hello zuidas A lively, cosmopolitan area thanks to a joint campaign.
Vandejong Amsterdam
012
Client
De Complete Stad, Royaal Zuid, Zuidschans and Projectbureau Zuidas
Assignment
Develop an area campaign that enhances Zuidas’s reputation and image as a residential neighbourhood.
Solution
Breathe life into Zuidas by linking businesspeople, the hospitality industry, companies and visitors.
Brand concept
Meeting. Hello World, Hello Zuidas, Hello You.
Hello Zuidas must exude a cosmopolitan air
Platform
PR-machine Researcher
Director
Events agency
Radar Presenter
Inspirator
Guide
Program
Eye-opener
Motivator
Networker Host Hello Zuidas has multiple functions
A brand concept with a cheerful, positive tone of voice
Imaginary characters the Diggers show the way to a new perspective on Zuidas
Hello World! Get down on your knees in a Zuidas street and discover the world of the Diggers. The Diggers live in a world below Zuidas and are afraid of sunlight, fresh air and people. One day, the three curious, brave Diggers Coach, Pr and E trade their stuffy underground life for a look at the world above the surface. On their expedition, our heroes discover a world full of fresh breezes and tall buildings. They observe the residents of Zuidas and report back on their adventures to Diggers Headquarters. Slowly but surely, the Diggers who stayed behind discover that the world of Zuidas is a nice place to be – maybe even for them?
hello zuidas
The three housing consortia De Complete Stad, Royaal Zuid and Zuidschans seek to promote the Gershwin residential area in Zuidas. This presents a few communication challenges. The public associates Zuidas mainly with the business world, and the area has suffered negative publicity. In addition, Zuidas will remain under construction for several more years. How do you portray Zuidas as the Dutch rival to Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, Paris’s La Defense and London’s Canary Wharf when you can’t yet show much proof? The area’s success will depend on how well market parties and the city succeed in focusing attention on it in a consistent way. Vandejong therefore advised the housing consortia to cooperate with Projectbureau Zuidas on creating the right image for the area. This was the beginning of a Zuidas-wide area campaign.
Houses sell better if they are situated in lively neighbourhoods. A lively Zuidas will attract more shops, restaurants, hotels, and visitors, too. Vandejong introduced the brand concept Hello World, Hello Zuidas, Hello You, centred around meeting and getting acquainted. The brand brings together everyone in Zuidas – developers, businesspeople, employees, restaurant and hotel staff, and visitors. They can make the area’s ambitions reality. Together, they can add life to Zuidas and then introduce the neighbourhood to the rest of Amsterdam and the world.
Towering ambition In recent years, Amsterdam’s Zuidas district has developed a strong reputation as a base and place of business for numerous multinational companies and organisations. Residential living and leisure, however, are completely new dimensions for the area, which will receive heavy investment in the coming years. Zuidas therefore needs to acquire the image of a new, attractive part of Amsterdam. It is set to be one of the city’s hottest neighbourhoods, full of exceptional, exclusive, top-end restaurants, hotels and shops as well as arts, cultural, sporting and recreational facilities. Its towering ambition and cosmopolitan air will set Zuidas clearly apart from Amsterdam’s other districts and contribute to the city’s strong international position.
Area promotion with a cosmopolitan air Ambition like this calls for communication with a cosmopolitan air. Vandejong identified four appropriate message pillars on which participating parties could base their communication and activities. 1. From living to lifestyle. Zuidas is not a traditional residential area – it’s much more than that. In Zuidas, you’re not buying square metres but cubic metres. You’re not buying a home, you’re buying big-city life. Communication will make visible the area’s cosmopolitan, lively atmosphere. New activities should stimulate this liveliness – practise what you preach! 2. The world at your doorstep. An international atmosphere already pervades Zuidas, thanks to the area’s architectural qualities, the presence of the multinationals, and their expat employees. This atmosphere is strengthened further by Zuidas’s status as an infrastructural junction, with a motorway, a railway line, and Schiphol airport a stone’s throw away. Zuidas connects Amsterdam with the rest of the world. That means its communication must take into account an international target group. 3. Think BIG. Zuidas’s ambition demands big thinking and grand gestures. This means its communication should be above average in quality, with an easy self-confidence. 4. Zuidas, Amsterdam. Zuidas is part of Amsterdam and brings something new to the city. We want direct
and open-minded communication that – like Amsterdam itself – is free and distinctive, with a twist. It chimes with the city’s three core values: innovation, creativity and the spirit of commerce.
Strategy of a joint brand The Zuidas brand has many different initiators and will soon have even more owners and transmitters. Strategically involving active partners as brand ambassadors will lead to a snowball effect. The first goal, then, is to mobilise all interested parties. For them, the brand is a communication platform they can use to make their activities visible. But it will also function as an events agency that will bring existing international events to Zuidas, encourage new initiatives, and organise activities itself. Finally, the brand will be a PR machine that bundles together activities going on in Zuidas and makes them visible in the media. The brand as a platform, events agency and PR machine will make the second goal possible: the attractive presentation of Zuidas to the public.
Meeting and getting acquainted Hello Zuidas is a brand name with a strikingly open, simple, disarming character. It represents a positive view of the world. Its chief communication value lies in the way it combines grand ambitions with a human
scale. The brand centres around the idea of meeting and getting acquainted – whether it’s the world meeting Zuidas, Amsterdam discovering new sides of the neighbourhood, or active parties in Zuidas creating something new together. The brand is an invitation to help build Zuidas’s future. Hello Zuidas communicates interesting ideas and initiatives important to the area’s development (such as new store concepts, innovative forms of transport and sustainable building trends). It also invites the world to inspire the initiators of Zuidas. Hello Zuidas serves as a source of inspiration, showing people everything they can experience in Zuidas right now and, most of all, where the opportunities lie. Hello Zuidas doesn’t just dream about life in the neighbourhood, it actively creates it. Hello Zuidas exudes a cosmopolitan air and acts as a facilitator. Hello Zuidas collects plans and ideas, presents them in a clear manner, and brings together the people who can realise them. Hello Zuidas can also function as a director, presenter, host, guide, researcher, radar system, networker, and eye-opener.
The world of Hello Zuidas We designed the brand with an illustrator. A graphic style would allow Zuidas to be seen from a new perspective. An airy, friendly manner could suggest the liveliness that was not always yet present. Vandejong worked with the French illustrator Geneviève
Gauckler, whose work strikes the right note of optimism and is lively and bubbling with energy. The look and feel of Gauckler’s work provide an appropriate counterweight to the current look and feel of Zuidas, whose street scene is dominated by large amounts of glass and steel and a businesslike atmosphere. The characteristics of Gauckler’s work complement the image desired for Zuidas: international, cosmopolitan, and intelligent with a twist. Her visual language places Zuidas on a human scale. Gauckler created friendly animated figures living in a colourful world. She elaborated the Hello Zuidas brand style and brought the characters – the Diggers – to life. These first residents of Zuidas live in an underground habitat. One day, three brave Diggers dare to go above the surface and discover a new world. We see all developments in Zuidas through their eyes, depicted in a surprising, inspiring way.
Running a campaign through creating life Hello Zuidas is all about life. The campaign’s power and visibility will increase as parties that bring life to the area embrace the brand and run with it. We have therefore proposed an atypical media mix. We will not make advertisements and brochures talking about how lively Zuidas is but organise special activities to literally bring life to the area. The campaign will consist of creating life. It therefore will focus first of all on
the doings of the parties currently active in Zuidas. It only makes sense to communicate with the mass public once you’ve got something to tell. The core of Hello Zuidas is a website where Zuidas’s various parties and functions can come together. Ambassadors will have their own pages for promoting their products and services – first to each other, and soon to the public. Ambassadors will be regularly invited to Hello Zuidas working lunches through the website. These sessions will enable new encounters and inspire people to cooperate and create life in Zuidas – for example, by planning a stylish joint event introducing the area to the public with special activities, such as Gordon Ramsay cooking at Gustavino, an ABN Amro master class featuring top international speakers, and Theater het Amsterdamse Bos staging performances on a building site. In this way, a virtuous circle will be created. Activities will create life, which will attract new target groups, making it more attractive to invest in more life. This, in turn, will yield content for communication about Zuidas.
Vandejong & city and country promotion Cities and countries were not designed to sell themselves. After all, a place is essentially just a few square kilometres or tons of brick. Extraordinary life is what makes a place extraordinary. People create atmosphere.
In positioning a city, country, neighbourhood, street or building, Vandejong therefore asks: What are the future users’ needs? What is required to make the area lively? And: How can we involve the residents and businesses who will ultimately really make the place? A logo and a slogan aren’t enough. A place needs a substantive programme to unite people and a communication strategy that supports it. With this as a starting point, Vandejong develops campaigns to put places back on the map.
An introductory video presents Hello Zuidas to the area’s current users
The public campaign introduces the Diggers
In their first adventure they come up from Diggs Town, cross the ring road and are thrown up in the air when a car passes over their head.
After surviving the ring road they find themselves surrounded by big, luminous mountains.
You probably won’t believe this, but we discovered these odd little rooms that transform people.
When no one was around we sneaked into the room ourselves. We could hardly wait to see what changes it would make in us.
Coach: “waaah, E, what was that?” E: “A big, fast, shiny creature… it tried to hypnotise me… I think he succeeded…” PR: “Yeah me too! I like it. More! Can we?”
They appear hollow and strange. Silly Creatures are stepping in and out. The Diggers enter as well..
About Vandejong
Hello Zuidas
Vandejong is an enterprising, strategic, creative communications agency. We like to work with people who dare to forge new paths and believe in mutual inspiration. Vandejong stands for honest, sincere communication with a distinctive style. Our strategists and creatives work closely together on brands and campaigns. We bring in additional experts when necessary. We therefore contribute in a broad way, from brand concepts and creative strategies to concrete campaigns, materials, and even new services and products.
Strategy, concept and production Vandejong
In collaboration with: Illustrations Geneviève Gauckler (Parijs) Text synopsis Diggers Heleen Suèr
001 Foam A museum as brand 002 Neau World water for world citizens 003 Foam Magazine Exhibitions in a magazine 004 Anno We make history! 005 University of Twente We create futures 006 Foam Fund Investment advice 007 University of Twente Start studying 008 Stichting WaterExpo 2010 A revolution in thinking about water 009 UN. GIFT Fight human trafficking 010 Cineville There’s a new town in town 011 Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs Alliances for a better world 012 Various Consortia Hello Zuidas 013 The Groene Hart The Randstad’s experimental garden 014 City of Amsterdam Housing Department 150 years of Wibaut 015 Castrum Peregrini Intellectual playground 016 Foam / ANP Historisch Archief / Museum of National History New greetings from...
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More information Ilse Huijg Agency manager ilse@vandejong.nl Contact us t: +31 20 462 2062 e: info@vandejong.nl vandejong.com blog.vandejong.com