Saint Berlin opens advertising agency in Amsterdam
In the photo above fltr: Robin van der Kaa, Felix Strüve, Henning Strüve.
The arrival of a new office is ‘due to the capital’s reputation as an international hotspot in the advertising world and the fact that many major brands and tech companies are located there.’
Expansion Saint to a ‘full service creative studio’, which also offers brand strategy, creation, events and activations. The sellissing over moving to a hybrid model is prompted by the shift that has been going on in the industry for some time, towards the blurring of traditional boundaries between brand, agency and production.
evolution
Robin van der Kaa is the new creative director and leader of Saint Amsterdam. He worked for 9 years in Berlin as a freelancer (design, art, copy) making work for clients such as Diesel, KLM, Volkskrant and Nike. He then served as a brand manager at ad music agency Sizzer and spent three years as VP Marketing and executive creative director for Volvo’s sister brand Lynk & Co.
Van der Kaa: ‘Creative work never stands alone; it is always part of the social context, a brand story and the love that creators and makers put into it. In addition, I think everyone in the industry knows that today require a lot more work, often of shorter lifespan, but the same high quality. This automatically leads – see it as an evolution – to more cost-efficient working and a business model in which strategy, creation and execution come together. In other words, the fewer counter silos, the better it is for the creative concept – and ultimately for the work and brand.’
Henning Strüve, co-founder and director Saint Berlin: ‘Creativity is fluid by nature; ideas can come from anywhere. It has emerged to players who can bring ideas to life more instantly. With our new set-up we remove the noise between the idea and the execution, which, creatively speaking, cannot be separated from each other.’
Felix Strüve, co-founder Saint Berlin, added: ‘I think a hybrid model has been developed. Two factors are of particular importance here. The first factor is the close cooperation between both parties, which promotes creative interests and inspiration. In addition, this enables rapid decision-making processes that can be communicated and executed in an uncomplicated manner. It is especially important in a rapidly changing world to be able to react quickly and flexibly. Another positive factor is the synergy effects. It plays a major role that everyone covers a large package in his or her field and can work independently. In this way we complement each other and benefit from each other.’