Bystanders always judge the advertising scene as being so vein; there’s an award for every fart being aired. Here’s another one; Advertising Age’s ‘Small agency of the year’! We have to admit that AdAge’s goal is noble: “to help uncover some of the great but not enormous agencies that too rarely get recognition, and to celebrate some of their best work, which rarely seems to make it through the big awards-show machinery”. Amsterdam based THEY became ‘international’ (= outside the US) agency of the year. The jury said that THEY “has both the small-shop creative dexterity that can transform unlikely media into ad canvas and the brand-steward chops to win big pieces of global business”. The ‘Small agency campaign of the year’ went to LA/Amsterdam-based 72andSunny for its ‘Next Level’ campaign for Nike – a fast-paced two minute commercial directed by Guy Richie, shot from the athlete’s first-person view. We wonder whether this award show is the answer to the problem at hand. If Charles Leadbeater is right in predicting that boulders will become pebbles over the next decades – meaning that the amount of small agencies will increase strongly at the expense of the big ones – the better solution is to make the international awards shows cheaper and thus more accessible. Then every fart, regardless the size of its agency, has the same chance to get awarded.

For those of you not following what’s happening in Dutch football: there is (or was?) a fight going on between two former Ajax Amsterdam coaches. Van Gaal and Cruijff both want to reorganize the love of their life, Ajax, but in their own way. And they have more in common; they both grew up in Amsterdam Oost and coached FC Barcelona. But since they have their separate visions and are quite narcissistic, they are not best friends. But Ajax’ current shirt sponsor Aegon, or probably rather its agency THEY, convinced Louis Van Gaal to congratulate Cruijff with his 65th birthday in this newspaper ad (click = full picture) last week. A smart move, since a stable Ajax means a more profitable sponsor contract. And whatever you think of Johan Cruijff, the man is a living legend who deserves credit for his big career – both as a player as well as a coach. The print ad was trending topic in the Netherlands and even integrally read out loud on TV by the biggest news channel. Some nice free publicity for Aegon – and Van Gaal, for that matter. Hopefully it will even stir Ajax towards a more stable era. Though we must say that all the rumour hasn’t really bothered Ajax, cause it will most likely become the National champion for a second time in a row.

A bit of a bipolar ad this. It starts quite art directional with some beautifully directed images and a subtle sound design (Studio de Keuken) that makes it feel special and easily draws you in. And then, about half way down, when the sleepless consumer (wearing the art director’s beard) tweets to @VodafoneNL that he cannot sleep, the commercial all of a sudden changes into a corporate commercial with a shitty tune that can only come from a company where employees wear spotless white shirts and a constant tan. Don’t get us wrong; we think 24/7 webcare is a smart brand utility. It’s just that the art directional contrast struck us; as if an arthouse movie changes into a Hollywood blockbuster. Created by THEY, directed by Bill Pols (hazazaH), and shot by Gabor Deak.

When we first saw this commercial for the ‘Meer Dan Voetbal’ foundation (bonding society through football), we thought ‘this has already been done’, but after a brief discussion we realized we mixed it up with this Nike “Take it to the next level” commercial. Speaking of taking things to the next level; the view from the ball (with a camera inside the ball) makes the footage even more dynamic. After Dutch ex international Giovanni van Bronckhorst (it probably helps to use a celeb) kicks off, the ball is passed on and the voice over speaks from the ball’s perspective, saying things like “I am the reason that people go outside”, “I give children their excercise”, “create friendships”, etc. The film ends with “a ball can accomplish a lot”. True that. Created by THEY and directed by Bill Tanaka (328 Stories).

We received an e-mail from Audentiy’s Niels den Otter about a new Nike film – featuring Moussa Coly, who lives and plays in Pigalle for Goutte D’or – for which he did the music and sound design. Den Otter: “My inspiration for designing the sound in this film comes from how I see Paris; a city full of contrasts: stylized shops and fashion mecca, while at the same time a melting pot of different races, tough neighbourhoods, and street culture. That’s why I chose for harsh, realistic sounds in a stylized way. I listened to ‘The Weeknd‘ and used a deep and ominous bass with a very slow pace, steadily becoming somewhat softer with the help of the floating and vibrant Prophet synthesizer. I made it all build up to the climax of the question: “For whom do you play?” and then made it dissolve in the echo and its delay“. The film searches for a position that celebrates both the super star as well as the man in the street – something we saw before in the Copa Barrio commercials made for Nike by W+K. It was created by Stephane Ashpool and produced by Marc Madeleyn at Cake Film, directed by the young and upcoming director Paul Geusebroek – known for directing Dutch music videos for bands like The jeugd van tegenwoordig – and shot by Menno Mans.

Happy New Year to you all. To stay in the right mood, we present to you this film about Champagne. A nice slow motion of a bottle of Champagne being uncorked – in reverse. Not the most original idea ever, but pleasant to watch with Vivaldi in the background and likely to make the viewer thirsty. What makes less sense is that the film was made for Lidl, known as one of the cheaper supermarket chains – and recently in the news again for treating its personnel like rubbish, for that matter. Promoting a cheap Champagne (with ditto label and price) for a cheap supermarket in a relatively stylish way feels like a contradiction. But that’s the whole idea – recently we also saw Zeeman being promoted on the catwalk. The film is part of a more integrated campaign with a print ad featuring a Dutch chef, Ramon Beuk, promoting the Champagne in Dutch glossy Linda; “The best tasting Champagne for an incredibly low price. Where to get it?!” With a QR code in the Linda readers were directed to a dedicated page showing the film and revealing the source (see case film here). The concept was created by THEY – who launched their own Champagne brand Zarb a few years ago – and the Champagne film was directed by Bill Tanaka (328 Stories).