I Heard the News Today Oh Boy: Graham Rust Died in Prague; World a Sadder Place.

Graham Rust, founder of the Czech advertising agency Rust, was a great teacher. I discovered this the first time we met. Lesson Number 1 was: Beer in Czech is pivo. Lesson Number 2: Dark in Czech is cerny. Then we just put ‘em together and we were all set to conquer Prague: Cerny pivo.

Sometime just after the fall of the Soviet Union (remember the Soviet Union?), Graham made his agency a member of Dialogue International. So in September of 1994, Barbara and I traveled to Prague for the first-ever Dialogue International managers’ meeting in a former Iron Curtain country. Graham and Jo Rust were our hosts then and on the visits that followed.

We ate a lot, learned how to say three more words in Czech and met wonderfully talented people. The best part of the trip was spending time with Graham and Jo; and staying friends with them for almost 20 years. Buried in a closet somewhere there are photographs of those early meetings. Not digitized. Trust me, though, Graham and I looked younger then. One of us had more hair.

My notes indicate that most of the old Dialogue gang came to Prague that year: Frits Slootweg and Charles de la Rochefoucauld, Jaakko Alanko, Timo Kivi, Gianfranco Vallana (yes, even then). It now seems amazing just how many have maintained their involvement with Dialogue. The managers tabled a next meeting scheduled for Marrakesh in favor of Paris for political reasons that sounds disturbingly contemporary.

Although a Short British Person, he had the heart of an NBA center and the smart of an ad giant. Graham’s death is sad. His life is way more fun. We had a lot of laughs and many great professional moments. Today, my sympathies and those of Barbara and Rachel go out to all the Rusts.

Graham once referred to me as a “Distinguished Friend” of Dialogue International. More important, I am thankful that Graham was a distinguished friend of mine.

From Rome (and Signalwriter) #5: In America, Vespa Lives and Rides On…

The latest issue of “Blurb,” the electronic newsletter from PAN Advertising in Rome, was sent out in the middle of the second quarter. There are neat articles from PAN’s Dialogue affiliates in the Aprile-Maggio 2011 number.

PAN’s General Manager, Gianfranco Vallana, sent us all a nice email: “With the second issue we got a significant improvement in the opening (58%) and the number of unique visitors (+22%). About 1,000 marketers in Italy now are becoming aware of Dialogue. We are sure that this is a good first step to market Dialogue in this country.”

Here is what my contribution had to say:

It is not likely that much will change America’s gasoline consumption level (and the free-range lifestyle that goes with it) anytime soon. At least one company is trying, though – another Italian classic brand called…Vespa.

The terrific, iconic motor scooter company, part of Piaggio, opened up a new pitch in 2008, complete with fresh website and advertising. Paolo Timoni, President and CEO, Piaggio Group Americas, said at the time, “It’s the practical side of Vespa ownership, such as the ability for every consumer to save $6,000 per year by reducing their wheel count from eight to six, that this campaign focuses on.”

This push is ongoing – the current website edition stresses VESPANOMICS – THE ROAD TO SAVINGS with plenty of room left over for the snappy models. (A personal favorite would be the GTV 300 model which seems to have enough muscle to overcome my fears about looking dorky.)

It will take a Superman to change enough American minds to make a difference. Sheer numbers are a big problem. There is poor market penetration here. One overviewer, Motor Scooter Shopper, notes:

There are many reasons for the scooter market being the way it is, but for the most part it’s due to the American scooter market being but a small fraction of the overall world scooter market (as opposed to the American automobile market being a large chunk of the world automobile market). In 2007 there were only 1 million registered scooters in the US, compared to over 30 million in Europe alone. How many scooters are being used in Asia is unknown…but it’s safe to assume the total number in Asia far surpasses even the Europe number.

Also, attempting to control accident rates, state and local jurisdictions have begun strengthening motorcycle laws to include the milder-performing scooters. Vespas and other motorini used to …drive under the radar, so to speak: riding one around town was pretty casual. Now there is a growing “hassle factor” involved in owning and operating a motor scooter.

Vespa is working on these challenges and change is coming. Still, appealing to economic sense seems a less likely pathway to success than pushing harder on the neat, cool and fun aspects. Check back with us in a decade to see how Vespa’s brand share is doing here.

Thanks to my excellent PAN colleagues and their audience throughout Italy. For previous “Blurb” posts – in English and Italian – type From Rome in the search box, upper left and press Enter.

From Rome #2: “La piccola Fiat arriva in America…”

Un classico italiano che ritorna in America: la nuova FIAT 500. La piccola di casa FIAT è la “prima assoluta” della nuova alleanza con Chrysler Corporation.

L’ultima volta che un auto è stata venduta in USA con il marchio FIAT il presidente era Ronald Reagan, “Voglia di tenerezza” vinceva l’Oscar per il miglior film e Michael Jackson portava a casa un Grammy per “Beat It.” Era il 1984.

Vent’anni prima (1964), quando io ero ancora più giovane, un mio amico ed io guidammo una microscopica Fiat 500 da Atlanta a Seattle. Fu un viaggio andata e ritorno straziante per uno della mia taglia: 4400 miglia, circa 7000 km. Non vedo l’ora di scoprire se la nuova 500 è più attraente.

Così, fra poche settimane la prima FIAT 500 entrerà nei nuovi showroom USA della casa italiana. C’e n’è già uno ad Austin, Texas. Il modello base sarà venduto a 15.500 dollari (11.500 €), ma per chi ama i piccoli lussi, il modello superaccessoriato sale a 25.500 dollari (quasi 19.000 euro).

Sergio Marchionne crede che sia il momento giusto di rilanciare il marchio FIAT in USA e ha affermato sulla testata AD Age: “Vogliamo che FIAT sia marca globale e la 500 è il modello giusto per riaprire il dialogo con gli americani”.

Ma FIAT dovrà dimostrare che la nuova 500 non è solo divertente da guidare, - FIAT deve superare le resistenze degli americani verso le auto piccole (la Mini Cooper è considerata molto cool, ma ha una piccola quota di mercato). C’è soprattutto la sfida dell’affidabilità, visto che la qualità era il problema maggiore dei vecchi modelli FIAT degli anni ‘80.

Il mercato della pubblicità è curioso di vedere cosa farà la nuova agenzia USA di FIAT, Impatto, una boutique creativa guidata da un italo - americano, Michael D’Antonio, che è stata selezionata per gestire creatività ed eventi per il lancio della nuova auto. L’agenzia del Michigan ha già creato lo slogan per l’America : “Life is best when driven.”

Sembra che FIAT utilizzerà sia i canali di marketing tradizionale che “metodi alternativi” per il lancio, compresi eventi basati su “muri di graffiti” che verranno organizzati nei mercati chiave e nei social media. Una tattica che sembra simile a quella già usata da BMW.

THIS PHOTO: New Fiat 500 and old model from Fiatpic.com – all rights reserved.

From Rome #1: It’s a Post, It’s a Blurb – and There Will Be Italian...

The next few Signalwriter posts come from content specially created for PAN Advertising in Rome. Gianfranco Vallana, Managing Director of the long-time Dialogue International affiliate, wrote:

In PAN we are sending e-mail news about the agency work to clients and prospects. They have good opening rates, but to be honest we need to raise the interest and the impact.

We don’t want to offer boring news, and we don’t want to compete with professional editors, but we noted that Italian specialized press usually don’t publish a lot of news from abroad. So we think we could get the attention of our targets sending a short list of news, opinion or curiosities about marketing and communications in other countries, written by our Dialogue friends.

As one of our major objectives is to highlight Dialogue and internationality in our positioning platform…bingo!

And the kindliest note of all, sent to me as a Chairman Emeritus of the organization:

We suddenly realized that we’d like to have also you on board. We cannot forget USA and Texas!

I submitted several items which Gianfranco and his team combined with many others from Dialogue members throughout Europe and the US, under the title Blurb. Pan is using this word (which doesn’t exist in the Italian language) to draw attention to news that’s interesting to its clients and prospects, from the world of communication beyond Italy’s borders.

Dear readers: there’s more to come. Watch for my posts (in Italian and English). They’re re-posted here on Signalwriter courtesy of Vallana; long-time colleague Giorgio Bonifazi Razzanti, PAN’s Creative Director, and the rest of team in Rome. May all your emails have superb open rates!

Post-Election, Signalwriter Celebrates the Amazing United States of Everyone.

Ever since I woke up this morning, I have been trying to parse just why I’m loving this post-US-election day feeling of exhilaration. (Parse = “to examine in a minute way, to analyze critically…”) Fortunately, I was Skyping with Swiss Dialogue International colleague Peter Thoma and he came up with the answer.

Regardless of my own political leanings, I have always considered that American politics is a raucous blend of punch-‘em-up claims, reasoned analyses and strong emotions. Anybody who doesn’t get this is sort of ignoring 200+ years of American history, as far as I can tell – it’s been going on that long.

Just a couple of days ago, I heard that blogger John Podhoretz called US politics something like the greatest public theatre in our nation’s history, bar none. (Podhoretz himself’s no wallflower, with published comments like, “…the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Carl Paladino, went out with a concession speech for which the word “psychotic” would seem to be an understatement.”)

Newspaper commentaries with screaming and yelling in them have been hard to ignore. I have listened to radioheads being alternately exuberant and abrasive; and TV talk-show hosts have used language (about political candidates) that my momma wouldn’t have put up with for a minute. What a ride…and there’s almost nothing to do with advertising and marketing in it. Well, some.

The amount of cheering and weeping, gnashing and wailing on Facebook is equally daunting, especially since so many of the comments come from colleagues and friends in other parts of the world. I thought, “Come on now, I don’t post nasties about the election in Spain, say; or the recent changes in EU laws.” What gives all these people the right to criticize us?

Then Thoma repeated a different conversation he’d had, in which he replied, “America’s not our country.”

I realized (again): America is!

American is – absolutely – Peter’s country and Alison’s in Cambridge; Tom’s country, even though he’s in Prague, and Graham’s (same locale) and Abdol’s in Jeddah. Heck, it’s even the country of people like RL Stine, who’s just been quoted saying, “I’m so glad I live in New York City and not in the United States.”

Everyone feels free to say what they like about America right out loud because it is everyone’s country. No other nation I can think of gives the entire population of a whole planet the freedom to say whatever it likes about how America looks, how America acts, how America worships – and so on. Amazing.

Happy just-after-the-election day, everyone. It’s your election, too.

PHOTO: Conceptual American Flag Maze © Suljo | Dreamstime.com

Adman Holtzweiler arrives in Houston, takes prompt photo op with US President.

The principal of Hope Communications in the UK, Philippe Holtzweiler, is back visiting with us again. It’s a working trip for our long-time overseas advertising colleague. He’s come over to see the French-American Chamber of Commerce as well as spend a few days with us.

We’ve already taken the occasion to drop by David Adickes’s yard at SculptureWorx for an amusing moment with Barack Obama – when asked about our presumption, the President was speechless.

You may already have met Holtzweiler at various events, like the recent AMA mixer at The Gallant Knight. His next appearance with be at next week’s Nouveau Beaujolais tasting at the Hilton, before his triumphant return to Europe. (And thanks, Philippe, for the stopover.)

Flying Cows! Event-Marketing a Ben & Jerry’s Opening in Prague.

Once upon a time, Graham Rust left England’s mountains green to open an ad agency in Prague, in what would become the Czech Republic. Many years (and a lot of Dialogue International meetings) later, he and his team not only produce great advertising but also fun times down on Wenceslas Square.

Unilever, the corporate owner of Ben & Jerry’s since the turn of the century, picked the capital of the Czech Republic - and Rust, Klemperer sro - for the first major launch of the brand in Eastern Europe: “Vermont’s Finest in Prague!”

Rust staged the initial shop’s grand opening with cows – flying and otherwise. Transplanted pastures. Motorized hay bales. Free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, right in the heart of the city. From this morning’s Dialogue International newsletter, Rust speaks! “A week before opening the first scoop shop we bombarded Prague with stunts featuring the champion cows. Teasing actions like parachuting cows, cows riding Segways and giving away paper cones which could be exchanged into real ones at the opening day.”

On Opening Day, July 30th, Rust brought the party to the people in Wenceslas Square.

Having stood my very own self hip-deep in crowds in Na Příkopě on the corner of that huge open space in Prague, I have to tell you that it takes flying cows to get Ben & Jerry’s noticed. As you can see by these photos (and more here), the peeps are eating it up.

Ben & Jerry’s, despite being owned by Unilever, still has adoring support. As Graham says, it’s “such a special, individual, quirky, passionate, human brand.” Therefore, congratulations to Rust in Prague for being so ice-cream-social. Now close the circle. Post the agency’s opening day photos to the Ben & Jerry’s Facebook site and squeeze just a bit more promo for yourselves out of them cows.

Thanks to Rust and the affiliates of Dialogue International not only for news from abroad, but for the ongoing relationships. Have a scoop of Mission to Marzipan on me.

Open Sky

There’s no lack of bidness advice, good and bad, these days. Still, a new White Paper offers 10 chatty but blessedly brief tips to help beat the economy. It’s yours free from Geraint Holliman, a former colleague of mine in Dialogue International and long-time MD of UK ad agency Open Sky.

The short pepper-upper is a fine antidote against our current days of doom and gloom. My favorite:

Stop listening to the news. Of course we must always be aware of the global economic conditions but the media thrive on headlines and, currently, bad news is good news for the media. Bad news begets bad news: it’s a vicious circle. However, none of your businesses have gone bad overnight have they? They didn’t become bad value or inappropriate value propositions just because a few banks got greedy did they? Have confidence in your brand and what it delivers. So, only turn the news on 10 minutes into bulletins so you can avoid all the doom and gloom and go straight to the ‘puppy rescued from well’ story – you’ll feel better for it.

Trish Cunningham, Manager of Business Development at Brookwoods Group here in Houston, spoke to the same issue this week on LinkedIn: This brings to mind a great quote: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” FDR - this still rings true today and quite frankly I believe people have had enough fear tactics to last a few lifetimes.

When things are closing in around you, it doesn’t hurt to have some…guidelines…to post by the computer. Try Open Sky’s White Paper on for size.