Title	BOL.COM - THE STORE THAT DELIVERS SMILES
Brand	BOL.COM
Product/Service	THE GREAT-TOY-BOOK
Category	D05. Cultural Insight
Entrant	DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Post Production	DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Vincent Botman	Dept	Designer
Fleur Corman	Dept	Project Manager
Nina de Ridder	Dept	Art Director
Dennis Hamakers	Dept	Strategy
Patricia Loman	Dept	Designer
Tim Menko	Dept	Lead Creative Copywriter
Niels Moes	Bol.com	Manager Marcom b2c
Annika Timmer	Dept	Account Manager
Cecile van der Heuvel	Bol.com	Campaign Manager
Emiel Vandenbroeck	Dept	Designer
Mathieu Veldhuijzen	Bol.com	Lead Speelgoedboek
René Verbong	Dept	Executive Creative Director
Nils Vleugels	DPPLR	Director
Raquel Wijngaarde	Dept	Agency Producer

Background

Sinterklaas is the most magical period for kids in the Netherlands but can be stressful for parents. Adding to that, kids never know what present they really want (based on our extensive research). Our objective for bol.com (the biggest webshop in the BeNeLux) was to make the season even more magical for kids and help parents reduce stress. Our brief was to make finding the perfect gift the most pleasant and fun experience for everyone with clever services. We had the opportunity to create brand-new tech solutions in an outdated toy industry that would help achieve our objective. Last year we already released a tech-savvy toy-book, but this year we really stepped up our game with a dedicated app that integrated offline and online seamlessly in search of that perfect gift.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

We created an immersive toy-book that included games, the Wish-List-Poster, 8D audio stories, onboarding videos by Sinterklaas, and much more. Combined with our new Toy-Book-App with image recognition, it brought the 900(!) toys to life like a true magic wand. Kids could now think about their gift to great detail. Often playing together with their parents, they got to know toys well ensuring that the right gift choice was made. Our 360° campaign promoted these features with the pay-off: the store that delivers smiles. This holiday was all about bringing smiles to children and parents, which was reflected throughout all assets.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

At bol.com we understand that offering toys for Sinterklaas isn’t just enough; we’re here to help parents reduce stress and maximize fun for children. Amazon, our biggest threat, knows very little about our Sinterklaas traditions. This was the period to show that bol.com understands Dutch culture better than the American giant. We had to be Sinterklaas’ little helper. We didn’t have the lowest prices and not the biggest offering. Therefore we had to find something we had to find a unique selling point. As the toy’s world has been lacking innovation and imagination, we knew this was an opportunity. The webshop is also known for ease of use, orientation and purchasing. Therefore we established 3 strategic fases: 1. Pre-fun: create magic for kids 2. Orientation: picking made fun and easy for children with their parents 3. Ordering: ease for parents

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

First, we developed the 2nd edition of The Great-Toy-Book and introduced the Toy-Book-App and released in October ‘20 in the Netherlands and Northern Belgium. Now extra fun and inspiration are offered to children when making their wish list (found inside). The release was accompanied by a TVC, OLV and social assets. It showed a girl opening the book with toys magically flying out of it. Three weeks later, we released a TVC and OLV to promote the scannable 8D-audio-stories in the book. Mid November the full campaign went live that reminded parents of the convenience of the Wish-List-Poster with a TVC, radio, OLV starring an indecisive girl shouting her wishes down the chimney. Influencer partners constantly showed the tools and features simultaneously to the TV’s air dates. On Out-of-home and social, children proudly showed their Wish-List-Poster. The campaign clearly demonstrated the role of bol.com and the emotional benefits.

List the results (30% of vote)

Main goals & KPIs: Market share toys during the holiday season (November-December): 48% (+8% market leader toy-market) Brand; strengthen mental availability bol.com with ‘Sinterklaas’ as category entry point: 45% (+6%) Awareness; the most famous Toy-book in the Netherlands: 86% (+13%) Sales; share of wallet factor*: 2.4x (+0.9) Sales; total sales of the campaign during the campaign period: 41% (+11%) * The factor related to the average turnover of users of The Toy Book compared to the average turnover of households with children <12 years old who bought toys at bol.com (without using the Toy Book)

Please tell us about the cultural insight that inspired the work

Sinterklaas is a typical children's holiday in the Netherlands and Belgium. Although it has many similarities to Christmas, Sint actually hands kids their presents on ‘gift-eve’ as the parents look on. He arrives weeks before Santa, but when he leaves on the 6th of December, parents start prepping for Christmas. It’s such a hectic period for parents making it one of the reasons we stepped in to help. Children can get very overwhelmed with all the choice of gift, thus we created the Great-Toy-Book and Toy-Book-App for them and their parents. In previous years, the holiday has been contaminated with debates about Sinterklaas’ helpers “Zwarte Pieten”. These are black-faced characters often played by white people and portray an insulting stereotype. Bol.com was the first webshop to completely ban all Zwarte Pieten products. Our campaign “The store that delivers smiles” managed to unite the country, whether you were pro and anti