In the Netherlands, Wegener Media has seen an increasing demand from advertisers for activation campaigns — campaigns that create interest, stimulate trial, and, in the end, increase loyalty.

When businesses choose marketing activation programmes, they have these options:

1. Refund activation campaign (cash back campaign).
   
   
2. Sales promotion activation campaign (free tickets for amusement parks, for example).
   
   
3. Joint promotion activation campaign (“Fly with KLM to Olympic Games,” for example).

Wegener Media has respond to the increasing demand for activation campaigns. We are one of the biggest regional publishers in the Netherlands, with a large portfolio of print and online products and services.

This means that we are able to develop a tailor-made activation campaign for every customer based on the goals of the customer.

One activation marketing case study involves Bolletje, a well-known national brand, mostly known by its breakfast biscuits. Last year, Bolletje wanted to increase its market share of breakfast cakes, a different type of breakfast product.

Brand awareness of Bolletje is pretty much 100% in the Netherlands, but the product awareness of the Bolletje breakfast cake is low. The goal of the campaign was to increase product awareness and to convince consumers to try the Bolletje breakfast cake through a cash refund campaign.

For the long term, this campaign needed to result in a substantial increase of the market share of the product (repeat-buyers). The target group was all households in the Netherlands, so it had to be a national campaign.

First, we were asked for a proposal only for advertising in weeklies and dailies, with which we had to compete with other publishers. We made a proposal for the total activation campaign and, because of this, we won the pitch. 

The following media and tools were part of the campaign:

• Radio: 20-second spots on six national stations.
  
  
• Newsletter: We sent a newsletter to a mailing list of 25, 000 in the Bolletje customer database.
  
  
• In-store promotion: A sticker was put on the breakfast cake packaging, convincing consumers to try the product for free.
  
  
• Print media: We selected weeklies and dailies for a half page advertorial and we distributed a voucher along the weeklies.
  
  
• Online: We used leaderboards on all our news sites.
  
  
• Campaign Web site: Called “I want Bolletje,” consumers could read about the campaign and ask for their cash refund online.

To get the maximum ROI, it is important that all media had the samelook and feel, so consumers would recognise them as a part of one consistent campaign. All media also contains the main messages: new, try for free, and, finally, all media referred to the campaign Web site.

Another important issue for using activation marketing is measuring the results.

Measuring means learning by facts. During the campaign, results were measured in various ways.

We measured the number of activations, the visitors, and pageviews on our campaign site. We also conducted research on the effectiveness of the print ads, the voucher, and to determine the contribution of each medium type in the total effect. 

Results show that the goals set by the consumer were accomplished. Product awareness had been strongly increased and there also was an additional market penetratrion for breakfast cake.

The advertiser was satisfied and, currently, a new activation campaign with Bolletje is running. 

Wegener Media has proven that we are able to develop tailor-made cross-media activation campaigns based on the goals of our customers, in large part because of our large portfolio of print and online products and services in combination with the professional sales organisation.

An important element in this campaign was that all enabled media had the same look and feel, the same message, and referred to one Web site.

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