Wednesday, May 27, 2009

McCann Erickson

McCann Erickson is a household name in the advertising world. They have been around for over 100 years and have developed a reputation that has turned them into a powerhouse when it comes to global brands. Of their 205 offices in 130 different countries, the office in Munich is new, as it opened in 2004. Today we got to speak Frank Riedel, the Managing Director and his colleague, Sebastian. Frank spoke about the company as a whole and the 22-24,000 employees throughout the agency. Although this seems like a large company, Frank said that his team in Munich is just a small fraction. The reason the office in Munich was created was for their main client, Microsoft. Microsoft is only located a few miles away from the Munich office so it worked out well for both companies.

Frank spent a great deal of time talking about global brands, and how McCann Erickson creates these powerful brands. He began by saying that each campaign is looked at in both a local and global market. To make sure that something can be global, it has to be able to work locally too. For example, MasterCard ads were acceptable globally because people understood the emotion of "priceless". Other ads such as Red Bull's "Gives you wings to fly" could be translated differently making the overall point of the campaign suffer. He said his company always pushes the one concept that can work in the most countries.

This main point of concept he continued to repeat throughout the meeting. The concept deals a lot with the culture of a person; their lifestyles, how they use social media, and even religions. Every little thing plays an overall role which could make or break a campaign. Frank gave the example of social media and the difference between Germany and America. Instruments like Facebook and Twitter are not as big of an advertising outlet in Germany as they are in the States. This statement shocked me, but as he went on to explain, Germans do not use Facebook and Twitter to communicate full conservations like Americans. They use it more for the networking business area, whereas, Americans use it more as the private sharing of relationships.

Frank and Sebastian also took time to share with all of us about advice for the future. Frank encouraged all of us to take time away from work and learn from traveling experiences. I would love to do that, and hope to possibly do something next year to extend my studies abroad, but I was just so confused by his advice. In America we are constantly told to work hard while we are young and make it big fast by being the better employee. Here in Europe I got the message of relax and take your time, your experiences will pave a career path for you. I am loving the European response, but need to make sure I have a retirement plan started soon! Sebastian also gave great advice telling us to question everything. Make sure to question things and prove why your idea could possibly be better. I love this advice because it is telling me never to settle and believe in my work. I hope to start a career with this confidence some day soon. Overall, I truly enjoyed McCann Erickson and really appreciate having a contact in Germany. Who knows, maybe I will find my way back to Munich in the future!!

1 comment:

Kayla Marie said...

It was a huge honor to get to sit and visit with Frank Riedel, Managing Director of McCann Erickson. Frank spoke about the importance of having a connection with consumers through a campaign. You need to find the right way to market a brand so it can be understood and translateable in all different cultures. It is so important to learn about many different cultures in the advertising world. I thought this was extremely helpful information for going into the real world.

I was highly impressed that Frank was the Managing Director at the young age of 35. That is a great accomplishment at that age! I can only hope to be that successful one day. At the end of the conversation, Frank mentioned that he knew four langauges fluently. Many of the other agencies we have spoken to have known more than one langauge as well. Frank also made a great point that we are at a disadvantage because we only know one. It makes me want to work even harder so I can be the person with the greater advantage in the job market.