Title	THE TALKING COFFEE CUP
Brand	NATIONALE-NEDERLANDEN
Product/Service	NATIONALE-NEDERLANDEN
Category	A06. Financial Products & Services, Commercial Public Services, Business Products & Services
Entrant	TRIBAL Amstelveen, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	TRIBAL Amstelveen, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	MEDIAMONKS Hilversum, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 2	MADE.FOR.DIGITAL Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Ed van Bennekom	Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam	Creative Director
Jasper Diks	Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam	Creative Director
Jolijn de Visser	Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam	Producer
Fione van Wijk	Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam	Producer
Esther te Pas	Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam	Business Director
Ciaran Woods	MediaMonks	MediaMonks Interactive Producer
Ubi De Feo	MediaMonks	MediaMonks Maker
Cas de Brouwer	Made.for.Digital	Off-line editor
Tom Titulaer	Made.for.Digital	D.O.P.
Robbert Boom	Made.for.Digital	Producer
Bernd Out	Made.for.Digital	Producer
Johannes van Beeck	Made.for.Digital	D.O.P.
Christiaan Schut	Made.for.Digital	D.O.P.
Rory van der Berg	Made.for.Digital	D.O.P.
Juul te Veldhuis	Nationale-Nederlanden	Sr. Program Manager
Daniel Doornhein	Nationale-Nederlanden	Head Branding & Sponsoring

The Campaign

We made that boring conversation over a cup of coffee more interesting by creating a special interactive talking coffee cup. This talking coffee cup was handed out to unsuspecting visitors of the well-known Douwe Egberts cafe who just ordered an regular cup of coffee . An insurance specialist and a Dutch television personality, famous for his improvisation talent, were then able to communicate with them via a wireless Bluetooth connection and have a surprisingly fun conversation about their financial future.

Creative Execution

We built special coffee cups that included a microphone and speaker. We chose the café of the well-known Dutch coffee brand Douwe Egberts as the location and presented caffeine-craving guest with a very special cup of coffee. A wireless Bluetooth transmitter directly connected the cup to an insurance specialist. And with the help of an improviser, we surprised people with a fun and informative chat. During the campaign, we gave everyone who visited some good advice to go with their coffee. We had hundreds of conversations and turned the most interesting stories into a video. The video was used to get even more people talking about their future and how to plan for it. And they did.

Results

Hundreds of conversations were held. Stories were told and advice was given in a way people actually appreciated. The most attractive ‘encounters’ were shared online, realising a total of well over 10.5 million impressions on Facebook and YouTube, and sparking discussion amongst our fans on our social channels. It changed the perspective on making contact and talking to Nationale-Nederlanden about your financial plans: from time-consuming and boring to engaging and quite a bit of fun! Exactly the customer service-oriented approach that gave Nationale-Nederlanden the first position in the Top 10 of Holland’s most popular insurance brands.

With a specially designed interactive coffee cup, we directly approached hundreds of potential new customers one on one, in an entertaining and surprising setting

Nationale-Nederlanden is Holland’s biggest insurance company. The strategy of the brand focuses on delivering superior customer service and that is what the advertising talks about. But actually delivering on it is an entirely different matter. The number of contacts between an insurance company and its customers is very low. This is especially true where financial planning is concerned. Time and again research as well as everyday practice shows that people are notoriously unwilling to engage in conversations about their future. So to create direct, personal contact, we decided to get them out of their ‘ostrich mode’ and lure them in, by starting the conversation in a totally unexpected and fun way: a talking cup of coffee .