Your Take On #centerparcslol
28-7-2015
#centerparcslol
Center Parcs organized a contest under the title “Your Take On” where teens can film themselves in all kinds of activities both inside and outside of Center Parcs. The company works together with well-known vloggers (video bloggers) like the ‘Knol brothers’ that promote the contest. Contestants can upload their videos to Instagram with the hashtag #centerparcslol.
Performance by rapper Dio
The maker of the best video will win a day of activities and an exclusive concert by rapper Dio at Center Parcs De Eemhof. Dio is a Dutch rapper who is known from the songs ‘Dom, Lomp en Famous’ in collaboration with the Opposites and Willie Wartaal and ‘Tijdmachine‘ with Sef.
Enzo and Milan Knol
Among other vloggers Enzo and Milan Knol collaborate with Center Parcs for the campaign. Both are social media stars that focus on Dutch teenagers. Enzo Knol is a YouTube hero with nearly 800.000 followers and often new videos by him are viewed more than 200.000 times within a single day. Milan owns Youtube channel DagelijksHaaDee (550.000+ followers) and his other channel DitIsMilan is good for 320.000+ followers.
For more information: www.yourtakeon.nl
Do you have a secret menu?
23-7-2015
Hot in the USA: secret menu’s at fast food chains. From fast food chain In-N-Out, to Shake Shack to McDonald’s. Why not create your own ‘secret menu’ as a cafeteria or small fast food chain?
Last year I did visit the fast food chain In-N-Out in California, my daughter who worked and lived in New York already heard about their (not-so) secret menu. Recently I saw a video of Anthony Bourdain discussing his appetite for burgers of In-N-Out. This chain has been offering customer-created riffs on the menu which have been passed down through word of mouth since the 1960’s. At their official menu it has just three burgers (a hamburger, cheeseburger, and the ‘double-double’), it’s ‘not-so-secret’ menu adds six more. I tasted the iconic ‘animal style’ burger with a lot of grilled onions and mustard. Did I like it? Well it certainly was the most tasty fast food burger I have eaten on the West Coast. But I didn’t eat many!
How to create a secret menu
The appeal of the secret menu is a delicate matter for restaurants. You can’t promote them because of the fact that it will instantly lose its secrecy factor. It’s a matter of involving your fans and let them spread their favorite ‘secret menu’ through social media and locally through word of mouth. For more information read the article ‘Secret Burger Menus, Explained’ on Eater.
You can even check the secret menu’s at fast food restaurants in your vicinity at the website Secret Menus. At this website I even read that one of the secret menus at In-N-Out is called the ‘Flying Dutchman’. Just two patties and cheese, very trendy without gluten! ^Marjolein
Inspiring: a pop-up-traffic jam-concert
7-7-2015
Those people who were stuck in the traffic jam on the 30th of June at the A1 (highway), did pick a great moment to get stuck! A new classic festival, Wonderfeel, organized the first pop-up-traffic jam-concert in this traffic jam .
When the traffic jam occured, the side of a 16.5 meter platform truck opened. The New Amsterdam Clarinet Quartet supplemented with sousaphone and percussion began to play under the direction of a conductor and entertained hundreds of motorists.
Initiator Georges Mutsaerts: “We wanted the audience to enjoy classical music in a fun way in a place where you would least expect it. Motorists also reacted with disbelief to the totally unexpected performance. In order not to hinder the traffic the performance lasted no longer than 10 minutes. But in late July, Wonderfeel will return in collaboration with ‘Natuurmonumenten’ with 200 musicians and 100 concerts in nature area ‘s-Graveland for the ultimate relaxation this summer.”
Wonderfeel will take place in ‘s-Graveland in the nature area Schaep and Burgh at 24, 25 and 26 July.
Pop-up- traffic jam-concert as inspiration
It doesn’t seem conductive to road safety to organize a pop-up restaurant in the traffic jam. But we have spotted Twitter and Facebook messages from restaurants offering menu’s to those who stranded in a nearby traffic jam. We love to mention original ways to respond to a nearby traffic jam on horecatrends.com.
#Wildplanting By Bram Ladage
7-7-2015
On 26 June, a team of Bram Ladage planted potato plants at several places in the city of Rotterdam. This #wildplanting promotion celebrates the beginning of the potato season. Potatoes plants are planted by end June and the result will be harvested at Saturday, 12 September during ‘The Potato Harvest Day’.
#wildplanten
In their video one of the potato plants is planted at the center spot of ‘The Kuip’ (football stadium of Feyenoord) and the greengrocer Mehmet was surprised. “The potato is a fine Dutch product,” said Rocco Ladage of the company. “With this wild planting promotion we want to draw attention to this wonderful natural product and invite everyone for the Potato Harvest Day.” The promotion can be followed on social media via #wildplanten.
Bram Ladage and storytelling
Bram Ladage uses storystelling to tell the story behind his company and the main product he sells. In The Netherlands we have a lot of snackbars (kind of Chips shops), Bram Ladage owns a lot snack bars in and around Rotterdam. In 2012 they organized a ‘get familiar with the origine of your fries’ day. Anyone interested could join his team at a potato farm in Numansdorp to lift some potatoes. These potatoes were processed into chips on the spot. Bram Ladage also auctioned the first crate of newly harvested potatoes, the revenue of this crate went to the Sophia Children Hospital in Rotterdam. And some golden potatoes were hidden in the field for extra prizes.
Groups app The Happening popular among young people
3-7-2015
The Happening is an app for creating useful grids and sharing locations or photos all in one.
The Happening
After setting up a dating app, Frank van Viegen and Jelmer Feenstra came up with the idea to create an easier group communication tool than Whatsapp together with colleague Emiel Mols. They developed the Happening app which has been downloaded more than 100.000 times already. Group discussions in Whatsapp can become lengthy scroll sessions, the Happening is easier to use and navigate.
Photo Hunt and Game Ranking
The app provides practical solutions to problems, combining a pick-a-date app, shopping lists, a photo sharing app and a latitude app. Its popularity is partly due to a Photo Hunt feature where users get assignments, for example to create a selfie while you hug a tree. One of the other viral features is a Ranking Game to rank friends in a top three with questions like “Who is the funniest when he’s drunk?”, the feature is quite similar to the television program ‘Ranking The Stars’.
On all devices and web interface
The Happening is available for both Android devices and Apple’s and downloadable in the Apple Store and Play Store. The app is available for Windows computers and Mac computers as well.
Dominique Ansel opened a new bakery – in Japan!
25-6-2015
Leonie van Spronsen has lived in NYC and became a fan of the bakery of Dominique Ansel. She now follows his Instagram account and loved the communication around the opening of the bakery in Tokyo.
Last Saturday it was finally opening day at the DAB (Dominique Ansel Bakery) in Tokyo, loyal followers of his Instagram account had been prepared for this day a long time and it did not disappoint.
Hospitality, guest experience by Dominique Ansel
Dominique Ansel seems to be one of those rare people that truly understands hospitality. It’s not about just making beautiful products (which he definitely does by the way) but it’s also about guest experience, it’s about appreciating your customers, it’s about interacting with your customers, it’s about creating a brand experience, and boy is he the master of that. See the snapshots of DAB Japan’s opening day on Instagram.
By tracking the opening day like this on Instagram and explaining and sharing his ideas, his vision and his activities, Dominique Ansel is clearly busy building a hospitality empire. And by being such a humble, cool and inspiring person on social media, there is no one in the world you would want to have that empire more than him.
The next step? Maybe return to Europe to turn us into line-loving pastry fans as well? I vote for Paris! Leonie van Spronsen
Stories from WaterReijk Weerribben Wieden
19-6-2015
The campaign “What drives you?” is an initiative by WaterReijk Marketing in collaboration with businesses, residents and visitors to the region. The campaign aims to acquaint the Dutch audience with the stories from the region.
Life-size milk carton
Besides the launch of the online magazine www.enwatdrijftjou.nl, a life sized milk carton from Weerribben Dairy was revealed and is one of the examples of how the campaign is being promoted throughout the country. The carton was unveiled by entrepreneurs Klaas de Lange from Weerribben Dairy and Martin Kruithof of the Restaurant Lindenhof.
Famous icons
Via the famous icons such as Giethoorn and the Weerribben the campaign seduces (online) visitors to explore other stories and secrets from the area as well. The stories are told by entrepreneurs, residents and visitors in the form of videos, interviews, blogs and photos in the online magazine. The first stories are movies of the Weerribben Dairy and Restaurant de Lindenhof. Various event posters, social media and joint promotions will support the campaign.
Cooperation with Weerribben Dairy
One of these joint promotions is with Klaas de Lange from Weerribben Dairy. The story of Klaas in the Weerribben is one of the stories in the campaign, it is brought into the country via a life-size milk carton. In the milk carton hides a refrigerator with cups of milk to promote the campaign.
Bundling stories
WaterReijk Marketing intends to bundle remarkable stories of the area in this campaign. Entrepreneurs, residents and visitors are also invited to share their story and become ambassadors of the region.
Periscope live video’s by Jonnie Boer
8-6-2015
Recently it was possible to virtually join Jonnie Boer in his daily activities via Periscope.
Periscope
For anyone who wants a peek into the world of a Michelin star chef (and who doesn’t?!) Jonnie Boer provides the possibility to access his mobile camera through the Periscope app. We witnessed him in a broadcast on a boat while collecting different products. The past week a dozen other live broadcasts were shared through his Twitter channel.
Citizen journalism
The Periscope app has been gaining more and more momentum in the recent months. It’s a tool that enables live citizen journalism within a few clicks on your mobile phone. When a recent bomb alert was issued at Jumbo Supermarket in Groningen, ‘ordinary citizen’ Rianne Schuurman instantly became the most important information channel for the Netherlands. One of the major Dutch news outlets (NOS) described the whole happening in retrospect (translated article in Google). It states that local news station RTV Noord saw the value of the broadcast and came to help when the battery of Rianne Schuurman’s phone was running low and made sure that she could remain in the ‘press area’.
For Android devices it’s only possible to connect via Twitter, iPhones can log in with a phone number as well.
Fooji avoids stress by ordering with emoji’s
5-6-2015
By tweeting an emoji to Fooji you can order food with a simple picture.
Ordering with emoji’s
Although the emoji ordering initially sounds like a joke, it makes the choice for a meal delivery quite easy. The stress that a regular meal order causes can be quite torturous. It takes a mouth-watering struggle browsing through the websites of local restaurants, when you just want the best and most delicious food on your plate as quickly as possible.
Updated weekly
In the Netherlands we are lucky with Thuisbezorgd.nl, that makes the choice much easier. But even on that website it can be quite difficult to select a specific dish. That where Fooji comes in with a matching $15,- dish for every food emoji, delivered by a top rated local restaurant. The restaurants that are chosen by the emoji service vary weekly.
Background and availability
Fooji was invented by Gregg Morton and Erik Zamudio and is initially only available in New York. The app stimulates local economies by including local restaurants and getting them into the mix with the big players. They also want to simplify the ordering process by ordering with emoji’s. The app doesn’t take any special dietary wishes into account.
The Dangers of Selfie Sticks – by Pizza Hut
26-5-2015
Pizza Hut has published a humorous and sarcastic video on 20 May about the use of the selfie and the selfie stick hype. Pizza Hut combines the actuality and humor in this great video, with the effect that now 7 days later, nearly 2.5 million people saw the video and probably smiled about it.
Using selfies and selfie stick in your marketing
We wrote about using the ‘selfie’ in your marketing earlier and we see more and more great examples. Like the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Paris, which offers a ‘selfie in Paris’ tour. A select number of Marriot Hotels offers their guests the possibility to test a free GoPro camera during their stay. With the camera guests can share their vacation experiences with family and friends.
Selfie sticks aren’t unlimited popular
The hype of the ‘selfie’ stick has exploded to major proportions in the USA. We have heard that at several events the selfie stick is even prohibited. Recently friends of us experienced this at a baseball match of the Yankees.
Pizza Hut increases the ‘danger’ of the stick in this video and offers potential guests a smile. The only question is whether the relatively small connection with the Pizza Hut brand in the video works out and if the video will generate more guests for their restaurants.
