Brenda Waegemaekers
Project 1: We Need More Flowers
‘We Need More Flowers’ is a rallying cry to celebrate the wonderfully diverse emotions that flowers bring into our lives.
Project 2: Bonprix 'It's Me'
Bonprix was being rejected for their ‘boring housewife’ image. We decided to tackle these misconceptions by showing that when it comes to bonprix and women over 30, there’s more than meets the eye.
Project 3: Recipe for Change
Beef consumption is a severe cause of climate change. 'Recipe for Change' lets people subconsciously experience how easy it is to cut down on eating beef, to help save the planet.
Project 1: We Need More Flowers
We set out to shine a different light on flowers, by reminding people of their emotional value. To connect to a wider audience, we transcreated our film in four languages, using local spoken-word artists for powerful storytelling.
Given the recent launch of the campaign, we're still awaiting the full results. The first ones, however, are looking promising: throughout Europe, the campaign got a great response in terms of views and positive sentiment. Also, the new platform for 'We Need More Flowers' was embraced by the European flower industry, and already resulted in spin-off campaigns for Dia de los Muertos and Valentine’s Day.
Project 1 Translations
The campaigned aired in The Netherlands, The UK, Germany and France.
Find the link to the Dutch film ‘We Hebben Meer Bloemen Nodig’ here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhlH1KesFHQ
Project 2: Bonprix 'It's Me'
We set out to celebrate real women, living real lives, in a real way, proving that life doesn’t end at 30 (although H&M might have you believe that).
The results were clear. The campaign achieved an increase in awareness and consideration in all markets, an up to 27% increase in webshop traffic, and 26% increase in purchase intent across key markets. In France and The Netherlands we outperformed C&A on the brand values ‘authentic’ and ‘empowering’.
The importance of the song, mixed from vox-pop reactions, cannot be understated in making bonprix feel fresh and fashionable again. It also gave us the chance to connect to a bigger audience. When people started asking for the track, we released multiple-language versions on Spotify and Itunes.
Project 3: Recipe for Change
Out of the 384 entries from 70 countries, 35 projects were nominated. Our concept 'Recipe for Change' was one of these. It was exposed at Dutch Design Week 2017 and we’re looking into ways how we can turn it into reality.
Project 3: Additional
You can read more about our idea on the platform page:https://challenge.whatdesigncando.com/projects/recipe-for-change/
Project 1: We Need More Flowers
Flowers are so much more than eye candy. They let us express and feel all the emotions that define us as humans. And that’s exactly why we need more of them.
‘We Need More Flowers’ is a rallying cry for a life worth living and an amalgamation of what it means to be a human being. The film is an eclectic collection of short moments, each with its own look and meaning. Densely packed with voice, titles and music, the 40 vignettes are placing the viewer between emotions high & low, small & big.
Starting with obvious examples to get you on board, the film takes you on a journey that’s pure, straight-to-the-point and not afraid to use big words. Reinforcing the visuals, the repetition of ‘we need more [...], we need more flowers’ links everything to flowers.A spoken-word artist rhythmically plays with the staccato lines and alliterations, turning the script into a hypnotic, activist speech that became the base for the edit, titles and music. It’s foremost the words that drive this film.
Project 2: Bonprix 'It's Me'
Instead of shying away from the misconceptions about women over 30 and bonprix, the campaign tackles them head-on by showing that when it comes to middle-aged women and the brand, there’s more than meets the eye.
Our entire camaign was built from the honest stories of real women of all ages, shapes, and sizes, who shatter the stereotypes by being exactly who they are.In the film and print/OOH, we see the women doing surprising things that are part of their real lives, while stereotypes appear in big titles or headlines over the visuals - clearly juxtaposing what's being shown.For the music, we took the misconceptions about women and bonprix and remixed them into a song. By using a vox-pop in a modern way, we recorded people’s reactions in the streets to build our track. The music wasn't something tacked on at the end, it was the genesis of our campaign. It was a powerful way to let the world hear that when it comes to ‘boring housewives’ and bonprix, there’s more than meets the eye.
Project 3: Recipe for Change
Beef is a severe cause of climate change. The meat requires 28 times more land to produce than pork or chicken, 11 times more water and results in five times more CO2 emissions. Although we need to reduce our beef consumption drastically, people don’t like to be told what to do.
'Recipe for Change' is a silent strategy that lets people experience how easy it is to cut down on beef to help save the planet.In the first phase, various partners (TV chefs, supermarkets, food blogs, restaurants) influence people’s beef-eating habits subconsciously by secretly reducing the amount of beef in their recipes (e.g.: from 500 to 300 g). The primary goal in this phase is to make sure people don’t notice they are cooking and consuming lesser amounts of beef.
In the second phase, we reveal "recipe" to the public with a PR bang. All partners share they have been using less amount of beef. This way we show people how easy it is to reduce beef consumption, simply because they were already doing it.
Project 1: We Need More Flowers
Mooiwatbloemendoen.nl (Funnyhowflowersdothat.co.uk) is the consumer-facing brand of The Flower Council of Holland, a foundation funded by the co-operative Dutch growers and traders to keep flowers and plants top of mind and relevant across Europe.
For our target audience (urban, trendy, 20-40) buying flowers is not a custom. Too often flowers are regarded as an unoriginal gift. Flowers don’t come with “new features”. When people want to reward themselves, other feel-good products are often preferred.
Our job was to develop a new communications platform that adds emotion to flowers, so people would recognise the beauty and meaningfulness behind their surface. This should make buying or giving flowers a natural thing to do again.
Project 2: Bonprix 'It's Me'
Bonprix, one of Otto Group's online retailers, had a massive image problem. Their aided awareness was high, but due to a legacy in cheap catalogue clothing, they were being rejected by their main audience (women aged 30-65) for their ‘boring housewife’ image. As their existing consumer base was shrinking, no new consumers were being added to the funnel either.
Additionally, whereas their price point used to be a USP, with cheaper competition coming from the high streets (H&M, Primark), other categories (Lidl), and Asia (AliExpress, Wish), bonprix needed to really mean something for women in order for them to choose the brand.
The brief was clear: (re)introduce bonprix, force reappraisal, and increase consideration.
Project 3: Recipe for Change
The Climate Action Challenge, initiated by What Design Can Do, is a global design competition calling on the creative community to submit bold, innovative solutions to combat the impacts of climate change. Out of the 384 entries from 70 countries, 35 projects were nominated. Brenda and her art director's concept 'Recipe for Change' was one of these. It was exposed at Dutch Design Week, and we’re currently in the process of turning it into reality.
The challenge ran from May 2017 to May 2018 and was open to three categories of entrants: students, creative professionals, and start-ups.
