The holiday season is a busy and stressful period for parents, but the most magical one for kids. Bol.com asked if we could strengthen their position as local hero by focusing on these two insights. We wanted to help kids find their perfect gift by adding more fun and inspiration. Our attention was focussed on Dutch and Flemish families with kids between 4 and 10. There weren’t any clear objectives set out as this was such an undertaking with many new components. But there was a clear desire to be the number one toy-book of the Netherlands and Belgium.

Transforming 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. Kids could explore toys before sticking it on the included A3 physical wish-list 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.

The strategic approach was to become more relevant by adding extra value in each step of the gift finding journey for both kids and parents. We started with adding more fun, engagement and inspiration for kids during their orientation phase. Based on our extensive research we knew that parents find it hard to find out which toy their kids really want. The toy-book and the companion app helped them to discover the toys they liked most. With an offline wishlist inside the toy-book, kids could clearly state their wishes, after exploring the toy-book. By facilitating this process we made the whole purchase journey much more convenient for parents, knowing that the holidays are extremely busy and stressful. The campaign was all about turning our strategy into results. We wanted kids and parents to know about these great features to create a more magical and stress-free festive period.

It was up to us to communicate the main services and distinctive features in the best way possible. It started with the release of the toy-book and the app. The toy-book was printed and distributed to 3.5 million families in the Netherlands and Belgium for free. We promoted the book and the app in a 20” TVC which was also used online. After that we released a 25” TVC to promote the wishlist inside the book. Radio, OOH, digital/display were also used to promote the book and app. Then it was time to shine a light on the 8d audio story with a dedicated 20” TVC. Influencer partners constantly showed the tools and features of the toy-book simultaneously with the TVCs. The entire campaign ran from 19 okt till 29 nov 2020.

The toy-book and app made the journey from inspiration to buying gifts distinctive.This ensured a high level of engagement for children and parents, as a result of which the awareness and turnover of bol.com increased significantly.

Results: 3.5mil books distributed, reaching 85% of the target group. The most famous toy-book in the Netherlands and Flanders (86%). 700k wishlist posters used (52% of all wishlists in NL and Fla). 37% of the users of the toy-book also downloaded the app leading to 1.35 million minutes of engagement. Parents scanned 78% more QR codes (compared to 2019). 82% of families with the book bought Sinterklaas gifts from bol.com. They spent 2.4 times more at bol.com than non book-users.

We achieved a significant uplift on category entry point ‘Sinterklaas’ of 18% and it all resulted in an 11% higher turnover than the extensive forecast.