‘WTF?!!!’ was our first reaction when we saw this commercial for Jillz. Apart from the fact that we don’t drool on male hard bodies, we just didn’t know what to think of it. But after watching it a few times, it slowly started to grow on us. It has a Moulin Rouge over-the-topness and production value that’s quite irresistible. Jillz is a new sparkling cider (containing 5% of alcohol) that should give Heineken’s product portfolio more balance towards women. And that’s probably why the ad, made by Pink and Poodle (what kind of association should this name evoke?), is so explicit about its target.
With a track record like Tribal DDB it’s hardly a surprise that they became interactive agency of the year at Eurobest this year. Throughout the year they’ve been making great and award winning work for KLM and Philips. The climax of their award victory march has been Eurobest this week; out of the 12 nominations they won 9 awards – for Philips Obsessed with Sound 4, for ‘Wake up the town‘ 2, and for KLM Tile & Inspire 3. What really took us by surprise was ‘The Legendary Making of The Date’ for Heineken by Wieden+Kennedy winning a Grand Prix in film. We already noticed that every big budget commercial nowadays gets a making of to create some relatively cheap content – and PR for the agency, for that matter. But actually winning a Grand Prix with the side project of a campaign is quite something. Back then we said: “Not your standard ‘making of’, but one made with ‘joie de vivre’ and lots of CG jokes. If we weren’t already, this would want to make us work in advertising”. The commercial itself, ‘The Date’, also won silver in film, and ‘The Entrance’ won gold. We were told that AKQA’s London office sent in the work of AKQA Amsterdam, so you could say that the Grand Prix and Gold in Mobile for Heineken Star Player (social betting on football matches), also went to Amsterdam. DBB and 180 won silver in film for ‘Old Lady’ (Volkswagen) and ‘Marked for Life’ respectively. We also had the Epicaawards last week. W+K won 5 Epica’s plus a Grand Prix for ‘The Entrance’ and ‘The Date’ combined. Again W+K won an award (gold) for the ‘extra’s’ – some extra mini scripts around ‘The Entrance’. 180’s Marked for Life won gold and silver. Finally Lemz did well with 2 silver and 2 bronze for IKEA 365, KLM Live Reply, and ‘Children see things differently‘. In total Amsterdam won 22 Epica awards. One final note to Eurobest and Epica; can you guys please merge? There’s no reason to have two identical continental award shows – except making lots of money, of course…
The Champion’s League season has started and according to Heineken it is the most prestigious competition on the planet. Wieden+Kennedy was asked to convey the Champion’s League as ‘black-tie’ football; the players on an epic stage in prestigious arena’s. Well, they’ve done an impressive job with Clarence Seedorf and Gianluigi Buffon performing in an opera house overlooked by real angels. Here‘s another one in an ancient Roman gladiatorial ring, with Vieira and Van Nistelrooy competing in front of Adler’s goal. Wieden also created a series of adaptations, meant as humorous, but in our humble opinion a weak attempt, almost spoiling the beauty of the originals. Anyway, the films were directed by Martin Krejci (Stink) and shot by Stepan Kucera.
This is something Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has proven to be good at; showing the essence of a sport and the passion of its supporters. They’ve done this for Nike several times – recently in Copa Barrio – and for EA Sports’ FIFA – here’s #10. It’s all done with heroic copy and visually supported by lots of action, packed stadiums and close-ups of fans. Since the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand is sponsored by Heineken this year and since W+K is the Dutch beer brand’s favourite agency after winning a cabinet full of awards for The Entrance and The Date in Cannes, the agency makes a logical choice. The commercial explains ‘The Code’, which basically comes down to the well known saying that rugby is a barbarian game played by gentlemen – while football is a gentleman’s game played by barbarians, for that matter. The film was directed by Steve Rogers (Revolver). In print the code is aptly translated into: “We lost some teeth. We gained some friends” (among other lines).
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.
