At a recent event hosted by the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark (BCCD), I ran into a really inspiring person. His name is Ripley Davenport, and this spring he will set out on a 3-month mission to walk across Mongolia, a journey of over 2,700 kilometres - all by himself!

The goal is to raise awareness about human and environmental sustainability, to inspire and educate, as well as to encourage young people to follow their dreams and get active. He will also be raising funds for three charities: Shelter Box, Hope & Homes for Children, and Unicef.

During the Mongolia 2010 Expedition, Ripley will be producing a documentary film and use social media like Twitter, blogs and trackers to enable people around the world to follow him. I know I will be! It’s always fun to meet people like him who actually get out there and do something. It kind of puts cycling two kilometres to and from work to shame…

Check out the Mongolia 2010 Expedition website.

The internet is free, but music and TV are not. Games are not free, and neither are magazines. People pay for quality content. Now the internet has moved from mere information to entertainment – and consumers are now willing to put up with online advertising if it means they can watch or play for free.

Nowadays, ‘consumers in control’ simply means that consumers can have ‘this much for free, and a better experience for a price’; whether that price is increasing broadband speed or buying a Hi-Def movie on a disc. If consumers can get a better experience in return for being exposed to advertising and being able to continue to play, watch or consume for free, then the trade-off is no longer forced upon them; they actually appreciate it. And even more so if the targeting is relevant and somehow enhances the overall experience.

If you want evidence of advertising enhancing entertainment, take a look at all the TV ads on YouTube that people search for and discuss across social networks. Even Obama worked this medium to his favour! See the lists that people put on Facebook about their favourite films, books, or music, and think of the reaction not so long ago when Amazon first ’suggested’ books to you. Things change and people soften.

Check the research on gaming advertising. If you want a hardcore bunch of modern geeks to crack, then gamers take no prisoners. The fact is, they appreciate the advertising trade-off that gives them free game play, and they feel that brand placement enhances game reality.

Up until 2005, connection speeds prevented quality advertising from being pushed in real-time. The advertising hindered people. But broadband brought online entertainment that is now challenging the TV and music industries. And it has also provided quality content that people are willing to trade for advertising – especially fun, entertaining advertising. We used to forward funny videos around by email. We used to call that ‘viral’. Now we are posting these videos to our Facebook walls – and most of these are centered around a brand.

Thanks to Dean Donaldson
This is based on a blog post written by Dean Donaldson. Dean is Director of Digital Experience at Eye Blaster and has more than 20 years of advertising and digital experience. You can read more of Dean’s thoughts at www.deandonaldson.com or hear his views on the future of digital marketing.

How will digital campaigns develop in 2010?
Dean Donaldson will be speaking at Poets & Plumbers’ half-day seminar on how digital campaigns will develop in 2010 on 11 November 2009. The seminar is almost sold out, but you might be able to get on the waiting list. And if not, there’s plenty more going on at Poets & Plumbers.

Previous DHL Relay Race experience tells us that we don’t run quite as fast as we write, but we never give up trying.

So you can find us in Fælledparken again this year, in better shape than ever! One of us has been training hard high up in the Norwegian mountains, two of us have run the Copenhagen Marathon, and the rest of us have been conserving all our energy for this year’s DHL run.

If you’re running on Wednesday 2 September 2009 – or if you’re going along to cheer for your colleagues – come and meet us in Blok 48 (find us on the map).

Happy racing!

Check out the action from last year’s race…

We’re currently on a mission to find out how Danish companies approach international marketing and communications. So if you have experience in that area, we’d really value your input.

When you’re preparing materials for your international markets, do you start out by writing a Danish version? Why? Why not? Do you compare yourself to other Danish companies, or do you look towards your international competitors and the way they communicate?

These and other international communications issues will be the main focus at an event we’re hosting in November, so we’d like to get an idea of what works for your company.

Please take a few minutes to complete our survey and we’ll reveal the results later this fall.
Oh… and you’ll get a chance to win some lovely champagne, too!

Start the survey…

Early September, ten happy runners and two even more enthusiastic cheerleaders set up camp at Fælledparken for the DHL Relay Race and got ready to compete against some of Denmark’s top companies.

Although it turns out we don’t run quite as fast as we write, we were thrilled with our two teams’ performances.

Out of the 17,876 teams, “Eye for Image 2″ came in as number 2,480 in 2:00:22, and “Eye for Image 1″ as number 3,709 in 2:03:48!

Our leading man, David Hoskin, showed the way forward, finishing the race in about 20 minutes (much to her chagrin, he even ran past Nathalie, who started before him!)

But the award for most impressive performance went to our colleague Dan Elloway who, after having run only three times in his life, ran in 25:11! We think the training conditions in Norway have been in his favor - thin mountain air, intervals up and down the hills…

So next year, we’ll train in Norway. But for now we’re happy to say we all had heaps of fun! Check out the action shots below – and click on the images to enlarge them.

At Eye for Image, we see spelling mistakes every day. Some make us cringe, others make us laugh. We cringed and laughed when we saw the job title “Pubic Sector Analyst.” Ooops. Even spellcheck wouldn’t help with that one.

But can you just imagine you are a Public Sector Analyst? You’re at a meeting. You’ve just given out your business cards to each of the 10 people at the table. Then you notice the missing letter ‘l’ in your job title. How on earth do you recover from that one???

Spelling. For some, it’s a cinch. For others, it’s a minefield. It’s one of the very first things we begin to learn at school, and we keep on learning as long as we are reading and writing. Oh, how spellcheck programs have simplified our lives! But those pesky misspellings show up anyway.

Our recent WordSpin article on misspellings in English lists 16 common ones. Check it out and see if you learn something new.

Got a memorable spelling mistake yourself? Post a comment on this blog entry and let us know what it was. We promise to laugh with you, not at you!

In Denmark, “You are welcome to send an unsolicited application” is used quite a bit – but few feel comfortable with it. Quite often, our clients ask us: Is unsolicited application the right term to use? Will people understand it? What can we say instead?

So we decided to write a WordSpin article on this topic, suggesting possible - and friendlier? - alternatives. Check out This month’s questionable phrase: unsolicited applications.

What does your company use? Do you have a great alternative to unsolicited applications that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Der er i øjeblikket en heftig debat i gang blandt kommunikatører om, hvorvidt det danske sprog er ved at blive oversvømmet og udvandet af engelske ord. Uden at gå for meget i detaljer omkring, hvor jeg selv står i den diskussion, vil jeg gerne dele en lille anekdote med jer.

Jeg deltog for nylig i en konference, hvor en masse dygtige danske forretningsfolk gav vi andre dødelige et indblik i, hvordan de arbejder med markedsføring og kommunikation. Eventen “in itself” vil nok ikke gå over i historien for mig, men flere af talerne gjorde dybt indtryk med deres brug af flotte engelske ord!

Jeg har derfor opdigtet en lille tekst, der ikke har direkte relation til det, en af talerne i virkeligheden delte med sit publikum. Men samtlige engelske ord i min tekst indgik rent faktisk i vedkommendes ”danske” indlæg. Enjoy!

En lille exercice
“I denne lille exercice vil jeg tage jer med på en tur gennem det danske sprogs mange nye opportunities – et indspark til debatten om de mange engelske ord, der hver dag sniger sig ind i det danske business-language.

For at se, om vi er on track, kan vi foretage forskellige actions for at måle det danske sprogs performance ude i den virkelige business-verden. Man kunne for eksempel starte med at opstille en execution liste og outline en workstream, så vi er sikre på at få det hele med. Det giver os mulighed for at predicte på, hvor mange engelske ord, der sniger sig ind i f.eks. danske business blogs, websites eller one-pagere.

Når vi så har handled analyserne og løbende har tjekket op på vores KPI’er, så vil de fremkomne charts formentlig give os et view på, om vi har nået vores targets. Resultatet vil uden tvivl vise, at det danske sprog ikke længere er aligned med det sprog, man talte for bare et par år siden, da den engelske influence var noget mindre. Vi er nået way past common-sense stadiet, og jeg tror, at der skal sættes nogle drivers i gang, så vi ikke ender med totalt at out-spende vores kvote af tilladte engelske ord per tekst i det danske sprog.

Hvad er vores learning?
Vores learning må være, at vi hver dag når nye milestones med vores sprog – og at vi dermed løber nogle risks for ikke at kunne benchmarke sproget og skabe ækvivalenter til de mange engelske business terms…”

A blog is only interesting if you’ve got something to say – something you think is important enough to share with your audience. So when it comes to corporate blogging, the goal must be to blog about topics of interest to the customers – and preferably to get them to comment get into a dialogue.

We know that many of our customers read our blog, but very few actually comment. This goes particularly for the Danish part of our audience. Why is that?

- Because we write in English?
- Because it’s hard to find the time?
- Because the topics aren’t relevant?
- Because the idea of blogging and displaying one’s opinion to the public still takes some getting used to for many people?

Some people are natural bloggers and quickly latch onto a debate. Others are simply not. Even our staff of international copywriters is split into two groups – the bloggers and “the others”. I’m one of “the others”, and the above reasons have kept me from blogging and from commenting on others’ blogs, even though I’ve found the topics really interesting.

However, having written two blog entries now, I’ve come to realize that blogging isn’t as scary as it seems. I might even comment on a blog entry sometime soon!

What are your reasons?
So – to all of you out there who read our blog, but don’t comment: what are your reasons? I’d love to hear them – I know now that mine weren’t half as good as I thought…

Berlingske Business recently pointed out how few PR agencies have a Corporate Blog - something they all strongly recommend to their clients. One of their arguments against corporate blogging is lack of time – another is that it’s hard to find something relevant to write about.

These were also our fears when we decided to set up a corporate blog about a year ago. And yes, one year’s experience with our blog has shown us that it does take some time to get it rolling, to find the “corporate blogging voice” and to catch people’s attention.

But the fact is that now that our blog is up and running, even our most regular bloggers hardly ever spend more than 30 minutes a week on the blog. Now, it’s true that we’re professional copywriters and writing is our thing. But even so, our staff is split into two groups – the bloggers and “the others”. Some people are natural bloggers and quickly latch onto a debate – others are simply not.

I believe that every company or agency has at least one natural born blogger. And that every company has something interesting to share with it’s stakeholders. An opinion on where the industry is going. Comments on new products or ideas. The blog is a great place for your audience to get to meet the “real people” behind the corporate facade – and they would like to hear what you have to say. So maybe it’s worth investing 30 minutes a week sharing your thoughts and ideas with your audience?

So grab your pens (keyboards) and BLOG ON! Of course you’ve got something relevant to say. So say it. Out loud – and proud.