With a track record like Tribal DDB it’s hardly a surprise that they became interactive agency of the year at Eurobest this year. Throughout the year they’ve been making great and award winning work for KLM and Philips. The climax of their award victory march has been Eurobest this week; out of the 12 nominations they won 9 awards – for Philips Obsessed with Sound 4, for ‘Wake up the town‘ 2, and for KLM Tile & Inspire 3. What really took us by surprise was ‘The Legendary Making of The Date’ for Heineken by Wieden+Kennedy winning a Grand Prix in film. We already noticed that every big budget commercial nowadays gets a making of to create some relatively cheap content – and PR for the agency, for that matter. But actually winning a Grand Prix with the side project of a campaign is quite something. Back then we said: “Not your standard ‘making of’, but one made with ‘joie de vivre’ and lots of CG jokes. If we weren’t already, this would want to make us work in advertising”. The commercial itself, ‘The Date’, also won silver in film, and ‘The Entrance’ won gold. We were told that AKQA’s London office sent in the work of AKQA Amsterdam, so you could say that the Grand Prix and Gold in Mobile for Heineken Star Player (social betting on football matches), also went to Amsterdam. DBB and 180 won silver in film for ‘Old Lady’ (Volkswagen) and ‘Marked for Life’ respectively. We also had the Epicaawards last week. W+K won 5 Epica’s plus a Grand Prix for ‘The Entrance’ and ‘The Date’ combined. Again W+K won an award (gold) for the ‘extra’s’ – some extra mini scripts around ‘The Entrance’. 180’s Marked for Life won gold and silver. Finally Lemz did well with 2 silver and 2 bronze for IKEA 365, KLM Live Reply, and ‘Children see things differently‘. In total Amsterdam won 22 Epica awards. One final note to Eurobest and Epica; can you guys please merge? There’s no reason to have two identical continental award shows – except making lots of money, of course…
The Champion’s League season has started and according to Heineken it is the most prestigious competition on the planet. Wieden+Kennedy was asked to convey the Champion’s League as ‘black-tie’ football; the players on an epic stage in prestigious arena’s. Well, they’ve done an impressive job with Clarence Seedorf and Gianluigi Buffon performing in an opera house overlooked by real angels. Here‘s another one in an ancient Roman gladiatorial ring, with Vieira and Van Nistelrooy competing in front of Adler’s goal. Wieden also created a series of adaptations, meant as humorous, but in our humble opinion a weak attempt, almost spoiling the beauty of the originals. Anyway, the films were directed by Martin Krejci (Stink) and shot by Stepan Kucera.
This is something Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has proven to be good at; showing the essence of a sport and the passion of its supporters. They’ve done this for Nike several times – recently in Copa Barrio – and for EA Sports’ FIFA – here’s #10. It’s all done with heroic copy and visually supported by lots of action, packed stadiums and close-ups of fans. Since the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand is sponsored by Heineken this year and since W+K is the Dutch beer brand’s favourite agency after winning a cabinet full of awards for The Entrance and The Date in Cannes, the agency makes a logical choice. The commercial explains ‘The Code’, which basically comes down to the well known saying that rugby is a barbarian game played by gentlemen – while football is a gentleman’s game played by barbarians, for that matter. The film was directed by Steve Rogers (Revolver). In print the code is aptly translated into: “We lost some teeth. We gained some friends” (among other lines).
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!
Finally, Amsterdam wins its first golden Lion – in cyber. Nike’s ‘Write the future’, created by Wieden+Kennedy has already won a truckload of prizes, but winning in Cannes, is the cherry on top, of course. The campaign won in cyber, because it used social media very effectively; the film received 40 million online views. And since the film is so impressive, we expect it to win (at least) a golden film Lion this Saturday. Two virals were rewarded with a bronze Cyber lion. The first one: TomTom’s special edition StarWars voices – created by Pool Worldwide and directed by Willem Gerritsen (CZAR). This film will surely also win another Lion at the end of the week. The other viral, was Liquid Mountaineering for Hi-Tec by CCCP – a brilliantly executed mockumentary. Interesting detail; this second viral was also directed by Willem Gerritsen. In design two silver Lions were won. One by Amsterdam agency BrandBase for its pallet project, a unique working environment, built entirely from pallets by Most Design. The other silver design Lion went to Heineken’s STR bottle, a bottle that lights up in the dark thanks to its UV-sensitive ink – created by dBOD and Iris.
Last January Heineken released the vibrant “The Entrance” introducing a complete new advertising property. Today Heineken releases the sequel; The Date – shot in London at Le Meridien Hotel and the Rivoli Ballroom. Just like the previous commercial, the James Bond-like look and fool (leading your date through a restaurant kitchen is so 007) is to charge the brand further with an aspirational, cosmopolitan personality. The film was created by the same team of Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and again directed by Frederik Bond (Sonny). That’s why if feels so similar. It is nice to see that there are still brands that believe that continuity builds strong brands. The soundtrack (even catchier than the soundtrack in the first commercial) is the 1960’s Bollywood track “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” from the 1965 movie Gumnaam – originally performed by Mohammed Rafi and playbacked here. W+K also released some bonus material; The making of. Not your standard ‘making of’ though, but one made with ‘joie de vivre’ and lots of CG jokes. If we weren’t already, this would want to make us work in advertising. O.k., that’s it, and now we’re thirsty.
Amsterdam is getting excited for Queen’s day. Not just because Amsterdam becomes one big orange party to celebrate the Queen’s birthday, but also because the streets turn into the biggest garage sale in the world. We don’t have a clue how getting rid of second hand stuff became part of Queen’s day, but a distinctive side effect of it is that people claim their favourite ‘retail’ spot by writing “Bezet” (taken) on the streets with tape, days in advance. A bit of a strange habit, claiming land that is not yours. It’s no surprise that it made creatives Jan Bosch en Tim ten Dam (Saatchi & Saatchi) think of that bigger piece of land in the Himalaya and use it to promote the organization Save Tibet. Heineken also tapped into the tradition of claiming land, though in a less political way. According to the beer brewer (or it’s agency TBWA\Neboko, if you like) the most important spot to claim is on your hand. We concur.
Write the future did what most of us expected, it won big last night at the Dutch Art Director’s Club (ADCN) Awards: the Standing bulb (read: Grand Prix) and three golden bulbs (Integrated, Film, and Print/Magazine). Massive Music also won an award for the music in this commercial. Overall, TBWA\Neboko won most awards, taking home 2 golden (in Film for Pearle and in Print for Heineken’s Social Networks) and 4 silver bulbs. Live Interactive billboard (n=5) won gold in Outdoor. Bavaria’s DutchDress (Selmore) – causing such a big stir at the World Championship football last summer – also received a very deserved golden bulb in Activation. Christian Borstlap’s posters for the overview exhibition of Dutch advertising classics won gold in Graphic Design. In Interactive there was no gold. This could mean that digital creatives are still mostly tech driven, rather than aiming for the big idea. It could also mean that the ‘traditional’ creatives (the largest part of the Jury) are not able to fully appreciate digital innovations. Or it might be a bit of both. In any case, there were three silver bulbs in Interactive for Philips ‘Wake up the town‘ (Tribal DDB), Live Interactive Billboard (see above – a big digital idea, created by a ‘traditional’ agency), and Vodafone’s Madame TreSesti (Achtung!). Our very favourite film ‘Drama Queen‘ for the Young Director Award (TBWA Helsinki, directed by Rogier Hesp) got a bulb in the category Young Directors, but unfortunately not gold.
