A Lesson In Social Media

Today was an exciting day as we ventured out to visit and ad agency and to attend a class at the University of Warsaw with students from the university. The adventure began with taking the metro for the first time! I always get excited to take the metro because it's something that I seldom get to do, being from the Midwest. We rode it for a while to get out of the heart of the city and when we reached our destination we can back to the surface to take a bus to the ad agency. We unfortunately took our bus going in the wrong direction but we quickly realized and hopped off to head the other way. After exiting the bus we realized that the ad agency wasn't as close as we had hoped. So being hearty Midwesterners we treked through last night's snowfall and walked a "few" blocks until we finally reached our destination. 

The ad agency was not expecting such a large group and so they had to improvise. We were split into groups and my group headed to the "Creativity Room". I'd have to say we got the best location since the room was furnished with couches, a foosball table, and had chalkboard walls. We were greeted by Bart who works as a copywriter for DraftFCB. Due to the improvising he wasn't prepared to give an elaborate talk but he was entertaining and gave us some great insights. He gave us a brief history lesson on Poland and has interesting commentary to add to what we have already learned. He then proceeded to tell us about the evolution of advertising in Poland and we all laughed as he explained that when he was younger he used to see absurd advertisements. A particular ad that stuck in his memory was one for a forklift, he still cannot understand why that was being advertised on primetime television but it is something to laugh about now. 

He explained a few of the products that they advertised such as Nivea and a few smaller coffee companies. He explained that when developing their advertisements they carefully consider the consumer and they advertise very differently between men and women. They also think about the audience size of where they will be advertising and they change their advertisements based on the cities they will be placed in. When he described their advertisements for Nivea he explained that in the US the advertisements are much more emotional. In the US the ads will show more touching and affection between people, whereas in Poland this is not the case. The ad is much more straight forward about the product and does not play to the consumers emotions. As for coffee, it is seen as a luxury product in Poland even though most people can afford it. The reason it is seen as a luxury is because during the Communist era it was rarely found or purchased since it is an imported good. Due to this fact the ads use images that are focused on coffee at special occasions.

We then got a bit off track because I asked about something that I have been waiting to ask someone. (Dad this is for you) I asked about the surnames of Polish people and if the ending of a name correlates to rank. I asked if a name ending in -ski was a determination of someone that was noble and he gave me an interesting answer. He told me that in most cases the -ski related to where someone was from, for example: Krakowski - someone from Krakow. He said it also was related to someone's occupation and sometimes was the surname of the nobles. He said that given the country's history it is very hard to trace the origins of a name because so many people were displaced and forced to leave or move. It was a very interesting conversation and I was happy that I got to ask about it. 

We then ventured to the University of Warsaw to participated in seminar on Internet & Social Networks in Poland and the United States. This lecture was co-taught by Professor Agnieszka Kacprzak-Choinska (an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Warsaw), Professor Pisarski, and Professor Crowe. We sat in class with Polish students and we were given an opportunity to interact with them and share perspectives. 

Professor Agnieszka began the lecture by sharing interesting statistics about the Internet use in Poland versus the United States and the trends over the last decade of Internet use. She presented a list of the top 7 social networking sites in the two countries and then she split our class into groups, mixing our two classes together. We were then given time to discuss these different social networking sites and explain them to one another. We attempted to describe the concept of “Pinterest” and “WordPress” while the Polish students explained their version of “Linkedin”,”Goldenline”, and “Gadu Gadu” which is a popular chat room. It was interesting to talk about the differences and I only knew what 3/7 of the most popular Polish social networking sites were. I'm now intrigued to go look up what they look like and what they can do.

After the seminar we took a long bus and tram ride back to the hotel and I ran to the grocery store to get some snacks for the rest of the night. I watched "Junior Master Chef - Australia" with Polish voice over, I know random, you never know what you'll get here on Polish television! Then I concluded my night with a lovely Skype call with Lewis. It was a great end to the day and I can't believe there are only two more full days here in Poland. It has gone very quickly and I have really enjoyed my time here and I will miss this country. Going into this trip I thought that this would be a once in a lifetime trip because I never expected to go back to Poland but I have a strong desire to come back, especially to Warsaw. I hope that I do get the chance to come back again because there is still so much that I want to see, but for now I'll make the most of my last two days here!