Press release from OMG

I received the following press release from Omnicom Media Group. I decided to publish it entirely as it is and not to make any comments upon it. I would also like to point out that I did not have any interests other than just telling people what happens on the Romanian advertising market. I promise my readers that I’ll get back with more information regarding this subject.

Media group Omnicom Media Group announces changes in the top management

As of 20th of January 2008 the new Chief Financial Officer of OMG Romania is Mihai Rusescu, a professional with 14 years of experience on the business. Also Ruxandra Stefan will step down from Managing Director OMD Romania position. “We thank Ruxandra Stefan for the hard work over the past 5 years in OMD Romania and we wish her success in her new ventures”.

We hereby inform you that as of 1st of March 2008 - Optimum Media Direction Romania will have a new Managing Director. Until then the interim will be insured by Carmen Tanasie, CEO Omnicom Media Group, the media group to whom OMD Romania belongs to.

These changes are the consequence of the re-launch process of  OMD Romania – changes that OMG is implementing as first of January 2008, and that will set OMD on a more aggressive direction in the Romanian media market and will position the company on the same coordinates as internationally - among the most innovative and creative media agencies. 

Omnicom Media Group (OMG) is the division of media services of  Omnicom Group Inc., world leader in the advertising, marketing and communications industries, having in its portfolio more than 5000 clients in more than 100 countries. Omnicom Media Group includes international full media service networks such as: OMD, PHD and Prometheus as well as other specialized media companies.

BenQ separated in Benq and... QISDA

As you can read here, BenQ will become QISDA, which stands for Quality Innovation Speed Driving Achievements. The name is very appropriate for a an IT products company, but let’s wonder if they would have any success on Romanian market.

The website www.qisda.com is active, but so is www.benq.com. So? What’s the story?

Well, according to their Press Officer, they wanted to separate its branded and manufacturing business. That is they manufacture cameras, LCDs and so on, but the original legal entity is renamed Qisda and comprise BenQ’s manufacturing. They established a new legal entity called BenQ corporation that takes over the assets and liabilities of the branded business. (The proof is here.)

BenQ Corporation will have its own R&D Center and headquarters, and will deal only with global sales and marketing operations. Qisda will comprise all manufacturing and have its own R&D Center and headquarters and will only deal with manufacturing operations.

The concept is not new and the strategy is good, but the name that will deal with manufacturing operations is awesome. Thank God they didn’t promote it as the sold product, even if the Qisda Corporation will sell unbranded products.

Anyway, they will have a factory near Romania, in Brno (Czech Republic). Called, of course, Qisda.

So, how about watching a movie on a Qisda laptop, take some pictures with the Qisda camera and so on... Even better, let’s buy some Qisda electronics in Botswana with some „pula” (BWP-Botswana Pula, the currency from Botswana). Imagine the possibilities of combining those two terms for a Romanian spoker. Geeez! And they have offices in Romania, how about that? I wonder if they are still called BenQ or Qisda is the name...

For those who don’t know, Qisda is pronounced „chizda” in Romanian. According to the dictionary, it’s a regionalism for a word starting with letter P which means... Better read it yourself here.

New Strategy Director for GMP

Mirela Angelescu (photo), former Client Service Director, will be the new Strategy Director for GMP. This would mean that the Strategy Department for the agency led by Felix Tataru will bring more value to the relationship client-agency.

Even if there wasn’t such a department before, the agency had a Strategic Planner from 2006, when Teodor Cucu was appointed to that position. Felix Tataru always claimed that GMP had strategy as their work was awarded six times at the last Effie editions.

Felix Tataru announced that the position Mirela Angelescu held till now will be filled in February. The new Client Service Director is advertised to be “a person with vast experience in marketing and communication field and also management”.

Mirela Angelescu joined GMP in march 2005, as Client Service Director. She has an experience of more than 10 years in communication and worked on projects like Cosmote launching, Gabriel Rosia Montana communication campaign, Millennium Bank launch in Romania. GMP has a portfolio of clients and brands like: A&D Pharma, Alcatel, ApaNova, Monte Banato, Millennium Bank, Unilever.

OMD is not in crisis... but people are leaving the company...

Ruxandra Stefan, Managing Director of OMD Romania, resigned last week. She did not want to comment upon the reasons of her leaving.

Still, it is said that the main reason is related to the poor professional relationship with Carmen Tanasie, CEO of Omnicom Media Group (OMG), the local unit of media division from the Omnicom marketing and communication group, which was created last year.

There are some rumors that, together with Ruxandra Stefan, some of the seniors will also leave OMD. The team has 25 people present days.

Ruxandra Stefan has been in the media business since 1994, and in Omnicom Media since 2000. She was Managing Director since 2004. OMD was founded in November 2004, with the participation of TBWA (50%) and DDB (50%). Until then, the agency was named Mediaplan and was affiliated with Omniacom.

There is a question though... OMD just won two big accounts: Citroen and Wallmark... They will be soon short of people...Making people leave would mean shorter of people...

Don't trust him!

A great dissapointment
Smooth, groovy, unadventurous, solid R 'n' B… but is it worth it? I believe this one is not…
“Trust Me” was released November 2007 and is the fourth studio album from 26-year-old Craig Ashley David. His debut album from 2000, “Born To Do It”, which was released when he was only 19, stormed the charts with hits like “Rewind”, “Fill Me In” and “Seven Days”. Seven million copies sold all over the world got some interest in the US as well. But that interest soon has disappeared, since the following albums, “Slicker Than Your Average” and “The Story Goes” from 2005, failed to get the same interest. From 2005 till now silence. Some expected a complete withdraw. The question is not if he dropped the arrogance, the infatuation but if he managed to make changes in the way his music sounds.

How are the lyrics now?

Just two examples…
"I was waiting for your love, but you can only wait so long/I was hoping and praying you would see what was going on/Now we're standing here with open hearts/And I'm chained inside my world" - Awkward

"So hot she'll have you begging for more/And even hotter when her Victoria's Secrets drop to the floor. Hot like Elle, hot like getting down with Gisele/What the hell, hot like sex back at the hotel" - She's On Fire

Does he have some chances for the Grammies? I certainly hope not… Maybe a few nominations will come his way, but that’s it. The only good thing in the album is only his voice, as the flatness of all the rest doesn’t make it better. Probably, if Craig David didn’t sign it we wouldn’t have heard about this album.
The general sound is awful. The alert rhythm combined with some soul passages feels like a parody, there’s nothing to laugh there. Maybe the dance sound that he wishes to impose is frenetic, but somehow you get the impression it’s better to lie down. The voice is unquestionable; he is able to sing from R’n’B to reggae on this album, as well as a ballad. Still, the experiment fails this time. If that collaboration with Sting was great, no doubt about it, this time the production and music arrangement really step behind quite a few steps, despite Craig’s talent.
Maybe the best thing of this album is the fantastic turn of a newcomer in the song “Awkward”, the 17-year-old Rita Ora, discovered by the album producer Martin Terefe.
Everything else is R 'n' B-by-numbers: perfectly pleasant and resolutely uninspiring. However, banal lyrics and unimaginative production are consistently elevated by the quality of David's voice. While not incredible, it is extremely and consistently strong.
With a better team behind him and a clearer sense of musical direction, he could be just as good. Slicker than the average, certainly, but still not quite fulfilling the expectations raised by his remarkable debut.

Air...

It all started with “Tattoo”... An acoustic guitar, a drum loop and some simple lyrics... Sounds a lot like something coming from Stargate (producers for Beyonce Knowles (Irreplaceable), Rihanna). But let’s mix it with some Underdogs like Chris Brown and Ne-Yo, add a touch of Robbie Nevil and with an impulse from the Swedish team that were behind Britney’s Toxic we’ve got Jordin Sparks.
When I watched some of the American Idol shows, I got the impression she was trying hard to impose herself. Self-learner, disciplined, she was accomplishing the goal that American idol producers wished for the show: getting the most of you with every week that passes by, moving on up. Somehow she appeared inconsistent if we’re thinking she performed a brilliant “I (who have nothing) “ from Whitney Houston’s songs but her breath fell apart when trying Bon Jovi’s “Living on a prayer”. The audience felt the potential in her, watching her improving performances every week.
Enthusiasm is what brought her the success everybody dreams of. With “Tattoo” she goes way in your soul. She’s like casting a spell somehow. I watched over and over again her coronation song from American Idol. Others refused to sing it, she did it with so much spirit and joy, with so high air and vocalizing it perfectly. She put that great performance on first position of her album and she gets to be the center of attention.
Maybe taking “One step at a time” was the successful formula but I can’t help admiring her for the way she struggled every week... The most deserved song she has on the album is, no doubt, “No air”. She practically gets to show that emotions have been dropped and her voice is strong, with an unique sound, having practically forgotten the doubts everybody had when listening her with that Bon Jovi song. The air is there, in this breathtaking duet with Chris Brown. He’s a couple of rungs higher than her on the maturity ladder, but it forces her to step up, as the melody is going back and forth like a seagull watched on a sunny day...

Dollar Bill...

After 3 years of silence and a great duo with Shakira,Wyclef Jean, ex-leader of The Fugees, makes a spectacular comeback at the end of 2007 with his sixth album, “The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant”. Starting with the title, cover and the general sound, this album is truly a continuance for his first album, “The Carnival I”.
From the very beginning I must say this is a very social issues album, in particular that of immigrants. The first single released from this album, “Sweetest girl”, expresses in a clear manner the problems of immigrants and if you watch the video (you can find it at the end of this post) you’ll have no doubt about it.
It’s an album showing the multi-genre nature of Wyclef’s sound. Maybe, as usual, the lyrical content is not as attractive as you might think, but the chancing and vibrant attention fives a solid start, from “Riot” to “China Wine”.
It’s not a classic hip-hop & R&B album, but it does have a strong sense of continuity that will keep you listening to it time after time. The sound feels good, you get absorbed by it and start moving your feet instantly... The tracks are radio friendly and enjoyable, except maybe for “Any other day” which is not quite from the same sound area, it will make you touch the “skip” button. Still, the songs are well produced and mastered, they have a strong musical line that is well defined. The creativeness that Wyclef & Co demonstrates with this album reminds of the extremely known signature of “The Fugees” sound.
There are tracks like “Hollywood meets Bollywood” where sounds from the UK Asian scene mix great together with the unmistakable vocals of “Chamillionaire” and create a special kind of “club-banger” which proves to be a favorite up-tempo from the record. Also, the collaborations that proved to be successful before tunes up the album, giving it powerful lyrics, smooth beats and magical vocals. It proves that Wyclef got it right this time, the album was worth waiting for. You can feel the tingles in your spine, always a good sing of a winner.

How a radio should sound these days?

I got really bored when listening the romanian radio stations in the past months... Except one voice that I would listen to, no matter what radio will host and whatever the show... Which is, of course, that of Denis Ciulinaru, currently hosting the morning show on National FM. Even if the station is somehow one from the crowd, even if the shows sounds common and are...
Besides that, I somehow started listening the stations from US and I have one station that is worth listening to no matter the difference of time zone and the difference of culture. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is B96 – CBS radio station from Chicago. Whenever I hear “B96- WBBMFM radio” I am just happy... It is true that somehow I am bonded to this radio station in particular from a visit payed to the US, but no matter the spiritual bonding, these guys are something.
Just listen to them on b96.com .It’s worth it!

I hate some photographers

I hate some photographers... I just hate them...
They take some shots, say it's great, but when you start working you discover the resolution is not enough and so the argue begins...
For instance, they took the shoot too wide, the area that interests you is somewhere in the picture and when you crop it to the desired area, you discover the resolution is not enough. You get angry, ask the photographer about it and he/she says: “Use interpolation!” Geez... You interpolate, resample, but hey... that’s not enough too...

I miss the radio...

It was the beginning of September when I got a call from a friend, asking me if I want to spend my winter vacation at his place. Besides going there and enjoy a truly different atmosphere, he also said he would like to have me in his radio show. That’s because the show he was putting on air was on a concept we did together some years ago... At first I yelled, since I haven’t done that in the last years. After a few moments of giving it some thought, I started saying it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Got there, found my favorite radio mixer in the world, a Mackie, found the liberty of playing whatever I want without concerning about the money spent on royalties.
Still, something wasn’t feeling right... After a few sound checks, I wasn’t able to recognize my own voice. I was aware that after so many years my voice is different, but it didn’t sound like I was expecting. It was a Shure SM7B microphone and I was used to the standard SM58. There was two solutions: trying to accommodate my voice and put some inflexion into it in a way that would sound like it should or getting instantly a SM58, which I did. Ha-ha. SM58 being in place, everything sounded like it should.
I shouldn’t have done on air time. Doing it for some days made me realize but once you get to do it you always want to do it. Now I miss all that stuff, being on air and everything, the fever you’re experiencing when talking, playing music, having listeners on air and so on.
I mostly feel that what’s missing is the morning air show. God, I want it back...

Sometimes, reality is different...

I got a call an year ago. The caller? Someone from the industry.
Motive? Pure and simple, the man needed somebody for a dtp job.
Where? Even more simple, it was someone I met a year before. When I wasn't looking for a change of job.
I said first "Let's hear it!"
Afterwards I regretted it... Not only I wasn't truly interested, but I also was extremely annoyed about the way he presented things.
There's no such thing as "a perfect world". Instead, we have a diminished impression of what a job is, a vague impression we offer the best, an even more indistinguishable way of rewarding and keeping the things straight.
Question: Why do you call up a men for a job if you know you can't offer him more than he has?
Answer: Because you think you're convincing and your strategy is based only on feelings.

Bottom line: A business is on the point of collapsing if you ever think that feelings would make a man quit a job and come work for you without offering him better conditions.

After a year, present days I mean, I got a mail from the same man. I was just interested in hearing what he want's to say. I thought characters never change. I was right.