The first wave of international advertising dates from the 1920s when the industrial revolution gave American advertising an enormous boost. New York, and particularly Madison Avenue, became the first epicenter of international advertising. Agencies like JWT and DDB were so successful they expanded outside the US.

In the 1960s the second wave was centered in London and Paris. A new creative élan changed the advertising industry. Agencies like Saatchi and Publicis introduced ‘soft-selling’. Until then American styled advertising was known to ‘hard-sell’ products by using a literal and bombastic tone of voice. In the 60s humour was added to persuade the consumer in a more friendly way. During this second wave ‘swinging London’ was the place to be.

In the 70s a more diverse product range and a larger variety of consumer behaviour forced agencies to become more flexible. The typical international advertising agencies from the third wave, emerging in the 1980s, were smaller, and therefore more flexible, compared to the first two waves. Many of them were breakaways from the first and second wave agencies. At that time BBH, Fallon, and Crispin, Porter + Bogusky emerged as international agencies. Another typical third wave agency, Wieden+Kennedy, opened its Amsterdam office in the 90s – following Nike that opened it’s European headquarters here. And, as Röling mentions, this was a ‘critical juncture’ for the development of Amsterdam as an international advertising hub.

Anti-cyclically the global networking agencies from the first and second wave only grew bigger and bigger during this period by buying creative, independent agencies. They thus became less and less flexible and more dependent on shareholders who were only interested in growth.

The fourth wave of advertising was basically a continuation of the process of deconsolidation that started in the 80s. It was the introduction of the internet in the 90s and the changing role of the consumer that entitled the fourth wave to have its own chapter in the history books. The rapidly changing media landscape forced agencies to cooperate more and more with external, specialized parties, instead of doing everything in-house. Thanks to internationally orientated agencies like KesselsKramer, 180, and Strawberry Frog, opening their doors here in the 90s, Amsterdam is now riding the fourth wave.

One of Röling’s most insightful observations is that today the Amsterdam offices of the global network agencies, like BBDO, DDB, TBWA, Publicis, Saatchi, and Lowe are predominantly nationally orientated in terms of both their clients and employees. What’s more, almost all of them are located outside the city centre in relatively cheap, not very inspiring office buildings, closer to Schiphol airport. The independent, third and fourth wave agencies, are all located in the city centre, preferably in the old merchant houses along the canals. Understandable. That is what makes creative folk from all over the world want to work in Amsterdam. And, not to forget, the clients don’t mind a meeting in such an environment either.

So, to summarize Röling’s article, the key to Amsterdam’s international success is the increasing importance of small, flexible, independent advertising agencies and the attraction the city has on exactly these types of agencies and people. It is the size of the city, the friendly pace of life, and the international attitude of the people that attracts creativity. That is what makes Amsterdam the international centre of the fourth wave of international advertising. And since we’re only just climbing up from a global economical crisis, we still haven’t reached its peak.

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Source: Adformatie

This commercial was made for the Luxemburg, Belgium and French markets. Since it was created by Amsterdam based Lemon Scented Tea, we wanted to share it anyway. We had never heard of Bofferding. It sounds funny. The commercial is more serious though. It felt to us as a cross-over between Bavaria (that is, the pay-off “Zo, nu eerst een Bavaria”, which basically means ‘Phew, now I deserve a Bavaria’) and Grolsch (more specifically the pay-off from the 80’s: ‘Craftmanship is Mastership’). But that’s not really relevant since the commercial is not made for the Dutchies. Strategically it does make total sense, but there’s something odd about the end, where the hero almost clumsily opens the bottle with his screwdriver, and a bad voice-over somewhat spoils the nice images we saw before. A bit of an anti-climax, really. But, all in all, skillfully made and thus A-brand-worthy. And it did make us a little thirsty, we have to admit.

Quite spectacular this outdoor ad for the Adidas F50 Adizero. Not only did Adidas change the tram stop benches, the real boots were also incorporated in the outdoor furniture. Created by 180, TBWA\BEC and JC Decaux.

In the past 5 years the Dutch bicycle scene has undergone a small revolution. Where a bicycle used to simply be a means of transportation, today it is a fashion item. Especially the fixed gear bicycle (or ‘fixie’) is beyond hip (Vans, tattoos, Chrome courier bag, rolled up trousers, funny hairdo, etc.). Ironically, the fixie lifestyle that comes with the single gear bicycle was imported from the US, a country where only the coolest couriers dare to defy the NYC traffic. The first brand to copy American styled bicycles and that started the revolution, was Johnny Loco. It was created in 2005 by advertising agency New Message. In the beginning the bikes were made in China and fell apart within no time, but nowadays they’re pretty reliable. And since no bicycle brand does fashionable advertising, Johnny Loco is the one eyed king in the land of the blind. We don’t mean that in a derogative way; we very much like the ads. We also came across another poster with former Elite “model of the year” Barbara Egeler. It is probably no coincidence that Loco means stupid in Spanish… Which reminds us; the ads are a more classy version of the “Be Stupid” campaign by Diesel that was banned in several countries, because it supposedly provoked ‘stupid’ behaviour. The photos were made by René Kramers.

Source: Adformatie