Amsterdam Creative Capital
amsterdam inbusiness, the official foreign investment agency of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, brought CEOs of foreign companies in the creative industry in touch with local movers and shakers during Eurobest.
Creative Fact-Finding Trip
This 'meeting up of the creative minds' took place during Eurobest, Europe’s leading advertising festival, held for the first time in Amsterdam in the last week of November, 2009. Amsterdam inbusiness organised a three-day introduction campaign for international advertising and communication firms currently considering setting up shop in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.
In a characteristic 17th century canal-side mansion in the heart of Amsterdam, the visiting CEOs sat face-to-face with their prospective competitors. 180 Amsterdam, TAXI, Perfect Fools and Amsterdam Worldwide -- foreign advertising and communication firms that have opened office here in recent years -- were on-hand to answer questions.
Collaborative environment
Competitive is not the right term for describing the community of foreign creatives in the Amsterdam Area, says Nicolette Lazarus. Lazarus is the business development director at Amsterdam Worldwide, a full-service, international communications agency, previously known as StrawberryFrog Amsterdam.
The former Londoner, “I am friends with people here that work at competitive agencies around the corner. It is a much more of a collaborative environment than that of London.” Amsterdam Worldwide has benefitted from the collaborative atmosphere while setting up business. “We initially relied on freelancers. Here we could simply pick up the phone and ask a competitor if they could help us out.”
Talent pool
From the Amsterdam office Lazarus focuses on integrated pan-European and global campaigns. Amsterdam Worldwide’s portfolio consists of brands like ASICS Europe, world’s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken, and IKEA. According to Lazarus the Amsterdam Area is ideal for conducting large-scale projects. Lazarus, “Here we’ve been able to put together a multicultural team. Talents from all over Europe are drawn to Amsterdam. This makes doing multinational projects so much easier.”
The location of the Amsterdam Area within Europe is also a great plus. Lazarus, “We have a lot of people commuting from London. It takes less than an hour to get here.”
