Zarb, meaning bizarre in French slang, is a relatively new Champagne brand that was introduced by agency THEY two years ago. An understandable brand name, if your plan is to turn the traditional champagne market upside down. Instead of becoming cautious or even apathetic, THEY wanted to convert the economic crises into something positive; hence Champagne, a drink you have when there’s something to celebrate. The Zarb bottles were turned into a creative medium by asking different artists to design their own bottle. This December the agency launched a new series, named Deep Black, using the wonders of the underwater world as inspiration. The first bottle (left) shows a photo of a squid taken by deep sea photographer David Shale. The second and third bottle (middle and left) show pictures of two mermaid-like creatures. The middle one is designed by underwater photographer Zena Holloway and the one on the right is a collaboration between Holloway and costume designer Vin Burnham. In December a pop-up store in the Amsterdam Berenstraat exhibited the new collection. Several other artists were asked to create special edition magnums. What a great idea. And if you thought it’s ‘all play and no work’, you’re wrong. The brand is slowly expanding its distribution around the globe. A lesson to be learned for all agencies that still have the feeling that the economic crises is putting them out of business; you can simply create your own – after all, you are a creative agency.

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).

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).

When it comes to location based – i.e. geo-tagged – shopping there are roughly two kind of benefits (apart from telling people where you are); either you can proudly tell the world you’ve become the virtual mayor somewhere or you get an instant discount – or both. Now there’s a new web app, created by THEY, that tells you through live data where you don’t want to be shopping. The app that sources Foursquare check-ins and tweets is built to avoid the crazy X-mas shopping crowds. Since it only services a few areas in Amsterdam (like ‘Centrum’ and the ’9 Straatjes’) and most people don’t have the luxury to go shopping when nobody else does (unless they shop online), it seems more of a PR builder than an ambituous project that is to conquer the world. But whatever you think of it; it does show that THEY is thinking forward and likes to experiment.