It appears it was time for Heineken-owned Amstel to switch out of the upper-class and over to their dark, sexy, provocative and popular Amsterdam heritage.

A new ad campaign by Richards Group (Dallas) has taken what used to be a message to the yacht clubs of America created by former agency Publicis (”Live Tastefully”) and created a complete about face in the new and hipper “Dam good bier” campaign which focuses on the hard-partying and proud Dutch Amsterdam lifestyle; this, complete with scenes from bars in the “district” and red overtones in the editing room.

A friend of mine who has been in spirits advertising for over a decade said that he’s pretty sure this will put Amstel Light into the stratosphere when it comes to nightlife, but that the brand will take a massive hit on the upper middle-class segment it used to dominate in the light beer category. I’m not too sure that’ll hold true, but I will say it’s one hell of a gamble.

Heineken already produces, and appears ready to start hard-core pushing, a light beer called Heineken Premium Light. One can only assume they’ve made the decision to separate the dads from the boys and go into brand segmentation; not something you can quickly bounce back from if it fails.

The jury is still out on this move, but in the immortal words of Garth Algar, “Party on, Wayne.”

The global reach for companies these days is expanding at a rate far greater than ever. And, with this expansion of products and services, especially through online channels, comes the ability to work with freelance or agency talent all over the world.

Collective talent pools like Airbag Industries, HappyCog and, of course, Visual Activity have succeeded due to a deep bench of talent and the ability to work in remote areas while using the most up to date tools.

We currently have a staff that includes an engineer in London, a senior ui developer in Utah and two physical addresses in the Northeast where the other three staff members work each day.

Our reach, like that of our clients, becomes paramount to our success in such a competitive landscape. While some of our clients such as Harvard University and Interactive Data Corporation are local, our international clients like Novartis and Capcom require a blend of weekly phone calls and online project management tools to help everyone stay on track.

The extent to which we are able to work with clients across the globe is unlimited. We’ve had a long history of success working with client teams from Ireland to India and we expect the trend to not only continue, but to grow.

A fantastic example of how international talent is being used for global marketing is the recent hire of Sydney, Australia-based Publicis Mojo to handle the worldwide effort for Diet Coke. This, based on information from a report in AdAge marks this as “the largest global account ever awarded to an Australian agency”.

As the trends grow and the internationalization becomes more standard, one thing that will remain an issue is the localized audience. I still think that companies have a difficult time understanding the needs of the local audience as it pertains to a global strategy.

Time will tell if localization becomes less of an issue (spelling, language options as a standard option, sites with zoned pricing, etc…). I hope that as companies more frequently use international talent they pay close attention to the local impact.