And so to the airport

Today was a scramble to see a few people before my flight. I headed to Leo Burnetts for a coffee with Raluca, Joanna and Laurentiu.  They are just starting the latest LeoShe project called Cliches based in part on an idea I have been trying to persuade agencies to do for a very long time. They are running focus groups at which they ask people to write ads – the idea is to get at the generic category ideas. Useful for understanding the conventions before you get the creatives to break them. Unfortunately there is a polarisation between the clichés that are being produced and some really original creative ideas – which isn’t the point of the project – the great public aren’t supposed to be creative they are supposed to deliver clichés! So we have a discussion about the types of stimulus – perhaps getting them to draw key frames rather than write scripts. It is great to sit with some of the Burnetts crew again – they are a young department compared with planners in the UK. But in no way inexperienced. It was Elena and Razvan (the planning head) who won a silver in the International category at the last APG awards and currently hold the award for the best use of research on P&Gs Wash and Go.  I come away from meeting energized as I so often do in Romania because of the levels of imagination and enterprise – they work long hours but they are doing great and original work. To get a flavour - here's Razvan (he's the one on the right) appearing in a viral to encourage creatives to get involved in the Communication Olympics - a local award scheme to attract students into the advertising business.   Here are links to Leo's blog and other special projects (click on the glasses) including LeoShe.

And on to another coffee with another friend Alexandra from Sister. And so back to the hotel and the car to the airport.