I have a friend in com is the first young media dedicated to advertising, marketing and digital for professionals but also students.
Valentin Richardot, one of its creators, a native of Nancy, answered questions from the editorial staff.
- Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
My name is Valentin Richardot, I am editor in chief and co-founder of the media “I have a friend in the com” and I am from Nancy. I work in Paris but I have been returning to Nancy since the beginning of Covid. And I’ve been in Paris two days a week for a while now and the rest of the time I’m in Nancy.
- Can you explain the concept of “I have a friend in the com” in more detail?
It is a medium, which today is a reference for marketing, communication and creativity news. It is aimed at professionals and young communicators in the making. We work on all communication issues, so we talk about announcements and new campaigns, but we also influence marketing, technology, entrepreneurship and audiovisuals.
- Who is this platform for?
This platform is aimed at all people directly or indirectly interested in com, therefore also to many entrepreneurs and freelancers. And we are not only among marketers, we also touch on startup managers … So there is also an entrepreneurial angle on “I have a friend”.
- What prompted you to undertake this project?
I was a student when I came to this project, at first it was a blog and Facebook page that belonged to Laurent, who is now my partner. I was in DUT at that time and I said to myself that it might be good to contact him. We quickly agreed, so I offered to work on this project with him, along with the class, because I wanted to work while I was in school. I was given carte blanche to create content and articles as Laurent worked alongside. We were able to create an audience that appreciated our work. We have adopted an editorial line that other media have not necessarily followed. Today we are competitors with many media but we have three key values which are: decipher and entertain, we must be useful so we will not write long articles about people congratulating themselves on winning awards, we are more looking for strong people in these areas than can tell us about their success.
- Can you tell us about your work?
From an editorial point of view, I take care of selecting the themes for the editorial staff, classic or sponsored journalistic themes. I define the angles, the subjects, the themes and I validate the news sent to us by the journalists every week. And in the commercial part, I am in direct contact with customers, in prospecting then canvasing, appointments, customer relations and work on new formats. For example, this morning I was on the phone with Linkedin, creating a new format with a creative team. Our clients come from different industries, most of them are agencies who want to highlight their experience and know-how to our readers in our guide where we create content with them. We also do this with schools, tool solutions that we refer to on our site, we currently have 200 referenced. And we also meet advertisers with, for example, Amazon. And then we have some of our clients who are public clients in general who come looking for the sociology of our audience.
- Have you ever seen interesting things in Luxembourg?
There are many Luxembourg agencies working for large accounts, particularly in France. I have already received press releases from agencies like Vanksen or Binsfeld who work with some clients in France. We will also be present at ICT Spring at the end of the month to meet other Luxembourg agencies.
- Expected development for Luxembourg?
We have a hearing in Luxembourg, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and the Maghreb. Luxembourg is very interesting for business because it concentrates many companies and agencies, especially many French speakers, and it is a market on which we would like to position ourselves, and this is also why we collaborate with ICT Spring. Luxembourg is also in a different state of mind, it is less competitive and competitive, even if there are many of them in a small territory, they are people who know the value of certain things and it is therefore very interesting to work with them.
- Can you give us your point of view on Luxembourg? The strengths and weaknesses of the country?
There is a protectionist side that I don’t mind, there is common sense on certain points that is not negative, they know how to focus on what they can do and with whom they have to work. And paradoxically they have an opening on France and on Europe which is very important and very present. It is a small country but it has large companies like Luxair, which are very well known. I am at a very interesting crossroads that we also know in Lorraine. It is also a door for Belgium, these are points that we could take back because they are very beautiful. After that, I don’t actually have all the information on how the country is developing internally, but I have this vision of healthy protectionism and a smart vision to allow local businesses to benefit from a controlled market.
- What are the next steps for your company?
At the end of June we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of “I have a friend in the com”, then we will organize a big party in Paris with all our partners. For the start of the new school year, it is the launch of the studio part of “I have a friend in the com”, then a content creation studio. All the expertise we have acquired over time, we want to make it available in white label for all types of advertisers. For example, if an “orange luxembourg” type advertiser wants to launch their podcast, we can produce it as a production box without putting ourselves at odds with our agency’s clients. So there will be no competitions to avoid competition with them.
The two architects of the strong structure of several hundred thousand fans on social networks will be guests of ICT Spring 2022 in Luxembourg from 30 June to 1 July, more precisely at the LuxExpo The Box in Kirchberg.