AuReT for Rabobank, Netherlands
I type this message from my apartment in Amsterdam, looking up at clouds, going into a rather surreal Spring. I’ve been here just over a month already and finally I can shed some light on how and why.
The just of it is that I’ve been involved in a fairly big-scale campaign for Rabobank, one of the largest banks in the Netherlands, by Ogilvy Amsterdam.
When they contacted me a few months ago, I will be honest, initially I was a little hesitant to jump onboard, what with it being a bank and all (if you know me, you’ll know I have a rather dubious relationship with money in general). But when I learnt of the campaign concept, it resonated so strongly with my reasons for painting murals that I couldn’t quite turn it down.
The campaign is run under the title “Het Aandeel Van”, which roughly translated means, “to share with/in” and aims to celebrate the local heroes (called Uitblinkers) at numerous sports clubs around the Netherlands. Rabobank themselves have always been strong supporters of such clubs, sponsoring a large amount of them nationwide, as well as the athletes within them ( including a few professionals). This time, they wanted to shift the focus from the professionals to the ones who go by their business tirelessly, the hard workers who are more often behind the scenes, not seeking recognition, yet shining constantly.
The idea is for club-goers around the Netherlands to submit their stories of their personal heroes/Uitblinkers using an online platform (www.hetaandeelvan.nl). From there, a panel will select the top stories and a mural will be painted at the respective club (in club colours) celebrating that particular person. A celebrity will also be involved in the making of a film to further tell the story, interviewing the person who submitted the story and surprising the “hero” with the mural.
There have been 3 pieces completed so far in order to raise awareness of the campaign and to show how it works. The first film to launch can be viewed below. This one in particular follows Ellen Hoog, a professional Dutch hockey player, celebrating a long-time friend and inspiring team-mate, Floor “Kip” (a nickname meaning “chicken”) Joosten. The celebrity doing the interviewing is a rapper by the name of Sef, who made a track for Kip and the video too. Of course, it’s all in Dutch, so good luck making too much sense of it, but the formula is there!
That’s the basic idea. There are numerous other elements to the campaign where I’ve been involved, including shooting a time-lapse for each mural (seen below) to be used as short teasers for the campaign online.
Unfortunately due to weather and time constraints, all the murals so far have had to be painted on ply panels in a warehouse, coated in weatherproof varnish and installed at the clubs as a surprise to the Uitblinker. That said, each piece has been fairly large, with the biggest being 4m x 2m, and really enhanced the respective spaces. Below are some images of the other murals (films and more info to be released soon).
Henk Vos, being celebrated by his daughter and Olympic cyclist, Marianne Vos:
Installing the mural at the club:
Of course, I’ve had a fair amount of assistance from the amazing team at Ogilvy, to whom I owe a lot. From fetching and carrying me, to feeding and housing me, I’ve been well looked after! The odd painting assistant has also come to the rescue when time has been tight. Here, my good South African friend Mike adds a coat of white to some hand-type I laid down:
Most recent mural, unveiled on Saturday 9 April, of Ryan Eertink, assistant football coach at Excelsior ‘31. More info to follow soon:
There have also been numerous online elements to the campaign where I’ve been involved. If you had to visit the website, you will see how one goes about submitting a story of ones Uitblinker and creating a digital mural and story in the process, called an Eebertoon (an honour). Here one can customise the colours, the main image, the text of the mural and of course fill in the details of their hero. Upon submission, these murals can be shared online via social networks. That way, even if the mural doesn’t quite get chosen to go all the way, these people are still celebrated on other platforms.
The online mural-maker and submission form:
An example of an existing submission:
Other examples of submissions:
There’s even a little blurb about the “kunstenaar” :)
Other than that, I was also placed in charge of designing the logo to go with the campaign and from there, an entire font. Symbols for the various sports had to be hand-painted in the case of the submission not having a photograph of the Uitblinker too. These can be seen below:
The campaign launched last week Wednesday, 6 April, through different media and will be unrolling throughout the next few weeks, with a few more murals in the pipeline. Below are a few images where some of my other creations have featured.
The campaign itself was created by the following two individuals, who I have to thank:
Art Director, Benjamin de Villiers and Copy Writer, Rob Voortman, big respect to you guys for such a campaign. Obviously that extends to the bigger team involved at Ogilvy too. Only good things from here! THANK YOU.
That’s it for now... The clouds have since parted and the sun is shining outside of my window, overlooking a rather moist and messy courtyard. I have a little time off before I start the next mural and I intend to use it wisely. Already I have seen so much of this amazing city. I aim to update this blog more frequently again as I have been rather quiet in recent months. That’s about to change. Keep an eye out for more coming soon!
Thank you for reading. I hope you have a great day further.
WEBSITE: www.auret-art.com
