Hasta La Creative!

What do you call a company with agency capabilities that is not an agency, but only offers “agency services” as part of a whole range of other services? Enter Active International, a “Corporate Trading Company.” If your company happens to be within the Forbes Top 1000, you may know it by name.

Not me. While talking to them on the phone, I felt like a complete idiot. Active International has made significant media buys, ranking them with, or close to, the top media spenders in the industry. Not only did I not know what it is, I had not the slightest bit of familiarity with its business model.

So, feeling like a dolt, and yearning to find out how uninformed I was compared to my peers, I sent e-mails out to a number of my contacts to see if they had heard of Active International. Out of twenty, sixteen came back negative. The last four did not reply. Feeling a bit better about myself, I started to do a little research that led to my understanding.

Active International functions as a corporate trading partner. Corporate trade is loosely based on the concept of barter, exchanging one commodity for another much needed commodity. Barter sounds relatively archaic; something used in feudal economies. Corporate trade, however, is commonly used in many companies among the Fortune 1000.

EXAMPLE

Megalithic Foods has a line of products that is doing very well in the market. However, its Rhino Buddy Crackers, in production for the last two years, isn’t very popular and the factory has been operating poorly. Thus, Megalithic plans to shut down the factory and take a loss. At this point, Active International enters and assesses the situation. It looks at the distressed assets (the factory and remaining inventory) and determines if there is a potential for redistribution. Let’s say that in this case, the potential exists, and Active makes an offer to Megalithic Foods to take the factory and the inventory.

If the offer is approved by both parties, the deal is finalized and Active acquires the distressed inventory. In Megalithic’s accounting books, the income is listed as a “trade credit” to be used as needed. After employee wages and benefits are paid, the next largest expenses for corporations are advertising and promotion. Megalithic decides to pump up its ad expenditures via the trade credits. Luckily for Megalithic, Active International has an elite team of media professionals available to easily implement a large-scale media buy.

How large? Past transactions show that Active International has placed spots in high profile shows and special events such as the Super Bowl. Although it continues to acquire assets, it has evolved into a diversified marketing and business solutions provider.

Active International is not only able to provide its clients with a solution to a problem, but it is also available to reinvest those trade credits where the client needs the most help, including media, supply chain, storage, etc. This is a fantastic example of a company that has based itself in solutions, and not problems. Foresight and progressive thinking enable them to provide clients with services an agency cannot: fulfilling one goal while eradicating another.

If you’d like to find out more, there are websites available that will provide basic information, such as Corporate Trading Tips. Adweek also ran an article regarding corporate trade that can be found online in its December issue, called “Tricks of the Trade.”

Or, contact Active International directly via its contact page.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. Reach out and touch him: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

A Copa do Mundo da África do Sul não o único grande evento esportivo que vai rolar ano que vêm. Em Vancouver, no Canadá, está havendo os últimos preparativos para hospedar o XXI Jogos Olímpicos de Inverno. O evento, que será realizado entre os dias 12 a 28 de fevereiro, ganhou agora um cartaz oficial. Pela primeira vez na história do COI (Comitê Olímpico Internacional), o pôster dos Jogos Olímpicos é interligado com o pôster dos Jogos Paraolímpicos. O pôster conserva, ainda, a folha estilizada da bandeira oficial do Canadá, que representa as folhas de uma árvore típica canadense.

E para dar continuidade a campanha de divulgação dos jogos, a Sega anunciou em seu blog a produção de Vancouver 2010 – The Official Game. O jogo será lançado para PC, PlayStation 3 e Xbox 360 em 2010, na mesma época dos próximos Jogos Olímpicos de Inverno. Confira abaixo o trailer de estréia do game oficial: Vancouver 2010:

:: Via Posted Sports

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Tags: mediaME at Cannes, Lions 2009

MINNEAPOLIS (AdAge.com) — With the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and now Billy Mays, as well as "Transformers" trouncing criticism to score big at the box office, it seems the nation's common conversation this weekend was about pop culture. But as shown by Sunday night's TV ratings race, few were actually watching the medium that fueled those stars: network TV.

Esse é mais um exemplo de Titanium & Integrated que não é publicidade, e sim um produto, um serviço ou ferramenta. Diante da maior crise mundial dos últimos 25 anos, a última coisa que alguém pensa em fazer é comprar um novo carro.

O desafio da Hyundai era justamente esse: vender mais automóveis em plena recessão. Para tanto, precisaram parar de encarar o cenário através do ponto de vista de uma fabricante de carros, e sim pelos olhos dos consumidores.

Não fizeram uma campanha, ofertas ou promoções, e sim ofereceram um seguro. Você financia/compra um carro, e se perder o emprego nos próximos anos, pode devolver e ter o seu dinheiro de volta.

A idéia foi copiada por diversas outras empresas, inclusive pela GM e pela Ford, meses mais tarde. O resultado foi um expressivo aumento de receita, enquanto praticamente todas as concorrentes fecharam no vermelho.

A criação é da Goodby Silverstein & Partner, em seu terceiro Leão de Titanium & Integrated em 2009. Levaram um de cada: fora esse Bronze, ganharam também Ouro com Sprint e Prata com Häagen-Dazs.

Assista abaixo o vídeo-case: [vídeo]

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* Esse post faz parte de uma série sobre os vencedores da categoria mais importante de Cannes Lions, a Titanium & Integrated. Confira outros cases aqui e não esqueça de ver todos os ganhadores no site work.canneslions.com *

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Outro Leão de Prata de Titanium & Integrated em Cannes Lions 2009 foi para o projeto “House Of Imagination”, criado pela agência alemã Heimat para a Hornbach, uma loja de materiais para construção e decoração.

A idéia era mostrar que é possível fazer qualquer coisa que você imaginar em uma reforma ou construção, para isso, transformaram um apartamento abandonado no centro de Berlim em um lugar com 12 diferentes experiências fantásticas e bizarras. A atração conquistou mais de 18 mil visitantes durante o tempo em que ficou aberta.

Assista abaixo o vídeo-case completo: [vídeo]

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* Esse post faz parte de uma série sobre os vencedores da categoria mais importante de Cannes Lions, a Titanium & Integrated. Confira outros cases aqui e não esqueça de ver todos os ganhadores no site work.canneslions.com *

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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