Dutch navigation device manufacturer TomTom offers a very special set of new navigation voices in joint promotion with Star Wars. This viral – yes, we do consider it a viral – created by Pool Worldwide and directed by Willem Gerritsen (CZAR), advertises Yoda’s voice – on sale for US $13. In May Darth Vader was released. Very funny, though we can imagine – as the commercial already shows – that this voice will (literally) drive you nuts after a while. On the TomTom website you can also listen to voice samples of the other Star Wars characters – Darth Vader, C-3PO, and Han Solo. There’s also a Star Wars game – we could almost hear the client say “let’s also do a game”. It has to do with augmented reality through your webcam, using the force and winning ‘a personalized Yoda voice’ – whatever that may be. All in all, TomTom – in difficult times because of the recession and tough (mobile phone) competition – and Pool have done a great job in turning TomTom into a more likeable brand.

We like this one. Mom is waiting for her son to call. But as you know there’s a whole new generation that hardly uses its mobile to make phone calls. Hence the song (that spoofs a well known Dutch song, by Stef Bos) more or less saying “I use Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, all my crap needs to go on the web.” But only when it’s really necessary these guys make a phone call. When it rains for example and there’s no transport. But mom is not buying it; “saka saka boy” (asshole in Sranan) is what she answers him. In the previous commercial we were still surprised that Hi was promoting WhatsApp. Shortly after that we heard the CEO of KPN (Hi’s mother company) say that he didn’t see the decline of mobile phone calls coming – not displaying an incredible amount of vision. As the more versatile and younger brand, Hi has now fully and explicitly embraced the trend of using free online services with the apt pay off “Who needs phone calls these days.” Dynamic times in the telco business. Created by FHV/BBDO, directed by Jeroen Annokkee (CZAR).

After TomTom recorded the voices of Darth Vader and Yoda – among others – this time TomTom has teamed up with Sesame Street to promote its navigation system. It’s literally the same ad concept as the previous virals made with Star Wars, but a very smart ad (and business!) property and easily more enjoyable to watch than John Cleese breaking free. Created by Pool Worldwide.

The impressive series of interactive ads created by Tribal DDB Amsterdam in the past year has found the right award show to get fully appreciated; The Lovie Awards. Named after Ada Lovelace, an English writer who lived in the 19th Century and – believe it or not – wrote the first algorithm. That’s how the Lovie Awards should represent “European innovation and creative ingenuity”. Tribal won three golden awards (out of a total of 40) for Philips with ‘Wake up the town’ (featured in this post) and ‘Obsessed with sound’ – and a handful of others. KLM’s ‘Tile & Inspire‘ won two silver and one bronze. Other awarded Amsterdam agencies were LBi Lostboys (Anne Frank), Pool Worldwide (TomTom and Sound Circus – great website!) and Blast Radius (Hugo Boss).

This is a bit of a complicated one – especially when you don’t speak Dutch. Pool Worldwide made a series of 5 short commercials for ‘De Telefoongids’ (the white and yellow pages) to communicate the header in this picture “You can all find it with the free Search & Find app”. The short commercials – pretended to be made by the retailers to sell their businesses – watched in the right sequence (from left to right) create a story about a robbery. The first one shows a tailor (that sells suits), the second one a party store (that sells masks to disguise yourself), the third one a bag store (that sells Claudio Ferrici bags to carry the loot), the fourth one a van rental (so you can drive through a facade), and the fifth one the security at jewelry shop (to rob). The films are purposely made badly to illustrate that De Telefoongids is mainly used by small businesses. What we do like is that the different films form a sort of puzzle – we can even imagine that the pieces are creatively seeded on the web through banners or something. What we don’t like is that the itchy films make us a bit nervous. And though we understand that the commercials address the user of the app, rather than the retailer, this campaign shows how De Telefoongids looks at its customers – quite condescendingly. And then back to us, the target; do we use De Telefoongids to find a bunch of amateurs? Mmm…

Finally, Amsterdam wins its first golden Lion – in cyber. Nike’s ‘Write the future’, created by Wieden+Kennedy has already won a truckload of prizes, but winning in Cannes, is the cherry on top, of course. The campaign won in cyber, because it used social media very effectively; the film received 40 million online views. And since the film is so impressive, we expect it to win (at least) a golden film Lion this Saturday. Two virals were rewarded with a bronze Cyber lion. The first one: TomTom’s special edition StarWars voices – created by Pool Worldwide and directed by Willem Gerritsen (CZAR). This film will surely also win another Lion at the end of the week. The other viral, was Liquid Mountaineering for Hi-Tec by CCCP – a brilliantly executed mockumentary. Interesting detail; this second viral was also directed by Willem Gerritsen. In design two silver Lions were won. One by Amsterdam agency BrandBase for its pallet project, a unique working environment, built entirely from pallets by Most Design. The other silver design Lion went to Heineken’s STR bottle, a bottle that lights up in the dark thanks to its UV-sensitive ink – created by dBOD and Iris.