Planning announces itself in Sweden

I absolutely love Sweden. I'm not entirely sure why... the brutal honesty of the people, the effortless style of everything they do, dark-haired girls who worry about their blonde roots showing ... whatever the reason, I am happiest when in Sweden.

And I've always thought how nice it would be to work there. But can the Swedish ad industry even sustain planners?

Well, yes, it can and it does. And they've organised themselves into APG Sweden... coffee mornings, blogging, the whole shabang. So if you've got the urge to indulge in a little Svenske planning, you could do worse than check out APG Sweden.

And if Scandinavia is too cold and perfect for you, but you still need some local insight, then Claes Foxérus is your man. Claes is a 100% pure Swedish planner who is super-happy to traipse across Scandinavia and satisfy your every planning or marketing whim. What is more he is one of the lovely chaps behing APG Sweden - so he'd be just as super-happy to have you pop by to one of their coffee mornings.

100 Greatest Tearjerkers... and not an ad amongst them

A while back, Channel 4 did a programme on the 100 Greatest Tearjerkers. It's no surprise that not one brand communication made it to the list. What was surprising was that not one book or piece of music made it either... but then I suppose they don't make for great telly.

Anyway, I haven't posted in over a month. And that must mean I've said almost everything there is to say about the opportunity for brands to be emotionally complex. However, I'm a verbose and opinionated soul, so it's not like I've nothing left to say in general. I think I'll follow the example of all other planners and broaden the scope of my blog. However, inspired by a recent debate as to whether blogging is killing planning, I won't compromise on substance. So no reviews of best door knobs, Wimpy's or places of silence in london... I promise.

But so as to not stray too far at the outset, my first non-sadvertising post will be about emotion. And when I get round to it, I'd like to ask what we can do to optimise the emotional impact of the brand communications we make. What needs to change, what assumptions and practices are disabling us, and what if anything are we missing?

Hopefully I'll get round to it before the next bank holiday, but sunny evenings aren't conducive to pouring over the future of brand communications.