Amsterdam DNA. City History Goes 3D.

Januar 5th, 2012 • Display, Events
Tags: 3D, Agencies, Amsterdam, Culture, Display, Events, history, museum, Netherlands, PlusOne, Presentation, World

As an Amsterdamer by choice I can hardly imagine anybody without a certain trace of local pride when it comes to this wonderful city. No matter if you live here for two weeks or your whole life: the citizens of Amsterdam know in what an exciting place rich in history they live.

Amsterdam DNA is a new exhibition in the Amsterdam Museum that takes the spectator on a three-dimensional 45-minute journey through the history of the City. The versatile story of the city is presented in seven intriguing films produced by PlusOne Amsterdam.

The first film is called Revolt. And it deals with the city’s struggle for freedom after the middle-ages. I am looking forward to the exhibition. Well done Guys.

Amsterdam DNA – Revolt from PlusOne on Vimeo.

APG Netherlands. Shaping a new Home for Strategists.

Oktober 18th, 2011 • Strategy
Tags: Agencies, Amsterdam, APG, apgdigital, Article, Netherlands, new biz, Strategy, World

Most of you know that I live in Amsterdam for a while now – a city with many agencies, some Strategists but almost without connecting links between them.

A couple of months ago I wrote about an idea that some of my fellow Strategists and I carried around with us for a while: Founding an Account Planning Group in the Netherlands. I don’t want to go too much into detail here but all of us sensed that the small but very international Planner community in the Netherlands needed more exchange, progress, representation and also standardization. The result was one of the most pragmatic professional processes I have ever been part of. Yesterday we simply founded the Dutch franchise of the British (and Global) Account Planning Group – as guild of Planners here.

Our plan: to create a professional community for strategists that serves as forum for knowledge exchange, inspiration and networking for our little group of Strategists. We haven’t got many resources right now. But we are happy to welcome any brand and communications strategists in the Netherlands who want to help us shape this platform for the Strategists in the Netherlands (be they Dutch or not)

If you are one of them…

• sign up for our Linked-in group and spread the news
• join us for our opening event on Nov 17 at Strawberry Frog Amsterdam
• help us shape this group

A couple of weeks ago I have written an article for German magazine New-Business (which is closely connected with the German APG) about this process. I am looking forward to see us make the new APG NL become part of Europe’s Planner guilds.

The article (in German). Please click it to see it full size.

Only Today. KLM tweets with a Living Alphabet.

September 20th, 2011 • 4 comments Brands, Twitter
Tags: Brands, Campaign, Cool, Funny, Ideas, KLM, Netherlands, Social Influence Marketing, social network, Twitter, visual

KLM tries hard to become the social web’s favorite attacker brand. After staging a bunch of interesting campaign micro-ideas they launched something more complicated today. As Social Times reported a tweet from KLM earlier today said…

The result: live customer service replies that are shaped by a living alaphabet made up of 140 KLM employees. Yes it is live and it reacts to customer tweets but only today (and only as as reaction to a few selected tweets).

Live Reply tweets are being uploaded to KLM’s Youtube Channel and shared on Twitter. So far they’ve sent video tweets to about ten people, but they’ve still got a lot of hours left in the campaign. The example below is one of them…

The whole campaign is funny but completely useless. Anyway, it’s again a great very short-term promotional stunt to spread the word about KLMs social platforms and to position KLM as a social-media-savvy brand. In this regard: Well done, KLM. I am looking forward to the next useless stunt.

APG Netherlands. Does Holland need a Strategy Foundation?

Juli 31st, 2011 • 6 comments People
Tags: Amsterdam, APG, apgdigital, Netherlands, Strategy

I live in Amsterdam for a bit more than a year now. There is an old joke about Germans (no, not the one with the towels or with invading other countries) that whenever you put a German somewhere he will try to found some type of club. And I am no exception to this rule.

After arriving in Amsterdam I tried to get in contact with (professionally) likeminded people. And I was surprised to find out that it wasn’t quite easy to meet other Strategists.  I knew some of the local Strategists via twitter but all connections between them were 100% personal – either you knew a couple of your colleagues from other agencies or you didn’t. No real professional network structured collaboration of the Dutch and the Expat Strategists in and beyond Amsterdam.

Thanks to the support of (the perfectly well connected) Heather Le Fevre I was able to invite the major share of Amsterdam’s Brand/Account/Creative/Younameit Planners to a bimonthly ‘Stammtisch‘ event which we organize via a Facebook Group (feel free to apply for access if you consider yourself a Amsterdam Strategist). Our little group has grown to more than 60 Planners in and around Amsterdam and we meet on a regular basis.

But honestly – shouldn’t interaction between Strategists in the Netherlands be more than an informal Beer every once in a while? I think it should.  And I would like to discuss whether this should be something they call Account Planning Group (APG) in the UK and in Germany. Yes, I am talking about a formal institution.

So what is an APG and why is it purposeful? APG UK defines the mission in the following way

• Encourage dialogue among the members and provide a ‘home’ for planners, representing the interests of the planning community.
• Provide training especially for younger members of the community
• Give access to Case Studies
• Enable new publications on the subject of planning, contributing to other publications, and organising various events and debates.

APG is a not-for-profit organisation run for and by its members. That means it needs some kind of membership fees. And it also usually requires a small team to run day-to-day operations on behalf of the larger community. If you want to learn more about the role of the Account Planning Group check out the UK’s APG website.

Read more »

Hup Holland Hup! Dutch Lawmakers adopt Net Neutrality Law.

Juni 22nd, 2011 • Politics
Tags: Amsterdam, net neutrality, Netherlands, People, Politics, World

One of many reason why I love to live in the Netherlands. The Dutch Parliament has just made a groundbreaking decision:

The Netherlands on Wednesday became the first country in Europe, and only the second in the world, to enshrine the concept of network neutrality into national law by banning its mobile operators from blocking or charging consumers extra for using Internet-based communications services like Skype or WhatsApp, a free text service.

The measure, which was adopted with a broad majority by the lower house of the Dutch Parliament, the Tweede Kamer, will prevent KPN, the Dutch market leader, and the Dutch units of Vodafone and T-mobile, from blocking or charging for Internet services. Its sponsors said that the measure would pass a legal review in the Dutch Senate without hitches.

Analysts said that the legal restrictions imposed in the Netherlands could shape Europe’s broader, evolving debate over network neutrality, pushing more countries on the Continent to limit operators from acting as self-appointed toll collectors of the mobile Internet.

“I could also see some countries following the Dutch example,” said Jacques de Greling, an analyst at Natixis, a French bank. “I believe there will be pressure from consumers to make it clear what they are buying, whether it is the full Internet or Internet-light.”

Advocates hailed the move as a victory for consumers, while industry officials predicted that mobile broadband charges could rise in the Netherlands to compensate for the new restrictions.

“We support network neutrality,” said Sandra de Jong, a spokeswoman for Consumentenbond, the largest Dutch consumer organization, based in Den Haag. “We don’t think operators should be able to restrict the Internet. That would be a bad precedent.”

Luigi Gambardella, the executive board chairman of the Brussels-based industry group, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, warned that the Dutch legislation could deter operators from making needed investments in high-speed networks for fear of building expensive but unprofitable infrastructure.

“Any additional regulation should avoid deterring investment or innovative business models, leading to a more efficient use of the networks and to creating new business opportunities,” Mr. Gambardella said. He said operators needed the ability to charge different tariffs for different levels of service, to recoup the costs of data-intensive applications.

(More on New York Times)

KLM Surprise. How to effectively stage a small social idea.

Januar 5th, 2011 • 7 comments Brands, Experimental, Mobile, Social, Twitter, We like
Tags: Airline, Amsterdam, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Foursquare, Funny, Ideas, KLM, klmsurprise, Location, Netherlands, Social Influence Marketing, Tech, Tools, Twitter

Big ideas? Well sometimes you can make a difference with a nice little idea that costs $100 and makes people smile. What happened was simple – KLM Surprise follows passengers who tweet or login to Foursquare while they wait for their flights. KLM has checked out their profiles in advance and gives little personalized travel presents to them. Total costs? $100? $150? A small team with a low end social listening solution. And even though I doubt it was a highly effective campaign idea it at least generated this image video below. Something you would have called a TV commercial in 1994. A TV commercial about a caring, tech-savvy airline. Well done KLM. (via)

Apple + T-Mobile. United in Impotence.

August 9th, 2010 • 2 comments Brands
Tags: Apple, Brands, disaster, iPhone, Iphone4, Mobile, Netherlands, PR

Dear Apple. Not ‘Antennagate’ is influencing my decision to buy an iPhone 4. Your inability to deliver does influence my decision. One day after the second launch wave hit Holland I tried to buy one in Amsterdam. Answer: I have to wait for at least 8-10 weeks. I mean WTF? We are talking about the day after the product launch. This is no intended artificial shortage – that is a disasterous launch for a product.

A week later I decided to really sign up for the waiting list via T-Mobile’s website in the Netherlands. I chose the desired model, click ‘bestellen’ (order) – and this is the result.

T-Mobile + Apple – wow, I am impressed. Well, in T-Mobile’s case I am at least happy they manage to keep up a consistent brand image no matter where you go.