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]

A very nice way of saying that mobile provider Hi ‘Likes’ Facebook. The ad, created by  FHV/BBDO, made us immediately think of The Hangover – though the tiger was replaced by an ostrich. We’re not sure whether this was on purpose, but don’t really mind, cause let’s not pretend as if advertising is art. In the best case it is inspired by art – or in this case a blockbuster. In other words, advertising doesn’t have to be completely original. What’s more, the execution is spot on; the ad was skillfully directed by Jeroen Annokkeé (CZAR). So, all in all, we ‘like’.

We knew that we were getting more and more famous – traffic has been sky rocketing recently! But this really flattered us. British insurer Aviva created a huge billboard for us in Warsaw. They said they wanted to honour us for all the hard work we put in this blog. You can imagine that all these bystanders were thinking, what’s that huge ‘A’ doing here? Well, now they know. Ok, ok, not really. Aviva is an insurer that provides you with ‘personalized care’. Oh no, wait a minute, it has something to do with street children. Aviva insures street children? Mmm. Anyway, since today customized virals are the bomb, they thought why not do something with customized virals! On a microsite you can ‘donate your picture’, which means they give money to street children. And you can use your Facebook profile to go incredibly social with it. On top of that, you can watch people talk about random stuff. We really don’t get it. BUT we did like our personalized tribute. The campaign was created by AMV-BBDO, the website was built by B-Reel, and the technical execution was done by Amsterdam/London based Media Monks – that’s doing quite well these days.

Awesomeness, this new Philips campaign. Tribal DDB Amsterdam went to Longyearbyen, one of the most northerly towns in the Arctic, – where in the winter the sun doesn’t rise – to demonstrate the benefits of the Philips Wake-up light. Though one of our editors immediately called out “Tropicana, BBDO Toronto” (winning a Lion in Cannes this year) we think Tribal did a very nice job here. Last year Tribal woke up a rooster with the wake-up light, but you can imagine that testing this product on real people comes across way more credible. Especially when you make a documentary out of it. And even more so, if you let Dough Pray – who also did Art & Copy – direct it. On a dedicated website you can follow the inhabitants of Longyearbyen and see how they react on Philips’ Wake-up light. We don’t know when the documentary will be released, but having seen the trailer we are sure it will be a qualitative piece of advertising.

Last night Amsterdam won 2 golden design Lions. Amsterdam Worldwide for its Onitsuka Tiger Tansu sneaker (picture) and FHV/BBDO for its black Mars packaging (almost) without the iconic Mars logo. Consumers received a sheet of letter stickers to create their own text on the Mars bar. The jury was charmed by the fact that Mars dared to change its world famous packaging so radically. In Cyber Amsterdam won 2 bronze Lions. Achtung! with ‘Public Polo‘ for Volkswagen and Kong (again) with Stanislav for the Ministry of Justice. The day before yesterday we got 2 silver outdoor Lions. Again, one for MINI Christmas box by UbachsWisbrun/JWT and one for Interbest, created by Y&R Not just film. Indie won bronze in radio for Dance4Life.

Source: Adformatie

World Cup: Bavaria’s Dutch Dress babes arrested in South Africa
It almost sounds like a hoax, but through the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, we learned that a group of girls showing off their Bavaria Dutch Dress (created by Selmore) were arrested from their hotel in Johannesburg last night. Since Budweiser is the exclusive WC sponsor, no other beer brands are allowed in the stadium. The girls (getting paid by Bavaria) were disguised as Danish supporters when entering the stadium to see Holland-Denmark play. Once they were in, they revealed their sexy dresses and started to draw attention from the crowd. Ambush marketing in its purest form! And ironically, thanks to the arrest this news will travel the world!

New: design agency Ground Floor opens doors
Ground Floor, a sister agency of VBAT – one of the better design agencies in the Netherlands – recently opened its doors. The new agency, managed by Herman Verhoeff, will be specialized in design implementation. And with a unique proposition it wants to cater a market that needs quicker and cheaper design solutions. Their mantra is “faster, better and cheaper”. We’ve always learned that 99% of the service agencies can only do two out of three; quality and cheap (but not fast), quality and fast (but not cheap) or cheap and fast (but no quality). In any case, the message is clear.

Cannes: Massive Music celebrates 10th aniversary in Cannes
Massive Music is throwing its 10th anniversary party in Cannes this year. In this relatively short period Massive has grown impressively. In 2005 it opened offices in NYC, in 2008 in LA, and last year in Shanghai. And the cherry on top of its birthday, as Hans Brouwer put it, is that the agency got elected to create the music for the epic Nike campaign ‘Write the future’ last month.

New York Festivals: UbachsWisbrun/JWT takes home 6 awards
UbachsWisbrun/JWT won 6 awards at the NY Festivals last week; 4 for ‘MINI Christmas Box’ and 2 for ‘Kit Kat Jesus’. EuroRSCG4D (what a name!) and Kong won 2 each for Volvo and Stanislav respectively. Achtung! and FHV/BBDO won 1 each for Public Polo and 8mm Bush, respectively. We really like the MINI Christmas Box, but we’ve seen it used before as a Heineken walk-in fridge box. We’re not sure who was first though. Anyone? Check the entire list of Dutch winners here.

This beautiful commercial for Bavaria is created by Selmore, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen (the legendary Dutch film maker) and post produced by 8VFX. It should be no surprise that it immediately made us think of the legendary Noitulove campaign for Guinness by AMV/BBDO (Grand Prix, Cannes 2006) – “Good things come to those who wait”. And if you’re asking yourself why the drop, after its epic journey, is disrespectfully being swallowed by a bull dog, you need to know that Bavaria likes to position itself as a down to earth beer, also meant for the man in the street. So even though Bavaria likes to make big budget productions – especially since it has been working with Selmore – and is the “only beer brewed with pure mineral water”, it also comes to those who accidently catch it.

This weekend ‘Carousel’ for Philips, made by Tribal DDB, won a Film Grand Prix in Cannes! Last week the online case was already awarded with a silver Cyber Lion. According to film jury member Richard Bullock (180 Amsterdam) the jury was unanimous and quick to decide that this was a Grand Prix. David Lubars (BBDO), who presided the film jury, called it mind blowing and said it showed the way forward. True enough; the technique gives an extra (interactive) dimension to film. And when content is fully animated, the viewer can even change the ‘camera’ angle in any desirable way – which we saw earlier this year in the commercial for the game Killzone 2. Other Amsterdam winners in Film: TBWA\Neboko won silver for its Heineken walk-in fridge and bronze for its IDFA films – both commercials won a golden ADCN lamp earlier this year. Amsterdam agencies Indie and Ogilvy also won a bronze Lion for respectively Orange Babies and Sensoor.

The concept that impressed us the most was Upload Cinema by Draftfcb (Silver; cross media). Not because it’s hyper interactive, not becasue it’s so innovative, but just because it is as simple as brilliant ideas often are. Upload Cinema brings together the best of YouTube within a monthly changing theme in art house cinema De Uitkijk. What we especially like about it is that it facilitates something that internet needs, an editor seperating the heaps of crap that soil the long tail from the little gems that are not always being noticed.