Scandinavia, the Northern region of Europe comprising the countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, has long been popular for advertising. The rocky vistas of Iceland are often prominently featured in spots–particularly for cars–while Sweden and Denmark have produced great creative, and sought after directors. Ulrik Bolt Jørgensen, film commissioner for the Oresund Film Commission, which covers a region comprising southern Sweden and Greater Copenhagen, notes that approximately 500 commercials a year are shot there. Oftentimes, those productions originate in European countries like the U.K. and Germany. Others bringing business over include Japan, South Africa as well as the U.S.
The Northern Finland Screen Commission and POEM, a foundation that promotes and develops the film and other media agencies in the region, host a varied number of productions. At the moment, TV series, feature films and several documentaries are shooting in the Finnish region of Northern Ostrobothnia.
The U.S. has certainly benefited from the creative prowess of the Scandinavian market. The directing collective Traktor of bicoastal/international Partizan hails from Sweden, and since the late ’90s has injected a particular brand of quirky humor into the U.S. spot market, with work for Nike, Mountain Dew, Aquafina, and Miller.
When creative hot shop Mother, London, decided to open a stateside office in New York, it turned to “the Swedes”–Linus Karlson and Paul Malmström, a creative team who first made their name at Paradiset DDB, Stockholm, later coming stateside to join Fallon, Minneapolis. The StyleWar collective that’s represented in the U.S. by bicoastal Smuggler hails from Sweden. And Joachim Back, who is repped stateside via Park Pictures, New York, caused quite a splash at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival. The director, who is from Denmark, and was partnered in Copenhagen production shop Bacon with directors Kasper Wedendahl and Martin Werner, helmed a trio of ads for Viagra–“Golf,” “Office” and “Couch”–out of Taxi, Toronto, and produced via The Partners Film Company, Toronto. The spots feature people discussing their sexual exploits, which are bleeped out, with the speakers lips blocked by a blue Viagra pill. Humorous and effective–the Viagra logo is prominent throughout the ads–the campaign won a Gold Lion in the film competition at this year’s Cannes competition.
And speaking of Cannes, agencies from the Scandinavian region fared well at the festival as well. In the Cyber Lions competition, Lowe Tesch, Stockholm, scored a Gold Lion for Tre’s “Xtreme” online effort, while Proximity Otto, Stockholm, won a Gold for Pfizer’s “Smoke Week” site. Scoring Silver in Cyber was Forsman & Bodenfors, Göteborg, Sweden–the agency also has an office in Stockholm–for the JC Clothes package called “The Store.” The shop also won a Bronze Lion for Abba Seafood’s “Jumbo Tube,” and FarFar, Stockholm, scored a Bronze for “Snakes,” part of the Nokia N-Gage campaign.
Why does so much great creative come out Scandinavia, Sweden in particular? “If you are stuck in a country with just lakes and trees and no people around, you get creative,” jokes Johan Persson, partner/executive producer at Camp David, a three-year old production company in Stockholm. “I think the answer,” he continues, “is that the atmosphere is pretty open between creatives, clients and production companies, and that gives it a bit of ‘we are in the same boat, and if we don’t help each out, God knows what will happen kind of scenario.'” Camp David reps the directors from bicoastal/international Hungry Man in Sweden, and in turn, Hungry Man represents Camp David directors Christoffer von Reis, Björn Stein, Robert Jitzmark, and Sebastian Reed in the U.S. and the U.K. (The four directors, along with Persson and executive producer Peter Kydd, are all partners in Camp David.) The production company works with agencies such as the aforementioned Forsman & Bodenfors, other Stockholm shops like Waters & Widgren and Lowe Bridenfors, and Euro RSCG BETC, Paris, and Publicis Conseil, Paris. Recent projects include Tele2’s “Little Rocky,” directed by Reed and Volvo’s “Airport,” helmed by von Reis both for Forsman & Bodenfors.
Camp David is just one of the many high-end production companies in Sweden–others include the Stockholm shops Stink, RAF–home to directors Johan Renck and Jonas Akerlund–Acne (who are repped in the U.S. via bicoastal RSA USA), and Filmtecknarna Animation, which has a high profile in the U.S., having produced ads such as “Indian Run,” for Pier 1 out of Deutsch, New York, and Absolut Peach’s “Surrender” via TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York; both were directed by Jonas Odell. The 25-year-old animation studio has also worked on U.S. ads for the Hummer H2 for Modernista!, Boston, and two ads for Kellogg’s via out of Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. Lars Ohlson, executive producer at Filmtecknarna, notes that the company doesn’t do a large amount of work in Sweden–“[it’s ] not really out of choice, more a lack of time, and in many cases due to the fact that animation in Sweden is a very small market.” However, the company works with agencies in Finland–Ohlson reports that they recently completed a spot for a Finnish real estate firm, and a CGI spot for Siemens cell phones in Germany.
While many of the Swedish ad execs SHOOT spoke to noted that the past couple of years had been difficult–as with most of the ad industry globally, spending was down and clients fearful, which always leads to some creative stagnation, that appears to be changing. “The climate is getting increasingly better, although in the last couple of years the industry had its share of the downfall,” explains Nicolas Hasselstrom, an account director at agency ÅkestamHolst, Stockholm. “The creatives have been under pressure to produce more with less. … Overall, though, we have seen an increase in work, which hopefully will result in even better creative work later on.”
Filip Nilsson, creative director at Forman & Bodenfors, notes that in Sweden, many of the agencies–particularly the independent ones–have a much flatter structure than in other parts of the world, meaning there are fewer layers of management, which can lead to greater collaboration with clients. “One major thing is the relationship between agencies and clients, which tends to be more relaxed,” explains Nilsson, whose agency creates advertising for clients like Volvo, Ikea, JC Jeans, and Swedish Television. “Not always, but more of the time it’s a partnership and less of a supplier/buyer relationship. That helps in the process.” He also points out that since there aren’t as many layers, creatives, at a fairly young age–and early on their careers–are able to work on large ad campaigns. “You can start working in an agency,” notes Nilsson, “and do a major commercial within one or two years. So, a lot of young [creatives] in Sweden, compared to other countries, get a lot of experience quite early, which I think helps improve quality as well.”
Jessica Thorelius, a producer at agency Garbergs, Stockholm concurs with Nilsson, noting, “if you’re a creative team, you’re actually in charge of the spots. You don’t have creative directors running things over your head, and account coordinators and clients who decide everything.” Thorelius points to a recent shoot for Canal+ in Finland. The campaign, which included the spots “Ping Pong” and “Checked Against Glass,” both helmed by Pete Veijalainen of Woodpecker, Copenhagen, was spearheaded by the two creatives, art director Sebastian Smedberg and copywriter Henning Wijkmark. She also relates that because Sweden is a much smaller market than the U.S., advertising doesn’t have to be as demographically targeted. “If you make a commercial in Sweden,” she says, “you have to entertain the whole country, not just one specific target group. Because we aren’t that big, it’s easier to be just entertaining.”
Earlier this year, Robert Schelin and four of his colleagues from Lowe Brindfors, Stockholm, left that shop to open Waters & Widgren, Stockholm. The new agency already boasts an impressive client list: they are creating campaigns for Oddset, part of the Swedish Lottery system, and are handling retailing, brand building and product positioning for Kia Motors. (Sebastian Reed of Camp David is directing the latest Oddset effort; he has helmed several campaigns for the client.) Schelin, who works on the account side, relates that he and his colleagues decided to open their own shop in an effort to “go back to the old school of doing advertising.”
He notes that when layers of management are stripped away, and the process of creating ads becomes more streamlined, creative solutions come more easily. He says that he and his partners are better able to find marketing solutions “when we do it the simple way, the traditional way, where the creatives, the account people, and the client sit down and discuss the problem.”
ICELAND
Iceland has long been a destination for on-location production. Einar Sveinn, director of marketing at Pegasus-PanArctica, a production and production service company headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, reports that in recent years, his shop would normally host a few U.S. jobs a year, “but now the dollar is very low, and this year the exchange rate has been really bad, and we haven’t seen [as many] American jobs.” Last year, Pegasus produced two jobs for director Eric Saarinen of Plum Productions, Santa Monica–one for Samsung and one for Jeep. Pegasus also worked with director Spike Jonze of bicoastal/international MJZ on a Björk music video. This year, Pegasus hasn’t hosted any U.S. spots, although Sveinn reports that they recently worked on a joint European-U.S. print campaign for Rolex that was shot by photographer Mario Sorrenti in Iceland and Greenland. Sveinn notes that most of his shop’s location work takes place on the south coast of Iceland and in Greenland.
In addition to its production service business, the company reps six directors, who work primarily in the local market, but have been getting some attention outside of Iceland. The directors–Gus Ólafsson, Paul Grimmson, Reynir Lyngdal, Silja Hauksdóttir, Stymir Sigurosson, and the mono-monikered Thor–“all vary in styles, but are pretty daring and original.”
At the moment, Pegasus is preparing to facilitate a few European jobs, but Sveinn hopes “to see more of our American friends.”
Addi Knutsson, executive producer at Filmus Productions, Reykjavik, notes that his company works often with local agencies such as Vatikani, Hér & Nú, and Himinn & Haf, all in Reykjavik, and on the production services side, working with shops such as Dentsu Live Europe, Brussels, and the London agencies BMP DDB, Ogilvy & Mather, and Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Young & Rubicam. On the ad front, Filmus hasn’t produced any U.S. spots of late, although it did produce a segment for the Oprah Winfrey Show, and some work for HBO.
Filmus represents five directors–Don Pedro, Otto Tynes, Kristofer Dignus, Denni Karlsson, and Kristjan Fridriksson. Dignus recently directed a Sprite Zero ad for agency Vatikan; Knutsson says the spot will likely get airtime in other markets. As for location shooting, Knutsson notes that he and his directors lens “mostly in Iceland, but we shoot all over the world–we’re even shooting in Dubai next week.
“If I had to pick out one location on this earth, it would have to be the Glacier Lagoon in Iceland,” continues Knutsson, of one of his favorite sites, where two James Bond films were shot–including Die Another Day–as well as Batman Begins and Tomb Raider. “It’s one of those places you simply cannot fathom–since it’s filled with floating icebergs, it’s constantly changing. It’s one of the seven wonders of the world, if you ask me.”