We learned a new word today; ‘captcha’ – the text you need to fill out in an online form to make sure you’re not a bot. TBWA used it to promote a free eye exam at Pearle opticians. The hard to read captcha on the left changed into the banner on the right; ‘Time for an eye exam’. The banner directed the consumer to the Pearle site where an appointment could be made. Simple but sweet.

Nice one. Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam takes the first and second position in this year’s Gunn report in the category ‘Commercials’ with Write the Future for Nike (above the 3-minute director’s cut) and The Entrance for Heineken. Write the Future is also most awarded in the entire history of the Gunn report – though this might say something about the amount of award shows we have nowadays. The rest of the top 5: also 2nd is T-Mobile with ‘Welcome Back’ (Saatchi & Saatchi, London); 4th is Old Spice Questions/Boat (Wieden+Kennedy, Portland), 5th are both Google Chrome Speed Tests (BBH/Google Creative Lab, New York) and Volkswagen Passat The Force (Deutsch LA/Lowe & Partners, Los Angeles). Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam also came first in most awarded agency in the world – W+K Portland second. In print we have China (read: JWT Shanghai) as a first time winner with Heaven and Hell (very crafty!) for Samsonite. In digital ‘Responses’ for Old Spice by W+K Portland was most awarded. The US was the most awarded country, Nike the most awarded advertiser, @radical.media the most awarded production company, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu the most awarded director. And now back to work!

Chances are we’re going to have an ‘Elfstedentocht’ (Eleven-town-tour) next weekend; a 200 km ice skating tour through the province of Friesland. What’s unique about the tour is that on average it’s only held once every 7 years. The reason is that the ice needs to be at least 15 cm thick along the entire track to be able to hold an impressive amount of 15.000 contestants passing it during the race. The entire country – or rather all lazy media for whom this topic is an easy catch – are in anticipation of the “tour of tours”. And since hot chocolate is the most popular drink sold on the ice for (recreational) ice skaters, Chocomel is working overtime. And naturally its agency Achtung! jumped on the ‘Elfstedenkoorts’ (Eleven-town-fever) with the Elfstedenbarometer app that shows the percentage of chance there will be an Elfstedentocht. The app displays the weather forcesast and, more importantly, the percentage of chance of the tour taking place (this morning 49% – which is not much compared to the amount of press coverage). It’s not the most innovative app ever, but if you’re fed up with all the media religiously and constantly talking about the Elfstedentocht, this is the app for the bare facts. And apparently it’s a winner, cause it’s the fourth most downloaded app in the Netherlands at the moment. Oh, and not to forget, when you tweet about it, you can win a winter supply of Chocomel.

For us Europeans, last Sunday was just a Sunday like any other. We visited family, went to the movies or spent the entire day hung over in bed – as you do. Apart from the fact that it was minus 273 degrees across the entire continent, the 5th of February could have been any given Sunday. On the other side of the Atlantic though, it was a completely different story. Because last Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday, which means 100 million Americans were glued to their TV sets with a bucket of buffalo chicken wings in one hand and a Bud in the other. It’s easily the biggest American sports event of the year and yet due to our cultural differences it’s a sport most of us couldn’t possibly care less about. To the majority of Europeans, watching a game of American Football is about as exciting as watching a glacier move. I’m sure it’s all very captivating if you actually know the rules. But as we haven’t been brought up with it, we have no clue what it’s about and so as far as we’re concerned, American football is right up there with curling.

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To fully appreciate this it helps if you have seen the commercial ‘The Date’ – in which a man takes his date on a spectacular night out. ‘The Serenade’ is a Valentine’s Day inspired follow up. It comes with a Facebook app that allows you to create a Valentine serenade to be performed by the same band that plays the catchy song Jaan Pehechaan Ho in the original commercial – in a personalized way as you can see here. The climax is this Wednesday – on the 9th of Feb. – when Heineken will host ‘Serenade Live’, an 8-hour YouTube event during which you get the chance to ask someone out on a date in an unforgetable way; performed by the ‘Serenade Band’. On top of that the performers will react live to the online audience. Created by Wieden+Kennedy.

I created this piece titled “Inspiration lies in the eye of the beholder”, it’s a variant on the classic quote “Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder”. What appears as inspiration to one person may seem utterly meaningless to another. I believe inspiration is a personal process. How we experience it is unique to our own sensors, and then what we do with it (or not) influences our creative expression. Our industry perpetually challenges us to generate original, creative, effective and sustainable ideas. Yet it’s riddled with as much imitation as it is innovation. So, where do you get your creative inspiration from?

After having introduced our new columnists last week, this week we’re introducing a new item called ‘Inspiration’; Amsterdam creatives sharing their inspiration on a weekly basis. In order of future appearance we found the following posse willing to show us what they like, what fascinates them, or what they admire on a regular basis: Jennette Snape, art director at Dolly Rogers; Jarr Geerligs, art director at Selmore; Joep Beving, creative at Massive Music; Rick de Zwart, designer at Meneer de Zwart (and responsible for AAB’s visual identity); David Snellenberg, copywriter at Dawn; Johan Kramer, director at 328 Stories; Martin Pyper, designer at MeStudio; Reuben Alexander, creative at Buutvrij for Life; and Christian Borstlap, art director at Part of a Bigger Plan. Of course these people do more than just what their often somewhat rigitd title suggests (in art, music, photography, etc.) but you can read about that on their profile page, once they’ve posted their first contribution. Today Jennette Snape kicks off with an art piece she created herself. The title is “Inspiration lies in the eye of the beholder”; a nice kick off for this new genre, since it philosophies on what inspiration really is.

Amsterdam Central Station has been a building site already for we don’t know how many years – just like Damrak, Rokin, Ferdinand Bol street, etc. Thanks to the new subway line connecting the North to the South of Amsterdam – taking longer to build than the Chinese wall – and thanks to our ‘wonderful’ poldermodel (read: everyone has a voice in governing the city). But, sorry, we’re drifting off (politically). The Dutch Railway probably thought it was time to do something back for its traveler, so it disclosed its royal waiting room that is normally not open to the public – together with a bunch of information about the details. Here‘s another screenshot. You can wonder through them in 3D and there’s also an app for when you’re waiting for one of their delayed trains. They’ve also disclosed the waiting room of Den Haag HS. Soon more waiting rooms will follow. Created by Yune.

If I have to name the advertiser of 2011, I don’t have to think long; it’s easily KLM. The reason? The Royal Dutch airline launched numerous digital platforms in the past year, experimented wildly with social media, and turned Twitter into a mature customer relationship channel. If there’s one company that has fully embraced the extensive possibilities of digital communication, without forgetting about both its commercial and communication targets, it’s KLM.

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