Saatchi & Saatchi Netherlands Announces Partnership with Leo Burnett and New Creative Agenda
10 JUN 2010
Amsterdam - Arjan Kapteijns, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi in the Netherlands has announced a partnership with Leo Burnett Arc that will see him head up both Agencies in the Netherlands under a newly created mini-group.
Operating under a ‘two brands, one door’ structure, Kapteijns (pictured) will lead as CEO/Algemeen Directeur, Saatchi & Saatchi/LeoBurnett Arc, The Netherlands.
Kapteijns will be supported by a talented Senior Management team comprising Mariëlle Tammer - Business Unit Leader (Saatchi & Saatchi) and Marcel Holscher - Business Unit Leader (Leo Burnett Arc). Avinash Sampath and Tim Bishop take up Creative Director roles of both Saatchi & Saatchi and LeoBurnett Arc. Jan Uitendaal will be Chief Financial Officer of the group. The team will operate from the harbour-side Danzigerkade office location, with a view to fostering a strong collaborative culture.
Kapteijns said on the partnership, “As the Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi will continue to provide a fully integrated offering to clients, creating compelling content solutions that build Lovemarks – brands that inspire Loyalty Beyond Reason. Saatchi X will continue to offer shopper marketing leadership to clients and Leo Burnett Arc Netherlands will specialise in practical, activation-based communication solutions and add value to much of Saatchi & Saatchi’s tactical execution.
And on the agency’s new creative agenda he added, “We’re a young, eager and enthusiastic team creating an agency relevant to today’s times. ‘Being today’, we believe, is the cornerstone of the new Saatchi & Saatchi in The Netherlands. Our thinking and strategy will focus on delivering creative ideas that allow participation across all platforms, building emotional connections between the brands we work for and the 16.5 million people of this country.”
The structural changes have already led to a string of successes for the Saatchi & Saatchi Netherlands Agency in the first quarter of 2010. Recent new business additions include Mead Johnson Nutrition and they are currently in the final rounds of a multinational pitch for Schweppes Fruit Fusion range.
For their client T-Mobile, the Agency introduced the acclaimed Reality Ad Series campaign that launched T-Mobile’s new “Relax” subscription – an integrated campaign that features a 39-year old carpenter reuniting his football team from 1997 for a rematch with his unused minutes and texts. This multimedia campaign spanned three months and delivered a substantial boost in sales.
The Netherlands Agency was most recently a key contributor in Saatchi & Saatchi’s launch of Sara Lee’s L’Or Espresso capsule (a new espresso capsule compatible with NespressoÒ appliances) in France, with the product reaching outstanding consumer awareness levels in a record two weeks.
Saatchi & Saatchi’s clients in the Netherlands include T-Mobile, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Mead Johnson Nutrition, Wagner Pizza, Cordaid, AVRO, Duvel, Strijp S, Sara Lee and Visa, among others.
LeoBurnett Arc’s clients include Fiat, P&G, Chrysler, Hallmark, Rijkswaterstaat, Mushroom Promotion Foundation, Amsterdam Arena, It's, and Hulshoff.
The P&G brands from both will be consolidated to form a singular P&G hub that will handle the work for Ariel, Head & Shoulder, Olay, Pampers, Wella, Max Factor, Fixodent and Eukanuba for The Netherlands.
Notes to editors
Saatchi & Saatchi EMEA has 74 offices in 56 countries across Europe, The Middle East and Africa. Simon Francis is Chief Executive Officer, EMEA and John Pallant is Regional Creative Director EMEA. As a network, Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide is renowned for creating compelling content solutions that build for Loyalty Beyond Reason for its clients’ brands.
Arjan Kapteijns is CEO / Algemeen Directeur, Saatchi & Saatchi / LeoBurnett Arc, The Netherlands. Prior to this role he spent nine years as an independent entrepreneur and partner at the brand innovation agency Project X where he managed a broad scale of brand innovation projects. Key clients included Volkswagen, Audi, NS, Bijenkorf, Hema, KPN, Unilever, Remia, Postbank, ING Bank, Robeco, The Office of Economic Business, TiasNimbas Business School. Prior to that he spent nearly nine years at DMB&B Worldwide Communications where he fulfilled the roles of Marketing & Strategy Director and European Planning Director. As a member of the NIMA College, Kapteijns is responsible for ensuring the quality of the NIMA communications exams. From 2001 to 2009 Kapteijns has also been a monthly columnist for “Tijdschrift voor Marketing”.
NespressoÒis a Registered Trademark of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., a Company not Associated with Sara Lee.
