Emakina Case Day Inspires Creativity and Collaboration

This summer, Emakina’s Case Day once more proved to be an excellent forum for networking with colleagues, comparing best practices, and reflecting together on vision and technology.

Hearts and Minds

The 2015 Case Day at the Dolce near Brussels was an intense and enjoyable event, a real content packed roller-coaster. Over 100 people from Emakina Group’s agencies in five countries came, saw and conquered each other’s hearts and minds. Besides the participants of the Emakina agencies, delegations of Design is Dead, The Reference and Your Agency added their insights to the lively interaction.

Networking time, in the green surroundings of Dolce, La Hulpe

The sheer dynamism and enthusiasm of the united talent was impressive, a pleasure to witness. You feel proud, being part of this movement, creating and innovating, guiding clients through their digital innovation, with both strategic and hands-on solutions.

20 x 20 x 20

Besides vision and technology presentations, the agencies shared their 20 most exciting client projects, using the Pecha Kucha presentation format (pronounced ‘pé-cha-Kuh’chaah’).

Pecha Kucha, devised in Tokyo in 2003, is a simple yet brilliant presentation style for fast-paced, streamlined events. Each presenter shows and explains 20 slides for 20 seconds each, and you have to tell your whole story inside that strict frame. It’s a great challenge to stay on time and on topic.

The timer during a Pecha Kucha presentation is relentless, bringing you without hesitation to the finish in 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

The formula worked like a charm, making it possible to capture a lot of information in one day, yet keeping it enjoyable and easily digestible for all. The full audience stayed on its toes the whole time, giving the speakers their undivided attention. And all presenters performed on a high professional level. They had clearly invested time and thought in making their Pecha Kucha remarkable, more than just ‘talk’, or ‘chit-chat’, the original meaning of the onomatopoeic Japanese word.

And the winners are…

A three headed jury then had the task to rate the 20 presentations on their business, technology and presentation merits. It was a tough call to pick winners, they said, because the general level of excellence was outstanding.

Bram Bruinsma receives his Gold Award from Emakina Director Pierre Gatz

Emakina.NL won first prize, for Bram Bruinsma’s Rituals presentation. Their team succeeded in creating an elegant, award winning multi-country online webshop in only twelve weeks, a true achievement for such a complex project. The portal cleverly combines lifestyle, design and sales, leveraging state-of-the-art technology, multiple language content, and a high feel-good factor.

The cosmetics brand’s online sales went through the roof, confirming Emakina as Rituals’ digital partner.

Design is Dead’s Isabelle Dumortier presents the Auping case

Isabelle Dumortier from Emakina’s Antwerp-based creative agency Design is Dead took home the silver award, for her presentation of the Auping case. Royal Auping is the largest independent Dutch bed manufacturer. Design is Dead today is preparing a new digital identity for this household name in high quality matrasses, boxsprings, beds and bed textiles. To be continued!

Nicolas de Dampierre of Emakina.FR wins bronze for his BIC case presentation

Nicolas de Dampierre, Creative Director at Emakina.FR won bronze, for his amusing yet to the point and globally successful BIC campaign. The iconic brand saw its US sales rocket, after a series of creative online video ads, combined with clever social media support.

The overall level of the 20 presentations was very professional, taking the audience from high culture and media over top sports and health to mobile services and B2B catering, from luxury watches to Italian pasta, yoghurt and spark plugs.

Thierry Willer of Emakina.BE happily accepts the applause after his presentation

The Emakina Case Day at the Dolce was a perfect moment to network, exchange ideas, and look forward to new horizons.

What a great experience it was, to unite with so many talented people from different countries and backgrounds, to happily chat and laugh together, enjoy each other’s company and a share a meal, in a ‘dolce’ feel-good atmosphere.

This meeting confirmed Emakina’s growth and ambition as a digital transformation partner, its high-level dynamic professional work, and also its fun factor.

The discussion continues, during lunch