Face to Face with... MediaMonks

Having teamed up with MassiveMusic back in June to host one of the highlights of this year's Cannes Lions week, one thing’s for certain: MediaMonks know how to party. But a party is only worthwhile if there’s something to celebrate, and the forward-thinking Amsterdam-based digital creative production agency definitely has more than enough to shout about at the moment with caigns for Desperados, TEDx, Heineken and an innovative collaboration with Ballantine's spearheading a Monk movement on the digital scene.

The company has come a long way since its inception in the early 2000s and continues to expand its workforce, with headquarters in Amsterdam and two other offices in London and New York. There’s even talk of another new base slated for next year and the prospects seem endless for the innovators.

For the moment though, all eyes turn to London and the 2nd annual Lovie Awards - the only pan European Award to honour the entire breadth of content created for the internet - during Internet Week [12-16 November]. MediaMonks emerged as recipients of two awards [silver People's Lovie in Social & Community and a Flash bronze] on last week’s winners list for TEDx Interactive Brain and will take the reins for the event’s official after party tonight [Wednesday 14 November]. Here Victor Knaap, partner & CEO [pictured, right, alongside Wesley ter Haar, partner and COO], talks about Monk culture, the company's recent work and of course, the celebratory bash.

What’s it like to be back in London?

It’s always great to be back in London, I spend so much of my time here that I’m happy to call it my home away from home. When I’m not ‘on the ground’ I’m in contact with our London Monks and clients on a daily basis, so I never miss much. Personally, I’m having a great time, seeing that both MediaMonks and our clients are doing pretty well.

What’s been happening at the London HQ and do the offices interact much?

London is very exciting for us at the moment. We've moved to a lovely new office space at Heddon Street, owned by the British Royal family, and have grown our team to 15 Monks. It's a great mix between loyal Dutch staff that have been with us for years and some exciting local UK talent.

It's very satisfying to see that our UK office has retained a strong MediaMonks culture, with some British flavour mixed in for good measure. When it comes to the work, there is no ‘line in the sand’ between London and our Dutch HQ. We send people over to London every week; London accounts for about 40 per cent of our revenue. So we are very focused on having the right people available here for all projects.

MediaMonks began as a small start-up and keeps on expanding as one of the biggest international digital production agencies. Was that always the plan from day one?

On day one there was no plan, just a lot of enthusiasm. Looking back, it’s been an amazing opportunity to start, build and shape a company when you’re still young enough to know it all.

Tell us about your recent work with Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam for Heineken Crack the Case; what was it like to be part of such a big overarching caign and have a chance to engage people with the latest Bond movie, Skyfall?

When it comes to men of the world there really is no one that fits that description better than James Bond. Combine that with one of our favourite Dutch brands - Heineken - and the amazing W+K Amsterdam team makes it a dream project to work on. The interactive experience starts where the TV commercial ends bringing the consumer face-to- face with the beautiful Bond girl, Severin. The insight is simple; all men want to be with her and all women want to be her. Earning your own Skyfall stripes and ‘cracking the case’ to prove that you too are super-spy material seems to be a challenge that appealing to many.

You also launched T-shirtOS earlier this year; how’s that been going? Has there been much interest in terms of registrations?

We were lucky enough to have Work Club bring us in on the Ballantine’s T-shirtOS project, and it’s been very satisfying to see the way it has been embraced by our industry. All the big tech blogs have written positive stories about it. The project is doing well on the awards circuit, too: it’s already picked up two FWA's and a Lovie Award in the innovation category. The best thing about it though has been the response from regular people. Based on what we're seeing on Twitter, Facebook and our email inbox, there is a lot of potential for T-shirtOS with fashionistas out there. Fingers crossed there is enough interest to start mass-producing it.

How important do you think it is for people like yourselves to keep pushing the boundaries with these sorts of technological ideas and creations?

Creating something like T-shirtOS is the reason we go to work in the morning. MediaMonks is built on a belief that combining creativity with technical innovation leads to the best work; that's why we always invest heavily in R&D and prototyping. I think there is a growing sense in our industry that digital projects find part of their mojo during this discovery phase. Playing around with different options and technologies can lead to happy accidents that just wouldn’t be visible when simply putting stuff down on paper.

You’re in town for Internet Week and specifically the Lovie Awards. How important is it for the industry to chion and reward outstanding creativity in digital on the Internet with these sort of events?

Very important. The Lovie Awards is the only pan-European award that honours the entire breadth of content created for the Internet. It's a great way to focus on the stellar work that's being done and allows for more local work to receive the attention it deserves.

And what’s it been like winning a few Lovies for your TEDx Interactive Brain?

Great, we've just heard it picked up a People's Lovie Award as well, which is amazing news. There is a lot of love for TED in our community and working for TEDx Amsterdam has been an honour and a pleasure. Because of our production model, doing all of our work in-house without freelancers, we have the luxury to create a few pro bono projects each year. This tends to be a charity project for each of our preferred agency relations and since Wesley ter Haar (partner and COO at MediaMonks) became TEDx Amsterdam’s tech director we've started working on some TEDx stuff as well.

You’re throwing the official after party for the Lovie Awards; how did you get involved and what can guests expect?

We're a production company to our very bones, but it's not just all work and no play. We have a proven history when it comes to parties and we're happy to continue that in London. It all began with our 10th birthday bash in Amsterdam and this summer we teamed up with MassiveMusic in Cannes to bring a new twist to the infamous Wednesday night party. If anyone out there wants to get involved, we might be able to squeeze a few of you in.

And do you guys get to enjoy it yourselves?

Yes! When the party starts, the work is done. Cannes turned into a truly epic night. This time all of our UK Monks and a select group of our Amsterdam crew will be at the Lovies after party. You are allowed to touch them although it's frowned upon to talk about work during dancing and drinking time.

As well as more cool parties, can you tell us about any cool new projects you have lined up?

Lots of stuff! We're working on a lovely and large caign with BBH at the moment, our NY office has picked up some cool work after the storm and there are persistent rumours that we’ll be opening an office in Singapore in 2013. We’ll keep you posted.