Talking about some slick advertising. Here it is. It starts like a movie trailer: “The first rocket to reach the moon had less computing power than today’s Sony VAIO notebook”. The trailer announces a branded documentary that shows how some whiz kids learn “rocket science” to launch a rocket with a Sony Vaio. The Hollywoodish tone of voice is no surprise when you realize it was created by 180LA (180 Amsterdam’s sibling). And while the cynics among us might say that probably any other comparable laptop can launch a rocket, you got to admit this (literally) is a great piece of ad. We can easily imagine people getting goosebumps when seeing the trailer. And they might even be compelled to see the entire documentary on Science Channel “this fall”. It caries all the Hollywood tricks (“a weather setback!”) that will make compelling TV. And we’re pretty sure that Sony Vaio will gain on the brand attributes “smart” and “powerful”. Job well done – this goes for both kids and agency.
Grolsch launches refreshing beer magazine
August 10th, 2010, AAB
Already for quite a few years Grolsch claims to be the beer brand for original individuals – which makes it beloved in the advertising scene, for that matter. Quite a unique positioning, since most of the other big beer brands make their advertising for Joe Sixpack – or at least they create very similar advertising. So Grolsch easily stands out as the sophisticated brand for unique individuals. That’s what made the brand decide to come up with an unorthodox piece of advertising; the sponsored magazine, titled Eigen.Zinnig. This translates more or less into original, authentic. It was created by G+J Publishers and freelance editor-in-chief Rob van Bracht. With its 148 pages and thorough articles, the magazine luxuriously feels more like a glossy (costs: €5) than a sponsored magazine. Together with the magazine Grolsch launched a commercial – created by DDB Amsterdam – that toasts “op” originality in different ways. Though the content and pay-off (“As authentic as Grolsch”) match well with the magazine, we were really surprised that the magazine title Eigen.Zinnig is never being used. In other words, there’s no obvious link between the commercial and the magazine. And that lack of synergy, automatically means a waste of money. In any case, it’s very refreshing – or eigenzinnig, if you will – to see a different kind of beer ad for once.
Samsung introduces ‘Swyping’ instead of typing
August 9th, 2010, AAB
“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
August 4th, 2010, AAB
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.
KesselsKramer publishes book about tattoos
August 2nd, 2010, AAB
Though Zack McDonald recently left KesselsKramer and moved to Sid Lee, he wanted to share his last KK project with us. Together with Christian Bunyan, designer Angela Lidderdale, and Happy Pets, he created INK. The book is about tattoos and people’s often unusual motivations for getting them. The tattoo stories are quite diverse and well written, featuring drug-fuelled trips to Thailand, Scottish teenagers running amuck, and the world’s most precise tattoo artist. Each story has inspired a special one-off illustration by Swiss designers HappyPets. INK appears in a limited and numbered edition of 250 – you can order the book here.
Cheese spread for real men with chainsaws
July 30th, 2010, AAB
Since it is the silly season – or ‘cucumber time’ if you will – we thought it would be appropriate to show some silly advertising. We drove by this ad quite a few times, before we understood it. “Cheese for real men”, is what it says. We did connect the header to the chainsaw and the black background, but couldn’t figure out, what the ‘Eru’ cheese spread had to do with it. Only when taking a closer look, we understood that this cheese spread is “extra ripened and with strong taste”. This would mean that normal Eru is for women and…uhm…well you know…men who don’t use chainsaws. We know we shouldn’t take it all too literal, but if you talk about superficial advertising, this one is a winner! And, in any case, real men eat real cheese, full stop.
VBAT wins a Graphis award for giving SNS colour
July 28th, 2010, AAB
Design agency VBAT has won a golden Graphis Award with its retail design for the Dutch SNS Bank. We’re not too familiar with the Graphis award, but the website looks pretty distinguished. And if we judge the design, it does look…uhm…very, very colourful. So we definitely believe that this new retail environment will do a great job in separating the bank from its competitors. It might even be able to make SNS the sexiest bank in the Netherlands – though personally we’d rather go for reliability these days. One thing we would like to advise SNS though; please do create some matching advertising, cause if you ask us what the SNS brand is all about, we wouldn’t have a clue. In our mind, the brand is fairly insignificant.
Win two ecstasy trips to Ibiza with 538
July 27th, 2010, AAB
One of the biggest radio channels in the Netherlands, Radio 538, advertises its Ibiza promotion with two ecstasy pills in the colours of its visual identity; “Listen and win a trip for 2 to Ibiza”. You would almost forget that ecstasy is considered a hard drug – even in the Netherlands. Maybe they should have added a legal disclaimer, saying; “we recommend you to first try one E, to see how it lands, and only then move to the next one”. In any case, an effective ad that will attract the exact right audience for a trip to Ibiza. It also says you should check the 538 website for more info. We did, but couldn’t more info – it probably didn’t fit on the information overloaded website anymore. Anyway, the ad was made by bsur.
Shoptalk: Strawberry Frog wins Emirates
July 26th, 2010, AAB
Congrats to Strawberry Frog Amsterdam! The agency pitched for the worldwide Emirates account and won. The other pitch contenders were Team WPP (which didn’t sound very creative from the start), VCCP (a London based agency), and 180 Amsterdam. Emirates and Strawberry Frog are not new to each other. Already in 2004 the agency – that recently re-opened an Amsterdam office – won the Emirates account. During the World Cup Football this summer, it became clear to us that the airline needed a new agency. Even though it was an official sponsor, we didn’t see any of its advertising. We look forward to seeing Strawberry Frog’s new ‘Cultural Movement’ approach.
Shoptalk: Sid Lee wins; Arnold opens
July 22nd, 2010, AAB
Adidas is moving its digital account from 180’s Riot to Sid Lee. A worrying move for 180, since it makes Sid Lee, already working for Adidas Originals, own yet another piece of the advertising pie. Through the grapevine we also heard that Boston based Arnold will be opening an Amsterdam office at the end of this year to service its international client Volvo. This sounds like an efficient move since Volvo’s international digital agency EuroRSCG 4D is already based in Amsterdam.
