1. IS THERE AN IDEA BEHIND F&B?



- Today everything gets measured. The enormous difference in effect between good and bad advertising is getting ever clearer. When it's all spot-on it's the most effective investment ever. A bad campaign does nothing.

We started the agency in 1986 with a simple conviction: The noise is getting louder. Creativity is going to play an ever-larger role in the future in determining who gets their message out effectively. Since then everything from the agency has been about quality of communication - to create messages and brands that people talk about, feel are important and care about.

We think advertising plays a role. Advertising is everywhere. It's a part of our environment today, in the same way that architecture matters. How it looks, how it feels, how it talks to us affects our society. And businesses that understand that have an advantage.

As you see it's a pretty simple philosophy. The difficult part lies in the doing - to keep making it all about work satisfaction and always giving the next campaign priority, the next TV ad, the next web site, the next print ad and the next headline - instead of wasting energy into bureaucracy and agency politics.

The agency's culture and organization is all about creating just that type of focus. For the long run.

There's nothing wrong with simple strategies. The simpler the better. There's enough gibberish in marketing departments and ad agencies as it is.

2. HOW IS THE AGENCY ORGANIZED?



We work collectively. The goal is that as many people as possible should contribute in each project, regardless of whether it's a new strategy, planning or ideas for a TV spot. This isn't always the easiest method. But the results are better.

The prima donna is banned at F&B. Right in the middle of the place there's a large open space, floorspace, where all projects get displayed. Listening to other's opinions and sharing your own is required. The goal is that everyone should reach 125% of his or her potential thanks to others' support.

To support the process everyone sits in one large open room. We've also minimized the formal hierarchy (Which is harder than it seems. Humans tend to sort themselves into hierarchical pyramids.). We are pretty careful with titles. Instead we trust that informal leaders will rise up - the culture bearers.

There's always a stable work group on each project and our clients always meet the same people. But all of us work in different constellations for different projects. No set teams. This provides more opportunities for contact, more of a "we" feeling, and more learning.

3. WHO OWNS F&B?



We own it ourselves.

The number of partners has grown over time since we started and today 27 key people have equal shares of the company. All of them are active in the daily operations.

- But that sounds like socialism. And who decides? Why is it done that way? Many wonder.

For us it's a natural consequence of our goal, to build a world-class agency in a little country like Sweden. Stability is everything. Altogether too many promising Swedish agencies have gone up like the sun and down like a pancake, only because the founders chose to throw in the towel and sell fast.

We've eaten lunch with all of the big networks during these last 22 years, sometimes dinner, too. So far no one's offered a good answer when we ask two things: how would you further the quality. And why would it be more fun to go to work?

Our model is built, as we said, on having a good number of culture bearers. But just like all other companies we have a CEO, a chairman and a board.

4. WHAT MADE YOU SO SUCCESSFUL IN DIGITAL AND WHAT'S THE NEXT STEP?



How much time do you have? Ha ha. O.K. we'll start from the beginning.

One night seven years ago we had an animated discussion at the agency. It was about the 'net and our web agency Virus, that had just really taken off.

- But wait a minute. If everybody in this room believes the Internet's going to play a key role from here on in, why should the projects be done by a sister company, somebody asked. Shouldn't it be the highest priority here, inside the agency?

Before we left that night we had decided. We dismantled Virus and overnight all the creatives at F&B became web creatives. Responsibility for the 'net moved into the ordinary workgroups and was equal with film and print - no difference. And we etched in stone that web literacy is a requirement to work at F&B. No exceptions.

This is the most important decision we've ever made and also perhaps the most unusual. Around the world nearly all traditional agencies took an entirely different road. They continued to set up subsidiaries and hire web specialists.
A year after that night we launched Volvo XC90 with the 'net playing the main role. The site got a quarter of a million visitors the first month, won a Grand Prize at Cannes and that's the way it's been. Today the Internet is a central part of the job in nearly all our projects and The Gunn Report ranks us as one of the the world's best web agencies (even though we aren't a web agency).

Now it's time for the next step.

The discussions here at the agency have been a lot about home pages in the last year. Why is it so often the weakest link in communications when it should be the ultimate expression of the brand? And isn't this the biggest creative challenge right now – to make smarter, more fun and user-friendlier web sites?

Yes, we think so.

That's why we've decided to throw ourselves enthusiastically into the game with a somewhat naïve sense that sense that everything is possible. We're going to work in the same way on home pages as we do with everything else. The same chasing after precise ideas, the same collective process. The difference is that here the projects will be more complex and span a larger time frame.

The first of such projects has just gotten going. It's intensive and stimulating. The learning curve is just about as steep as the Ramberg hill in Gothenburg. We are working with people whose jobs we couldn't even spell three months ago - information architects, for example. We're meeting IT specialists at our clients that have precisely the same vision and questions that we have. We are working night and day in a large room and covering the walls with small multi-colored notes. We're discovering that all this isn't so confusing, after all.

In short, it's a lot of fun.

5. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?



Hard question. There's a lot we are happy about. Our way of working with the Internet is one such thing. That we work with so many of Sweden's strongest brands is another. And that we've been at the top of Sweden's "best" lists for longer than anyone, 15 years or so.

But after thinking about it we're probably most proud of being different. We've chosen our own road and nobody is totally sure where it will lead.

6. INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION IS A PHRASE THAT'S IN VOGUE. HOW DO YOU SEE IT?



Think about if you found yourself at a conference for German choir music in the 1800s. It's not a topic that really interests you and you are listening with just one ear. But at the break you find yourself smack in front of Fritz Andersson, one of the speakers. Over a shrimp sandwich he tells you about his next project (a book on the organ in the Leipzig Cathedral) and it ends with the two of you scheduling a meeting the next day at the cathedral where you get a guided tour and buy a copy of his book with a dedication. And during that time you also subscribe to a very expensive stenciled weekly newsletter he puts out.

It doesn't really matter what the message is. If the quality contact is high enough it will be interesting.

Today we have new possibilities to really communicate with people. Suddenly we can step down from the podium, go on to the refreshments and start a dialog, a conversation.

The Internet is one way to do that successfully - but there are many, many others. It's about getting away from the flat, mechanical and routine, without losing the connecting thread. Getting more concrete. Getting nearer to reality. If you want you can label that integrated communication. That sounds professional.

7. A LOT IS SAID ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL COMMUNICATION. COMMENTS?



Is an H&M poster featuring Brad Pitt and socks for 15 SEK tactical or strategic?

It's an academic discussion.

Consumers are not one bit interested in the difference between tactical and strategic. But if a brand's personality doesn't hang together, if the tone fades in and out - you can tell. And consciously or not the picture of the product or the company is affected.

With us each and every work group often has both tactical and strategic responsibilities. That way you avoid idiotic discussions of "above and below the line."

8. INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTS BUT NO NETWORK. HOW DOES THAT WORK?



It works well, thanks.

Today more than half of our turnover is from accounts that in one way or another reach across many markets.

It could be a global account like Wasa. Or Volvo, where we have responsibility for Scandinavian communications and then do specific projects for the rest of the world. Or IKEA, where we are the lead agency in Sweden and do digital campaigns for a big part of the global markets and ever more projects in the U.S. market. Or Libero where our TV ads are playing throughout Europe. And on and on.

Our model is simple. Instead of building a big, expensive and static structure we tailor-make a solution for each project.

Modern technique and global media consultants solve the logistical problems when it comes to getting the ads out. (That's not how it worked in the 60's when the big networks were established.) Today the biggest challenge is instead to find an intelligent model for collaboration between the central organization, the people out in the markets and the ad agency.

9. NOW YOU ARE IN BOTH GOTHENBURG AND STOCKHOLM. HOW DOES THAT WORK?



Gothenburg is an important part of our identity and for a long time we only saw ourselves there, or here we should say. That made us automatic outsiders. At the beginning all of our competitors and many of our clients were in Stockholm.

We felt good about being the outsiders. But in 2001 we decided to open an office in Stockholm anyway and there was one simple reason. Sweden is a little country and too many of the smartest people weren't moving west.
It seemed like a dramatic decision. How would it effect the culture to be in two places? How would we work together?

Now you know. It wasn't really dramatic. It was a lot of fun because we got new smart colleagues, and the project caused us to take a step forward.

We work together completely seamlessly. The bulk of accounts involve people from both offices, one way or another.

At this writing we are about 70 people above the NK House in Gothenburg, and over 30 above the NK House in Stockholm. The same orange carpet. The same open room.