Mar 16 2012

The European Commission has picked Emakina to promote the importance and benefits of energy efficiency.   An Emakina-produced video clip, released today, illustrates the European Union’s objectives and upcoming regulatory measures in the energy field for the next decade. It also offers viewers concrete and practical ideas on how to reduce their energy consumption. In doing so, the video addresses both private-household consumers and large corporations in presenting future energy saving technologies.

Click here to view the full version of the video (4’32”).

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Mar 15 2012

This question was raised by DM Institute’s journalist, Eric Van Vooren, who met with Brice Le Blévennec for an interview. The following are excerpts, translated from Dutch to English, of the original article, published in the March 9^th edition:

QR Codes: you can’t avoid them. You see them popping up everywhere; sometimes very prominent as the roof tiles in the Axa ads, but also on bus stations, product packaging, posters, and even on the backs of city buses.

Are these Quick Response Codes really the modern replacement for the reply coupon or the toll-free 0800 numbers? Are they the missing link between offline and online marketing? We put the question to Brice Le Blévennec, the passionate founder of Emakina, voted by Marketing Media as the leading Digital Marketing Agency in Belgium.
I had barely asked Brice my first question when I was flooded with an avalanche of words. “For me, QR Codes symbolise the stupidity of the agencies! It’s a useless, customer-unfriendly gimmick. First, you already have to own a smartphone. But that’s not all. Smartphones do not come with a standard app to scan QR Codes so the consumer has to also choose to install such an application. Afterwards, she or he has to try to scan a code on the back of a moving bus, or on a billboard three meters high above. You need to capture the code very precisely in the frame with your camera, or the scan will fail. Damn hard.”
“I have conducted a survey with the Emakina staff. We are certainly not representative of the average consumer, because all our employees have a smartphone, but less than 10 per cent have an app installed to scan QR Codes. Using QR Codes for commercial messages shows little respect for the audience. Besides, one is usually limited to printing a code, without any call to action. If you give no clear motivation with the QR Code, why would people go ahead and scan the code? And if you go into the trouble to do so, you often find a generic web page, which adds nothing to the initial message. ”

Sometimes useful
“A QR Code can be useful, for example, in a museum to allow the visitor access to more information, via voice and video, on a specific work of art. That is the proper context. Another example for appropriate use of the QR Codes is the Tesco application for the Metro in Japan. There, the commuter can buy everyday products directly online, by scanning the QR of a specific product from a photo with shopping items on a shop shelf. Then, the QR Code offers a tangible benefit. A QR Code may fit well with certain games or contests. Because you never know what you will get to see, such a code can offer something mysterious. This perfectly fits the atmosphere of certain games.”

A better alternative
“For more traditional marketing applications, there is a much better alternative: the shortened URL. It is now possible to link readers directly via a simple web address in your offline message to a custom landing page. And a shortened URL is easy to remember and can be typed in on any PC or smartphone without the user having to install a separate application. An additional advantage is that the offer can be integrated in the name of the URL so the customer already has an indication of what they will get to see.”

100% connectivity
“The QR Code, however, is in line with a broader, general trend in marketing, that all communication should be interactive. The boundary between direct mailing and other marketing applications is becoming blurred. As a good communication manager, here you particularly have to take into account the uniqueness of each medium. A mobile phone (or smartphone) is a device that people almost always have on them. It stands for 100% connectivity: everybody, everywhere. Not so with a tablet PC. In that sense, the two are complementary devices. Moreover, I expect that the tablet PC, just by its ease of use, will catch on especially with seniors. This is a trend the younger diginatives sometimes overlook. So yes, our profession has a bright future!”.

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Mar 13 2012

Patrick Acken, the renowned photographer of Pub.BE and a one-man institution of commercial advertisement, is working on his first exhibition, presenting some 70 leading figures of Belgium’s communication world. Titled, “Face2Face: A Sample of Belgian communication personalities”, the new exhibition will present extreme close-up photos in black and white of Acken’s communication “dream team”.

Emakina’s Xavier Bouillon and Brice Le Blévennec are among the lucky ones to have their photos presented to visitors of this exceptional artistic initiative. The exhibition will be displayed at Seed Factory starting this Friday, Mars 16^th and will remain open until the end of May.

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Mar 6 2012

Right at this moment, Apple employees are making final preparations for what  will probably be the launching event of the iPad3. The mysterious, yet, very-intriguing event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, exactly one year after and at the same place the iPad2 was introduced to the world. According to the press invitation, tonight’s event will present the successor of the iPad2, without specifying much information about it, thus leaving a lot of room for speculation. The excitement revolving around the promised product has created quite a buzz throughout the international tech community despite, perhaps because, of its ambiguity.

Final preparations at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco

This is why RTL’s web-magazine, “Les Teknophiles” has decided to dedicate tonight’s show to the Apple event, inviting Brice Le Blévennec as a special guest speaker. Brice will share his vision on the way the iPad will soon replace conventional computing, only two decades after the birth of the PC. “Apple is once more writing the book” as he puts it. Further guests on the show include Frédéric Feytons of TappTic, and Bruno Kesteloot, general manager of MacLine. The show will be aired (in French) today, March 7 at 18:45 Brussels time. Click here to watch it live.

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Mar 6 2012

In short, no. Surveys, published earlier this month by SodaHead and CNet, show that the vast majority of users do not appreciate the new Facebook interface and that they miss their good old Walls.  But this doesn’t mean that brands should refrain from switching to the Facebook Timeline. For a start, they don’t have much choice. As of the end of March, Timeline will become mandatory for all Facebook Pages; so instead of complaining about it, marketers should better yet learn how to make the most out of it. This article will help you prepare to the Timeline tsunami right before it hits your brand!

Let’s start with the good news. With its new ’cover-picture’, Timeline is much more design-oriented, allowing companies to visually express their brand identity, using a logo, a product, or a personality. Moreover, the chronological nature of the Timeline facilitates a very rich presentation of brands’ histories, especially for those that have been out there for quite a while. The ability to dig out some old information made many individual users uncomfortable, yet, on the corporate Page level it has great potential. The New York Times and Manchester United, for example, use Timeline to tell their stories, dating back to the 19^th century, in a very compelling way. Even younger brands can still use the Timeline to illustrate their major milestones like launching a new product, issuing stocks, or winning a prize.

In comparison to the old Facebook Wall, Timeline is also much easier to administer, featuring new options to enhance communication with clients. It is now made possible to respond directly to private messages without having to alternate among various pages. In order to distinguish between the various posts, new Timelines features allow ‘pinning’ a post so it remains on top or ’starring’ it for a double-wide appearance. At least as important is the improved Activity Log, featuring analytic tools which allow much more strategic use of social media.

But your marketing strategists are not all going to fall in love with Timeline. They might very well complain and rightfully so. Their biggest concern will be the fact that, unlike Wall Pages, Timeline Pages do not allow setting a customised application as the default landing tab for non-fans. This was an extremely popular feature for promoting special content like coupons or contests. Without this feature it won’t be as easy to reach the same numbers of Likes or email subscriptions. On the other hand, to make things somewhat less gloomy, only 10% of Page traffic is generated by the default landing tabs. The remaining is owed to published links and ads which, of course, still play a central role on Timelines.

Despite what Facebook officials may claim, Timeline was designed for individuals to share their stories; it was not intended to serve as a marketing tool. Certain marketers may see this is a challenge, conflicting with their brand philosophy. Yet, brands too have their life stories to tell. The new Timeline interface will make their stories come through as more personal interactions than the traditional brand-consumer relationships.

The new infrastructure should thus change the way you think of your Facebook Page. Instead of message-board-like Walls, use Timeline as a means of viral communication.  If the Wall’s purpose was to serve as a destination point of as many users as possible, Timeline sees itself as a communication station, from which users can spread ideas by sharing them with their friends.

Think of Facebook as your brand’s online reality. When you decide to have a baby, you know you won’t bring her or him into a perfect world. Yet, you do your best to give your child the best tools to succeed in life. Timeline is no perfect either; in fact, it’s quite far from it. But if you do a good job in preparing your brand to its digital life, chances are it would mature into a popular and successful Page. Facebook is big enough to redefine social networking every time Mark Zuckerberg has a bad hair day. It is up to your strategic planners to adapt and learn how to leverage the new Facebook whim.

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Mar 5 2012

The Delhaize Dream Job Website, created by Emakina, won the ‘Best in Class’ prize under the ‘Recruitment’ category, in the 2011 competition of the Interactive Media Awards (IMA). This announcement comes shortly after Emakina was bestowed six other awards in this year’s competition. The IMA recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honour individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

The ‘Best in Class’ award is the highest honour of the competition, representing the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism. In order to win this award level, the Delhaize website had to successfully pass a comprehensive judging process, achieving very high marks in each of the judging criteria – an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn each year.

The judges utilised a points-based scoring system which allows each entry to receive up to 100 points for each of five criteria, adding up to a maximum of 500 points. By adhering to the specific guidelines and criteria of this system judges were able to maintain the highest degree of fairness, accuracy and integrity; competently and effectively evaluate entries; and, deliver clear results.

Websites receiving an overall score between 460 and 479 receive the Outstanding Achievement award. A score of 480 and above entitles the prestigious ‘Best in Class’ award. Our website scored a total of 489 points (96 on Design, 98 on Content, 100 on Features Functionality, 97 on Usability, and 98 on Standard Compliance & Cross-Browser Capability), making it a ‘Best in Class’ laureate. This is the seventh IMA Emakina wins in 2011 and our 24^th IMA since 2008.

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Mar 1 2012

Thanks to the new Emakina-developed mobile App, launched today at the Batibouw fair, Electrabel customers can now follow their energy consumption and expenses using any smartphone or tablet device. What’s even more exciting about the new App is that users can use it to switch on and off their home appliances. So on your next vacation, while sunbathing on a tropical island; you could easily verify if you have left your electric heating on before leaving your home. Or while at work, you could check whether your innocent-looking pet is not throwing a huge house party every time you are out (as brilliantly suggested in the new service’s ad).

But wait! If you’re on vacation, or busy at work you probably have other things to do than checking your energy consumption five times a day. We, at Electrabel and at Emakina, also thought about those with less time to spare. The new service can automatically send you an SMS or an email whenever irregular energy consumption is spotted. This way, if you really did leave your heating on before catching your plane, you will be notified right away, and not by discovering your next monthly bill…!

As a longstanding digital partner of Electrabel, this is the third mobile App we have developed for the Belgian energy provider. We are also highly involved in Electrabel’s website development; web communication; mobile and personalised applications. Our high level of mutual trust allowed us to even come up with a multiple-player tablet game which we offered visitors at the Batibouw fair to play simultaneously on a giant screen.

What makes this product so unique is that it goes further in redefining home automation technology. The App can produce separate statistical analysis on each appliance’s consumption, displayed per hour, day, month, or year! This is of real economic value for responsible consumers who try to lower their energy consumption and their consequent expenses. These are smart features, but above all we made sure the App is so easy to use that even your grandmother could get addicted to it.

The new App is already available for iPhones, Androids, and three other platforms. An iPad version is being developed and will be available shortly. To read more or order your own Smart energy box, check out the Electrabel website.

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Feb 28 2012

Emakina and ING have worked together for the implementation of the bank’s new website, dedicated to careers. 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.

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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Feb 27 2012

Inside Digital Media’s new annual digital communication ranking, made with Feweb, once again places Emakina in the number one position in the Belgian agency list. Investments in marketing in 2011 were influenced by the financial crisis, shortages in human resources and reluctance of advertisers. Inside indicates in its February special issue that not all interactive agencies have reacted as successfully to this second crash test in a decade in the market.

For Emakina, the trend clearly had a positive effect. The 375 staff members generated new growth with well over 20 %. The market confirmed that digital marketing has become an unavoidable necessity, and the digital native agency benefits from this conclusion.

Brice Le Blévennec, CVO of Emakina, further states in Inside Digital Media that companies are entering an era of mature online marketing and promotions. Digital budgets went up, replacing spending in traditional advertising, with a swing towards social and mobile projects.

Large companies are rationalizing their approach. A series of large accounts have decided in 2011 to reduce the number of authorized agencies that can work for them, often on a European scale. Others have opted to work with partners who could offer a portfolio of services, improving the coordination of service providers.

Brice Le Blévennec concludes: “Emakina now harvests the fruit of its investments in strategy, creative, social and mobile competences. As a real digital native agency, we are well equipped, staffed and organized to handle the new market demands. We understand the pressures and challenges our clients face and we can help them to respond with smart, efficient communication solutions”.

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Feb 16 2012

The combined positive energy of Electrabel, Group GDF SUEZ and Emakina truly starts to create communication sparks. Electrabel launched its new consumer website, introduced a new version of the Electrabel Energy Manager and produced a practical new mobile application for this Energy Manager service.  All ‘signed’ Emakina.

Electrabel, the first energy provider in Belgium, is a long-standing client of Emakina. About one year ago, a new pitch was launched and Emakina came out of this contest as the winner: the agency was named preferred supplier of Electrabel. New in this relationship was that the mission would include social and mobile media, besides web activities.

• Energy Manager

Electrabel helps its customers to reduce their energy consumption and environmental impact. So it wanted to offer its customers a new service that could make them true partners in this valuable effort. The Energy Manager allows them to fine-tune their energy actions and reduce gas and electricity consumption.

In the application, customers fill in their gas and electricity consumption. They then receive a clear analysis, with state-of-the-art bar charts and graphs indicating their energy history. They can also opt for data in a list format, of course. This information is the starting point for improved energy management, with a coaching support, offering practical tips and insights.

The Electrabel Energy Manager is also available on iPhone and Android. It targets both residential and small office/home office clients. For users on the move, the Energy Manager app is the perfect addition to the Energy Manager website.

• Spreading the word

Emakina is also the partner for Electrabel’s web activation campaigns, including promotion and bannering actions. The campaign now starting will highlight the launch of the new online application for residential customers. It will also introduce the other mobile applications, Electrabel Mobile and Electrabel Energy Manager for Professionals. Banners in different formats are placed on key Belgian portals and news websites. Objective is to generate traffic to the different Electrabel websites and apps. The tools are really handy and valuable, so this promotion really is worth the energy!

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Feb 10 2012

Clinique, the leading American brand of dermatologist-developed cosmetics and its digital agency Emakina once more offer a nice surprise to beauty lovers. Clinique introduces its new tool for women, that helps them select the best suited foundation for their skin type. Each beautifully crafted Clinique skin care and makeup product is allergy tested and 100% fragrance free.

The website allows users to connect via their Facebook account. Once the visitors provide access to their pictures, the Clinique ‘advisor’ asks two quick questions about their skin type and possible makeup problem. The answers help to define the perfect foundation, matching the different characteristics of each beauty. The tool now proposes the ideal foundation solution, together with a beautifully adapted picture, adjusting contrast and light, and nicely framing the result in a real star lodge setting. The ‘star photo’ offers a glimpse of the beauty effect the correct foundation will create.

This original campaign already proves to be a great success, with over 3000 registered participants. Clinique’s pages on Facebook for the Netherlands and Belgium have already attracted more than 18.000 members, making it a real beauty forum. Clinique believes that every skin can be great skin. The new tool is once more a new step towards that goal!

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Feb 7 2012

The cosmetics brand Clinique has just launched its new e-commerce site for the Netherlands, with the support of its digital partner agency Emakina. The Belgian e-shop is announced to follow in a few weeks.

Clinique is a prestigious American brand offering a wide range of cosmetics, skin care, makeup and fragrances. Each Clinique skin care and makeup product is allergy tested and 100% fragrance free –  crucial in a world where allergies have been labeled the modern epidemic. All its care and makeup products are based on a dermatological heritage: adapted to each skin type and its needs for unparalleled comfort. Clinique has become a symbol of personalized beauty around the world.

The e-commerce business is currently booming: in Belgium, for example, the number of online sales rose by nearly 24% between 2010 and 2011. More and more brands are starting their own online sales service and are moving towards integrated solutions, such as Clinique’s e-commerce site, developed by Emakina.

The Clinique website for the Netherlands has been fully revised and rejuvinated. New headers create added content value to the home page and many other pages. Emakina really did a full website makeover, establishing a direct relationship with the client, inviting female or male visitors to directly buy all products online there and adding some “web exclusives”, all with delivery in 3 working days.

The new site also provides many tips to help the fairer sex choose wisely and direct every person to the product that truly matches him or her. This advice is related to beauty and skin care. It also includes a tool to make your own skin analysis, before proposing the best suited solution.

For the launch period of the site, customers are offered free shipping of the products, plus a free range of samples for their first order.

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Feb 7 2012

Emakina has today announced that it has become a NetApp Silver Accredited Partner – adding innovative storage and data management to its portfolio of services and solutions.

NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that boost IT efficiency and flexibility. NetApp’s passion for simplicity, innovation, and customer success helps companies around the world go further, faster. With an efficient and flexible storage infrastructure, NetApp provides cost savings and improved business responsiveness.

This move provides Emakina with an enhanced ability to deliver virtualization and storage services to its managed services client base. Emakina will now benefit from having access to NetApp’s complete product portfolio, with the added benefit of access to partner-specific tools, as well as training, sales and marketing programs.

NetApp helps solve the most critical IT and business challenges, while maximizing return on investment.
Emakina is pleased to enhance its storage and data management offering, bringing best of breed technology to its clients.

I’m interested to know more about NetApp / Contact Emakina regarding NetApp products and services.

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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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