A guerrilla make-over to promote Holland’s largest DIY, Gamma’s wallpaper. The pay-off: “Isn’t it beautiful?” Well, if you’re asking our opinion; no this wallpaper is not beautiful. But the idea is though. Created by TBWA\Neboko.

This Citroën DS5 Twitter Race is the first race ever (as far as we know) via Twitter. The concept is quite simple; you can navigate the DS5 towards yourself via Twitter and win it. We’ve seen a similar concept by Volkswagen and Achtung!, but using Twitter as the navigation tool is new. On the dedicated Facebook page Citroën constantly gives the Twitter crowd a choice (e.g. left or right) and the ‘wisdom’ of crowds decides where it should go. A count down clock decides when the race is over and (this feels as a bit of an anti-climax) when the time is up, the car pulls over and a sign is held up with a message. The first person to tweet this message wins the DS5. At the time of publishing this post there’s about half an hour to go and the car is near Bussum – if you live there start looking out for it. We always wonder what kind of people have time to be engaged in a game that consumes most of your day, but since it’s trending on Twitter (NL) it does get the needed exposure. It was created by EuroRSCG and Perfect Fools.

We got a déjà vu when we saw this idea by N=5. Not because it is not original – cause it is – but more so because it feels as if promoting the agency is more important here than promoting the rock climbing wall near Central Station (‘Klimmuur Centraal’) – after all, who’s going to really climb for those coupons? The fact that it was sent to us ready to present to an award jury seems to confirm our feeling.

This simple but sweet guerrilla idea definitely grabs your attention, saying “you don’t want to be stuck to hemorrhoids” – which doesn’t completely translate the better copy in Dutch. It seems to be presented to the client for the agency’s own portfolio, rather than generating return on investment, but since the investment is next to nothing, it won’t hurt either – no pun. Created by KOEN.

Very nice concept by Incl. – which stands for all-inclusive communication design. It is to promote a poster made by Rop van Mierlo, exclusively for Found by James. Found by James is a design blog and online webshop selling arty exclusiveness from around the world. The limited edition illustration of the housecat was sold out for €350 (!) a piece in no time – there were only 9 copies, since the cat’s existence is also limited to 9 lives. The guerrilla campaign spread a note around Amsterdam and Eindhoven (home of the Dutch design week) which said ‘Found by James’ instead of ‘Missing’. “I’m quite surprised someone lost this well-fed housecat, since it has the incredible size of 84.1 cm high and 59.4 cm wide. I’m not sure about its gender, but a big brown dark spot distinctively marks half of his/her face” it says (click on pic to see full text). The wonderful book Wild Animals in which Van Mierlo draws animals in the same distinctive style won a Dutch Design Award last weekend.

Last month we wrote about the ‘Find your adventure’ campaign introducing the MINI Coupé below the line. Fel Concepts dropped miniature Coupé’s in bottles in the ocean. If you’d find one on the beach, you could test drive it. Last week Fel Concepts created a follow up on the beach of Zandvoort; a real Coupé in a – not very well designed – bottle. Some lazy media picked it up as ‘car washed on beach’ – they obviously didn’t see the real thing before writing about it.

A part of us was at Lowlands this year and the most entertaining thing we saw – apart from the bands of course – was the mobile Patattoo service, using the good old potato as a tattoo stamp. Created by Natwerk.

If there’s one retailer in the Netherlands with a cheap image it’s Zeeman. Last week the clothing (and textile) brand that sells t-shirts for €2.5 tried to radically turn this image upside down by buying a show during the Amsterdam Fashion Week (AIFW) to introduce the fake brand ‘Frank’ – nice pun. The brand is named after the Swiss designer Frank Kungl of whom 6 designs will be sold at Zeeman. Though Kungl is not as famous as Karl Lagerfeld, it’s clear that the Dutch brand was inspired by H&M. By doing the same thing Zeeman wants to prove that ‘looking good doesn’t have to be expensive’. The show was hyped by spreading fancy leaflets and seeding rumour around the brand. At the end of the show – that featured among other items a slip dress with padded cups for €14.99 – Bart Mausen of the AIFW commented that from a distance it looked ‘quite nice’, but giving it a closer look the quality proved ‘inferior’. Though the guerrilla stunt – organised by Amsterdam based Coz – has already proved very successful in harvesting free publicity, the idea is not new. TBWA did the same thing for IKEA in 2006 by introducing the new brand D-Project during the Amsterdam Interior Design trade show – this won a golden lamp in 2007. In September Zeeman will also be selling underwear designed by Bas Kosters.

In December we wrote about Heineken discovering Facebook as the perfect medium to talk with its consumers. But to become ‘Liked’ on Facebook as a brand you need to produce content that has the potential to be liked. The Entrance by Wieden+Kennedy definitely did have that quality. It helped Heineken to reach one million Facebook friends within no time. To thank its new Facebook friends, the Dutch beer brand returned the favour offline by making another special entrance. What is odd about this gesture is that it seems only targeted at men who drink Heineken – not at the actual (female) ‘Likers’ of the fanpage. But maybe we’re being too critical. After all, this crossover between a commercial and a guerrilla ad didn’t cost much, comes across as sympathetic and sexy, and generates some exposure. We don’t know who created it, but recognized some AKQA faces, so maybe they’re behind it.

Update: Yes, AKQA is behind it.

The most brilliant ideas are usually the simplest. Take this guerrilla glow-in-the-dark sticker that lights up at night and is put on the asphalt next to the graphical bicycles that indicate you’re on an Amsterdam bicycle path. It was created by Rademakkers for Move bicycle lighting.