We already saw Wayne Rooney scream in Advertising before; in fact, it was in a Nike ad (by W+K London) to fire up the English fans for the World Championship in 2006. Most church groups weren’t too happy about it – they thought he was depicted as the reincarnation of Christ – but we loved the print ad for its powerful simplicity. In this commercial by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, titled ‘Make the difference’, Nike announces the new Premier League season. We didn’t really understand the ad. Even the voice over – by Brian Cox – didn’t help. But when we saw the other video’s on the Nike Football website – with players like Walcott, Ribery and Arshavin, we got the picture. We like the one with Ribery best – because it actually makes a point and because of its wonderful surrealistic feel.
Marketing Tribune just published its yearly Dutch ad agency survey, conducted by Intormart GFK. And because 180 Amsterdam scored so well, co-founder Chris Mendola (right) and Andy Fackrell were asked a few questions about the success of their agency. The results of the survey came from 865 advertisers, who answered questions about the awareness, preference and image of the Dutch agencies.
We were happy to learn that the respondents judged ‘coming up with original ideas’ as the most important feature of an ad agency. This basically means that if creativity is not leading in your agency, you have to change your proposition or your job. On this characteristic 180 Amsterdam scored best with 52% – which proofs that having 32 nationalities on board does induce creativity. The agency strongly climbed on the image ladder; last year it scored only 14% on this characteristic. On ‘enthusiasm’ (would that be hugging the client before selling your ideas?) 180 also scored best. Wieden+Kennedy, another very cosmopolitan agency, is the most trustworthy agency – The People’s Valley and McCann were second and third.
Advertisers with a one-million-plus budget, put DDB, N=5 and TBWA, respectively, on their shortlist for an above the line campaign. Not a preferable position when you realize that the interactive agencies (LBi Lost Boys, Clockwork, Achtung! and The People’s Valley) are gaining territory fast – this of course was already announced by the strongly shifting media budgets. And ironically Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy have a very strong brain position – amazingly still profiting from the brand position they built up in the 90’s.
To us the most striking conclusion of the survey is the image leap made by 180 and Wieden+Kennedy among Dutch advertisers. Hopefully it means they will finally become an integrated part of the Amsterdam ad community. We know from the interview that 180 is working hard on it; the agency is looking for a Dutch new business director, who can build its local business.
Finally UbachsWisbrun/JWT seems to have taken the big turn. Through Adformatie we learned that the agency has won the prestigious Belastingdienst (National Tax Collectors Office); a several-million-account. DDB, Publicis, Roorda and Imagine were also involved in the pitch. Through the grapevine we learned that at JWT the champagne has been flowing abundantly. In the last two years the office has only been loosing (important) accounts. After having been ditched by Vodafone (went to They/Achtung!) and Rabobank (went to N=5) the agency shrank from 188 employees to 50. Belastingdienst came from Indie, who owned the account for five years and produced some very smart advertising. Indie literally gave the tax collectors a sympathetic face, which is – if you look at the nature of their ‘business’ – not an easy task. 15 employees were made redundand, because of the loss. Anyway, congrats JWT.
It is the digital special effects and – more specifically – the person behind them, that makes this commercial worth watching. 24 year old Tim Smit is (with respect) your typical ‘computer nerd’ who has found his way up the steep bit of the long tail, through his attic production ‘What’s in the box?’ that he posted on YouTube last March. After an item on the Dutch (NOS) news, an appearance in a popular talk show, a call from Hollywood (“who is this guy?!”) and 1.7 million hits on YouTube, Tim was approached by Amsterdam agency Nothing to direct this commercial – with the pay-off “This is a job for Werkspot.nl”. Werkspot is the eBay for small jobs around the house, like painting, plumbing and gardening. So in the unlikely event your house is ever attacked by aliens…who you gonna ‘call’?!
Amsterdam Worldwide won a 4-way pitch against McCann-Erickson, Lowe London and DLKW to launch the new Opel Meriva across Europe. Michael Hartwig, director of European marketing communications of Opel/Vauxhall, said: “Amsterdam Worldwide’s approach to this brief demonstrated a clear understanding of the Opel brand and the target market, as well as unique insight about the role of the new Meriva. More than an ad, Amsterdam Worldwide developed an idea that is symbolic not only of a great new car in the Meriva, but of the new spirit at Opel.” The Meriva will be launched in March 2010. If the new Meriva campaign will be as original and integrated as the work for Onitsuka Tiger, we trust Opel to have made a wise choice.
Quest magazine always knows how to draw attention to its latest issues. Its advertising, made by bsur, is usually a combination of a funny premium – attached to the magazine and directly related to the content – and a photo of the magazine in outdoor. This time it’s a free supply of brown coloured ‘cacaoïne’ that should make the target wonder what the September issue is all about. The cacaoïne refers to a big ‘pleasure’ survey, in which 29% of the respondents answered it thinks that chocolate is addictive. Hence the free sachet containing 5 grams of pure cacaoïne; “100% natural drug”. Persuasion in its purest form.
