Yet another Heineken commercial in the ‘Open your world’ series; a series that always revolves around a slick, but sympathetic and playful James Bond-like character that has this way of dealing with exotic situations. To get people excited for the final of the Champions League – Heineken is official sponsor – we see Mr. Smooth in this director’s cut travel half the world to be there on time. Resourceful as he is – swimming a lake, catching a few rides, and flying a Chinook – he makes it in time to watch the final with his lovely date – or girlfriend this time? Though maybe a little more of the same, it is definitely one of the more impressive pieces of branded content we’ve seen in a while – which once more makes you wonder about Heineken’s advertising budget. Created by Wieden Amsterdam, directed, as usual, by Fredrik Bond (Sonny London), shot by Roman Vasyanov, post production by The Mill, and music by Mad Planet.

“How to present Heineken as a global Amsterdam brand?” is probably what the briefing asked. And then Tribal DDB conceived this very sympathetic idea; two ‘regular guys’ have to meet 194 nationalities, in 14 days, in 1 city. Makes the brand more personal, without losing its global aspirations. As we speak, Barnaby Slater and Mick Johan (from the UK and the Netherlands) only have about 3 days left, and still 94 nationalities to go. So you’d guess they are not going to make it. But that doesn’t matter because as the Facebook page shows, it is all about the experience of meeting so many different people with so many different backgrounds. The only thing that bothered us is that the UX design of the Facebook page is not ideal (partly due to Facebook’s restrictions) – e.g. a wider page with more clickable thumbnails, directly visible, would have worked better. But that’s a detail, we love the idea. Created by Tribal DDB and directed by Sam de Jong from production company 100% Halal.

And the winners are… Doom & Dickson, Publicis, and Lemz won Gold at Eurobest this year. Our very favourite Hema push-up bra won gold in PR (which should have been Gold for making a sound casefilm, really), and Silver in Promo & Activation. ALS’ ‘I’ve already died’ by Publicis won gold in PR, Silver in Direct, and Bronze in Promo & Activation. The third gold, in Promo & Activation went to KLM Live Reply by Lemz. In Interactive Tribal won Silver for KLM’s ‘Be my guest’ and Volkswagen’s ‘Hitchhike with a like.’ In the same category Achtung! won Silver for the Volkwagen Fanwagen. EuroRSCG (today Havas) won Silver in PR with ‘Save an orchestra‘ for the Dutch Metropole Orchestra. In Film Craft Wieden won bronze for Coca Cola’s Sitelets. The Wieden break-away We Are Pi was awarded with Bronze for the Human Arabesque for TEDx summit in Doha. In Design Arnold won Bronze for its Arnold bike. And, finally, Wieden also got Bronze in Promo & Activation for Live Serenade.

Since James Bond is not the sophisticated Sean-Connery-type anymore, he exchanged his Martini for a Heineken. So everytime a new Bond film is released, Heineken is allowed to advertise around Bond’s more modern taste. To promote the newest Bond film ‘Skyfall’, Wieden+Kennedy has made a spot in which the film and the commercial are seemlessly interwoven. It uses the ‘Open your world’ theme – which we earlier saw in The Entrance and The Date – to bring the commercial to life. The band this time is Gin Wigmore with the song ‘Man Like That.’ In the online Facebook experience, in which you have to ‘crack the case’ (by simply clicking twice on a ‘hidden’ briefcase), the new Bond girl, Bérénice Marlohe, plays an important role. She’s certainly not a punishment to watch, but other than that, it feels a little too much as the obligatory digital spin-off. The spot was directed by Matthijs van Heijningen (MJZ) and the online experience built by MediaMonks.

After The Entrance and The Date, this is the third Heineken commercial in the ‘Open Your World’ series – with fantasy, glamour, and music playing an important role. The one thing that struck us is that this commercial is not made by Wieden+Kennedy, but by Heineken’s local agency TBWA. The most important difference with the previous (Wieden) commercials are the two somewhat dorky characters accompanying the better looking one – is it because the Dutchman needs someone to identify himself with? In any case, again a crafty and attractive commercial that makes Heineken look premium and international – even in Holland. The soulful song, Love Letter, is performed by the Australian Amy-Winehouse-look/sound-alike-band Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes. The film was directed by Martin Krejci from Stink.

A rather meagre last day for Amsterdam in Cannes, last Saturday – the most prestigious day of the festival. Publicis did not manage to win Titanium for their ALS ad, but with Silver in Integrated the agency still did very well with the impressive campaign, winning 3 Lions in total. Out of the six Amsterdam nominations in Film only one commercial was awarded; Wieden+Kennedy’s Making of the Date won Silver. The Grand Prix for Film Craft did not go to Amsterdam, but at least the wonderful spot Bear, by BETC Paris for Canal+, was directed by Dutchman Matthijs van Heijningen jr. In the same category We Are Pi won Bronze for Human Arabesque. In our opinion it deserved more. So, all in all, after winning the Grand Prix and in total 22 Lions last year, rainy Amsterdam could this year welcome back only 17 Lions. Hopefully we’ll do better again next year.

Heineken has a history of launching premiums – to be obtained through a crate of beer – before the European and World Championship of football. The last 4 tournaments Heineken’s agency TBWA created all sorts of hats that enabled the audience to make some noise during the matches – last time, in South Africa, it was the Pletterpet. This spring – getting ready for Euro2012 – Heineken (and TBWA) not only exchanged the hat for a shirt, it also changed the tone of the commercial around the event. The advertising now feels weirdly incongruent; it starts with three guys that seem to have walked out of a bad Italian car commercial. And then it continues with ‘international’ shots. Even the ‘drinking-with-mates-in-a-bar’ shot is anything but Dutch – with fake bar and exotic models. The only thing that is really Dutch about the commercial is the KLM plane wearing an orange shirt and the ‘haha’ joke with ex international Ronald Koeman at the end. It feels as if the Dutch beer brewer was in a split between being the global, cosmopolitan brand and a chauvinistic football friend that wants to sell as much beer as possible in the supermarket. Well, in our opinion, it’s none of the above and stuck in the middle. And when you ask yourself what’s up with the numbers, you have to guess, cause the voice-over only speaks of supporting Orange with ‘your legendary deed.’ Oh well, whatever, we’ll probably drink a few Heinies during Euro2012 anyway.

Photo: Maurice Mikkers
The biggest winner last night at the ADCN (Dutch Art Director’s Club) awards was Lemz. All the ‘bulbs’ – of which one was a Grand Prix (the very best integrated work) – went to their Fireworks campaign. Our very favourite campaign of the year Domino’s Pizza Pepperoni by Indie won one Golden and two Silver bulbs (TV, internet and activation) – in our opinion it was at least as good as Lemz’ work. Wieden also won one Gold and two Silver for Heineken’s ‘The making of The Date’ (internet, TV, and activation). Selmore won Gold for Bavaria and Hugh Heffner – so we can be sure that Charlie Sheen will also win Gold next year. We were a bit surprised that N=5 won Gold for Telfort – not really our taste. Y&R won one Gold and two Silver for LG’s ‘smart thief‘ (internet, TV, and viral). A bit strange that alle these films are winning different prizes for the different channels through which they are broadcasted – does the channel matter? Another one of our favourites was Hema’s with a push-up bra in print, promoted by a male model, going viral big time – by Doom & Dickson. It won Gold and Silver. Note: Hema is one of the most down to earth department stores in the Netherlands. TBWA won Gold with its print campaign for DIY chain Gamma; free Lego – “Just like dad.” In Interactive Tribal DDB won Gold and Silver for ‘Obsessed with Sound’ for Philips. One of the most impactful commercials of the year by Publicis for ALS won Silver – “I have died by now.” Special bulbs went to Mischa Rozema (for directing OFFF), Christian Borstlap (art direction and illustration, for LV and Mr Porter), and Simon Warner (photgraphy, for Octopus).

Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has promoted Clay Mills to Managing Director. He follows up Lee Newman, who was appointed as MD in 2008. Newman will become president at O&M Chicago. Mills was hired by Wieden in 2010 as Group AD on Heineken. Since his hiring Heineken became one of Wieden’s more profitable and successful accounts, making the agency even lead this year’s Gunn report. Prior to W+K Amsterdam, Mills worked at JWT New York, and BBH in New York and London. ECD’s Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy about Mills’ appointment: “Spending the last two years making the Heineken work with Clay has been one of the more enjoyable experiences of our careers. You have to work with people who make work feel more like having fun. That’s when the best stuff happens. Of course, you can’t have fun without being dead serious and smart about what you’re doing. A balance that Clay gets as good as anyone.”

To fully appreciate this it helps if you have seen the commercial ‘The Date’ – in which a man takes his date on a spectacular night out. ‘The Serenade’ is a Valentine’s Day inspired follow up. It comes with a Facebook app that allows you to create a Valentine serenade to be performed by the same band that plays the catchy song Jaan Pehechaan Ho in the original commercial – in a personalized way as you can see here. The climax is this Wednesday – on the 9th of Feb. – when Heineken will host ‘Serenade Live’, an 8-hour YouTube event during which you get the chance to ask someone out on a date in an unforgetable way; performed by the ‘Serenade Band’. On top of that the performers will react live to the online audience. Created by Wieden+Kennedy.