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.