Vanksen|Culture-Buzz a reçu le Grand Prix romand de la création dans la catégorie campagne web hier soir en Suisse. Ce prix a été décerné pour la campagne de marketing viral pour le lancement de la nouvelle version du journal "La Tribune de Genève". Vous pouvez lire l'article de la TDG sur le sujet ici. Un grand bravo à notre bureau suisse et à notre équipe de création à Luxembourg...
Flydoscope, the magazine edited by Luxair, Luxembourg's Airline, was keen enough to interview me in the latest edition. Bad point was (at least for the poor readers) that they asked me, as usual in the magazine, to make a drawing! Now you know why we do have art directors and designers at Vanksen|Culture-Buzz. They are just so much better than me regarding design... ;)
This is what happened when we asked some of our designers at VanksenGroup, to pimp our Luxembourg office ;)
Jean-Michel Maurer de http://www.brozengo.com a invité 10 dirigeants à donner leurs prévisions pour 2008 au début de l'année :
- Laurent Esposito (son blog) - Directeur Internet chez Prisma Presse
- Jérôme Perani (son blog) - Senior Manager chez Tera Consultant
- Francis Lelong (son blog) - co-fondateur de TooFoot
- Come Sauval - co-fondateur de Helia
- Gregory Ogorek - co-fondateur de Brozengo
- Katya Thomas - co-fondatrice BmyKey
- Jean-Yves Quentel - PDG fondateur de Voozici
- Simon Istolainen - co-fondateur de MyMajorCompany
- Laurent Vermot-Gauchy (son blog) - PDG fondateur de Crickee
- et moi même Emmanuel Vivier (son blog) - PDG de Vanksen Group (Culture Buzz, Buzz Paradise, Legitiname)
Après avoir joué à Nostradamus 2.0, l'heure était venue de nous rencontrer...le 19 mars au restaurant "Little Georgette", situé 9 Impasse Gombust , dans le 1er à Paris (01 40 20 09 28). Une très bonne adresse pour celles et ceux qui aiment pouvoir discuter au calme en dégustant des tapas assez originales...
Luxembourg 2.0 ?
Many did maybe not notice, but for the past few months, Luxembourg seems to have been moving towards new technology at fast speed. Indeed in last than 2 years, many major Internet brands have decided to establish their European Headquarters in the "Grand Duché".
After AOL, Microsoft, Apple iTunes is now operating from Luxembourg (having one of the lowest VAT rate on ecommerce (15%) is off course never a bad thing to sell music for one euro a song). Most people would be surprised but world's fastest growing service for Internet communication (Skype) is a Luxembourgish based company too!
Few days ago, the world's largest online retailer, Amazon has just confirmed that it will finally settle its European Headquarters in Luxembourg after a year of waiting. “Amazon will also be bringing all of its sales and service activities and well as the operational units for its European websites.” (Source : Paperjam).
These big names should not hide the fact that several high success smaller high tech companies are booming in Luxembourg too. 10 minutes from my office, Xavier Buck is managing one of the booming domain names registering company called Eurodns. 
An entrepreneurial friendly environment
As managing director of Culture-Buzz (buzz, blog and viral marketing agency) and VanksenMedia (interactive agency), I personally won’t deny that Luxembourg has provided us with attractive conditions to develop our business:
- Political stability and interesting fiscal opportunities
- The very central location of the country within Europe
But two of the more motivating for us have definitely been :
- The highly skilled and multilingual workforce (it is common to have employee speaking up to 6 languages here!)
- A highly efficient and fast administration! (ok administration is still administration but common! Luxembourg has really work hard to make formalities so much easier and less time consuming than in some other countries. Face it I prefer dedicating my energy to winning more business and serving my customers rather that to fight against useless bureaucraty…)
Still some challenges to overcome
But to conclude and to avoid giving an overoptimistic view of the country, Luxembourg is still facing few challenges:
- If many companies locate themselves in Luxembourg, it does not always mean real activity there (many are only here for financial reasons and does not really employ many people here)
- International connections!!!! Located in the middle of France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg really needs to improve connections to its neighbors head cities. I cannot wait for the TGV to come in 2007 (train journeys to Paris will decrease from 4 hours to 2h15!!!). What about a TGV between Luxembourg and Brussels or Frankfort?
- Individual Internet connection price is still prohibitive compared to France or Germany (I personally pay more than 90 euros a months for a 2mo connection)! What about free wifi or wimax available within the whole country? The country is so small it would really be technically possible and just imagine about the positive impact for the country marketing: the only country in the world with free wifi available everywhere!
Maybe am I wrong because to focused on the Internet industry (banks are definitely not going to leave anytime soon)… But if ever you hear about “Luxembourg 2.0” in the future, don’t be surprise ;-) !
More info :
- Amazon confirms installation of European Headquarters in Luxembourg
- L'empreinte des géants de l'e-commerce
(English version at the bottom)
Suite à un récent commentaires sur un des mes derniers posts, Verso semblait supris de me voir bloguer en anglais uniquement... J'imagine en effet que j'aurais dû expliquer cette soudaine nouvelle résolution 2006.
Pourquoi bloguer en anglais?
Voici quelques raisons qui ont motivé cette décision :
- J'ai pu constater à Blog 2.0 que la langue de Molière était définitivement un obstacle pour la consultation de mon blog/networking avec plusieurs interlocuteurs non francophones.
- Notre blog "Culture-Buzz" (www.culture-buzz.com) est lui déjà en français
- Ces derniers mois, Culture-Buzz et Vanksen Media (www.vanksenmedia.com) voient leur terrain d'opération s'étendre sur des pays où l'anglais devient nécessaire (Allemagne, Suisse, Thaïlande)
- A Luxembourg, où je suis basé la plus grande majorité de la semaine, plus de 50% de la population (et donc une bonne part de nos clients locaux) sont étrangers : anglais, américains, allemand, italiens, portugais, serbe, bulgares, flamants,... On m'a reproché plusieurs fois que le contenu de mon blog leur soit de fait inaccessible car en Français...
Finalement pourquoi ne pas bloguer dans les 2 langues (et pourquoi pas en Luxembourgeois, en Allemand, en Italien ou en Espagnol aussi?)? Et bien malheureusement juste pour une question de temps... Je préfère essayer d'assurer le rythme dans une langue pour commencer...
Et pour Verso, si l'anglais n'est malheureusement pas ta tasse de thé, n'hésite pas à consulter www.culture-buzz.com...
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A comment on this same blog was recently wondering why I was suddenly blogging in English and not in French anymore... I guess I should have explained myself about this new 2006 resolution...
Why blogging in English?
Please find below some of the reasons that have motivated this decisions :
- I have realized at Blog 2.0 conference that a French blog was definitely an obstacle to communicate and network with many participants that came from many horizons and all able to communicate because of English.
- I already manage a French speaking blog "Culture-Buzz" (www.culture-buzz.com)
- The operation from our buzz and viral marketing agency Culture Buzz and our Interactive agency Vanksen Media (www.vanksenmedia.com) have move to another level in the last months with actions and offices in new countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Thailand...
- I am mostly based in Luxembourg where more than 50% of the population (and a big part of our local clients) are foreigners : Brits, Americans, Germans, Italians, Portuguese, Bulgarians,... Many of them already told me they could not read my blog because it was in French...
Many will probably wonder why I don't blog in 2 languages and some why I am not blogging in German, Luxembourgish, Italian or Spanish! I would be glad if I knew enough of all this languages but the major point is just Time! Call me lazy or busy, but I will first try to keep a reasonable blogging pace in one language before to dare blogging in 2 or 3 languages...
And Verso (the person who first commented on my blog regarding this subject), don't worry, if English is not your cup of tea, just have a look at my other French speaking blog www.culture-buzz.com...
Et pour celles et ceux qui ne seraient pas au courant : Derniere minute: La station de métro Pernety est fermée au public ce soir! N'hésitez pas à sortir à la station Montparnasse Bienvenue accessible via les lignes 4, 6, 12 ou 13. A ce soir!
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