After TomTom recorded the voices of Darth Vader and Yoda – among others – this time TomTom has teamed up with Sesame Street to promote its navigation system. It’s literally the same ad concept as the previous virals made with Star Wars, but a very smart ad (and business!) property and easily more enjoyable to watch than John Cleese breaking free. Created by Pool Worldwide.

This is a bit of a complicated one – especially when you don’t speak Dutch. Pool Worldwide made a series of 5 short commercials for ‘De Telefoongids’ (the white and yellow pages) to communicate the header in this picture “You can all find it with the free Search & Find app”. The short commercials – pretended to be made by the retailers to sell their businesses – watched in the right sequence (from left to right) create a story about a robbery. The first one shows a tailor (that sells suits), the second one a party store (that sells masks to disguise yourself), the third one a bag store (that sells Claudio Ferrici bags to carry the loot), the fourth one a van rental (so you can drive through a facade), and the fifth one the security at jewelry shop (to rob). The films are purposely made badly to illustrate that De Telefoongids is mainly used by small businesses. What we do like is that the different films form a sort of puzzle – we can even imagine that the pieces are creatively seeded on the web through banners or something. What we don’t like is that the itchy films make us a bit nervous. And though we understand that the commercials address the user of the app, rather than the retailer, this campaign shows how De Telefoongids looks at its customers – quite condescendingly. And then back to us, the target; do we use De Telefoongids to find a bunch of amateurs? Mmm…

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.

We, as a blog, always want to feature impactful advertising. This commercial for TomTom, created by Pool Worldwide, is indeed impactful. Not because it teaches us something about TomTom – if anything, we’ve learned that TomTom is a brand for being stuck in traffic. Not because it is sexy. And not because it’s brilliantly executed. It is impactful, because it teaches us that John Cleese doesn’t know when it’s time to enjoy his retirement (does he need the money?) – it is sad to see that a once great actor let’s himself be commercially prostituted like this. There are some more films with other (less famous) people who also sing Queen’s ‘I want to break free’ in a theatrical way when their stuck in traffic. There’s also a Facebook page, where TomTom begs you to ‘Like’ them and thus to become a ‘fan’. Finally, the campaign also has a crowd sourcing element built in by asking the consumer to send in some other ‘break free’ moments. Let’s prepare for more knuckle biting.

Amsterdam won two Grand Prix in Film and Design at Eurobest in Hamburg, last Wednesday. Wieden+Kennedy was awarded the prestigious award for its epic Nike ‘Write the future’ commercial – alledgedly the most expensive commercial ever made. And for the same film it won bronze in Film Craft. Amsterdam Worldwide earned a Grand Prix in the category Design for the Onitsuka Tiger ‘Tansu sneaker’. Other than that Amsterdam did not do extremely well, we have to admit. In interactive Pool Worldwide won silver for its brilliant StarWars branded TomTom viral. In the same category 180 Amsterdam won bronze for Adidas’ Match Tracker and NRG3 won bronze for an interactive banner for the EA game Need for Speed Shift. N=5 was awarded silver in the category Media with a ‘Live interactive billboad’ – an aggression awareness campaign. BSUR got bronze in Film for MINI’s Flow, Publics won bronze in Print for KIKA, and JWT bronze in Promo and Outdoor with the MINI Christmas box.

This is a bit of an odd one. So You Think You Can Dance – one of the many talent shows nowadays on the commercial channels – meets Radio 538. The latter is a radio station that recently introduced two radio helmets (in the colours of its visual identity) as advertising property – dubbed the ‘Stereoheads’. We like their distinctive character. We’re not quite sure what to think of the big dick though. We can imagine that – in their eagerness to create a ‘viral’ – the agency searched for something shocking, something completely over the top. However, somewhere in between the fourth spliff and third bottle of vodka, things got a little out of hand; “we’ll have the guy break dance on his dick!” someone screamed, immediately followed by testosterone fueled laughter. And since the client was sitting in on this intoxicating brainstorm, they even agreed on doing it – there and then. Only when 538 saw the end result, they realized their agency had actually been serious that crazy night. It was created by Pool Worldwide and directed by Paul Meijer – who has is own agency BeyenMeyer and shares his office building with Pool. This might very well create some traffic, but what to think of Radio 538 now? Crippled, but still potent?

Dutch navigation device manufacturer TomTom offers a very special set of new navigation voices in joint promotion with Star Wars. This viral – yes, we do consider it a viral – created by Pool Worldwide and directed by Willem Gerritsen (CZAR), advertises Yoda’s voice – on sale for US $13. In May Darth Vader was released. Very funny, though we can imagine – as the commercial already shows – that this voice will (literally) drive you nuts after a while. On the TomTom website you can also listen to voice samples of the other Star Wars characters – Darth Vader, C-3PO, and Han Solo. There’s also a Star Wars game – we could almost hear the client say “let’s also do a game”. It has to do with augmented reality through your webcam, using the force and winning ‘a personalized Yoda voice’ – whatever that may be. All in all, TomTom – in difficult times because of the recession and tough (mobile phone) competition – and Pool have done a great job in turning TomTom into a more likeable brand.

Three Amsterdam agencies, BeyenMeyer, B&E (Brands & Entertainment) and Pool are going to share the same office at BeyenMeyer. The new combination is a partnership rather than a merger. All agencies will therefore keep their separate names. It seems to be a smart move, since the agencies will create the perfect triangle of traditional advertising, strategy and digital. More and more agencies are working according to this network model, that gives all participants the freedom to develop in their own preferred directions, but makes everyone profit from the added value of the combined qualities.

Source: Adformatie

This is an interesting commercial for Philips Activa, made by Pool Worldwide and directed by Louis van Zwol. The Activa is a Nike+-like gadget – a running device that combines tracking, setting goals and matching music. We like the fresh look and feel and the independent tone of voice of this ad. And we also like the fact that it was (very down to earthly) shot around the corner from the Philips Consumer Lifestyle office in Amsterdam – you can actually see the building in the commercial. While this gadget – with a name and pay-off probably conceived by marketers – literally copy’s Nike+, it clearly positions itself away from the ‘Just do it’ mentality. “I don’t need to win a medal or look like a model” is what the early morning runner is telling us. This does make sense when you realize that Philips doesn’t sell running gear. And as Nike+ invented the entire category, you better use a distinctive tone of voice. However, execution-wise we still feel some friction. Maybe it’s the fact that the actor does look like a winner and a model at the same time. It thus almost feels as if the copy and art were created separately. And, ironically, the narrative made us think of Yuri Gallegos, a great character used in a Nike+ ad who is more human than the handsome hardbodies that usually adorn running ads – it was created by 72andSunny in 2008. But maybe we’re taking this all too deep. All in all we are very happy to see that Philips is beginning to get a taste for some sexier advertising.

We’ll forgive you, if you didn’t recognize this as advertising. It is supposed to go viral and made by Pool Worldwide to promote a website (U-Tune) specially built for Dutch radio channel 538. On this website you can record your own song with Auto-Tune, a tool that adds digital sound to your voice. The technique disguises off-key inaccuracies and mistakes and thus allows singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks. Though this film with the famous Dutch clown Bassie doesn’t really proof that point. Anyway, after recording your own song on the dedicated website – ‘Karaoke’ or ‘Freestyle’ – you can forward it to your friends through social media like Facebook and Twitter. The best and most original entries are also broadcassed on 538. What a smart way to engage the consumer and create content at the same time.