Beschrijving stage Als deel van de master na master opleiding Meertalige Bedrijfscommunicatie werkte ik 2 stages af. De eerste stage liep gedurende 8 weken, van maandag 28 april 2008 tot vrijdag 20 juni 2008. Deze stage vond plaats bij het reclamebureau Famous (vroeger LG&F Group) in Anderlecht (Brussel). Verder in deze scriptie vindt u een uitgebreide voorstelling van het agentschap Famous en een analyse van mijn bevindingen ginds. Daarnaast worden ook mijn taken binnen het reclamebureau uitvoerig toegelicht. Die bestonden eigenlijk uit 2 delen aangezien ik de eerste 6 weken van mijn stage deel uitmaakte van het strategische departement en de laatste 2 weken het online departement heb versterkt. Na mijn vooropleiding als Industrieel Ingenieur Informatica leek de periode in het online departement me de uitgelezen kans om ervaring op te doen die zich situeert op het kruispunt van beide opleiding. De combinatie van informatica, in de zin van webontwikkeling, en marketing heeft me immers steeds geboeid en was ook één van de drijfveren om Meertalige Bedrijfscommunicatie te gaan studeren. Strategy in advertising – Maarten Raemdonck (2007 – 2008) 1 De tweede stage vond plaats bij het communicatiebureau Hill & Knowlton in Brussel, deze stage begon op maandag 30 juni en eindigt op vrijdag 29 augustus. Bij het schrijven van deze scriptie loopt de stage bij Hill & Knowlton nog steeds. Enkele kleine verwijzingen buiten beschouwing gelaten zal de scriptie dan ook uitsluitend de eerste (reeds afgewerkte) stage behandelen. Toch wens ik ook nog even Hill & Knowlton aan u voor te stellen en mijn taken ginds heel kort toe te lichten. Hill & Knowlton Brussel maakt deel uit van de internationale Hill & Knowlton groep, deze bestaat uit 73 afdelingen in 41 landen. Hill & Knowlton Brussels is gespecialiseerd in 3 grote vakgebieden: • Belgian Public Relations Bij Belgian PR werkt men voor klanten als InBev, Douwe Egberts, Iglo, Logitech, TomTom, … • Corporate Communications Het agentschap in Brussel richt zich daarbij op het EMEA niveau, dit wil zeggen Europa, het Midden Oosten en Africa. De voornaamste klanten zijn hier HP, Coca-Cola, Intel, Boeing, … • Public Affairs In het domein van PA bedient Hill & Knowlton klanten zoals de Wereld Gezondheidsorganisatie (WHO), European Brain Council, Rollback Malaria, … Hill & Knowlton Brussels startte in januari 2008 het Digital Practice departement op. Met dit departement wil Hill & Knowlton inspelen op de vraag van zijn klanten door ook blog- en website-audits aan te bieden. De taken tijdens mijn stage waren voor een stukje gesitueerd in het Belgian PR departement, maar voor het grootste deel heb ik meegewerkt aan de uitbouw van het Digital Practice departement. Vaak ging het daarbij om research naar de word-of-mouth die bepaalde klanten genereren binnen het domein van de social media (blogs, fora, video sharing sites, …). Anderzijds heb ik ook enkele kleinere webtoepassingen ontwikkeld in het kader van zowel Belgian PR als Digital Practice. Een korte samenvatting van beide stages vindt u in onderstaande tabel. Strategy in advertising – Maarten Raemdonck (2007 – 2008) 2 Bedrijf Stagebegeleider Afdeling Taken Talen Stageperiode 3 Famous Henk Ghesquière Strategic department 6 weken in het strategic Nederlands April – Juni 2008 Gespstraat 68/70 Els Raemdonck Online creation department: concurrentie Frans 1070 Brussel analyse (on- & offline), Engels (Anderlecht) pitches voorbereiden, ROI (in minder mate) 02/411 35 45 ramingen 2 weken in het online department: Ontwikkeling website blijf positief (NL), Brainstorming Famous website, aanpassingen website Hoegaarden Hill & Knowlton Simon Bergulf Belgian PR Schrijven en vertalen van Nederlands Juni – Augustus 2008 Brussels Peter Otten department persberichten, Engels Avenue de Digital practice brainstormsessies, Frans Cortenbergh 118 department blogaudits, event (in mindere mate) Box 8 coördinatie, opzetten van 1000 Brussel mini websites voor events 02/737 95 00 Strategy in advertising – Maarten Raemdonck (2007 – 2008) 2008) – (2007 Raemdonck Maarten – advertising in Strategy Word of thanks First of all, I would like to thank the entire Famous team for their flexibility. They have offered me the chance to be part of their agency during eight weeks, while being kind enough to give me a few days off to study for my exams. Thanks to Famous, I have learned a lot during these very challenging weeks. I had a taste of their entire scope of activities: from interactive advertising campaigns, over brainstorm sessions, to briefings with several clients. All of this gave me a clear view of a strategic planner’s occupations. I will always remember these weeks in the strategic department, the so called ‘lab’. Day in day out I was stunned by the strategic team, they prove to understand advertising on a level far beyond my imagination. During this master in Multilingual Business Communication I developed a genuine interest for marketing and advertising, looking at each commercial or stunt to find the underlying intentions and strategies. Compared to the clear analyses flying around in the lab, I realised that I’m not even noticing 10% of a campaign’s goal. Steeped by their work, yet feeling the breath of society, Famous’ strategists are part of an exceptional specie that combines creativity in judgement of human nature and discernment. This amazement triggered my interest to write my theoretical framework on strategic planning. Besides the strategic planners, I would like to thank all former Snow employees, since I have learned a whole lot although I have only worked with them for a week. During this year I had the chance to taste a number of specialisations which I have always been interested in, but which had never been topics during my first education as an Industrial Engineer, this internship was the crowning of that year. Meanwhile it was a year in which I had the chance to get to know a lot of people. Hopefully I’ll see a lot of them again. I would like to keep thanking the entire team of coordinators, professors and mentors investing their time and energy in this wonderful educational programme. You offer any person who is eager to learn and willing to work a year that teaches us a number of additional competences through an outstanding combination of theory and practice. Personally I owe the chance to be part of this to my lovely parents. I would like to thank them for supporting me throughout all my decisions. Besides my parents, there is someone else who encourages me; the differences in age and character cannot wipe out our passion to learn and talk about what we have learned, the willingness to help each other and the deep respect we show for one another, I’m lucky to have my brother as a friend. Despite all that, the most important person this year was my classmate and now girlfriend, Sophie De Meyer. She supports me no matter what, she helps me, relaxes me, she’s everything I hope to be for her, hopefully for long. Strategy in advertising – Maarten Raemdonck (2007 – 2008) 4 Index Foreword 7 Chapter 1: Presenting Famous 1. Famous history 9 2. Structure of the company 12 3. Corporate identity 18 4. Product presentation 20 5. Clients and client profiles 22 6. Competitors 24 7. Extracts from the interviews 27 8. SWOT-analysis 29 Chapter 2: Strategy in advertising 1. Why this subject 32 2. An introduction to account planning 32 3. Brand growth 35 4. Brand Foundations 36 a. Focus 36 b. Broaden the horizon 38 c. What do you offer? 39 d. Target marketing 41 e. Getting true insight 43 5. Brand Tactics 46 a. Divide et impera 47 b. Understand target audience decision making 48 c. Positioning 51 d. Developing a communication strategy 56 e. Setting a media strategy 59 6. Brand action 63 a. Seeping through the consumers’ mind 63 b. How to say it 64 c. Channel strategy 66 d. The creative brief 72 7. Conclusion 74 Chapter 3: The actual tasks 1. Introduction 76 2. Klara a. The campaign’s origin 76 b. Briefing 79 Strategy in advertising – Maarten Raemdonck (2007 – 2008) 5 c. Buzz analysis 79 d. Research and insights 81 e. Evaluation 83 f. Intermezzo: Social Media 83 3. Het Nieuwsblad a. The Pitch 87 b. Briefing 87 c. Approach 87 d. Evaluation 89 4. Week van de Goeiedag a. The campaign 89 b. Briefing 90 c. Approach 91 d. Evaluation 92 5. Jupiler a. Campaign 93 b. Briefing 93 c. Approach 93 d. Evaluation 94 6. Kinepolis a. Briefing 95 b. Approach 95 c. Evaluation 96 7. Other a. Proximus 96 b. Online Department 96 c. Hill & Knowlton 96 8. Conclusion 97 Chapter 4: Conclusion 98 References/Bibliography 102 Glossary 105 List of figures, tables and diagrams 107 Content of the attached CD 108 Strategy in advertising – Maarten Raemdonck (2007 – 2008) 6 Foreword Immediately after hearing the briefing about the internship, I decided to start looking for a project that requires a rich mixture of competences, combining both the acquired marketing and advertising skills as well as my technical background, provided by my previous master degree as an Industrial Engineer in Informatics. An agency that had always triggered a certain interest in me was the Antwerp based team of Design is dead, which is part of the Emakina group. I first encountered them a few years ago since they develop the website for Rock Werchter. Despite my enthusiasm I did not want to bet on just one horse, so I wrote to Duval Guillaume-e and Famous (back then still LG&F) as well. During the interview at Design is dead I told them I wanted to wait for an answer from Duval Guillaume and Famous. Completely in line with the entire style of the agency, people at Design is dead told me very honestly and humble that I would probably be able to learn more (in terms of advertising and marketing strategy) in a bigger agency.