Racktime Annie

Who says nothing works in Italy? After just one year, I got the magazine rack I wanted in my office alright! Here is a little instruction how you can climb the heights of efficiency also in Mediterranean countries: So, after you order, let's say a magazine rack so you can show visitors all the beautiful Magazines your company produces, of course, nothing will happen for a while. You need to ask again and again until on the exact day when you have all forgotten about it, it will arrive all of a sudden. The trick is to keep asking but still forget it. But it would be too easy and no fun at all if the story ended here. It will most naturally come with broken legs. Since we're in a civilized country there is an excellent customer service that takes the complain and promises to send you new legs for the rack. The process of leg substitution runs just like for the whole order so one day the young guy from the post office will come and hand you two black things because he was told to deliver them to you. You by then probably really have forgotten all about the rack and send him away with his plastic tubes. Big mistake! Because now all parties involved will be convinced rightfully that there is a fully functional rack in your office. What you have to do now is to invite the person responsible for a cuppa in your office and show him the void space where the rack is supposed to be. And then it is a game of luck. In my case, a small miracles happened and several people came, all laden with different parts of the rack and set it up in no time. Easy enough, right?
So, finally, let me present to you all the printed issues of Focus, Focus Junior, Focus Pico, Focus Storia, Braintrainer, Geo, Jack and quirky Top Girl!

I Fighi aka Italian Internet Startups: H-Farm

Strictly speaking, the H-Farm is not a Startup but an Incubator that "seeds" and "grows" Startups. I paid them a visit in a beautiful green setting in Venetian countyside a couple of days ago and was absolutely flashed by all the creativity and can do attitude I encountered there. And it was funny to have a deja-vu sensation from my short days in a startup in Berlin: the same rows of desks, the same dress code, the same long hours...
For me as a publisher it was also a glimps into the future of advertising. The "participation web" has certainly and more and more obviously and for us painfully changed the attitude of advertisers towards how to spend their money. Less and less are they willing to pay for the distribution of their message but prefer to spend it on creating the message itself. And here a rather amateurish interpretation of McLuhan's axiom "the medium is the message" applies: it's not about what exactly is communicated but about the experience you have learning it.

And this is how my rather longish excursion leads me back to H-Farm where you can find different answers to the crucial question: "How do I make people spend their time to look at something?"

"By having a fresh look and an entertaining approach." would be the answer of H-Art, a hybrid between a web and a creative agency.

"By activating a highly specialized community." would Zooppa say. They run competitions for user generated advertising in a young creative community with some very nice results.

"By piggybacking people's ambition to suceed." is a very interesting idea that brought forth H-Play, a treasure hunt inspired by the Da Vinci Code.

"By giving him customized services" says H-Care who created a digital assistant that talkes to you via web, MMS and other devices.

As you can imagine my head was buzzing when I got out after 8 hours of talking and brainstorming. And now I really hope to hook some of our great fresh ideas to media and advertising business that despie reality is sometimes still very old economy. But then, I can be quite a pain ;)

Paramedics brave and strong...

...Up before the break of dawn
Putting poker faces on
Broken bodies all day long...
Next time I need a paramedic, please don't call the red cross guys. They might have better abs, but absolutely no sense for a lady's style. I definitely wanna be saved by the "pink and baby blue cross" people! (Click on image to enlarge and see that fabulous logo!)

The Truth about me, ...schlaaaaand and the tifoso

I have to make this statement in case paparazzi pictures of me dancing on the table wearing the original DFB (German Soccer Association) Shirt will go around the globe tomorrow: I couldn't care less about soccer! The shirt I have won as a surprise present for winning the boats race of the G+J Future Management Programm which in itself is a small wonder: I was always amongst the last loosers to be chosen for any sports team and proud of it. And I honestly didn't know the European Soccer Championship was around the corner. I could choose between Klose and Schweinsteiger and choose the one I know at least the face of. Then people told me that he wasn't to play... But: Everything is different when you're away from home! I was quite surprised by the reality of the Italian tifosi. I always imagined Italians to be crazy about soccer and that the time of the EC would be a period of holiday. But thinking so is lacking insight in the average Italian soul. It is true that they go crazy when their team wins. They drove up and down the street and honked for three hours when the Squadra Azzura won the one time in this tournament. They are good winners. But they are lousy loosers, too! When in the game against Spain they were doing them shoots, I don't know how they're called, I heared two collective cheers from the neighbours but the four groans that I would have heared in Germany never came. And now the tournament is over. Who wins isn't important if it isn't me. This is why for once I am teaming up with German soccer: to live the Italian in me but on the winner's side! If they loose, I will just quietly stuff the shirt back into my handbag and cycle home.

Bamboccione

Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday, I was riding in a cab through rainy Milan. You need to know that whenever it starts drizzling there will be a complete traffic breakdown in this city probably because people here have never seen rain before or at least that's how it seems. So the ride became a prolonged business and my limited ability for Italian conversation probably started to bore the cabbie pretty soon because he called a friend with his cell phone to tell him about his new great Brasilian girlfriend. They met through the girlfriend of a friend and hooked up within a week. She was in Italy only for a couple of month and had to return to Brazil but is now coming back and they will move together and live happily ever after. And yeah man, it really is a serious thing because, hey, in the two month they were together in Milan, he hardly slept at home. So that indeed, after a while, so he continued to explain: "My mother stopped calling me and didn't even send me anymore sms asking me where I was!" I still don't know how the serious their relationship is but I seriously almost choked from trying to stifle my giggles.

The first Interview

Pocahontas: Dear Pocahontas, please tell us, why Pocahontas?
Me: There are a lot of reasons. Well first of all, I had to find a name I can remember in the many web sites and online social communities I have registered for, didn't I. But then I was quite surprised to find that I was actually the first one to use that name in a lot of cases. Now it has become a bit of a race for me to be the first Pocahontas on a web service.

Pocahontas: Uhugh, I think I got the point... So let's move on to your motivations for this blog.
Me: Well I have moved to Italy about a year ago to work for Gruner+Jahr/Mondadori, an Italian-German joint venture that publishes magazines, more and more also online. In this, there are already two very strong reasons to start writing about it, aren't there: all my funny experiences in Italy and especially my learnings about the Italian online and media business.

Pocahontas: What are you most interested in?
Me: Business wise I am would like to learn about all new developments on the internet and how they are perceived and used in Italy. I would like to meet more geeks, who do the development themselves and can tell me what is going on in their communities. And of course I am interested to learn about all the fresh ideas and courage present in little internet startups, maybe here right around the corner! Of course, like all girls, I am really interested in bags and shoes, so I think Milan, the world capital of (window) shopping and center of Italian media industry, is the perfect place to be for me. And don't forget the food! I love to eat and there is absolutely no better place to eat than Italy!

Pocahontas: Listen, I am hungry. Can we finish this interview some other time?
Me: OK, you go ahead, I still have some work to do here!