The commercial we’re showing today is not that interesting in itself. It is about Red Bull sugar free being distributed all over the place. To stress this message, Red Bull hid 4-packs of Red Bull throughout the Netherlands. And with some hints on a dedicated website you can search and find them – yawn… What is interesting about this project is that the animation was created by “junior” director Aras Darmawan from Indonesia. We don’t know why he is called junior, cause the animation looks pretty senior to us, but the fact is that he is part of the PanicProgram, a new brand recently launched by (post) production agency PostPanic to give new visual talent (both local and international) a chance to show their skills. The other side of the cutting knife, is that PostPanic can also take in projects with meager budgets. A great idea that will hopefully give many ‘junior’ directors wings.
Archive for the ‘Online’ Category
PanicProgram gives ‘junior’ directors wings
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Vodafone: as fast as Hamilton in Formula 1
Friday, August 27th, 2010
On September 13th the World’s youngest Fomula 1 racer, Lewis Hamilton, will compete against a virtual racecar, built up from 28.800 Facebook profile photos – we’ve also uploaded our own. The question is, who will finish first; Hamilton in a racecar, on a 2.7 Km track, or the 288 MB Facebook car that will be downloaded with Vodafone’s mobile network. It wouldn’t surprise us if the Facebook car wins, since the campaign is there to display the speed of Vodafone’s new, upgraded network. According to Vodafone, it is as fast as the average computer connection. That is quite a claim. And if true, how about communicating; “Vodafone’s new network; as fast as a landline”. Anyway, if you would like to see the actual race, it will be shown live on Facebook. Created by Achtung!.
Samsung introduces ‘Swyping’ instead of typing
Monday, August 9th, 2010
“If you don’t want to miss a thing this summer, send a SuperSwyper“, is what this poster communicates. Since Apple has introduced the iPhone, every mobile phone manufacturer tries to copy its intuitive navigation. Samsung is no exception. There’s one thing though that Samsung tries to do better, and that’s ‘Swyping’ instead of typing. With one continuous movement of your finger, you can swipe a word. And since typing on an iPhone can be very frustrating, the potential of this technology might prove an important innovation. The mobile phone manufacturer that is steadily growing to become one of the big players in the land of consumer electronics, claims that swiping is 1,5 times faster than typing. We cannot judge whether this is true, but it sounds promising. Muse was asked to create a campaign that explains the ease of use of swiping – for the Galaxy S. The Amsterdam agency came up with Samsung SuperSwypers, a team of journalists that you can send to an event to register it. It’s one of those ingenious campaigns that displays tech savvyness, but doesn’t seem to tap into a genuine consumer need – why need journalists, if you have friends to keep you posted on interesting events? That’s why we think it will fail to reach a broad audience. Having said that, we are curious whether swiping will become the new category standard.
Update: Today (August, 12) Samsung bought a blogpost on GeenStijl. This means the SuperSwypers will get some serious attention now!
Ben is stuck
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Though these two (“Trees and Bo”) seem to be stuck in this banner, “they’re not stuck with Ben”. Because Ben doesn’t do year-contracts. Ben is the mobile phone provider (the name translates: Am – as in ‘I am’) made famous by KesselsKramer in 1999 with a very distinctive campaign; “Ik ben Ben”. After killing the brand in 2003, to become T-Mobile, it was reintroduced in 2008. To never change a winning team, KesselsKramer was awarded the account for a second time. But unfortunately since the relaunch we haven’t seen – or at least can’t remember having seen – any memorable work. And though this might be judged as a great ad by the average consumer, we of course remember the best banner ad (if not ad campaign) of 2009 for Belgium bank Axion, created by Boondoggle. A very similar idea – though better – that won a ton of international awards – among which 5 (!) golden Lions in Cannes this year. Our conclusion: Ben Was.
Zero20 tells you what’s on
Friday, July 16th, 2010
A new Amsterdam city guide, called Zero20 – the Amsterdam area code – was launched this week. The online platform helps tourists and expats to spend their spare time by showing what’s on in Music, Film, Art, Food and Shop(ping). The navigation works fairly intuitive through a calendar that primarily shows big pictures of the events. It was conceived by Italian-born Stefano Xotta and created by Grey Amsterdam. Though there are already quite a few similar initiatives, this one might be more successful due to its catchy look.
Cannes: 2 x design gold for BBDO and A’dam WW
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
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
Hello my name is NOT Johan Kramer
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
This website, Hello I am Johan Kramer, is one of the funniest ‘under construction’ websites we’ve ever seen. Instead of simply saying ‘under construction’, Johan Kramer’s uncle Bob starts by saying “Hello my name is NOT Johan Kramer”. He explains why there isn’t a website. First uncle Bob hired a Swede, than an Ukrainian web agency, and now an innovative agency from Letland. Johan still doesn’t have a site, nor sound. But fortunately there are subtitles, so you can follow the whole story. His monologue is fairly long for saying ‘under construction’, but easily engaging enough to sit it all out. We’re not sure whether the site is really under construction, but that doesn’t matter cause it will create buzz anyway. And that is something Kramer can use, cause he just released a new film, called Johan Primero. It’s based on a true story about a guy who drives his Citroën 2CV 50 times around FC Barcelona’s football stadium, Camp Nou, every single day. He believes it brings his team good luck. Kramer is the founder of the world famous agency KesselsKramer. He left the agency 5 years ago to become a full time film director. But he clearly hasn’t lost his feeling for advertising yet.
5 silver Lions in Cannes for Promo and PR
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
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.
Adidas’ Quest ends on Facebook
Monday, June 14th, 2010“And so this journey brings me here…”. The extensive journey started about a year ago with Messi as the Spark and the mysterious voice-over of Zidane explaining what was going on. To us the whole concept was a bit over-complicated. We never really understood what Zidane was trying to tell us – not only because of his poor English. But we forgave Adidas and its agency 180 Amsterdam easily, cause it was all so richly executed and therefore not a punishment to watch. Especially the previous commercial – “inspred by Sin City” – was a very pleasant orgy of special effects. So now the long journey has brought Zidane to South Africa. And to celebrate this, you can join the Adidas “Match-Up experience” on Facebook. Again, quite a bombastic ad. But if we understand correctly, you can pick a favourite player out of the 32 Adidas heroes from the different countries (Messi from Argentina, Gerard from England, Pienaar from South Africa, etc.) and then predict who will win when they’re playing each other. The winners get free Adidas gear. So to put it banally, it’s betting on matches, sponsored by Adidas. And so the journey must end.
Samsung 3D takes over YouTube with game
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
Last time we wrote about Samsung, it took over a building in the centre of Amsterdam with a 3D projection. Today Samsung is taking over You Tube with a game. The game-take-over starts with a film of the 3D projection on the Beurs van Berlage. Then it slowly takes over YouTube. The game is nothing special (click on as many butterflies as possible and win a 3D LED TV), but the take-over makes quite good eye candy. Created by Muse.
