Account Planning in Austria: I am Number one.

I still can’t tell whether this is a good or a bad thing.

So I want to search for account planners in Austria, maybe find agencies that have planners and planning departments. What to do? Start up the Google engine and type in “account planning österreich” and here is the result in unretouched screenshot glory:

And ranked at five: me. The link actually goes to a report I wrote for university about my exchange year at the University of Oklahoma (where I had my first real exposure to account planning).

So the first Google results for “Account Planning” bring up an Account Planning Workshop in April (for which I have signed up already) and then me, some guy who tries to keep in touch with Account Planning in his free time. What does this say about the state of Planning in Austria?

I mean, face it, the largest non-network agency Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann calls Red Spider for planning duties when clients request it. And the general quality of advertising … oh well, let’s not get into this.

But there is a handful of planners in Austria. FCB, TBWA and other network agencies have planners. One sent in a reply to Heather LeFevre’s Account Planner Survey 2007, there is one Austrian in the Plannersphere (but he works in Hungary), none found at LinkedIn, one at Xing (German equivalent to LinkedIn). I haven’t checked StudiVZ yet, but it can’t get much better.

* The search results are bound to change: I will add some posts about planning things I did in the last half year or so in order to fortify my spot at the forefront of Austrian Planning.

April 3, 2008 | Filed Under Account Planning | Leave a Comment 

We can sell them anything. ANYTHING.

I have just started a new category: From Hell. This will be dedicated to showcase the highlights of Austrian advertising. It was sparked when I walked through the supermarket of my choice when I ran into this: Aha. Arnold. Prominently placed before the exits.

 

 

 
 

Wow, an Ahnold endorsed product…this must be good… Styrian Power… awesome! What could this be?

The secret recipe behind Arnold’s muscles? Steroids?

 

 

 

 

 

An Apple? Just how stupid do people believe consumers are? Pay 1 Euro for one apple, while two metres away you can get 2 kilos of the same natural, Styrian apples probably even from the same farm for 2 Euros. And some Ahnold packaging will make people do this? 

WHO believes this? Who of the marketing people responsible would fall for an offer like this themselves? Why is it that the conviction still persists that advertising can just TELL things and whoever hears BELIEVES them? Why is there nobody to stand up and say: “This will not not work. I would not buy this, you would not buy this and we know it. What leads you to believe that people in stores are any different?”

Are Powerpoint slides and business suits of advertisers that intimidating?

This is for real. They even have a website, but I am not going to link there. http://www.arnoldapple.com

 

Edit: A week later that thing is gone. I can only hope they went bankrupt.

 

Oktober 21, 2007 | Filed Under From Hell | Leave a Comment