We hadn’t heard from Amsterdam Worldwide for a while, so we’re glad the agency has won the international Warsteiner account, after a competitive pitch against several unnamed agencies. Warsteiner, brewed in the small town of Warstein, is one of Germany’s leading beers – to be precise, in Germany it is the #3 premium lager and the #1 privately owned exported beer. Amsterdam WW’s task is to develop a new communication platform that will help refresh the brand in Germany and its established European markets, and to drive the brand in emerging markets. Well, guys, ‘prost’ on that one.

In advertising mobile is still not a very dominant medium – only since this year it was introduced in Cannes as a new award category. And that’s surprising, since a mobile phone is the device to unlock SoLoMo (Social Mobile Local), a mix that easily has the potential to add relevance to a brand. Here’s an example, by Olmeca Tequila and its agency Amsterdam Worldwide; the ‘NightTag’ app – click picture to enlarge. What it does is combining a photo upload, geo-tagging and, last but not least, music recognition – through Facebook. Basically it thus adds another layer to Facebook; music. Making social sharing a richer experience. A nice step in the right direction of SoLoMo.

‘Go Forth’ is Levi’s new brand proposition. It supports positive change in the world and celebrates today’s “pioneers who are taking action to build a better future”. In this dramatic mini-documentary, created by Wieden+Kennedy and directed by Sanne van Hecke, we see Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto (aka “Vhils”) nonchalantly wearing a pair of baggy Levi’s and creating a series of street murals that capture the faces of some ‘Berliners’ who embody the ‘Go Forth’ spirit. This branded content made us think of both the Sartorialist film for Intel (by Amsterdam Worldwide) and the mobile printer film for Océ (by Lemon Scented Tea) – though the latter was a fictional documentary. We’re spotting a trend here, in which everyday people are portrayed as heroes. That is, they all do something special and this is enlarged in a documentary-like piece of long(er) form content. It merges real life with the smooth exaggerative qualities of an ad agency and thus subtly incorporates brands into society. It makes (or at least should make) these brands more authentic, credible, and sympathetic.

Good news for 180 Amsterdam; ASICS appointed the agency for its global communications around the London Olympic Games 2012 – after a competitive pitch that started last summer. 180 will also work with ASICS to launch key product ranges through 2011 and 2012. ASICS asked 180 to give emotional meaning to its ethos ‘Sound Mind Sound Body’ (Anima Sana In Corpore Sano) – an inspiring assignment when combining it with the idea behind the Olympics. 180′s big advantage in the pitch was its extensive experience on the Adidas account – 180’s founding client who left the agency in 2010. Next to 180 ASICS also works with Vitro in San Diego. Together with Vitro ASICS very recently developed a global campaign around the proposition ‘Sports releases more than just sweat’ – namely negative energy. It seems ASICS is working hard to capture some market share from Nike and Adidas.

How to give a boring ingredient brand like Intel – the ‘second generation core processors’ – a face? When you’ve watched this short documentary (too long to be called a commercial), created by Amsterdam Worldwide (AW) and directed by Tyler Manson, you know how. AW chose to visualize the lives of influential bloggers in a series of profile films. A smart angle, since the majority of bloggers still has some sort of independent, maven status, which makes you believe that Intel is used by the people that can be trusted for their advice. And this is the life of Scott Schumann from the renowned fashion blog The Sartorialist (read: the tailor). We are very impressed with the quality of this piece of content. It’s smoothly directed, has some strong copy (probably inspired by Schumann’s view on the “shrinking world”), and is even quite interesting to watch. You’d almost forget Intel is trying to sell you some product here. In fact, we were a bit disappointed with the anti-climax at the end; all of a sudden the film changes into an ad, asking you to share your life on some corporate website – you almost feel tricked into it. Maybe they could have done without it – especially since there’s already a commercial that invites you to share your life – a little corporate, but also very skillfully made.

Amsterdam won two Grand Prix in Film and Design at Eurobest in Hamburg, last Wednesday. Wieden+Kennedy was awarded the prestigious award for its epic Nike ‘Write the future’ commercial – alledgedly the most expensive commercial ever made. And for the same film it won bronze in Film Craft. Amsterdam Worldwide earned a Grand Prix in the category Design for the Onitsuka Tiger ‘Tansu sneaker’. Other than that Amsterdam did not do extremely well, we have to admit. In interactive Pool Worldwide won silver for its brilliant StarWars branded TomTom viral. In the same category 180 Amsterdam won bronze for Adidas’ Match Tracker and NRG3 won bronze for an interactive banner for the EA game Need for Speed Shift. N=5 was awarded silver in the category Media with a ‘Live interactive billboad’ – an aggression awareness campaign. BSUR got bronze in Film for MINI’s Flow, Publics won bronze in Print for KIKA, and JWT bronze in Promo and Outdoor with the MINI Christmas box.

Dutch Fashion brand G-Star appointed Nothing Amsterdam to run its international account. Joris Aperghis, CMO G-Star said Nothing understands the brand and the challenges that lay ahead to help it with its international growth.  G-Star was founded in 1989 (originally called Gap Star). Today the brand has over a 1000 employees and 250 shops in 69 countries. This is G-Star’s first agency, which is quite surprising given the fact that already for quite a while the brand has launched international ad campaigns – most recently with photographer Anton Corbijn.
Amsterdam Worldwide hired ‘Director of Strategy’ Uli Kurtenbach to support the agency with (among other brands) the brand new tequila account Olmeca and to help it develop new products and services – which sounds interesting and a bit vague at the same time. Kurtenbach lives in Amsterdam already for 14 years. He worked at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam (together with his new agency’s ECD, Richard Gorodecky), 2008 (today SSSS & Orchestra), and most recently at Naked, where he was managing partner.

Delta Lloyd ends it relation with Lowe & Draftfcb. There will be a pitch, but the insurer hasn’t decided which agencies will be joining it. In 2006 Delta Lloyd ended its contract with TBWA\Neboko, the agency that invented the pay-off ‘…zeker Delta Lloyd’. Lowe & Draftfcb kept the pay-off but completely changed the tone of voice from humorous to serious. The first series of commercials Lowe created for Delta Lloyd were the best within its kind.

Amsterdam Worldwide has won the global Olmeca tequila account. Pernod Ricard took the brand away from M&C Saatchi (London) and forwarded it to Amsterdam Worldwide without a pitch. It wouldn’t surprise us if the agency’s multi-awarded work for ArArAt helped the smooth transition. Though in Holland tequila is not very popular – we had never heard of the brand – it is the fastest growing spirits category globally over the past 5 years. And Olmeca is one of the biggest brands within this growing category.

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. (more…)

There are days that Amsterdam strongly feels like the international capital of advertising. Today, for example, with Boards Summit Europe being held in Amsterdam and bringing the crème de la crème of advertising together in the Beurs van Berlage. Then we’re also very happy to hear that Adformatie last week announced a few new international agencies that chose Amsterdam for opening new offices. First of all Strawberry Frog. The agency split up two years ago, and separated itself in Scott Goodson’s Strawberry Frog New York – that already existed – and Amsterdam Worldwide, lead by Brian Elliot. Maybe it was because Amsterdam WW is doing so incredibly well in Amsterdam that Strawberry Frog decided to re-open offices in Amsterdam. Hans Howarth founder of Media Catalyst was asked to lead the Amsterdam office. Then there is Iris International, an independent agency network that was founded in London in 1999, also feeling the Amsterdam attraction. Another aspiring title in the market, LBi International, will move its head office from Stockholm to Amsterdam soon – a consequence of the recent merger with Bigmouthmedia. And, as Adformatie put it vaguely, it is said that yet another big cross media agency will open its doors soon in the Dam. If this is the sign that the recession is over for Amsterdam advertising, then we’ll definitely hoist some Heinies at Boards Summit Europe tonight!

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, born in London in 1971, is one of the more remarkable characters in Amsterdam advertising. He likes to dress like an extra out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and is a great believer in the power of facial hair. Richard is Executive Creative Director of Amsterdam Worldwide. He has spent the last twelve years creating international advertising campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world including Nike, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Electronic Arts, Onitsuka Tiger and Anheuser-Busch. Thanks to his experience, there is little that scares him these days – apart from spiders.

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

That’s the question Asics poses in this ad. Beautifully made by Amsterdam Worldwide. This question has to do of course with Asics’ motto; sound mind, sound body. And the funny thing is, the ad immediately proves the truth of the statement. Why? Because the art director mixed up the left and right brain hemispheres! It is the right half that more dominantly generates creativity – because of its holistic and intuitive qualities. And it’s the left that thinks more logical and analytical. So now you know why in advertising an art director needs a copy buddy; one of them has to get the facts straight!

Last week thenetworkone and Campaign magazine chose the 16 leading independent agencies in the world. We were happy to discover that three of them (19%!) have an office in Amsterdam; Amsterdam Worldwide, Perfect Fools and Modernista! The selection was based on “creative achievement, spirit of curiosity, open-mindedness and collaborative approaches to solving clients’ communications problems”. Although it’s a bit of a subjective choice and not entirely independent, we are of course happy to hear this. What we like best about the election is that it comes with essays, written by the executives from each agency. Here’s the essay from two ‘Perfect Fools’; Patrick Gardner and Mark Chalmers – the latter set up the Amsterdam office last year. Their digital approach: “if you can think it, then it’s real”. We like the sound of that. And here the essay by Richard Gorodecky, executive creative director of Amsterdam Worldwide. We selected this quote from him to share with you: “The only constant we can look forward to will be continual change”. We agree. As Darwin already taught us; “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Amsterdam Worldwide was asked last month to introduce the beer brand Hoegaarden (Anheuser-Busch) internationally. The agency is doing well. Recently it also won the Asics EMEA and Russia account – it already works for the Asics brand Onitsuka Tiger. Vodafone Netherlands last week announced it is looking for a new agency. Its current agency, UbachsWisbrun/JWT, is invited to pitch – other agencies still have to be selected. And while most agencies are struggling to keep their business afloat, some are still optimistic: Rich advertises with “No budget, No problem. We’re rich”.

To celebrate Onitsuka Tiger’s 60th birthday, Amsterdam Worldwide launched the Cycle of Life campaign, revolving around the Zodiac Race - this trailer heavily triggered our curiosity. The race is a Japanese legend about 13 animals racing each other for a spot on the Zodiac calendar. Apart from the animation, made by NY based Panda Panther, Amsterdam WW also built a diorama (miniature world) in the shape of a sneaker – part of the “Made of Japan” strategy. This is already the third iconic shoe they built for Onitsuka. The previous one, Electric Tigerland, was shortlisted for a Titanium Lion at Cannes 2008. This year’s life-sized sneaker is a typical Japanese landscape, with landmarks like Mount Fuji. The sneaker will be displayed in selected venues around the world. To integrate the campaign even further, the 2009 shoe collection is decorated with the Zodiac animals. All in all, this abundant flow of creativity makes us drool!

The Amsterdam agency Strawberry Frog – founded in 1999 – changed its name into Amsterdam Worldwide (AW). Brian Elliott, co-founder of Strawberry Frog and CEO of AW said the name change was necessary because of the changing advertising landscape. The new name should reflect a positioning of “Ideas without Borders”. But a new positioning is of course not the main reason. The real reason – as Elliott confided to Adformatie – was that his office was not really sharing any business with the New York office. But the New York office gets to keep the name, as well as the offices in Sao Paolo (Brasil) and Mumbai (India). But Elliott is optimistic about the future. Size doesn’t matter he said, quoting Deng Xiaoping: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a black or a white cat, it’s good cat as long as it catches mice”. True, but we will miss the beautiful name Strawberry Frog anyway.