It always feels a bit awkward when a government is trying to speak youthful – or worse, with a ‘rappy’ tone of voice – to teenagers. Especially when communicating that you shouldn’t use a knife in personal conflicts, but your voice; ‘spreekwapens’ (speaking weapons) instead of ‘steekwapens’ (pointed weapons) – making a good pun in Dutch. A bit of a Catch22 from a communication perspective; if the target is willing to engage, it’s probably not the target. And those who are the target are probably not willing to engage – they just see it as a rap video, at best. The reason why we posted it anyway, is that we like the technique that is being used for the 360° video; you can actually turn your viewpoint around with your pointer and see Sticks and Rico (from Opgezwolle and Fakkelbrigade) rap into the camera and skateboarders and BMX’ers perform tricks in a skate park – a form of navigation that we all know from gaming, but is not yet very often used in advertising. On the YouTube site the target can upload a self-made ‘spreekwapen’ (read: video). Created by JWT Amsterdam and produced by Electric Zoo.
Photo: Maurice Mikkers
The biggest winner last night at the ADCN (Dutch Art Director’s Club) awards was Lemz. All the ‘bulbs’ – of which one was a Grand Prix (the very best integrated work) – went to their Fireworks campaign. Our very favourite campaign of the year Domino’s Pizza Pepperoni by Indie won one Golden and two Silver bulbs (TV, internet and activation) – in our opinion it was at least as good as Lemz’ work. Wieden also won one Gold and two Silver for Heineken’s ‘The making of The Date’ (internet, TV, and activation). Selmore won Gold for Bavaria and Hugh Heffner – so we can be sure that Charlie Sheen will also win Gold next year. We were a bit surprised that N=5 won Gold for Telfort – not really our taste. Y&R won one Gold and two Silver for LG’s ‘smart thief‘ (internet, TV, and viral). A bit strange that alle these films are winning different prizes for the different channels through which they are broadcasted – does the channel matter? Another one of our favourites was Hema’s with a push-up bra in print, promoted by a male model, going viral big time – by Doom & Dickson. It won Gold and Silver. Note: Hema is one of the most down to earth department stores in the Netherlands. TBWA won Gold with its print campaign for DIY chain Gamma; free Lego – “Just like dad.” In Interactive Tribal DDB won Gold and Silver for ‘Obsessed with Sound’ for Philips. One of the most impactful commercials of the year by Publicis for ALS won Silver – “I have died by now.” Special bulbs went to Mischa Rozema (for directing OFFF), Christian Borstlap (art direction and illustration, for LV and Mr Porter), and Simon Warner (photgraphy, for Octopus).
Dutch insurer Nationale Nederlanden introduces the damage manager. He (or she) makes the handling of your damage cases so personal that you’ll easily build up a special relationship – “Hey, Joost, it’s Merel. This time it’s my car.” In fact, Nationale Nederlanden could start a dating platform on the side – “What am I doing tonight?” he asks her. Attractive, well directed, and strategically apt we’d like to label it. Created by JWT and directed by Werner Damen.
Blast Radius Amsterdam has been selected by Onitsuka Tiger to pick up its global marketing communication account as from 2013 – speaking of long term planning! Already in the beginning of 2011 Amsterdam Worldwide broke with Onitsuka. The agency very succesfully made an icon of the Onitsuka Tiger shoe by creating different Japanese worlds around it – the last one was the Tansu sneaker that won a golden design Lion in Cannes in 2010. Anyway, we haven’t heard much from the Japanese sports-lifestyle brand – except that they recently closed the Amsterdam flagship store. Lisa Hogg, Head of Brand Management at Onitsuka Tiger Europe says: “Based on the continuous need of brands to remain relevant, we felt it was imperative to align with an agency that could deliver a full campaign approach and not just an idea. Onitsuka Tiger is at the beginning of redefining how we connect with our consumers and we are confident that Blast Radius is the right partner for the task.” Blast Radius has been here already for quite a few years, but they’ve operated under the radar most of the time – which is a bit odd for a digital agency. Hopefully we’ll hear more from them with this new account – we actually received a press realease! In any case, good that Onitsuka is back in Amsterdam.
