Carl Fredrik Jannerfeldt and Emmelie Österdahl, who graduated from Berghs in the spring of 2008, and Nina Åkestam won Eurobests Young Creative, where the mission was to make a campaign to reduce smoking among young Europeans. The winning teams proposal was to make cigarettes a currency for games and other fun.

Nina Åkestam, Garbergs; Carl Fredrik Jannerfeldt, Farfar and Emmeli Österdahl, Brindfors

The winning campaign “Swap a smoke” wants cigarettes, which is already a kind of social currency, to be exchanged for another and sensible social currency, such as computer games or music. The change is made through automatic vending machines - in with the cigarette and out comes a voucher. Online the target audience will be able to replace the cigarettes that appear in film and photos. You can for example, change Humphrey Bogart cigarette against a green animated snake, if you want, and thus earn points.

Congratulations! How does it feel?
Nina: Shaky. It has been so much work; it is just three days ago since we received the briefing. It is difficult to understand that we have won.
How come your proposal won?
Nina: It is difficult to change attitudes and therefore we chose to try to change the behaviour instead. A change in behaviour will eventually lead to a change in attitude.
You come from three different agencies, how was it working together?
Carl Fredrik: It is fun with change. We know each other since before, and now we were finally able to work together.
Emmelie: Carl Fredrik and I were in the same class at Berghs so we have worked together before.
Carl Fredrik: Nina is a graduate from Handels School of Economics in Stockholm and it's been interesting to listen to her reasoning.
Do you know if Teenage Cancer Trust's intention is to make a reality of your campaign proposal?
Nina: We know that they need help, but they may be using the proposal more as inspiration.
You had 48 hours to come up with the campaign proposal, how many of these were working hours?
Emmelie: 39!

Tor Lemhagen and Jose Hernandez, second year students in Advertising, were invited by ….. Mother in London to participate in the agency's lecture on inspiration at Euro Best. Tor and José did their internships at Mother earlier this year and were both and excited by being asked to contribute. "Students are rarely asked to lecture at Euro Best," says José.

The Idea, this year's Eurobest’s Young Creative competition, takes place at Berghs between November 29 and December 2. The contestants must not be older than 28 years of age and they have 48 hours to produce an integrated campaign in three optional media. The assignment comes from an aid or charity organization. The twelve participating creative teams come from Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey.

Press release below from www.eurobest.com.

Press release

November 2008

Eurobest, Europe’s largest advertising awards, which from this year evolves into a 3-day Festival, is not only introducing the first Eurobest Young Creatives Competition, hosted and supported by the Berghs School of Communications and supported by Getty Images, but is also launching a new concept for the contest

“The Idea”, Eurobest’s Young Creative Competition, sees teams of under 28 year-olds competing to produce, in just 48 hours, an integrated campaign using three different types of media of their choice.

The brief will be given by a charity or non-profitable organisation, whose name, objectives, strategies and target audience will remain secret until the competition kicks-off.

Taking part in this innovative and exciting competition are a total of 12 teams from Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and Turkey.

Representing their country, each team is made up of up to 4 members under the age of 28. Entries will be judged by a specially selected Young Creatives Jury, consisting of 3 prominent industry leaders: Jonathan Mildenhall, Vice President Global Marketing Strategy and Creative Communications of Coca Cola; Ted Persson, Chief Creative Officer of Great Works in Sweden and Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman McCann Erickson India and Regional Creative Director Asia Pacific.

The Winners of The Idea will be presented with Gold Medals at the Eurobest Awards Ceremony. To further enrich the competitors Festival experience, a tailor made content programme has been put together solely for them including presentations by DDB Sweden and McDonald’s.

With their entry 'The Only Thing Missing,' Bergh students Daniel Adams-Ray, Gustav Johansson and Axel Lindgren won the Swedish Posts award “Guldlådan” (The Golden Box). The winning entry was one of three from Berghs nominated in the category Advertising Schools.

"This is a what a true Guldlådan winner looks like – congratulations!" says the text on a large mirror found outside the Berghs entrance on Sveavägen the day after the award was anounced. In the photo above, the mirror reflects winners Gustav Johansson, Daniel Adams-Ray and Axel Lindgren. Congratulations!


The jury's justification
"The gold medal winners in the Advertising Schools category have mastered the noble art of generating interest through Direct Marketing in a relevant and respectful manner. Basing their idea on a well-known ….. icon, they have created a clear, well-written and elegant communication solution that meets the briefs requirements in terms of strategy, creativity and feasibility.” Tip your hats - and don your jackets! – for Axel Lindgren, Gustav Johansson and Daniel Adams Ray from Bergh's School of Communication.”

Sofia Strömberg takes over as Head of School for Berghs School of Communication. Sofia is presntly Head of Education for Berghs Diploma Program and Program Director for the school's one-year Diploma course, Strategic Information and PR.

"Sofia Strömberg was my absolute first choice as our new Head of School," says Pär Lager, CEO at Berghs. "She has a deep knowledge and experience in communication and is an entrepreneur as well as an excellent lecturer. Sofia is a very good leader and has the ability to inspire people around her to develop and grow. This is an essential quality at Berghs where we have more than 800 teachers.”

Sofia Strömberg has founded two successful agencies within the field of ……… communication: sagt:gjort and Springtime. The latter agency currently has 70 employees and has been awarded "Best Agency" no less than three times. Sofia has worked as a lecturer at Berghs since 2000 and has been the school's Head of Education since February 2008.

"The role as head of Scandinavia's leading school of creative market communication is a dream position for anyone working with communication," says Sofia. "My goal is to further develop Berghs’ unique and broad position spanning advertising, PR, media and design."

“Our developmental focus is threefold. The first is to internationalize Berghs entire product range. The second is to adapt all our courses into a digital media landscape. Our third focus will be to emphasize the school's mission: that everything communicates. Berghs wants to educate those that drive the development of integrated communication.”

For more information

Pär Lager, COE, Berghs School of Communication
par@berghs.se
Phone: +46.70-777 18 16

Sofia Strömberg, Bergh's School of Communication
sofia@berghs.se
Phone: +46.70-764 03 35

In September Berghs was visited by Gideon Todes, copywriters and with a reputation for being one of the world's best copywriter.

Have you been to Berghs and Stockholm before?
I have. Two years ago I came in and did a short two hour session with William Easton. I really enjoyed it, so I came back. This time it’s more extensive.

You have been working as a copywriter for twenty years now, what do you think defines a good copywriter?
Copywriters are people who understand the way products and services are used by real people. Producers may know their product better than anyone, but they often don’t know how to communicate it to the outside world. A copywriter must know how to ask the questions that ordinary people have. They must know how to get under the skin of people and under the skin of the brand in order to create magic.

What inspires you in your work?
What keeps me going is that I really enjoy what I do. I enjoy talking to people who are trying to make a difference to their business. To me it’s both frustrating and exciting that someone with a great product and great knowledge doesn’t quite live in the mental space of the buyer. As a creative, I enjoy trying to find the inherent beauty, truth or power in a product that has yet to be expressed properly. My job is to have the brand walk out the door in a more exciting, smarter or brighter form. Robin Wright once said, a copywriter’s job is to interrogate a brand until it confesses its strengths.

How has the job changed during this period?
It has changed quite a lot. Most of that is due to the Internet. I almost think that the title should be changed from Copywriter to Content Creator because increasingly we work with video and moving images. Copywriting is a very old fashioned term. It doesn’t really apply to the times we live in.

What changes has the Internet brought about? 
The Internet has ultimately changed the power structure around knowledge and information, not unlike the changes the came with the printing press. Advertising agencies used to be powerful agencies that controlled and were responsible for brands. Whereas now that power is no longer solely with the advertising agencies. It resides with client companies who choose to hire in house creatives rather than turn to agencies. But above all, it resides with ordinary people making their own creative work. What the Internet has done is that it has made everyone a creative.

How so?
Copywriters are creative people traditionally paid to do creative, commercial stuff that the companies need. Suddenly we’ve become just like everyone else. On one level, the Internet has made copywriters unimportant. That is a scary thought and it keeps me up at night. But on another level, there’s a shortage of people who can write powerfully and coherently about things that need writing. There’s a paradox with that, there’s more information out there, but not that many good writers. There will always be a need for good writers. 

How should the ad agencies adapt to these changes?
Good question. I don’t have the answer to that yet. People will always need creativity, but what form it takes and how you should package and sell it is different now. The advertising agencies certainly have some rethinking to do.

Upper row from left: Stefan Moritz, Aegis Media; Erik Norin, Farfar; Patrik East, Farfar Academy; Björn Uppeke, Farfar Academy; Pontus Erikers, Farfar Academy; Gustav Westman, Farfar Academy; Manne Hermansson, Farfar Academy; Matias Palm-Jensen , Farfar; Tina Landelius, Berghs and Manne Schagerström, Berghs.
Lower row from left: Eskil Busck Andersen, Farfar Academy; Catja Löfgren, Farfar Academy; Linda Lindstedt, Farfar Academy; Linda Alexandersson, Farfar Academy and Ola Persson, Farfar Academy.

Heading for Shanghai, São Paulo, Amsterdam, London...

Cooperation between Berghs and the award-winning Swedish webbyrån Farfar has become a reality. Within a few days, the first Farfar students will be on their way to their first internship at some of the world's most renowned and award-winning agencies.

Among these wwwins Consulting in Shanghai, Agencia Click in São Paulo and Glue in London. All participating agencies is part of Isobar; the world's largest international network for interactive agencies. The students will return to Berghs in January 2009 for a further pick-up and training heat, before they return abroad for part two of their international internship. The program ends in May 2009.

Linda Alexandersson, Hypermedia, Warszawa • Manne Hermansson, Mindblossom i Toronto • Eskil Busck Andersen, Glue, London • Patrik Öster, Isobar Global, London • Catja Löfgren, de-construct, Amsterdam • Linda Lindstedt, Kirowski, Budapest, Hungary • Pontus Erikers, wwwins Consulting, Shanghai • Björn Uppeke, Netthink, Madrid • Olof Persson, Agencia Click, Sao Paulo • Gustav Westman, Marvellous, London.

After a record number of entries, when the winners of the YCN (Young Creative Network) international contest awards were announced last week two teams from Berghs were called on to the stage!

Petra Albrektson, Petter Hernmarck and Erik Høgfeldt won for their work for Radley suitcases. Tomas Jonsson and Carl Fredrik Jannerfelt won for their work with Doritos. "We are the only school in Sweden with winners in this year's contest. This again proves that Berghs sets an international standard for creative advertising," says William Easton, Berghs Head of School.

"We were looking for young Swedish talent to join the team of international creatives at our Hamburg office. So we hi-jacked the entrance to Berghs – Sweden's leading advertising school." Jung von Matt hijack Berghs entrance." These words explained why Berghs entrance was turned into Jung von Matt entrance one morning.
Students and staff at Berghs where a bit surprised but amused by Jung von Matt pickup attempt - some students have already sent their applications to the Head office.