High Five: Netherlands

When Ajax became champion this year, they had to celebrate without their big group of fans. That was something Ajax did not want. As a champion, you get the scale (the Football Trophy) and you will get a star for every ten years you have been champion. This in mind, Ajax created something special for their fans, something that every fan who had a season ticket, could feel and wear with pride. Ajax therefore had their champion’s scale melted into in 42,000 pieces, which were transformed into stars. Every season ticket holder received a star made of the trophy. In Covid-19 times, these season ticket holders were still an important part of Ajax, and that’s how Ajax wanted to thank them. The ticket holders were proud of this emotional and precious star. They shared the letter with the special star on social media and all the football fans could feel the bond between Ajax and their season ticket holders. You can’t get any closer to your fans. This does not feel like marketing - it’s pure brand building.

To celebrate the winning flavour of the Iconic Restaurant Flavours campaign in Holland, Lay’s and Fitzroy created the ‘Crispy Puffer Jacket’. Lay’s and Fitzroy made the three different chips flavours: KFC, Pizza Hut and Subway. When the winner Subway was announced, we used the foil of the two losing flavours for something that could create a lot of buzz. The Crispy Puffer jacket. The jacket is made of recycled chips bag foil of the two losing flavours. It’s a unique way to turn waste into fashion. What’s more, the jacket isn’t filled with duck down or polyfilla, but with real Lay’s chips (16x bags) in the winning flavours. Lay’s x Subway Teriyaki in Holland. With this jacket a video clip and content was made to create attention around the jacket. Influencers were wearing the jacket for real in talk shows and red carpet moment. The Crispy Puffer Jacket was also in a digital version. People could use the AR lens on Snap.

Swapfiets is the fastest growing rental bike company in the Netherlands. The front tire of the rental bikes is bright blue, which is iconic. Simple and easily recognisable for everyone in the streets. After some years in which people in the Netherlands learned what the brand is standing for, Swapfiets sponsored the Dutch cycling team at the Tour de France 2021. You can put a big logo on a cycling jersey, but what Swapfiets did was showing their iconic blue front tire on the racing bikes of the cycling team. Dutch people could see our Dutch pride riding on a racing bike with a unique blue front tire. This was a totally new way to recognise a sponsor.

It's smart to use a symbol that stands for renewable energy and connect it to your brand. Mercedes-Benz is building its cars and batteries in factories that are running on wind energy. What is the best way then to claim wind energy on such a huge scale? It transformed wind turbines into its logo. Once you have seen the film - or Millboard (outdoor piece) - in real life, you will always see wind turbines connected to Mercedes-Benz. Outdoor advertising was never that clean. The wind and Mercedes-Benz are joining forces.

Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, is putting the spotlight on the smallest mammals in their Christmas commercial. In this delightful mini movie, two animated rodents fall head over heels for each other. It’s a mini movie that attracts a lot of attention in the Dutch advertising block. If you make a TV commercial, do it in such a way that people want to see it. Albert Heijn presented the TV commercial like a short movie. I think TBWA did a good job here. That’s Christmas entertainment.

This week, I saw the release of the game 'The Matrix Awakens'. If you are a fan of games, you want to see tutorials and trailers of the game. What Unreal did is making a game for PS5 and Xbox, so real it will blow your mind. What they did is unique and it’s breaking boundaries in many ways. If you download the trailer on your PS5 or Xbox, you think you are watching the new trailer of 'The Matrix'. The actors are talking to you in the world of 'The Matrix', but after four minutes you will realise that you get the opportunity to control and play the game in real life. It’s insane. It's as if you are watching a movie, but at the same time you are also the director. You can drive and shoot in a real life film. One thing for sure I want to have this game, along with many others. If you don’t have a PS5 or Xbox, please watch the film and realise that when the game starts, you could have been the player and director. Have fun. It’s worth every minute of watching.