This graphically inviting game called ‘Hitchhike with a like’ was created by Tribal DDB and Facebook. It let’s you hitch rides through Europe to different destinations with different Volkswagen Beetles. Though the copy teaches us that it’s about the journey and not the destination, the game doesn’t really show the journey. It simply tells you how many points you’ve earned after you’ve reached your different destinations. If you travel long enough, you can win a Beetle trip across Europe. Oh, and there’s also a ‘mojo’ meter that slowly runs on empty. Only by sharing your trips on Facebook you can recharge it. And that’s where Volkswagen’s briefing peeks around the corner: “Wir wollen Facebook Likes, und schnell!” As usual we weren’t patient enough to sit out the entire game, but we’re sure that if you do there’s champagne and fireworks – and if you’re lucky a grand prize. The game was produced by B-Reel, the 3D animations built by Prime Focus, and the different tunes accompanying each trip created by Massive Music.

We were invited to Digital Dinner at Rainarai, an Aglerian restaurant in Amsterdam. Though the food was wonderful, the portions were a bit meager. And since there was plenty of alcohol, we’re writing this piece a bit hungover. But the good news is that the evening was packed. Achtung!’s Dick Buschman did the introduction, explaining that Emerce initiated the event to connect with the Dutch creative industry. The organization (Achtung!, Bert Hagendoorn, and Pop The Campaign) then asked Creative Social to select some interesting speakers. Marc Chalmers (Perfect Fools), founder of Creative Social explained how members of Creative Social have to introduce theirselves; they have to show what they are working on and finish their presentation with the words “That’s me that is.” So we had the honor to witness the introduction of the 10 new Creative Social members.

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With a track record like Tribal DDB it’s hardly a surprise that they became interactive agency of the year at Eurobest this year. Throughout the year they’ve been making great and award winning work for KLM and Philips. The climax of their award victory march has been Eurobest this week; out of the 12 nominations they won 9 awards – for Philips Obsessed with Sound 4, for ‘Wake up the town‘ 2, and for KLM Tile & Inspire 3. What really took us by surprise was ‘The Legendary Making of The Date’ for Heineken by Wieden+Kennedy winning a Grand Prix in film. We already noticed that every big budget commercial nowadays gets a making of to create some relatively cheap content – and PR for the agency, for that matter. But actually winning a Grand Prix with the side project of a campaign is quite something. Back then we said: “Not your standard ‘making of’, but one made with ‘joie de vivre’ and lots of CG jokes. If we weren’t already, this would want to make us work in advertising”. The commercial itself, ‘The Date’, also won silver in film, and ‘The Entrance’ won gold. We were told that AKQA’s London office sent in the work of AKQA Amsterdam, so you could say that the Grand Prix and Gold in Mobile for Heineken Star Player (social betting on football matches), also went to Amsterdam. DBB and 180 won silver in film for ‘Old Lady’ (Volkswagen) and ‘Marked for Life’ respectively. We also had the Epica awards last week. W+K won 5 Epica’s plus a Grand Prix for ‘The Entrance’ and ‘The Date’ combined. Again W+K won an award (gold) for the ‘extra’s’ – some extra mini scripts around ‘The Entrance’. 180’s Marked for Life won gold and silver. Finally Lemz did well with 2 silver and 2 bronze for IKEA 365, KLM Live Reply, and ‘Children see things differently‘. In total Amsterdam won 22 Epica awards. One final note to Eurobest and Epica; can you guys please merge? There’s no reason to have two identical continental award shows – except making lots of money, of course…

With 13 shortlist nominations in film and 7 in film craft, Amsterdam should be able to win some more Lions tomorrow night. Of all these nominations 4 go to Nike ‘Write the future’, 3 to Heineken’s ‘The Entrance’, and one to Heineken’s ‘The Date’, which adds up to an impressive 8 film (craft) nominations for Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Write the future also has a nomination for Titanium (integrated), though this case was sent in by Nike. BSUR also does well with 4 nominations for MINI Countryman’s ‘Flow’. Philips’ ‘Wake up the town’ by Tribal DDB has 3 film nominations. Other film nominations go to Volkswagen (DDB), Centraal Beheer (DDB) – we personally liked this more subtle Centraal Beheer film a lot better – De Bijenkorf (Selmore), IDFA X-ray eyes (TBWA) – a very smart film – and the beautiful Sire film ‘Marked for life‘ (180). We’ll keep our fingers crossed!

Yet another car activation by Achtung! for Pon, the biggest Dutch Volkswagen (group) distributor in the Netherlands. This time for the Skoda Yeti. The concept, dubbed ‘Yeti Night Catch‘ resembles Achtung!’s successful ‘Catch the Polo’ from 2009, since the consumer has to catch a moving Yeti. The difference though is that the Yeti is not driven by a consumer, but moved secretly overnight to a new location. The consumer can follow the Yeti’s route on Google Maps and set a trap along its (predicted) route. Every time you catch it, you earn points and the overall winner wins a trip to South Africa. South Africa?! Doesn’t the legendary Yeti live in the Himalaya? Mmm. Maybe it’s a global warming thing.

Here’s yet another brand that uses social media statistics to show how cool (or not cool) you are – yesterday we wrote about Hi using Facebook stastistics. This concept for Volkswagen, called ‘LinkedUit’, not only uses your LinkedIn data, it also allows you to battle your LinkedIn network, to see – among other things – who has more contacts, a longer resume, and more recommendations. If you win, you’re ‘In’ and if you loose you’re ‘Out’. The animation that comes with the battle also allows you to stick your profile photo on your animated avatar. For those of you who wonder what the strategic fit is with the new Volkswagen Passat; the campaign question is ‘How full are you of yourself?’ And since the Volkswagen Passat comes with many special features, it’s full of itself too – a bit of a stretch. Created by Achtung! The digital agency works for Volskwagen for years now and has already built an impressive list of dedicated production introduction websites.

We always try to show work that we appreciate in one way or another. Like this ad. In a slightly different way though; it makes our Friday afternoon enjoyable. Let’s analyze it. “Blue Efficiency” (like Volkswagen’s Blue Motion) in the top left corner suggests that this ad has got something to do with the hybrid technology. Check. The header “Think clear” does the same. Check. The cloud however suggests they are talking about exhaust fumes. So, when your head is polluted, you should think clear. That it? Mmm. Maybe also a good advice for agency ddk – the agency’s name, believe it or not, also stands for ‘clear’.

Last night Amsterdam won 2 golden design Lions. Amsterdam Worldwide for its Onitsuka Tiger Tansu sneaker (picture) and FHV/BBDO for its black Mars packaging (almost) without the iconic Mars logo. Consumers received a sheet of letter stickers to create their own text on the Mars bar. The jury was charmed by the fact that Mars dared to change its world famous packaging so radically. In Cyber Amsterdam won 2 bronze Lions. Achtung! with ‘Public Polo‘ for Volkswagen and Kong (again) with Stanislav for the Ministry of Justice. The day before yesterday we got 2 silver outdoor Lions. Again, one for MINI Christmas box by UbachsWisbrun/JWT and one for Interbest, created by Y&R Not just film. Indie won bronze in radio for Dance4Life.

Source: Adformatie

EuroRSCG4D created a Facebook page – together with LBi Göteborg – for the Volvo C30 DRIVe. The new Volvo can drive 1333 kilometer on a full tank, thanks to the start/stop system and regenerative charging. Surprisingly enough these technologies are not mentioned on the website, which is a different approach from Volkswagen that recently introduced a special ingredient brand: Blue Motion Technologies. Instead, Volvo chose the playful route. On the dedicated Facebook page you can invite your Facebook friends to virtually drive around the world in as few stops as possible. So for example, if you live in Amsterdam you virtually drive to Berlin, where a Facebook friend drives the next lap to Moscow, from there another friend drives further east, until the car has completely circled the earth. To win the game, every single lap has to be as close as 1333 kilometers as possible.  If you win, Volvo donates € 15,000 in your name to a project that fights global warming. Since we couldn’t play the game (the site told us “Oops, something went wrong. We are working on fixing this problem”), it’s difficult to judge it properly, but we wonder whether this prize gives the consumer enough incentive. We know, global warming is ‘hot’ and all, but consumers are still very opportunistic. So if you want them to play a game online, it either has to be very engaging or give away great prizes – a C30 DRIVe for example.

With the BMW test drive – a live, webcam broadcasted, online test drive – we already had a peek in the future of ‘on-offline’ activation. And although Pak de Polo (catch the Polo) seems heavily inspired by the BMW concept, this new Volkswagen campaign by Achtung! brings the idea to a much higher level. During one week the new Volkswagen Polo is driving through the Netherlands and anyone that sees it pass by can simply flag it down and become the next test driver. On the dedicated website you can submit your zip code if you want the car to move into your direction. A computer calculates an itinerary (based on the average of all the submitted zip codes) that is shown in the little GPS screen online. At the same time the co-pilot has little chit chats with the test drivers, making it a real life in-car soap that – we have to admit – is more compelling than we expected. There’s also a car following and filming the Polo, which enables the online viewer to change camera positions (top right corner). TV, Radio 538 and Hyves (= Dutch Facebook) give Pak de Polo extra exposure. Every day the test driver making the most kilometers is the day-winner. And at the end of the week all the day-winners battle each other for the most kilometers. We are really impressed and predict this concept to be the springboard to many more on-offine brand activations.