LE COOL PUBLISHING 2010

1

Since 2003

MAKING

INTERESTING

LIFE MORE

Introduction How it all started

Our vision Our mission

Our values LE COOL PUBLISHING

IntroductionLE COOL MAGAZINE

Introduction Covers & interviews

Our readersAdvertisers

LE COOL BOOKS Introduction

BarcelonaMadrid

Amsterdam Lisbon

CONTENTS

Our network & collaborators intro Presenting our writersLE COOL AGENCY IntroductionCommunication innovationServicesCatalan FilmsBrugal guide bookInside BCNPulitzerLing MagazineThe observerFlydoscopeBrugal webMahouDieselLife in Cities & CH212NokiaRicci Ricci

46789

11

13161820

2224252627

2829

31323436384042444648505254565860

Making your life more interesting.

Yes, sweet mama, that is our simple mission in life.

And we do it through useful, positive projects

that help make your life better.

2 3

4 5

INTRODUCTION

Hello!Something is going on. Sure, we’ve always been convinced about the greatness of our mission,

nonetheless, we continue to be fascinated as we receive love letter after love letter appreciating the output of our journey. What used to be a weekly magazine has now grown into a little world

of its own, from experience guides to communication services, LE COOL is onto something big. This magazine is about that journey.

RENÉ LÖNNGRENFounder & Head of Experience

6 7

HOW IT ALL STARTED

“To be at the right place at the right time.”

Not only does it make a lot of sense to get the most out of daily life, as we move closer to

that perfect combination of all things good we need to get the most

out of our lives, it also makes

a real difference.

Knowledge for better living.

OUR VISION

A man and his passion

8 9

OUR MISSION OUR VALUES

We started our first magazine with a very simple idea: to

share our city with our friends. And that simple perspective

sits at the heart of our values: to be like a really good friend.

This means that we treat

our people, our clients and our readers as the good friends

they are, even though some are strangers that we have

yet to get to know.

To improve your life by guiding you to

relevant experiences when at home

or when travelling.

A man and his passion

We started back in 2003 as a straightforward editorial house

with a focus on publishing magazine and books.

Since then that core business has developed and we are becoming

a 360 communication agency spanning many different formats,

from online, magazines and books, to events and PR plans.

Never forgetting our core, we are, as ever, creating useful, positive

content that makes your life more interesting.

INTRODUCTION

Making your life more interesting

PUBLISHINGLE COOL

12 13

INTRODUCTION

Europe’s leading alternative cultural guide

MAGAZINELE COOL

14 15

LE COOL MAGAZINE

300.000 subscribers in 8 cities across Europe

Started back in 2003 with the simple goal of sharing our city with our friends LE COOL MAGAZINE has grown into becoming Europe’s leading alternative guide magazine with more than 300.000 subscribers. The magazine has a unique design and format using horizontal pages, just like a

paper magazine with a way smarter distribution via e-mail every week.

16 17

COVERS & INTERVIEWS

A random selection of covers and interviews

Each week we invite a designer, photographer or illustrator to do the cover. The brief is very simple: share your city with your friends.

18 19

OUR READERS

Our readers - a detailed view

The design, the content, the editorial voice and attitude

has attracted a reader group that is usually very hard to reach, some call them the

connectors, others say they are trendsetters. We call them

faithful readers…

Young, urban professionals

20 to 35 years

Curious and active

Time poor, money rich

Opinion leaders and trendsetters

82% are between 18-35 years

55% are women 45% are men

80% has a university education

94% reads le cool at least once per week

67% work in communication, design, music or media.

Market study done in Barcelona & Madrid .

20 21

ADVERTISERS

These are some of the brands that have been working with us over the years.

Connecting brands with early adopters and trendsetters

INTRODUCTION

Our weird and wonderful books

As we set out back in 2004 to share our city with our friends that came to visit,

we realized that there were no books that told the story of our city as we felt it had to be told. So we created

the world’s first guide book that really tells the story of

each place recommended, not only through text but

also through the design, the photos and the illustrations.

BOOKSLE COOL

24 25

BARCELONA GUIDE BOOK MADRID GUIDE BOOK

The first of our guide books first published in 2004, with an updated edition in 2006 and a brand new book in 2010. With this first book we set the tone of what has now become our signature

traits; insider recommendations, experience-based design and very emotional and personal story telling - the book really reads like a story on its own.

The book was edited by Andrew Losowsky and the design was done by Feriche Black, a renowned magazine design studio in Barcelona.

The book was edited by Sebas Taberna, our Madrid editor, and the design was done by Murray, a renowned design studio in Madrid.

A weird and wonderful guide to Barcelona

26 27

AMSTERDAM GUIDE BOOK

The book was edited by Anneloes van Gaalen, our former Amsterdam editor, and the design was done by Lava, a renowned design studio in Amsterdam.

The book was edited by Joana Pinto Correia, our former Lisbon editor, and the design was done by Silva, a renowned design studio in Lisbon.

The book was edited by Mat Osman, our London editor, and the design was done by Jeremy Lesli, a renowned designer that used to be the creative director at John Brown.

LONDON & LISBON GUIDE BOOKS

28 29

OUR NETWORK & COLLABORATORS

Top level collaborators worldwide

We have hundreds of writers, designers, illustrators and

photographers from all over the planet engaged in one of our magazines,

the books or custom projects each week. Through this unique network

we have been able to grow from having covered just one city a few

years back to now covering more than 50 cities around the world.

We currently work with people who on an ongoing basis contribute to Time Out, Wallpaper, Monocle,

Esquire, Details, The Economist, Good, Wall Street Journal and many

other extraordinary publications.

EVA MUNZ - Writer

Eva grew up in Germany, France and Italy and after film school spent most of her adult life living in more or less exotic places in Asia and reporting from them for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Monopol, Vice, Bidoun. She is currently teaming up with 032c and will launch a daily English language newspaper for the Berlin Artforum. Eva is now based in Berlin.

ADRIAN MOORE - Writer

Paris Palace concierge and freelance writer Adrian Moore has been mentioned by Le Figaro, WWD and The Huffington Post as an “influential” blogger. He has contributed photos to Condé Nast Traveler, and contributes regularly from Paris for Monocle, Black Book, Nylon and various other publications.

SAUL TAYLOR - Writer

Saul Taylor originally worked as a creative in the advertising industry in London before landing a job as writer at Wallpaper* magazine. He went on to head the publication’s advertorial and promotions department before joining Wall- paper’s sister agency, Winkreative, as head of publishing. Since Tyler Brûlé founded his second commercial publication, Monocle, Saul has run the Lifestyle section of the magazine.

JÖRG KOOPMAN - Photographer

Koopmann studied photography at the State Academy of Photographic Design in Munich and graduated in 1993. Since 1997 he is working predominantly in the field of photojournalism and portrait photography. His work has been published in Stern, Monocle, Wallpaper, Zeit Magazin and Human Globaler Zufall amongst others.

PIETARI POSTI - Illustrator

Born in Helsinki, Finland, he now lives and works in Barcelona, Spain. Since 2005 his work has been published internationally in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired Magazine and Paste Magazine.

TOM WILSON - Writer

Tom spends most of his time writing and DJing, but while most people would try that at home, he’s been carefully crafting his skills and has become a pivotal figure in Bucarest, Romania. His work has been published in Dazed and Confused, The Observer, The Face, Omagiu and various other publications.

PRESENTING OUR WRITERS

30 31

INTRODUCTION

Pretty much from the first day we started we had some readers who also happened to be working in marketing

and communication, and wanted us to help them out

with bespoke content or even full communication services for their brands. Our Agency arm was born out of that very natural need and today, some seven years later, we spend a

great deal of our time creating unique communication projects

for brands. As always we stay true to our core: making your

life more interesting.

AGENCYLE COOL

32 33

COMMUNICATION INNOVATION

We all know that the world of communication and marketing is

changing, and it is happening fast and it is pretty brutal. It’s simply

not enough to create a product and broadcast (read: scream) massively

to the world that you exist. Rather, we know that the only way

you can really reach your future audience, your consumers, is

to go way beyond a product and a lump of cash to do ads - you need to

be relevant. Yes, you need to qualify, to be accepted and given permission to enter. As hard as this may be today, and way more

so tomorrow, there is a way.

By creating communication that on its own has a purpose,

a significance, which is relevant and useful, your customers are given a chance to embrace your message,

to not only use it, but also become a broadcaster, a fan and an

ambassador. The real meaning of viral is simply: be useful.

Our agency services are all about that.

Creating pieces of communication that are also useful, that actually help

people to improve their life. And that’s the way we help

your brand to bond beyond the products you sell and take the

relationship to a new dimension.

34 35

SERVICES

Some of the ways we have done this up until today has been through: Custom content feeds from one or many cities around the world

Online activities, from advertising campaigns, to blogs and beyond

to entire websites Printed matter, from books to

magazines to fanzines Events and press launches, from

the design of the press kit to the seduction of journalists,

from paper to live action.

More than focusing on the specific format we are much more driven

by creating something useful, something positive, something

relevant that will by its own rights seduce the consumer. We apply a light structure where the correct team for each project is created

on a case by case basis. That means that we are tapping into the world’s

best designers, programmers, writers and creatives for each and

every one of our projects.

36 37

CATALAN FILMS

The Origin of Film - a custom project for Catalan Films

Catalan Films is a semi-public organization with the objective of promoting Catalan film outside Catalonia. We created this book for them in 2009 with the idea of asking each one of the participating producers to share with us ”How has Catalonia inspired you in your work?”

Design by Lo Siento

38 39

BRUGAL GUIDE BOOK

Brugal’s guide to the Dominican Republic

Brugal Rum is a premium rum brand from the Dominican Republic. We helped them in 2009 to create a unique book that allows the brand to show consumers and partners where the brand

comes from. The book follows the very unique LE COOL trademark style of being a visual love story to the island.

Design by Lo Siento

40 41

INSIDE BCN

Notes from Barcelona - a neighborhood guide done with a lot of love

Inside BCN is a small agency that rents apartments by the day or week and has a lot of creative industry clients. We created this unique, low-fi guide to the neighborhood Borne in central

Barcelona for the client to give away to their best customers.

Design by Lo Siento

42 43

PULITZER

The quirkiest and most unique guide book we’ve ever seen

Created for Grupo Regina as a way for them to stand out as a ”not just yet another boutique hotel” as well as cross promoting the fact that they have hotels in

several cities around the world, we created this guide/note book.

Design by Lo Siento

44 45

LING

An award winning inflight magazine for Vueling

Back in 2007 we won a pitch against all the major Spanish players to do a monthly magazine for leading Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling. The 100 page magazine was published for

a little over two years, until the airline changed their positioning and the magazine had to become a lot more mainstream (between 2007 and 2009). In 2008 we won a

gold at the Oscar’s of magazine design, Society of Publishing Design. Published together with La Fabrica Editorial

Design by Feriche Black

46 47

THE OBSERVER

Travel content from around Europe

Escape is a weekly travel supplement for one of Great Britain’s most important newspapers. They approached us to help them with content for the weekly ”Instant Weekend” features,

where we coordinated writers and photographers from several European cities.

48 49

FLYDOSCOPE

Travel content from around Europe

Flydoscope is the inflight magazine for Luxembourg based airline Lux Air. We provide them with several city guides for each of their issues from cities all over Europe.

50 51

BRUGAL WEB

Brugal Rum online - a guide to the Domincan Republic done by the consumers

Brugal Rum is a brand that does not like to do conventional marketing. Actually the brand has largely been growing through passionate consumers bringing the brand with them around the

world. We created an online world where the most unique experiences one can live in the Dominican Republic are shared through the eyes of 10 locals. Together with

them we produced 200 posts and 20 videos over six months.

Design by VasavaVideos by Imelda Films

52 53

MAHOU

Madrid Mola helps beer brand Mahou to seduce the young audience

We were approached by Mahou, the leading beer brand in Madrid for more than a hundred years, to help them reposition themselves as the brand of choice for the younger audience. We helped them by creating a new brand, Madrid Mola, which is an online city guide to Madrid,

with an iPhone application to be launched. The project stretches from online to offline, through an unconventional guerrilla communication campaign, all developed by us, where

each one of the ads are also part of the guide itself.

Design by Pollen London

54 55

DIESEL

Urban guide content from three cities for the Diesel Cult

Diesel invited LE COOL to become a ”preacher” for their online community, The Cult. We provided the community with guide recommendations from Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon.

56 57

LIFE IN CITIES & CH212

Custom blog content for luxury brands

We worked with Barcelona based Hotusa Hotel Group to create Life in Cities, a destination blog for 10 of their urban luxury boutique hotels. We posted hundreds of posts monthly from

Amsterdam, Barcelona, Budapest, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris, Prague and Rome.

The fragrance brand CH212 commissioned us to do a blog about trends, innovation, gourmet and nightlife in New York. We worked with a senior editor from

Not For Tourists guidebook series to edit the blog.

58 59

NOKIA

Custom content from 11 cities worldwide for Nokia mobiles

We were approached by Momentum in London, which handles the Nokia sponsorship account world wide. They needed a premium content partner for the launch of a new application called

Found. The applications allows Nokia handset users to get a customised urban city guide in their phone, all powered by LE COOL. We also helped them by offering free tickets

and placement on VIP lists for users. The application was launched in November 2009. Current cities include: Dubai, Sydney, Moscow, Lisbon, Rotterdam, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris, Cape Town,

Durban and Johannesburg.

60 61

PRESS LAUNCH & RICCI RICCI

A press kit for Nina Ricci to seduce fashion journalists worldwide

PUIG, one of the top fragrance makers in the world, asked us to help them seduce the difficult fashion press for the launch of key brand Ricci Ricci, a part of the French fashion house Nina

Ricci. Based upon the concept of a secret heroine we worked together with the client to create a box filled with stories, evidence and trails of how the heroine had

inspired the creation of the perfume. Our work related hundreds of press angles to facilitate a greater press coverage beyond the typical launches.