News from Duval Guillaume

In September 1995 we met in Kinsale. County Cork.

André had just resigned from TBWA and came to visit Guillaume who had left Y&R half a year earlier and was in the jury of the Irish Advertising Festival. André had this idea about a new agency and wanted to talk about it right here:

Two months later we sat in the piano bar on top of the Park Hyatt in Tokyo, which you may know from Sofia Copolla’s “Lost in Translation”.
Very recommended if you want to dream about a new venture. Good jazz music too, though the piano player in the movie looks a lot better than the real one.

We both had our own ideas about the future of the business and what a new agency should look like. We talked and talked to each other for months. And when that didn’t work, we tried out a whole new concept: we started listening to one another. That seemed to work better and after our wives Nadine and Kris gave their blessing, we opened for business on 19 February 1996 on the Boulevard Souverain in Brussels, right here in this beautiful house.

Today Duval Guillaume is what André and Guillaume had agreed it would become: An environment where talented advertising people and advertisers with creative ambitions could meet, motivate and inspire each other. In 2009 Campaign did a great article about that.

It has always been a great place to be for all those who want to make a difference. And looking at the new generation, it will be for at least another fifteen years.

Andre & Guillaume

After 249 days Belgium is still without a government. No less than 6 mediators have abandoned and returned their formation assignment to our Belgian King, Albert ll.

Cup-a-Soup is all about lightening the load. So, together we created a support page to encourage the King with a heartfelt message. Cup-a-Soup, a Cup & Hup.

Support the Belgian King in Dutch: facebook.com/hupgroep
Support the Belgian King in French: facebook.com/groupehop

From now on interactive agency The Parking Lot and our Brussels agency will work under one roof. The Parking Lot will keep its own name and own clients, but it will work exclusively for Duval  Guillaume Brussels as an advertising agency. Evan Van Lissum from The Parking Lot about the collaboration : “I have the feeling ideas and technology will meet eachother swiftly, I’m very eager to see the first results.” For Duval Guillaume the input of The Parking Lot fits perfectly in the philosophy of the agency, namely bringing together the best talents for our clients.

Management The Parking Lot

Last Friday Geoffrey Hantson – creative director of Duval Guillaume Antwerp/Modem – was unanimously elected ‘creative of the year’ by the Merit Awards jury (consisting of the editorial staff of Media Marketing and members of ACC). Champaign!

Read the full article in Dutch / French.

To celebrate Valentine, Brussels Airlines has developed an online game you can only play with two, with 4 hands on 1 keyboard. A real “quatre mains”, as the French say. Brussels Airlines launches this game in 18 European countries and in each country they will look for the perfect couple. The couples with the highest socre win a romantic trip for two. If you want to start your fourplay, get close together and go to http://www.brusselsairlinesgames.com/valentine/

A magazine ad that allows you to open a bottle of probably the best beer in the world. Check it out for yourself.

A great car at a great price. Once you know about it, it won’t let go. Alfa Romeo took that quite litteraly. There’s no getting away from an offer this good.

Guillaume Van der Stighelen, co-founder and creative partner of Duval Guillaume, one of Europe’s leading creative agencies, will take up a new challenge within Publicis ww. With immediate effect, Guillaume will be responsible for inspiring and motivating creative Publicis talent around the globe. In his new role, he will work closely together with Richard Pinder, COO of Publicis ww, Olivier Altmann, chief creative officer and John Woodward, chief strategy officer. Their ambition is to further improve the creative product of Publicis as a whole.

“Guillaume has got the attitude and stamina and certainly the experience to help us achieve our ambitious goals”, says Richard Pinder. “The Duval Guillaume track record with 24 Cannes lions in recent years speaks for itself.”

“Therefore I have assigned the role of Global Contagious Officer to one of our best creative ambassadors, Guillaume Van der Stighelen. Together with André Duval, Guillaume co-founded one of our most highly regarded offices, Duval Guillaume in Belgium. André and Guillaume have always attracted the best talent in the market and have nurtured new creative leaders in Antwerp and Brussels to take over”, says Olivier Altmann, chief creative officer.

“I see this as a great challenge and an important step in my professional life. Implementing what I have learned whilst working for local and international clients onto on a higher, global level”, says Guillaume. “I really look forward to working with Olivier, John and Richard”.

What does this mean for Duval Guillaume ?
“Well, first and foremost, Guillaume’s name will stay on the door”, says Klaus Lommatzsch, CEO. “Guillaume has – among many other things – always greatly inspired our people and will continue to do so. We will keep on working in the spirit of what Guillaume has taught us and we will keep on doing creative justice to his name. Now may be even more than ever because creatively we will have to be the best in class. Only, Guillaume will work for Publicis worldwide as his first employer, which means that the lion share of his time will be spent abroad. We will of course still be able to call upon him, just like any Publicis agency around the globe.

“The confirmation of his new role coming through is really great news”, adds Andre Duval, co-founder and chairman of Duval Guillaume and Publicis Brussels”. It is certainly good news for all agencies who can call upon him. For Duval Guillaume, it means a permanent representation at the top of the network. I trust it will further boost our capability to help our clients on an international level.”

A simple experiment of Quality paper De Morgen to test the oneness of the euro. 1 euro of each member of the European State is put for sale on eBay. May the strongest currency win.

You can bid during the European summit in Brussels this week, this summit will be dominated by the monetary oneness of the Euro.

Bid here on a Euro [bidding has ended]

With a gold and two silver in the Media Category Duval Guillaume did well at this years Eurobest festival. Gold and 1 silver were handed out to AXA bank&insurance for their ‘axa brings print ad to life’ campaign. In Belgium this campaign was already awarded with gold and named ‘innovative campaign of the year’ at the Mixx Awards (Belgian award for creative excellence in Digital). The second silver was for ‘little robin’ and Opvoedingslijn, a parental hotline for out of control kids.

Next to this there were 5 more shortlists for ‘axa brings print ad to life’ in direct, promo&activation, press and media. There was 1 more shortlist ‘little robin’ in outdoor. The other shortlists were: ‘the house of inventions’ for SOSidee in outdoor, ‘Police Ribbon’ for CAW in outdoor, ‘Classified ads’ for Alfa Romeo in outdoor, ‘Sex’ and ‘dance’ for TMFTravel in film, ‘Extras’ for Telenet in film, ‘Euphoric’ for Bongo in radio, ‘First Radio Flyer’ for De Lijn in Radio and ‘The Blow Job’ for Ché Men’s Magazine in Promo&Activation.