
Insurer FBTO has changed its logo. VBAT, the agency responsible for the new design, explains in its press release that the logo was inspired by a “community of independent and optimistic people that want both a reliable and easy to manage insurance”. The blue in the logo represents the solid base of FBTO and the dynamically coloured ‘O’ the personalized insurance options. The colours are translated on the website by giving the different insurances (health, travel, etc.) a different colour. What do you think?

Picture: ECD’s W+K Amsterdam Mark Bernath (left) and Eric Quennoy (middle), mainly responsible for Wieden+Kennedy’s huge success in Cannes and Enrico Balleri from Nike, just after the award ceremony last Saturday. What a great closing night for the Amsterdam agency it was. Nike Write the future scored seven more Lions – earlier in the week it already won gold in Cyber. At the most important award night the Amsterdam agency first of all won the prestigious Grand Prix in film. It was a very close finish with Puma’s ‘After hours athlete’ as jury chair Tony Granger (CCO Y&R) explained at the press conference. After a lengthy discussion he asked the jury to put all the rational arguments aside and vote from the heart. This gave Nike the final push. Nike also won five Lions in Film craft: two Gold (Editing and Script), two Silver (Production and Sound), and one bronze (CG). And the seventh Lion, Gold in Integrated, proved that the campaign didn’t just have a pretty face. And then Heineken; for this other power brand W+K won five Lions in Film and Film craft. Four for The Entrance: Film: Gold and Bronze (interactive). Film craft: Gold and Silver (Direction and Sound Design). One Lion went to The Date – more or less the sequel of The Entrance. It won bronze in Film. This brought the grand total for Wieden+Kennedy to 13 (!) Lions. Together with all the Lions that Portland won for Old Spice, W+K must easily be the most awarded independent network in the world. Two more Amsterdam Lions went to MINI ‘Flow‘ (Silver in Film craft) by BSUR and one to Volkswagen’s ‘Old Lady’ (Bronze in Film) by DDB. All in all Amsterdam (officially) won 25 Lions, 8 (!) more than last year.

Yesterday was a good day. Not just because it was our first day in Cannes and we enjoyed soaking up all its extremes – Le Palais, the sun, the beach, ‘le canard au miel’, and lots of drinks – check out our photo’s here. It was also a good day for Amsterdam, because it won 5 Lions! Two silver lions went to outdoor; Interbest ‘mail stripper’ and the Go Fast water-bike, both to Y&R Not Just Film. At the time, we weren’t too positive about the unattractive stripper, because we doubted its effectiveness. You could say the silver lion has proved us wrong. Two bronze lions went to the radio commercial ‘sexual harassment’ (Publicis) and an Allsecur outdoor ad (Ogilvy). In Media Muse and Starcom won Silver for their 3D Samsung projection. Earlier, on Monday Amsterdam won two meager bronze lions; the Dutch dress for Bavaria in promo – which definitely deserves more in our opinion – and bronze for Boondoggle’s KLM Suprise in PR – in Holland this won a golden Spin (read: cyber) award. Hopefully we’ll be able to celebrate some gold later this week.

Our first day in Cannes! We’re going to keep a photolog this week, so any tips on interesting (preferably Amsterdam related) activities are welcome – like winning a Lion for example. We look forward seeing you and (maybe) getting a little tipsy together!

We are a bit late with this post, but only last Friday did we receive a copy of the ADCN (Art Directors Club Netherlands) book 2010. The annual, featuring the best (as in, most creative) work conceived in Dutch advertising, was accompanied by a little note saying “We look forward to receiving your review in our inbox”. In other words: “Quid pro quo, Dr. Lecter”. A bit cheeky, but fair enough. After all, we were quite happy to receive our personalized (“No. 790”) Limited Edition ADCN book. So to post about it, is the least we can do. The book that celebrates the ADCN awards – including the prestigious ‘lamps’ – is created by a different agency every year. This year the honour went to …, Staat, an ad agency that specializes in design. Though years ago VBAT created a mandatory grid for the book, …, Staat took the liberty to change the fonts into Helvetica and Times. The reason was that the fonts had to fit the concept, which is putting classic bookbinding on a pedestal. And that is why the book breathes craftsmanship; it has a distinguished gray textile cover, is gilt-edged, and has a traditional ribbon-marker. The concept was further translated into a sub-cover underneath each chapter, with a pressman’s jargon equivalent of the chapter itself and a matching photo. So for example the chapter “Print and Outdoor”, is subtitled “Landscape”, with a short explanation. All in all, …, Staat’s concept fits the holy bible of advertising like a glove; craftsmanship meets craftsmanship. Cause when you leaf through the work and see things like Philips Cinema 21:9 , Kit Kat Jesus, and Stanislav, you realise that apart from all the mumbo-jumbo, advertising still thrives best through craftsmanship.