BOL.COM - THE STORE THAT DELIVERS SMILES

TitleBOL.COM - THE STORE THAT DELIVERS SMILES
BrandBOL.COM
Product/ServiceTHE GREAT-TOY-BOOK
Category D01. Strategic Transformation
Entrant DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Post Production DEPT Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Credits
Name Company Position
Vincent Botman Dept Designer
Fleur Corman Dept Project Manager
Nina de Ridder Dept Lead Art Director
Dennis Hamakers Dept Lead 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 Dept Lead Toybook
René Verbong Dept Executive Creative Director
Nils Vleugels DPPLR Director
Raquel Wijngaarde Dept Agency Producer

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

With the Great Toy-Book and the Toy-Book-app, bol.com inextricably tied Sinterklaas to the brand. We’ve succeeded to claim a cultural moment while being super relevant by creating an offline and online integrated customer journey for both kids and parents. We created an ecosystem that provides many opportunities for the future in which the platform can be further enriched and built upon in the coming years by adding new partners, more fun & inspiration for kids and more convenience for parents.

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 We had the opportunity to create brand-new tech solutions in an outdated toy industry that would help achieve our objective.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.

Interpretation (30% of vote)

bol.com is facing strong competition during the holiday season and this grows each year, especially after the long-awaited arrival of Amazon. The holiday of Sinterklaas is a local holiday which bol.com gets like no other big e-commerce player. But not only does bol.com understand its target audience and their culture, but they are also known for witty communication and constantly pushing the bar in innovative services. Combining a deep understanding of culture, innovation and a dash of magic led to the most effective and loved Sinterklaas campaign so far. The desired outcome was to inspire and entertain kids in the most magical way and to really help parents to understand their kid’s wishes. And, let’s be honest, sell more toys. In the long run, the desired outcome is to become an integral part of Dutch and Belgian Sinterklaas culture and tradition in the most positive way possible.

Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

We organised several focus groups to discover the real problems we needed to solve. We discovered objectives per target group. We needed to help parents who’re unsure about their kids’ gifts due to the little one’s fickleness. It also showed that parents feel responsible to give their kids an unforgettable time. Therefore we needed to add convenience and clarity in the gift purchasing process at every step of the journey. During a workshop with kids, we tested several toy-book concepts and discovered the added value of gamification and digital tools such as AR. This inspired and helped kids in making truly weighted wish-list decisions. This all led to the on-and offline strategy where fun and inspiration was offered to kids and parents were helped with a convenient and seamless purchase journey. With certainty, we can say that this made us own our tagline: “the store that delivers smiles”.

Creative Idea (20% of vote)

Knowing it was all about adding magic for kids and convenience for parents, we’ve created the campaign: ‘The store that delivers smiles’. This 360-campaign had the immersive Great-Toy-Book as a centrepiece, including games, the Wish-List-Poster, over 100 minutes of scannable 8D audio stories, onboarding videos by Sinterklaas, little surprise messages by the holy saint 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 in great detail. Often playing together with their parents, they got to know toys well ensuring the right gift choice. The full campaign was spread cleverly over multiple channels and included 3 TVCs, multiple radio spots, OLV, and influencer partnerships showing the tools and features simultaneously to the TV’s air dates. On out-of-home and social, children proudly showed their Wish-List-Poster.

Outcome / Results (20% 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%) Brand association; bol.com as most inspiring and magical shop experience during Sinterklaas period (for kids in the age of 2-12): 15% (with runner up Lego 6% and Intertoys 5%) 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)