The truth about Amsterdam wins award
The truth about Amsterdam, a project by the ATCB and Big Shots, has won the most prestigious prize for innovative initiatives in the area of city marketing. The jury called the viral campaign “a stroke of genius in crisis management”. The prize-giving took place at the City Marketing Innovation Day held in Utrecht on the 14th January, and was an initiative by Netwerk City marketing, the national platform for city marketing in the Netherlands.
‘The Truth about Amsterdam’ initiative won the prize for using an American “attack” on the image of Holland and Amsterdam to generate publicity for Amsterdam and to increase the feeling amongst inhabitants of belonging together, in a clever, surprising and successful manner. The jury was unanimous in its decision, and in the jury report declared the initiative to be “a stroke of genius in crisis management, whereby guerrilla marketing techniques using viral internet films were used in such a manner that even the authoritative O’Reilly was embarrassingly put on the defensive. Simply by delivering hard facts and soft images about our capital city with typical Amsterdam attitude”.
YouTube viral
The YouTube film “The truth about Amsterdam” was an ATCB reaction to a negative item about Amsterdam on the American Fox News. In the film, the opinion of Fox news presenter Bill O'Reilly was countered by hard figures. The ATCB was the “silent power” behind the film, whilst the idea was originated by Robbert Nieuwenhuijs and Elian Wils from the Amsterdam video production company, Big Shots.
Jury members from the City Marketing Award competion included Loek Hermans (Small and Medium-sized enterprises Nederland), trendwatcher Adjiedj Bakas, Marcel Schonenberg (Beurs van Berlage) and the jury chairperson, Ivo Opstelten, former major of the city of Rotterdam.
