Amsterdam Central Station has been a building site already for we don’t know how many years – just like Damrak, Rokin, Ferdinand Bol street, etc. Thanks to the new subway line connecting the North to the South of Amsterdam – taking longer to build than the Chinese wall – and thanks to our ‘wonderful’ poldermodel (read: everyone has a voice in governing the city). But, sorry, we’re drifting off (politically). The Dutch Railway probably thought it was time to do something back for its traveler, so it disclosed its royal waiting room that is normally not open to the public – together with a bunch of information about the details. Here‘s another screenshot. You can wonder through them in 3D and there’s also an app for when you’re waiting for one of their delayed trains. They’ve also disclosed the waiting room of Den Haag HS. Soon more waiting rooms will follow. Created by Yune.

If you live in the Netherlands you probably know ‘Artis de Partis’; it’s an icon of the Amsterdam zoo and a cuddly doll for many Dutch kids. Two years ago Artis conceived an alien brother for Artis de Partis to promote Artis’ planetarium, called ‘Artis de Marsis’. The cyclope was a logical step to further exploit the success of Artis de Partis. When Dutchman André Kuipers – a big fan of the Artis planetarium – recently went into space with the ISS international space program, he decided to take Artis de Marsis with him, which led to this wonderful picture of Artis de Marsis in space. On top of this Dawn – Artis’ agency – created a goodbye film, a dedicated webpage where one can follow Artis de Marsis, and a special program in the Planetarium. The fans of Artis de Marsis will soon even be able to make an inflight call with Kuipers live from the planetarium. Engaging advertising in its truest form.

We were invited to Fitzroy’s New Year’s Bash last Friday and we have to say it is already one of the better parties of 2012. Why? Because they served fantastic mojito’s at the huge bar supplied by Fitzroy’s client Bacardi, they had a great show going with leggings, organised by a former intern who is now part of Legguns, and the tunes rocked our eardrums with Teenage Lady Killers and The Pony Peaches behind the decks. Thanks, Fitzroy.

This BMW ad adverises the new 8-Speed automatic transmission – “comes standard with the 1, 3, and 5 series”. It looks amazingly sexy and feels instantly right. What a great insight; BMW brings out the little boy in us. No further explanation required. And that makes it easily Cannes material. By the way, in this ad you see its full size; the Matchbox version times 43! Created by UbachsWisbrun/JWT.

This film reminded us of the animation quite recently created by CCCP for the Scheepvaart museum. Both are similar styled, both promote a museum, and both use the same voice-over. Apart from that the film is of course making the museum look quite attractive. And we didn’t know that Naturalis owns one of the world largest collections of organisms; 37 million items! The animation also gives us a peak in the future; who needs to visit a physical museum, when you can make edcuational films like this – which is kind of ironic. Created by Plus One Amsterdam.

What a great film to promote the release of the ‘Air Balloon’ bag charm by Louis Vuitton. A ‘bag charm’ is a small icon attached to your Luois Vuitton trunk or bag that automatically traces your steps and thus becomes a memento of your journey – ‘charms’ originally are small jewelry icons hanging from a bracelet around the wrist. Louis Vuitton has been creating bag charms for more than 10 years now – according to LV some of them have become collector’s items. The film was created by Christian Borstlap – Part of a Bigger Plan – in his signature graphic style; black and white, crisp and clear, but with much eye for detail at the same time. The wonderful song Too Insistent by The Dø makes the journey complete.

There’s a new ad brand in town, called the Account Planners Group (APG) Netherlands, an organization that brings account planners – or strategists, if you will – together. APG is an existing brand that was first coined in London and which now exists in several other countries than the UK, among which Germany, Sweden, and Australia. Gerald Hensel, German, planner at Blast Radius, blogger, and fanatic tweeter, is the initiator and the co-founder of the Dutch APG. In November, the first open invitation meeting kicked off at Strawberry Frog – hosting the event. We were there and judging by the amount of planners that attended, it was a success. We took Gerald out for lunch at Stanislavski to ask him a few questions about his initiative.

First of all, please tell us a little about yourself

I’ve lived in Amsterdam for a little over 18 months. I work as Strategist for Blast Radius – an international agency for digital marketing. I consider myself undoubtedly a well-connected digital guy, so I was already interacting with Amsterdam agency peeps before my arrival here. This definitely facilitated me to quickly get to know a lot of people and also become part of the scene.

Though I try not to be stereotypical German myself – if such a thing exists – there is one thing Germans like; clubs and associations. When I came here, I was simply astonished that no formal or informal frame existed for the planners in town. So I decided to create one, together with two planners, Heather LeFevre, who I knew through Twitter, and Wouter Boon, who I knew through Amsterdam Ad Blog. We managed to assemble the first couple of strategists for a Stammtisch – as we call it in Germany – which is a regular pub meet & greet. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Gerald orders a fresh orange juice and salade Niçoise]

Though I try not to be stereotypical German myself – if such a thing exists – there is one thing Germans like; clubs and associations

Why did you find it necessary to establish an APG Netherlands?
Because planners are an endangered, diverse species, yet they are more important than ever as they carry the lion’s share of the change in our industry. Other job profiles are much more standardized; there are countless trainings and guilds for design, but hardly any for strategists. Plus, most of them have very exotic backgrounds; I studied Political Sciences and Literature for instance, and used to work as a copywriter for seven years. That’s not even extreme. Each person in this informal professional group can work better as part of a group of likeminded people. But the actual day job of a planner is very different depending on whether he calls himself a Brand Strategist, a Media Strategist, a Connection Planner or whatsoever. Additionally, differences can be found in a Dutch and Non-Dutch background. So we can learn a lot from each other.

Planners are an endangered, diverse species, yet they are more important than ever as they carry the lion’s share of the change in our industry

The idea behind the APG Netherlands is to create a forum for everyone that considers him or herself Planner. Hopefully it will become something that helps us to network as well as learn from one another. We should appreciate the fact that our job is about learning and about generating insights. Since strategists are a curious bunch by nature, I cannot imagine any strategist that wouldn’t be interested. In fact, a strategist that is not eager to learn something is not a strategist at all!

Who are the founders of APG Netherlands?

We are a group of seven people now that bring all the facets of planning together; media, integrated, and digital. We are also a wide range of nationalities; Dutch, American, English, and German. It was certainly not intentional to create such a balanced mix, but I guess this proves my earlier point about the diversity of backgrounds. So far, we get along very well and every now and then we even make decisions in between our discussions… [Hensel laughs out loud]

Since strategists are a curious bunch by nature, I cannot imagine any strategist that wouldn’t be interested. In fact, a strategist that is not eager to learn something is not a strategist at all

Apart from me there is: Heather LeFevre, former SD at Strawberry Frog and since very recently freelancing; Wouter Boon, also freelancing as Boon Strategy; my colleague Simon Neate-Stidson from Blast Radius; Laurence Parkes from AKQA; Boris Nihom from They; and Laura van den Boom from FHV/BBDO.

What was the theme of the first meeting at Strawberry Frog?

This was about one of the core elements of any Strategist’s job: where, as individuals, do we get our insights from – or at least, where do we pretend to get them from? [Hensel smiles] In other words, what has inspired us to write certain creative briefs.

How did it go?

I think it went extremely well. Thanks again to our friends from Strawberry Frog who provided just the perfect location for such an event. All of us were a bit anxious if there would be enough people interested. But it turned out to be busy with about 80 Strategists attending. We viewed some great presentations. The feedback supported my perception that the first event was a success.

And the key thing for me was; it didn’t feel like a professional club. It felt like hanging out with a lot of smart people with many things to talk about, and that’s great, isn’t it?

When is the next APG event and what will the theme be?

The next APG event is coming soon – it will be on the 2nd of February. The title is: ‘Success by Failure’. It’s about the mistakes we make and what we learn from them. [You can sign up for the event here]

When you’re introducing a new, important, public phone number, you have to make sure people remember what to dial. This is often done with annoying tunes that are glued into your skull. Not in this commercial though, wanting us to report neglected or abused animals. It plays with some striking images, thus tapping into your visual memory instead. So, no catchy “144” song, but some sad animals turned into numbers – you could call that animal abuse in itself, but we were assured that no animals were harmed in the making of the commercial. Finally, to make sure our auditive memory is not left out, the pay-off “Bel 144 en red een dier” (meaning: call 144 and save an animal) modestly rhymes. Created by Y&R and executed by Hectic Electric.