This week Matt Walsh from Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s head quarter in Boulder, US met with Berghs’ students. Matt brought along Magnus Brodd from CP+B to perhaps manage to charm the students to join the agency after finished studies at Berghs.

During the Monday evening, CP+B gave an informational and inspirational speech followed by individual meetings with handpicked students who got a chance to show their portfolios and talk a bit more with the CP+B employees.

The agency was founded in 1988 and the main office is in Boulder, Colorado. Crispin Porter + Bogusky employs over 1000 people and around 400 of them are devoted to digital. They have grown to be a highly ranked digital agency and if you want to learn more about what kind of work they do, read here.

For the second year in a row students from Berghs School of Communication are world-dominating in One Show College Competition. No other school outside the US has as many nominated finalists in the competition.

One Show is the award that yearly honours creativity and advertising. The award is organized by the One Club and is considered one of the world's most prestigious awards in its field. 

Among the 92 finalists in One Show College Competition 19 finalists come from Berghs School of Communication. In other words, the school's students represent 20% of all finalist.

See the full list of nominated finalists here.

In May you have the chance to take a 1.5-day course at Berghs in writing better copy. The structure of Persuasion – as the course is called – is led by award-winning copywriter Gideon Todes.

Are you or your colleagues tasked with writing for your company? You may be a professional copywriter, but more likely you’ve no formal consumer writing training.

Maybe you wrote a few essays at university. Maybe you craft a good blog. Maybe you have a knack with words but no one has ever worked with you to explore how to use text in a sales context?

This course is designed to help people just like you. We'll take you right back to the beginning and look at what makes good persuasive writing. And then we'll piece together the process by which it's done.

We look at speeches by Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King, copy by Saatchi, and a song by Prince to investigate how great writing can persuade and inspire.

You'll learn to structure to your writing and give it real focus so that it's clear, concise and inspiring.

You’ll also learn to bring a strategic approach to every piece of writing you do. And how to bring a sense of tone to it.

Cost
7 900 SEK excluding VAT
9 875 SEK including VAT

For more information and registration
Contact Cecilia Sjödin, c.sjodin@berghs.se.

UNA Sweden has existed for over 50 years. It’s an umbrella organization supported by around 100 national civil society organizations. The main activities for UNA Sweden is to inform, create awareness and opinion, review, fundraise and international cooperation.

“We want to highlight the problem, but emphasize an encouraging attitude and positive vision that change is possible”, UNA’s brief read.

The communication task was to come up with a campaign that focused on the rights of young adolescent girls. Enlightening the important question, increase awareness of girls vulnerability, change attitudes as well as initiating a discussion on basic values among young people.

Hugo Perlskog, copywriter in one of the teams was pleased to dedicate himself fully to such an important task for one full week.

The jury consisted in Pekka Johansson, Christer Gustavsson and Ulrika Lehmann, UNA Sweden. Sue Rowley, Academy of Art University (Berghs Bachelor partner school in San Francisco), Sofia Strömberg, Marco Ortolani, Joakim Thulin and Lotta Blomberg, Berghs SoC.

The jury evaluated strategy, idea, concept and practicability. The presentation was also a factor in the evaluation and the winning team was inspired by Stina Dabrowski’s jumping guests. “Ditt hopp ger hopp”=“Your hope (“hopp” in Swedish means jump) gives hope”. 

The winning idea was based on a film featuring jumping people encouraging money donations by jumping. The team was represented by the following students:

David Prentell, 26 years old took an intro course at Berghs and then did the one-year program Interactive Communication – Digital Director. After one year he was accepted into Berghs internship-year Interactive Academy and is now Creative Planner at AKQA London. Here he answers our questions about life at and after Berghs.

"We are just as happy as we are pleased to announce that Berghs, as the only school in Europe has been awarded a scholarship from The One Club", says Sofia Strömberg, Head of School Berghs.

Varje år delar The One Club ut stipendier till studenter på de skolor och universitet som har utmärkt sig särskilt inom kreativ reklam. Tio andra skolor i världen – utöver Berghs School of Communication, får möjligheten av The One Club att dela ut stipendiet. Samtliga av de övriga utvalda skolorna är amerikanska.

Berghs School of Communication is now launching courses designed for professionals in communication and marketing in Finland. ”The reason we’re opening up in Finland is because the Finnish market have asked for a school like Berghs in Finland and it feels fantastic that we can meet that demand”, says Pär Lager, CEO, Berghs School of Communication.

“Each year several marketing professionals from Finland come to Stockholm to take a course, now we’re coming to them“, says Pär.

Starting in Helsinki already this spring of 2010, is the course Digital Management. In the fall even more courses are starting. The courses are suited for both agencies and clients with several years of experience in the communication industry. The initial courses will predominantly be on an advanced executive level.

Berghs also offers seven online courses in English as well as the full-time programs Interactive Communication and Berghs’ Bachelor, both entirely in English.

The arrival to Finland is enabled by Salomaa Yhtiöt, which Berghs School of Communication has chosen as partner in Finland. “We wanted a partner with long history in the field and deep understanding of the needs in the Finnish business, Pär Lager argues.

The CEO of Salomaa Yhtiöt, Mirjami Mäkinen, states that shared values influenced the origin of the partnership. ”In our discussions we soon realized that our value base is the same. But the most important thing though is that we don’t have a school as Berghs in Finland, and that is something the marketing communication business in Finland really need.”

Peder Rotkirch, Program Director Interactive Communication and founder of Cuibono will be responsible for the Digital Management course.

”Digital competence is obviously just as important in Finland as it is in Sweden and the rest of the world. Many global companies who are operating all over the world are based in Finland. For them it’s even more important to work strategically with their interactive communication and digital channels”, says Peder. ”The course participants we will see in Finland will be knowledgeable when it comes to brands, but in need of some knowledge on how the new communication logics work.”

The cooperation with Finland starts with an inspirational seminar in Helsinki on March 24. Key note speaker will be Patrik Persson, one of the founders of the leading digital agencies in the world; Great Works, as well as one of Berghs’ most appreciated teachers.

The classes in Marketing Communication and Graphic Design helped 12 newly established fashion designers to sharpen their marketing profiles.The project took place for the second year in a row and the result was showcased at So Stockholm Gallery February 19-21 and on billborads all over Stockholm during Stockholm Fashion Week.

With help from photographers, stylists and students from Strategic Communication and Public Relations and Production Management – Operative Project Management the campaigns have developed. The fashion designers themselves were pleased with the result.

The White Briefs. Photo: Mikael Dahl.

Berghs students’ received several awards in the 2009 One Show College Competition for their ground-breaking ideas. The performance gave The One Club an idea – to ask the students at Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm to make the campaign for the 2010 Call for Entry.

“The assignment was awarded based on the school's performance in the 2009 One Show College Competition”, says Mary Warlick, Chief Executive Officer of The One Club.

Fourteen teams of Advertising and Graphic Design students have worked on their Call for Entry-campaigns for 2010 One Show Competition. The teams presented their different concepts to the jury. Chief Executive Mary Warlick flew from New York to Stockholm to announce the winner.

"The Board of Directors of The One Club is excited about the Berghs students creating the 2010 One Show Call for Entries”, Mary says. “The students provided the perfect synergy of fresh creative ideas, an international outlook and enthusiasm for the project."

The winning team No One Cares About Advertising won with their cheeky and subversive idea. They developed their idea further in cooperation with BBH, New York. The mission was to raise the number of entries and the general awareness of the competition. More than 30,000 posters were printed together with a digital solution.

”I think our idea won because it’s a question that all people in the advertising industry should ask themselves: Why should people even care about advertising?” says Arvid Ringborg, copywriter. The winning team consisted of Susann Karlsson Nemirovsky and Emma Sandqvist, graphic designers, Arvid Ringborg, copywriter and Alexandra Kamis, art director.

The winning team: Susann Karlsson Nemirovsky and Emma Sandqvist, graphic designers, Arvid Ringborg, copywriter and Mary Warlick, Chief Executive Officer The One Club. Missing in this picture is team member Alexandra Kamis, art director.

“We made the campaign with a great deal of humor and we believe people in our field will appreciate the self-distance to the industry we’re in”, says Arvid. “An other reason I think One Club liked our concept is because we kept it simple and viable.”

One Show accepts entries to the competition until February 12. The Berghs students’ campaign will ensure that the competition continues to break new boundaries.

Nazanin Binisi graduated from Production Management – Operative Project Management at Berghs this spring. Then she went to Boston to study English in the fall and today she works as production manager at B-Reel, London. B-Reel is a digital production company, or as they say themselves ‘a hybrid production company’, that is particularly skilled when it comes to digital Internet campaigns.

“My title is Junior Project Manager and I’m still so new here that I don’t have any accounts on my own. The Project Manager and the Producer are in charge of the projects and I assist them, making time schedules etc.”

Since the new year Nazanin is in London and it was through her vast network that she got in contact with B-Reel.

“It’s fun but it’s tough at the same time. You never go home from work earlier than 18.00 and you generally stay late.”

B-Reel’s office is in East London and approximately half of the employees are Swedish.

“There are a lot of Swedes on the agencies around the world and many have been to Berghs, or at least have some knowledge of the school. I spent three months in Boston before coming over here. My boyfriend did his internship there through Farfar Academy (today’s Interactive Academy). When we met people in the industry they definitely knew of Berghs and got really impressed when we told them we had been studying at Berghs.”

“You get to make your own car and drive it around in two different worlds. Cheestrings is a company that makes cheese snacks made out of ‘100% natural cheese’”, says Nazanin.

“My personal favorite campaign made by B-Reel is Axe Hair Crisis Relief”, Nazanin says.

About being a production manager
“It’s the constant balance, you’re in between creatives and clients, and you have to be tough as well as being soft. There’s a lot of psychology, you play the leading part in the project, and so you have to demonstrate you can say no, at the same time as you must make the team feel comfortable around you.”

Nazanin's advice to other production managers

This Monday a new class of bachelors started their semester at Berghs. One of the students Nathalia Lindvall, is 20 years old, and reeived the Berghs Bachelor scholarship for spring 2010. Nathalia wants to study advertising in Perth and come up with advertising campaigns that are sublime, crazy and reach people.

The Bachelor class is getting to know each other during the first week with Program Director Clas von Sydow in the background.

Has anything particularly fun/exciting/unexpected happened this week? Tell us!
Everything has been fun and I’m convinced that lots of unexpected things will happen these following weeks.

Which school and program have you chosen for your degree?
I’m going to Edith Cowan University in Perth, but I’ve also thought about going to Academy of Art University in San Fransisco, both seem fun! Advertising is the major that would suit me best I think. I can’t draw anything but stick figures but I like writing and I would like to be part of creative processes.

What are your plans for the future?
I would like to be a creative or a copy and I want to come up with advertising campaigns that are sublime, crazy and reach people. I would like a job that is fun to go to every day where the sky is the limit.