Cannes Lions

Indie’s giant beach towel makes a Cannes splash

It’s not all meetings, meetings, meetings at Cannes. There’s also a little time to kick back, soak up the sun and enjoy the beach. At least, that’s what Indie (formerly known as S-W-H) decided to do.4981_116200481473_608011473_2879927_5947921_n

Coming from Amsterdam, Indie doesn’t have a whole lot of opportunity to indulge in great weather - consequently, all those heat rays seem to have gone to the collective Indie head. How? In the shape of a 50 metre sq beach towel, that’s how.

Weighing in at 45 kilos, the collosus of the sands travelled down to Cannes in the back of the Jonge Honden (Young Dogs) bus and took a team effort to get it aligned just right on the beach.

4981_116200471473_608011473_2879926_3354391_nThere were plenty of takers ready to sit comfortably and ponder the Festival picks, including Poke’s Iain Tait. Was it here that he was hit by a stroke of pure genius, to get his mum involved in his seminar presentation? It was more than likely the bottles of chilled wine.

And the weather? Perfect. Except for Friday’s sudden rainstorm of 15 minutes duration, which managed to drench the towel in moments and turn it into a dead-weight unliftable beach accessory.

Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 Top Back to Top

Tailor-made media tours

Grey Amsterdam took advantage of Cannes Lions week to meet with more than 15 publications from around the world, including magazines, news sites, newspapers, blogs and creative archives from the US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, the UK and France.

In a special project orchestrated by FinchFactor, managing ECDs Colin Lamberton and Seyoan Vela spent a full-on two and a half days sitting on the terrace of the Majestic Hotel, in a marathon ‘getting to know you’ session.

All parties, drinking, sunburn and sandcastles? FinchFactor made sure time was extremely well spent introducing Grey’s creative muscle to - amongst others - Creativity Magazine, The Reel, Best Ads on TV and Campaign Brief.

Nursing a hangover? A bacon butty breakfast with the International Herald Tribune will have to do the job, followed by a lot of water and ice-cold Cola under a sunbrella with Campaign, followed by Horizont, and Ad Age, and then Boards Magazine.

Of course, we made sure our Grey guys had a few parties plugged into the schedule too. They worked hard - they deserved a reward.

Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 Top Back to Top

Amsterdam in Business

dsc09855Thursday afternoon in Cannes saw the Dutch step aboard the magnificent Clipper for a rallying meeting between head honchos from the City of Amsterdam and the creative industry alike.

The City’s Amsterdam in Business team do a lot of work to promote the benefits of Amsterdam as a European centre of excellence for the creative industry. Their encouragement of companies to join the creative business community in Amsterdam has recently won successes such as TAXI Europe and Eurobest.

The meeting on the Clipper saw inspirational addresses from the likes of Paul Lavoie (TAXI), Alex Melvin (180), Peggy Stein (Bureau Pindkaas) and Phil Thomas (Eurobest). dsc09857

It says a lot that representatives from these companies, as well as Grey Amsterdam, Indie, BSUR, Woedend, Amsterdam Worldwide and more, are all willing to spend time working together to share wins, encourage connections and discuss opportunities, rather than work in ivory towers. Yes, there is healthy competition, but there’s also a lot of business out there in the world - and no one agency can win all of it.

dsc09854Colin Lamberton and Seyoan Vela, managing ECDs at Grey Amsterdam, let it all go to their heads and thought they could take the boat home with them.

Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 Top Back to Top

Indie Amsterdam takes home 2 Cannes Lions

indie-logoCongratulations to Indie Amsterdam, formerly known as S-W-H, who won two Cannes Lions just a couple of weeks after their rebirth into the new agency.

The Bronze gongs were secured on the strength of work for Sensoor (Interactive Film) and Domino’s Pizza (Radio).

Click on the links to see the work:

Sensoor: Bronze for Interactive Film
 
Domino’s Pizza: Bronze for Radio Campaign

Posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 Top Back to Top

Michael was mourned, Cannes Lions-style

Where were you when you heard that Michael Jackson was dead?

Me, I had my toes curled in the Cannes sands, at the Shots party. This was Thursday evening of the Cannes Lions week. Noone believed it, until Paul Kemp-Robertson from Contagious got on his iPhone and checked the BBC website.

Back...

Back...

Sad moment. A lot of disbelief. Was it a ghoulish PR stunt to sell more concert tickets? Would it win a Cannes PR Lion in 2010? A cynical lot, ad types.

Next evening and things are a little more festive, a little more MJ-celebratory. Especially in the Gutter Bar at 3am where one Brit sported the best t-shirt of the night.

Åsk Dabitch from Adland couldn’t help but point out the glory of an ‘88 Bad tour.

Serendipitous packing or did he know something in advance? We’ll never know.

... and front

... and front

Posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 Top Back to Top