Un pour tous ... Tous pour Un.

If you understand French, our 2011 wishes are self-explanatory and clear.

If French is not your forte, "Un pour tous ... Tous pour Un" is the direct translation of "All for one, and one for all." Then, we ask what if, followed by a quote by Albert Camus.

What if... there were no individual destinies, but rather a collective one...

Again, here's to a brighter 2011.

Happy Holidays and GOODBYE to 2010

So as scheduled, we had our little holiday party at the office on Friday. Although our intention was to share pictures on the blog with you all, we decided that maybe we shouldn’t…

In fact, in memory of those who have left us in 2010, before we pop that champagne, let us observe a minute of silence…

(One minute later)

Hi Again.

So, the real purpose of this blog entry is to wish all of our dear readers happy holidays. So to you, the guy or gal reading this from his or her iPad, Voilà BlackBerry, laptop or whatever gizmo, Happy Holidays from all of us at PubliGestion! May 2011 be blessed with lots of love and good surprises! In fact, never forget to open-up your aperture, letting lots of light in, and may the flow of abundance spoil you, both intellectually and “Dollarlly” – should we say “Eurolly”? Thank you so much for your readership, your comments, and your professional advice. Our blog these past few months has grown so much both in readership quantity and quality. We can feel the improvement in our bones. Now now, some of you who are thinking, “but wait, nobody ever comments” --- You’re right, no one comments on the blog, which we also find weird, but we get BBMs, Facebook messages and emails… even drop by’s… yup! So, thank YOU, thank YOU!

Did we say thank you?

Orevwa 2010! This year was a challenging one to say the least, and we’re glad it’s almost over. We’re welcoming 2011 with big-wide-open-arms and a giant smile. We can’t wait for what it has in store for us as a team and as individuals, but most importantly, we are ready. In our collective mind, we are already re-formatting our brain with the new 2011 OS. It is going to be the best year since the printing press was invented.

So, let’s toast some champagne, or some sparkling grape juice if you don’t drink, to a wonderful new year ahead.

(Cheers!)

Living in Haiti isn’t Easy

Current state of mind = “OMG. Get me out of my house!”

If the title of this blog entry doesn't say it all, the previous statement sure is an eye opener. Right?

With the civil unrest happening in our country, we’ve lost 3 full days of work -- that’s 24 precious work hours. In those 24 hours, we could have accomplished so much, including the ability to meet so many deadlines to many projects.

Though, a lot of us on the PG team had been working from home, and major projects were still underway, we cannot help but feel robbed of our ability to sit together, have a cup of tea or of coffee, and brainstorm while in the same physical room.

Today, we are lucky enough to be able to gather up at our lair, but truth be told, we don’t know when we’ll be able to actually get our full creative mojos back on with how unstable our dear Haiti is right now, but we sure hope it will be soon enough.

Drop us a line full of cheer sometime via Twitter, or comment down below to add smiles to our faces… A smile goes a long way :)

Role of Social Networks in the 2010 Haiti Elections

Today is the Monday following important elections in our country, and we bet none of our usual readers thought we’d have a post out today, but we do. We respect our word ;-)

We witnessed history yesterday where social networks were citizens’ ink and paper, and where Twitter and Facebook were their printing press. The Haitian people, and the foreigners ever so present in Haiti, tweeted out their thoughts on the elections.

Similarly to the Iran elections last year, Haiti’s elections yesterday were broadcasted over social networks. One of the striking aspects of the #Haiti #Elections is definitely the heavy use of social media. Haitians really relied on it to spread information on protests and to communicate their frustration to many many people worldwide, and at home. So much was recorded via these social networks that anyone is able to understand the development of the event through these networks.

That’s all we’ll say, because you must understand that we won’t give you an opinion on anything that happened because our goal is to always remain unbiased. Our only broadcasted opinions are always related to what we do – marketing and communications.

To stay on top of the scoop on Twitter, check out the timeline for #Haiti #Elections by simply clicking on this link: http://hashtags.org/haiti%20elections

À la prochaine !

RockMelt: What’s so special about it anyway?

We were recently accepted to receive an early invitation to try out RockMelt. In case you hadn’t heard of it, it is a new Internet browser with social integration linking you up to your social networks. RockMelt integrates multiple plug-ins allowing you to be more social while browsing the web 2.0. For example, you can be logged-on to Facebook on the right side panel for as long as you wish, chatting with multiple friends while browsing other websites. The plus is that you don’t have to stop what you are doing to check up on what is going on around the World.

Moving over to the right side panel, RockMelt has your plug-ins – from your Twitter, Facebook and YouTube feeds, to an interesting website feed feature. So basically, if a website has a RSS feed, you can easily add it to the sidebar to get quick updates without being side tracked.

Things we liked:
1. Being connected to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (etc) while browsing other websites.
2. The overall feel of the browser itself
3. The share button at the top near the navigation bar (sharing content with your friends becomes extremely easy)
4. It is a mixture between FriendFeed and Google Chrome.
5. It is a blazing fast browser
6. Integration. Integration. Oh, and did I say Integration?
7. It has a nice user interface.

Things we didn’t necessarily like:

1. It feels like Google Chrome with a plug-in, but then again isn’t that the point?
2. To get an invitation, you have to log-on via Facebook.
3. Having to log into Facebook every single time you open the browser gets annoying.
4. The Twitter experience isn’t quite there yet.

The folks at RockMelt claim to have re-imagined the browser, and I will definitely give them kudos for that because… they have. If you’ve tried RockMelt and don’t think this to be true, surely you will admit that they have at least paved the way for the new social browsing experience.

Oh yeah, guess what? We have one additional invite left. Anyone who is interested in trying this Internet browser out, leave us a comment below and we’ll hook ya up!

Against All Odds

Hello.

In case you are new to our blog (deep breath): Welcome ;-)
In case you are a regular, welcome back! We missed you too!

This is our 14^th post and we will soon be moving to http://publigestion.biz/blog thanks to the good help of Blogger and our IT team.

But quickly, to better put this post into perspective, let us briefly tell you what we do. PubliGestion’s (PG) core offering is sustainable branding; specializing in message development and placement. A very thorny task if you ask us, especially when in a country like Haiti where Murphy’s Law seems to be the governing rule.

But any who, back to our goats, and to what PG does:

- From brand-inception, to logo and package designing… check
- To creative ideas to ultimately shaping people’s perception and habits…check
- And finally, to doing only to a brand what brings added and sustainable timeless value, something which we know is quite priceless… check

You see to us sustainable brandship is when a local company acts locally while thinking globally. Take for example our Haitian rum, Rhum Barbancourt, our premium lager beer Prestige Beer or our preferred wireless communications provider, Voilà.

- All three exported Haitian brands.
- All three premium products or services.
- All three embodying what the best Haiti has to offer...
“Character and Uniqueness”

The point is that contrary to popular belief, Haiti is not all about the cholera epidemic and the poverty stricken post-quake images of a fallen state. Truth of the matter is, there are serious and successful companies here with serious global interactions including highly specialized people working on top of the line set-ups and perfecting themselves daily - thanks in part to more developed countries’ transfer of people, knowledge and knowhow.

You see, these local companies usually stand out from the crowd and they are the ones that let foreign investors conclude that, hmmm, maybe Haiti is open for business.

As the proud chosen agency to handle these brands… we like to think of them (and advertise them) as The Best Ambassadors of Haiti…so they (and their branding) better behave themselves as such. Globally. So far we must say they have been doing a pretty great job.

Now, isn’t that a good definition (or at least indication) of progress - Against All Odds.

Why is the Prestige Beer Bottle Brown?

Prestige is the only and preferred Haitian beer, and in Haiti, electricity is pretty scarce. As such beer storage is an issue, and so is meat storage – but that’s a whole other story. So, here is an attempt at explaining why the Prestige beer bottles are brown. You ready for this?

But before we reveal any “secrets” let’s take a little beer history tour. A long time ago, a monk decided to put some beer in a bottle, and he realized that after leaving it in there for hours, it was still fresh. Ta-da, there you go… that’s the history of bottled beer.

Once upon a time, the Prestige bottle was green, but since then, the beer bottles have remained brown. Why you may ask? Why is such an elixir, such a nifty crafted beer, stored in what some would call an unpleasant color?

Power (a.k.a kouran) is not always available in our country, and the people at BRANA (Brasserie Nationale d’Haiti) - the Prestige brewers, want their products to always be at their best. Beer must always remain at a steady temperature. So again, why brown bottles? Well, that’s because the color brown helps to keep direct light out of the Prestige bottles, and that maintains the beer brand spanking new while tasting fresh and original.

We guarantee you that Prestige beer does taste fresher, and is more flavorful thanks to its brown bottles than any of its Caribbean counterparts, in say… a green bottle. Since our favorite beer is not directly exposed to sunlight, it does not lose its texture, and especially not its flavor.

Some day, we’ll discuss why the bottles are short and stubby! :)

One Love, y’all.

The Rush

Do you go out on a Friday night? Have you ever met someone who smiled at you and he or she just placed everything right, as if everything in your life just snapped together in perfect harmony? They call it love at first sight… and yes it happens! Though once you feel it, you must act on it, believe and do your best to make it work.

That too is true with designing. Ideas come and go, but only few could make you feel that rush of blood to the head. Only few become concepts that make your heart skip a beat, and only few see that happily ever after ending—mounted and displayed proudly on the news stands, or on giant billboards. It sets everything right, once you have it in Photoshop, you’ll know that’s the one on instinct. Clarity follows right after, the color scheme, the fonts, even the faintest drop shadow and vignette. You just need to trust the feeling and have faith. There, you’ve stepped higher for experiencing such rarity. You’ve transformed ideas into tangible creations that would eventually help clients achieve their marketing objectives and make your team swell with pride for a job well done.

You may say, Ah Tèt Syèl ! C’est vrai... it might be dreamy, even lofty, but it happens. It may pass you by, and you may choose to act or ignore, still it ensues. The trick is you must recognize it, act and nurture it—caress and give it time to grow, because in the end you’ll never regret anything if you follow your artistic tendencies.

PS: Whew! Such seriousness was required in this entry. So when you go out tonight, remember to grab that Rhum sour to send you to that Tèt Syèl experience!

Voilà Top-Up

Last week, we showcased a print ad. This week, we decided to go with a TV ad for Voilà featuring one of Haiti's most popular bands, T-Vice.

The ad pretty much explains itself - if you speak Haitian Creole, that is. If not, two members of the band who are brothers, are informing the Haitian population that when their family members who live abroad top-up their phones, they get chances to win prizes, such as motorcycles, minutes, etc.

The fun-filled commercial below is a collaboration between Muska Productions and PubliGestion. Do feel free to leave your comments. Tell us why you love it, or why you hate it - it's a free country.

A German Tank - Civilian Version

We decided that for this week's post to share a recent print ad with you guys. Our client came to us wanting to divulge this new car that their dealership was introducing onto the Haitian market - via social media. We thought about it. We agreed. Then, we changed our minds and decided to go with a simple print campaign on Haiti's leading newspapers. Remember that in a recent entry, we told you that print was still highly relevant in Haiti. What's more is that it is the best way to grab our target market's attention in a quick and efficient manner.

We introduce you to the Volkswagen Amarok. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Volkswagen has a pick-up truck! Fascinating isn't it? You'll understand our rationale behind our tagline, roughly translated into "A German Tank - Civilian Version" in a minute. Hold on...

When we did our market research, we noticed that in Haiti, Volkswagen is a luxury vehicle, and as such people thought it would just be a Touareg... with a bed. We had to find a way to convince our audience that this isn't a car to roll around in the suburbs, but a car to take out for a ride in the dirt, up the mountains and down the valley. Simply put, this car is a rugged workhorse. And guess what? The dealership is now sold out. ;)

Les médias sociaux, un phénomène à la mode?

Il y a environ neuf mois, j’avais décidé d’effacer mon profil d’utilisateur sur Twitter, persuadée que le temps passé sur Twitter était mal investi. J’étais peut-être même prête à parier que cette plate-forme de socialisation rejoindrait Hi5 au dépôt du Web 2.0.

Le 12 janvier a montré la puissance des médias sociaux en Haïti et à travers le monde. Aujourd’hui, je gère des communautés virtuelles sur les réseaux sociaux, y compris Twitter. Ah, les ironies de la vie.

Certes, la question de la rentabilité de ces sites n’est pas encore tout à fait claire. Mais les réseaux sociaux se sont bien imposés comme moyen de communication. Les experts pensent même que l’invention de certains de ces réseaux est comparable à l’invention du téléphone ou de la télévision.

Les réseaux ont changé la donne. Ils permettent d’accéder à une masse d’informations, et ils vous aident à vous lier d'amitié avec vos consommateurs. Voici quatre raisons de continuer (ou de commencer) à exploiter ce qu’offrent ces outils incroyables.

1. Votre réseau. Le terme Networking ne veut pas dire ouvrir son Rolodex, appeler un collègue, et aller prendre un cocktail en ville. Le carnet d’adresse électronique, votre Facebook perso, votre email, votre BBM pin sont indispensables à votre succès. Le réseautage classique est mort.

2. Le marketing communautaire. Nombre de grandes entreprises, telles que Prestige, tentent de créer des communautés de consommateurs-fans autour d’un produit, d’une personne, ou d’une entreprise, sur des plates-formes telles que Facebook. Ce genre d’interaction crée une certaine confiance chez la clientèle. Sans ce type de marketing sur Internet, votre marque deviendra aussi depassée que votre équipe de mercatique.

3. Un puits d’informations. Nous l’avons compris déjà depuis longtemps que l’Internet contient des informations précieuses qui sont à la portée de tous. Vous avez certainement essayé de Google votre nom pour voir quels résultats reviennent. Mais pour aller plus loin, il faut jouer le jeu, et participer activement aux réseaux.

4. Observer vos concurrents. Vous voulez savoir ce que prépare la concurrence? Et bien oui, c’est possible. Je suis sure que si vous demandez à un chef d’entreprise ce qu’organise la concurrence, il aimerait bien pouvoir répondre. L’utilisation intelligente des réseaux sociaux permet de surveiller la concurrence efficacement. Certains mots-clés bien choisis, vous donnent une arme superbement efficace et économique pour dénicher les affaires et la pression au sein des concurrents.

Soyez visible. Soyez présent. Soyez bavard. Soyez honnête. Puisez des racines très fines, et adaptez-vous au terrain. Si vous avez besoin d’aide, nous sommes là pour vous. Vous le savez bien. A la prochaine!

Relationships.ai

We’ve talked about love in a recent entry, and with love come relationships. In an Absolute World, we’d all be living in harmony, holding each others hands while running along a field of purple daisies all in One Love. However in the real world, we’re working with clients and colleagues who feel like it's the apocalypse, and with Photoshop running like a speeding coffee mug. What’s a loving graphic artist to do in a not-so-ideal-world?

1. Relax, breath. When you’re in hakuna matata state, you make better creative decisions, and find ingenious solutions faster. In this kind of environment, you can’t afford to work for naught and make wasteful panic decisions.

2. Smile. The Dalai Lama said, “A smile is the only crooked line that sets everything straight.” When you smile the whole world smiles with you. Always consider giving a relaxed smile (even a giggle) when you are asked to go to mars and back in 2 seconds. By smiling, you reduce aggression and stress. You relax and you create better.

3. Plan. Can you ever think of having lots of children in a shoestring budget? The same is true with working with designs. Each day you’re given a limited number of hours, resources and most especially, patience. So you need to manage and allocate your time and energy well.

4. Eat. Your brain is a 24-hour workhorse and you use it a lot for creative work. It consumes 75% of your blood sugar and 20% of your body’s oxygen. Imagine, your brain uses 1.5 calories per minute by doing crossword puzzles, how much more when you’re dealing with your beloved clients and layouts? So eat. Well-fed graphic artists are more creative and happy.

5. Like the last entry, when everything really goes sour. When you really can’t work it out, the last resort is to go home and sleep. Everything will be different tomorrow. Fresh eyes give you new perspectives, and new perspectives offer you a better view of the world around you. Always enjoy your days off, and feed the soul! Remember, “A Sunday well spent, brings a week of content.”

These are few of the hundred ways on how to manage your calling. If you’re a graphic artist and you know of other ways please share it to everyone and leave us a comment below. ‘Till next time! Kudos!

Sources: http://www.impactlab.net/2006/07/05/how-much-energy-does-your-brain-use/

Advertising Agency Seeking Social Media Geek

In a social media universe that has exploded in a massive convergence of community expression, we specialize in corporate-consumer intimacy…building local brands in a Global Haiti context. We have fun doing it, and we are seeking talented (and reliable) people to join the team.

Do you tweet and use Facebook every.day.all.day? Do you get chills when building a social community? Do you value and take pride in customer service? Do you understand the difference between a blog and a social network? Do you enjoy creative writing? Are you a fast reader? Are you addicted to the conversation?

We’re looking for a highly motivated individual with a “fanatical” passion for blogging, micro-blogging and community participation leadership. We are not asking you to be super woman or super man (huh, only rarely) but you need to understand the social media universe including the right tools, addresses and appropriate canals.

The successful candidate will not only join the creative and marketing teams, but will also get invited to bake cookies with us ;)

If you apply, and if you get an interview, at the interview, we’ll divulge your essential duties and responsibilities. Oh, and yes, it is a salaried position with some quirky benefits. How does that sound? Geek ;)

Please send your resume to letstalk [at] publigestion [dot] com

Love.psd

Ever wondered how creatives maintain their hakuna matata in a calling that was ranked as one of the most stressful jobs in the world? Simple answer, love—it’s the thing that makes the difference between a job and a calling. Though we’re not Cannes divas or love doctors, here are four simple tips on how you could fall in love with your work all over again.

1. Never like, always love. Like is a diluted form of love. Romeo and Juliet didn’t die for like and artists never did art for like’s sake; they all did it for love! Whatever you do put your energy into it. Always think that whatever you design, you design for someone special. Just remember those kindergarten days when you tried to draw something nice with a crayon for your cute teacher.

2. Workplace less ideal? The simple fix is to find something or someone that makes you smile and distracts you from the stress crawling all over your desk. If you could find that, cling on to it, make it surround you. So every time you go to work, you could open your day with a big smile and the warmest “BONJOUR !” in the world.

3. Eat dark chocolate. This may not be for everyone, but eating chocolate increases your endorphin levels—these are the chemicals you get after a romantic date. The more endorphins you have, the less headache you’re going to have, the more in love you’re going to feel and the more creative you’re going to be.

4. Finally, if all else fails… go home and spend some time with your special someone. At the end of the day, what makes us perform well as creatives is our life outside work, the people and things that are close to our heart. People who see more, know more and if you know more, you’re probably more likely to nail that design before that 8 AM deadline.

So there you have it, simple techniques that everyone could apply. If you have your own technique, leave us a comment below and share the love!

Remember, love makes the world go 'round.

Haiti: Facing the Book

You know how radio is dead in the US? In our backyard, radio is number one. Not to be too cliché, but radio is the sheriff in town. Closely followed by TV, and newspapers… its deputies.

Before the 7.0 you-know-what, a successful campaign must have included those mediums + billboards. Then, a shift happened, and we entered into the 21^st century (woohoo!) We finally understood the power of Twitter, and of Facebook. Social Media in Haiti was born. Now, we have clients asking us about its ROI. We’re ready for this “new” interactive media.

An advertiser's job in Haiti is not as easy as it may seem to you rocket scientists out there. Granted, #SocialMedia is making our jobs easier day in and day out…in certain ways. Even though roughly 50% of the population is illiterate, there is still an interesting percentage of our population on social networking websites – without factoring in our large Diaspora, which is scattered throughout the world.

Get ready to see Voilà on your newsfeed, and to interact with Prestige Beer. Get ready to get a friend request from your mom. Get ready for your @TwitterName to become your email address.

Haiti, welcome to the world of Facebook ads, and Twitter #hashtags.

A Different Cup

5:15 am. Monday September 13^th 2010. The bell on my Voilà Blackberry rings, and just like Pavlov’s dog would start to drool at the sound of the bell (Google it if you don’t have a clue what this refers too ;) …I energetically drag myself to the kitchen to get my daily dose of coffee. One-track mind: Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Hmmmm. Greatest addiction one could have. I can almost taste it!

Yeah…we all have these morning habits to help us kick off the day. Mine is that special moment where I pretend to be half barista, half alchemist, and while the perfect cup of double shot espresso of Haiti’s best coffee, Selecto® Grand Crue boils, I stretch. Talk to the dog. Think of the next big campaign.

But this morning, something different happened… woke up, and before I could think of that doppio (Is that a Starbuck’s proprietary name btw?) this voice in my head kept on saying…

”Make sure you visit at least one (1) new and different point of view today”

“A new point-of-view also brings a new vantage point.”

“Plan the week and remember to factor in the small details.”

“The external environment first shapes itself from within.”

“Joy is simply making today’s experience greater than yesterday’s.”

Huh? Who’s talking? How did that happen?

Oh yeah, right… that’s what happens when you sleep to Self Improvement audio books. You wake up half barista slash alchemist and half a Stephen Covey wannabe.

Thought I’d share.

The Social Media Experts

If we were given a brick every time we mentioned "Social Media" at the agency, by now we would probably have enough to rebuild the Haitian Presidential Palace... But truly, PubliGestion is riding the wave smoothly while amassing more and more knowledge every-single-day. However, we realize how big of an ocean SM can be! Who can say they don't feel like that when it comes to laying out and predicting SM's future?

I had a nightmare once where Twitter hashtags were my nemesis, and a dream where I found Heaven while using Facebook Places and Foursquare.

Oh well, every day on Twitter, we post other people’s articles. Sharing the knowledge. Sharing the love. Now it's time we (PubliGestion) start making love (did I just say that?) I meant that starting this week, every Monday, we are going to tweet our own blog entry. An entry on whatever we feel like discussing on that Monday. It could be about social media, graphic design, our clients, Haiti, and it could even be about you, yes you – the person taking the time to read our shenanigans.

You will get to know the department, and we’re warning you, we are intellectual dorks.

See you next Monday! =)

Electric Stone Age

After weeks of delight from the 24-hour electricity that we’ve experienced, we’re back to normal—candles and home electric management. Though the latter sounds like a minor course in college, it’s actually a fancy-shwancy term for “save electricity!”
To the estranged reader there, let us introduce you to the Electric Stone Age. Here in Haiti we have a word for electricity; it’s EdH a.k.a. Electricité d’Haïti. It comes in 8-hour rations from the dangling power cords along the streets. You might be wondering how we could survive without 24-hour electricity? It’s simple, in this country we’ve evolved with this, uh, exotic situation.
Because the situation is oh so exotic, people were forced to electrify themselves. So, after the 8-hour rations go, our nifty houses start running on their batteries. These batteries either charge with diesel generators, solar panels or when the 8-hour ration comes with a Dolby Digital surround sound Ou gen EdH announcement from the neighbourhood. You would be surprised what these batteries could power up, say a household with a monster TV, air-conditioning units and a UFO satellite dish?
There is more. This Electric Stone Age is actually built on an industry! From EdH to gas stations. Generator, solar panel and inverter suppliers, and of course their paired set of technicians. Then there is maintenance and stuff like that. It’s not surprising how other businesses arise from it. Imagine those who sell gadgets. There would be no market for them if there were no electricity. Even the common man benefits from this, it’s normal to see a guy in a corner with a car battery offering to charge your phone or iPod. We could go on and on describing this exotic situation to you, but we'll cut The Electric Stone Age here.

...and to the hardworking guys at EdH, nice try and thank you for the quickie. The efforts are commendable especially after the 7.o you-know-what.

Football is Therapy

Hello world! You know what’s more important than your dog, football! Seriously! It brings a mountain of Haitians to cheer their favourite team and bring about world peace! Okay, probably not world peace but football is a part of Haitian life as much as rice&beans. Here in Haiti, we take football seriously. Game schedules spread across town faster than you can say goal! Wherever there’s a TV, you’ll find eyes glued to it, moving together with the ball and don’t be surprised if you hear someone shouting “monte volum la!” (Turn up the volume!), from the head peeping over the garden wall to watch the match on your tiny TV. Though, even if you can’t see the game, you’ll still hear it on radios. An entire business is even based on football. Big bets are made whenever there is a match. Restos with TVs are packed. And don’t even get me started with Team Brazil and Team Argentina, oh, people go bonkers for those teams!
It is like a religion; people gather together as one, raise their hands, cheer and shout. Gooooooal!

This is why we need to ask FIFA to dedicate the 2010 World Cup to Haiti. Avid fans need to cheer their favourite team!

Football is Therapy.


(edited: 29 March 2010, 15:41 )