You may think you’ve seen interesting annual report covers (or maybe, on the other hand, you think that annual report covers could never be interesting). Well, either way, your idea of creativity will be stretched with this annual report created for Adris by E3 Network agency members Bruketa&Žinic OM.
Watch this video presentation to see it.
Adris – In good hands from Bruketa&Zinic OM on Vimeo.
Filed under: Creative | 10 Comments
Tags: Annual Reports
The second issue of E3 Network’s Global Insights Magazine offers advice to international businesses on building a strong brand reputation. Entitled “Leveraging Your Brand for Sales Growth: Perspectives, Procedures and Profundities,” it was written by E3 member agency Aloft Group, based near Boston, USA.
E3’s Second Issue of Global Insights Magazine covers managing your international brand story.
This issue is all about building a strong brand story. What does that mean? Well, it’s everything from aligning your brand story with your sales objectives, to planning your strategy effectively, to managing your online reputation through social media. This magazine tells you how. Aloft Group President and CEO Matt Bowen says:
“Now more than ever, differentiating your organization from the crowd requires that you successfully develop and communicate your unique brand story. It is not only imperative to distinguishing your brand in the market, but also essential to giving your sales team what they need to be successful.”
Read the second issue of the monthly Global Insights Magazine at the E3 website or on the Aloft Group website.
Filed under: B2B, Cross-cultural, international marketing, e3 meetings, Denmark, networking | 14 Comments
Tags: Brand Strategy, Branding, GIM, Global Insights Magazine
As a China-based Integrated Marketing and PR Agency, E3 members Adsmith China have managed the successful transition of many brands into the Chinese market. Drawing on his highly valuable expertise, agency founder Mike Golden, an American living abroad, together with Australian blogger David Ansett of Truly Deeply, have compiled a list of the most important things for businesses to consider when launching a brand into China:
01. Prepare to be persistent and patient. Take your business plan and double or even triple the amount of time.
02. China isn’t that cheap anymore.
03. HR Headaches. Hire the best people you can find. And then be prepared to let them go after major disappointments.
04. Visit China 10 times before starting anything. Talk to as many people as you can.
05. Make sure your business has a Chinese brand name and that you trademark it in China.
06. Be aware that ‘mainland’ China, Taiwan (Mandarin or Standard Chinese) and Hong Kong (Cantonese) use different speech as well as written characters. You will need separate entry strategies for these regions.
07. Be sure to make business cards (preferably with Chinese and a Chinese version of your name) before visiting. Don’t use Google Translate for this (one client showed up with “Black Conquer Death” on his card).
08. Brace yourself for long banquets with potential clients. These may include toasting red wine in shot glasses, long pours of warm beer, and unidentifiable meats. Sucking this up is what ‘culturally sensitive’ means.
09. Keep control of your brand image and marketing collaterals. Keeping your international image is important; the local marketing agency can help make sure the text and photos make sense in Chinese and portray your brand identity and position correctly.
10. Last but not least…don’t be scared off by all this! The market in China is fantastic and Chinese are ready to do business. Huanying! 欢迎！
Whether you are a brand struggling to make headway in the Chinese market, with plans to launch there soon, or are keen to develop our brand with an eye to China in the future, E3 agencies are uniquely positioned to help you achieve those goals.
Mike Golden and his team at Adsmith China focus on marketing communications and public relations to help launch brands in Asia.
Feel free to contact David Ansett or Mike Golden to see how they can help you take your brand into China.
(And thanks, guys, for the post!)
Filed under: Advertising Management, Cross-cultural, international marketing | 1 Comment
Tags: china
E3 Agency Truly Deeply recently spent a few days in Belgium with fellow E3 agency member BBC on a deep dive into the essential elements of employer branding. David Ansett, Chief Creator of Brands at Truly Deeply, wrote up a great blog summarizing the key elements of what makes employer branding essential for the coming decades. We’ve included an excerpt below. For more, visit the Truly Deeply website.
“As markets in every corner of the world become more competitive, perhaps the last genuine opportunity for businesses to differentiate is through attracting and retaining the very best talent. With this in mind the role of HR or Employer Branding is without doubt more critical to organisations than ever before — businesses who have developed a strategic approach to attracting talent hold a distinct advantage over their competitors.” – David Ansett, Chief Creator of Brands at Truly Deeply.
Truly Deeply and BBC spent several days on a Deep Dive into Employer Branding strategy.
Five reasons why Employer Branding is indispensable in Business
1. War for talent continues
As the war for talent continues in times of economic difficulty, attracting and retaining the right people becomes even harder and even more essential. Good employees are key to your business’ growth; and it’s not just about finding the right talent in terms of skills and education. Finding people that match your company DNA, your culture, goals, ambition and values is vital for retainment as well. This DNA lies at the heart of your employer brand.
2. Not every company is Apple or Redbull
Amazon, Apple, Redbull, Google — who would not want to work for them? But only rarely is a company’s brand strong enough to make people start their careers there because of its famous product or service. Most companies need a carefully and truthfully crafted employer brand to attract, recruit and retain the right people. That is why an employer brand needs its very own approach and has its very own dynamics.
03. Retaining good employees is essential
The only way to recruit and retain the right people is by aligning your external and internal communication efforts. A successful employer brand is truthful: it realistically conveys the way employers and candidates experience the company, but does so in a creative way that speaks to the imagination. It’s all about making the right promises — and then keeping them. That is why employer branding helps aligning management, marketing, HR and business.
4. Talent ‘shops’ for employers
As more employers fish in the same talent pond, talent itself looks around before deciding where to work, more than ever. It Googles companies, asks friends for opinions and experiences with employers, people share working experiences easily — offline and online. This means you have to be ‘found’ as an employer with your side of the story: employer branding ensures your employer value proposition (EVP) is authentically and evenly communicated and found across all channels.
5. It makes recruitment more efficient
As candidates become increasingly aware of who you are as an employer, recruitment becomes more efficient and cost-effective in time. You’ll benefit from a larger candidate pool, employees are more likely to become ambassadors which causes employee engagement and referrals to increase. It will take less time and effort to hire the right candidates and you’ll spend less time dealing with non-matching profiles.
Filed under: B2B, Branding, Employer Branding | 34 Comments
Is your company looking to expand internationally? Or wanting to start a marketing campaign in another country, either outside of Europe or expanding into Europe or Asia? Knowing which way to turn for solid marketing advice and strategic planning can be challenging.
But for E3 Network agencies, planning international marketing campaigns that start locally and grow globally is part of standard operations. In fact, Global Insights in the name of a new magazine that E3 Network is publishing monthly to share some of the broad agency experience and expertise with you.
Each issue of Global Insights Magazine focuses on a different marketing topic and is edited by a different agency from around the world.
Global Insights magazine covers a variety of topics ranging from healthcare marketing, B2B challenges, branding strategy, Asian marketing, and government and public sector marketing. Each issue is written and edited by a different international agency from a different country.
The first issue focuses on Employer Branding and HR communications, and is entitled “Making Recruitment Work.” It was written and published by BBC Creativity of Belgium, an E3 Agency Network member that focuses on B2B marketing. The premiere issue of Global Insights includes valuable advice, tools and case studies to assist companies in building their employer brand and improve recruiting and retention. You can view it here and sign up to receive each issue by email.
Filed under: Advertising Management, B2B, Cross-cultural | 40 Comments
Tags: Advertising, Belgium, International Branding, international marketing, recruitment
Good Work for a Good Cause
We love it when E3 agencies support worthy causes by donating their time and talent to organizations that help make the world a better place. This month, E3 Agency Network’s Hungarian members at Cafe Design, created a logo and business cards for the Breath Association, a humanitarian group of physicians who provide lung transplants for needy patients.
The new design gives a helping hand to the association. The printing was donated by Avaloni Printing House at its own expense.
Read more at the Cafe Design blog.
Filed under: Creative, Design | 18 Comments
For advertising and marketers, awards may not be the reason for doing great work, but they sure are nice to have. E3 Network is proud of Croatian members Bruketa & Zinic for recently winning an Effie, an award based on a global marketing effectiveness rating. Bruketa&Zinic were listed as one of the most Effective Independent Agencies Globally. 
Launched in 2011, the Effie Index recognizes the architects of the most effective marketing communications ideas from around the world. The rankings are created by Effie Worldwide and Warc, the global marketing intelligence service.
The Effie wordwide report listed the Most Effective Independent Agencies Globally: McKinney (Durham, NC, USA), Bruketa&Zinic OM (Zagreb, Croatia), a third place tie between Wieden+Kennedy (Portland, OR, USA) and Jung von Matt (Hamburg), with ACG Advertising Agency (Budapest) in fifth place.
Congratulations team!
Visit www.effieindex.com for complete global rankings of the Effie Effectiveness Index.
Filed under: Advertising Management, international marketing | 7 Comments
Tags: Effie Award, Global marketing effectiveness
In the spirit of international cooperation, E3 Network Agency members C&COM Advertising of the Czech Republic and BBC Creativity of Belgium, coordinated a special trip into history on 15 June 2012 for employees of the multinational company AGC Glass Europe, the leading European flat glass manufacturer.
Prague-based C&COM arranged the historical tour of the Czech countryside for the client of fellow E3 members, Belgian BBC Creativity, as part of a two-day “Meet AGC! Event.“ On the first day AGC employees and clients visited the AGC plant located in Chuderice, Czech Republic, and on the second day, they took the special tour.
AGC Glass Europe representatives from Belgium, Russia, France, Italy and Czech Republic surrounded by historical cars.
The group visited Karlstejn Castle, just outside of Prague, and heard a lecture on the tradition of beer production in the Strahov Monastic Brewery. The company employees were transported in 25 vintage luxury cars dating from the early 20th century. They enjoyed the brewery products during the closing banquet.
Want to come visit Prague? Contact C&COM to see what they can do for you!
Filed under: B2B, Cross-cultural, Networking | 22 Comments
Tags: Belgium, Cross-cultural
When it comes to building a strong brand, one of the staple elements for many agencies is to develop a “Brand bible” for clients. Ideally, these books tell people in the organization how to create a unified brand tone of voice. From the CEO giving a talk to shareholders to a marketing exec creating an email blast, the brand bible may outline the many themes and messages the brand needs to address.
However, not all brand bibles do what they should. In fact, one might even question their value in some cases.
John Bottom at Base One, had this to say in a recent blog post:
The problem I have with these documents is that many of them then lazily go on to suggest examples of the style of English you should use. Happily patronising the reader within an inch of his or her life, these guides make the same sweeping generalisations about writing style which are at best misleading and restrictive, at worst, simply wrong.
Making it sound real
Bottom presents several tips for making Brand Bibles what they truly should be: a way to help a brand reinforce its differences.
He goes on to point out the problems with typical brand bible recommendations. In fact, he goes so far as to tell you:
1. Jargon is OK. (If you know when to use it).
2. Using big words is OK, too. (If you want to sound eloquent and educated).
3. Long sentences are not always the wrong approach. (Especially if short ones will make you sound like a rapid fire machine gun.)
4. Passive voice is OK. (If you think it fits the tone and mood you want to create.
What does your brand have to say?
Read Bottom’s Post on the Base One blog here.
Filed under: Branding | 5 Comments
Tags: brand bible
For the eighth year in a row, the E3 Agency network member, Bruketa&Žinić OM has been named the best agency in Croatia at the awards ceremony of the national advertising festival IdejaX. The agency won the Grand Prize for the project QR postage stamp produced for Croatian post at the event held in Umag on 11 and 12 May 2012. The same project won the award for “Best Use of Technology” and the best project in the category “Business services and industry products.” It also won a Silver Award at the E3 Agency Network Awards Ceremony 5 May 2012 (narrowly missing the coveted Gold award).
Bruketa&Žinić OM also won several other awards at the IdejaX festival, including one for the TV commercial “Bedtime” for Belupo, and one for the visual identity of Hotel Lone.
IdejaX is Croatia’s national advertising festival, organized by the Croatian Association for Market Communication (HURA) and the Croatian branch of the European Association for Digital and Interactive Marketing (IAB). Read more about the awards at the agency’s web site (bruketa-zinic.com).
E3 International Agency Network members Bruketa & Zinic OM received the Croatian Agency of Year award for the 8th year in a row.
Filed under: Creative, International Media, marketing awards | 5 Comments
Tags: advertising awards, Agency of Year
X-Cultural Marketing | E3 Agency Network | Global Insights 