365 Budapest

In the successful TV series based around the lives of ad people titled “Mad Men”, a character said “This place has more failed artists and intellectuals than the Third Reich” about his fictional agency. We, who work in a place like this, often feel what they were talking about. We all have our little pet projects dear to our hearts, but a lot of them are stillborn – we often lack the energy or the dedication to carry them to term.
But not Molnár Zsolt, one of our brightest young art directors. After working on pannon all day, he still has juice left to finish his monumental undertaking, his website: www.365budapest.com
I’m not gonna spoil what the year long experiment in photography is about, but it’s pretty awesome. Check it out.

Start up your brain

Brief history of the greatest lastest Sport ad

Sport is the chocolate bar that boosts your brain-power. OK. But. How does your brain work  ? Just think  . It runs from one idea to another, hits something then goes the other way. Just like a pinball. So we got the smallest camera in commercial use. But it couldn’t fit into anybody’s brain. So we just had to build the pinball. Actually, five of them. In Prague. In a big-big studio with all the Chech pinball specialists. After it, it was just plain play-play-play, serious work. And some sightseeing while the pinballs were getting their beauty sleep for the big shooting day. Add to the mix a day of freezing shooting (pretending to be spring) in Budapest, some Miraculous places in Prague, traditional Chech kitchen...and bar...and look what came out:

Fellow Submarine

Last month we were getting ready to shoot our new pannon TVC titled „Two kids are throwing stones into the Danube for 30 seconds.”
Interestingly enough, a submarine emerged from the water, completely ruining our shots, so we had to modify the commercial slightly in the editing room.

Aside from that minor detail, the shooting went pretty well.
We promote Pannon’s new offer, “600 free minutes for new subscribers” - so you can tell anything that has happened to you.
But since we’re online now, and a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some pretty ones from the shooting. You can catch the spot on TV from the 2nd of September.

Stars of the Women’s Wrestling Federation, Captain Sorrow and Lady Pain

The rendition of a victorian era wooden submarine.

The best place to hide a microphone

Szász Attila, Director, and a prisoner of war

Unidentified homeless man, who security had to chase away (later turned out to be the project’s copywriter)

Art Director, learning some discipline from his captain

There is something in the woods

In spite of popular belief advertising people don’t start to feel alienated and scared the moment they can’t see billboards and citylights around them. Even though the city is our natural habitat, we kinda like nature too. 
That’s why last weekend most of the Pannon team – accounts and creatives -  got together and went to Misi’s (our creative director) house in the country to do some serious team building. And when I say country, I mean in the deepest depths of Zala. After hours and hours of driving following Misi’s instructions, many of us expected to see the Mexican border, and got our passport ready.
But when we got to the house, it turned out to be a very nice place – in fact the perfect setting for a horror movie, with  woods on the left and a cemetery to the right, but unfortunately nothing attacked us. You couldn’t tell it though. If you haven’t seen a bunch of creative gathering firewood with a machete in the forest, I can tell you, it looks a lot like a zombie movie’s finale.
Soon the fire was ready and we got out the bacon, onions and wieners. Then someone started to open bottles. From there, the weekend is a blur for most people. But from the photos, it seems like we had fun.

 

Posted by Attila

It’s great to be among the greatest

Cannes Lions 2008 - The 55th International Advertising Festival

The Créme de la Créme once again gathered in Cannes to celebrate the best works in the world of advertising. Our company was represented at the Côte d'Azur by Andrea Pethő-Dickinson (CEO), Bartek Rams (executive creative director), Gábor Spielmann (creative director), and as a reward for winning the TVC category in David Awards (the competition held within the Eastern European Ogilvy Network) György Csali (art director) and Attila Zöld (copywriter).
After a whole week of useful workshops, mind opening seminars, exciting exhibitions, continuous parties and hardcore socializing with international colleauges, we gained a lot of inspiration and we got a vast overview on the present and the future of traditional and digital advertising. It was a great moment to celebrate when the jury released the finalists in the Outdoor Lions category and we discovered Ogilvy Budapest among the competitors.
Plus we could congratulate Bartek as well for being shortlisted with a work from his previous agency, Ogilvy Kiev. Above all, we had the chance see the Cannes Debate with delegates from Google, Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft hosted by Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP (owner of Ogilvy Group). See video here:
http://www.canneslions.com/features/video.cfm?id=483

Check out the amazing lineup of winners!
http://www.canneslions.com/winners/

Our guys in Cannes

How I got into advertising

Having finished my fourth year at the University I was looking for a job for the summer.
I have always been an ad-addict. You know the type, we are the ones who turn on the TV and instead of watching the shows, we watch the commercials. I’m one of them.
So I got into Ogilvy as Account Assistant. My first days were basically about exploring, and using one very useful tool we have, namely Staff_OMBudapest.ppt. For those people who don’t know what this is I will explain. It is a presentation of the members of Ogilvy&Mather Budapest, with pictures. It was a great tool to help identify the more than 100 people working for Ogilvy. Later on I was involved in more serious things, and I was lucky enough to have been present in photo shootings, video shootings, VO recordings, and lots of other things in my first 3 months. And during my almost-one year at Ogilvy I was lucky enough to have worked with several people who were professionally inspiring and cool people at the same time.
But now, my duty is calling me back to the uni: the Department of Accounting. This is my final obstacle between me and my diploma.
But agency life is addictive. I cannot imagine my everyday life without Ogilvy, without the people I like here, without the a.s.a.p. changes, the word „szüttyögni”, creative layouts, the cut-throat csocsó matches or the constant state that my team has to wait for me to buy myself something for lunch. I will really miss you guys!

Posted by "Multitasking" Máté

Unstoppable Dió – our success at the David Awards

A few posts earlier we told you how well our Pannon TV Ad "Dió’s Day" (featuring Pannon’s star dog Dió) tested with audiences. People just can’t resist that pooch.
But as it turns out Dió’s Day was a success within the industry as well. The ad got a really prestigious award on this year’s David Awards – Ogilvy’s inside competition to find the best creative works made in our network.
Voters from different European branches of Ogilvy elected Dió’s Day to be the best submitted TV ad. We’re first!
Congratulations to the Pannon team, and especially to the Art Director and Copywriter in charge of the project, György Csali and Attila Zöld.
You just can’t stop Dió. In fact, we should just put the pup on a flag and start conquering countries.
And last but not least congratulations for the Ford team – their Ford Fiesta Color ad reached second place in the „Print” category, and to the Fanta team, who’s Play campaing recieved the third place in „Design and Ambient".
Good job guys!

 

Katarina reveals the secret...

Click on the video below to watch the digital introduction of our new Head of OgilvyInteractive.

Posted by Katarina

How to get into advertising? - 2. part

The account department

Are you still confused about the structure of the advertising industry? Are you still hesitating, unsure of which department to choose? The second part of the “How to get into advertising” series is about the role of Accounts personell. These useful bits of advice are based on real Ogilvy career stories.
Are you not sure what an account executive does? For an entertaining job description check out the Ogilvy UK’s Fellows Recruitment web site:
http://www.ogilvy.co.uk/fellows/default.asp#7
Or find information on the UK official graduate career site: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&pageno=1&idno=239
In the past, getting into advertising in Hungary wasn’t so easy. Brigi’s story proves this. After graduating from the College of Commerce she decided to become an Account. So she called up the Ogilvy office and asked for the CEO – simply thinking who else if not the boss. Of course CEO’s are very busy, so she never managed to get through. But she decided to put it down to experience instead of becoming discouraged. I guess after a while she might have realised that it wasn’t the boss who she was supposed to keep calling. Still she didn’t give it up. One day, to her surprise, the CEO answered her call. This young enthusiastic girl bravely said to him that she wanted to work for Ogilvy. The CEO was shocked by her straight-foward approach. It’s usually not his job to employ trainees, so he sent her to the Client Service Director. In the next round our tricky girl started as follows: “Sir, I got your number from the CEO and I am looking for a trainee job.” Although there was no position available, she still managed to persuade him to be her dissertation consultant. She did it so well that she soon got her first job. She began at the very bottom of the ladder as an assistant, slowly climbing up to an account director and now as the Corporate Communications Manager.
Warning! Please do not start calling our CEO now; simply apply to our trainee program.
Here is another nice career story at our place. Attila,  an account manager working for the Kraft team, studied at the University of Pécs. There he was trained by noted lecturers like prof Mária Törőcsik and Miklós Váradi. With their help he came in second in the OTDK (Universities Student Competition) in Marketing section in 2005. He also took part in many other student competitions during his studies. As a part of this course he gained work experience through placements in London for a PR agency, at Matáv (Hungarian Telecommunications Company), and Dreher (SAB subsidiary). With his very nice looking CV and his great personality, he managed to achieve his dreams. He applied for an account assistant position at Ogilvy and after a successful interview got the job.

Since getting into the advertising industry, he has pulled out all the stops and managed to move up very quickly. Still today he is up and running and has his work cut out to keep on top of things.
Want to read more case studies? Visit: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Explore_types_of_jobs/Types_of_Job/p!eipaL?state=showocc&idno=239&pageno=8
And finally here are some useful piece of advice for accounts applicants with the help of Csaba (he got into Ogilvy Budapest through our trainee program last year, and soon became a junior account executive).
- Be creative! First thing we have to make clear: Accounts might not be labelled as creatives, but if you would like to work in advertising in any field, you must be creative! Maybe it’s not you who comes out with the big ideas, but you have to recognize them and sell them to the client in the name of the agency.
- Don’t want to become an account if you are only interested in casting big boob girls and shooting with Brad Pitt. It’s not about that. Then rather become a TV or Film producer. (You don’t have to wait much! The next part of the series will be about how to become a producer.)
- Are you good at time management? Are you ok with working late? Are you an open, friendly, spirited person? If the answer is yes, carry on with it.
- Be tough! And never give it up. Never get offended if you get rejected. You’ve been left holding a baby, you have to find your way yourself.
- Take part in student competitions and workshops! Look for domestic or international work experience even if it doesn’t pay. That will give you a taste of advertising and you’ll also know where you stand. Usually trainee jobs are not paid, still a lot of people apply for that. For a while you have to tighten your belt, but it will be worth it!
- Ask your lecturers for help!
- Study advertising. Read the national and international professional papers and websites. Just google it, and you’ll find plenty of them.
- Visit communication events, conferences, and the advertising week. Build your own contacts! You can do it without connections too, but it never hurts having some…
- Search the agencies websites. Apply for all vacancies. Send your CV to the HR department even if there is nothing available at the moment. You never know when something can turn up.
- Impress them at the interview! Be a unique, interesting person! Show them your enthusiasm and passion for advertising.
You are all very lucky with so many trainee programs available nowadays. Check out our career site, where you can always find our freshest job vacancies.
Good luck Guys!

Posted by Nora

Mobile and Barcelona

Working at Ogilvy also means that you can travel to nice places and learn from very talented experts. While working on the Pannon brand Misi (the Head of Art of the team) and myself (working as Group Account Director) had the opportunity to fly to the wonderful city of Barcelona and participate on Ogilvy's yearly Telco Task Force Conference (Telco Task Force is a constantly growing group within the Ogilvy network involving those working in the telecommunication market; we share case studies, trends, and latest findings with each other using Truffles, Ogilvy’s intranet site. We also have regular chats and calls in case someone needs help, and also meet once a year to further develop our knowledge.). This year Ogilvy teamed up with the GSM Association http://www.gsmworld.com  . We had a joint conference day called "the Chief Marketing Officer's Forum", organised in the location of the 3GSM World Congress http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/  . This day we learned about the future of mobile advertising from the big guys working at Vodafone, News Group Newspapers, the Walt Disney Internet Group (yes this really exists!), Openwave, Telia and also from other telco-gurus within the Ogilvy network. We were proud to see Ogilvy as a major sponsor of the event, these are the moments when you can really feel what this network can offer...

In between the presentations we had some time to look around in the 'Fira de Barcelona' http://www.firabcn.es/  , where during the 3GSM Conference you can find all the important players of the mobile industry: from service providers through content and software producers to handset manufacturers. We started with checking the latest handsets at the stands of Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and many more. It was fascinating to see how far these things have developed: touch screens, swinging big monitors, lighting buttons that change themselves according to the service you are using on the mobile, and easy-to-use softwares with icons have become generic parts of the new mobiles. Then we visited Telenor's stand to see how the mother company of Pannon shows itself and were happy to see our TV commercials running on a huge plasma screen!

We spent the second day in Sitges http://sitges.dolce.com/  , a small village located by the sea a few kilometres away from Barcelona, where we listened to the latest consumer trends from guest speakers and outstanding case studies of the Ogilvy network. A fast lunch and there we were again on the plane flying back to Budapest :-(

These two days were really busy and we arrived tired to Ferihegy late evening on Tuesday, but we both felt that we had learned a lot about this fast evolving industry. We were inspired to have many useful ideas which we can build into our daily work we do for Pannon.

(The attached pics were made with my Nokia N73 – see how far this has developed?)

Posted by Réka