Ich liebe Lofts! … und Deutschland
Düsseldorf
First of all, the city is beautiful and I am very thankful for the fact that everyone speaks English and is willing to do so … oh, and for Wiener Schnitzel, sausages and beer of course. I can’t indulge too much though, for the fact that I am literally getting married in a month and would like to still fit into my wedding dress…
Everyone that I have met either on the street or at Havas has been nothing but welcoming. How is everyone so nice?! I feel like I am back in my home state of Wisconsin, but better — and more brats/beers. The first few days at the office have been an adjustment because it is much different than Havas Chicago; however, again the people are so nice and make it easy for me to adjust. That is one thing about Havas that I have noticed, that they always seem to hire the best people.
Die deutsche Havas
The office here is a skooch (Wisco lingo) more traditional than the open concept, industrial, street vibe that Chicago has, but it seems to be working for these folks. The account peeps sit together, creatives sit together, planning together, digital together, etc. etc. you get the picture — it is segregated a bit. And everyone is in offices. From what I understand, they are moving to a new office in the next year that will be more of a Village model and much more open concept, collaboration-focused and modern. I have shown my colleagues the Chicago video of our office and they are very intrigued… and a little jealous.
Die Arbeit (the work)
The categories of clients range from banking to auto to pharmaceuticals to health/hygiene/home — which is what I work on, Reckitt Benckiser Brands, specifically Scholl (Europe) and Amopé (USA and Canada). Reckitt seems to be the German equivalent of Procter and Gamble. I have never worked on this type of business before and have been asked to help re-read the English creative presentation decks to make sure it reads properly — my American POV has been beneficial to say the least!
As with the range of clients the Düsseldorf office has, they also have created a range of impressive work. Scholl is primarily TV broadcast while versioning spots to be placed across the world, which requires a lot of organization and data to ensure the right spot will perform well.
To end this first blog post entry, I was also surprised to see how many English words are intertwined not only in the social realm of German, but also professionally… examples would be: working budget, meeting, overtime, offline/online, briefing… whatever… literally they say whatever… the list goes on
Tschüss für heute! (Bye for now!)
