Did Santa mistakenly forget to put a junior planner in your stocking? Don’t fret, I’ve got just the thing. Take a look at Daniel Berg.
Fresh out of a primo school in Sweden and 6 months of real experience here in Amsterdam. I had a chance to chat and drink coffee with Daniel before the holidays. I liked his spirit and I think he will make someone out there very happy. Maybe you??
*UPDATE: Julia has been nabbed by Sra. Rushmore in Madrid. So you’ll have to wait and lure her away with more money in a year or so.
I’ve shifted the focus of my OCD from Orbitz to Julia Lee. Let me introduce you to her. She’s one of THREE new members to my survey team so I’ve had the chance to get to know her. As her resume will show, she went to the San Francisco Academy of Art and studied planning under the tutelage of Cameron Maddux who runs the program (and reminds me that I want to tell you all more about the great things they’re doing there in another post.)
She even has a portfolio of her thinking and keen aesthetic sense so there’s no commitment. Just have a browse and let her smarts do the talking. Then you can pick up the phone and bring her on board. Wouldn’t it be sooo luxurious to have a clever newbie to help on all those projects?
Mariota Essery just completed her wrap up of the first ever art director survey. Perhaps art directors are less interested in surveys – 101 found the time to take this one – but she’s definitely taught me a few things in terms of presentation. These are some really pretty charts and graphs! The most surprising finding for me was how many art directors changed jobs last year (40%) compared to planners (32%). And even more surprising the number thinking about leaving their job in the next year (46%!) compared to planners (36%). So if you like your art directors and you don’t want to go through the drama and expense of replacing them, perhaps you should show them some more love. Have you hugged your art director today?
Orbitz recently screwed two friends of mine. I’m vowing not to use them again – publicly – until they make this right. I want to see if making some blog and twitter hub bub will result in a positive outcome, so if you’ve received any value from my planner survey and are willing to do me a little favor, would you please take a look at this sob story and join me in tweeting “I’m boycotting @Orbitz” until they fix this?
In July, my friends Ian and Mariota booked a flight on Olympic Airlines, flying via Athens to Johannesburg on the 17th December through Orbitz. Because they booked this flight in July, it was a really good price.
In September, Ian received an email saying there was a change in the itinerary. This was only a change of a couple of hours, but nothing out of the ordinary. Orbitz did not say to contact them.
On November 28 Ian received another email saying to contact Orbitz as there was a major change to the flight.
For the first 5 or so calls to Orbitz, no one could help. All they could say was the flight had been canceled, but no one could get hold of the airline. On one call to Orbitz, they spoke to a man who had no idea what to do, got frustrated, and told them to contact Olympic Airline directly as he just couldn’t get through to them then hung up on them. He said it had nothing to do with Orbitz.
Ian and Mariota did their own investigation, and realized without Orbitz revealing the truth, that Olympic Airline had been bought by Olympic Air in September (This now begins to get confusing – please note Olympic Airline became Olympic Air). Olympic Air does not fly to South Africa. Ian and Mariota called Olympic Air and they said it’s got nothing to do with them, Orbitz is the agent and they need to liaise with them.
They then called Orbitz back saying it was unacceptable since this merger had happened in September, and they had not been notified about this. They could have easily booked another flight then. Ian and Mariota spoke to them every day since 28th November, and Orbitz said they were going to contact Olympic Air and rebook Ian and Mariota on another flight. This was promised again and again. However, because Orbitz and Olympic Air are several time zones apart days went by without the two companies connecting. Orbitz never called Ian and Mariota back despite promising to do so. They had to chase them every day. They had to speak to numerous operators, tell the same story over and over again, some not understanding at all.
Last night, Ian said they have to sort this out – they were scheduled to fly in a week. They finally got put through to a manger who said nothing can be done, and Ian and Mariota are being refunded the money for the flights. Of course, Christmas flights to South Africa are now 500-800 euros more per ticket!
I just think this is appalling. Not only is the customer service so bad (they fail to call you back even when promising) but also, they must have known about this merger in September, and they could have sorted it out 3 months ago rather than a week before. Will you help me get Orbitz to make this right? I think they should pay the difference for the new tickets they have purchased. If you agree please spread this post, tweet that you will boycott Orbitz, and anything else you can think of. Many thanks loyal planners!
UPDATE – tonight after just a few hours of your very kind support, someone from Orbitz’ PR firm in Chicago called Ian and offered their apology and a $300 Orbitz voucher. They must not have seen the news lately – that’s the equivalent of 200 euros, 20% of what their fuck up will cost Ian and Mariota to rebook new flights this late in the game. To me, they are admitting they are in the wrong but not making it right.
But this also shows the amazing power of people to raise issues. I know I’ll use this as an example of how to get social media strategy WRONG. Number one rule of listening is the golden rule, or don’t bother. Nice try Orbitz, but you’re just a robot with no heart. It’s fucking Christmas. She’s bringing her boyfriend to her home country for the first time and the whole process has been rife with stress. These are two of the NICEST people, which is why I’m even involved. You have pushed my friend to tears more than a few times. Orbitz certainly hasn’t earned my respect or my business back.
I’m in the middle of a pitch right now and as a result started looking into Foursquare. I needed to find out quickly what kind of partnership opportunities might exist so I reached out to my Twitter friends to see if anyone knew anyone there. Turns out, one of my friends here in Amsterdam had a friend who knew their Twitter IDs, which led me to find out that Dennis Crowley was on a plane to Amsterdam as I was trying to track them down. Destiny!
What I love about Foursquare is the ability to remove planning from your evening and give in to serendipity. The best nights out are not planned anyway. But putting that in practice proved a bit difficult when I tried to join a pub crawl of strangers midstream with only Foursquare feeds as my guide. After dinner, I hopped in a cab to meet the Amsterdam Foursquares and Dennis at Cafe Kobalt. I’d missed them by about an hour but their updates hadn’t come through the system yet when I’d started out. Now it clearly showed they were over on Wolvenstraat. Back in the cab. Get there and again disappointment. The bartender said we’d missed the group of Americans by about 15 minutes. Foursquare doesn’t have you check out, so you have to check in to your next location to be found. We had a drink but the next check ins weren’t coming through so the Dark Angel and I headed home.
Sunday met with better results and Dennis and I finally had a drink and a chat at the American Hotel. He’d had several ideas pitched to him for new badges by the Amsterdam Foursquares the night before. His favorite was the Drugs, Sex and Rock and Roll badge where you’d have to go to a red light location, a coffee shop and a music venue all in one night to unlock it. Sounds like a solid Amsterdam challenge.
I was really interested to know if people cheat on Foursquare. Dennis describes it as the wild west right now. People are setting up their living room, bathroom and shower as locations or their checking into real venues from their couch. He’s planning a clean up phase soon so all you cheaters beware.
I was also keen to know what the points are for. At the moment it’s just about bragging rights, but down the road they are looking into special offers to trade for points or making donations to charity. I wondered what orphans will do with the Foursquare points. Let’s just say it’s not all figured out yet.
It sounds like there are a lot of exciting things in the works for Foursquare. Some big brands are exploring ways to partner with them and their 5th employee starts work this week. Even better, this was (fingers crossed) the first weekend that the system didn’t crash from too much traffic. There are about 100K users at the moment with something like 80-90% in the US. Right now I only have 2 friends in Amsterdam who use it and maybe 5 in the US. It was pretty funny to see my former CPB friends becoming the mayor of the Burger King in Gun Barrel, CO, but at some point posting all these checkins to Twitter could get mighty annoying. Hopefully Foursquare will take off and perhaps we will all opt-out of letting everyone know our position on Twitter. Because really I only want to know where my friends are wherever I am in the world and the Foursquare app tells me.
Dennis was kind enough to offer me the Blackberry beta so I’ll be giving that a go. I don’t have an iphone (digital workforce sacrilege?) but I just don’t want to have two phones and I haven’t been able to get work to abandon the Blackberry yet. Maybe if we win this pitch…
My first year in Amsterdam has come to an end today and I want to share my favorite restaurant finds. If you know of some more goodies, please leave a comment and share!
First up is pizza. The Dark Angel and I are big fans, and though none of our favorite places are close enough to our place for take out or delivery, they are good enough to rate a night out. My three way tie for pizza goes to De Pizza Bakkers, Yam Yam, and Le 4 Stagioni. Pizza Bakkers have real pepperoni which is hard to find in this town plus several pizzas with truffle oil, Yam Yam has incredible tira misu for dessert and truffle oil on a few of the pizzas, and Le 4 Stagioni has real Italians (though call ahead because we passed by a week ago and they appear to be under construction).
A Saturday wouldn’t be complete without lunch at De Soepwinkel. The things they can do with a ladle. From Mushroom Chickpea to Lamb Apricot to Chicken Tikka – we’ve not had a bad soup here. Paired with a quiche lorraine and chocolate cake or cherry cheesecake you may be moved to tears. This is what I imagine the food would be like if I lived in a commune.
If you like middle eastern food we’re lucky enough to live around the corner from a really delish place: Revan. Two things make this place special – first are the warm stuffed grape leaves (as opposed to cold – so much better warm) and for the Dark Angel real Knaffe which is a dessert made of warm cheese topped with angel hair pastry and a sugar syrup. It’s not my favorite but he goes nuts for it. Then all of the salads and kebabs are very tasty.
This may seem a strange pick when you walk in, but Wok to Home is hands down the best noodle place in the city. The Dark Angel used to live above this place and now that we’ve moved in together in a different neighborhood we’ve tried without success to replace it with something closer. Make sure to get the Chinese noodles with either the oyster sauce or the szechuan sauce (spicy). The place is a hole in the wall, but the people are friendly and you can eat there or the noodles stay hot if you pedal fast.
Next up is Cafe George. They have a really nice bistro atmosphere and in nicer weather the six two-tops out front over looking the canal are the place to be. They have a nice club sandwich and burger but the best thing about Cafe George is that it’s the only place (I know at least) that has seasoned curly fries.
I finally went to Door 74 recently. Really great atmosphere and excellent, creative cocktails. Because they work on a reservation system you actually get a place to sit. It’s not very well marked and the door next to it has a funny little sign that says “this is not Door 74, honest” which is amusing.
And last but not least is Kitsch on Utrechtstraat. I’ve only eaten here during restaurant week so it was a set menu but was very nice. What I like best about Kitsch are the sgroppinos. These are lemon gelato/vodka/sparkling wine concoctions that go down great with a group of friends in their animal print booth.
That’s all I have for now, but I’ve tried so many places and been disappointed so I’m hoping you have some other favorites to add to my list.
Seems a lot of people do because I’m getting a load of emails lately asking me how I got over here, if I have any advice and if I know any recruiters. So I thought I would share what I know.
Having an EU passport would make your wish a reality a lot faster. It does cost the company money to obtain a work permit and involves quite a few man hours to maneuver through bureaucracy. So if you are fresh out of school there’s perhaps less motivation for them to do this than if you have a few years of experience. Language skills are also very valuable, but you need to be fluent in order to operate “in country.” International work is done in English, so you’ve still got a shot if you are not multi-lingual. I speak some Spanish and know a few phrases in other lanuages but do not use this in my work other than building rapport. London is the largest English speaking/working market, but not the only place to go. Amsterdam for example has about 20 or so international (thus English speaking) planners. I imagine that there are jobs like these in most major cities but there probably aren’t a lot. Having good agency experience and client experience will help.
I got really lucky and was asked to come over based on the exposure I had through the survey and the fact that I’d worked at Crispin. But I was aiming to live over seas for 2-3 years before I came here. I was looking into the peace corps/foreign service and had thought I decided to take a year off and travel through South America. I was saving money for this plan, my boss at Crispin knew that’s what I wanted, and I had been aiming for May of this year to do it. But then another opportunity arose to come to Amsterdam and I had to jump on it. I am a big believer in leap and the net will appear. If you can afford the time and the cost and could come over that would be the best way to meet a lot of people.
I’m willing to connect people via LinkedIn who have taken the survey. If you and I are linked, you can look through my connections, craft your note and ask me to forward it – all in LinkedIn. I’m afraid I can’t do much more than push the “please forward” button.
*Update* – whenever people tell me about jobs and ask if I know anyone, I post it as a gig alert on Twitter. So if you want to know what I do, follow me (hklefevre).
And last, here are a couple of recruiters who I have heard good things about.
Trevor Cook
tcook@tda-group.com
TDA Digital
www.tda-group.com
Office: +44 207 382 7483
Mobile: +44 7824 874 133
Linkedin
I wish you lots of luck in reaching your dreams. It has been really satisfying for me – in fact, I’m not sure I will ever return to the States…
Have you seen the first episode of the new season of CSI? Not only are they using the same frozen scene to tell a story, but there are many too similar elements to Philip’s Grand Prix winning Carousel to just be inspiration. Would have felt like pop culture had adopted it and ran if they’d just tipped their hats. Watch for yourself.
My good friend Christie just put the call out for a freelance junior planner. Here’s the skinny:
Freelance Junior Strategic Planner
October – December ‘09
Role: Support department-wide strategic initiatives through intelligence gathering, research design and analysis, creating strategic support materials (i.e. trend reporting, videos, briefing materials, etc.).
* Do consumer insights oddly excite you?
* In you spare time do you dream of emotional spaces between brands and consumers?
* Does the creative process get your blood pumping?
* Are you in tune with what the next big thing is online?
* Is challenging convention just part of your DNA?
If you’re a proven strategic problem solver who wants to make a difference, you might just be who were looking for. We are TracyLocke, the Brand to Retail marketing agency that moves people to brands. Our Dallas office is particularly interested in meeting aspiring strategic planners with a “roll-up-your-sleeves-and-dive-in” attitude to compliment our planning team in a freelance role from October to December of 2009 (tenure subject to extension based upon agency need and performance). $20/hr @ 20 hrs/wk.
Check us out: http://tracylocke.com/
Please note that we are only looking for passionate, unexpected thinkers to help us grow our clients business. If you’re that person, submit your resume to Christie Butcher at christie.butcher@tracylocke.com
And study the effect of Michael Jackson music being played in stores on purchase behavior? I think this factor alone will pull us out of recession. I hate shopping in Amsterdam because the stores aren’t open after work or on Sunday (generally) so every Saturday is like being in a Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving. And yet, even I linger when I hear a little MJ in the air. I didn’t notice it at first, but now it’s just too obvious that I’m being manipulated.
