Dan Farkaš

Dan began his long career in 1997 in Young and Rubicam, where he stood at the birth of the cult advertising campaign during the launch of Oskar mobile phones. In time, he found a new calling in the newly founded company Kaspen. He celebrated one success after another as strategic planner and account director in charge of the communications strategy for the brands Budweiser Budvar and Kofola. After formal and commercial success of probably the first extensive word of mouth campaign in the Czech Republic perfectly implemented from A-to-Z (Pardál beer for Budějovický Budvar), Dan decided to focus solely on WOM. At the start of 2007, he founded with his colleague from Kaspen, Ivo Laurin, the agency Outbreak, the first word of mouth marketing consulting firm in the Czech Republic.

Over his many years in the business, Dan has worked on local and foreign communications campaigns in fields from fast moving consumer goods to telecommunications, the automotive industry, financial services and even media. He has lectured on customer engagement and word of mouth marketing at the University of Economics, Prague VŠE, at a meeting of the European Marketing Confederation and at a number of local and international marketing conferences.

Ivo Laurin

This fifteen-year veteran of communications offers and puts to use his experience from both of marketing’s riverbanks. That is, he has crossed and recrossed the communications river trying out various posts as agency and client alike. Ivo began honing his professional skills in 1996 at the client Unilever in the department of Client Service at Ammirati Puris Lintas. In 2000, he moved to the side of advertising customers in the company Eurotel, where he led a team responsible for all above-the-line and below-the-line communications of the company’s flagship brand. His enthusiasm for Brand Planning and experimental communications strategies led him in 2003 to Kaspen, where he was in charge of strategic planning and development of creative strategies for the Oskar mobile phone company. In 2007, after having spent eleven years in the business, he and Dan Farkaš launched Outbreak, the very first word of mouth consulting firm in the Czech Republic. Ivo has been involved in many local and foreign communications campaigns in fields from fast consumption goods to telecommunications, the automotive industry, financial services and even media. He has lectured on customer engagement and word of mouth marketing at the University of Economics, Prague VŠE, at the Czech Institute of Advertising and Marketing Communication and at a number of local and international marketing conferences.

Petr Hanousek

For years, Petr held the proverbial pen in his hand as an editor for the newspaper MF Dnes. He eventually traded the quill for the video camera when he became a reporter and editor in Czech Television. He was an original member of the publicist program Fakta and an author of a number of reports and documentary programs. After a controversial debate on his report where he compared the Czech Chamber of Deputies with a termite nest, his journalistic enthusiasm withered, and he decided to change professions. He left public television and entered the newly formed agency Kaspen. From a junior copywriter, he developed into the creative head of one of the groups, from which an independent team was formed aimed at alternative projects. Armed with experience, he readily engaged in a project for the communications studio YINACHI, with whom he had worked over the four years. He has worked on several brands from various fields…work that has been awarded such prizes as the Louskáček and the Effie. His brainpower has helped develop such brands as Kofola, Budvar, Kooperativa, Pribináček, Centrum, Nike and Vodafon, previously Oskar.

Katka Vokatá

Katka submerged herself in advertising in 1994 as an account manager assistant in a team exclusively managing the brand of the company Unilever. She aided in developing and implementing major advertisement campaigns for the brands Rama, Hera, Flora and Perla. In time, she took the helm of account management, from which she directed a collaborative team that garnered several Effie Awards and the Bubble Award in Portorož, Slovenia. In 1998, she found footing in the agency Lowe GKK as account director with a wide client portfolio including Chio Bohemia, Bramac, Peugeot, Mediatel and Johnson & Johnson. In 2008, she joined the crew in the agency Leo Burnett Advertising, where as group account manager she held the great responsibility of managing the brands Vitana, Coca-Cola, Jemča and ČSA. And she certainly did well, as proven for example by her work on a campaign for the Jemča tea brand that earned a bronze Louskáček Award. Since 2009, Katka with her rich experience has helped establish Word of Mouth on the Czech market in the agency Outbreak, where she runs a team of project managers comprised of Jana Neuwerthová – Šmýdová, Jan Novák and bolstered by production manager Radka Bohuslavová.