At PICNIC 2008, Bas Verhart – CEO Media Republic, founding father of Picnic and member of the Innovation Platform of the Ministry of Economic Affairs - presented the Paint The World Orange competition. This contest challenges the (international) creative industry to develop innovative marketing concepts, tools and ideas to position the Netherlands as an international hub for creative talent, and a global force in innovation. From all entries, five candidates will be asked to further develop their ideas. The jury – led by the famous Dutch designer Marcel Wanders – will announce the winning concept in the Spring of 2009. Bas Verhart: “We’re asking the creative industry to come up with good ideas. It could be a tulip shaped island, but anything will do as long as it’ll work”.

UbachsWisbrun/JWT developed the very first interactive test drive to promote the brand new BMW 3-series. Via a dedicated micro-site www.interactieveproefrit.nl one can follow two BMW’s live via webcam and via a map that provides you with the exact GPS location. One can also call the driver and ask him specific questions. And with only a slight delay you can follow the conversation inside the car – or if no one is talking the car stereo. It is really exciting to see how well it works. We gave one of the driver’s a call to test things out and he - that’s right, mostly men test drive BMW’s - was very helpful in telling us about the price (around € 50,000) and the special features on the car. He even voluntarily drove a route that we chose for. Talking of a great driving experience!

Once a year Amsterdam hosts PICNIC; an international conference of the world’s most successful and talented media entrepreneurs, thinkers and creators. Among them not only representatives of the Google’s, Amazon’s and Nokia’s of this world, but also scientists, game developers, musicians and other original minds. And although the conference programme suggests that online social networking, crowd sourcing and co-creation are ever more promising, PICNIC proves that offline get togethers are there to stay – at least for a while. In any case, we are looking forward to it.

This happy ‘Green Song’ is made by 180 Amsterdam for MTV Switch, a platform raising global warming awareness among the typical MTV target group. A very noble initiative – although a cynic might say it is exactly the kind of ‘green painting’ the commercial talks about. Anyway, the commercial itself is of course very well made and a delight to watch. Interesting though, is that this video immediately made us think of ‘Grrr‘; a divine peace of art made for Honda by W+K London – winning a Grand Prix in Cannes in 2005. To be precize ‘Grrr’ was made by Sean Thompson. And coincidently Sean joined 180 in 2006 to become Creative Director. Apparently he loves to make animated feel good films that sell a greener environment. Fair enough.

The heavily awarded Canadian advertising agency Taxi – already very well represented on the North American continent – is jumping the big pond. Taxi’s founder, Paul Lavoie, is still not sure though where his first European office will be based. Both London and Amsterdam are in the race. It might be a photo finish, since both cities have their own obvious advantages. London is bigger and more cosmopolitan. While Amsterdam is a friendly village where you can ride your bike to work. And – not to forget – smoke idea-inducing herbs. The local government is taking the race seriously, since they invited Lovoie to experience the city himself – a bicycle trip was part of the program. Even the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, had a little chat with Lavoie. If that won’t be enough to convince Lavoie, hopefully this promotional ‘I Amsterdam’ film will.