GOLDEN DRUM

TBWA WITH ERIK VERVROEGEN AT GOLDEN DRUM'S CREATIVE ACADEMY
    Ljubljana, August 25, 2008 - TBWA\Europe strengthens its presence at the 2008 Golden Drum Festival in Portoroz. The agency will host a Creative Academy as part of the official festival program and a European meeting of the most senior European creative directors under the leadership of John Hunt, the network‘s Worldwide Creative Director.

“There is a long and intensive relationship between the Golden Drum Festival and TBWA, so we are happy to play a bigger role in this year‘s festival program,” says Ulrich Proeschel, Brand Director TBWA\Europe. “This festival is truly a celebration of creativity and diversity, that‘s why we as TBWA feel at home in Portoroz.“

The Creative Academy hosted by TBWA will orbit around the idea of Media Arts. The session will include a presentation by Stefan Schmidt, Chief Creative Officer of TBWA\Germany, giving most recent cases of Media Arts thinking from across Europe. In a panel discussion senior creative directors of the network will outline the effects and implications of “Living in a Media Arts World, all based on their experience of working with the world‘s most successful brands like adidas, Absolut, Apple or Sony PlayStation. The panel including Worldwide Creative Director John Hunt, Stefan Schmidt and Kurt Georg Dieckert (both Germany), Erik Vervroegen ( France) and Jan Macken ( Belgium) will be moderated by Mark Tungate, journalist and author of the bestseller ADLAND.

ERIK VERVROEGEN, PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR, TBWA\PARIS

Erik Vervroegen began his career as an art director in Belgium. Having been crowned best Belgian creative for several consecutive years, he decided to leave his environment which had become too comfortable for him. Thoroughly convinced that discomfort encourages creativity, he therefore threw himself into conquering South Africa. One year working at TBWA\ Hunt Lascaris was enough to propel Erik into the position of the country’s highest ranked creative. He then became Creative Director and repeated his feat the following year by receiving more awards than any other creative in South Africa. He decided to follow Tony Granger to Bozell NY as Creative Director and helped to make Bozell one of the best creative agencies in the US, by being voted third in the 2002 Cannes Lions ‘Agency of the Year’ ranking.

In January 2002, Erik Vervroegen became Executive Creative Director at TBWA\Paris and in September 2003, President and Executive Creative Director. Within less than two years, the agency became the second best creative agency in the world (according to The Gunn Report) thanks to its excellent creative results: a Grand Prix at Eurobest in 2002 and 2004, ‘Agency of the Year’ at Eurobest in 2002 and 2005, ten Cannes Lions including the Grand Prix in 2003.

Erik himself has been voted Best Creative Director in France for four consecutive years. In 2005, after receiving the shots Grand Prix, the agency won 15 Lions, including the Press Grand Prix and was voted ‘Agency of the Year’ for the third year running.

In 2006, after winning 15 Clio Awards including a Grand Prix, TBWA\Paris was voted ‘Agency of the Year’ at the Cannes Lions for a fourth time. A year later, TBWA\Paris, second most awarded agency at Eurobest and the best awarded at the Epica Awards, was once again voted France’s ‘Best Agency of the Year’.

Media Arts is best described as the “Art of Behavior.” The old saying “Actions speak louder than words” has never been truer. To see the world as an ever-increasing landscape of more and more media channels is to miss the bigger point: we aren't in the middle of a channel revolution; we are in the middle of a behavioral revolution. We interact differently. We discover differently. We trust differently. We expect differently. We are no longer passive recipients – we are highly engaged participants. As a result, brands have to think of themselves as being more akin to content/media brands than ever before…where they choose to be and how they choose to be there is much more important than the “single-minded message” ever was.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008, 04:15 p.m., Kodak Hall, Grand Hotel Bernardin, Portoroz, Slovenia

ABOUT TBWA

TBWA Worldwide (www.tbwa.com) creates Disruptive Ideas for global clients, including ABSOLUT, adidas, Apple, Beiersdorf, Henkel, Infiniti, Mars, McDonald’s, Michelin, Nissan, Pernod Ricard, Pioneer, Samsonite, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Airlines and Sony PlayStation. TBWA is one of the fastest-growing networks in the Top-Ten, and was named Global Agency Network of the Year by ADWEEK and Most-Awarded Agency Network by Creativity magazine in 2007. TBWA has 258 offices in 75 countries, and approximately 11,000 employees worldwide.