5 Minutes with... Jan Rijkenberg

JR: It is a combination of factors that make our 'formula'. First of all, it is our ‘be as you are’ mentality. We don’t restrict people with corporate rules or protocol - we search for strong, authentic personalities; who dare to question why they do what they do and want to improve their output in close collaboration with others. We have no management team. Our 'brand teams' for clients are self-steering organisms.

 

Secondly, we have a great mix of people. From the no-nonsense, entrepreneurial founders to the 15 nationalities around us who create a buzzing atmosphere. Creative sparks pop up every day, all around the office.

 

Also, our ‘Concepting’ philosophy makes us different from many agencies. We believe every brand should have a clear vision, a mentality. That vision should be the umbrella for each brand, not the one-off TV idea. We help clients to (re)discover their DNA (their ‘be as you are’).  From there, we develop mentality-driven communication in whichever form is necessary. We never talk about 360 or integrated campaigns, because that has been inherent in our work, ever since 1995. We help brands to behave as they are.

 

And, of course, clients actually like working with us. We don't take ourselves too seriously - life is too short to not see the humour in what you do. And our team does great things because, apart from working really hard, we have fun together.

 

LBB: Obviously most of your work is on global accounts, but do you also work with locally-based clients? 

JR: Yes, of course. We work with ONVZ, a premium health care brand, Westland Utrecht Bank (ING), and Radio 538, the leading radio station in the Netherlands (and our client since 1999). Also we work in the Dutch market for international clients such as Fruit Shoot (Britvic UK), Specsavers UK and Parship (Hamburg).

 

JR: As, in my former career, I worked in tourism, I have always been in love with the charming, anarchistic Amsterdam lifestyle. From the start of our agency in 1995 I have preached 'Amsterdam, the creative capital', as a better alternative to London. And all those nationalities drive creativity - we have a pool of talent at our fingertips. When we 'import' people, they fall in love with Amsterdam – it becomes a lifestyle choice as opposed to a career move. As such, the cycle of multi-culturalism is ever increasing. And with that, the international opportunities increase. 

 

JR: We have a very open society, and have had strong ties all over the globe for more than 500 years. Therefore, we know how to compromise, we understand other cultures, we look at things differently and we know how to process and deal with that. This is where other cities, such as London and Paris, miss a trick. Also, we Dutch are pretty direct in how we communicate. Sure, that can sometimes be seen as blunt but international clients know that what they see is what they get. We can be trusted to be honest - we dare to speak out. And on top of that, every well-educated Dutch speaks a couple of other languages fairly fluently.

 

JR: Being the CEO, it’s not really part of my remit! But it’s almost organic. Between all our international people, we have such a wide global network – they know exactly who to call wherever in the world for a project. Before you know it, I have a couple of contracts on my desk for top talent, waiting to be signed-off. It’s certainly never a problem.

 

JR: We never use head hunters to find our creative talent. More and more people know the kind of work we do here and want to be part of it. When we’re looking for talent, our creatives send out a couple of e-mails or make some phone calls and we find people of like-minds. Also, we always have a couple of people 'on the bench' who are eager to work with us when the opportunity arises. When a new large client comes in, we are staffed-up again within a couple of weeks.

 

JR: Teaching taught me that there is not ‘one truth’ or ‘one vision'. I love the Q&A’s at the end of presentations. I prefer these interactive sessions. I like to be challenged. It inspires new visions and thoughts (my next book is on the way). This does influence the agency. At conferences I also learn from other speakers and always get copies of their speeches. The relevant ones are circulated amongst the BSUR crew the next day.

 

JR: We did so in our early years and I have one recommendation to all of those: Don't! First of all, many of these agency-led brands stem from a creative frustration that they couldn't sell the ideas that they like to their clients in their former agencies. That means they are not interested in helping clients, in which case, get out of this business. But most importantly, you have to invest so much time, hundreds of visits to potential distributors with your ideas (that you are probably heavily invested in), and maybe, just maybe, after a year, you might have some luck. In terms of time and money, as a side business, it’s a dead end. If you build great relationships with great clients, then you then can come up with any (product) idea. And it’s much more likely that it will make it to market. We do this frequently.

 

JR: Our industry, as it was formed in the good old 'Mad Men' days of the 60's, has not adapted at the same pace as the space it occupies – it isn’t keeping up with the changing environment and changing client requests. Agencies, in general, are still organized as they were then. Account in one wing, creative in the other and a bull dog traffic person in between to create distance. Awful. That model is a critical phase. No wonder clients leave their agencies. They don't see the added value any more. Only agencies that have proven to do something different, who deliver great value (and this is not through a 'likeable’ TV spot) get what they deserve – stable, long lasting, profitable client relationships.

 

JR: For 10 years we didn’t submit our work into any awards apart from the Effies. We felt that a creative award for just one ad, or one TV commercial, contradicted our 'holistic' approach. But the down side of this was that we were producing great work but it didn’t have a platform. The outside world wondered what the hell we were doing. Also, our creative talents want to work for 3 or 4 agencies around the globe over a period of time and I don't want to take away the opportunity to enrich their resumes. So now we do enter these awards again, but we do so very selectively. And thankfully, we’re reaping the rewards. I still think, in the end, the Effies are more important for the agency.

 

JR: I worked at the Netherlands National Tourist Office and, at 25, began briefing agencies in Brussels and Paris etc. to create campaigns to attract visitors. I am now ashamed of the insultingly low budgets this semi-government organisation gave their agencies. And I think my briefings then must have been naïve – a bit ‘blah, blah’ with no direction. I wanted to communicate 10 things in the space of a quarter-page black & white ad. But when, one day, a new American art director at Grey Brussels pinned his ideas (ink still wet) on the wall, I fell silent. The way he saw things in Holland, things that I had never seen, was brilliant. I knew then that, for the rest of my life, I wanted to be on the other side of that table.

 

JR: We were doing well in agencies like DDB, TBWA and EuroRSCG. Being internationally-minded, we were frequently invited to join pitch teams for international accounts. It was nice to work alongside British, French, German or Spanish colleagues. But then, once the account was won, it always went to the HQ, either in Paris, London or Frankfurt. And six months later, we Dutchies were only allowed to 'adapt' the work on the smallest European budget. So the only solution was to do it ourselves. Although it took a decade to really get there.

 

JR: They will slowly die. There may be future for some of them for the P&G-styled clients, who want a big network - not for creativity, but for control. The smart people in New York, London and Paris know this, of course. But since there are still some pennies to be made in re-cycling the old model in new markets through Asia, South America etc. they have a couple more years to tell themselves they do 'rather well'.

 

JR: I led the renovation of our office - a characteristic school building from 1922 - from the initial plans to the last brush of paint. Classroom by classroom was finished with respect to the original building. Never before have I done such a thing. We had nine months of timber, dust and drilling noise. Meanwhile, we grew by another 30%, and I am amazed to see how our people and our clients kept on working in the middle of all that mess. At no point did I see our team get tired or de-motivated by it. That's a rewarding experience.

 

JR: I can't imagine myself doing anything else (that Brussels moment was forever). And I think I now enjoy it more than ever before. We now have the type of international agency we always wanted. Of course my role changes. There’s less of the doing - in terms of brand strategies - but more being the guy who carefully manages culture and chemistry both in the agency as well as within teams or within client-agency teams. And with all these young, eager international people in the house, and with more travel for myself as well, I feel I am more connected than when I was 10 years younger. We face new challenges and new types of clients from unexpected regions of the world. I have done pitch meetings in Delhi, we are testing an advertising concept for a feminine hygiene brand in the Middle East and we are doing a great DNA project for a large European retail brand. I am happy – and you can’t ask for more than that.