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Photo above:
Mischa Schreuder, creative partner at Fitzroy Amsterdam, with the Cannes Lion. (Photo: provided)
Castricum – Advertiser Mischa Schreuder (1976) won a Cannes Lion at the end of June, the international prize for the most creative campaign. The campaign that the Castricummer designed for Mercedes-Benz to emphasize the use of clean energy sources can now be seen in different countries. This is not the first time that Schreuder has received this prestigious award. His name had already appeared four times on the list of winners of the French seaside resort.
By Raymond Bos
Mischa Schreuder, born in Amstelveen, was two years old when her parents decided to move to Castricum. At the age of 20 he moved to Amsterdam himself, but Castricum was always close to his heart. This is why he returns to this town twenty years later, now married and the father of eight-year-old twins. ,, Castricum is close to the forest and the beach, so close to nature. I like this. In Amsterdam I really lived in the center of the city, Castricum gives me a lot more peace of mind.”
It seems like a logical choice for someone who works in the often hectic world of advertising. Mischa worked for a large network agency for a long time, but a year ago he became a partner at a smaller agency, which focuses on campaigns for companies that do something good for the world. As creative director, he is ultimately responsible for the creative floor. Mischa: ,,I write the ideas myself and gather a lot of information from the client. I see where the opportunities are. What is the specificity of the project and what is the target group? I always advertise that the target audience would like to see.
Target audience
The latter may seem obvious, but not all advertisers achieve this goal. What’s the secret ?
“In the past, for example, you had the Delta Lloyd movies on TV. Everyone was talking about it! It’s important to create content that people want to see and share. It’s actually too little done. First of all, I want to know which target group a campaign is aimed at. Are they, for example, footballers or lawyers? We research what this target group wants to see. Then you have an idea and first test it in your own environment, for example with your parents or your children. If you think it’s good on a small scale, then you will. I have been in the business for 23 years now. I usually sense if people want to see or share something. But sometimes a client orders a full-scale survey to be done first. We’ll sort things out first.”
detective
Social awareness is a common thread in Mischa’s career. Four years ago, he invented the Gumshoe, a shoe partly made from recycled chewing gum. The project was quickly picked up by mainstream media and received a lot of attention at home and abroad. However, marketing the shoe was not the only goal of the campaign.
Mischa and his team succeeded in having throwing chewing gum in the street recognized as an environmental problem. Special collection containers were introduced and many young people became aware of the environmental consequences of all those pieces of chewing gum on the street. A giveaway was linked to the campaign: anyone who photographed themselves near such a collection bin throwing away chewing gum had a chance to win a pair of Gumshoes. Mischa: ,,When I do something, there is always a good reason behind it. I think it’s important that you always give people something.”
NFT
Another good example of this social awareness is the project overseen by Mischa earlier this year. A virtual jacket produced in-house was auctioned and raised six thousand euros for the Food Bank of the Netherlands. So no real jacket? ,, No, it’s really a virtual jacket, meant to be worn in the metaverse. It’s a digital world you can walk around in. An online world very close to the real world. You can walk there, visit shops, attend shows, etc. It is already possible to buy things there and eventually you can also go to school there. It’s like the real world, but digital. You walk through this with your character, but of course you want your doll to wear nice clothes too.”
The jacket imagined by Mischa and her team can therefore be worn by the character of someone from the metaverse. It is a so-called Non-Fungible Token (NFT), which you buy with Ethereum virtual currency. Mischa: ,,It’s actually a digital contract, which states that you are the owner. It can be a digital work of art that you buy, but also a virtual pair of shoes or our jacket.”
Mercedes-Benz
Mischa won the Cannes Lion in June for a campaign for the Mercedes-Benz car brand. This company has now changed the production process in such a way that almost everything is based on green energy. “I had the idea of attaching large lamps to the three blades of a windmill. If you then let the windmill spin and film it, you will see the Mercedes-Benz logo thanks to the lamps during the playback of slow motion footage. I think it’s good that a big brand like Mercedes-Benz gives something back to the world, so I support that. Also, Mercedes-Benz was already a customer of ours.” The Windmill is now viewable on the internet and shown on TV in China, the US, India, Belgium and the UK Will the Netherlands also see the film? “Not yet, but maybe be that it will happen.”
Level
The fact that Mischa has already received a Cannes Lion several times is not unique. “There are several creatives who have won such an award over the past 66 years. Cannes Lions have been around since 1954, so it was a very small group that won.” Still, that says a lot about the level at which Mischa is active: the awards ceremony in Cannes is part of a worldwide concept in which about one hundred countries participate. Companies pay almost a thousand euros per registration to participate in the competition. The organization uses this money to provide training, among other things.
Mischa no longer needs such training. He knows the intricacies of the trade and feels exactly how an advertising campaign best suits the target group. “We don’t do commercials, we create work that doesn’t look like commercials. I sometimes work 60 to 70 hours a week, but I can only do it because I have a top woman: Roxy Schreuder. In addition to her work at KLM, she supports me in everything I do. Without her behind me, I wouldn’t be able to do this with so much energy and time.”
