Last Thursday Boards Magazine organized their first European creative ‘workshop’ in Amsterdam. The theme of the day was ‘The New Age of Storytelling’. Alex Melvin (founder of 180 Amsterdam) and Mark Aink (general manager of S-W-H) co-hosted the day and invited an interesting mix of international and Dutch speakers with different creative backgrounds and inspiring angles on storytelling.
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.”
September, last, we reported about the Canadian agency Taxi that considered either Amsterdam or London as their first European hub. Last week Taxi announced that Amsterdam won the pitch – the unconfirmed rumour goes that it was mayor Job Cohen riding a unicycle for PICNIC 2007 that gave Amsterdam that last push. Anyway, we’re glad to have the second Canadian agency on board – Sid Lee was first. And we’re especially happy with Paul Lavoie, founder of Taxi, who announced that the agency will place itself in between the Dutch Amsterdam agencies and the international ones. A welcome positioning, since Amsterdam is roughly divided between agencies that make typical Dutch advertising (unintelligible for foreigners) and the international expat agencies – like Wieden+Kennedy, 180 and Amsterdam WW – where English is the spoken tongue and campaigns are clearly made for the worldwide market. It would be great if Taxi can bring together these two worlds.
Montreal based agency, Sid Lee, last week opened its new Amsterdam office in the creative neighborhood ‘de Pijp’. You could call it a hotshop, but the Canadian agency of the year prefers to call it a ‘gallery-boutique-atelier’. No wonder; besides selling advertising that goes beyond the 30 second spot, the Amsterdam office is also home to a gallery, a café and a shop selling designer products from different parts of Canada. Harm Sas (ex Usual Suspects) is creative director and Niels van de Walle (previously working as digital director at Nike) managing partner. Sid Lee – in Canada known for its fully integrated work – this summer won the global Adidas Originals account. Its first campaign for Originals (‘83 original ways to successfully waste your time’) specifically promoted the clothing line designed together with Diesel.
This portrait is part of an outdoor exhibition, drawing attention to a book by Dutch photographer and art director Krijn van Noordwijk. Van Noordwijk is famous for capturing the essence of the personality of his portraits – something he probably picked up from his previous career in advertising. The book, containing 140 full colour studio portraits of DJ’s from all over the world, is a tribute to today’s musical hero’s. The outdoor exhibition, created by Bureau Pindakaas, coincides with the Amsterdam Dance Event. The ADE is the world’s biggest club festival, with over 700 DJ’s and acts performing in 40 clubs, bars, record stores and galleries.
Once a year Amsterdam hosts PICNIC; an international conference of the world’s most successful and talented media entrepreneurs, thinkers and creators. Among them not only representatives of the Google’s, Amazon’s and Nokia’s of this world, but also scientists, game developers, musicians and other original minds. And although the conference programme suggests that online social networking, crowd sourcing and co-creation are ever more promising, PICNIC proves that offline get togethers are there to stay – at least for a while. In any case, we are looking forward to it.
The heavily awarded Canadian advertising agency Taxi – already very well represented on the North American continent – is jumping the big pond. Taxi’s founder, Paul Lavoie, is still not sure though where his first European office will be based. Both London and Amsterdam are in the race. It might be a photo finish, since both cities have their own obvious advantages. London is bigger and more cosmopolitan. While Amsterdam is a friendly village where you can ride your bike to work. And – not to forget – smoke idea-inducing herbs. The local government is taking the race seriously, since they invited Lovoie to experience the city himself – a bicycle trip was part of the program. Even the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, had a little chat with Lavoie. If that won’t be enough to convince Lavoie, hopefully this promotional ‘I Amsterdam’ film will.
To give its sponsor dominance during the Beijing Olympics some more leverage, Nike opened pop-up stores in eight European cities where the Olympics were held in the past. Among them Amsterdam, London and Paris. The Amsterdam pop-up store is called 1928 – after the year of the Amsterdam Olympics – and is strategically positioned in the creative Westergasfabriek area. The store opened on the first day of the Olympics (08-08-08) and will be there for 60 days. Its spacious interior contains a small museum, displaying the newest high tech gear developed for the Olympic sportsmen (see also Nike Lab). Together with that it displays (and sells) Nike sportswear, the latest ‘lifestyle’ clothing line. Except for its heritage, this new collection has little to do with sports anymore; the shirts and sneakers primarily give street credibility to teenagers, rappers and art directors. Nevertheless, cautiously balancing its brand between high performance sportswear and überhip streetwear, Nike seems stronger and more popular than ever.
Last year a free iPod was the most popular promotional advertising candy. But a free iPod is not enough anymore. Especially when you’re selling houses. The Amsterdam housing corporation ‘De Alliantie’ is advertising its newly built houses in Amsterdam Zuid-Oost with a free iPhone! In fact, each house (starting at € 92,500) is worth a voucher of € 4.000 (!) to be converted into Apple gear. Their goal: stimulating diversity in this neighborhood by attracting a younger crowd. We wonder if it works; many will still regard Zuid-Oost as the ghetto. In any case, one thing is sure; Apple is becoming more and more main stream.
As everyone knows, Amsterdam has a few world famous USP’s; among them of course are marihuana, prostitutes and a dynamic gay scene. This weekend the latter is proving its uniqueness in the annual gay parade; a procession of boats through the Amsterdam canals, decorated with dressed up gays. The logo and poster (click to enlarge) of this year’s gay parade were designed by the Amsterdam design agency VBAT. VBAT – that won a Golden Lion in Cannes this year for its design of a new Amstel beer bottle – understandably chose to combine some cliché gay elements in the poster. However, combining pink and the typical canal houses in a circle, unintentionally reveals a true consumer insight…
