Case studies.
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Zyzo
Alzheimer Liga Vlaanderen launched a brand new fundraising campaign after 60% of its income was lost due to the abolition of the dual benefit system. Our task was to get the media interested in the campaign.
We're always happy when we can use our skills for a good cause. Our strategy was to give exclusivity to the DPG Media group. And why? They have an enormous reach: print media, online media, and news broadcasts. We knew we had to do this to get results. The campaign was newsworthy, but there was so much other news during that time that we wouldn't have achieved the desired results otherwise. We managed an almost page-long article in Het Laatste Nieuws and on the HLN website, which together reach 2.6 million readers daily. We also got a report in the seven o'clock news programme of VTM Nieuws on Sunday evenings, which is watched on average by about 620 thousand people. The euphoria was great, and once again, it was shown that it's advantageous to arrange an exclusive agreement with a media house.
Italian architect Stefano Boeri travelled to Antwerp to inaugurate his first building on Belgian soil, the Palazzo Verde by Triple Living. Our job was to get the maximum media coverage out of it. It was a great opportunity, and we achieved fantastic results.
We left nothing to chance and did everything we could to reach the most appropriate media to get the most out of the visit. For example, months in advance, we arranged an interview between Mr Boeri and Weekend Knack, a glossy magazine that's been on the market for a long time. They agreed to interview Boeri before he travelled to Belgium. This procedure (under embargo) is necessary if you want coverage in lifestyle print magazines. To attract the other media, we changed the story's angle according to the target audience of the different media. This also worked so that we had to coordinate a veritable media merry-go-round at the time of the visit. Stefano Boeri went from one interview to the next, alternating with some photo shoots in between. For PR, it was great to see how a kind of dance developed between the architect and the journalists on the roof of the Palazzo Verde. A dance that, thanks to our strategic approach and the collaboration with our Italian partners, resulted in a wide range of coverage: lifestyle press (Weekend Knack), international design press (Dezeen and DAMN°), local (ATV, HLN, NB) and national media (VTM Nieuws).
BVI.EU has been a developer of mixed-use business parks, SME units & build-to-suit buildings for over 20 years. Their many years of experience recently extend beyond our borders as well. With projects in both France and Germany, they are introducing their green philosophy to Belgium's largest neighbouring countries and also two of the largest countries in Europe. BVI.EU does not hide its ambition to expand further in Belgium and beyond.
It is always nice to work for a passionate and ambitious client. It is contagious, it gives us energy, and it keeps us on our toes. For example, we had to professionalise our media policy in order to support the European expansion of BVI.EU in the French and German media. So far, we have a steady record of achieving good coverage for every project. Whether it's an announcement, completion, press event for the start of works or an (international) trade fair. We are always on hand in the local and national press in Belgium, France, and Germany.
Maes 0.0% is a sponsor of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step Cycling Team or, as they like to call themselves, "The Wolfpack". The brewery sees the Wolfpack as the ideal ambassadors to draw attention to a highly topical issue: "don't drink & drive". To strengthen that message, the riders dressed up in a special jersey for the GP Samyn (2021).
We were thrilled by this idea. Not only because we've a great affinity for cycling but especially because of the clear and strong message of the campaign. In collaboration with Oona Agency, we developed the right strategy and output to spread the campaign across the Belgian media landscape. We focused mainly on the French-speaking press but also included the Dutch-speaking and foreign press. Our contribution to the campaign: content creation, pitching and preparing corporate interviews with the CEO of Alken-Maes, compiling and sending out seeding packages. Our goal was to reach the broadest possible audience. The result is a total of 60 clippings and an OTS (opportunity to see) of over four million people. With coverage in newspapers such as La Libre Belgique, Le Soir, Het Nieuwsblad and the print and online publications of the market leader in the south, Sudpresse, we largely exceeded expectations.
The Antwerp-based project developer Triple Living embodies architectural gems by teaming up with internationally renowned architects. We give them strategic advice on reputation and crisis management combined with regular media training.
We give them strategic advice on reputation and crisis management combined with regular media training. Add to that a broad network of national broadcast, lifestyle, and architectural/design media and you get a very successful mixture that regularly leads to national front pages and TV and radio coverage.
The women of the Starcasino Team were looking for new cyclocross talent and therefore travelled through Flemish fields looking for a new star for their red brigade. Three ladies made it to the final stage where one of them won a coveted professional contract with the star team. In this project, we showed our best strategic and executive side. The turnaround time was less than a week so our responsiveness and flexibility had to be top notch. We came up with a good strategy that created maximum impact followed by a solid execution. We used a targeted approach for the Flemish and international press and launched a general press release mixed with regional versions.
The results speak for themselves, national media coverage with several articles in key print publications and lots of interviews with regional radio and TV stations. Thanks to strong media relations and tailor-made one-to-one communication, we achieved nice coverage.
Foodmaker, a bold brand with a rock star CEO, embodies fantastic food and a great vision on healthy living. When they asked us to help optimise their PR efforts, we were over the moon. We’ve been helping them with strategic communications advice, story mining, copywriting, and PR outreach in the north and south of the country since March 2020.
We’ve generated massive media coverage for lifestyle and corporate projects, such as the foodbox Back on Track, the Mercury Prize for best shopping concept, and a major deal with a caterer in The Netherlands. The quality and quantity of coverage is consistently on point across the board, thanks to our excellent network with Dutch and French speaking journalists and our journalistic way of working.
Opening a new co-working spot during the Covid-19 crisis is clearly a challenge. In terms of business, but also communication. However, the opening of Silversquare's newest co-working spot, Bailli, was a huge opportunity to share the company’s exciting growth ambitions.
We advised our client on their approach, prepared the story and the spokespersons, and pitched the news to our broad network of journalists from both sides of the country.
Brussels Flight Simulators called on Brum Smith to professionalize and intensify its marketing activities and give sales a boost. We designed an integrated social media advertising, public relations and communications campaign.
The results were great: we were able to generate more than twenty pieces of coverage in national media. Both VTM and RTL did an exclusive report for the evening news when Prince Laurent came to visit, and Radio 2, the country’s biggest radio station, did an interview with Brussels Flight Simulators about the launch of the F-16 simulators. The campaign also achieved fantastic scores on social media.
The Belgian consumer body known as Test Aankoop - Test Achats was struggling to increase its subscriptions and had designed a new marketing campaign to do so. However, they wanted to try something new, which they believed in but didn't know quite how to implement strategically. So they called on Brum Smith to design and implement a lifestyle influencer marketing campaign.
We worked with Dutch and French speaking lifestyle influencers with great credibility and reach within the right niche. This methodology worked really well, and with a total of 235,000 impressions and an engagement rate of 8.76 %, the campaign delivered fantastic results.
BVI.BE, the Belgian pioneer of SME and business parks, wanted to create awareness and visibility for a new business park in Wavre in Wallonia. Despite a first brief on achieving local media coverage, we were actually able to generate qualitative coverage on a national scale. An excellent example of the impact of our journalistic approach.
By interviewing our client and story mining the information, we knew we had a story that deserved more than merely local media attention. On top of massive media coverage in local media, we generated national media coverage, such as an in-depth article in Trends, the leading Belgian business magazine, La Libre Immo and Kanaal Z. The articles were a great success both in terms of quantity and quality: all key messages were represented with a powerful title that was high on our wish list. The achievement of articles that were completely on message was no coincidence: it was the result of an in-depth story mining and media training session with BVI.BE's founder and CEO, which helped them to outline the story and guide the interview in the right direction.
The team behind Zyzo, a tablet for seniors designed and engineered in Belgium, called on Brum Smith to help with the launch on the Belgian market. Creativity was key, as marketing & communications budgets were limited, and brand awareness and reputation almost non-existent. We teamed up with one of our partners to propose an integrated 360° marketing & public-relations campaign, consisting of social-media advertising, media relations and influencer marketing.
The results were tremendous: quality articles in local and national media, including TV, lots of stories and posts from lifestyle influencers who agreed to work with us in exchange for a Zyzo, and an impactful social-media advertising campaign on Facebook & Instagram.
Febelfin, the Federation of the Belgian Financial Sector, launched an awareness campaign to make young people and their parents aware of the dangers of online fraud. It was up to us to generate media attention for this campaign.
Once again, we relied on our journalistic approach. Our noses probed for newsworthy (phishing) hooks to hang the story on and chose a narrative from the victim's point of view. More specifically, a testimonial from a duped mother whose son fell into the hands of a greedy criminal organisation. With that in mind, we threw personal lines out to our best contacts. Het Laatste Nieuws was the first to bite, and thanks to our good media relations, we secured a full pager from them in exchange for the scoop. With mentions in the live newscasts of VRT NWS and Kanaal Z as well as air time on all well-known Flemish radio stations (Qmusic, StuBru, Radio 1, Radio 2, MNM and JoeFM), we also did well with the audiovisual media. In French-speaking Belgium, we cashed in an excellent half-page article in Sudpresse and featured in Canal Z's live news programme.
Bobex is the most significant bid comparator in Belgium and describes itself as a matchmaker between contractors and clients. In September and October, rising energy prices were a hot topic in the media, which also entailed more expensive renovation costs. We connected Bobex with this topic because the company has a lot of data on the sale of building materials. We know that journalists need data to substantiate their articles so we made Bobex relevant by linking their data to current events.
This is an excellent case of showing proactivity combined with teamwork with the client. Bobex provided us with the right numbers, and we used them to tell a story with the Energy Barometer as a result. We achieved coverage in French and Dutch-speaking media thanks to our broad network with journalists in the entire country. We gathered three great print articles in La Dernière Heure/Les Sports+, Het Laatste Nieuws and La Libre Belgique. And a dozen more online articles at Trends Tendances, 7sur7, Sudinfo, L'Écho and RTBF, among others.
Aviko is Europe's market leader in potato products and among the world's top five potato processing companies. It has built an eight-hectare plant in the fields of West Flanders that produces more than enough fries to serve every Belgian a portion of fries every week. So it should be no surprise that this was one of the most intensive cases of 2022.
The project took about three months from start to finish, and the opening event of the new factory was the icing on the cake. Our influence ranged from media training to writing press releases, press invites, and pitches to journalists and accompanying them during the interviews at the event itself. But that wasn't all: we also played a supporting role in organising the event in the run-up. It was a very intensive and challenging project, which we mastered excellently, if we say so ourselves, together with the Aviko team. The topic made the front page of De Tijd, a page and a half in Het Laatste Nieuws, the news broadcasts of LN24, VTM Nieuws and Kanaal Z, among others, and was also heard on the podcast of De Tijd and Radio 2. We scored qualitatively and quantitatively, with 32 articles for a total reach of more than six(!) million Belgians.
As an internationally renowned auction house, Sotheby's has long since ceased to be an unknown name. In Brussels, this global player has set up its gallery and offices on the prestigious Avenue Louise. February 2023 was an artistic highlight. A rare painting by Peter Paul Rubens, estimated to be worth between $20 and $30 million, returned to Belgium for the first time in 200 years. Sotheby's Belgium was honoured to unveil the painting to the public before it went to New York for auction.
Coworking pioneer Silversquare opened its ninth location in Belgium, in the northern quarter of Brussels, in early March 2023. The company follows the same strategy each time: a unique coworking location in collaboration with a local artist. Silversquare believes in the power of inspiring environments to foster creativity, innovation and better entrepreneurship. For the Brussels North location, they collaborated with Lous and The Yakuza, an eccentric Congolese-Rwandan singer-songwriter, rapper and creative all-rounder.
Together with partner agencies Oona and Hotel Hungaria, we carried out a campaign for the Flemish Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement, Zuhal Demir, to combat sexually assaultive behaviour among young people. Projections were published on well-known buildings in five Belgian provincial capitals (Leuven, Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp & Hasselt).
Kriket, a unique Brussels-based food start-up founded by foodie crusaders Michel and Anneleen, specialises in making nutritious cricket-based foods. They approached us with an intriguing request: to draw media attention to their newly launched high-protein bars.
We regularly work with market research companies to shed light on current issues and obtain relevant statistics. We strive for high-quality media coverage to highlight issues in society. Kruidvat’s aim is twofold: not only to educate the public, but also to ensure that policy makers are aware of the importance of affordable healthcare.
BVI.EU, a renowned developer of mixed-use business parks, SME units and build-to-suit buildings, has consistently delivered exceptional projects for over two decades. This case study highlights the importance of strategic public relations (PR) in maximising media exposure and maintaining strong relationships with key media players in the Brabant Wallon region.
Surely you're no stranger to the iconic Mars Belgium brands. M&Ms®, Snickers®, Twix®, Mars®, Balisto®, Bounty®, Ben's Original™, Pedigree®, Cesar®, Frolic®, Whiskas®, and Sheba®. But did you know they've been a pioneer in pet-friendly offices for over two decades?
Everyone knows that people with dementia are forgetful. But far fewer people know that they often feel forgotten. Want to know how we reached 6 million people by reminding them?
Foodmaker's next ambitious goal is to conquer the German market and anchor itself in REWE supermarkets. We supported that PR campaign.
Apaq-W, the Walloon agency for agricultural promotion, launched an awareness campaign to promote Walloon milk and wanted to maximise the campaign's impact through media attention. They approached us with a survey measuring the perception of Walloon consumers: how could they translate their findings (images, behaviours and habits around milk) into captivating media stories and elevate the profile of Walloon milk?
On April 12, 2024, Hotel Hungaria and the Flemish government launched the 3rd wave of the "We Zien U" campaign. For this final part of the campaign, Flemish Minister of Justice and Enforcement Zuhal Demir partnered with KRC Genk and Cercle Brugge for a groundbreaking event.
Upway, a leading figure in the electric bike industry, has opened its first electric bike reconditioning centre in Belgium. This cutting-edge facility, located in Mechelen, is geared to inspect and repair an average of 2,000 electric bikes each month. Upway also offers refurbished electric bikes from top brands, available at a 65% discount compared to new models, presenting an affordable and eco-friendly transportation option.
On the final day of parliamentary work, the Vlaamse Ondernemers, a coalition of 20 sector and employer organizations, launched the "Vlaamse Snipperdagen" campaign. This initiative aimed to draw attention to the excessive regulatory burden on businesses by symbolically shredding unnecessary laws and regulations.
