Formerly known as Strawberry Frog, Amsterdam Worldwide changed its name in 2008 to break away from its New York sister. The choice of name was induced by the positive, creative connotation of its founding city. The agency was co-founded by Brian Elliot in 1999 as one of the first truly international Amsterdam agencies. At Cannes 2008 the agency was awarded for Chevrolet (Grand Prix) and for Onitsuka Tiger.

www.amsterdamworldwide.com

Keizersgracht 121
1015 CJ Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 530 0400
info@amsterdamworldwide.com

Last night Amsterdam won 2 golden design Lions. Amsterdam Worldwide for its Onitsuka Tiger Tansu sneaker (picture) and FHV/BBDO for its black Mars packaging (almost) without the iconic Mars logo. Consumers received a sheet of letter stickers to create their own text on the Mars bar. The jury was charmed by the fact that Mars dared to change its world famous packaging so radically. In Cyber Amsterdam won 2 bronze Lions. Achtung! with 'Public Polo' for Volkswagen and Kong (again) with Stanislav for the Ministry of Justice. The day before yesterday we got 2 silver outdoor Lions. Again, one for MINI Christmas box by UbachsWisbrun/JWT and one for Interbest, created by Y&R Not just film. Indie won bronze in radio for Dance4Life.

Source: Adformatie

We’re not very fond of ads with a corporate look and feel. The kind that is created out of stock-like-look-at-my-toothpaste-smile material and pregnant of compromises - cause it needs to appeal to the entire world and be approved by every single person in the company that pays its expensive bill. The opportunity can be quite a dilemma for an ad agency. Do we want this big name on our client list and earn a shit load of money? Or do we stick to our principles and work on our distinctive profile. Not an easy one… In any case, when we saw this feel good Opel Meriva commercial with the happy-go-lucky sing & song writer in the background (listening to the name of Ingrid Michaelson) we tried hard to fight the pleasant feeling it gave us. The catchy concept (“an embrace can mean many things”), created by Amsterdam Worldwide, in combination with the innovative retro-doors that stand for ‘embrace life’ is just too perfect to be able to fully appreciate it. It will probably do very well among young families, but we're a little too cynical for this stuff.

What an inspiring event it was. Here are the insights we took home. The first key note speaker, Ed Ulbrich from Digital Domain, talked us through the process of getting the multi-platform remake of Tron to market. He showed what looked like a trailer of the movie ‘Tron Legacy’, but later revealed it was ‘just’ a teaser to get Disney excited; they could make a movie, a game and a theme park ride out of this single concept. He called this a 'transmedia content prototype'; a piece of content that mitigates the investor’s risk, because it provides a tangible window into the opportunities of the concept. Ulbrich founded a  company, Mothership, that single mindedly builds these kind of prototypes.

In a way Philips’s brand new commercial ‘Parallel Lines’, is also a content prototype, as Ed Ulbrich mentioned during the presentation by Gary Raucher - head of MarCom at Philips - and DDB’s Neil Dawson and Caspar Delaney. The parallel lines are 5 short films telling the same story about a unicorn. The pay-off: ‘There are millions of ways to tell a story. There’s only one way to watch one’. Why not test these short films and see which one can make it into a blockbuster, asked Ulbrich. By doing so Philips could seriously and convincingly enter the realm of branded content - a revolutionary thought. Though Raucher told the audience last year’s multi-prize-winning commercial Carousel had completely changed Philips’ attitude towards advertising, making blockbusters might be one bridge too far.

Our favourite speaker of the day was Cindy Gallop. With great enthusiasm she talked about the future of advertising, while at the same time promoting her new internet start up ‘If we ran the world’ – connecting people social-media-wise  with their actions rather than their conversations. As for the future advertising model, Gallop believes in total transparency and the power of the collaborative creative crowd. Victor & Spoils, combining these two elements, is therefore the perfect example of the agency of the future, she said. It is always difficult to say whether these absolute statements about the ‘future of …’ will proof right or wrong, but it is undeniably true that the creative industry shouldn’t neglect the power of collaborative creativity. Gallop ended her energetic talk with a website we all should check out: Textfromlastnight.com. Why? It’s hilarious, it’s contemporary poetry – with a maximum of 140 characters – and it’s a social cultural snapshot of our time. Amen!

Richard Gorodecky of Amsterdam Worldwide (AW) also talked about the perfect agency model – in our opinion a more realistic one. It was his own model; AW consists of a team of generalists and whenever needed it hires the required specialists. As a generalist, Gorodecky explained, you are ignorant. But the advantage of being ignorant is venturing into areas where specialized agencies don't go. In other words; ‘ignorance gives you a license to experiment’.

Seyoan Vela provoked the crowd in a funny way by stating that positivity sucked. People like to complain ("social media are a threat rather than an opportunity!"),  so why not approach them accordingly. Take W+K's Grrrr for Honda, ("Can hate be good?") one of the best commercials ever made. Vela ended his entertaining talk with the statement that  'brands don't t need to be your friends'.

The day ended with Andy Fackrell (180), Gustav Martner (CP+B), Sean Boyle (JWT), Karen Corrigen (Hapiness), Nick Baley (AKQA), John Weich (Lemon Scented Tea) and Jeff Kling (W+K) answering the question ‘How can advertising improve the world’ in a Pecha Kucha style. Though after a long day if felt a bit as an information overload, it proved to be a great format to get the most out of these brilliant minds – this is probably how the creative briefing was invented.

Andy Fackrell kicked off showing many different famous people who could do a 180 turn with their brain. Karen Corrigan (“In Belgium I am known as a very stubborn woman”) ignored the Pecha Kucha briefing and talked (for too long) about the Belgium agencies jointly stepping up to clients not respecting the local pitch code – a familiar problem – by organizing a successful website strike. Gustav Martner had a less practical idea to handle difficult clients; he fantasized about ways to have advertisers pitch for agencies and charge them for a bigger logo in the ad. Sean Boyle made a brilliant point about the culture within big networking agencies (“except JWT” - tone of voice: ironic); everyone listens to the brainless arse lickers, instead of the independent minds with genuinely creative ideas. Nick Baley showed female art to substantiate his sympathetic plead for more women in advertising. John Weich’ presentation was so smart that we couldn’t keep up with him. And, finally, Jeff Kling ended the way he started the day, with his somewhat cynical, but smart sense of humour. How can advertising improve the world? “Know when to shut the fuck up."

Asics launches a new range of women’s sportswear, called AYAMi - the perfect fusion of fashion and technology, as Asics explains. And in Japanese AYAMi means ‘feminine’, ‘design’, ‘colourful’ and ‘beauty’ - all at the same time! So we can imagine where Amsterdam Worldwide came from when developing this campaign. The agency recruited (pretty) amateur female runners who were shot by world-renowned sports photographer Robert Wilson. A fashion studio backdrop was created in the amateur’s natural running environment and they were photographed while cooling down. It thus became a sort of visual testimonial. We love the photography, but are slightly disappointed by the ‘real beauty’ message. It made us immediately think of both Dove and Nivea. And apart from the fact that these are not the hippest brands on earth, this amateur runner can do without the marketing talk. If there’s one reason why for her “beauty is not inside a make-up bag”, it is because she looks awesome in an AYAMi outfit.

“Wow….[silence]”. That is what this commercial for Asics, made by Amsterdam Worldwide, did with us. It is directed by Mischa Rozema (PostPanic), a Dutch director specialized in high quality productions that create a magical world. With this ad Asics clearly positions itself as the technical running shoe - away from the other sports brands that mainly talk about the person inside the shoe. And on top of that it reconfirms the meaning of the brand; a sound mind, in a sound body. Other than that is doesn’t need much explanation. And to us that is always a good sign…

Here’s a teaser for the new Onitsuka Tiger campaign made by Amsterdam Worldwide (AW). What a cool brand to work for. First of all Onitsuka always seems to give its agency carte blanche with respect to coming up with truly creative stuff. Secondly the brand proposition ‘made of Japan’ allows AW to draw inspiration from the rich Japanese culture. Every year the agency creates a giant sneaker with a special Japanese theme. Last year it was the Zodiac calender. This year the agency created an integrated campaign around the traditionally crafted ‘Tansu’ (a chest with box shaped drawers). It took a team of Tansu masters four months to handicraft the shoe shaped ‘Kaidan’ (step) Tansu, using techniques that date back from the time of the Samurai. Back in the days these chests were used both as a cabinet as well as a hidden ladder that made upstairs lofts look inaccessible - and thus not taxable - to the tax collector. But there’s more; the Onitsuka shoe works like a puzzle; the boxes must be unlocked in a specific sequence to unveil its hidden treasures. For those who cannot admire the real chest - on display in Onitsuka’s flagship stores - AW made an online version that invites the consumer to solve the puzzle. The project is topped off with special instore Tansu-themed materials. Talking about craftmanship...

Richard Gorodecky is ECD at Amsterdam Worldwide. As a kid, he didn’t seem very disciplined, but today he believes in working really, really hard. His sense of humor is in a big part derived from Douglas Adams’ Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – he read it over and over again. Gorodecky started to develop an interest in advertising when stealing ads from the trains on the London Underground. And  one of his most important lessons in advertising is not to be an asshole. Maybe that’s why he is not a big fan of all the dog shit in Amsterdam. Read the entire interview here.

A trailer should make you curious and reveal something of a storyline, suspense, action, drama, whatever. This trailer doesn’t really do that for us. However, we’re not the target group (Russian or Eastern European) and have never heard of the ‘Legend of Akhtamar’, nor from ArArAt - an Armenian brandy, with a beautiful name and ditto logo, owned by Pernod Ricard. Professionally though, we did get excited by the announcement of a 15 minute commercial that will be launched January, first and promises to make some interesting long form content. The short film is made by Amsterdam Worldwide. The agency hired some big names to make the project a success; Stephen Hilton wrote the score, ‘the award winning’ Shammasian Brothers directed it and Erwin Olaf (renowned Dutch photographer) shot the print campaign. It also features a handful of actors that are ‘world famous’ in the East. Yet another example of an advertiser that invests in content, rather than media, to tell a heritage based brand story. Recently we saw a similar concept for Martini; a 3 minute film distributed through YouTube, creating an atmosphere that perfectly conveyed the heritage, brand personality and tone of voice of Martini. For brands that want to tell a sophisticated brand story, the future of the 30 second commercial is a branded story, 15 minutes in length, rather than 15 seconds - regardless the picky and time deprived consumer.

Yesterday we visited the opening day of the Eurobest festival in Amsterdam. The first seminar we attended was given by Paul Lavoie from Taxi Europe. He talked about 'trust' and explained that ideas can only grow big if people give them trust – from the creative director to the client. To illustrate this, he invited a Dakar Rally driver, a female porn producer and a knife thrower. They all had to trust the people around them or the other way around. We very much liked the unconventional character of his presentation – especially the circus-like show with the knife thrower was spectacular! - and the fact that Lavoie put his ego aside to let other people talk about his subject.

After Lavoie, Jeff Kling from Wieden+Kennedy took the stage and started his talk by making sure that everybody understood he was not responsible for the slight change in the title of his talk: ‘Show me the ad, you motherfucker’. It had been changed in (...) Motherf*****. He loved the word 'fuckin' and used it several times to make this point.

Kling’s seminar was easily the most entertaining and original. It was concise (only 15 minutes – ‘about the same time Jesus Christ would have needed for a sermon’), well written, very funny and positive with a cynical tone. First he explained why he hated cases studies – the work should speak for itself – and then, very eloquently, Kling talked about the things he thought were awesome; canned ravioli, Mexicans, Heavy Metal, and a lot more. He ended with: “Dear brand, don’t talk about yourself, talk about what you love”.

Brian Elliot from Amsterdam Worldwide, had a different message. The title of his talk was ‘Take this flag and shove it’ – as far as we know this was the original title... He showed a compilation of nationalistic ads – either promoting a country or making fun of another - and came to the conclusion that a brand should be true to itself, but not negative about others.

The last seminar we attended was presented by Mark Cridge and Martin Bailie from Glue London. Their message was; be irresistible, have a point of view and don’t think campaign, think continuous – which of course comes from Glue’s strong digital DNA. Cridge and Bailie showed some great online cases. Though Kling might have hated them for being cases, it offered an interesting glance into the future of advertising.

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 Onitsuga Tiger, we trust Opel to have made a wise choice.