Client: De Complete Stad, Royaal Zuid, Zuidschans and Projectbureau Zuidas Assignment: Develop an area campaign that enhances Zuidas’s reputation and image as a residential neighbourhood. Solution: Breathe life into Zuidas by linking businesspeople, the hospitality industry, companies and visitors. Brand concept: Meeting. Hello World, Hello Zuidas, Hello You.

1. hello
012
zuidas
A lively, cosmopolitan area thanks
to a joint campaign.
Vandejong
amsterdam

2. Client
De Complete Stad, Royaal Zuid, Zuidschans and
Projectbureau Zuidas
Assignment
Develop an area campaign that enhances Zuidas’s
reputation and image as a residential neighbourhood.
Solution
Breathe life into Zuidas by linking businesspeople,
the hospitality industry, companies and visitors.
Brand concept
Meeting. Hello World, Hello Zuidas, Hello You.

3. hello zuidas must exude a cosmopolitan air

4. Platform
Pr-machine
researcher
director
events agency
radar
Presenter
inspirator
guide Program
eye-opener
motivator
networker
host
hello zuidas has multiple functions a brand concept with a cheerful, positive tone of voice

5. Hello World!
Get down on your knees in a Zuidas street
and discover the world of the Diggers. The
Diggers live in a world below Zuidas and
are afraid of sunlight, fresh air and people.
One day, the three curious, brave Diggers
Coach, Pr and E trade their stuffy under-
ground life for a look at the world above
the surface. On their expedition, our heroes
discover a world full of fresh breezes and
tall buildings. They observe the residents of
Zuidas and report back on their adventures
to Diggers Headquarters. Slowly but surely,
the Diggers who stayed behind discover
that the world of Zuidas is a nice place to
be – maybe even for them?
imaginary characters the diggers show the way to a new perspective on zuidas

6. hello
zuidas
The three housing consortia De Complete Stad, Royaal
Zuid and Zuidschans seek to promote the Gershwin
residential area in Zuidas. This presents a few com-
munication challenges. The public associates Zuidas
mainly with the business world, and the area has suf-
fered negative publicity. In addition, Zuidas will remain
under construction for several more years. How do you
portray Zuidas as the Dutch rival to Berlin’s Potsdamer
Platz, Paris’s La Defense and London’s Canary Wharf
when you can’t yet show much proof?
The area’s success will depend on how well mar-
ket parties and the city succeed in focusing attention
on it in a consistent way. Vandejong therefore advised
the housing consortia to cooperate with Projectbureau
Zuidas on creating the right image for the area. This
was the beginning of a Zuidas-wide area campaign.

7. Houses sell better if they are situated in lively neigh- Area promotion with a cosmopolitan air
bourhoods. A lively Zuidas will attract more shops,
restaurants, hotels, and visitors, too. Vandejong in- Ambition like this calls for communication with a cos-
troduced the brand concept Hello World, Hello mopolitan air. Vandejong identified four appropriate
Zuidas, Hello You, centred around meeting and get- message pillars on which participating parties could
ting acquainted. The brand brings together everyone base their communication and activities.
in Zuidas – developers, businesspeople, employees, 1. From living to lifestyle. Zuidas is not a tradi-
restaurant and hotel staff, and visitors. They can make tional residential area – it’s much more than that. In
the area’s ambitions reality. Together, they can add life Zuidas, you’re not buying square metres but cubic me-
to Zuidas and then introduce the neighbourhood to tres. You’re not buying a home, you’re buying big-city
the rest of Amsterdam and the world. life. Communication will make visible the area’s cos-
mopolitan, lively atmosphere. New activities should
Towering ambition stimulate this liveliness – practise what you preach!
2. The world at your doorstep. An international
In recent years, Amsterdam’s Zuidas district has devel- atmosphere already pervades Zuidas, thanks to the
oped a strong reputation as a base and place of business area’s architectural qualities, the presence of the mul-
for numerous multinational companies and organi- tinationals, and their expat employees. This atmos-
sations. Residential living and leisure, however, are phere is strengthened further by Zuidas’s status as an
completely new dimensions for the area, which will infrastructural junction, with a motorway, a railway
receive heavy investment in the coming years. Zuidas line, and Schiphol airport a stone’s throw away. Zuidas
therefore needs to acquire the image of a new, attrac- connects Amsterdam with the rest of the world. That
tive part of Amsterdam. It is set to be one of the city’s means its communication must take into account an
hottest neighbourhoods, full of exceptional, exclusive, international target group.
top-end restaurants, hotels and shops as well as arts, 3. Think BIG. Zuidas’s ambition demands big
cultural, sporting and recreational facilities. Its tow- thinking and grand gestures. This means its commu-
ering ambition and cosmopolitan air will set Zuidas nication should be above average in quality, with an
clearly apart from Amsterdam’s other districts and easy self-confidence.
contribute to the city’s strong international position. 4. Zuidas, Amsterdam. Zuidas is part of Amsterdam
and brings something new to the city. We want direct

8. and open-minded communication that – like Amster- scale. The brand centres around the idea of meeting
dam itself – is free and distinctive, with a twist. It and getting acquainted – whether it’s the world meet-
chimes with the city’s three core values: innovation, ing Zuidas, Amsterdam discovering new sides of the
creativity and the spirit of commerce. neighbourhood, or active parties in Zuidas creating
something new together. The brand is an invitation to
Strategy of a joint brand help build Zuidas’s future.
Hello Zuidas communicates interesting ideas and
The Zuidas brand has many different initiators and initiatives important to the area’s development (such as
will soon have even more owners and transmitters. new store concepts, innovative forms of transport and
Strategically involving active partners as brand am- sustainable building trends). It also invites the world
bassadors will lead to a snowball effect. The first goal, to inspire the initiators of Zuidas. Hello Zuidas serves
then, is to mobilise all interested parties. For them, as a source of inspiration, showing people everything
the brand is a communication platform they can use they can experience in Zuidas right now and, most of
to make their activities visible. But it will also function all, where the opportunities lie. Hello Zuidas doesn’t
as an events agency that will bring existing interna- just dream about life in the neighbourhood, it actively
tional events to Zuidas, encourage new initiatives, and creates it. Hello Zuidas exudes a cosmopolitan air and
organise activities itself. Finally, the brand will be a acts as a facilitator. Hello Zuidas collects plans and
PR machine that bundles together activities going on ideas, presents them in a clear manner, and brings to-
in Zuidas and makes them visible in the media. The gether the people who can realise them. Hello Zuidas
brand as a platform, events agency and PR machine can also function as a director, presenter, host, guide,
will make the second goal possible: the attractive pres- researcher, radar system, networker, and eye-opener.
entation of Zuidas to the public.
The world of Hello Zuidas
Meeting and getting acquainted
We designed the brand with an illustrator. A graph-
Hello Zuidas is a brand name with a strikingly open, ic style would allow Zuidas to be seen from a new
simple, disarming character. It represents a positive perspective. An airy, friendly manner could suggest
view of the world. Its chief communication value lies the liveliness that was not always yet present. Vande-
in the way it combines grand ambitions with a human jong worked with the French illustrator Geneviève

9. Gauckler, whose work strikes the right note of opti- the doings of the parties currently active in Zuidas. It
mism and is lively and bubbling with energy. The look only makes sense to communicate with the mass public
and feel of Gauckler’s work provide an appropriate once you’ve got something to tell.
counterweight to the current look and feel of Zuidas, The core of Hello Zuidas is a website where Zuidas’s
whose street scene is dominated by large amounts of various parties and functions can come together.
glass and steel and a businesslike atmosphere. The Ambassadors will have their own pages for promot-
characteristics of Gauckler’s work complement the ing their products and services – first to each other,
image desired for Zuidas: international, cosmopoli- and soon to the public. Ambassadors will be regularly
tan, and intelligent with a twist. Her visual language invited to Hello Zuidas working lunches through the
places Zuidas on a human scale. website. These sessions will enable new encounters and
Gauckler created friendly animated figures living inspire people to cooperate and create life in Zuidas
in a colourful world. She elaborated the Hello Zuidas – for example, by planning a stylish joint event intro-
brand style and brought the characters – the Diggers ducing the area to the public with special activities,
– to life. These first residents of Zuidas live in an un- such as Gordon Ramsay cooking at Gustavino, an
derground habitat. One day, three brave Diggers dare ABN Amro master class featuring top international
to go above the surface and discover a new world. We speakers, and Theater het Amsterdamse Bos staging
see all developments in Zuidas through their eyes, performances on a building site.
depicted in a surprising, inspiring way. In this way, a virtuous circle will be created.
Activities will create life, which will attract new target
Running a campaign through creating life groups, making it more attractive to invest in more
life. This, in turn, will yield content for communica-
Hello Zuidas is all about life. The campaign’s power tion about Zuidas.
and visibility will increase as parties that bring life to
the area embrace the brand and run with it. We have Vandejong & city and country promotion
therefore proposed an atypical media mix. We will not
make advertisements and brochures talking about how Cities and countries were not designed to sell them-
lively Zuidas is but organise special activities to liter- selves. After all, a place is essentially just a few square
ally bring life to the area. The campaign will consist kilometres or tons of brick. Extraordinary life is what
of creating life. It therefore will focus first of all on makes a place extraordinary. People create atmosphere.

10. In positioning a city, country, neighbourhood, street
or building, Vandejong therefore asks: What are the
future users’ needs? What is required to make the area
lively? And: How can we involve the residents and
businesses who will ultimately really make the place?
A logo and a slogan aren’t enough. A place needs
a substantive programme to unite people and a com-
munication strategy that supports it. With this as a
starting point, Vandejong develops campaigns to put
places back on the map.

11. an introductory video presents hello zuidas to the area’s current users

12. the public campaign introduces the diggers

13. In their first When no one
adventure they was around we
come up from sneaked into the
Diggs Town, room ourselves.
cross the ring We could hardly
road and are wait to see
thrown up in what changes
the air when a it would make
car passes over in us.
their head.
After surviving Coach: “waaah,
the ring road E, what was
they find that?”
themselves
surrounded by E: “A big, fast,
big, luminous shiny creature…
mountains. it tried to
hypnotise me…
I think he suc-
ceeded…”
PR: “Yeah me
too! I like it.
More! Can we?”
You probably They appear hol-
won’t believe low and strange.
this, but we dis- Silly Creatures
covered these are stepping
odd little rooms in and out. The
that transform Diggers enter as
people. well..

14. about Vandejong hello zuidas
Vandejong is an enterprising, strategic, creative strategy, concept and production
communications agency. We like to work with Vandejong
people who dare to forge new paths and believe
in mutual inspiration. Vandejong stands for hon-
est, sincere communication with a distinctive in collaboration with:
style. Our strategists and creatives work closely
together on brands and campaigns. We bring in illustrations
additional experts when necessary. We therefore Geneviève Gauckler (Parijs)
contribute in a broad way, from brand concepts text synopsis diggers
and creative strategies to concrete campaigns, Heleen Suèr
materials, and even new services and products.

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Hello Zuidas
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The Randstad’s experimental garden
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150 years of Wibaut
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Intellectual playground
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