When it comes to defining guidelines for the EU, everyone – i.e. EU institutions / professionals, commentators and citizens – agrees that the EU should promote values such as transparency and dialogue. The growing interest in online communication tools these last two years is a natural trend to make out of this trend a reality. For months, we have been hoping for a change, I also have. As time is passing by, I am however more and more concerned about the real will of the EU to enter into this new era.

We’ve already seen how active  the European Parliament has been since the 2009 elections campaign, acting as a pioneer in online and alternative communications. The Commission is however still capable to catch up.

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This may sound obvious for many people: professional presentations (especially on Powerpoint) should always be innovative, interesting, instructive and generate discussions. At least in theory… The reality is often less flattering and I can’t remember the number of times where I had to wait for the end of lame presentations shaped as endless monologs, my last one being in an office of the European Commission.

Speaking of which, there are luckily still good practices and good models to get inspiration from, the most prominent of all being probably Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.

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Sorry to all euro-geeks, but this post is not related to any EU topic. That being said, the following video is the “must see” of the week. Why? Not just because it is the (awesome) result of 4 years working, but also because it combines two main characteristics of modern marketing :

1. Brands (and their logos) are everywhere and part of our daily lives even if we don’t feel like being surrounded by them or deny them.
2. The amount of videos has dramatically increased these last years, not only in cinemas, on TV, but even more on the web where low budgets + creativity can produce nice surprises and big hits. In a word, video has been more and more playing an important role in online communications.

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2009 is now over and we will not regret it. What a strange year for many for us! The good news is 2010 has now started and it looks quite promising. 2009 was a year of transition for the EU: new MEPs were elected in June and the Lisbon treaty was finally ratified just before Christmas after years of discussions. Talking about communications, 2009 will be remembered as the year 1 in online communication, with a (partly) revamped Europa website and even more with an innovating EP campaign including social media.

In 2010, more than ever, the EU will have to defend its position on the world scene and start conversations with its citizens.

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Like every end of year, Google has just published its Zeitgeist 2009. For those of you who wouldn’t have heard of Zeitgeist, it is a German expression meaning “the spirit of the times” (cf. Wikipedia). Basically, Google Zeitgeist was meant to summarize a year of searches by American internet users as a way to picture a specific year with keywords. Luckily, Zeitgeist is not limited to the USA, it also gives us some interesting data about other countries in the world and even about the European Union. Yes, Google did it for our democracy made up with “491 million people, 27 nations and 23 official languages”! So what do we learn?

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In a few years, we’ll not only remember 2009 as the year of the Lisbon Treaty but also as the year 0 in terms of European communication. Yes, it was a remarkable year with lots of premieres and innovative ways of communicating, especially coming from the European Parliament in order to bring citizens to vote. Not only did the EP’s web team occupy the full scope of social media, from the more obvious Facebook and Twitter (in every European language) to the more questionable MySpace, but they also innovated with a refreshing printed communication based on everyday issues (including energy, family or nutrition) and even more with street marketing actions!

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