Posts Tagged ‘Paul Lavoie’

Eurobest; first day seminars

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

eurobestYesterday we visited the opening day of the Eurobest festival in Amsterdam. The first seminar we attended was given by Paul Lavoie from Taxi Europe. He talked about ‘trust’ and explained that ideas can only grow big if people give them trust – from the creative director to the client. To illustrate this, he invited a Dakar Rally driver, a female porn producer and a knife thrower. They all had to trust the people around them or the other way around. We very much liked the unconventional character of his presentation – especially the circus-like show with the knife thrower was spectacular! – and the fact that Lavoie put his ego aside to let other people talk about his subject.

After Lavoie, Jeff Kling from Wieden+Kennedy took the stage and started his talk by making sure that everybody understood he was not responsible for the slight change in the title of his talk: ‘Show me the ad, you motherfucker’. It had been changed in (…) Motherf*****. He loved the word ‘fuckin’ and used it several times to make this point.

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Creative Lounge: Two worlds of advertising

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Creative LoungeLast Tuesday the VEA (Dutch Association of Advertising Agencies) and VCP (Dutch Association of Commercial Producers) organized ‘Creative Lounge’ – an initiative that brings the creative advertising scene together. The theme was ‘Two worlds of advertising’, referring to the clear distinction in Amsterdam between the typical Dutch agencies that make typical Dutch advertising and the international expat scene mainly working for international clients. One important difference between the Dutch professionals and the expats, as talent recruiter Keith White of Wieden+Kennedy explained, is the fact that the Dutch are used to work from 9 till 6, while the Wieden+Kennedy’s of this world live in a parallel world and often start their day when the Dutch go to bed. There’s  a different work ethic. It helps of course that for expats social life is for the biggest part happening within their working environment. When the question was raised why the international agencies never work with Dutch production agencies, Clair Finn of U-Turn (180) said it was partly due to the lacking service level of the Dutch. White added to this that it’s not just within the agencies, but in general; Dutch restaurants, shops, the service is overall quite poor. Paul Lovoie (Taxi) suggested that you should do your advertising in Amsterdam, while outsourcing the service to the French. We’re not sure whether that’s a wise idea, but without a doubt learned that Amsterdam has to raise its service level.

Source: Adformatie

Shoptalk: Taxi chooses Amsterdam

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

ShoptalkSeptember, last, we reported about the Canadian agency Taxi that considered either Amsterdam or London as their first European hub. Last week Taxi announced that Amsterdam won the pitch – the unconfirmed rumour goes that it was mayor Job Cohen riding a unicycle for PICNIC 2007 that gave Amsterdam that last push. Anyway, we’re glad to have the second Canadian agency on board – Sid Lee was first. And we’re especially happy with Paul Lavoie, founder of Taxi, who announced that the agency will place itself in between the Dutch Amsterdam agencies and the international ones. A welcome positioning, since Amsterdam is roughly divided between agencies that make typical Dutch advertising (unintelligible for foreigners) and the international expat agencies – like Wieden+Kennedy, 180 and Amsterdam WW – where English is the spoken tongue and campaigns are clearly made for the worldwide market. It would be great if Taxi can bring together these two worlds.

Amsterdam Taxi?

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

The heavily awarded Canadian advertising agency Taxi – already very well represented on the North American continent – is jumping the big pond. Taxi’s founder, Paul Lavoie, is still not sure though where his first European office will be based. Both London and Amsterdam are in the race. It might be a photo finish, since both cities have their own obvious advantages. London is bigger and more cosmopolitan. While Amsterdam is a friendly village where you can ride your bike to work. And – not to forget – smoke idea-inducing herbs. The local government is taking the race seriously, since they invited Lovoie to experience the city himself – a bicycle trip was part of the program. Even the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, had a little chat with Lavoie. If that won’t be enough to convince Lavoie, hopefully this promotional ‘I Amsterdam’ film will.