Bert de Jong – Vuur

Bert de Jong is Managing Director and Partner at Vuur, a strategic creative agency from the Netherlands. Vuur specialises in brand strategy, content, design, media and campaign management and works for brands like Heineken, Hero, and Jacobs Douwe Egberts.

According to Bert, data-driven is a theme most companies ought to do something with, but often don’t exactly know what. He shares how Vuur implements a data-driven way of working by translating insights from digital channel behaviour into better communication for their clients: “It is about concretising the online behaviour of consumers. We continuously try to improve the story of our clients based on the reactions we see to the messages and campaigns we create.”

insights & gut feel

Bert believes that marketers need both gut feel and insights to be successful: “At Vuur, we believe brands should always look at what makes them unique and then translate that into good communication that is closely related to the DNA of the brand. To me, that is very much about feeling. However, with any type of communication, you may think that it will work, but the results may say otherwise. You need insights into what works and what doesn’t, but translating the brand into the right tone of voice to impact the target group is also very important. You need both.”

“You have to be careful not to make assumptions or statements based on experience. By saying what you think consumers will feel, you are fooling yourself a little.”

“You have to be careful not to make assumptions or statements based on experience”, Bert continues. “By saying what you think consumers will feel, you are fooling yourself a little. Only quantitative research can tell you that. I think it is very good to have that feeling within an organisation, but ultimately you always have to quantify it.”

measuring performance

Vuur continuously monitors the performance of their client’s campaigns, Bert shares: “We stay in close contact with the client and monitor together whether we have chosen the right channels, whether consumers understand the campaign, and whether the message is right. We share the story through different creatives, so we can determine through a/b testing which creative is received best by the consumer. On this basis, we determine what we will and will not retain during the campaign.” According to Bert, Vuur’s biggest challenge is the lack of digital expertise on the client-side: “We are very dependent on the technology on the client’s side. The degree to which we can monitor the channels that are used and capture them in a dashboard makes our job a lot easier. The biggest hurdle we see is that there is too little knowledge on the client’s side to set this up together, and that costs a lot of time.”

digital savvy

Bert believes that a close partnership between agency and client is an important driver for success: “It starts by having a clear goal together. You need to know when both parties are satisfied so you can measure whether you have been successful in the end. Recently, a client wanted to achieve a market value potential of 50 million euros in 6 weeks, with a budget of €25,000. The goal and the resources to achieve it were miles apart. If we were to do it, I know that the client wouldn’t be satisfied in the end because he had a completely different expectation. It starts with what you want to achieve together and whether you agree. Then there must be a certain level of trust from the client that we as an agency are making the right choices to achieve that result. Then comes the practical side, to what extent is the customer as digitally savvy as we are. If they are, you can change gears much more quickly and be successful much more quickly.”

Especially in smaller companies, there is still a lot to win in this field, Bert: “With the digitisation of marketing in recent years there is an ever-growing need for expertise and talent. More often, expertise is brought into companies temporarily. We already do this occasionally in the area of organising campaigns, and partly training people. It is something we can and must expand on in the future as there is a great need.”

“Many companies see data-driven marketing as a new method to convert as many customers as quickly as possible.”

a preliminary to success

When it comes to long versus short-term marketing, Bert sees many companies convert marketing to sales: “People think when they start a lead campaign today, they will have new customers tomorrow. They are less inclined to take the first step: get your awareness and brand story in place. Only after that, you can start focusing on lead generation. In my eyes, you need both: a long-term plan covering your brand’s story and roadmap, and several lead campaigns throughout the year supporting that. Many companies see data-driven marketing as a new method to convert as many customers as quickly as possible. Whilst practice shows that long-term brand building is a preliminary to success.”

mastering the digital journey

A company that has mastered the digital landscape in a way that evokes a positive emotion is Coolblue. Bert shares how the Dutch e-commerce brand connects to the digital world of the consumer: “They have become incredibly good in knowing what is going on in the life of consumers and responding to that accordingly. They give you the right content and recommendations based on the customer journey you are in at that moment. That is the online expertise they have built over the years. We also noticed that when we transformed from a more offline to a more online-orientated agency. An offline marketer thinks very differently from an online marketer, and the two must understand each other’s world first. Few old school companies have made the digital transformation and are on the same level as companies that have been doing it for years.”