When it comes to cooking, Belgian consumers mainly associate Maïzena — the leading brand in cornstarch — with the thickening of fine sauces. It is however a well-kept kitchen secret that our grandmothers have always used Maïzena to add a dose of lightness to their home-made pies and pastry.

That insight was the starting point of a campaign to renew the awareness that Maïzena helps you bake light and airy sweet treats at home. Just like gran did. LUON and Maïzena teamed up for an awareness campaign around 20 popular baking recipes, originating from the 10 Belgian provinces. Cheesecake, waffles, traditional apple pie and many other Belgian patisserie standards battled each other  for the vote of Belgian baking fans.

The mechanic?

Letting targeted communities  choose their favorites in one-to-one baking duels. The goal: to put together the ultimate Belgian Baking cookbook with the 10 most popular baking recipes in Belgium. By incorporating Maïzena as an ingredient in every recipe, we create relevant content and offer the living proof that the brand  adds an extra dose of ‘air’ to the dough as well as making rich fillings easily digestible. As an encouragement to get people voting, sharing and baking we offer them the chance to win baking tins in return for their votes, or even the ultimate feeling of lightness : a flight over one’s own region with a hot air balloon …

As more and more services turn digital, the use of computers has become a daily necessity. We use internet as main source for media and information, making it easy to assume that everybody now owns a PC with an internet connection.

According to a survey conducted by the FPS for Economy of Belgium, 80% of Belgian households own at least one PC, a number that continues to increase over the years. Especially children seem to be a determining factor in the decision to buy a computer: as much as 95% of households with at least one child claim to own a PC.

Numbers are quite similar when households are asked whether or not they have an internet connection in their homes. 78% of all Belgian families have access to the internet, while the same can be said for 93% of all households with children.

It’s not just the use of computers that has changed over the last decade. As access to the internet was made possible from nearly any location, the devices that we use to connect to the web have also changed and evolved. Smartphones are used in 33% of Belgian households, while 14% use tablet computers to access the internet.

For many Belgian households, surfing the web is also no longer limited to sending e-mails, finding information or watching videos about cats, kids and stunts gone wrong. In 2012, almost half (45%) of Belgian households have purchased goods or services online, doubling the amount of e-shoppers over the last five years.

As the speed of technological evolution and the application of digital and online services will only increase over the years, we will probably see all these numbers gradually getting closer to 100%. Computer and internet access will be made available to nearly everyone as we evolve into an always-online society.

Summer’s drawing nearer and so the need to look extra sharp grows stronger. That’s why we launched a brand new summer campaign for the Weight Care range of slimming products. It aims to convince women to try out a Weight Care course and get rid of that blasted spare tire before summer. And to keep it deflated, once and for all!

How did we take on the challenge?

First, we created  a concept that hits the spot with the ladies: the unspoken wish to fit into last year’s bikini or bathing suit. In a second phase, we translated the concept to all online and in-store media and docked e-coupons + an inviting contest onto it.

By participating, women can win themselves a wardrobe full of fashionable swimwear to show off their freshly acquired waistline. Now tell us: is that a motivator, or what?

Get a taste of the campaign at www.zonderzwembandjes.weightcare.be

But what really flabbergasted us was the way you control the game, using nothing more (or less) than your mobile phone. Synching your desktop and mobile Chrome browser makes it possible to move the game with the motion of your mobile phone. Just check it out yourself, it’s simply a-maze-ing!

“Big Data” is the talk of the town. And of every marketing congress in town. It’s hailed as the new holy grail of business, the final frontier for marketers, the offer you shouldn’t refuse. But is it really?

Big Data

Let's start by defining 'Big Data' so that it's clear what we're talking about here. Big Data is often described in terms of three "V's": volume, velocity and variety:

• Volume: Big Data copes with volumes beyond the capacity of conventional database systems. It calls for large data warehouses and high processing capacity.
• Velocity: Data is becoming real-time. Every click, every action can be measured as it happens. Sensors are spitting out continuous flows of numbers. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN for example generates so much real-time data that scientists must discard the overwhelming majority of it — hoping hard they've not thrown away anything useful.
• Variety: Big Data is often messy, not well-structured, not 'clean'.

Diving into such Big Data can be mighty powerful. It's how Google predicts outbreaks of the flu. It's how Nate Silver became a hero correctly predicting the results of the American elections for each state. It's how the Santa Cruz police force was able to predict crimes before they happened.

Small Data

In contrast, Small Data is about small pieces of ready-to-use, easily digestible and well-structured data. For example those bits of customer data often captured by marketing campaigns. Or your operational sales tracking data.

Fact is that most companies already have difficulties enough dealing with this – crucial - Small Data as it is. And collecting the data, that's the easy part. The real challenge is in getting from data to actionable insights. It's in discovering the story behind the data and making it visible: who are our top customers? What channels are they using? Which of our marketing efforts work, and which don't? …

Towards Smart Data

It's a common misconception that more data de facto means more knowledge. According to the law of diminishing returns, the tenth gigabyte of data you'll add will be worth less than the second. If you look at the two images below for example, you can easily tell that the right one is clearer, has more data. But what additional information does it really give us compared to the left one?

What more can we learn from the right image that we couldn't get from the left one? Not so much indeed.

Now instead of focusing on how much data we gather (and as a result increase the efforts it takes to turn it into actionable insights), we should focus on the data we can act upon. Call it 'Smart Data'.

Let's return to our image example. Don't bother adding lots of data to make it sharper. We don't need it. What would make a real valuable addition to our data is any new form of data we haven't collected yet, like in the example below.

Now that does make it far more interesting, doesn't it? Instead of adding all that data to make it sharper, we chose to add a completely new type of data. And that's exactly what Smart Data is all about: collecting the right – not necessarily more- bits of data that will allow for better insights.

It's about diversifying your data to broaden your view. And above all, it's about knowing the business questions you'd like to be answered and collect the data needed to answer them. With Big Data, the risk doesn't lie in 'not collecting answers'. The risk is 'not knowing the questions'.

To round up

So does this mean all this Big Data is worthless? Au contraire, mon ami! Big Data can for example have great value in detecting new business opportunities. And as the tools get better to turn Big Data into actionable Small Data, more and more companies will be able to benefit from it.

But for the majority of companies, the main focus now should be on getting the most out of the Small Data already available and turning it into Smart Data.

Want to know more about how you too could be getting the most out of data? Call Serge Van de Zande on +32 475 72 41 81 or e-mail him right here.

Main sources:

• http://strata.oreilly.com/2012/01/what-is-big-data.html
• http://www.business2community.com/marketing/big-v-small-data-why-marketers-today-need-to-know-the-difference-0275517
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/03/30/in-defense-of-small-data/
• http://www.evanmiller.org/small-data.html

It’s hard to explain global warming to adults, let alone making it clear to children. What exactly is it? What are the effects? And what can we do to push back those effects? GEOlino, a scientific magazine for kids, wanted to make it tangible for them, but not with a dry-as-dust theory.

For that purpose, GEOlino developed a board game where kids can experience the effects of global warming themselves. The game has to be filled with water and frozen in the freezer. The challenge? Guide their miniature polar bear over the melting ice cubes, all the way to the mainland. MELTDOWN makes children experience the effects of global warming in a playful way, without being patronised. A prime example of educational gameplay, where the medium becomes the message.

2013 is a very special year. Six years after the very first edition of the Conti4x4Trophy, Continental is all set to launch the final edition of its four wheel drive adventure. With a brand new online preselection and a fresh twist, making the contest more exciting than ever!

Back to the basics

For starters, we brought the contest back to its core purpose: select 14 adventurous teams to test their Continental tires in the most challenging circumstances.. Definitely not for sissies. This rigid selection resulted in eight creative rounds for the teams, ranging from video-reporting on their initial preparation to assembling a clever survival kit. Every two weeks, the best entries got their ticket for the final round, together with some wildcards for the most complete team profiles.

To fuel up the teams with extra motivation and a healthy appetite for desert sand and off-road kicks, we shared the 4x4 Trophy details, the roadbook and video footage of previous editions on the Conti4x4Trophy site.  In addition, the Conti Facebook page — with its vast selection of preselection updates — helped us engage with fans and future 4x4 pilots.

After two weeks of preselections, more than 450 teams signed up to take the challenge. So if you want to grab your final chance for an unforgettable off-road adventure, don’t hesitate: shine that chrome, pump up those tires and enlist your team today through http://www.conti-trophy.be.

Social media - everyone, anywhere, anytime

There's absolutely no doubt that social networks continue to play an increasingly important part in many people's lives. In 2012, there were more than 1,5 billion social network users, representing a fifth of the world population and an increase of about 20% compared with the year before.

According to an IAB study, 69% of Belgians are members of at least 1 social network and are active on an average of 1,4 networks. As in the rest of Europe, Facebook remains by far the most popular site in Belgium. Almost 62% of Belgian internet users have a Facebook profile.

The continuous growth in smartphone & tablet penetration is also boosting the adoption of mobile internet and hence the usage of social media. People on smartphones use an average of 9 apps on a weekly basis and social network apps remain the most popular ones.

These mobile devices have also changed the way we consume media, making it possible to check social networks in almost any situation or time. It is not surprising that most Belgians still prefer to visit social network sites during their leisure time (82% of respondents). But more interesting is the fact that many are also media multi-tasking, using social media while watching TV or listening to the radio (33%), and using social media in more private places such as in bed (15%) or even at the toilet (7%).

And living in a digital multi-channel consumer world, brands have also found their audience on social media sites. While people originally joined in order to stay in touch with family and friends, they now also choose to interact with their favourite brands via social media. Social media users in Belgium follow on average 3 brands and 44% follows at least 1 brand via social media.

To coincide with our move to Mechelen, we strengthened some of our teams with fresh talent.

Studio recruits

Mathias De Ridder has joined forces with our studio department as brand new interactive designer. Along with him, Jonas Salen came aboard as front end developer. Both new recruits are already creating and delivering outstanding digital campaigns as we speak.

Client services additions

In addition, two new communication specialists have filled in the gaps in our account team: Céline Veldeman and Eef Vervecken. They are armed and ready to take on top-notch client services for Unilever, Fnac, Samsung and Eni. We also enrolled Mechelen native Roosje T’Seyen, an experienced conversation manager. From now on, she will be managing the Solo community for Unilever in a most engaging way.

Analytics  and office services

Our marketing analytics  team has welcomed Yves Knaeps to its ranks. He will help us drill that Smart Data even deeper. And last but not least, Sana Mohamed will be handling LUON’s front & helpdesk duties from now on. So whenever you call the EmailGarage helpdesk or visit our headquarters in Mechelen, Sana — pronounced ‘Senna’ — will make sure you’re feeling most welcome and are getting the right answers to your questions…

As promised, you can find the slides from the four presentations below.
(Mind that this was a re-run of the WassUp Recap session of December 2012!)

1. the search landscape

2. the social landscape

3. the mobile landscape

4. the state of the web

For some nice pictures of the event (thank you Mario!) and more marketing news coverage, be sure to check out our LUON WassUp Facebook page!

See you next time!
Geert

If there’s one campaign that makes us feel good, it’s this one. Even though it’s about serious matters. For starters, it proves that the medium direct mail is still alive and kicking. Secondly, it demonstrates that smart personalisation and plugging into what your target group is familiar with, is truly the way to go.
Result? A seriously attention-grabbing mailpiece.

So what exactly did they do?

In order to convince more doctors to do social work in Africa, this South African agency developed a mailpiece addressed to foreign doctors. They 'hid' an mp3 player in a tiny wooden box, containing a straightforward audio spot that could only be heard by doctors. To be able to hear the extremely low-pitched spot, the receiver needed to press his/her stethoscope onto the indicated area inside the box. How much more one-on-one can you get?

Want to know how it sounded? Check out the case video.

There are very few brands that can match up to the success of sweets brand Chokotoff. For many families, a cupboard without a bag of this through-and-through Belgian product is hard to imagine.

However, up until today the iconic Chokotoff brand had little to no structured social presence. So we answered the need for a social marketing plan with the objective of leveraging the potential of Chokotoff. Our main goal: to drive penetration and increase loyalty with young adults.

We kick-started the campaign by setting up a global Facebook fanpage to coincide with the launch of the new product Chokotoff Red. To enhance the affinity with the new product, we decided to link it to the growing popularity of the Red Devils, the Belgian national football team

Being something Belgians are proud of too, we knew that this wave of sentiment was perfect for Chokotoff Red to surf on. That’s why we set up a Facebook app that lets fans express their enthusiasm by unchaining the longest digital Mexican wave with their Facebook friends. By doing so, they could qualify for the first prize: an all areas duo ticket for the next Red Devils match. Making this the Ultimate Red Devils Stadium Experience

The activation campaign, combined with an underlying storyline and content plan to deliver relevant and inspirational posts, created both sustainable visibility on social media and an ongoing conversation.

We brought this campaign to the attention of a wide audience through radio and a smart Facebook advertising campaign, using promoted posts and sponsored stories.

Results:

• An explosive growth to more than 191.000 fans since launching in January, entering the top 20 of pages with the largest Belgian fanbase.
• Nearly 7.000 fans started their personal Red Wave and a total of 13,000 friends joined them. Moreover, the top 3 waves all were more than 500 friends ‘long’.
• Thousands of fans printed out their personal e-coupon to try the new Chokotoff Red.
• The demographic results: main target group reached
  

A solid starting fanbase to keep working on the KPI’s of further engagement, social virality and sales penetration.

The Belgian League of Cardiologists has pointed out that nearly 7 out of 10 Belgians suffer from high cholesterol. However, many of them don’t realize they do. A routine check-up at the doctor’s often confronts people with the slumbering problem.

LUON helped Becel set up a comprehensive starter’s kit for Becel pro.activ, one of its flagship products when it comes to cholesterol control. The free kit contains all it takes to help people switch to a healthier lifestyle: a practical guide, elaborate food tips and recipes, a 4-week step-by-step plan and 4 discount vouchers for Becel pro.activ. We offer people the living proof that combining physical activities and a healthy food pattern with the use of Becel pro.activ leads to a lower cholesterol level.

And the message is catching on. Since the launch of the campaign mid-January, the starter’s kit has been requested more than 30,000 times…

An easy-to-use flow, real time data validation and extensive tracking allows us to serve consumers in the best way, analyse behavior and realize our pre-defined KPI’s. Mission accomplished!

> And while you’re here, why not order your Becel pro.activ starter’s kit

Mobile devices, including smartphones, are becoming indispensable to our daily lives, changing consumer engagement and purchasing behaviour.

Or as David Johnson, general manager of devices for O2 (UK) puts it :
"Smartphones are now being used like a digital 'Swiss Army Knife', replacing possessions like watches, cameras, books and even laptops. While we're seeing no let-up in the number of calls customers make or the amount of time they spend speaking on their phones, their phone now plays a far greater role in all aspects of their lives."

According to the latest Forrester Report, global mobile internet usage should overtake PC-based internet usage by 2016. How quickly this will in fact become reality remains difficult to predict. However, one thing that clearly emerges from the different analyses is that the pace of change in mobile is increasing!

And while the Belgian mobile internet market might be less impressive than in neighbouring countries, smartphone penetration in the country still represents 22%, of which 14% of smartphone users made a purchase on their phone.

Have a look at some interesting results published by Google in its 2012 "Our Mobile Planet: Belgium" report.

Imagine you just received the following briefing: promote the documentary ‘The Hole Story’ online and raise awareness for the social and ecological impact of the ever-expanding mining industry in Canada. Not an easy task, indeed. Because, to be honest: how on earth do you make a weighty documentary fun in an online environment? With great ease, so it seems. At least, that’s the way creative workshop Akufen took on the mission.

This Canadian agency made an online version of the documentary. They dug into the theme and integrated geolocation to help you start up a virtual mining company in your own neighborhood. This makes the dangers and consequences of mine exploitation for the environment and the miners tangible to the site visitors. Once you’ve engaged yourself in this part of the site, it’s just a tiny step to watch the actual documentary. Job well done.

Just visit the website and check it out yourself.

Being a fairly new marketing medium, Narrowcasting has gained a dominant position in a relatively short time span. It has proven to be a highly effective way to aim brand and marketing messages directly at consumers where they’re the most susceptible to influences: the store.

In-store marketing today: one-to(o)-many

Any marketer who handles in-store marketing for a client knows about the time, money and effort it takes to do it right. Advertising campaign creation and media space buy-in: check. Website updates and extra campaign pages: check. Rigid database selection, direct mailpiece production and mail-out: check. In most cases, that long and bumpy trail leads to better awareness and more visitors on the shop floor. And then it’s time to hold your breath for that "first moment of truth”: the 3 – 7 seconds for someone to notice your product on a store shelf...

We are all used to increasing the in-store attention for a product/service by using window stickers, wall-size posters, cardboard displays, wobblers, shelf dividers, etc. True: these are all valuable and creative media for one of the most important marketing moments. But admittedly, most of them are static, heavy on production costs, distribute slowly and offer limited content targeting.

Enter in-store narrowcasting...

What if you could deliver highly-targeted digital information to a select audience on in-store displays? That’s exactly what Narrowcasting on in-store screens is all about (as opposed to simply broadcasting to a wide and diversified audience): it offers extra value in marketing management as well as easily adaptable marketing content:

• Central content management and the possibilities to switch messages at exact moments in time, based on sales and specific marketing needs.
• Full marketing control over content. Narrowcasting allows you to use different content for different locations with different consumer profiles. Which means: up-to-date messages at all times, as you can respond to changes in market pricing or competitor events immediately.
• You can display as much information as you need, including non-commercial content, which makes the medium highly attractive to visitors. It’s this smart blend of commercial and informative content that helps you dodge the blind-spot that shoppers have developed for traditional advertising media and the overload of in-store stimuli.

Narrowcasting case: Eni TV

Integrated in a shop-in-shop concept and already up and running in a few dozen of retail stores, the Eni screens spread a selection of targeted messages to retail shoppers. These messages contain information on all Eni products/services offer for its customers: from the company’s general proposition, specific promotions, crystal-clear product comparisons to additional energy advice and reseller sales support. The Narrowcasting system allows Eni to combine video, images, animations, text and sound into relevant and highly apprehensible snippets of information for its non-tangible products. As a result, store visitors will keep the Eni offer top-of-mind, and will be easily motivated to ask the in-store energy consultant for advice.

Integrated in a shop-in-shop concept and already up and running in a few dozen of retail stores, the Eni screens spread a selection of targeted messages to retail shoppers. These messages contain information on all Eni products/services offer for its customers: from the company’s general proposition, specific promotions, crystal-clear product comparisons to additional energy advice and reseller sales support. The Narrowcasting system allows Eni to combine video, images, animations, text and sound into relevant and highly apprehensible snippets of information for its non-tangible products. As a result, store visitors will keep the Eni offer top-of-mind, and will be easily motivated to ask the in-store energy consultant for advice.

LUON delivered Eni a solution consisting of a centralized content management system, local web connected high-performance screens, a software set-up for template uploads, content creation, content programming and immediate or scheduled publishing.

By incorporating the Narrowcasting system in their energy stores Eni offers all visitors an appealing interface, with local point-of-sales messaging that is always in line with advertising campaigns, DM and content on the website. By giving store visitors the best possible experience throughout the different consumer moments-of-truth we help Eni attain a better in-store sales conversion.

Catch up on key mobile, social media and digital marketing results published in 2012!

Missed some of our key stats published throughout 2012? No worries: start 2013 fully pumped-up with marketing adrenaline by taking a look at our year’s top 5 recap listing below

1. Pinterest: The latest phenomenon (july 2012)

2. Targeted Advertising: Educating consumers on the value of ad targeting remains key (feb 2012)

3. Facebook: Why is EdgeRank so important for successful Facebook marketing? (sept 2012)

4. Search: Who wants to be listed no.1 in Google? (oct 2012)

5. LinkedIn: A strong network with a remarkable constant growth (may 2012)

Looking for more digital stats? Dig into the analytics & benchmarks section of our blog

Groeten uit Mechelen

Ik zie glas en licht. Erg veel licht. En als ik naar boven kijk, zie ik de hemel. Nog wat tussenmuurtjes, hier en daar een likje verf en we kunnen verhuizen naar onze nieuwe kantoren in Mechelen.

Wel razend benieuwd of die grijze vloer ooit nog glanzend zwart wordt...