Messinia, despite many crucial factors working for it (stability, relative ease of access, good scenery and weather, currency) , was until recently a sleepy Greek province. This is ready to change, if it hasn’t already with the arrival of Costa Navarino. Costa Navarino is a Starwood alliance / Westin branded group of concept hotels. The goal behind this investment / development is clear: create a premium tourist destination, with global appeal, in southern mainland Greece.
Giorgos Papandreou, pictured above is the Greek prime minister. Last night he “adressed the nation” over several IMF/economic crisis related issues.This pic is a screenshot taken off the frontpage of possibly the most “serious” Greek newspaper.
This photo is obviously put together by his communications consultants. Nothing bad there, every politician that takes themselves seriously should do it. I do not like the Apple product placement. Plain and simple. If not for any other reason, then just because it is not Apple’s brand perception that is ameliorated by coexisting with the Greek PM. It is the PM’s brand image that they is thought to be improved by building an association with Apple products. And that is just wrong.
It is often dangerous drawing analogies between political parties of different countries, but let’s just say that Nea Dimokratia is the Greek equivalent of the Torries, or a less crazy Greek version of the GOP. It theoritically is placed on the center right of the political spectrum. Nea Dimokratia as all Greek parties has a political youth; their name is ONNED.
ONNED launched a competition last week, in a bid to crowdsource their new logo. The competition took a tragic turn as the internet massively voted for gruesome logo 31, which can be admired above as well as other tragic submissions. ONNED responded by withdrawing Logo 31 and extending the voting period, highlighting their strategic and communication weaknesses and turning the competition into a complete fiasco. To get the story as it happened search for #logo31 on Twitter ( it is in Greek).
I was very happy to see the latest PR stunt from good friends Kaos on behalf of Paul Frank. Kaos created those Paul-Frank-Bicycle-Film-Festival-branded bike seat covers, that they distributed around the city. I think this is a great example of Guerilla marketing that unlike many other examples of Guerilla Marketing works perfectly. Here’s why:
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Fellow Greeks should remember the Bring Them Back campaign; it run about a year ago and it did not end up anywhere – nor it will anytime in the foreseeable (and not) future. I was angered by that campaign and would have written something back then had my website been launched. Although probably nobody remembers this campaign nowadays I will still write about it because it is a monument of cheap and bad. It is how one *should not* plan and run campaigns.
Saying that Panagiotis Thomoglou is one of the best interactive designers around is like saying that bears do actually shit in woods. It crosses into captain obvious territory.
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Wafa is the editor in chief of Sketchbook magazine and founder of Obai and Hill design/branding agency. When I first met her through my friend and LCC classmate Luma Bashmi my first impression was far from what I believe now. Back then I thought she was an ordinary girl. Now I believe that she possess a rare bussiness accumen.
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I had started to lose faith in viral content. Maybe its the fact that every second video was called “viral” or maybe it was the fact that the same ideas were repeated over and over and over again but this one is different.
This is brilliant. Rarely an ad about cheese has made me laugh so much. Enjoy.
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