There’s a new ad brand in town, called the Account Planners Group (APG) Netherlands, an organization that brings account planners – or strategists, if you will – together. APG is an existing brand that was first coined in London and which now exists in several other countries than the UK, among which Germany, Sweden, and Australia. Gerald Hensel, German, planner at Blast Radius, blogger, and fanatic tweeter, is the initiator and the co-founder of the Dutch APG. In November, the first open invitation meeting kicked off at Strawberry Frog – hosting the event. We were there and judging by the amount of planners that attended, it was a success. We took Gerald out for lunch at Stanislavski to ask him a few questions about his initiative.
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Happy New Year to you all. To stay in the right mood, we present to you this film about Champagne. A nice slow motion of a bottle of Champagne being uncorked – in reverse. Not the most original idea ever, but pleasant to watch with Vivaldi in the background and likely to make the viewer thirsty. What makes less sense is that the film was made for Lidl, known as one of the cheaper supermarket chains – and recently in the news again for treating its personnel like rubbish, for that matter. Promoting a cheap Champagne (with ditto label and price) for a cheap supermarket in a relatively stylish way feels like a contradiction. But that’s the whole idea – recently we also saw Zeeman being promoted on the catwalk. The film is part of a more integrated campaign with a print ad featuring a Dutch chef, Ramon Beuk, promoting the Champagne in Dutch glossy Linda; “The best tasting Champagne for an incredibly low price. Where to get it?!” With a QR code in the Linda readers were directed to a dedicated page showing the film and revealing the source (see case film here). The concept was created by THEY – who launched their own Champagne brand Zarb a few years ago – and the Champagne film was directed by Bill Tanaka (328 Stories).
When it comes to location based – i.e. geo-tagged – shopping there are roughly two kind of benefits (apart from telling people where you are); either you can proudly tell the world you’ve become the virtual mayor somewhere or you get an instant discount – or both. Now there’s a new web app, created by THEY, that tells you through live data where you don’t want to be shopping. The app that sources Foursquare check-ins and tweets is built to avoid the crazy X-mas shopping crowds. Since it only services a few areas in Amsterdam (like ‘Centrum’ and the ’9 Straatjes’) and most people don’t have the luxury to go shopping when nobody else does (unless they shop online), it seems more of a PR builder than an ambituous project that is to conquer the world. But whatever you think of it; it does show that THEY is thinking forward and likes to experiment.
Zarb – French slang for bizarre – is a champagne brand brought to market by Amsterdam agency THEY in 2009. The idea behind the brand is that the bottle is used as an artistic medium. In December last year Zarb opened a pop-up store in Amsterdam to show its collection. This year the brand is a little more ambitious by having its new designs exhibited in gallery Joyce in Palais Royal in Paris. 20 different artists were given complete freedom to create their own Zarb bottle. Amongst them Dutch Fashion Designer Jan Taminiau (in pic), Andrea Crews, PP from Longwy (in pic), Chaotic Bastards, Hedi Ferjani, Emeline Piot, Mini Mercredi, Paul Hamy, Deux d’Amsterdam, Nina Naustdal (in pic), Antoine Bouillot and Hanna Hermans (in pic). We’re glad to see that THEY is keeping up the good work.
Just like the previous Vodafone commercial – also made by THEY – about the €2-abroad-deal (the one in the snow), this ad won’t win any prizes in Cannes – though Wouter Stoter directed a fairly sexy commercial. But speaking of Cannes; some of us used Vodafone’s €2/day-deal there and it was great. Especially when comparing it to T-Mobile; they also charges €2, only then per Mb, which now feels like going back to the Middle Ages. We’re not sure whether there’s any reception at Blue Cove (wherever it is, cause we couldn’t find it on TripAdvisor), but this commercial would definitely make us consider a switch – after all, T-Mobile even in Holland doesn’t have proper reception. So what can we learn from this; you don’t need award winning work to advertise a good product. Which is more or less the opposite of: award winning work will make a bad product fail faster – but we knew that one since Bill Bernbach was still alive.
We wrote about this campaign, created by THEY, before; it’s based on the ‘IkKan’ (I can) theme and built around the ‘Talent Translator’. This online platform helps the jobless to focus on what they can do, rather than on what they cannot – sounds logical. And this positive approach should encourage people to look for a job more actively. Whatever. We just like the visual style.
We received a press release from THEY telling us that the agency just won the assignment to roll-out the Polish vodka Sobieski in India. Sobieski is (in quantity) the sixth-largest vodka brand in the world, but we never heard of it. After doing some Googling we came across this Bruce Willis commercial. Apparently he’s not only Sobieski’s advertising property, like George Clooney for Nespresso, but also a partner in the company. The commercial made us laugh out loud. Having seen this, we’re sure THEY will do a better job in India. Though selling vodka in India still feels like selling Vindaloo curry’s on the Northpole – fortunately India is a little denser populated.
“Internet overseas. Our network is ready for it. Start your journey.” Sometimes advertising seems so simple. Or let us put it differently; some agencies can make advertising look simple. Though it helps of course that Amsterdam agency THEY was allowed to bring us good news. After all, we’ve asked ourselves for ages: ‘why don’t these assholes provide us with cheaper internet overseas’. As if they still had to ‘make’ a network in Switzerland. Vodafone has been ready for it for many years, but first they wanted to empty our pockets before introducing this new standard – €2/day, which is still ridiculous. So ironically the message reminds us that mobile providers are not to be trusted. We’re not gonna shoot the messenger, though, cause THEY did a good job in making Vodafone look attractive. The commercial, shot in St. Moritz, was directed – just like the previous commercial – by Wouter Stoter (Comrad).
Zarb, meaning bizarre in French slang, is a relatively new Champagne brand that was introduced by agency THEY two years ago. An understandable brand name, if your plan is to turn the traditional champagne market upside down. Instead of becoming cautious or even apathetic, THEY wanted to convert the economic crises into something positive; hence Champagne, a drink you have when there’s something to celebrate. The Zarb bottles were turned into a creative medium by asking different artists to design their own bottle. This December the agency launched a new series, named Deep Black, using the wonders of the underwater world as inspiration. The first bottle (left) shows a photo of a squid taken by deep sea photographer David Shale. The second and third bottle (middle and left) show pictures of two mermaid-like creatures. The middle one is designed by underwater photographer Zena Holloway and the one on the right is a collaboration between Holloway and costume designer Vin Burnham. In December a pop-up store in the Amsterdam Berenstraat exhibited the new collection. Several other artists were asked to create special edition magnums. What a great idea. And if you thought it’s ‘all play and no work’, you’re wrong. The brand is slowly expanding its distribution around the globe. A lesson to be learned for all agencies that still have the feeling that the economic crises is putting them out of business; you can simply create your own – after all, you are a creative agency.
“Online gaming with mobile broadband, Vodafone is ready for it” is what the voice-over tells us. We like it. Finally. In June 2009 agency THEY won the Vodafone account together with Achtung! – the latter agency was primarily responsible for the digital work. Since then Vodafone has been all over the place with its advertising – as if they were drunk during office hours. But fortunately Vodafone didn’t (only) blame their agency – after all, a client always gets the advertising it deserves. And we’re also glad to see that the brand finally found a proposition that is both relevant and executed in an attractive way. There are also two other commercials that show that if you like partying or yoga, fast internet can be handy. The commercials were directed by Wouter Stoter – whose production agency Comrad (sharing offices with CZAR) lent its building for the ‘OZAR’ party in one of the commercials. Let’s hope Vodafone stays off the booze and follows a steady course for a while.
