistic and leveraging key moments with brand relevance. It’s about owning the current conversation to generate faster and more frequent communication points. It’s a new form of CRM using a mix of planned, anticipative and reactive micro initiatives. 

PLANNED initiatives are created around identified cultural moments relevant to your brand. By asking “Who do you think is refreshing music?” Pepsi leveraged the cultural conversation around this year’s Coachella Music Fest with their RefreshMusic Twitter feed featuring Thievery Corporation’s Rob Myers as a guest tweeter. By putting a unique spin on the concert for music lovers, Pepsi is not only letting tweeters experience the festival in new ways, but is also bringing the brand idea “refresh everything” to life.

ANTICIPATED is scenario based planning that requires marketers to be smart enough to see the cultural conversation and be ready to act upon it. Visa’s seemingly “real-time” ad, celebrating Michael Phelps’s Olympic record eight gold medals, proved the brand recognized the Game’s most talked about story. The TV spot had footage of Phelps’s previous wins literally moments after his record-breaking performance, helping Visa go beyond being a sponsor and become a part of the conversation surrounding the Games.

REACTIVE is being nimble enough to surprise and delight your audience by your brand tapping into the zeitgeist. In President Obama’s acceptance speech he declared the family’s intention of getting a dog. The next day, Pedigree began crafting a response. A day later an ad in USA Today urged the President to adopt: “We’d love to help you fulfill your first campaign promise.” Pedigree’s quick actions helped place them in the cultural conversation regarding the President’s pet decision.

Download your Media Arts Monday.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email either Frank Striefler (frank@mediaartslab.com) or Erik Hanson (erik@mediaartslab.com).

Fast Company magazine’s inaugural ranking of the 100 Most Creative People in Business puts Jonathan Ive, SVP of Industrial Design at Apple, in the top spot; Lee Clow, TBWA’s Global Director of Media Arts is named #32. In a press release Fast Company magazine said: “In an industry that tends to spit out anyone with a speck of gray hair, the brain behind the Energizer Bunny, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, and Adidas’s ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign continues to be one of the most creative forces in the game.  Last year, as global director of TBWA\Worldwide, he [Lee Clow] helped the Omnicom-owned agency lure a phenomenal roster of new business, including Pepsi and the global Visa account.”

“Creativity cannot be reduced to a formula,” says Fast Company editor Robert Safian. “There will no doubt be controversy over how we ended up with these 100 individuals, why certain names are missing, why one person is ranked higher – or lower – than someone else. But there is a perspective in our list: Taken in its entirety, it’s a snapshot of the range and depth of creativity across our business landscape – a remarkable and perhaps surprising source of strength in these times of turmoil.”

The list includes engineers from Facebook and Google, movie directors and fashion designers, architects and inventors. “We emphasized those who creativity addresses a larger issue – from the future of our energy infrastructure to the evolution of philanthropy to next-generation media and entertainment,” explain the Fast Company editors, in the introduction to the list. “And while we couldn’t see how lauding Steve Jobs would show much creativity, we also couldn’t ignore the outsized impact Apple has had on our business culture. That’s why Apple’s chief designer heads our list at No. 1.”

Check out the full list on Fast Company online.

More on Lee Clow on I HAVE AN IDEA.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Ulrich Proeschel

 The facts and figures were pretty amazing. Ready?

1. It’s the biggest country in the world.

2. It’s home to 142 million people

3. It must be remembered that Russia is part European and part Asian and the clash of these two mighty cultures results in something wholly and uniquely Russian.

What’s also amazing is the immaturity of its marketing culture. Not immature as in sophomoric with a propensity for fart jokes. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Immature in years. After all, Russia’s consumer culture began in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

The planners at TBWA\RUSSIA also did a nice job talking about the psyche of the people which they described as “cynical, yet naïve.” And that when it comes to selling, Russians demand to be be “emotionally moved, but need a rational reason to buy.” (Ok, so Russians aren’t so different from you and me in this respect.) They also pointed out that Russians are getting used to the gyrations of capitalism and have learned to become uncharacteristically optimistic. (Hear that Dostoyevsky?)

Also, even though the ”world’s most expensive city” is taking its lumps, Moscow is still a land of bling. I counted no less than 10 Mercedes S-class sedans, 3 Maybachs, and one Bentley — and this was in a mere 18 hour period. 

Some other interesting tid-bits? Russians like Christmas, but they LOVE New Year’s Eve even more. And they dig free stuff. It’s a concept they call “Haliava.” Always give the consumer a little something extra.  

At dinner we got plenty of free pickles at an old Ukrainian restaurant called “Shinok.” What makes Shinok incredibly memorable isn’t it’s heavy, but yummy peasant food. Nor is it the wait-staff dressed in authentic Ukranian farm outfits that would seem at home in the movie “The Sound of Music.” No, what makes Shinok memorable is the fact that it has AN ACTUAL FARM WITH LIVE ANIMALS IN THE CENTER OF THE RESTAURANT. Yep, nothing like enjoying a bowl of fresh Borsch with a an actual cow ruminating on her own din-din right next to you. Interested in the pork? Maybe you were inspired by the goat that’s traipsing through the hay over there. Sure it’s glass-enclosed and kinda feels like a museum diorama, but it’s also really freakin’ weird. And personally, I don’t need to know that the sour cream is that fresh. 

In any event, we had a very fun meal with the Russian team and the vivacious Visa clients. Ice cold “Wodka” shots all around and an ever-present soundtrack that really made the Cossack in you want come out, fold your arms, and squat and kick. Check out Shinok’s website. And there’s a ton more on Russia here.

Next up? A Russian press conference.

Thanks for reading.

Rob Schwartz is the ECD of TBWA\CHIAT\DAY in Los Angeles. 
This is the first of an occasional series of his comings and goings.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Rob Schwartz.

Back to the trip.

The flight from London is a little over 4 four hours. By the time you wake up, you can look out the window and swear you are flying over Michigan on your way to Detroit metro.

Gray skies, brown trees, white snow. Welcome to the land where they formerly sported CCCP jerseys. Welcome to Mockba!

On the ground at Domodedovo Airport, immigration is a little chaotic. 350 people. Five grumpy passport inspectors. No formal lines. Ah, the joys of international travel. By the way, if you’re looking for a taxi, this is the place to be. No less than 30 guys came up to me and simply said, “Taxi?” “Taxi?” “Taxi?”

Unlike LAX, this airport had my luggage at the carousel. (By the way, just a reminder…DON’T CHECK THE WORK. You can lose your underwear, you can lose your suit; but the creative flies in the overhead bin–no matter where you are.) Fortunately, we’re going to present everything on keynote and pdf, so we’re safe.

On to Moscow.

The drive into the city is like any drive from airport to city. You start rural, you see some scattered homes, and as you get closer, your start to see our familiar urban life come alive.

By the way, on the drive into Moscow, you’ll see some spectacular Russian Orthodox churches. Amazing, orb-like forms of cerulean blue–so distinctly Russian. There’s also your fair share of big-box stores and strip malls. If you looked out quickly, without thinking, you’d swear you were on Queens Boulevard.

Things get really exciting as you start to see the Moscow River and some amazing architecture. It’s what the Russians call the “Stalinist Skyscrapers.” Gothic, yet so uniquely Soviet.

My heart then began to skip a few beats when I started to see Red Square unfold. The brick wall around it is imposing and magnificent. I saw several soldiers parading in their distinctive olive-colored coats with red accents.

Then, out of nowhere, St. Basil’s Church just explodes with color and energy. Its truly incredible “onion” domes lifting your spirit and beckoning you to take a closer look. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance after our meetings.

Checked in and had an excellent Armenian dinner with some colleagues from our TBWA\RUSSIA team and our TBWA\CENTRAL ASIA team, which is based in Kazakhstan (not to be confused with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan.)

Armenian cuisine? Excellent. Great cheese, eggplant salad and kebabs – your choice of chicken, lamb and beef. Yummy rice too and Russian beer.

Kazakhstanian cuisine? Let’s just say TBWA\CA managing director, Shukhrat Shipulin, made a pretty interesting case for “kazy” (aka horsemeat.) Of course, if you think kazy sounds crazy, don’t try the “karta.” Apparently, it’s made with ingredients from a horse’s rectum.

Tomorrow, we learn all about the Russian market, which is critical for Visa. Lots of creative opportunity, and I’ll take copious notes, I promise.

By the way, if you want to learn more about the great city of Moscow, go here. To learn more about Kazakhstan, go here.

Thanks for reading.

Rob Schwartz is the ECD of TBWA\CHIAT\DAY in Los Angeles. 
This is the first of an occasional series of his comings and goings.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Rob Schwartz.

The Twitchhiker is still in Germany heading to Frankfurt/Main airport to board a flight to New York JFK airport. Let’s see what comes next. Follow Paul’s adventure on Twitter, TwitPics, Flickr, YouTube, Google Maps and if he is coming to a town near you, think about offering him a bed for the night, a bus ticket or a beer when he gets there to help him complete his journey.  And just in case Paul has his pre-paid credit card that literally helps him to “go” with Visa.

If you meet the Twitchhiker on his way we would love to hear about it. Let us know at ulrich@mad-blog.com.

The Twitchiker is a guy who is trying to go around the world in 30 days, propelled and supported by nothing more than the digital goodness of the Twitterati. To aid the ‘hiker Visa gave him a loaded Visa card with $1000. 

Contagious magazine comments: “Excellent leaning into the frame this week from Visa, whose agency Whybin\TBWA in New Zealand spotted a gap in popular culture and plugged it. The ‘Twitchhiker’ experiment sees Twitterer Paul Smith attempting to make his way as far as possible from his England base relying only on the kindness, and suggestions, of the rest of the community.”

Follow the guy on twitter and get an idea for communication at the speed of culture (http://twitter.com/twitchhiker).

More on the Twitchhiker.

If you have any comments or suggestions please email Andy Blood.