Christian Borstlap proudly presents 5 (out of 7) bulbs to the press – photo by Matthijs Immink. 

Unfortunately it took us half a week to recover from the ADCN (Art Director Club Netherlands) awards (read: the party afterwards). Which is why only now we’re able to do a write up. Anyway, unlike last year the venue (Gashouder, instead of Concertgebouw) and James Bond-inspired opening show were quite impressive; sexy girls, wearing tight latex suits (apparently a special desire of Etcetera’s Peter van Leeuwen), entered a box-ring stage accompanied by pumping music and a light show. It even made us feel a little proud about our industry: “Yeah, we work in advertising, baby!” The English-speaking presenter, Juan Señor, who also does the awards in Cannes, made the chitchat-interviews on stage with the different Jury presidents – just like last year – feel somewhat bipolar. Though we very well understand that the ADCN wants to include the international agencies, most Dutchies were either hard to follow, because of their not so fluent English, or simply doing their speeches in Dutch. But enough about form, let’s talk about the awards. Then again, form won Big last Wednesday. More…

Last Thursday the SpinAwards were awarded to the most digital clients, agencies, and ideas. Achtung! was the big winner with one Gold (Das Interland for Volkswagen) and three Silver (‘Tour dus Sofa’ for Skoda – an interactive game around the Tour de France). On top of that Achtung! became agency of the year – for the third time. KLM also won one Gold (Meet & Seat by Tribal DDB) and three Silver (Meet & Seat and Must see map by Code d’Azur), and became client of the year. Apart from these winners, our favourite cases were: Tweetphony (create your own 140-character symphony) by Havas – two Silvers – and the Twitter-directed film Under Control by Woedend!, winning Gold and Silver. Both ideas are simple, but at the same time quite innovative, using Twitter in a smart and unorthodox way. Finally, we were charmed by FHV/BBDO’s Holland’s Next Octopus Paul, winning Silver. You can find the complete list here.

We hadn’t heard of the European Excellence Awards – probably because it’s a PR award show. But we’re paying some attention to it, because one of the better ideas we featured last year was awarded there: the Safe Sound Scooter. It was specially created for Domino’s to spread the taste; the scooter doesn’t say ‘Vroooom’, but ‘Mmmm, tasty.’ And by calling it a ‘Safe Sound Scooter’, the PR story could travel further than solely through advertising/media related titles. It also became general news, since the question whether electric scooters are allowed to make this kind of noise, triggered a broader interest. The answer was ‘yes’ and the government even changed the legislation for electric vehicles. Smart one. The agencies behind it; Indie, Mediatic, and Proudly Presents also won the ‘Best Agency Benelux’ award.

The Golden Loeki is the Dutch advertising award for the most loved TV ad among consumers. Indeed, the consumer; the species that actually has to buy the shit we try to sell. ‘Loeki the Lion’ used to be the character featured in the shorts that were to make the commercial break more bearable. It has now become the icon of the Golden Loeki award. Isobar offered dairy brand Melkunie to make a short film that asks the consumer to vote for their ad. It spoofs the well known David Attenborough documentaries. The ad itself, featuring a cow selling milk, is terrible – in our snobbish opinion – but the Isobar film – edited by Wenneker – is quite funny. It reminded us of the DraftFCB ad, making a similar point in 2006 about the Cannes Lions. This one is more tastefull though.

And the winners are… Doom & Dickson, Publicis, and Lemz won Gold at Eurobest this year. Our very favourite Hema push-up bra won gold in PR (which should have been Gold for making a sound casefilm, really), and Silver in Promo & Activation. ALS’ ‘I’ve already died’ by Publicis won gold in PR, Silver in Direct, and Bronze in Promo & Activation. The third gold, in Promo & Activation went to KLM Live Reply by Lemz. In Interactive Tribal won Silver for KLM’s ‘Be my guest’ and Volkswagen’s ‘Hitchhike with a like.’ In the same category Achtung! won Silver for the Volkwagen Fanwagen. EuroRSCG (today Havas) won Silver in PR with ‘Save an orchestra‘ for the Dutch Metropole Orchestra. In Film Craft Wieden won bronze for Coca Cola’s Sitelets. The Wieden break-away We Are Pi was awarded with Bronze for the Human Arabesque for TEDx summit in Doha. In Design Arnold won Bronze for its Arnold bike. And, finally, Wieden also got Bronze in Promo & Activation for Live Serenade.

Two Dutch agencies are nominated for the Tomorrow Awards; Lemz with their Label Lottery (casefilm here) and MediaMonks – together with Work Club and CuteCircuit – with the first wearable, shareable, and programmable t-shirt for Ballantine’s – more info on ‘tshirtOS’ can be found here. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

We’re slightly late with this beautiful film about the Jonge Honden (Young Creatives) 24-hour pitch, but we had to wait for the subtitles. Besides, it’s just too well made not to share. Created by EyeForce.

A rather meagre last day for Amsterdam in Cannes, last Saturday – the most prestigious day of the festival. Publicis did not manage to win Titanium for their ALS ad, but with Silver in Integrated the agency still did very well with the impressive campaign, winning 3 Lions in total. Out of the six Amsterdam nominations in Film only one commercial was awarded; Wieden+Kennedy’s Making of the Date won Silver. The Grand Prix for Film Craft did not go to Amsterdam, but at least the wonderful spot Bear, by BETC Paris for Canal+, was directed by Dutchman Matthijs van Heijningen jr. In the same category We Are Pi won Bronze for Human Arabesque. In our opinion it deserved more. So, all in all, after winning the Grand Prix and in total 22 Lions last year, rainy Amsterdam could this year welcome back only 17 Lions. Hopefully we’ll do better again next year.

Tribal DDB did well last night in the Cyber category, winning four (!) Lions for Obsessed with Sound: Gold (sound), Silver (website), and two Bronze (integrated and user interface). The interactive website Tribal created for Philips made it possible to very smartly single out any of the 51 members of the Dutch Metropole Orchestra. Y&R won Silver for its LG thief. This online video of a thief stealing a very thin TV on a security cam went viral instantly and already won Gold in promo – and many Dutch awards, for that matter. Achtung! won Silver for its sexy Fanwagen; a real Volkswagen van customized into a Facebook fangwagen. In Press 72andSunny won a Grand Prix. That is, the Amsterdam based agency didn’t officially receive the credits – these went to the Italian agency Fabrica – but the agency was partly responsible for the Unhate print campaign for Benetton that made world leaders, like Obama and the Venezuelan Chavez kiss with each other. In Radio and Design Amsterdam didn’t win anything.

With only one shortlisted case in Mobile, Amsterdam disappointed us a little this week. Fortunately the only nomination in this growing category was awarded with Silver last night. Yune and XS2TheWorld created an app for the Dutch Railways (NS); an app that allows you to see the Royal waiting rooms of three train stations in 3D – not really a big idea, but a rich visual experience that shows where mobile is going. In Media there were two awards, Silver and Bronze for ALS ‘I have already died’ by Publicis – also winning already in Direct – and ‘Save an orchestra’ for the Dutch Metropole Orchestra (MO) by EuroRSCG, respectively. The latter was a multi-media campaign creating, among other things, a popular number 1 hit by the MO effectively persuading the Dutch government to keep the MO subsidized. In Outdoor the only shortlist nominee, Dominos ‘Safe sound‘  by Indie – an electric scooter making the artificial sound ‘Mmmm,’ didn’t get awarded. To our surprise. It is one of the more truly original ideas coming from Amsterdam this year.