There are people who do their work. And there are people who do it with passion. There are people who lead. And there are truly inspiring leaders. Keith Reinhard, DDB Worldwide Chairman Emeritus, is one of the most inspiring and passionate leaders I've ever met in my life. And his visit to Riga, Latvia was a dream that recently came true. My first meeting with Keith Reinhard happened to be soon after I joined DDB. It was at a DDB course "Dialogue with Keith and Ken" in New York in December 2002. His speech about Passion as the most important ingredient in creative achievement inspired me a lot. He said "Nothing great has ever been accomplished without passion. When all our hearts are on fire with passion, we'll do something great together. We'll transform the world." I was also surprised at the openness,...

There is no longer any doubt that in getting a “cold shower” from the economy;a lot of Latvian companies are already experiencing harsh times and will continue to experience them for some time yet. However, as an incorrigible optimist, it strikes me that there is good news too. Firstly, remembering my days as a student, I always had a clearer mind following a cold shower and new reserves of energy and ideas were awoken within my body. Secondly, in contrast to the disproportionately rapid growth of recent years, entrepreneurs are currently being forced to revisit their core values through the formation of product quality, employee development, organisational effectiveness and brand experience. For many companies, the economic crisis also means a significant reduction in volumes of business which is hard to accept...

We all are witnesses to end of the era of easy profits in Latvia and to the rapid rise in the cost of living. This quickly results in a shortage of disposal funds which in turn causes a more pronounced tightfistedness, which again leads to pragmatism. In the future, when considering communications ideas and brands, both company CEOs and buyers will look for not only emotional benefits but also rational justification, added value and efficiency. As the economy cools down, the competition gets tougher and this process will gradually weed out the less professional and creative marketing firms. Accordingly, acquiring new clients and maintaining business growth will mean taking them away from weaker competitors instead of simply “skimming them off” from the growing purchasing power and rapid growth of the sector in...

Indeed, inertia and habit possess an incredible force which is difficult to resist. Already for many years and still today, marketing communications channels are mainly chosen by combining in various ways TV, press, radio, outdoor advertising and Internet, since in the past this has generated good results. If up to now approximately 70% of the total campaign budget was allocated to placing materials in the media, then why not simply use such an understandable formula for the next 10 years as well? However, “the mission that we (brand developers) have is not to keep the media business alive but rather the communication and the relationships created with buyers”. This is a statement by Russell Davies given while visiting Riga last week. He has been working for many years as a strategic planner in one of the...