Jan 27 2012

by Brice Le Blévennec

English version of a comment published in Datanews.

I surf a lot, the digital universe is my passion. Lately I’ve grown particularly fond of applications to feed my insatiable smartphone, but I still pass a lot of my time every day hooked to a huge screen, to ‘watchdog’ evolutions in technology, explore the web, dig up the latest innovations, sniff at new trends, in short to be inspired.

I must say I’m supercharged with suggestions from my 350 colleagues, who post daily links on our wiki, or exchange them through various email lists, that drive our working groups. As I’m too curious, I signed up for all our groups and I cannot resist exploring each new link I find there.

The experience it offers is broad: from online high impact experiences to sites with creatives’ portfolios, apps integrated with Facebook, interactive videos, games in 3D with CSS3, WebGL or Flash, new frameworks for web development or HTML5, new social networks, fresh online services, with API’s that allow us to do digital magic tricks, etc.. In short, each day of my life is packed with discoveries and I’m a very lucky person.

Yet when I scan the wiki, I notice a peculiarity. There is hardly any link to be found leading to exciting Belgian online work. The Belgian web is desperately boring. There are not many innovative projects. Few e-commerce sites. Rare original mini-site experiences. No Web services or  API’s of interest … In short, there’s not much happening on the web in our kingdom at the heart of Europe…

Yet our creatives are highly respected in the international advertising world, as are our engineers in the field of information technology and communication. How can we explain this striking poverty?

In fact, Belgium is a victim of its size, of the linguistic and cultural fragmentation of its population and of the high cost of Internet subscription and Mobile Internet.
A bit like Switzerland or Luxembourg.

Most sites have to be available in French, Dutch, often in English too and even in German. This complicates the creation and updating of sites. The CMS must be configured with workflows that take into account the availability of translations of content, often increasing costs of implementation and slowing down updates.

This fragmentation of audiences has a large impact on projects based on communities, like networks and social media, when they feed on written content generated by users. It increases their costs of managing and moderating the participants. Very few community projects have reached a decent national size, or else they had to ‘balkanize’ their public by language, as Netlog did.

The small size of our audiences slows down risk investments. To be a profitable venture, investment in design and development must be returned by interaction with a large enough audience, a market of a sufficient critical scale.
For example, to achieve the same ROI on a project In  the french-speaking part of Belgium, the penetration ratios must be ten times higher than a similar project in France.

Imagine the same project with equal ‘traction’, an online service capturing 1% of the Internet audience. In France, it could be a huge success, generating sufficient funds for the startup to develop and grow. With the same 1% adoption rate in Belgium, that initiative would not even cover the development costs; the project could easily collapse.

This may explain a certain reluctance of venture capitalist in this country. They tend to invest in projects that have already proven their business model abroad, rather than betting on real innovations.

Finally, the high cost of Internet subscriptions, especially mobile internet subscriptions, and – although the law allows it – the fact that mobile operators all strangely agree not to subsidize the terminals, combine to slow down the adoption of the Internet and its frequent use.

So in short, if you are a web entrepreneur, think from the initiation of your project to (also) attack a market outside of Belgium.

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Jan 27 2012

AIDS is a gift we all want to avoid. To increase awareness of Belgians and motivate them to get tested, the advertising agency Emakina created a series of actions for Sida’Sos, using original, unconventional media.

We decided to convey our message in the same way as the disease spreads. We developed media carriers that can be transmitted unknowingly.

Our media campaign centered around 3 unexpected channels:

-          Stickers on coins: hundreds of coins were distributed during events this summer, on festivals, and at the city ‘Apéros’, casual outdoor get togethers.

-          Free Hug Stickers: at various events, people who enjoyed a good hug, carried a Sida’Sos sticker.

-          Wrapping paper: an original and especially designed wrapping paper was created to wrap Christmas and New Year’s gifts. The paper contained a small message, cleverly repeated in the design. This information was only discovered when paying attention and looking at the wrapping paper up close.

These three actions clearly raised awareness of the AIDS issue in Belgium, reaching over 1.000.000 contacts and increasing the number of people tested in the country by several thousands.

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Jan 24 2012

ING Belgium is always looking for new talent, especially for its IT and commercial departments. In collaboration with Emakina, the company now upgraded its careers website. The site is like a brand new suit, tailor made, including twenty videos to strenghten the key messages.

Based on their desire for a stronger foothold in the digital world, ING Belgium has started modernizing its website for potential future employees. As part of this effort, the twenty videos place the spotlight on employees of the bank. Emakina was responsible for the production of the video testimonies and the visual modernization of part of the site. In videos on the homepage, a succession of ING Belgium talents sit in the design orange chair and share their experiences at the bank.

The testimonies of the staff also explain the process of developing an IT project – the IT project lifecycle. This way, the bank clarifies this complex process, highlighting that each professional plays a key role in it and is an important link in the lifecycle chain.

With the renewed site, ING Belgium once more confirms its innovative vision, while adressing the wishes of its future collaborators in a more precise and direct way. In 2012, ING Belgium wants to hire about 135 IT profiles and over 300 sales staff for its Retail department. Last year, the company already hired more than 300 profiles both in IT and commercial jobs.

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Jan 23 2012

Starting on February 10th, The Reference is organizing 10 events on different digital subjects. As trend watchers, innovators and opinion makers, they believe it is important to share their insights with customers. Experts of The Ref are happy to provide you with their knowledge and to discuss the best practices of all things digital. You can choose the number of events you want to participate in. Customers of The Reference, Design is Dead and Emakina get a discount of 10%. If you register for all sessions, you receive the same discount.

The series of events starts on February 10^th with “Is social media part of your business”, where you will learn to make the correct strategic decisions in the social media landscape.

On March 2^nd, David Roose will explain you everything there is to know about “Measuring Business Goals with Google Analytics”.

“Strategic SEO for Marketing Managers” will be addressed on March 16^th. You will be guided in getting SEO on-board in your organization.

One week later, the 23th of March, it’s David Roose’s turn again for a workshop “Slicing and dicing with Google Analytics”. He will tell you everything about measuring more with custom code, configuring your accounts and profiles, and lots of other things!

On the 27^th of April, it’s time for Social again: “Social Strategy through Social Listening”. Tom Muyllaert will unveil the best free and paid listening tools and he will show you what you can learn from listening to conversations.

May 4^th is all about “Hands-on SEO for Webmasters and Copywriters”. In this workshop you’ll learn step by step the best methods that will help you to find the best possible keywords.

“Professional Link Building Strategies” are talked about by Nikolaas De Geyndt and Isabel Van Ruykensvelde. They will train you in how to strategically approach your link-building. The date for this event is May 11^th.

Mobile and tablet fans can have their say on June 1^st. Thomas De Vos, our mobile expert, will show you what “Mobile and tablets can mean for your business”. iOs? Android? Windows Phone? Web Apps? HTML5? Hybrid apps? There will be no secrets left when leaving this workshop!

On June 8^th you’ll learn everything about “Conversion Optimization”. Your website might be doing well, but experts of The Ref will help you to make it even better by striving for ultimate conversion.

And last but not least: on June 15^th Bart De Latte will introduce you to “The power of Search Engine Advertising”. He will show you how to analyze and interpret your results.

You can click the links if you are interested in attending one or more events. To subscribe, just fill in the form that you can find on the website. Should you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to contact Vicky Van Daele (vvandaele@reference.be)

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Jan 20 2012

Bavaria launches its brand new consumer website, in close collaboration with Emakina. With this move, the largest independent brewery in the Netherlands kicks of its new online communication strategy. The two first markets to cross over to the new website are the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In the coming three months, 21 other countries will follow.

Bavaria’s new website is based on the idea that websites are no longer leading the consumer’s online action as a platform. Peer Swinkels, Bavaria board member, explains: “The new site for us is a top quality business card, where the Bavaria consumer can quickly receive the right information in inspiring surroundings. However, we would like to engage the dialogue with our customers in the environment where they are already present on their own initiative, for instance on Facebook.“

Swinkels continues: “The launch of the new website is the first step in the new online communication strategy and will be followed this year by various initiatives in the field of social media. This strategy will also enable the consumer to be more and more “at the table” with us, in conversation when we are developing new initiatives.”

To build the website, Bavaria opted for a collaboration with Emakina. A so-called ‘glocal design’ was chosen as the path to producing the web content. This means that the website will have the same look and feel in each country, but will be filled with local content. Via IP targeting, each visitor will discover the website of his/her own country. The renewed site is based on the latest HTML 5 technology and is therefore available on all platforms.

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