Dutch Olympic Fans Power a Volkswagen With Their Cheers

Volkswagen - Up! Holland Up!

Volkswagen Holland‘s Up! Holland Up! campaign is giving Dutch Olympic fans something to scream and yell about. And, if those fans cheer loud enough they can earn a trip to London and tickets for the Olympic Games.

Volkswagen’s Dutch agency ACHTUNG! and application developer B-Lex worked together to modify a new Volkswagen Up! by removing the accelerator pedal and configuring the engine to accelerate based on the sound inside the car.

People were invited to register for the challenge, and would be contacted when the car was in their area. Their challenge was to scream as loud as they could to make the car travel 100 metres. The louder they cheered, the faster the car would go. The fastest time each day would win the tickets to London. There are more tickets available for the people in the 10 videos that are voted the funniest.

Netherlands

AFC Ajax Fans Get Fitting Room Surprise Party

AFC Ajax Fitting Room Surprise Party

AFC Ajax is one of the most longest-running and successful football teams in The Netherlands. To give their fans an extra surprise at the launch of their new home jersey, a series of fake fitting rooms were installed inside the Ajax Experience store in Amsterdam. Once the fan had pulled on the jersey, the wall-length mirror was pulled away to reveal a private party including Ajax players Vurnon Anita, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson, Daley Blind, Jasper Cillessen, team captain Siem de Jong and women’s team players Leonne Stentler and Babiche Roof.

As seen in the video, the fans reacted with a wide range of mixed reactions from absolute terror to delight.

The experience was created by Iris Amsterdam.

Netherlands

‘Piss Off’ Game Rewards Dutch Dudes for Peeing in the Right Pot

Waternet launches Piss Off game in AmsterdamI’m not sure I can call it a trend, but this is the second ‘pee-related’ campaign I’ve posted about this week. (warning: video embedded above semi-discreetly shows Dutch guys peeing)

Koninginnedag is Queen’s Day, a national holiday in the Netherlands celebrating Queen Beatrix. The Dutch people gather together dressed in bright orange, to party in the streets, squares and even on boats in the canals. The problem is with all that alcohol intake, the guys are looking for somewhere close by to relieve themselves, and the canal conveniently fits that bill.

In an effort to keep the canals clean Dutch water supplier Waternet launched ‘Pot Je Pissen’ (Piss Off), a game that rewards those free-peeing gentlemen for using the proper facilities. The game was powered by flow detectors that were installed in each of the urinal stations, and a large digital screen displayed teh results. Whichever guy could pee the most would win the game and earn their water taxes back as a bonus.

I can’t close this post without commenting on those plastic urinal station setups located just steps away from people passing by seem very public. I’ve never been to Amsterdam so maybe that’s the norm at these festivals, and anything is better than having guys pee in the alley and canals. I assume there’s more private facilities nearby for the ladies to use.

The ‘Pot Je Pissen’ campaign comes from the creative folk at Achtung!

Netherlands

Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam Hosts Awkward Virtual Holiday Dinners via Skype

Weiden + Kennedy Virtual Holiday PartyThe folks at the Amsterdam offices of ad agency Wieden + Kennedy have taken the experience of the awkward holiday dinner to a whole new level thanks to technology.

They’ve created a Virtual Holiday Dinner Party by attaching small flat screen monitors to the top of five robotic life-size dolls dolls seated around an elaborate holiday table setting. People from around the world attend the virtual dinner party as guests via Skype with their face appearing on the screens mounted on top each doll. Facial-tracking software follows your face and rotating the doll’s body and the guest’s view of the party.

This is the second year that the agency has hosted the Virtual Holiday Dinner, and spaces can be reserved for one of the 20 half-hour sessions happening on Dec 15, 16 and 19.

To liven up the conversation, guests can choose from one of three dinner conversation themes that come complete with on-screen scripts. ‘The Business as Usual Dinner’ puts the guests in the middle of an agency client holiday sit down (oh, the hilarious awkwardness), while ‘The Resolutions Dinner’ features a series disturbing resolutions for the new year, and ‘The Overly Friendly Holiday Dinner’ will surely have you wishing for the holidays to be over as soon as possible.

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KLM Hosts Dance Party at 35,000 Feet

In February Dutch airline KLM tweeted that they would be re-opening their route between Amsterdam and Miami on March 27, 2011, Dutch DJ Sied van Riel (@SiedVanRiel) and filmmaker Wilco Jung (@WilcoJung) responded with a tweet expressing their disappointment that this was a week too late to make it to the Ultra Music Festival.

They tweeted “I bet we could fill a plane with house music dutchies who go to WMC miami”.

KLM responded to the challenge with a tweet the said “You fill the plane, we’ll try to fly!”

KLM challenged Sied and Wilco to gather 150 pre-registrations within seven days and they would fly. They gathered the 150 in just 5 hours. Within a few days they launched a website, twitter account. When the dust had settled they had gathered an amazing 426 registrations for the flight.

On March 21, the flight took off from Amsterdam. When the plane had reached 35,000 feet, the DJ started spinning, drinks were served and the transatlantic party was on.

This is a great example of a company listening and responding to its customers. They could have easily ignored the tweet from Sied and Wilco, or responded with a polite ‘we’re looking into it’. Instead the people behind the KLM social media program acted in the spirit of creativity and openness. I’d love to know what took place behind the scenes at KLM as the challenge was made and then met. Great work KLM.

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Randy MathesonI am a Nova Scotia raised Creative Guy, currently Director of Emerging Media at Delvinia, a Digital Strategy & Customer Experience Design Firm in Toronto. I’m a huge fan of the creative use of digital technologies in social media, marketing, sports and entertainment. I use this blog to share the more interesting examples that I find. If you’re in need of a break, join me over at Madtini.com for a cocktail.