After Chris Baylis announced to swap Tribal DDB Amsterdam for London, it must have been a difficult task to find a worthy replacement. After all, Baylis helped Tribal to its growth and international fame with the multi-awarded work for Philips and KLM. But with Mark Chalmers on board as the new ECD, DDB and Tribal seems to be in good hands again. Chalmers will be creatively leading the agencies together with Joris Kuijpers and Dylan de Backer. Chalmers was previously Creative Partner at Perfect Fools and co-founded Creative Social with Daniele Fiandaca in 2004. Just as Baylis Chalmers is keen to make truly creative advertising: “Creativity is the only significant business driver today. It is no longer restricted to communications; creativity must be an inherent part of a brand’s offering. Through creativity these guys have consistently delivered results at scale.” Word.

DDB & Tribal Amsterdam hire Anneli Rispens to manage the agency’s Content & Community department. This state of the art department is based on the ‘always on’ principle, offering social media strategies, monitoring, moderation, and crisis management, and, finally, corporate storytelling – which is, we’re guessing, the often lame content posted on Facebook by brands. Apart from Anneli, the department now consists of three content and community planners, a social media strategist and three community managers. Anneli Rispens has more than 5 years of social media and community management experience. For the last two years she has been working at KREM, a media consultancy working for NS (Dutch railways) – if there’s one brand in the Netherlands that needs crisis management, it’s them. Before that Anelli worked at Favela Fabric where she worked as community manager on KLM – if there’s one brand that takes community management seriously, it’s them. So, all in all an interesting hire, which shows that the gap between traditional and dedicated digital agencies is getting smaller everyday.

Another very fine piece of advertising by DDB for Volkswagen. A dog mimicking a Volkswagen. Nothing more, nothing less. But with viral potential galore. They better makes some space on their award shelves… Directed by Mattias Schut (CZAR), shot by Mark Bliss, sound by The Ambassadors, and music by Sizzer.

A while ago we posted about what we thought was quite a funny competition – organized by animation studio Hobby Animation. It was dubbed ‘Free the Swedish King’ and asked creatives to write a script for an animation explaining why Sweden doesn’t need a monarchy. The jury – consisting of people such as Gudrun Schyman, Mårten Knutsson and Arvid Svanvik – eventually chose Julian Hagemann & Torkild Jarnholtwere from DDB Oslo as the winners. This is the result. The film was directed by Hobby Animation’s Kristofer Ström.

The Centraal Beheer commercials have a long tradition in the Netherlands – the first one was made in 1985! Always with production value, sometimes subtly humorous, sometimes not very funny – though we have to admit that we’re not the average consumer. The film this time is pretty handsome and well directed, but the concept a little thin. Can you imagine how they briefed the director? “Guy flirts with girl on speedboat. He lets her drive; they fall out. And, guess what? There’s a paraglide attached to the boat.” Ha! Created by DDB, directed by Hein Mevissen, and produced by Bonkers.

Weird, but with mileage is how we judged this concept for Autodrop (‘car liquorice’) in October 2010. Last week we came accross this one; ‘secret passage.’ Compared to the first one it feels slightly more accessible. And we like it. Created by DDB Amsterdam and directed by Hans Knaapen (Electric Zoo).

Quite an integrated campaign this new work ‘See what light can do’ by Tribal DDB and DDB Amsterdam for Philips. A ‘lightover’ team – based on the successful home make-overs – visits 29 homes in 8 countries around the world to show how the right lighting can transform your house into a much more atmospheric environment – the insight behind it; light changes your mood. The results are presented online. This content is not exactly our kind of content, since we’re not big fans of home make-over TV, but we can easily imagine it will persuade enough consumers to start thinking about LED and – more importantly – see Philips as the thought leader in this field. Part of the platform is a ‘3D Home Lighting Designer’ app that helps consumers to choose between different lighting options and advises them on which (Philips) products to buy. There’s also a Facebook page where you get in contact with the experts on ‘light design’. To generate mass attention Tribal/DDB also created a (bit of a corporate) commercial in which Philips presents its platform as the future of lighting. Together with the recent Wake-up Light campaigns, Philips is firmly reclaiming its strong heritage of being the lighting expert.

In advertising beer brands are the most desirable accounts to obtain. So we can imagine Alfred has been popping some… um… Grolsch ‘beugeltjes’ when they found out they won one of the more sophisticated beer brands in the Netherlands. Grolsch, the past 7 years handled by DDB, is a beer for someone who prefers quality and good taste, rather than getting brainlessly drunk with friends. At least, that’s what it was always about. The best pay-off to illustrate that was: “One day you’ll stop drinking beer and start drinking Grolsch” (JWT). Sadly in the past years we haven’t seen any advertising with much aspiration anymore. The last one we can remember was ‘Everlasting love‘ – with the pay-off “Beer, the Grolsch way” (DDB). A few years ago Grolsch started to claim creativity in combination with music stars. Though a good idea in itself, the advertising was probably too complicated and therefore not picked up by the consumer. We can imagine that this made Grolsch go more mainstream, moving towards the other beer brands and away from its once unique positioning. The climax was the last commercial – shown above – celebrating the ‘pop’ sound, It felt so average that the pay-off “Beer that grabs you” sounded completely incredible. So, time for a change. We hope Grolsch allows Alfred to give the iconic brand back its exclusiveness. We wish them luck!

Picture: ECD’s W+K Amsterdam Mark Bernath (left) and Eric Quennoy (middle), mainly responsible for Wieden+Kennedy’s huge success in Cannes and Enrico Balleri from Nike, just after the award ceremony last Saturday.

What a great closing night for the Amsterdam agency it was. Nike’s ‘Write the future‘ scored seven more Lions – earlier in the week it already won gold in Cyber. At the most important award night the Amsterdam agency first of all won the prestigious Grand Prix in film. It was a very close finish with Puma’s ‘After hours athlete’ as jury chair Tony Granger (CCO Y&R) explained at the press conference. After a lengthy discussion he asked the jury to put all the rational arguments aside and vote from the heart. This gave Nike the final push. Nike also won five Lions in Film craft: two Gold (Editing and Script), two Silver (Production and Sound), and one bronze (CG). And the seventh Lion, Gold in Integrated, proved that the campaign didn’t just have a pretty face. And then Heineken; for this other power brand W+K won five Lions in Film and Film craft. Four for The Entrance: Film: Gold and Bronze (interactive). Film craft: Gold and Silver (Direction and Sound Design). One Lion went to The Date – more or less the sequel of The Entrance. It won bronze in Film. This brought the grand total for Wieden+Kennedy to 13 (!) Lions. Together with all the Lions that Portland won for Old Spice, W+K must easily be the most awarded independent network in the world. Two more Amsterdam Lions went to MINI ‘Flow‘ (Silver in Film craft) by BSUR and one to Volkswagen’s ‘Old Lady’ (Bronze in Film) by DDB. All in all Amsterdam (officially) won 25 Lions, 8 (!) more than last year.

With 13 shortlist nominations in film and 7 in film craft, Amsterdam should be able to win some more Lions tomorrow night. Of all these nominations 4 go to Nike ‘Write the future’, 3 to Heineken’s ‘The Entrance’, and one to Heineken’s ‘The Date’, which adds up to an impressive 8 film (craft) nominations for Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Write the future also has a nomination for Titanium (integrated), though this case was sent in by Nike. BSUR also does well with 4 nominations for MINI Countryman’s ‘Flow’. Philips’ ‘Wake up the town’ by Tribal DDB has 3 film nominations. Other film nominations go to Volkswagen (DDB), Centraal Beheer (DDB) – we personally liked this more subtle Centraal Beheer film a lot better – De Bijenkorf (Selmore), IDFA X-ray eyes (TBWA) – a very smart film – and the beautiful Sire film ‘Marked for life‘ (180). We’ll keep our fingers crossed!

Quite insightful and originally translated into a commercial this ad for cable provider Ziggo – created by DDB and directed by Diederik van Rooijen. “O.k., o.k., I’ll fix it” is what the man of the house says annoyed, after the entire family has subtly conveyed what a nuisance slow internet is. The ‘joking’ chairs at end are also a nuisance (“Ted, we already have fast internet”), but you know how it goes; in the briefing under ‘mandatories’ it said: “use the chairs”. Cause once you’ve chosen an advertising property, you need to keep using it for continuous brand identification. Well, if we may give Ziggo (and DDB) an advice; ditch the stupid chairs – one joke per commercial is enough. But, all in all, not a bad commercial for a cable provider.

“Not every granny is reliable. Fortunately every Golf is”. This feel good commercial, built around classic advertising humour, doesn’t require much elaboration. The message is clear. And except for the music – that makes the Golf sound a little too cheap – and the overacting dad, we like it. Even if you don’t, the ad is as reliable as a Volkswagen Golf. It was created by DDB and directed by Bart Timmer (CZAR). The commercial was launched through YouTube and Dumpert (a Dutch site with funny, shocking, etc. video’s) and according to DDB generated 1 million views within one week. Who needs television?

This commercial for Autodrop (Liquorice in the shape of cars) is quite weird. Skittles-weird, but in an uncomfortable way. Is it the audience laughing in the background or the unattractive office folk? We don’t really know. In any case, we do believe this concept has mileage and might – that is, might – grow on you. Here’s another one. Created by DDB – that just won the account and introduced this new ad property – and directed by Jeroen Annokkeé (CZAR).

StrawberryFrog NY/Amsterdam won the pitch for the Downtown Dubai account, owned by Developer Emaar Properties (PJSC) – it was a three-way pitch with Saatchi & Saatchi London and Y&R London. Strawberry Frog Amsterdam can be happy with this second global account win since re-opening offices in Amsterdam. In july the agency won Emirates, another company from the Middle East, and one of the reasons they were invited to the pitch. Downtown Dubai has a total project (not just advertising) budget of $20 billion (!). Part of Downtown Dubai are the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and the Dubai Mall, the biggest shopping/entertainment mall in the world. 180 Amsterdam also won. Not an account though, but a new creative director; Galen Graham. Before he worked at DDB Chicago, where he worked on clients like Bud, McDonald’s and Dell. His most famous piece of ad is Bud Light’s ‘Swear Jar‘, a huge hit on YouTube, and the first non-broadcast ad winning an Emmy Award. Before DDB Chicago Graham worked as an art director at Cramer-Krasselt. He started his career in 1998 at Fallon. Sean Thompson, who was ECD at 180 Amsterdam since January 2006, became global creative director for the brand new Team Volvo. They probably found him through all the awards he won for Honda – especially with ‘Grrr’ – at W+K London.
Source: Adformatie

Good news for Amsterdam. Team Volvo brings together “the best people” from EuroRSCG 4D (Amsterdam), Arnold (Boston) and SapientNitro (Shanghai) to work dedicated on Volvo. All agencies have been working for Volvo before. The unit will start in September with 30 people. Jorian Murray (ex Dye Holloway Murray and ex DDB London) will be leading the pack. The joint agency is going to direct the three most important markets in the world; North America, China and Europe. Murray built up a reputation for building car brands when working for Volkswagen from 1992 till 2007 – allegedly it doubled VW’s market share. Murray said Amsterdam was the city of choice, because it is the creative capital of Europe. Sven de Smet, since June director of global marcom at Volvo, added that Amsterdam attracts international creative talent, has an Anglosaxon focus and is well connected (thanks to Schiphol airport, AAB). We wish Team Volvo the best of luck!

Source: Adformatie

Already for quite a few years Grolsch claims to be the beer brand for original individuals – which makes it beloved in the advertising scene, for that matter. Quite a unique positioning, since most of the other big beer brands make their advertising for Joe Sixpack – or at least they create very similar advertising. So Grolsch easily stands out as the sophisticated brand for unique individuals. That’s what made the brand decide to come up with an unorthodox piece of advertising; the sponsored magazine, titled Eigen.Zinnig. This translates more or less into original, authentic. It was created by G+J Publishers and freelance editor-in-chief Rob van Bracht. With its 148 pages and thorough articles, the magazine luxuriously feels more like a glossy (costs: €5) than a sponsored magazine. Together with the magazine Grolsch launched a commercial – created by DDB Amsterdam – that toasts “op” originality in different ways. Though the content and pay-off (“As authentic as Grolsch”) match well with the magazine, we were really surprised that the magazine title Eigen.Zinnig is never being used. In other words, there’s no obvious link between the commercial and the magazine. And that lack of synergy, automatically means a waste of money. In any case, it’s very refreshing – or eigenzinnig, if you will – to see a different kind of beer ad for once.

For a moment the 30.000 people watching the World Cup final on the ‘Binnenrotte’ in Rotterdam were scared shitless. Just when the Dutch players entered the arena, the connection went dead. Fortunately insurer Centraal Beheer was behind the joke; “Just call us” [if anything goes wrong] was the pay-off. This is how simple advertising can be. Well done, DDB Amsterdam.

On Saturday the last Cannes Lions were awarded to Amsterdam agencies in the categories Film and Film Craft. Silver went to the intelligent commercials made by TBWA\Neboko for IDFA – international documentary festival Amsterdam. Though we liked the previous concept a little better, the one showed in this post brings the message ‘You can’t make up reality’ in a similarly convincing way. 180 Amsterdam won silver in the ‘Film Craft’ category for their Adidas film ‘Every team needs the spark’. Indeed, a lot of craftsmanship. XXS and N=5 won bronze for their Dierenbescherming (animal protection) and Live Interactive Billboard ads respectively. The latter is an aggression awareness campaign that shows a billboard with ambulance personal being harassed. Bystanders that watch the billboard are being filmed and integrated in the film – so they watch their selves being inactive. Quite smart, though in our opinion this case would have been better of winning in Outdoor or Cyber. Like last year Philips won a Grand Prix (this time in ‘Film Craft’) for The Gift, “a sci-fi thriller in a dystopian future” that shows quite some skills being brought together. It was created by DDB London in assocation with RSA Films. We mention it, cause Tribal DDB Amsterdam was responsible for the overarching Parallel Lines campaign that included the 5 short films – of which The Gift was one. O.k., enough chest pounding already. Let’s get back to work!

Amsterdam won 5 silver Lions in Cannes yesterday. Big winner was Kong with 3 silver Lions for Stanislav – 2 for Promo & Activation and 1 for PR. Not really a surprise, since the online viral, that used people’s photo’s from social network site Hyves in an online film, already won several national and international prizes – though Cannes, of course, is the Wimbledon of the Grand Prix shows. Salient detail, according to Adformatie, Zwier Veldhoen, ECD at THEY and part of the P&O jury, said the case probably would have won gold, if submitted better. DDB also won silver in Promo & Activation for Centraal Beheer (CB), the insurer, known for its pay-off ‘Just call us’, created 3D outdoor spectaculars with typical accidents. The consumer could photograph itself in the accident and upload it on a dedicated website. The best ones – judged by the online audience – were used in a (2D) outdoor campaign. The fifth silver Lion went to MINI’s Christmas Box (see picture), by UbachsWisbrun/JWT. The message; only €99 per month. That is what we call, a big idea.

“You always need more than you expect” is what this builder tells his colleague when the cement flows away in the mouse’s – beautifully filmed – shelter. It is followed by the pay-off ‘Just call Apeldoorn’. Insurer Centraal Beheer (CB) – based in Apeldoorn – and agency DDB Amsterdam probably have the longest relationship in Dutch ad history. Since 1985 DDB creates humorous small stories – with the exact same pay-off that illustrates how well you are insured at CB. The only thing we always ask ourselves, when seeing these films, is whether CB will pay up when the shit does hit the fan. Don’t insurers always try to tell you that this particular situation is one of the exceptions referred to in Appendix X,Y and Z of the general conditions? Maybe not CB. Anyway, the film is quite entertaining. Especially because of the the Walt Disneyesque cinematographic quality of the cement-mouse chase. It was directed by Jeroen Annokkeé (CZAR).

Last week the Dutch Art Director’s Club (ADCN) awards, or simply the ‘Lamps,’ were divided between the most creative Dutch agencies. DDB was the big winner, with 3 silver Lamps – and 29 nominations, out of 204 nominations. DDB’s best silver Lamp went to its commercial made for Ziggo. DDB’s digital sister, Tribal won two times gold with Carousel for Philips, which is no surprise after having won already so many international prizes. Indie won 2 golden and one silver Lamp; all for Domino’s pizza. Indie’s golden awards both went to ‘Delivery Point‘ (outdoor and activation), silver went to ‘Builders‘. Kong won 2 golden lamps for Stanislav (interaction and activation). Out of the 7 golden and 15 silver Lamps, our most favourite Lamp (gold) went to Kit Kat Jesus by Ubachs Wisbrun/JWT. It’s brilliant in its simplicity and shows you don’t need an incredibly big budget to come up with a great idea.

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…)

We love animation. Especially because it makes so much more possible than traditional film. This commercial is a combination of real stage design and animation – how skillfully made! It tells the story of Achmea – a Dutch healthcare insurer. 200 years ago some farmers decided to work together and share the risks – what a great bolt of lightning! It was these kind of cooperations that led to the foundation of Achmea. According to the narration a lot has changed over the years, but Achmea’s principles have stayed the same. Then the animation changes into a new area; Achmea wants to ‘unworry’ society with initiatives that no one expects from an insurer and that make the working environment safer. And also, providing better food for school children. However big a ‘probleem’ is, it becomes smaller when you tackle it together. If we had to place one critical note; no real choices were made. The ad contains more information than the average consumer can handle and the myriad of styles doesn’t convey one single visual identity. But maybe that’s just us being anal. It’s a wonderful ad altogether. Created by DDB Amsterdam and directed by Raphaël Bartels.

Just like in Cannes this film by Tribal DDB won a Grand Prix in the TV/Cinema category at Eurobest in Amsterdam, last Friday. The commercial, only distributed through the internet (how could it win in TV/Cinema?), advertises the new Philips cinematic widescreen standard in a mind blowing way; a violent bank robery filmed in freeze frame and done in one single take. Cinema 21:9 also won Gold in the category Interactive – on the dedicated website you can (among other things) influence the speed and direction of the timeline of the film. The DDB network also won the best network award. At the awards ceremony, DDB asked Gary Raucher (VP Head of Integrated Marketing Communication) to accept this prize on behalf of DDB, which was a nice gesture given the fact that Philips trusted DDB with such a big budget to advertise a TV that is still in a very early stage of its product lifecycle. In general, compared to last year, the Netherlands (read: Amsterdam) did quite well. It won 22 prizes, of which 1 grand prix, 3 gold, 8 silver and 10 Bronze. Compared to the European competition, however, we didn’t. Belgium and Sweden for example – with a lot less inhabitants – scored significantly better. Amsterdam interactive agency Kong (N=5’s online agency) won Gold in the Media category for Stanislav, a short video spread through Hyves (Dutch Facebook), using your profile details to show how personal information shared on internet can easily fall in the wrong hands. Another favourite of ours, the IDFA films “You cannot make up reality” by TBWA\Neboko, won gold. ‘It’s all about the suit’ by Selmore for Van Gils won Silver in the Media category. Looking at the competition in this category, it easily deserved Gold in our opinion.

Through this commercial Volkswagen introduces the Blue Motion Technologies (BMT) in the Netherlands. The pay-off ‘Easy on the engine, Easy on fuel’ clearly communicates that this new technology saves energy. We’re no car experts, but to us BMT sounds a bit like a marketing invention, rather than an innovation that will prevent the north pole from melting. However, we think DDB did a great job in explaining it in a simple way. In fact, the metaphor of the bicycle, the clean visual identity and the distinctive execution fit very well with VW and even make BMT look sexy! DDB creatives Dylan the Backer and Joris Kuijpers asked Paul Postma and Yani to direct the commercial – the DDB team earlier told Adformatie they were inspired by the leader the creatives made for the TV program 12 murders. We hope the commercial will persuade many consumers to buy an environmental friendly car. Or better even, to ride their bicycle more often.

Marketing Tribune just published its yearly Dutch ad agency survey,  conducted by Intormart GFK. And because 180 Amsterdam scored so well, co-founder Chris Mendola (right) and Andy Fackrell were asked a few questions about the success of their agency. The results of the survey came from 865 advertisers, who answered questions about the awareness, preference and image of the Dutch agencies.

We were happy to learn that the respondents judged ‘coming up with original ideas’ as the most important feature of an ad agency. This basically means that if creativity is not leading in your agency, you have to change your proposition or your job. On this characteristic 180 Amsterdam scored best with 52% – which proofs that having 32 nationalities on board does induce creativity. The agency strongly climbed on the image ladder; last year it scored only 14% on this characteristic. On ‘enthusiasm’ (would that be hugging the client before selling your ideas?) 180 also scored best. Wieden+Kennedy, another very cosmopolitan agency, is the most trustworthy agency – The People’s Valley and McCann were second and third.

Advertisers with a one-million-plus budget, put DDB, N=5 and TBWA, respectively, on their shortlist for an above the line campaign. Not a preferable position when you realize that the interactive agencies (LBi Lost Boys, Clockwork, Achtung! and The People’s Valley) are gaining territory fast – this of course was already announced by the strongly shifting media budgets. And ironically Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy have a very strong brain position – amazingly still profiting from the brand position they built up in the 90’s.

To us the most striking conclusion of the survey is the image leap made by 180 and Wieden+Kennedy among Dutch advertisers. Hopefully it means they will finally become an integrated part of the Amsterdam ad community. We know from the interview that 180 is working hard on it; the agency is looking for a Dutch new business director, who can build its local business.

With the Amsterdam Ad Blog team we went to Lowlands this weekend for inspiration (the festival is infested with sponsors) and fun. Main sponsors Grolsch and Coca Cola did a good job in activating their brands. Especially Grolsch with its ‘Koelservice’ came in handy. The camping crowd could exchange cans of lukewarm (or at Lowlands: warm) beer for cold ones. On the first day of the festival 11.000 cans were traded in – in total the three day festival counted 55.000 visitors. The service is created by DDB Amsterdam and offered at some of the big summer festivals this year. Interesting is that the Koelservice also allows you to trade in your other A-brand cans – though not at Lowlands. We were wondering if in the long term it wouldn’t be smarter to only take in Grolsch. At some point the consumer might anticipate on this by buying Grolsch in the supermarket. Anyway, the activation was preceded by a TV commercial in June and some other activational stuff. It’s striking how much money Grolsch all of a sudden is pumping in the cold beer proposition. As if the brand woke up from a lengthy hibernation and all of a sudden realized, cold beer tastes better, we have to claim this position! Heineken might get a little nervous; the brand has been claiming the cool beer proposition already for years now, with Heineken fridges in Albert Heijn supermarkets, ‘Heineken Extra Cold’ (served at 0° Celsius) in bars and recently by hyping the walk-in fridge.

The other dominant sponsor at Lowlands was Coca Cola, offering Emergency Refreshment (E.R.) with water pistols and massages by sexy nurses (male and female). The nurses also gave away (fake) tattoos with the activation logo (the code of arms with bottle and snake), which to our surprise was a big succes. It resulted in thousands of visitors promoting coca cola on their bare bodies. All in all, Grolsch and Coca Cola can be satisfied. Though they owe the weather gods big time!

We are very much starting to like internet provider Ziggo! After several surreal commercials – made by DDB Amsterdam – here’s yet another great ad. It features an Indian, called Howling Wolf, a woman on an Egyptian camel and some ‘naughty’ girls (read: ‘porn stars’) getting the fast download-train. A great metaphor, using living images to get this message across. Apparently though, a concept quite easily conceived, since Amsterdam agency THEY used the exact same metaphor last month. It’s interesting to see how both agencies executed the same idea in two different ways. It also tells you a lot about the Dutch internet market. As you can see, the main goal of these cable providers is to give ADSL a bad name. A tough fight for ADSL, since cable is faster (according to UPC up to 120Mb!) and since the Netherlands has one of the highest cable-densities in the world. What’s more, most consumers prefer to have one single provider for both TV and internet. And cable providers already offer landline calls (within the Netherlands) for free – a service many ADSL-providers still have to live on. So the question is not, do you prefer cable or ADSL? The question is, which ad did the best job in persuading you to choose cable?

The ideal TV night for Leo Beenhakker – a Dutch football (US: soccer) coach – consists of a classic war movie, a great tennis match and Animal Planet. The result is a Monty Pythonesque mash-up, featuring the Cadbury Gorilla as a referee! The commercial, made by DDB Amsterdam, celebrates the possibilities of “interactive” TV (or maybe ‘digital TV’?) of cable provider Ziggo in a surreal, but pleasant way. And although we don’t really understand why they chose Leo Beenhakker (a coach on his return) as a role model, it makes Ziggo stand out as sympathetic. What’s more, like the previous commercial, it explains the benefits of digital TV in a crystal clear way. And, finally, it makes you forget the introduction campaign from a year ago that depicted Ziggo as the geriatric brother of Rainman…

In its ideal form, advertising simply enlarges a recognizable consumer insight. Since DDB Amsterdam understands this, it created a very funny metaphor for Ziggo, targeting consumers using an analogue signal for a brand new flat screen TV. And the generous part is that all the other providers offering digital TV will probably benefit from it as well!

Imagine you’re hiking around Loch Ness in Schotland and all of a sudden the legendary monster appears. Wow, you could be the very first person to get Nessie on ‘tape’ and sell the footage to the media! Luckily you already have your camera at hand, ready to use! Too bad though, if you put your camera off, instead of on. But of course there’s Centraal Beheer, the Dutch insurance company. The message: whatever happens, just call them. Made by DDB. Very smart and funny idea and also nicely executed (like most of the other 50 commercials that were made in the past 20 years for Centraal Beheer). Still, we always wonder if you can insure yourself for this kind of misfortune. Would they compensate you for the thousands of Euros you missed out on, because you’re clumsy with your camcorder? We know, it’s advertising and that it will give the brand a higher (top of mind) awareness. But to us it comes across as free entertainment for the people. And you would think there are more effective ways to spend your advertising Euros.

Adformatie reported last week that according to research conducted by Synovate 63% of the Dutch advertisers believe that the added value of advertising agencies will diminish. The reason is that more and more advertisers obtain agency expertise in-house. The same research clearly shows that agencies are pessimistic about the future – no news really, when you look at the worldwide stock markets. For TBWA it is business as usual though; this week it announced a new online agency: \Neboko Flow. Floris Hülsmann and Stephan Gonnissen (previously working as a team at JWT) will form the creative management. Another new agency, Nothing, was recently founded by Bas Korsten and Michael Jansen (ex Selmore, ex DDB). Although the agency’s name is not very promising, the team itself is ranked within the top 10 most (Dutch, not international) awarded creatives. At the same time Lowe Amsterdam is struggling; MD Ed Stibbe is leaving the agency. He is the fourth and last member of the management to leave the agency within one year. It wouldn’t surprise us if the agency merges with Draftfcb (also part of Interpublic) in the near future.

DDB Amsterdam was the most successful Dutch agency at the Eurobest Awards in Stockholm this year. With two grand prix (and one bronze) the agency was also third in the Agency of the Year competition. DDB received one of the prestigious awards for its Volkswagen product recall – see picture. Interesting detail about this ad is that it took DDB three years to finally get permission to run it – Volkswagen was allergic for the word ‘recall’. The other grand prix was awarded for a Centraal Beheer Insurances ad on the back of a city bus (“Just call us”). DDB and Centraal Beheer are practically married; since the 80’s DDB has made almost 50 humorous commercials with the pay-off ‘Just call us’ – meaning: whatever goes wrong, we’ll insure it without a hassle. Although we are of the opinion that the format is somewhat worn-out, the most recent UFO commercial is definitely a fine piece of work and won a Silver Epica this year.