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Archive for June, 2009

Philips versus Twitter

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

When it rains, it pours; we are writing yet again about brand new Grand Prix winner Tribal DDB. This week they launched another campaign for Philips, called Philips Versus. Through a dedicated website, Twitter and Flickr, the Dutch consumer electronics brand tries to reel in UGC. More specifically, they are asking its ‘user’ to pit Philips against an unusual competitor. The example of the rooster being woken up by a Philips wake-up light – instead of the sun – should explain what is expected. Quite a complicated task (the golden rule of UGC; never overestimate the creativity of your consumer). Messages are sent in like: “A Philishave that tells you when your chin is bald”. That’s just a product functionality, really – not a very good one, for that matter. But the good thing about this campaign is that Tribal DDB chose Twitter as the preferred medium. A medium that is being used by an innovative and techy crowd. And also a medium to learn from; will the instant character of Twitter make the campaign spread faster than, let’s say, the average ‘send a friend button’? Probably yes.

Cannes: Grand Prix for Tribal DDB

Monday, June 29th, 2009

This weekend ‘Carousel’ for Philips, made by Tribal DDB, won a Film Grand Prix in Cannes! Last week the online case was already awarded with a silver Cyber Lion. According to film jury member Richard Bullock (180 Amsterdam) the jury was unanimous and quick to decide that this was a Grand Prix. David Lubars (BBDO), who presided the film jury, called it mind blowing and said it showed the way forward. True enough; the technique gives an extra (interactive) dimension to film. And when content is fully animated, the viewer can even change the ‘camera’ angle in any desirable way – which we saw earlier this year in the commercial for the game Killzone 2. Other Amsterdam winners in Film: TBWA\Neboko won silver for its Heineken walk-in fridge and bronze for its IDFA films – both commercials won a golden ADCN lamp earlier this year. Amsterdam agencies Indie and Ogilvy also won a bronze Lion for respectively Orange Babies and Sensoor.

Shoptalk: They/Achtung! win Vodafone

Friday, June 26th, 2009

After having worked for 7 years with UW/JWT, Vodafone this February announced it wanted to reconsider its communication strategy. The brand that facilitates communication had noticed that its target group had changed its way of communicating (well spotted!). No less than 7 agencies participated in the pitch for 2 different parts of the account; theme and online. This seems to be the best of both worlds; THEY is known for its solid brand strategies, while Achtung! is one of the best online agencies around. But how will they work together? Hopefully not like many agencies still do today; one agency comes up with a superb offline idea, while the online partner is asked to translate it into a flashy website.

Cannes: 2 silver Cyber Lions, 1 bronze

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

The cyber lions are of course the most important Lions at the moment; they can predict the leading agencies of the next decade. Three Cyberlions yesterday for Amsterdam; silver for Tribal DDB with a cinematic widescreen (21:9) experience for Philips; Skipintro won silver for ‘For the love of god’; and bronze went to 2009 with its sun radar for Wieckse Witte. In our opinion the Tribal DDB lion should be mainly attributed to the execution. The idea is not new and comes from the gaming industry (we believe Halo was the first game to combine 3D with a timeline), but the execution is so impressive that it deserves lots of ‘kudos’ anyway. The sun radar for Wieckse Witte (a blond beer brand), showing in real time on which terraces in the Netherlands the sun is out, was maybe more original, but lacked execution. And the website ‘For the love of god’ for the Rijksmuseum was our favourite. While the Rijksmuseum decided to exhibit Damien Hirst’s famous diamont skull, the object was heavily polarizing the art scene; was it art or simply a very expensive object? This gave Skipintro the idea to record the opinions of the visitors of the Rijksmuseum and give them a voice on the dedicated website. Though the idea was both original and well executed, a silver Cyber Lion seems to be a fair deal.

Sikkens gets new corporate identity

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Sikkens approached 2009 for a new corporate identity. And when the agency found out Sikkens was partnering with the ‘Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula1 team’ (we had to copy-paste this mouthful), they thought why not design it with a racecar. Farfetched? Not at all; Adobe Illustrator is soooo 2008. This lenghty video was the result. And now seriously: the artistic result is being used for advertising!

Cannes: Draftfcb and 2009 get awarded

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Draftfcb won a Silver Promo Lion for Upload Cinema yesterday. We talked about it before, since it already won a Dutch Spin Award and Silver Lamp. The concept is simple; it takes YouTube films to the big screen. The idea came from the desire to promote one of the smallest Amsterdam cinema’s (De Uitkijk), because it was on the verge of being closed down. Through a monthly theme a selection of ‘User Sent In’ web films is shown in De Uitkijk. Agency 2009 – changing its name every single year – won a Bronze Direct Lion for a fantastic employment campaign that was to find a designer for their studio. The agency made an Adobe CS4 (that was not on the market yet) look-alike packaging, dubbed Abode CS4 (Ad for most Brilliant and Outstanding DTP’er Ever). 2009 delivered the desirable, but fake sofware through an Abode delivery guy at the doorstep of the best agencies in town. There it would of course end up in the Studio, thus giving it Trojan horse power. The software in the box enabled designers to design their own resume and with a simple click they could send it to 2009. Brilliant campaign that generated lots of free publicity and – not to forget – made them find their new DTP’er.

Shoptalk; Hungry Man; UW/JWT

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Let’s start with the good news. Internationally renowned production agency Hungry Man opened an office in Amsterdam. Director Hein Mevissen – who has already worked with HM for a few years now – will lead the Amsterdam office together with Denise Stork en Diederikje Bok. Mevissen and Bok already own John Doe, one of the more creative agencies in town. And the bad news is: after recently having lost big clients Vodafone and Rabobank, Ubachs Wisbrun/JWT is in heavy weather. A second round of lay-offs took effect last week. The agency fired another 36 people and has now a mere 50 employees. In 2007, directly after the merger of Ubachs Wisbrun and PPGH/JWT (JWT basically bought UW to incorporate fresh creative blood), the agency counted 188 employees. It seems that all the international network juggernauts are being brought back to more flexible sizes in these times. A curing trend, really. We all know what happened to the dinosaurs…

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Dawn won a golden Effie last Wednesday for its introduction campaign for Maandag© (Monday), an interim recruiter that only hires people that love Mondays - instead of dreading them. And since the Effie stands for effectiveness, this should make the client very content. In the end, he didn’t ask for creative mambo jambo, he just wanted to sell more cars…toothpaste…or let’s say interim candidates. But obviously it’s not that simple, a perfect case also needs creativity to distinguish itself. And that’s what this case embodies; both strategy and creativity. It began with a strong insight; one that is simple, but explains the subtleties of the market and its players instantly. Dawn came up with a name that reflects the ambition of the client and – more specifically – its candidates. And to stand out in the grey clutter, it made this pleasant film about someone that enjoys going to work. And although Effie cases are often about writing skills and manipulated research results, we can imagine why this case was awarded. There’s also a second film; less serious, but with the same message. See you on Monday.

I want Bolletje!

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

‘Ik wil Bolletje!’ (I want Bolletje) is what this lady is thinking while struggling to get into the building. Simple and funny at the same time, that’s what these 10 second commercials are. Also check this one. And this one shows what happens when you finally give in to your craving. They were created by Indie. Three different commercials are shown within a single commercial break. A smart media strategy, since three times 10 must have more impact than one time 30 seconds. The commercials were directed by Richard Boden, who knows well how to handle humour. He directed both Blackadder and ‘Allo ‘Allo at the end of the 80′s. Bolletje, a brand with a heritage of cheeky advertising, has used the phrase ‘I want Bolletje’ since the 50’s already. In 2007 Indie revitalized Bolletje’s brand personality and introduced the thinking balloon as ad property. The first commercials starring the balloon were also directed by Boden.

Amsterdam is creative talent trap

Monday, June 15th, 2009

How Amsterdam Became the Industry’s ‘Talent Trap’ is the title of an article by Rupal Parekh of Advertising Age, published this weekend – the term ‘talent trap’ is actually quoted from Philippe Meunier, chief creative officer at Sid Lee. An interesting article about Amsterdam as magnet for agencies and creative talent. Paul Lavoie for example, explains how his Canadian agency Taxi was courted by Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen and chose to open its headquarters here – above London or Paris. And W+K’s global COO, Dave Luhr, is quoted saying that “Creative recruitment into Amsterdam is pretty damn easy. There is no other city is the world so art-directed”. 180’s Managing Partner Alex Melvin also elaborates on his love for Amsterdam: “My commute to work is six minutes on a bicycle. We have 150 people here and only one car owner amongst us all. We all work in a stressful industry, but when you leave the front door at work there’s a beautiful canal and an hour and a half in the plane and you’re in the south of France.” And – let’s be honest – Amsterdam Ad Blog is proud to be quoted as well: “Amsterdam’s lenient laws that tolerate prostitution and marijuana don’t hurt either. That kind of liberal attitude is appealing to creative thinkers of all disciplines, including musicians, dancers and photographers.”