Jägermeister is a brand known worldwide for daredevil PR stunts. PIECE OF CAKE brought this courageous and ground breaking company together with arguably Germany’s best and indisputably craziest art band Deichkind for a one of a kind brand-artist cooperation.

The Jägermeister Schubrakete contest (this roughly translates into Jägermeister boost rocket) is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for one fan out of the massive Deichkind community to acclaim his or her “personal 48 hours of fame”. The band is actually offering nothing less than a part time membership. This extravagant competition comes to a conclusion when the Jägermeister Schubrakete launches the winner straight up into the VIP stratosphere and directly into the band’s ranks for their headliner performance at the SonneMondSterne Festival on the 1oth August 2012.

But Jägermeister and Deichkind wouldn’t be the edgy brands they are renowned as if this competition wasn’t somewhat different to others. Indeed, this is not one of those faster, harder, louder battles. Instead, the partners are seeking the most boring person in Germany with the saddest of all existences or in other words: the individual most deserving of being boosted from a lowly status to the (temporary) heights of mega stardom.

From the 1st March till 19th April fans can apply via the campaign’s own Facebook page and are encouraged to submit self-made videos portraying their personal plight. The application phase will be followed up by a three-week community poll after which the top 10 contestants will be invited to a whacky trashy kind of training camp on the 19th May, where they have to show their true mettle in coping with a berserk course of exercises (of which all are guaranteed never to be declared Olympic disciplines!).

As a brand dedicated to serving, energizing and uplifting communities and fellowships but also embracing the hero archetype in its brand world, Jägermeister didn’t have to think twice about jumping on the opportunity of working with PIECE OF CAKE, Deichkind and their ‘committed to insanity’ fan base coming up with a campaign like probably no other collaboration could produce.

So, never mind the bollocks, here’s the Jägermeister Schubrakete. Yes, I’m gonna be a star!

As part of the course of lectures “Butter bei die Fische – Futter für selbständige Kreative” initiated by the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft and aiming at supporting young creatives with vital legal, economical and administrative background knowledge for the career paths they have chosen to embark on, PIECE OF CAKE have been invited to hold a talk about the Ding Dong! art festival and how they once convinced the coffee pad brand Senseo to found an art initiative.

Within their lecture PIECE OF CAKE and former Senseo Art Initiative founders Kim Pörksen und Derek Richards will describe how industrial and cultural protagonists can overcome widespread prejudice and clichés and will outline common grounds on which commerce and culture can enter dialogue and develop synergetic collaborations for the benefit of all involved.

Please feel free to come along.

Ding Dong!
Hört Ihr die Glocken?
Von der Begrenztheit des Kultursponsorings und der Opulenz der Marketingtöpfe.

Monday, 20th June 2011
18.00-19.30 pm
Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften
Raum E48, Finkenau 35

Free entry.

PIECE OF CAKE are proud to announce that we are now co-hosts of Hamburg’s Pecha Kucha Night. We have teamed up with Simon Scholz (Hamburger Botschaft), Pete Serjeant (G2) and Matthias Weber (Checkdisout). Together we have formed a committee that will run this very sympathetic and connective global platform in Hamburg with immediate effect.

And, seeing there is no sleep for the wicked, the first Pecha Kucha Night under new guidance is already in the making scheduled for Thursday, 23rd June at the trusted location Hamburger Botschaft. As usual, we kick off at 20.20 pm.

So, if you have something interesting you would like to present in 6.40 minutes (20 slides, 20 seconds each), a project, a vision, an idea, a cause or whatever makes you tick and you have something to say to a thankful and supportive audience, then why not send us a mail via the website.

Sadly, Frederik Herr, who introduced the platform to Hamburg in 2007 and has been promoting and hosting it ever since has had to retire due to other superior commitments. His heirs would like to thank him for his endeavour as well as the excellent pioneer groundwork in establishing Pecha Kucha as one of Hamburg’s most relevant and appreciated networking gatherings for creatives. Hopefully we can live up to the standards he has set!

Not to forget a big up to Jean Snow, the executive director of Pecha Kucha, for supporting the transition in stewardship.

So, here’s to Pecha Kucha, here’s to you, Freddy, and you Jean. And to all you others out there: BRING IT ON!

Illu: Kyoko Takeshita

Peeps, this Friday, 20th May at 8.30 am, it’s LIKEMIND time again. So set your alarm clock a tiny weeny bit earlier than usual, maybe have a bevvy or two less on Thursday night and get in there for some nice people, good conversations, a pleasant start to the day and a good cup of coffee. The first round is on PIECE OF CAKE. As ever we shall be meeting at Yokozuna Café.
As you may already know, we recently teamed up with Matthias Weber of checkdisout who flies the flag for the global networking movement LIKEMIND here in Hamburg and PIECE OF CAKE will supply the coffee in 2011.

You can always come back here for further information on Likemind in Hamburg, but why not also join the group on XING to be in the know.

See you round.

Illu: Kyoko Takeshita

We are often guided by our gut feeling which tells us how and how not to do things. Seriously, how successful and beneficial to the recipient (and the brand as a matter of fact) can a promotion campaign be that involves grown up people walking around in larger-than-life inflatable telephone costumes?

Call it a bit of a habit or our trademark, but once again we beg to differ and shine with the extraordinary. At least that is what we did, when Kim was brought in to the Nokia Trends Festival project a couple of years ago.

We have just posted a new case. Why not take a peek at the NSeries house @ Nokia Trends Festival and get an impression of what the current Zeitgeist of product promotion should look like in our view. Once again we proved how artists, their intellect and creativity can help create unique brand environments, tell a product’s story in an exciting way, create spectacular images, transform a cold, functional, technical device into a warm, friendly, desirable and tangible gadget to interact and enhance one’s everyday life with in an amusing, inspiring, entertaining and easily accessible way.

Once again the experience we made with the audience and how they took to our media art installations verifies our theory that product communication needs to go deeper, needs to go at least one step further towards engaging and emotionalizing. Product visibility and physical contact are not sufficient nowadays. What is required is to take the recipient on a little experience trip with a product that becomes a friend, the longer and more intense the contact lasts.

But please, don’t kick the promoter inside the inflatable the next time you happen to meet. That guy’s probably only doing his job…

We don’t know how you guys out there feel, but, to us most advertising has always resembled something irrelevant somehow trying to impose itself upon ourselves in an almost threatening manner.

Because, although it mostly has nothing to offer, it seems to attack us from all angles. A bit like a bunch of children trying to catch your attention by hanging around your ankles trying to trip you up while you walk away having announced, “playtime is over, kids, time for bed”.

Yet, they seem to want to tell us something. Otherwise they wouldn’t be trying so hard. If only we could understand what all the fuss is about.

If those who create and distribute advertising were humans we could meet face to face, we would walk up to them and say: “where are your manners, mate, and who do you think you are?”.

For the better of all, let’s forget all this B2B-B2C-C2C gibberish crap for a moment, keep it real and let’s think about some very simple, small rules that might just have a really big effect:

1. Respect every single person you target as an individual and a human being.

2. Knock and wait for a “come in” prior to entering an individual’s private sphere or surroundings.

3. Ask yourself, what you can do for the people out there, not what they can do for you.

4. You have annexed public and private space and communication channels for your purposes. Give them back!

5. Stop being environmental bad guys and polluting with your ads. You have a responsibility towards this planet, its resources and the people inhabiting it.

6. Don’t rely on agents! You should have the spine to encounter the world out there yourselves and your agents are only going to lie to you about what the public thinks.

7. Give up on the idea that you can control. You can’t. You could create though, or inspire…

8. You obviously have money to spend. Invest wisely. Not in advertising. But, in the people, in their everyday lives, in their surroundings.

9. Strive to make a difference by creating sustainable benefits.

10. If you don’t understand by now, return to rule 1 and read again.

Or ask PIECE OF CAKE. Or simply go out there and ask the one’s that have been violated for so long.

So far, the advertising world is one consisting of “them” and “us” in the perception of brands and their agencies. Ever thought about seeing things as a whole, as “we”?

We require a new kind of togetherness between those on the dealing and those on the receiving end and need to make the exchange reciprocal… for the better of all. Promise!

So, now they finally have the enemy entirely surrounded. No escape for the potential consumer anymore, say the so called ad big players and global networks. They claim to have zeroed in on the individual. Their magic formula? 360 degrees of ad and marketing weaponry. Total ad war is on the horizon.

A sigh of relief comes from the mouths of the ad agencies clients, after sleepless nights and horrendous nightmares about the consumer who threatened to ignore their advances. How scary was it, when they became increasingly immune to classic advertising and the internet age revealed the diversity of the human race and the uselessness of standardized advertising. How freaked out was the ad biz getting when science proved their outputs to be recognized as communicational waste and (environ-)mental pollution.

Now the commerce strikes back and they are going to market, promote, product place, web 2.0., advertise, sponsor, hijack and customer relationship the people to death with the new big thing: 360 degrees of total brand and product presence. The consumers growing advertising immunity has been counterattacked with a strategy of the omnipresent brand. It won’t be long before they sneak messages into our dreams. They are probably working on that technique right now.

But, hang on for a sec: this doesn’t sound like an approach of somebody confident or sympathetic, likeable (and consumable). Do they seriously believe total presence will result in total consumption, total consideration or even sympathy? Won’t total brand presence result in even more advertising immunity? And won’t the consumer’s understandable indifference hereby be nourished to grow to antipathy, active animosity and rejection?

The gulf between marketeers and the people is deepening dramatically. And rightly so!

Imagine how a dog reacts when surrounded by strangers. It will panic, whine, bark and in total despair will hit out, snap and bite. It will take on a defensive stance and its ultimate goal will be: to escape!

Things are going really devastatingly wrong. Yet, things could be going tremendously right.

We require communication diplomats credible enough to open peace talks between commercial sellers and commercial buyers. They are the ones to initiate peace roadmaps, media and ad disarmament negotiations. And they are necessary.

Why can’t advertisers and those paying them believe in the mature individual and in human social behaviour traits (I mean, have you ever pulled a chick in a club by simply thinking of her or casting a glance? Come on, don’t be so stiff! You gotta put a bit more into it than that! )?

So, forget about 360 degrees. Because 37 degrees is perfectly sufficient, the magic formula, if you like. Human temperature, human touch! But, first things first, who cares for all the places of the billboard charts if you can be a pop star with a number one?

Right then, so who’s going to hold out the olive branch? PIECE OF CAKE are!

Peace now!

Back in April 2006, this derelict department store in Altona, Hamburg, was temporarily rejuvenated when the Senseo Art Initiative chose it as a home to its first international urban art festival. During our time within these premises, we saw one of the most unusual and successful marketing concepts revolving around consumer involvement unfold, looked on in awe while artists of exceptional talent collaborated and produced a unique creative exhibition environment, became close with locals and grew fond of them and their everyday environment to such an extent, that friendships, ties and bonds were born that last until today.

More than 30.000 people young and old mainly from Hamburg but in parts from all over Europe came to witness this spectacular open lab and dialogue platform fascinating journalists all over the world.

We said our first goodbye on the last day of the festival that saw a record breaking crowd of 3.500 people in attendance. Yet we could not forget. So we returned in December 2006 on occasion of the Ding Dong! book release which we celebrated inside the building where everything kicked off.

Now it is finally time to say our final farewell to a place that served us well and which we attach an immense amount of very emotional and positive memories to. It makes way for a highly controversially discussed Ikea department store building.

Check out the impressive while spooky gallery. Photos courtesy of Kim Pörksen.

The Ding Dong! domicile is down… forever. RIP.

Via davaidavai.com we happened to stumble upon this open letter from Brian. It seems to originate from Johnny Moore’s weblog whom we would like to thank for this great finding. We are already considering quitting our trade… But, seriously folks, we have to understand that some people are happy with just a good product (if it is good) and simply don’t care about brands, brand interaction, experiential brand communication and whatnot…

Here’s what Brian had to say. There’s a lot of interesting truth in his words.

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL OF ADVERTISING AND MARKETING

Dear All Of Advertising And Marketing.

My name is Brian. I’m what you would probably call a target demographic, or perhaps a consumer. In fact, I’m just a 27-year-old man with a nice wife (Sandra) and two children who I think the world of (except on Saturday morning when I could really do with a lie-in).

I work at a company that manufactures automotive parts. I’m a buyer. That’s not particularly interesting, but it pays the bills (and the lads are a good laugh). Since the economic downturn as they call it on the news (or the utter bollocking shitstorm, as it’s known at work) quite a few people have been laid off. But, there’s only me and another buyer here, so with a bit of luck I’ll be okay. The other day I saw one of my old workmates who is on the dole now, pretty depressing.

Anyway, apologies, I’m rambling. The reason for my letter is this. I was watching the telly earlier today, when on came an advert. It was (I think) selling sausages. It turns out that they wanted me to go onto the internet after watching their advert, and instead of looking at pornography, go to their microsite (which is kind of like a website that nobody goes to), and then put up a video. A video that I would make.

Now I don’t know about you, but pretty much all I’m looking for form the maker of sausages is some really tasty sausages. That is all. I’m not saying that’s easy – I couldn’t make nice sausages. But that’s what I’d like.

I don’t know if there’s been some terrible misunderstanding, where you got the idea that I’d really like the prospect of coming home from work and spending my valuable free time taking part in your stupid idea about sausages, or tea, or washing bloody powder, or pretty much anything else for that matter. But here’s the thing. I don’t. I don’t want to make a film, or draw a picture, or nominate a friend. Or compose a soundtrack or re-edit your advert. Really, I don’t.

If you’d like to tell me what’s good about your product, fine. I may buy it. I may not. I know that might sound boring, and I know it must be very tempting to sit in your nice, comfy offices and dream up schemes where normal people like me forget our everyday cares and participate in your marketing. But, to put a not-too-fine-a-point on it, please, please, PLEASE, if you wouldn’t mind, awfully. Leave me alone. Thanks.

Yours truly,

Brian

PIECE OF CAKE love meeting interesting, creative people in a comfy and sort of private environment, getting to know about their talent and what makes them tick. It helps us and our network stay fresh, tuned, vibrant and simply excellent.

Thus we are very excited to announce that we have teamed up with Matthias Weber of checkdisout who runs the highly successful global networking and socializing platform LIKEMIND in Hamburg.

In 2011, PIECE OF CAKE will act as coffee sponsors.

So, what is LIKEMIND? It’s a wonderful opportunity for people like you to enjoy coffee and conversation because (quote founders piers and noah) “drinking good coffee with likeminded people is fun”.

Why not join the group on XING to be in the know and have a piece of… er, a cup of coffee to go with your PIECE OF CAKE? Looking forward to seeing you there.

Lecture by PIECE OF CAKE on the supervaluation of 360° marketing

The speech was opened with a performance intervention by Kim Pörksen and Derek Richards. While the students were distracted and occupied with a trailer film related to the lecture and binding the attendees attention, the speakers sneaked into the location through the back door disguised as Imperial stormtroopers and surrounded the crowd, firing print ads and logos at the students symbolizing a 360° ad attack.

Fellow people. Dear Miami Ad Schoolers.

You have just become live witnesses and victims of a 360° ad attack! Did you notice it? You did? Wow!

It’s the kind of attack launched on us everyday, anytime, any place.

What makes a real 360° ad attack?

Well, quite simple: it’s about advertising surrounding you, coming at you from all angles, unexpected, unasked for and straight in your faces, whether you wanted it, or not.

And what is worse, when it strikes you it mostly brings no benefit either. In most cases, you won’t be amused, you won’t feel understood or spoken to, you won’t feel honoured or rewarded and it won’t be about you personally at all. Yet your individual opinion is basically irrelevant to those advertising.

Not very nice, ey? Not very friendly either.

When we take into consideration, that the ad industry speaks of “penetrating its targets”, the whole matter gets even worse.

Why are we exposed to this kind of treatment? What have we done to deserve this?

The advertising business has a problem: believe it or not, it is the consumer. People like you, and you, and us.

Why are we the problem?

We are not paying attention. We are not buying what we are supposed to buy. Or we are going for the one product instead of the other. Or we are not becoming fans of brands. In fact, in most cases we couldn’t even care less about them.

But mainly we are the problem because we so often ignore or don’t even acknowledge advertising or the approaches made by brands, which in other words means, they are wasting a hell of a lot of money.

And despite advertising agencies promising their clients they can make us love brands and products, it’s just not working out.

That’s why you could say that the ad industry is in trouble and has been for quite a while now. People are becoming more and more immune towards brand monologues and advertising in general. The people out there just don’t dig it.

So the advertising business is seeking more and more communication channels and spaces they can use to spread their clients messages.

Slowly, but truly we are being surrounded full circle or 360° with marketing weaponry. Why? Because the industry has to ensure we can’t escape, because only if it somehow reaches us in the end, no matter how, can advertising legitimate its own existence. So they huff and they puff and they huff and they puff and really try their best to blow the house down. They try so hard, you have to feel sorry for them sometimes.

What? You don’t watch television? We’ll get you at the cinema!

What? You don’t go to the movies? We’ll get you on a public toilet!

You never pee? Fuck you! You’re bound to use the internet and then we’ll get you there!

You don’t even have a computer? Maybe some attractive promo girls can attract your attention for our product on the streets.

What? You never leave the house? But, surely you’ll read the odd mag or paper? Gotcha!

Literally, advertising is everywhere and believe you me, if the ad industry could, they would project messages into our dreams! They’re probably working on that technique right now while we speak.

There’s so much of it that some scientists speak of the phenomenon of ad pollution. We call it ad wars.

But, don’t get us wrong. We are no ad busters. We are no enemies of advertising in general and we don’t oppose the various communication channels the 360° approach incorporates even if advertising has annexed public space and communication channels for its purposes – a declaration of war in itself.

We do however think that advertising in general is making big mistakes and failing to learn from them. And consequently we believe, that all around the world billions and billions – which could be used a lot more wisely and effectively for social projects for example– are being wasted.

As long as advertising is created in isolated agencies far away from the lives their consumers are living and completely detached from its recipients, as long as consumer insights are generated through researchers instead of through real life experience of lives and people, as long as the transmitters are not also the recipients of advertising, brand and product communication has to fail.

We like to think of ourselves not so much as advertising revolutionaries, but as the advocates of the people out there, the recipients of commercial advertising. We are fans and protégés of what we call ‘humanized brand communication’.

Our thesis: 360° lacks a 37° attitude, lacks human touch.

I’ll give you an example. Let’s talk about love or a flirt situation in a club. Have you ever pulled a girl just by throwing short occasional glances at her? If yes, please speak to us after this lecture.

But, we would bet the answer is no. Normally, you have to think of a nice way of getting to know a person you are interested in. You will try to approach a person, try to get in touch, do or say something to attract the person’s interest and probably enter a dialogue before you can even think of getting a bit closer. You will focus on this one person, regard it as an individual and treat it respectfully. You will try to sow the seeds of a relationship and take it from there, fully aware, that you can succeed, but that you might also fail.

We believe the future of brands, products, marketing, advertising and communication lies in brands opening up to the consumer.

If brands consider and somehow integrate their consumers in the process of developing their products and their communications, then the chances are, everything will automatically become more relevant to the group targeted as potential buyers or fans.

Suddenly, advertising could be a lot more than the finished product of a commercial. Suddenly, advertising can also create stories about its development process. The process can be exciting, can become a topic for gossip and people’s conversation, by the way, the strongest form of product or brand recommendation possible.

Consumer involvement is a key word in this context. Open the brand, bring in the people out there, ask them, what products they crave, what they find desirable, ask them, how they wish to be approached or even empower them to do communication themselves.

It’ll give them a feeling of being respected, it will show them, they are valued not only for the money they spend, but for what they are. Being part of such a development and collaboration process can give them, their peers and even the media some true stories to tell and talk about. So, the process of integrating consumers in product or advertising development can become advertising in itself.

Now we are talking about effectively invested budgets!

We are by no means trying to eliminate the ad biz! Otherwise we would be eliminating the trade that feeds us. Companies will always need agencies to enter consumer dialogue and involvement, kick off and steer such processes and ensure that results are delivered on time. But, the best ideas in the world don’t necessarily come solely out of product development departments and ad agencies. It’s a fact.

Our code for successful brand communication, our advice to brands: be polite, approach the consumer personally, give something to consumers before you expect them to like you or invest in you in return. Give them things like real fun, information, inspiration, idealistic or even materialistic benefits, give them jobs, tasks, responsibility and a feeling, as if they have something to say and somebody who will listen. It will help get brands out of the anonymity and add to their personalities, if people from within the company interact with those on the outside. And anyway, this is the only true way to get consumer insights.

Also: content is king. Find the themes for product and communication development within the group or people you potentially regard as customers and do it together.

Dialogue is easy. And so rewarding.

You guys are the future of advertising. You are the ones who can help to initiate the evolution of advertising. You can make it all make sense.

We would like to give you one or two examples where we have successfully applied our 37° humanized brand communication in the past and believe us, it may sound hard to imagine at first, but honestly, it’s a piece of cake if you just dare do it. And the results can be very unique and spectacular, highly successful and even relatively cheap for the companies who dare!

Pörksen and Richards went on to present their case studies “Project Fox” and “Ding Dong!” which you will find on this site.