Category: Electronics, Technology
Media: Digital
Brand: Dutch Government
Agency: Grey
Geo: Netherlands
Advertising Agency: Grey Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Director: Bjorn van den Hout
Copywriter: Rens Quirijnen
Executive Creative Directors: Frank van Rooijen, Lionell Schuring
Head of Strategy: Miriam Sijmonsbergen
Head of Digital: Oscar Winkelaar
Digital Producer: Ron Beurskens
Client Service Director: Annette Menheere
Account: Claudine Janssen, Tessa Brons
Illustrator: Bjorn van den Hout
Published: December 2016
Description: To keep Dutch young men (between the age of 16 and 24) at a safe distance while they’re lighting fireworks around NYE, we made them use the one thing they love most; their mobile phone. GREY Amsterdam developed a video app that replaces the sound of a firework explosion with a special ‘Biem’ sound effect. Videos were ‘Biemified’ when filmed from the instructed safe distance. Why Biem? When a news reporter asked a guy about a gas explosion in his street on Dutch national television, the man described the sound of the explosion as ‘Biem’ instead of ‘Boom’. Turning him into an overnight online cult hero. Together with ‘Mr. Biem’ the BIEM app was launched.