Hi Lovie Awards judges, this is the case for Bol.com

Sinterklaas is the most magical period for kids, but can be stressful for parents. Adding to that, kids never know what present they really want (based on our extensive research). Our challenge was to make the season even more magical and help parents with clever services. With a season as competitive as this, we knew we didn’t want to simply promote bol.com, but actually add great value so that finding the perfect gift would be a pleasant experience for everyone. We had the opportunity to create brand new tech solutions that would help achieve our challenge. Another strategic factor was the insight that the toy books and gift searching industry has been far from innovative. Last year we already released a tech-savvy toy book, but this year we really stepped up our game.

The store of delivering smiles

We transformed the holiday season hassle into magic, fun and ease for both kids as parents. By not only delivering presents, but also smiles. We created a physical toy book with hours of fun, but it was really brought to life with the companion app. With it you could receive special videos, listen to over 100 minutes of an immersive 8D audio story, play quizzes, but most importantly: bring all 900 toys to life with image recognition and QR. 

Kids could explore toys before sticking it on the included A3 physical wishlist poster so that Sinterklaas (parents) could scan and order. Our entire campaign was brought together with the tagline ‘the store of delivering smiles’. This ran like a thread through our assets. From OOH, to radio and from social to TVC, it was all about making children and parents smile this holiday with our services and assets.

A 360°  campaign

The book and app were developed in-house. Every page in the book and every function in the app had to be carefully crafted. No detail was spared for the app: mini-games; quizzes; dynamic worlds; onboarding videos with Sinterklaas; haptic feedback; and much more.  

It was up to us to communicate the main services and distinctive features in the best way possible. The campaign mainly focused on the book and in particular the wishlist poster. The magical feeling that children have when opening the book was seen with a 20” TVC and online video with carefully crafted VFX toys.

Later in the journey, we reminded parents of the convenience of the wishlist poster. The commercial shows an indecisive girl shouting her gift wishes down the chimney, while Sinterklaas tries to decipher her thoughts. The solution; the wishlist poster and bol.com app.

The main 25” TVC promoting the wishlist, showed Sinterklaas and his horse on the roof trying to decipher the wishes of an indecisive girl. The radio followed a similar narrative to the TVC, but the VO was interrupted with even more wishes. On OOH and digital/display, which could also be scanned, we saw kids proudly showing off their wishlist poster. 

To maintain the book’s engagement until Christmas, an 8D audio story was developed with Tygo Gernandt and our beloved “real Sinterklaas” Bram van der Vlught (†). To promote it, a 20” TVC once again called on the horse, to show a boy’s wild imagination when listening to the stories. 

The 8D audio idea was the crown jewel of the book with over 100 minutes of carefully crafted binaural sound. With high tech spatial audio recording techniques we were able to tell a story that stimulated all senses. Icons could be scanned with image recognition and they corresponded to the actual dates. 

Results

The combination of the right strategy, clever use of tech, and a solid campaign led to results we could only dream of. It proved the right blend between offline (toy book) and online magic (app, image recognition and QR). The loyalty propositions such as the toy book and app made the journey from inspiration to buying Sinterklaas/Christmas gifts distinctive in the market. 

KPI’s

• Uplift category entry point ‘Sinterklaas’: 153 Netherlands and 185 Flanders (>16% significant) 
• Sales volume: 11% above forecast (forecast was based on +30% vs 2019)

Reach

• We distributed 3.5 million books, reaching 85% of the target group 
• It became the most famous toy book in the Netherlands and Flanders (86%)

Engagement

• 1 million wishlist posters were used, which is 52% of all wishlists in both countries  
• 37% of the users of the toy-book also downloaded the app
• • 1.35 million minutes were spent on the toy-book app
• Parents scanned 78% more QR codes compared to 2019 
• 79% more wishlists were made compared to 2019
• 62% of families with kids under the age of 12 used the bol.com toy-book, making it the most used book

Conversion

• A whopping 82% of families with the book bought Sinterklaas gifts from bol.com 
• 260% average uplift in sales of products included in the book compared with those excluded
• Share-of-wallet factor 2.4; parents using the book spent 2.4 times more at bol.com than non book-users