We were invited by the VEA (association of Dutch advertisers) to attend the second edition of Creative Lounge on Monday in Pakhuis de Zwijger. The night was hosted by Jelani Isaacs (Brenninkmeijer and Isaacs) and Claire Finn (U-Turn). Guests of the evening were Matthew Atkatz (Riot, digital arm 180), Romke Oortwijn (N=5), Raphael Mazoyer (Asics) and – Skyping in from London – Florian Schmitt (Hi-Res). And this night’s topic was the controversy between digital agencies and non-digital agencies; is digital part of the idea or is digital the idea itself? A promising question, though it did take a while before the discussion stopped to bounce all over the place. We do understand why it did though; there’s no unambiguous answer to the question what the exact role of digital is in advertising. Some big ideas can only exist thanks to the technology behind it, while some ideas merely use existing digital tools to execute it. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘180’
Epica: Kit Kat Jesus wins gold
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Holland won 18 Epica awards – four times gold – last week in Belgrade. It ended fifth after Germany, France, Sweden and the UK. Our favourite gold went to Kit Kat Jesus. Kit Kat pretended as if Jesus had been spotted in a Kit Kat bar and this news spread as quick as only internet can spread news. We didn’t just like it because we are atheists (or at least agnostic), but more so because we love simple (but great) ideas that generate tons of free publicity. We found it a little odd that this was in the category ‘technique’, but apparently their was no better category available – the category ‘big idea’ would have been more to the point. It was done by UbachsWisbrun/JWT. Heineken’s Walk-in fridge also won gold in ‘film’ – it was submitted by TBWA’s production company CZAR. 180 won gold for Adidas with ‘Every team needs the spark’. And Grey won gold in print for Pink Ribbon.
Source: Adformatie
Shoptalk: Moseley and Dundas joining 180
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Al Moseley, partner and executive creative director at Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer (HMDG), has quit to join 180 Amsterdam. Though Mosley is responsible for the ‘M’ in HMDG, the agency won’t be changing it’s name. He will become part of the management of 180 together with Kevin Dundas, who’ll become managing partner. Before HMDG, Moseley worked at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and before that he worked for Mother. Dundas (ex Saatchi & Saatchi) was president and chief executive at Sapient Nitro and only joined the agency last January. Moseley and Dundas will work alongside 180 chief executive, Chris Mendola, and the chief creative officer, Andy Fackrell. Alex Melvin continues in his role as Chairman focusing on key clients and agency expansion.
Creative Lounge: Two worlds of advertising
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Last Tuesday the VEA (Dutch Association of Advertising Agencies) and VCP (Dutch Association of Commercial Producers) organized ‘Creative Lounge’ – an initiative that brings the creative advertising scene together. The theme was ‘Two worlds of advertising’, referring to the clear distinction in Amsterdam between the typical Dutch agencies that make typical Dutch advertising and the international expat scene mainly working for international clients. One important difference between the Dutch professionals and the expats, as talent recruiter Keith White of Wieden+Kennedy explained, is the fact that the Dutch are used to work from 9 till 6, while the Wieden+Kennedy’s of this world live in a parallel world and often start their day when the Dutch go to bed. There’s a different work ethic. It helps of course that for expats social life is for the biggest part happening within their working environment. When the question was raised why the international agencies never work with Dutch production agencies, Clair Finn of U-Turn (180) said it was partly due to the lacking service level of the Dutch. White added to this that it’s not just within the agencies, but in general; Dutch restaurants, shops, the service is overall quite poor. Paul Lovoie (Taxi) suggested that you should do your advertising in Amsterdam, while outsourcing the service to the French. We’re not sure whether that’s a wise idea, but without a doubt learned that Amsterdam has to raise its service level.
Source: Adformatie
Sony makes believe it’s everywhere
Friday, November 6th, 2009We had to view this Sony commercial a few times, before we could fully appreciate it. The reason is that if feels a little corporate. As if Sony told its agency: make a big budget commercial, throw in massive special effects, show that we spend lots of money on R&D and please feature some of our fantastic entertainment titles. Oh yeah, and make sure everybody likes it. As said, a little corporate. What we like about it, however, is that Sony for the very first time in its history positions itself as a complete entertainment company that offers movies (2012), games (Motor Storm, Pacific Rift) and music (Hey Monday). We also like the on/off button as ad property, combined with the pay-off ‘make.believe’. It says: we are a ubiquitous, full service entertainment company that makes everything you can imagine. It makes Sony look confident, ambitious and ready for the next century. The commercial was created by 180’s Amsterdam and LA offices, directed by Noam Murro and given special effects by Animal Logic.
Eurobest jury announced
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
This year Amsterdam is hosting the Eurobest festival, so as Amsterdam Ad Blog we thought it would be appropriate to pay a little more than average attention to it. As you you’ve been able to see in the banner on our website – that has probably become a little annoying by now – the festival will be held on the 25th until the 27th of November. Yesterday the jury was announced. The following Amsterdam Creative Directors have the privilege to judge the best of Europe’s advertising: Chris Baylis, Tribal DDB (traditional); Sicco Beerda, Euro RSCG (jury president interactive); Coen Weesjes, Downtown (direct & sales promotion); Eugene Bay, VBAT (design); Andy Fackrell, 180 Amsterdam (jury president integrated) and Magnus Olsson, Saatchi & Saatchi (integrated).
The retro advertising approach for Adidas
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
This ad was made by 180 Amsterdam – and photographed by Carlos Serrao – to advertise Adidas Climacool. There’s not very much to say about it – pretty much on brief, we guess. Except maybe that the press release said the shoot was done with “a slightly retro advertising all-in-camera approach”. We don’t really know what that means, but apparently it made them cut off the guy’s trainer.
Marketing Tribune: Dutch ad agency survey
Friday, September 11th, 2009
Marketing Tribune just published its yearly Dutch ad agency survey, conducted by Intormart GFK. And because 180 Amsterdam scored so well, co-founder Chris Mendola (right) and Andy Fackrell were asked a few questions about the success of their agency. The results of the survey came from 865 advertisers, who answered questions about the awareness, preference and image of the Dutch agencies.
We were happy to learn that the respondents judged ‘coming up with original ideas’ as the most important feature of an ad agency. This basically means that if creativity is not leading in your agency, you have to change your proposition or your job. On this characteristic 180 Amsterdam scored best with 52% – which proofs that having 32 nationalities on board does induce creativity. The agency strongly climbed on the image ladder; last year it scored only 14% on this characteristic. On ‘enthusiasm’ (would that be hugging the client before selling your ideas?) 180 also scored best. Wieden+Kennedy, another very cosmopolitan agency, is the most trustworthy agency – The People’s Valley and McCann were second and third.
Advertisers with a one-million-plus budget, put DDB, N=5 and TBWA, respectively, on their shortlist for an above the line campaign. Not a preferable position when you realize that the interactive agencies (LBi Lost Boys, Clockwork, Achtung! and The People’s Valley) are gaining territory fast – this of course was already announced by the strongly shifting media budgets. And ironically Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy have a very strong brain position – amazingly still profiting from the brand position they built up in the 90’s.
To us the most striking conclusion of the survey is the image leap made by 180 and Wieden+Kennedy among Dutch advertisers. Hopefully it means they will finally become an integrated part of the Amsterdam ad community. We know from the interview that 180 is working hard on it; the agency is looking for a Dutch new business director, who can build its local business.
Interview: Andy Fackrell
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
Andy Fackrell has worked for 180 Amsterdam since 2003. He also worked in Wellington, Singapore and Portland, but his love for the Dutch ‘krentenbollen’ keeps him here. We could call him a specialist in sports advertising, since he worked most of his career for Nike and Adidas. Funny is not his thing; he likes the element of art in advertising. Andy is clearly fond of talking about advertising and, as a true creative, his mind jumps quickly and associatively from subject to subject. Enthusiastically he shares his love for Napoleonic battle scenes, Anthony Gormley’s plinth in Trafalgar Square, Aha’s ‘Take on Me’, Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘The Sirens Of Titan’, Bill Murray in Groundhog Day and that ‘little one lane bridge at Ouderkerk’ – among many other things. To get the full picture, you can enjoy the entire interview here.
Adidas’ Super 7; sports heroes with human traits
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
This web commercial, with Veronica Campell-Brown, was made by RIOT – the digital arm of 180 Amsterdam. The campaign is called Super 7 – after the invincible cartoon heroes – and made for Adidas Running. It features 7 different track and field athletes and their individual ‘super human’ qualities and personalities. The athletes are Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner, Blaka Vlasic, Haile Gebrelassie, Christien Ohuruogu, Allyson Felix, Veronica Campell-Brown. Here’s a film with the complete group. The films are typical for Adidas; showing athletes that look very serious and not so serious at the same time. Adidas wants to tell us that although these 7 athletes have the super hero status, they are human after all. It thus smartly combines aspiration with accessibility. Interesting about this campaign is that it looks very much like a TV commercial (because of the production value), while it’s made for internet only. A few years ago, it would have been considered a waste of (production) money not showing it on TV and thus not gaining maximum exposure. But today advertisers realize that you actually save (literally!) tons of money by excluding TV as a medium. And for some people that must be a worrying thought.