Newsletter. Always in the know.

NEUE DIGITALE invites clients and partners to its “Digital Reinvention – Targeting the consumer 2.0” event on June 15th in Berlin. That same evening, the Berlin office will celebrate its successful opening.

In addition to international case studies, NEUE DIGITALE will present speeches about Web 2.0 and changes in communication as well as how to observe the habits of digital users and how to use these insights to create customized communication. Additional speeches cover creative benchmarks from around the world and new forms of advertising.

Over 800 attendees from around the world, including 550 clients, met at this year’s AA l RF Client Summit in Las Vegas. Olaf Czeschner’s summary: “One of the best conferences I have ever been to. Top speakers. And it was interesting to learn that Web 2.0 is not just hype in the USA, but a fact of everyday life.”

In addition to speakers such as Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson and Author Tom Peters, presentations from international agencies were well received. Each presented the special characteristics of their country. Japanese were very Mobile 2.0, Koreans showed their love of copying, Australians their ability to relax, Brits their black humor, and French their quality of life. And NEUE DIGITALE showed that Germans are analytical but can also be emotional.

The next AA l RF Client Summit will take place in March 2008 in New York.

Why does a hobby runner get up early and run around the block? What is his motivation? The adidas running campaign tells the running stories of hobby runners. The integrated online campaign consists of a website, mobile elements, and a newsletter that both reflects and expands upon the brand communication activities.

The Axe mobile flirt game Bom Chicka Wah Wah has begun: Germany’s best flirts will be crowned “BCWW King and Queen” live on VIVA Comet 2007. Even after the show, the flirt goes on: send BCWW to 77444 and off you flirt!

“Start playing!” the website calls out to a group of croquet players. Should the user answer the call and hit the ball, the walls, floor and ceiling suddenly fold themselves together and form a new and bizarre landscape. Each room within the Folded World presents one Originals Freizeit style. The website focuses on an entertaining product presentation that forces the user to interact with the brand.

adidas Y-3 Reflections won gold at Golden Award of Montreux and at LAUS Award, the Spanish ADC. The reflected models also won two silver medals at the New York Festivals Interactive as well as bronze at ADC Germany.

Also, adidas Originals Stadium picked up a bronze at the New York Festivals. Its predecessor, Originals Central Park made it onto ADC Germany’s short list along with the desktop application Bookmarking Tool.

The most successful industry trade fair for digital marketing in the world, ad:tech will take place in Germany for the first time on May 22-23 in Hamburg. Andreas Gahlert will speak on the topics of analysis and creativity.

He also discussed trends in front of 220 decision makers, CEOs and media professionals at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and came one step closer to the answering the question: How does brand leadership manifest itself in the age of digital communication and what does it mean for print advertising?

Andreas Gahlert also spoke at a one day seminar for GWA/ Horizont Business Academy about “Brand leadership in digital media” and gave attendees an idea of the new requirements that new media bring with them.

NEUE DIGITALE is expanding its know-how in the area of digital tools in order to allow clients to add customized software applications to their communication mix. To this end, NEUE DIGITALE employees Rolf Borcherding and Heiko Schweickhardt took part in a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) boot camp on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington. WPF is an important part of the Vista platform, which supports the development of rich media applications.

Olaf Czeschner is on this year’s iF Communication Design Award jury in Hannover along with design experts from agencies, industry and the press to judge around 1,200 entries from 31 countries. The iF Communication Design Award is one of the most important German design awards.

NEUE DIGITALE creative team member Jörg Waldschütz will be part of the 26 person international jury for the ADC New York interactive awards. And Creative Director Elke Klinkhammer will judge interactive entries for the New York Festivals.

After Japan, UK, Germany, China and Australia, AA l RF has now also gained ground in France: As of March 2007 the Parisian digital agency Duke Interactive is now a full subsidiary of the aQuantive holding group. Duke is thereby the US firm’s third European increment.

As France’s leading independent digital agency Duke Interactive has 130 employees in their Paris office, where they tend to many world-renowned US clients like McDonald’s, Nike or Procter & Gamble. Duke was founded in 1999 by Christine Santarelli and Matthieu de Lesseux. Their service portfolio offers website development, creative, paid search and SEO.

This acquisition increases AA | RF’s competitiveness in the European market and provides a presence in France, the world’s 4th largest digital marketing market. AA | RF clients now profit from an even broader service spectrum and a further competent partner in Europe and in the French market.

In US magazine Advertising Age’s just published Agency Report, Avenue A Razorfish (AA l RF) leads the revenue ranking of digital agencies. The digital marketing network earned 235,4 million dollars in 2006, a growth of 24,1% from last year.

AA l RF’s holding company aQuantive placed ninth on the list of largest marketing companies worldwide with earnings of 442,2 million dollars (+43,4%) and is the only digital marketing provider in the top ten.

The upswing in online marketing is allowing new media agencies earnings to soar if the Horizont’s New Media earnings ranking is any indication. The magazine quoted Andreas Gahlert who has noticed a trend towards long-term partnerships between agencies and clients. Read the article (German only).

w&v Innovation takes a look at the near future of online advertising. NEUE DIGITALE Media Director Jens Hofmann discusses requirements, and well as the future of and usefulness of various online advertising forms. Read the entire article (German only).