Wim Ubachs and Ralph Wisbrun (chairmen of the VEA, the Association of Ad Agencies) met each other in court last Friday, we learned from Adformatie. The two founded UbachsWisbrun, one of the most successful independent Dutch ad agencies in history. The agency merged with JWT in 2007 to become UbachsWisbrun/JWT. JWT (formerly known as PPGH/JWT) was huge in the 80’s and 90’s, but lost its mojo in the 00’s. It thus needed the merger to buy fresh, creative blood and regain its dominant position – Amsterdam was regarded as a flagship city within the international JWT network. Though recently the agency finally found its way up again, by winning several big accounts, the first few years of the merger were unsuccessful. The agency shrank from 188 employees to 50. For Wim Ubachs it was tempting to leave the agency to pursue a career in music at that point. Since officially he was still partner, he only needed to make a proper settlement. Instead of a friendly deal he got fired on the spot. The official reason: he was not putting enough energy in the agency anymore and was too much preoccupied with his own sidelines. That is very said news. But maybe a good moment to change UbachsWisbrun/JWT into JWT Amsterdam.

Update (June 10th): The judge ruled that JWT didn’t have enough reason to fire Ubachs. Both parties now have to come to an agreement on the payment of Ubachs’ managment fee and the call-option on Ubachs’ shares (20%). If not, they have to go to court again.

Last week the Dutch Art Director’s Club (ADCN) awards, or simply the ‘Lamps,’ were divided between the most creative Dutch agencies. DDB was the big winner, with 3 silver Lamps – and 29 nominations, out of 204 nominations. DDB’s best silver Lamp went to its commercial made for Ziggo. DDB’s digital sister, Tribal won two times gold with Carousel for Philips, which is no surprise after having won already so many international prizes. Indie won 2 golden and one silver Lamp; all for Domino’s pizza. Indie’s golden awards both went to ‘Delivery Point‘ (outdoor and activation), silver went to ‘Builders‘. Kong won 2 golden lamps for Stanislav (interaction and activation). Out of the 7 golden and 15 silver Lamps, our most favourite Lamp (gold) went to Kit Kat Jesus by Ubachs Wisbrun/JWT. It’s brilliant in its simplicity and shows you don’t need an incredibly big budget to come up with a great idea.

These three different styled websites all try to sell the same ‘lots-of-cash-in-no-time’ job. At the employment agencies ‘BigBigBucks‘, ‘SnellePegels‘ and ‘Vlugge Flappen’, students are persuaded to subscribe for the most easy job in the world; it makes on average € 250 for half an hour work! They only need a little work experience (a simple student job is enough), they can work at home, and start today! When you click through the website, you enter the website of the Belastingdienst (National Tax Collector). Though the Netherlands is one of the countries with the highest taxes in the world, students often receive money back. The only thing they need to do is fill out an online tax return form. The Belastingdienst must have thought; once they’re in the system… The campaign, hyped through banners and radio, was created by UbachsWisbrun/JWT. Of course it’s not the most difficult thing to sell a product that virtually gives away money, but if you consider the target, the look and feel and tone of voice are spot on.

What an inspiring event it was. Here are the insights we took home. The first key note speaker, Ed Ulbrich from Digital Domain, talked us through the process of getting the multi-platform remake of Tron to market. He showed what looked like a trailer of the movie ‘Tron Legacy’, but later revealed it was ‘just’ a teaser to get Disney excited; they could make a movie, a game and a theme park ride out of this single concept. He called this a ‘transmedia content prototype’; a piece of content that mitigates the investor’s risk, because it provides a tangible window into the opportunities of the concept. Ulbrich founded a  company, Mothership, that single mindedly builds these kind of prototypes. More…

A great week for UbachsWisbrun/JWT. The agency won two major clients; both Nationale Nederlanden (insurer, owned by the ING group) and ING bank – the latter after an exciting pitch with three combatants pulling out. The trouble started when UbachsWisbrun, one of the most succesful indpendent Dutch agencies at the time, merged with PPGH/JWT in 2007. With this acquisition JWT wanted to buy fresh, creative blood and put itself back on the creative map. But of course merging two different cultures into one agency always needs some time. And then the credit crunch hit the advertising market. UW/JWT went through a very deep dip. Last year it lost two important clients, Vodafone and Rabobank and shrank to 50 employees – coming down from 188 employees just after the merger. The way back up was the win of the Belastingdienst (National Tax Collector) account in September. And after this week UW/JWT can seriously start hiring again. Whether the agency will also finally make its creative comeback, is still to be answered.

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

Wow! It doesn’t get much juicier in advertising! It all started when Dutch bank ING felt they were in need of a new agency. In the past years there had always been a lot of criticism on ING’s advertising, created by Leukwerkt Worldwide (Funnyworks), but ING kept defending it as being effective. We have to admit, Leukwerkt’s merger campaign that integrated Postbank’s and ING’s corporate identities was quite successful. But still, a ‘funny’ image is not appropriate in a time when most consumers heavily mistrust banks for their greedy nature.  In any case, a few months ago ING organized a pitch and invited four agencies; Selmore, UbachsWisbrun/JWT, Doom & Dickson and Leukwerkt. At the same time TBWA\Neboko was working for ABN AMRO – the other big Dutch bank. And things were looking good for TBWA, they were in the middle of developing their new campaign. In the ING pitch Doom & Dickson and Leukwerkt both retreated prematurely – the latter, because it was still proud of its work and didn’t want to change it. So now only two agencies were left, Selmore and JWT. But last Monday something very curious happened, ABN announced ending its relation with TBWA and continuing with Selmore! Which means both ABN and Selmore were already talking with eachother, while being involved with another partner! This also makes JWT automatically the ING pitch winner and leaves TBWA empty handed. Unless, of course, TBWA will join the ING pitch after all. To be continued…

Update (22 Jan): Yesterday in Adformatie: TBWA’s Simon Neefjes says that ING invited TBWA in December to the pitch, but decided to stay loyal to ABN – after having shared the invitation with ABN and after a satisfactory answer on how ABN saw the future collaberation between TBWA and ABN.  Also, last week TBWA presented creative work to ABN that was strongly appreciated. He confirms that it must be someone on the board that decided to break with TBWA.

Update (28 Jan): Today on Adformatie: TBWA wants to discuss terms of termination with ABN. According to the contract, ABN was legally not entitled to pull out instantly without paying any compensation. At least 15 people were working on the ABN account at TBWA.

Update (9 Feb): UbachsWisbrun/JWT officially wins ING pitch – while being the only participant left .

This guerilla ad by Indie at Amsterdam airport Schiphol is created for the Belastingdienst (national tax collector). Rare species (or parts of them), like an elephants tusk, Ocelot fur, a Ridley turtle and Barrier Reef coral, are being displayed on the baggage belt as if they are souvenirs imported by tourists. All the packages carry the message ‘Something to declare’? It makes you wonder how many innocent tourists actually bring in these kind of goods. If this number is substantial, it will certainly raise the declaration awareness – if not, at least WFF will love them for it! Indie already did this for the Belastingdienst a few years ago. Back then fake lizard and crocodile tales were protruding from suitcases. Unfortunately this will be the very last ad Indie has made for the Belastindienst, since UbachWisbrun/JWT won this client in a pitch last year. Whatever the reason for changing agency, Indie did a great job in transforming the Belastingdienst in a unapproachable fortress to a sympathetic, human organization. And that is a big accomplishment!

Finally UbachsWisbrun/JWT seems to have taken the big turn. Through Adformatie we learned that the agency has won the prestigious Belastingdienst (National Tax Collectors Office); a several-million-account. DDB, Publicis,  Roorda and Imagine were also involved in the pitch. Through the grapevine we learned that at JWT the champagne has been flowing abundantly. In the last two years the office has only been loosing (important) accounts. After having been ditched by Vodafone (went to They/Achtung!) and Rabobank (went to N=5) the agency shrank from 188 employees to 50. Belastingdienst came from Indie, who owned the account for five years and produced some very smart advertising. Indie literally gave the tax collectors a sympathetic face, which is – if you look at the nature of their ‘business’ – not an easy task. 15 employees were made redundand, because of the loss. Anyway, congrats JWT.

After having worked for 7 years with UW/JWT, Vodafone this February announced it wanted to reconsider its communication strategy. The brand that facilitates communication had noticed that its target group had changed its way of communicating (well spotted!). No less than 7 agencies participated in the pitch for 2 different parts of the account; theme and online. This seems to be the best of both worlds; THEY is known for its solid brand strategies, while Achtung! is one of the best online agencies around. But how will they work together? Hopefully not like many agencies still do today; one agency comes up with a superb offline idea, while the online partner is asked to translate it into a flashy website.