The Amsterdam agency Strawberry Frog – founded in 1999 – changed its name into Amsterdam Worldwide (AW). Brian Elliott, co-founder of Strawberry Frog and CEO of AW said the name change was necessary because of the changing advertising landscape. The new name should reflect a positioning of “Ideas without Borders”. But a new positioning is of course not the main reason. The real reason – as Elliott confided to Adformatie – was that his office was not really sharing any business with the New York office. But the New York office gets to keep the name, as well as the offices in Sao Paolo (Brasil) and Mumbai (India). But Elliott is optimistic about the future. Size doesn’t matter he said, quoting Deng Xiaoping: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a black or a white cat, it’s good cat as long as it catches mice”. True, but we will miss the beautiful name Strawberry Frog anyway.

‘Go Forth’ is Levi’s new brand proposition. It supports positive change in the world and celebrates today’s “pioneers who are taking action to build a better future”. In this dramatic mini-documentary, created by Wieden+Kennedy and directed by Sanne van Hecke, we see Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto (aka “Vhils”) nonchalantly wearing a pair of baggy Levi’s and creating a series of street murals that capture the faces of some ‘Berliners’ who embody the ‘Go Forth’ spirit. This branded content made us think of both the Sartorialist film for Intel (by Amsterdam Worldwide) and the mobile printer film for Océ (by Lemon Scented Tea) – though the latter was a fictional documentary. We’re spotting a trend here, in which everyday people are portrayed as heroes. That is, they all do something special and this is enlarged in a documentary-like piece of long(er) form content. It merges real life with the smooth exaggerative qualities of an ad agency and thus subtly incorporates brands into society. It makes (or at least should make) these brands more authentic, credible, and sympathetic.

Good news for 180 Amsterdam; ASICS appointed the agency for its global communications around the London Olympic Games 2012 – after a competitive pitch that started last summer. 180 will also work with ASICS to launch key product ranges through 2011 and 2012. ASICS asked 180 to give emotional meaning to its ethos ‘Sound Mind Sound Body’ (Anima Sana In Corpore Sano) – an inspiring assignment when combining it with the idea behind the Olympics. 180′s big advantage in the pitch was its extensive experience on the Adidas account – 180’s founding client who left the agency in 2010. Next to 180 ASICS also works with Vitro in San Diego. Together with Vitro ASICS very recently developed a global campaign around the proposition ‘Sports releases more than just sweat’ – namely negative energy. It seems ASICS is working hard to capture some market share from Nike and Adidas.

How to give a boring ingredient brand like Intel – the ‘second generation core processors’ – a face? When you’ve watched this short documentary (too long to be called a commercial), created by Amsterdam Worldwide (AW) and directed by Tyler Manson, you know how. AW chose to visualize the lives of influential bloggers in a series of profile films. A smart angle, since the majority of bloggers still has some sort of independent, maven status, which makes you believe that Intel is used by the people that can be trusted for their advice. And this is the life of Scott Schumann from the renowned fashion blog The Sartorialist (read: the tailor). We are very impressed with the quality of this piece of content. It’s smoothly directed, has some strong copy (probably inspired by Schumann’s view on the “shrinking world”), and is even quite interesting to watch. You’d almost forget Intel is trying to sell you some product here. In fact, we were a bit disappointed with the anti-climax at the end; all of a sudden the film changes into an ad, asking you to share your life on some corporate website – you almost feel tricked into it. Maybe they could have done without it – especially since there’s already a commercial that invites you to share your life – a little corporate, but also very skillfully made.

Amsterdam won two Grand Prix in Film and Design at Eurobest in Hamburg, last Wednesday. Wieden+Kennedy was awarded the prestigious award for its epic Nike ‘Write the future’ commercial – alledgedly the most expensive commercial ever made. And for the same film it won bronze in Film Craft. Amsterdam Worldwide earned a Grand Prix in the category Design for the Onitsuka Tiger ‘Tansu sneaker’. Other than that Amsterdam did not do extremely well, we have to admit. In interactive Pool Worldwide won silver for its brilliant StarWars branded TomTom viral. In the same category 180 Amsterdam won bronze for Adidas’ Match Tracker and NRG3 won bronze for an interactive banner for the EA game Need for Speed Shift. N=5 was awarded silver in the category Media with a ‘Live interactive billboad’ – an aggression awareness campaign. BSUR got bronze in Film for MINI’s Flow, Publics won bronze in Print for KIKA, and JWT bronze in Promo and Outdoor with the MINI Christmas box.

Dutch Fashion brand G-Star appointed Nothing Amsterdam to run its international account. Joris Aperghis, CMO G-Star said Nothing understands the brand and the challenges that lay ahead to help it with its international growth.  G-Star was founded in 1989 (originally called Gap Star). Today the brand has over a 1000 employees and 250 shops in 69 countries. This is G-Star’s first agency, which is quite surprising given the fact that already for quite a while the brand has launched international ad campaigns – most recently with photographer Anton Corbijn.

Amsterdam Worldwide hired ‘Director of Strategy’ Uli Kurtenbach to support the agency with (among other brands) the brand new tequila account Olmeca and to help it develop new products and services – which sounds interesting and a bit vague at the same time. Kurtenbach lives in Amsterdam already for 14 years. He worked at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam (together with his new agency’s ECD, Richard Gorodecky), 2008 (today SSSS & Orchestra), and most recently at Naked, where he was managing partner.