Although in size Wieden + Kennedy is one of the bigger ad brands in the world, its network of agencies is still fully independent. The Amsterdam agency was founded in 1992, when Nike (W+K’s founding client) opened its European headquarters near Amsterdam. The agency is known for effortless handling big, international accounts with ditto budgets - without forgetting its creative roots. The Amsterdam office on the Herengracht is an exotic, multi-national microcosm.  Which is one of the reasons why its one of the most internationally awarded Dutch agencies.

www.wkamst.com

Herengracht 258 - 266
1016 BV Amsterdam
+31 (0)20 712 6500
xxx@wk.com

This book, called Alledaags (meaning 'everyday’), is illustrated by Toby Morris and shows Amsterdam in its full glory. Morris moved from New Zealand to the Dutch capital more than a year ago to work at the studio of Wieden+Kennedy. He was amazed by the quirkiness of the Dutch and their habits and caught them (almost) on a daily basis in hand-drawn black and white illustrations. The result is a book with 333 catchy cartoons that very aptly depict the oddness of Queen's Day, eating meat out of a FEBO machine, and the incredible amount of bicycles that inhabit the city. The book is a must-have for everyone that wants to learn more about Amsterdam and the Dutch culture. And even if you've lived all your life in Amsterdam it is fascinating to see the city through the eyes of Toby Morris. The book – self published – is officially launched at the American Book Center this Saturday, where he'll be personally signing some copies. Today Morris is already working on a new - equally brilliant - project, called 200 people I used to know. It can be found on his blog (XTOTL).

NOTE: YOUTUBE BLOCKED THE NIKE COMMERCIAL - THAT WE RECEIVED RIGHTFULLY FROM THE PR DEPARTMENT OF W+K - FROM OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL. THE RESULT OF AN INFLEXIBLE COPYRIGHT POLICY; EVERYTHING THAT IS TAGGED NIKE IS REMOVED. EVEN NIKE TOLD US THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO GET THIS UNDONE. TO SEE THE COMMERCIAL, YOU CAN CLICK ON 'WRITE THE FUTURE' IN THE BODY COPY BELOW.

This three minute avalanche of fast paced catchiness, called ‘Write the future’, was created by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, in collaboration with a myriad of creative hotshops - among which its sister agencies in London and Portland. It was launched in 32 countries, during the May 22nd European Champions League Final and directed by one of our most favourite Hollywood directors, Alejandro González Iñárritu - renowned for making parallel storylines intertwine seamlessly. Though a very international production, the itchy song 'Hocus Pocus' by Dutch 70's band Focus - updated by Amsterdam based Massive Music - gave the whole thing a little 'colour locale'. With a good sense of humour the film elaborately shows that in sports the future is in your own hands; the difference between a made and missed goal is the difference between living like trailer trash or getting your own football stadium. Next to Nike’s muses, Rooney and Ronaldinho, other (sports) stars like Rodger Federer, Kobe Bryant, Homer Simpson and Gael García Bernal (directed by Iñárritu in Amores Perros) got a cameo in this ejaculation of production value. The print and interactive executions show how Drogba, Cannavaro, Robinho, Ronaldo and Ribery will be remembered when cast in a statue. In June the audience is allowed to write its own future on Nikefootball.com and try to get selected to attend the Nike Academy - in collaboration with the English Barclay's Premier League. The epic production is easily the biggest Nike campaign ever, which makes it not only write the future, but also ad history.

In the past years we haven’t seen many Nike commercials that talk about product features. Usually Nike advertising is about attitude, stamina or fun. But once you’ve read what Nike has to say about its new, state of the art ‘Mercurial Vapor Superfyl II’, you understand that an instrumental ad was inevitable. Get a load of this: “The new boot has Nike SENSE adaptive traction technology studs”. Pardon? “Adaptive studs that can extend and retract by up to 3mm, based on ground conditions and pressure exerted by the player”. So what’s in it for me? “Two of these studs on the forefoot of each boot combine with directionally positioned blades to allow for quick changes of direction, while secondary toe traction provides added power for those first critical steps. The result is a boot that enables greater speed in all directions – in all conditions.” Ahaaaa. These instrumental benefits were translated by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam into a Transformers inspired, animated pitch that imitates the extreme conditions a player has to deal with, combined with the real life actions of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. This resulted in an impressive piece of ad. If it wasn’t for those awful colours and rediculously oversized swoosh, we definitely would have bought them!

The Six Nations rugby tournament has a rich tradition. France officially joined the tournament in 1910 – at that point there were only 5 nations - and the battle between France and England has always been the most fierce and respected match. Because France celebrated its hundredth birthday this year, Nike wanted to pay a homage to the tournament finale, also known as 'The Crunch'. Before the match, on the 20th of March, Nike released a print ad, saying: “100 years of rugby. That leaves traces. We welcome our English friends”. The stitches said 'Hello'. After winning the final 12-10 this print ad was released. It says: "Bye Bye. We thank our English friends for this great slam. Come back whenever you want”. It was – very skillfully - made by W+K Amsterdam.

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."

Although not everyone that writes for this blog will support the Dutch this summer at the World Cup Football in South Africa, the second ‘Bleed Orange’ commercial for Nike, made by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, does get us properly excited. It introduces an un-Dutch ‘Just do it’ swagger to the Dutch team. An attitude the orange lions will need, since ‘a beautiful loss, is still a loss’ – as the copy reads insightfully. As in the first bleed orange commercial (the Dam square take-over) the tape art is used as a distintive style element to glue all the campaign assets together. The film – featuring Van Nistelrooy, Van Bronckhorst and Van der Vaart - is shot on 8mm and 16mm by Johan Kramer to create a voyeuristic look behind the scenes. And the persuasive music by Junkie XL finishes it off nicely. If anything will persuade  the Dutch to bleed orange this summer, it will be this kind of advertising.

We already knew that Ronaldinho was kind of alien, but now we know for sure he is from another planet! Even blindfolded he can see the ball and keepie the ball uppie 44 times! Or did the hole in the blindfold - that you see at the end - help him a little bit? The video is made by Wieden+Kennedy for the EA Sports game FIFA 10. It challenges football fans and gamers to beat Ronaldinho and upload the result on the dedicated YouTube channel.

What a smart way to use last Friday’s draw for this summer’s World Championship football in South Africa as an opportunity to make some great guerrilla advertising for Nike – the orange team’s clothing sponsor. It was made overnight by Wieden+Kennedy on Amsterdam’s Dam Square and directed by Johan Kramer. The word ‘BEZET’ means ‘taken’ and is inspired by Queen's Day (April, 30) when the Amsterdammers claim their street market stall space the nights before the actual event by taping off an area and writing ‘bezet’. The words ‘bloed oranje’ ask the Dutch to ‘bleed orange’ for their country. Usually the ‘orange’ advertising around big football (soccer) tournaments is overwhelming and not very subtle, which makes it difficult for an advertiser to stand out. This video – distributed through Nike’s websites – is therefore well timed and with its grassrooty character (reinforced by the catchy music by Dutch electro band ‘Daily Bread’) more sympathetic than your regular over-obvious ‘orange painting’. For those of you not interested in (Dutch) football; the guy at the end is Frank de Boer – assistant coach of the Dutch team.

Al Moseley, partner and executive creative director at Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer (HMDG), has quit to join 180 Amsterdam. Though Mosley is responsible for the 'M' in HMDG, the agency won't be changing it's name. He will become part of the management of 180 together with Kevin Dundas, who’ll become managing partner. Before HMDG, Moseley worked at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and before that he worked for Mother. Dundas (ex Saatchi & Saatchi) was president and chief executive at Sapient Nitro and only joined the agency last January. Moseley and Dundas will work alongside 180 chief executive, Chris Mendola, and the chief creative officer, Andy Fackrell. Alex Melvin continues in his role as Chairman focusing on key clients and agency expansion.

Last Tuesday the VEA (Dutch Association of Advertising Agencies) and VCP (Dutch Association of Commercial Producers) organized ‘Creative Lounge’ – an initiative that brings the creative advertising scene together. The theme was ‘Two worlds of advertising’, referring to the clear distinction in Amsterdam between the typical Dutch agencies that make typical Dutch advertising and the international expat scene mainly working for international clients. One important difference between the Dutch professionals and the expats, as talent recruiter Keith White of Wieden+Kennedy explained, is the fact that the Dutch are used to work from 9 till 6, while the Wieden+Kennedy’s of this world live in a parallel world and often start their day when the Dutch go to bed. There's  a different work ethic. It helps of course that for expats social life is for the biggest part happening within their working environment. When the question was raised why the international agencies never work with Dutch production agencies, Clair Finn of U-Turn (180) said it was partly due to the lacking service level of the Dutch. White added to this that it’s not just within the agencies, but in general; Dutch restaurants, shops, the service is overall quite poor. Paul Lovoie (Taxi) suggested that you should do your advertising in Amsterdam, while outsourcing the service to the French. We’re not sure whether that’s a wise idea, but without a doubt learned that Amsterdam has to raise its service level.