Yet another cinematographic Roadster adventure; a cliffhanger on a bridge in Istanbul. Apparently they are on their way to a wedding, cause they’re tossing out a wedding cake. The concept is as wobbly as the car balancing on that edge, but that seems to be the intentional, not so serious style of this whole ‘Another day, Another adventure’ series. And we do get the message; the MINI is a playful car for modern, cosmopolitan (and maybe gay?) dinks – altogether a very balanced brand positioning. The commercial was created by BSUR, directed by Peter Berg (Pony Show), and the matching music, Hayat Kavgasi, written by Orhan Gencebay.

An interesting piece (10:42) of branded content; a joint web series by MINI and Vice – or Vice and MINI if you like. The series is presented by Elliott Bambrough and a different co-driver is selected through social media every episode. It follows up the introductory set of commercials around the theme ‘All the wrong places’ featuring the MINI Coupé in different exotic places, positioning the car as an adventurous and cosmopolitan wannahave. Or ‘not for ordinary people’ as we judged the work in September. This episode is about ‘Dekotora’ trucks in Japan, basically a tradition to pimp your ride with kitschy colours, graphics and lights. At the end a MINI Coupé is pimped – a little. You could say that giving the Coupé such a prominent role is a little too much – especially since Vice is seen as a more or less independent magazine – but since it’s done at the end and subtle enough, we don’t really mind it. All in all a smart joint promotion by MINI and Vice. Created by BSUR.

We don’t really understand why this Icelandic hitchhiker with mustache is pregnant, nor why he has a criminal doppelganger, but we like the randomness of this commercial for the new MINI Coupé – it feels like a trailer for a new Coen Brothers movie. The other two commercials – ‘Sunday in Rio’ and ‘Love is in the air’ (in Hong Kong) – are less subtle, but all in all the ‘Another day, Another adventure’ campaign clearly shows that the Coupé is not for ordinary people. Especially when you compare it to last year’s commercial for the Countryman that was a lot more accessible – and won two Lions in Cannes, for that matter. Created as usual by BSUR, directed by Kevin Thomas (Thomas & Thomas Films), and shot by César Charlone – who you might know from ‘The city of god’.

Picture: ECD’s W+K Amsterdam Mark Bernath (left) and Eric Quennoy (middle), mainly responsible for Wieden+Kennedy’s huge success in Cannes and Enrico Balleri from Nike, just after the award ceremony last Saturday. What a great closing night for the Amsterdam agency it was. Nike Write the future scored seven more Lions – earlier in the week it already won gold in Cyber. At the most important award night the Amsterdam agency first of all won the prestigious Grand Prix in film. It was a very close finish with Puma’s ‘After hours athlete’ as jury chair Tony Granger (CCO Y&R) explained at the press conference. After a lengthy discussion he asked the jury to put all the rational arguments aside and vote from the heart. This gave Nike the final push. Nike also won five Lions in Film craft: two Gold (Editing and Script), two Silver (Production and Sound), and one bronze (CG). And the seventh Lion, Gold in Integrated, proved that the campaign didn’t just have a pretty face. And then Heineken; for this other power brand W+K won five Lions in Film and Film craft. Four for The Entrance: Film: Gold and Bronze (interactive). Film craft: Gold and Silver (Direction and Sound Design). One Lion went to The Date – more or less the sequel of The Entrance. It won bronze in Film. This brought the grand total for Wieden+Kennedy to 13 (!) Lions. Together with all the Lions that Portland won for Old Spice, W+K must easily be the most awarded independent network in the world. Two more Amsterdam Lions went to MINI ‘Flow‘ (Silver in Film craft) by BSUR and one to Volkswagen’s ‘Old Lady’ (Bronze in Film) by DDB. All in all Amsterdam (officially) won 25 Lions, 8 (!) more than last year.

With 13 shortlist nominations in film and 7 in film craft, Amsterdam should be able to win some more Lions tomorrow night. Of all these nominations 4 go to Nike ‘Write the future’, 3 to Heineken’s ‘The Entrance’, and one to Heineken’s ‘The Date’, which adds up to an impressive 8 film (craft) nominations for Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Write the future also has a nomination for Titanium (integrated), though this case was sent in by Nike. BSUR also does well with 4 nominations for MINI Countryman’s ‘Flow’. Philips’ ‘Wake up the town’ by Tribal DDB has 3 film nominations. Other film nominations go to Volkswagen (DDB), Centraal Beheer (DDB) – we personally liked this more subtle Centraal Beheer film a lot better – De Bijenkorf (Selmore), IDFA X-ray eyes (TBWA) – a very smart film – and the beautiful Sire film ‘Marked for life‘ (180). We’ll keep our fingers crossed!

This 20-second commercial for Specsavers was created by BSUR and directed by Michael Sewandono (Comrad). The voice over says “Look around you. Discover. Have a look for free“. The concept plays nicely with the idea of looking at the world in a different way. Considering the category Specsavers’ brand proposition ‘Have a look for free’ is translated on quite an abstract, not very instrumental level. And the tone of voice whispers, while the others are screaming. Feels very sympathetic, even comfortable. It’s a pity the guy at end was dubbed in his own language. Funnily enough this grabbed us out of mid air and pulled us back on the ground. Back to the real, bad, corporate world.

We already knew that the MINI is quite a sexy car. But this Rocketman, MINI’s ultra modern concept car to be launched at the Geneva Motor Show on March 1st, sounds like sexy 2.0. And when you ask BSUR and production agency PostPanic to create a product film for it, you get sexy 3.0. So that’s what MINI did. The two minute film tells the history of MINI in both 2D and 3D animation – which is PostPanic’s specialty. The car has a super light carbon fibre cross system, which makes a natural link to Sir Alec Issigonis words that the first MINI was designed in 1959 as a fuel efficient car. A salient detail is the Union Jack on the roof made from in-laid LEDs that can light up when switched on. It makes a respectful tribute to MINI’s heritage, as the brand is German nowadays. According to the press release the concept car will go in production “based on the response from the MINI fans”. We don’t really know what that means, but it adds the obligatory social media in the loop. This stunning piece of advertising is the proof that “History may repeat itself, but MINI doesn’t“.

MINI vs Monster is a 3D commercial created by BSUR. The film, that is to be be launched in American cinemas this week, features a monster truck that tries to jump over a set of MINI’s. Since we’ve only seen this teaser (and this one) and a screenshot from the actual commercial, we don’t really know what to think of it. But the so-called Carrie-Margaret Brown dropping the couch from her beefy arm while vacuum cleaning, is definitely teasing enough to make us want to see the commercial in its full glory – that is, we hope we’ll get to see it in 3D. To be continued…

Amsterdam won two Grand Prix in Film and Design at Eurobest in Hamburg, last Wednesday. Wieden+Kennedy was awarded the prestigious award for its epic Nike ‘Write the future’ commercial – alledgedly the most expensive commercial ever made. And for the same film it won bronze in Film Craft. Amsterdam Worldwide earned a Grand Prix in the category Design for the Onitsuka Tiger ‘Tansu sneaker’. Other than that Amsterdam did not do extremely well, we have to admit. In interactive Pool Worldwide won silver for its brilliant StarWars branded TomTom viral. In the same category 180 Amsterdam won bronze for Adidas’ Match Tracker and NRG3 won bronze for an interactive banner for the EA game Need for Speed Shift. N=5 was awarded silver in the category Media with a ‘Live interactive billboad’ – an aggression awareness campaign. BSUR got bronze in Film for MINI’s Flow, Publics won bronze in Print for KIKA, and JWT bronze in Promo and Outdoor with the MINI Christmas box.

BSUR hired eight new employees to reinforce their account, design and strategy teams. The agency – this year creating the new global MINI Countryman campaign, hired (in picture from left to right): Rogier Pijlman, AD – with an editorial background from Santen Netwerk; Nadine Henselijn, AM, having worked for West Linq in both Shanghai and Amsterdam; Paula Atwell, Account Supervisor with over ten years of experience at among others Mother (London), Wieden+Kennedy, and 180 in Amsterdam; Ruben Vos, AM, coming from De Combinatie van Factoren. BSUR also hired strategist Chris Alders, who was raised in Dubai, but has been working in the Netherlands for the past two years at Creative Cell. Not in the picture are Niels Spaans, AM, with a background in film and event production; Marcel de Waal, DTP, ex 707, Cayenne, and Euro RSCG; and finally Graphic Designer Robert Van de Beek, joining from 180.