Asics launches a new range of women’s sportswear, called AYAMi – the perfect fusion of fashion and technology, as Asics explains. And in Japanese AYAMi means ‘feminine’, ‘design’, ‘colourful’ and ‘beauty’ – all at the same time! So we can imagine where Amsterdam Worldwide came from when developing this campaign. The agency recruited (pretty) amateur female runners who were shot by world-renowned sports photographer Robert Wilson. A fashion studio backdrop was created in the amateur’s natural running environment and they were photographed while cooling down. It thus became a sort of visual testimonial. We love the photography, but are slightly disappointed by the ‘real beauty’ message. It made us immediately think of both Dove and Nivea. And apart from the fact that these are not the hippest brands on earth, this amateur runner can do without the marketing talk. If there’s one reason why for her “beauty is not inside a make-up bag”, it is because she looks awesome in an AYAMi outfit.

“Wow….[silence]”. That is what this commercial for Asics, made by Amsterdam Worldwide, did with us. It is directed by Mischa Rozema (PostPanic), a Dutch director specialized in high quality productions that create a magical world. With this ad Asics clearly positions itself as the technical running shoe – away from the other sports brands that mainly talk about the person inside the shoe. And on top of that it reconfirms the meaning of the brand; a sound mind, in a sound body. Other than that is doesn’t need much explanation. And to us that is always a good sign…

Here’s a teaser for the new Onitsuka Tiger campaign made by Amsterdam Worldwide (AW). What a cool brand to work for. First of all Onitsuka always seems to give its agency carte blanche with respect to coming up with truly creative stuff. Secondly the brand proposition ‘made of Japan’ allows AW to draw inspiration from the rich Japanese culture. Every year the agency creates a giant sneaker with a special Japanese theme. Last year it was the Zodiac calender. This year the agency created an integrated campaign around the traditionally crafted ‘Tansu’ (a chest with box shaped drawers). It took a team of Tansu masters four months to handicraft the shoe shaped ‘Kaidan’ (step) Tansu, using techniques that date back from the time of the Samurai. Back in the days these chests were used both as a cabinet as well as a hidden ladder that made upstairs lofts look inaccessible – and thus not taxable – to the tax collector. But there’s more; the Onitsuka shoe works like a puzzle; the boxes must be unlocked in a specific sequence to unveil its hidden treasures. For those who cannot admire the real chest – on display in Onitsuka’s flagship stores – AW made an online version that invites the consumer to solve the puzzle. The project is topped off with special instore Tansu-themed materials. Talking about craftmanship…

A trailer should make you curious and reveal something of a storyline, suspense, action, drama, whatever. This trailer doesn’t really do that for us. However, we’re not the target group (Russian or Eastern European) and have never heard of the ‘Legend of Akhtamar’, nor from ArArAt – an Armenian brandy, with a beautiful name and ditto logo, owned by Pernod Ricard. Professionally though, we did get excited by the announcement of a 15 minute commercial that will be launched January, first and promises to make some interesting long form content. The short film is made by Amsterdam Worldwide. The agency hired some big names to make the project a success; Stephen Hilton wrote the score, ‘the award winning’ Shammasian Brothers directed it and Erwin Olaf (renowned Dutch photographer) shot the print campaign. It also features a handful of actors that are ‘world famous’ in the East. Yet another example of an advertiser that invests in content, rather than media, to tell a heritage based brand story. Recently we saw a similar concept for Martini; a 3 minute film distributed through YouTube, creating an atmosphere that perfectly conveyed the heritage, brand personality and tone of voice of Martini. For brands that want to tell a sophisticated brand story, the future of the 30 second commercial is a branded story, 15 minutes in length, rather than 15 seconds – regardless the picky and time deprived consumer.

Yesterday we visited the opening day of the Eurobest festival in Amsterdam. The first seminar we attended was given by Paul Lavoie from Taxi Europe. He talked about ‘trust’ and explained that ideas can only grow big if people give them trust – from the creative director to the client. To illustrate this, he invited a Dakar Rally driver, a female porn producer and a knife thrower. They all had to trust the people around them or the other way around. We very much liked the unconventional character of his presentation – especially the circus-like show with the knife thrower was spectacular! – and the fact that Lavoie put his ego aside to let other people talk about his subject.

After Lavoie, Jeff Kling from Wieden+Kennedy took the stage and started his talk by making sure that everybody understood he was not responsible for the slight change in the title of his talk: ‘Show me the ad, you motherfucker’. It had been changed in (…) Motherf*****. He loved the word ‘fuckin’ and used it several times to make this point.

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Amsterdam Worldwide won a 4-way pitch against McCann-Erickson, Lowe London and DLKW to launch the new Opel Meriva across Europe. Michael Hartwig, director of European marketing communications of Opel/Vauxhall, said: “Amsterdam Worldwide’s approach to this brief demonstrated a clear understanding of the Opel brand and the target market, as well as unique insight about the role of the new Meriva. More than an ad, Amsterdam Worldwide developed an idea that is symbolic not only of a great new car in the Meriva, but of the new spirit at Opel.” The Meriva will be launched in March 2010. If the new Meriva campaign will be as original and integrated as the work for Onitsuka Tiger, we trust Opel to have made a wise choice.

That’s the question Asics poses in this ad. Beautifully made by Amsterdam Worldwide. This question has to do of course with Asics’ motto; sound mind, sound body. And the funny thing is, the ad immediately proves the truth of the statement. Why? Because the art director mixed up the left and right brain hemispheres! It is the right half that more dominantly generates creativity – because of its holistic and intuitive qualities. And it’s the left that thinks more logical and analytical. So now you know why in advertising an art director needs a copy buddy; one of them has to get the facts straight!

Last week thenetworkone and Campaign magazine chose the 16 leading independent agencies in the world. We were happy to discover that three of them (19%!) have an office in Amsterdam; Amsterdam Worldwide, Perfect Fools and Modernista! The selection was based on “creative achievement, spirit of curiosity, open-mindedness and collaborative approaches to solving clients’ communications problems”. Although it’s a bit of a subjective choice and not entirely independent, we are of course happy to hear this. What we like best about the election is that it comes with essays, written by the executives from each agency. Here’s the essay from two ‘Perfect Fools’; Patrick Gardner and Mark Chalmers – the latter set up the Amsterdam office last year. Their digital approach: “if you can think it, then it’s real”. We like the sound of that. And here the essay by Richard Gorodecky, executive creative director of Amsterdam Worldwide. We selected this quote from him to share with you: “The only constant we can look forward to will be continual change”. We agree. As Darwin already taught us; “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Amsterdam Worldwide was asked last month to introduce the beer brand Hoegaarden (Anheuser-Busch) internationally. The agency is doing well. Recently it also won the Asics EMEA and Russia account – it already works for the Asics brand Onitsuka Tiger. Vodafone Netherlands last week announced it is looking for a new agency. Its current agency, UbachsWisbrun/JWT, is invited to pitch – other agencies still have to be selected. And while most agencies are struggling to keep their business afloat, some are still optimistic: Rich advertises with “No budget, No problem. We’re rich”.

To celebrate Onitsuka Tiger’s 60th birthday, Amsterdam Worldwide launched the Cycle of Life campaign, revolving around the Zodiac Race - this trailer heavily triggered our curiosity. The race is a Japanese legend about 13 animals racing each other for a spot on the Zodiac calendar. Apart from the animation, made by NY based Panda Panther, Amsterdam WW also built a diorama (miniature world) in the shape of a sneaker – part of the “Made of Japan” strategy. This is already the third iconic shoe they built for Onitsuka. The previous one, Electric Tigerland, was shortlisted for a Titanium Lion at Cannes 2008. This year’s life-sized sneaker is a typical Japanese landscape, with landmarks like Mount Fuji. The sneaker will be displayed in selected venues around the world. To integrate the campaign even further, the 2009 shoe collection is decorated with the Zodiac animals. All in all, this abundant flow of creativity makes us drool!