Nik Nieuwenhuijs — Co-Founder & CEO, CODE D’AZUR
Nik talks to TheNextGag about why creative agencies need to think further than campaigns and start building products and services, what makes his company different and why he believes that creatives should be device-independent.
Nik Nieuwenhuijs is the Co-Founder & CEO of CODE D’AZUR in the Netherlands.
CODE D’AZUR is a creative digital agency founded in 2007 by Nik Nieuwenhuijs and Jeroen Bijl and based in Amsterdam and Barcelona. The agency creates digital brand experiences by meshing together strategy, creation, design, innovation and cutting edge technologies. “At CODE D’AZUR there are no boundaries between the disciplines,” which enables them to build online platforms, interactive campaigns, social media and mobile applications for national and international brands, such as ABN AMRO, KLM, TELE2, Red Bull, MSC Cruises, Kvadrat.
THENEXTGAG: HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME CODE D’AZUR ?
NIK NIEUWENHUIS: Well, the C, the D and the A stand for Creative Digital Agency. That’s the short story. The longer story is about its reference to code. What makes us different in the Netherlands is that we do strategy until development under one roof. In the beginning we were more of a traditional production company working for creative agencies. Today we work more directly for brands. Because we design and have technology at the core, it was easier for us — like an onion — to add a layer of creativity and a layer of strategy as well. That foundation makes us kind of different in our industry.
We mainly focus on digital communication and digital campaigns. But also products and services. We aim to create products and services that both add value to the business of brands and to the daily lives of its consumers. Consumers are a lot more in control nowadays: they have adblockers, they watch Netflix … Ads are just one of the ways in which brands can connect with their audiences.
TNG: YOU RECENTLY WON A LOVIE AWARD FOR KLM. WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR WORK WITH KLM IN THE SPIRIT OF WHAT YOU JUST SAID ?
NN: Yes, totally. We are currently creating a next level service on Facebook Messenger together with KLM. It really reflects how we aim to help brands create products and services which their consumers would actually use and benefit from. Hopefully, their clients love to use this service and we could then bring that to a marketing campaign.
We work in a different way than most traditional advertising agencies. We really focus on products and services as an integrated part of our clients’ campaigns. Content wise we always aim to produce content that people would actually like to watch — in an age where it’s so easy to skip and avoid marketing messages it’s essential that audiences want to engage with your content. That attitude is at the heart of everything we do at CODE D’AZUR.
TNG: WHEN YOU DELIVER A PRODUCT FOR A CLIENT THAT IS NEVER REALLY FINISHED, IT’S MORE OF A LONG-TERM COMMITMENT THAN A REGULAR PROJECT. SO HOW DO YOU GET PAID ?
NN: Well, the thing is, we create our own briefs. That’s a possible route where we see an opportunity because we know the client really well. We see what is happening with technology nowadays and we connect the dots. We say “You have to do this”, because this will influence your business or enrich your business. We have to pay attention and work with this.
The other thing is they give us a brief. More of a business challenge, I guess. And how could we solve that with creativity and technology. And we get paid for the amount of hours we spent creating and working on it.
But there is also this thing here that we do a lot is be proactive and scan what’s happening, scan opportunities and go to the client with “This is what you need to do”.
So, a lot of the work we do with KLM is also things we see. We really collaborate with them. We share opportunities together. And we dive in together creating.
TNG: DO YOU CREATE EVERYTHING IN-HOUSE ?
NN: Yes. We do everything from strategy to technological executions. We also have an office in Barcelona and we utilize local expertise globally, our clients are not only in Europe but also in the Middle-East, for instance.
I guess we’re more of a creative digital/product development agency. It’s hard to put a label on it. What we really are, is a reflection of the shifting market we’re operating in. I think advertising agencies are still important but decreasingly so. We really believe in our proposition and our model. I think technology and creativity goes be hand-in-hand and work closely together.
TNG: YOU GAVE A TALK AT ADVERTISING WEEK ABOUT THE DUTCH DIGITAL DESIGN. IS YOUR VISION SHARED AMONG OTHER DIGITAL SHOPS IN THE COUNTRY ?
NN: There are a lot of shops which do strategy and creativity and design. There are a lot of production companies. There are not a lot of agencies that I think are on the same level as advertising agencies and production companies. We try to do all of that, and I really believe we manage to marry all those elements really well. There are not a lot of competitors in our direct field (to be completely honest). But I think it will rise. On an international and European level, there are obviously more of them, like R/GA and companies that have a similar proposition as we do.
TNG: DO YOU RECRUIT YOUR TALENT (STRATEGISTS, DESIGNERS, DEVELOPERS, CREATIVES) FROM THE LOCAL MARKET ?
NN: It is a great mix of different cultures and different people. We have Spanish, South American, Scandinavians and French as well. It is a mix. It’s digital, so anybody with passion is welcomed. And Amsterdam is a booming creative city. So, it attracts a lot of international talent, which is great.
TNG: YOUR AGENCY PARTICIPATED IN THE LAST EDITION OF THE ADNIGHT. WAS IT AN OCCASION FOR YOU TO REACH LOCAL PEOPLE ?
NN: It was a way for us to showcase what we do. And how we work. Like inviting people into your kitchen to show them how you create and cook things.
It is definitely a great way to reach talent by allowing them a peek behind the curtain and truly experience a bit of our company culture. But we also wanted to allow advertisers to experience first-hand what we create and how. We organized a couple of activities to reflect that. We had Pieter Ceizer who is a famous Dutch designer and typographist. He lives in Paris actually. He just did a collaboration with Colette. During ADNIGHT he created a really cool typography in Google Tilt Brush, in VR, with the headset on. And we had — which I thought was amazing — augmented reality tattoos. You could get a tattoo and use an app and then your tattoo would come to life. We weren’t sure if people would actually go for it. But in just four hours we made fifteen tattoos — and we still get requests! So we are going to commercialize the product and make it open-source so people can add new animations to it.
TNG: YOU MENTIONED VIRTUAL REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY. I SEE THAT YOU DESIGN FOR DIFFERENT DEVICES. NOW, TO BE A DIGITAL AGENCY, YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO PLAY ON SMARTWATCHES …
NN: And with Voice. I just came back from New York. I brought the Google Home here. It will be really interesting to see where that goes.
TNG: DO YOU HAVE A PREFERENCE IN TERMS OF NEW TECHNOLOGY YOU WANT TO WORK WITH OR ARE YOU OPEN TO ANYTHING ?
NN: I think you have to be open for anything. I always personally think technology will be integrated into your body within the next ten years, and we’ll all be chipped. So you have to be device-independent. Screens are still important. But I think it is not about devices, it is more about the journey and where you are: your location, contextual and high-proportional. That’s the kind of keywords that we are playing with. You need to be completely device-independent. If you spend too much time on a specific device, you can’t truly innovate. We try to be as device-independent as possible. Right now, we do a lot for screens. But we are also doing stuff with voice. Obviously, AI is really interesting. Machine-learning and AI.
TNG: WHAT IS THE SECRET SAUCE OF CODE D’AZUR ?
NN: There are two things. The first is having all disciplines in-house which makes us unique. From the strategists, creatives, UX designers, graphic designers, motion designers, developers, analysts … We all have different titles, different backgrounds, different cultures. And the mix of all these different fields of expertise, driven by the same passion, is really unique. It reflects our philosophy — “Stand Out, Fit In”.
It basically means brands have to ‘Stand Out’ by surprising people with unconventional ideas. On the other hand, we think ‘Fit In’ is just as important. With ‘Fit In’ we refer to the technology people use — fit in with the culture your audience lives, fit in with what they stand for. In short? Add value to their lives. Marrying these two elements is hugely important.
Nik Nieuwenhuijs
Co-Founder & CEO
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