- David Gianatasio

BOSTON StawberryFrog's Amsterdam, the Netherlands, outpost has severed ties to the agency's operations in New York and elsewhere.

The 40-person group in Holland, led by Brian Elliott, who co-founded StrawberryFrog with Scott Goodson in 1999, has rebranded as Amsterdam Worldwide.

StawberryFrog shifted its global headquarters to New York from Amsterdam last year as the sale of the latter outpost to "a consortium of partners" in that market got under way, Goodson said. "This has been in the works for awhile," he added.

StrawberryFrog retains branded offices in New York, Sao Paolo, Brazil, and Mumbai, India. The shop employs about 60 staffers in New York and perhaps 50 in Sao Paolo; Mumbai was recently launched and is in the process of staffing up, Goodson said.

The agency will open an office in London early next year or sooner as its new base of European operations, Goodson said.

The Amsterdam office accounted for perhaps 15-20 percent of StrawberryFrog's annual global revenue, Goodson said. All told, worldwide revenue at the shop was approximately $20 million last year.

Elliott, in Cannes, France, at the International Advertising Festival, told Adweek creative editor Eleftheria Parpis: "We decided it was time to move forward and go our own way in Amsterdam. I'm very proud of the work we did together and I wish them well." He did not elaborate.

Elliott said that the Amsterdam Worldwide name is designed to reflect a positioning of "Ideas without borders" and underscore the shop's commitment to international "communications innovation and creativity."

Clients in Holland include Chevrolet, Opel, Panasonic and Asics Onitsuka Tiger. Richard Gorodecky serves as ecd and Jonathan Fletcher helms strategic planning. Notably, the office recently launched the pan-European Aveo campaign for Chevrolet.

StrawberryFrog last month added more than $20 million in PepsiCo business, picking up Brazilian ad chores on Quaker, Toddy, Toddynho and Coqueiro from BBDO. (StrawberryFrog's New York office also works on PepsiCo, having landed creative duties on True North snacks.) In February, Global Vehicles USA, an Atlanta-based car importer, named StrawberryFrog to handle its estimated $30 million account.