Teach me to dream!
When you were little, have you dreamed to become astronauts one day?
Me personally, I don’t retain any memory of such heroic aspirations. As a matter of fact, my desire to subjugate the world (read the space, too) was born years later 
Anyway, we – who are supposed to be adults – are a lost cause. But are children of today dreaming of space adventures?
Judging from the “Who is more and most?” it looks like there aren’t many future astronauts among Bulgarian children. By the way, it’s unbelievable I don’t find a Facebook page of this TV show for kids, having in mind all the groups and pages out there!
Certainly future astronauts grow among American children. And guess who cares this to happen – NASA! How? Through online tools of course. Why otherwise would I bother you with all this…
The online initiatives for children of NASA (the National Aeronautical and Space Research) are not one or two, but here I will point out the examples that really impressed me.
For a start, let’s see the website of NASA KIDS’ Club.
Don’t let yourself to be misled, NASA does not offer any online games wasting your time. In each of these games you will find out that some cognitive goals are set, served to children via beautiful images and realistic sounds.
Sure, NASA has also thought of the adolescents that sometimes need a pure online fun. The next website is to be used by visitors not under 13 years old. Well, there is no upper age limit, so I don’t really feel guilty for the lost (not working!) time having fun on this website.
For the final, here’s another NASA website for the most curious of all ages that offers original video answers to frequently asked questions. 
These are just three of all digital solutions of NASA that you can find on the web. What impressed me most about these tools is not the web design, the creative concept or the software implementation. It’s impressive that a government agency established 50 years ago shows commitment to the youngest generation. Even more – shows it in the language of this generation – Internet.
NASA encourages children of today to dream and entertain online with a mixture of educative information and pure fun. While enjoying all these websites, kids are learning about space and NASA technology. With all these online applications, the government agency is actually raising a generation of NASA enthusiasts.
Can you think of similar examples on the Bulgarian web space? I can’t but I dream of the day when this will be the case!
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Euro RSCG 4d Bulgaria is based in Sofia, 18 Ivan Vazov street.
We are specialists in digital strategy and consultant in communication online.
Our clients are the largest companies worldwide such as Carrefour, Volkswagen, Societe generale, Edenred BACB, Eon, Solvay, etc
Our main team comprise of Nicolas Galand, Alexandre Glas, Biliana Bogdanova, Zdravko Totinov, Martin Zhelyazkov.
You can send us an email to contact@eurorscg4d.bg or find us on Twitter @4d_bulgaria
Merchandising: A solution for your brand ?
I know… the title of this new post is again a terrible solecism. Yes, using strange word in the digital sphere is definitely a national sport. I believe that more the terms sound complicated, more digital specialists feel good… reading my title for this post; I’m obviously part of them.
However, thanks to Wikipedia; I will not need to explain you in details what mean tie-in. You will “click and know”. By the way we can say that now with Internet, knowledge is more “nearby”, but it’s another topic for another post another day.
So, after a simple “click and know” I found the following: “Merchandising and/or tie-in”: fact to offer alternative products branded; nowadays it’s mainly used by the Hollywood film factory; but most of the brands are using this tool for brand awareness.
Here, I will not try to explain you the difference between merchandising, tie-in, free souvenir, branded product for sale; promotional gifts as you will go back to Vbox7 watching the new video clip of the Octopus. I will just give my feeling of the general vision of “branded product” and how important it is for a company to think about it. Then to know what gifts, online shop, promotion products will be the most suitable for you; we need a meeting.
From my point of view, we can distinct three types of tie-in: the limited edition replicas; the pure advertising product to assist in marketing the brand promotion and the “prestige” branding accessories.
My favorite one is definitely the limited edition replicas of objects from the brand. First, I believe that all tie-in is linked to it. For example, a pure advertising product yesterday becomes a replica; like the branded accessories which could also become replica in the future. It could even happen that a worthless object becomes on E-bay a really precious and expensive item thanks to the time and trends.
For instance, I could go to my attic, to open one of my dusty childhood boxes and find incredible objects that remind me so many things:
- a small Volkswagen Beetle as a key holder brought from Mexico 10 years ago
- a t-shirt “British Telecom” that looks really cool today
- a hat Windows 95 from Microsoft
- a 80’ poster from Societe Generale with a slogan: ”from writing to computer”.
These objects today sound really vintage and trendy. But when I had them, they were also really great for me; they were modern and useful. When the advertising product becomes the replica; the advertising effect is working at every moment; the brand has won.
At the bottom of my dusty box, I found a movie accessory, the famous light saber from Star Wars! All of us, during our youth, we dreamed about becoming a Jedi or Darth Vader. And if we had the chance to get the light-saber (bad plastic quality and ridiculous color) we were ready to fight the evil like Luke Skywalker. Cinema branded products are always the most significant marketing product to assist movie promotion in marketing. These days, try to escape from Shrek or from Toy story when you are walking in the streets, it’s just impossible.
But now, looking at my fantastic saber with my professional eyes, I’m also seeing branding, merchandising, advertising and tie-in. Should I feel stupid of my child behavior? I didn’t understand that advertising agencies were operating into my favorite childhood feelings. Whatever I know from now thanks to my experiences, I still like this object.
Today I have to say that by principle; I like the brand and/or the products connected to the ones of my youth. I like them thanks to the feeling I’ve got looking at the current advertisement. I have to confess that I even own a Volkswagen and my bank is still the same since 20 years. Hazard?
Now, with the new Internet behavior of the customers; brands are offering more and online shopping tools. It’s getting much easier for everyone to buy and/or to get branded product. And I believe that the third type of tie-in, the “prestige” branding accessories as a new business core is really suiting perfectly the new Internet trend.
For example, Mercedes; which is the figure of luxury, style and elegance. They are offering great online shop to their fans and real connoisseurs. You can find new categories by accessories and many gift ideas. When the name of the brand is enough to attract the attention, it is really good idea to provide extra products and to use the customers to advertise the brand and its success. We have all seen Ferrari accessories, Bentley watches or towels, and other luxury brand making luxury advertising product. People are advertising the product to other customers. We use to call “earned media” between advertising specialists.
Concerning luxury brand, we can see that the demand of online sales increases. An online shop definitely adds value to the brand awareness. With the one of Mercedes for example, the challenge is to transfer the atmosphere of luxury brands into the Internet as well as to sell the fashion goods online.
Most of the well known names need brand awareness; not only luxury brand but every kind of companies can use this marketing instrument. Consumer satisfaction is a work of every day and communication needs to be in perpetual evolution. Great online shop with new products branded is the perfect tool for it.
Let’s go back to work but before; as a professional, I will check into the boxes of my children to look which brand succeeds to attract young customers via tie-in. I will check also around me to see, as an educated adult, what branded products I’m using.
As an individual; I may offer a Mercedes gift to my father that loves the brand (he never got enough money to buy the car , like nice cufflinks for example. But, right now I’m going to have a lunch in the restaurant next door, they are offering cups for free for each meal bought, it’s great for the office. It’s raining… I’ll take my Volkswagen umbrella.
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Euro RSCG 4d Bulgaria is based in Sofia, 18 Ivan Vazov street.
We are specialists in digital strategy and consultant in communication online.
Our clients are the largest companies worldwide such as Carrefour, Volkswagen, Societe generale, Edenred BACB, Eon, Solvay, etc
Our main team comprise of Nicolas Galand, Alexandre Glas, Biliana Bogdanova, Zdravko Totinov, Martin Zhelyazkov.
You can send us an email to contact@eurorscg4d.bg or find us on Twitter @4d_bulgaria
ATTENTION: kids online!
It’s summer again!
Yes, I know it’s raining every afternoon in Varna these days but frankly, I don’t mind it being at the Euro RSCG 4D Bulgaria office, not on the beach.
And as we all know, summer is kids’ favorite season that is why our summer lift theme are THE KIDS. I assume they mind the rain much more than me, and when their beach day is stopped by the present Bulgarian tropical climate, they spend their free time online. Playing games, chatting or just surfing, their online life becomes more and more dynamic.
That is why, after our social gaming article, it’s time to pay attention to some not that positive trends concerning kids online.
According to Norton Online Family Report children are spending more and more time on the web (no surprise so far) and are experiencing more negative emotions online than their parents realize (sorry to break the netiquette but I mean all the exclamation marks that follow)!!!
First exclamation mark: Six in 10 children, aged 8 to 17, have had negative online experiences — from exposure to nudity and violence to having a stranger try to meet them in real life!
Second exclamation mark: 20 percent of the surveyed kids say their parents have “no idea” what they are doing online!
Third exclamation mark: Only 45 percent of parents are aware that their children are having negative experiences online!
I can continue in this style for pages. But I won’t. I am not aiming to panic anybody (although some worrying would fit well in this case), neither to jaw.
Hopefully, this kind of “posts-alerts” will remind, not only to parents, but to all of us that THE WEB is an open space with free access for anybody. And it’s not always for the best.
I also hope that there aren’t parents still thinking they can ban this open space for their kids. Let’s face the facts – it’s inevitable!
The issue needs to be mannered in a constructive way. There are many options and I would not dare to tell you what to do. But the only thing I know is that being online is a learning process. And if you want to support your children on this matter, you should also be prepared to spend time online and be aware of all great possibilities and way of approaching Internet.
If you have any ideas for kids’ internet safety, share below or use our wall.
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Euro RSCG 4d Bulgaria is based in Sofia, 18 Ivan Vazov street.
We are specialists in digital strategy and consultant in communication online.
Our clients are the largest companies worldwide such as Carrefour, Volkswagen, Societe generale, Edenred BACB, Eon, Solvay, etc
Our main team comprise of Nicolas Galand, Alexandre Glas, Biliana Bogdanova, Zdravko Totinov, Martin Zhelyazkov.
You can send us an email to contact@eurorscg4d.bg or find us on Twitter @4d_bulgaria
Do you “Google” yourself?
It’s a rhetorical question.
I know you do.
Come on, there is nothing shameful in it, we all do it!
Actually, I would be surprised if you have never checked what “uncle Google” says about you! No matter what you do for living, whether you try to hide something in your past online or want to show off with a picture of you with your favorite rock band, you should “google” yourself from time to time to check what your internet image is.
Why?
Another rhetorical question, I would say, but still to point out the evident.
Because Google is the one online service that shows you (and the rest of the world) what people on the internet talk, see and read about you. Your ONLINE REPUTATION, to put it in my favorite advertising slang.
So, don’t tell me you don’t care what the WEB says about you!?
Because Google is the online equivalent of your neighborhood, but multiplied million times! You should consider yourself lucky that the bore 70-year lady that you have for neighbor can tell only 3 friends about your coming home at 4h in the morning with suspiciously wild hair and some traces of make-up. Then, some of these 3 friends will discuss with at least 2 other ladies the question of your decency the next time they see you passing by. Still, remember my word, you should consider yourself lucky to have the “news” spread among a dozen of indignant old ladies!
Now, imagine that your lady neighbor is computer littered (here you need to have rich imagination, considering her age and that we are in Bulgaria…). So, she tells “the breaking news” with you starring to her online community – post on her Facebook status with a mention of your name for young generation’s edification or publish a photo of your look at the moment of that unfortunate morning and “tag” you! Then she shares all this is in www.forum-grandma.com (rich imagination, remember?) and… you find yourself with some contradictory references in Google!
OK, I exaggerate. A lot. I admit it. But did you picture yourself in the situation?
Now think where all this came from? Yep, it was the morning after one of the happiest nights in your life – the prom ball!
So, go to tell Google it was a misunderstanding!
* to google: to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the World Wide Web (see Wiki for reference)
** When I use “Google” in this post, I also mean any other search engine you like (Yahoo, Bing etc.). Google however is the most used from Bulgarians search engine.
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Euro RSCG 4d Bulgaria is based in Sofia, 18 Ivan Vazov street.
We are specialists in digital strategy and consultant in communication online.
Our clients are the largest companies worldwide such as Carrefour, Volkswagen, Societe generale, Edenred BACB, Eon, Solvay, etc
Our main team comprise of Nicolas Galand, Alexandre Glas, Biliana Bogdanova, Zdravko Totinov, Martin Zhelyazkov.
You can send us an email to contact@eurorscg4d.bg or find us on Twitter @4d_bulgaria