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.

In December we wrote about Heineken discovering Facebook as the perfect medium to talk with its consumers. But to become ‘Liked’ on Facebook as a brand you need to produce content that has the potential to be liked. The Entrance by Wieden+Kennedy definitely did have that quality. It helped Heineken to reach one million Facebook friends within no time. To thank its new Facebook friends, the Dutch beer brand returned the favour offline by making another special entrance. What is odd about this gesture is that it seems only targeted at men who drink Heineken – not at the actual (female) ‘Likers’ of the fanpage. But maybe we’re being too critical. After all, this crossover between a commercial and a guerrilla ad didn’t cost much, comes across as sympathetic and sexy, and generates some exposure. We don’t know who created it, but recognized some AKQA faces, so maybe they’re behind it.

Update: Yes, AKQA is behind it.

Internationally Heineken has always been a cosmopolitan brand with a high level of sophistication. The green iconic ‘export’ bottle even made James Bond every now and then skip his Martini. But in the past years it seemed like the brand lost its mojo somewhat. After all, sponsoring the Champion’s League proves you have a big bag of money, but doesn’t give you personality – if any, a corporate one. So when we saw this new commercial ‘The Entrance’ – preleased online – we thought; yes Heineken is back! The rich film saturated with cinematographic production value does make an entrance. And agency Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam must have thought, while we’re at it, we might as well shoot some more. On Heineken’s Facebook fanpage, behind the tab ‘The Entrance’ there are 13 different short films that elaborate on the different characters you see in the commercial – here (‘Big in wonderland’) and here (‘The man with the eyepatch’) two examples. These extra’s make no sense at all, but are clearly made with a sense of humour and therefore fun to watch; branded content in optima forma. And there’s a smart catch; you can only watch the short films after having ‘Liked’ the fanpage, which makes the videos spread quickly – and allows Heineken to spam your wall, for that matter. But there’s more; by collaborating with the Danish band Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Heineken is hoping that the song The Golden Age will become an international hit. We can easily imagine it will. And if that happens there will be yet another medium pushing the campaign. Hats off, not just for Wieden, but also for Heineken, letting its agency go wild and use its full creative potential. The commercial was directed by Frederik Bon (Sonny London).

That is probably the question the entire advertising world will be asking consumers in 2011. It’s quite incredible that in such a short time Facebook has turned brands into virtual ‘friends’ that politely ask for acknowledgment. This week we received two special ‘Like’ requests. One by Heineken (initiated by Fitzroy), asking us to ‘Like’ 2011 and to simultaneously wish our social network a happy 2011. And the other one by ‘Consumer & Safety’ (initiated by Eet Banaan, or eat banana), allowing us to warn our friends for the danger of fireworks. Since the branded ‘Like’ is still relatively new, most people click ‘Like’ without giving it much thought and the message goes viral in no time. Interesting times… Anyways, we hope to see you all back in one piece in 2011, so go easy on the Heinies when you’re doing fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

While the Pletterpet has not been the most successful premium Heineken ever launched – at the supermarket you’ll still find big piles of  Pletterpet boxes – Heineken yesterday made a big come back during the national team’s canal parade. Heineken’s agency TBWA\Neboko – also responsible for the Pletterpet – came up with the idea to spoof  the well known Heineken pay-off Biertje? (Beer?) – not in use anymore, for that matter. By leaving the ‘i’ out, it spells ‘Bertje!’, referring to the Dutch football coach Bert van Marwijk. During the last days of the tournament the Amsterdam brewer spread Bertje! t-shirts and flags through supermarket Albert Heijn and its own bars. By the time the Dutch team was hounoured with a canal parade – as if they had become world champion – it was impossible to miss ‘Bertje!’ Picture: the Heineken Brewery Museum; fan waiting for the Canal Parade; newspaper ad; and Dutch top scorer Sneijder holding a Bertje! flag. Though we are very impressed by the amount of (free) publicity this must have generated, we still preferred to look at the Bavaria Dutch dress girls.

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!

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An exquisite example of (true!) storytelling. The ‘Pletterpet’ is the best WC premium we’ve come across so far – the Netherlands probably has the highest football-premium-density in the world. This instruction film shows the package you buy in the supermarket in its full glory – €11, including 8 cans of beer. We do feel slightly embarrassed for all the Dutch morons wearing one at the WC football in South Africa and hijacking two South African traditions – the Makaraba and the Vuvuzela (horn). But letting our political (over) correctness aside for a second, the commercial is well made and when you realize that Heineken, or rather its agency TBWA Amsterdam, needs to come up with a new premium every football tournament, we have to say it’s quite original. Nice detail: the guy at the end really is the inventor of the Makaraba. In this film you can see all the previous premiums TBWA created for Heineken – though the film is a bit lame, it shows how much fun both advertiser and agency must have had creating all those premiums. And it’s that fun exactly that is translated in the smiling e’s in the Heineken logo at the end of the Pletterpet commercial.

All around the globe Heineken is known for its premium character – even James Bond drinks it.  In the Netherlands however, Heineken is pretty mainstream. Therefore Heineken’s Dutch strategy is to approach men as not very sophisticated creatures that simply like to be entertained. That’s exactly what this commercial communicates. While the girls are waiting to see ‘top models singing on ice’ – a mash-up of all the talent crap TV produces nowadays – the men get very excited by Men with Talent. After the big success of the Heineken walk-in fridge, the beer brand asked TBWA\Neboko to come up with a follow-up with the same kind of humour and the same level of likeability among the target. A difficult task given the uniqueness of the walk-in fridge concept and the amount of awards it won. But we think TBWA did a good job. Just as the walk-in fridge, the over the topness of this new commercial made us laugh out loud – and that doesn’t happen very often. Not very sophisticated, but very entertaining.

Holland won 18 Epica awards – four times gold – last week in Belgrade. It ended fifth after Germany, France, Sweden and the UK.  Our favourite gold went to Kit Kat Jesus. Kit Kat pretended as if Jesus had been spotted in a Kit Kat bar and this news spread as quick as only internet can spread news. We didn’t just like it because we are atheists (or at least agnostic), but more so because we love simple (but great) ideas that generate tons of free publicity. We found it a little odd that this was in the category ‘technique’, but apparently their was no better category available – the category ‘big idea’ would have been more to the point. It was done by UbachsWisbrun/JWT. Heineken’s Walk-in fridge also won gold in ‘film’ – it was submitted by TBWA’s production company CZAR. 180 won gold for Adidas with ‘Every team needs the spark’. And Grey won gold in print for Pink Ribbon.

Source: Adformatie

In the Netherlands every year the public is asked to choose the best commercial of the year. Not a bad idea, when you realize that eventually advertising is made for them. The award is called the Golden Loeki. Until 2004 ‘Loeki de Leeuw‘ (Loeki the lion) was the bumper icon of the STER, the organization selling the advertising clusters on the public channels; Netherlands 1, 2 and 3. Though officially the prize is awarded to the most ‘likeable’ commercials, it almost always goes to ads that use humour to get the message across – which says something about the average consumer, for that matter. This year the award goes to Heineken’s walk-in fridge, made by TBWA\Neboko. Indeed, a funny commercial. It was very successful this year. It already won a golden ADCN (Dutch Art Director’s Club) award. And internationally it also did well. A few weeks ago it was awarded a Silver Eurobest award and this summer a Silver Lion in Cannes. And that’s interesting. Usually there’s a big gap between what international ad pundits appreciate and what the consumer likes. Not only do the experts prefer smart, esthetical or sophisticated advertising (instead of simple jokes), Dutch humour is often culturally challenged – i.e. nobody outside the Netherlands understands it. So TBWA\Neboko made a very effective ad, it sells beer to the consumer and the agency abroad.