2009 EuroBest hosted by Amsterdam: Europe's most creative city this year!

EuroBest 2009 hosted by Amsterdam from aliciabenz on Vimeo.

Amsterdam Poetry

The Eyes of Amsterdam from aliciabenz on Vimeo.

Heineken Brainwashing, ahem I mean... Experience.

The infamous “Heineken Experience,” which is nothing less than mini-amusement park for beer lovers.  Heineken Bier was first brewed in Amsterdam, and the original factory has been turned into an interactive journey through history of the Heineken brand.  I would love to meet the masterminds behind this establishment, we could learn a thing or two.  People were literally lined up to watch commercials and buy merchandise.  It was a branding goldmine in there.  You felt like a real beer connoisseur, as you sipped on a glass of ice cold Heine.  Yum!

The best part was when it got interactive.  First, there was a ride where they “brew you.” We’re talking a full sensory experience of the brewing process.  Also, you can create a goofy music video and then immediately email it to 5 friends, telling them how awesome of a time you are having being a tourist. We obviously loved this and sent it to everyone, knowing fully we were playing right into their marketing trap.  Using the internet to spread a positive brand message, on the spot? Genius.  Heineken took it to another level where visitors could sit in cool alien chairs and watch every Heineken commercial ever created.  Its was total brand brainwashing, and we were loving every second.  Definitely worth the 15 Euros.  

De Bijenkorf aka “The Beehive”

Here is the biggest department store in Holland.  It is the size of approximately 3 Nordstrom’s, or 1/2 the size of a Harrod’s.  Inside, Christmas decorations are in full swing, Black Peter’s scaling the walls and all.  They have the highest quality goods and brands, making it an upscale and elegant experience.  The escapade wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the wonderful gourmet restaurant on the 6th floor!  We didn’t eat there, but you bet your ass we had the free espresso samples from the machine that costs 5,000 Euros.

2009 Eurobest Advertising Festival.

Since day 1 in Amsterdam, we were told about Eurobest.  For those who don't know, it is basically the "advertising championships" for Europe, held by Cannes Lions.  The awards have been going on for the past 22 years, and was mainly based off of online judging and awarding.  However, this was only the 2nd time that its been turned into a major week long festival.  Amsterdam hosted it in the historic stock exchange building, Beurs van Berlage.  

The event was spectacular and we were given the best job imaginable; were we inside the jury room, while the best creatives from Europe judged over 4000 entries.  Needless to say, we learned a TON, and met all the big players in European advertising.  What an experience to watch a group of 20 Creative Directors and Executive CD’s debate what is actually great and what is crap. 

We now know exactly what goes through the top creatives head’s when judging for awards. Definitely expect to see this experience rub off on us (hopefully by wining a few awards ourselves).

Also at Eurobest, was the 48 Hr Young Creatives contest.  Gustav Johannson, the most awarded ad student of 2009 was there, doing the contest.  We always talk about his work, so it was really cool to see him in person.  His book is incredible, check it out here: http://www.gustavjohansson.com/
Devon and Kunal, the MAS Portfolio students got to participate as well, and were one of the best teams.  We tried to do it, but were told there wasn’t enough space/time errrr :-/

Eurobest made Amsterdam 100% worth it.  We found out that we were the first ad students ever in to be in jury rooms for all of Cannes Lions and Eurobest.  LUCKY us!

MAS World News!

We just found out at 6:30am today that we have won Global Top Dog! Pros & People's choice awards!!! Check it out on the miamiadschool blog!

http://blog.miamiadschool.com/#posts/and-the-global-top-dog-is
the winning campaign can be found on our portfolio blog: http://adverbarbie.blogspot.com/

Houseboat Museum

Living on houseboats has become so common in Amsterdam and such a staple to the Dutch way of life, that a museum has been created in their honor. AdverBarbie loves boats and couldn't resist such an interesting invitation to go onboard a fully furnished and preserved former houseboat. These houseboats may look very narrow and low from the outside but inside they are actually very much like a cute little house!

The Arrival parade of SinterKlaas and Dutch christmas traditions

Culture Shock Alert! Read this first!  


How the Dutch celebrate Christmas....

Picture this, you wake up one morning to see that the street in front of your apartment is closed off, due to a parade! Oh how exciting, a parade right out your kitchen window.  What holiday could this be?   Well, a few hours later, our questions were answered.  Well, sort of. Here is what we learned:

Santa in the Netherlands is not the Santa we know and love.  He is SinterKlaas, and he looks and wears clothing that is IDENTICAL to the Roman Catholic Pope.  We’re talking tall, white, and skinny, with a tall red hat.

 No big Christmas morning blow-out under the tree.  Instead, only one present a day, which you get in your shoes.  You get the present by putting a carrot and sugar cube in your shoes the night before.

 No Reindeer. Just a single, white horse that SinterKlaas rides around on.  Oh, and the horse can’t fly, he jumps around on the roof tops. (This makes sense, being that the Dutch architecture has all the roofs connecting)

No Santa’s little elves living on the North Pole.  Instead, he as an army of “ Zwarte Piers” aka Black Peters, who have a gigantic workshop in Spain, where they make the presents. 

Each year, the SinterKlaas and his Black Peters arrive in Holland via a big white boat to deliver the toys.  Each city has their own SinterKlaas arrival celebration, where children come and watch the boat come into port.  Sinter gets off and immediately mounts a horse and parades down the streets after the Peters.

Oh, and if you are naughty, you don’t get a lump of coal...you get kidnapped by the Black Peter, and are forced to go back with him to Spain. OH NO!

We couldn’t believe it! In America, our traditions are WAY different. I guess since Holland didn’t have that major brush with slavery, and all baggage that came with it, they are still using the black peters (and loving it.)  Literally 500 Dutch people painted their skin black and paraded down the street!  This would never go down in the US of A.  What a Cultural difference!  Very very interesting.

Belgian food!

Belgium Waffles!  Better than you can imagine!

Fully indulging in the Belgian spoils.  Take a look at the these waffles and chocolates!  They sell them on the street, and they are EXCELLENT.  Word to the wise; don’t come to Belgium while on a diet :-P

Bruselles

We took a day trip to the neighboring country of Belgium this past Saturday.  It was great to get away and experience another country.    As you can see, the buildings there are heavily influenced by French architecture.  It was beautiful,  and exactly what you would expect in a European city. 

The most popular statue there is called Manneke Pis pronounced “Mannequin Piss” which literally translates to “little boy peeing” and he is undoubtedly peeing into a fountain.  There are many stories about this statue, and here is the one we were told: One day a very rich man had lost his son in the busy square.  The whole city of Brussels was looking for him, until he was eventually spotted, 3 days later, peeing into a fountain.  The man was so happy that he donated a statue of this very incident to the city.  Today, the Manneke Pis changes costume everyday.  Our Belgian friend Karel, who is in the greenhouse with us, says that sometimes on a rare day, he is naked! Oh my!

MUSEUM NACHT

How do you get young Europeans to go to the museums and enjoy culture?  How about just turn them all in to raging dance parties with drinks, dj’s and live music!  Museum nacht brings around 26,000 peeps to Amsterdam to run amok for one wild evening.  The agency provided us with dinner and discounted tickets, so the greenhouse had full access to all the museums in the city.

Here we have a clip of the DUTCH Eminem.  He does exist, and he’s a pretty awesome entertainer.  Couldn’t understand a word he is saying, but it sounded like it rhymed.  So I guess thats all that matters.  Notice the full on string section, as well as the full collection of Van Gogh paintings in the background.  

Medieval Times

Amsterdam is one of those rare cities that has stayed true to its original architecture and decor.  Everything looks like you have taken a time machine back 300 years ago.  How did this happen, why did no modern changes take place?  To find out we visited the Amsterdam history museum.  Albeit, some of these outdated methods have seriously hindered our addiction to convenience, it was still very interesting.  Here are some pictures of the Amsterdam History Museum & Secret Church Museum  that tell the story of Amsterdam.