Amsterdam Impact
strategy
culture
2026
Story: Amsterdam Impact
You can feel it. Amsterdam Impact feels it too. The quiet tension in creative communications: the thrill of brilliant ideas, and the growing truth that climate and social inequality demand more than clever creativity. They demand our collective heart.
Amsterdam Impact
Work in creative communications long enough and you feel the split. On one side, the thrill of an idea landing. On the other, the creeping suspicion that cleverness alone doesn't pay the climate bill. Most agencies already have meaningful work in the portfolio. The problem isn't effort, it's isolation; bright sparks scattered across a competitive landscape that rewards outshining each other more than joining forces.
Amsterdam Impact saw the split and decided it was time to close it. They asked BR-ND People to help shape and run the Coalition of Impact Frontrunners: not a talking shop, not a LinkedIn moment, but a working coalition of agencies that want to stop competing on sustainability and start compounding it.
Rivals at the same table
The opening move wasn't a manifesto. It was getting people who normally pitch against each other to sit down without pretending it wasn't awkward. We designed a series of BR-ND Kitchen sessions, our working format where science meets playfulness, and turned that awkwardness into something useful.
The frame on the table was the sector's "brainprint": the outsized sociopsychological footprint creative communications has on what people believe is normal, desirable and doable. If we shape what millions of people aspire to every week, calling our industry "just a service" is a polite lie.
"Certain global challenges are too big to solve as a single agency. Let's come together as a creative industry and accelerate the transition instead of out-pitching each other." Alexander Koene, co-founder of BR-ND People
Out of the sessions came a shared vocabulary, then a shared map of who's already doing what, then the first outlines of a shared toolkit. The boring-sounding middle most coalitions skip, and the one that quietly decides whether anything actually happens on Monday.
From coalition to culture shift
Today the Coalition of Impact Frontrunners is a network of agencies choosing collaboration over corner-protection. A joint manifesto as North Star. A practical toolkit to bake impact into the daily work, client by client. A knowledge base that turns individual wins into sector-wide learning.
The quiet win: agencies don't just sell campaigns anymore, they help shape what their clients believe is possible. That's the real leverage of the creative industry, and it only works when we're pulling in the same direction.
Rather join a coalition than fight a competition?
If you run or work at an agency that's tired of scrapping over the same slice of pie and ready to grow it together, there's room at the table. Let's talk about what joining the Coalition of Impact Frontrunners could look like for your team, and how 23plusone can sharpen the impact work you're already doing.
Reach out to Kim or Alexander if you want in