​11.06.2021

All Eyes and Ears on Benelux – The first Eyes & Ears of Europe Pecha Kucha event took place on 1 June

by Eyes & Ears of Europe

What is going on in the media industry of our neighbours? And what moves our colleagues from Benelux? To find out, Eyes & Ears of Europe organised a very special get-together on 1 June, with presentations in Pecha Kucha style.

Only 20 seconds per slide, a maximum of 6:40 minutes – that is Pecha Kucha, a presentation method from Japan. Marco-Paul de Jeu from CapeRock, Bart Kraeima from Discovery, Steve Brouwers, Creative Director and author, and Isabelle Maselis, Head of Branding & Marketing Communication from Streamz showed that this short time frame is enough not only to present a project but also to raise enthusiasm for it. The first presentation was by Marco-Paul de Jeu on "Storytel x CapeRock – Marketing of an Audiobook Service". 

Moving book covers and Storytel Original "Bloom"

Storytel, the Dutch Team of the Swedish audiobook provider, came to CapeRock with big ambitions, Marco-Paul de Jeu reported in his first 40 seconds. Just like Netflix in the area of series and films, Storytel wants to become the main player in audiobook streaming and market leader in the Netherlands. In order to reach new users, CapeRock focused on the fact that "the brand is the product. That's why we focused on the big titles and the message that there is a perfect story for everyone”, Marco-Paul de Jeu continues in his presentation. With this in mind, the agency decided to animate the book covers and tell visual stories based on the text being read as for the audiobook.

In a further development of the concept, Storytel asked nine authors, who each wrote an exclusive Storytel Original audiobook. In the campaign, CapeRock saw the individual books as petals, which together form different flowers. For the illustration of this central idea, the agency was inspired by drawings and x-ray images of flowers and also worked with a colour scheme to link the individual audiobooks of the series.

Still happy in the same company after 10 years – A How To Guide

The next presentation took the audience through Bart Kraeima's last 10 years. Since he started at Discovery on 1 June 2011, this personal experience was the only possible and logical topic for his presentation, he explained. However, "10 Years of Discovery" was not a nostalgic look at the past, but rather a guide to how one can still manage to work happily and fulfilled even after a long time in the same company. With tips such as "Don't try to get too comfortable!" and "Accept change with gratitude!" he had been able to motivate and spur himself on again and again and thus realise special projects such as Kimberly, the voice of TLC ("Like Siri but more sassy."), or a fast-paced commercial clip for Eurosport. "It's projects like these, where you get really close to a racing cyclist with a camera, that make you feel like a kid again," Kraeima reported in his presentation.

When creatives talk about creativity

The third person to take up the Pecha Kucha challenge was Steve Brouwers. He presented his newly published book "Creatives on Creativity – 44 Creatives in Conversation with Steve Brouwers". Initially, the Creative Director travelled alone to his interview partners for 44 inspiring talks with creatives from all over the world. But when he realised that the content of the conversation was top, but his self-made photos were flop, he invited his friend and Photographer Joost Joossen and together they visited England, Japan, Germany, America, Austria and many more countries. The interviews are all about inspiration, backgrounds and preferred working conditions and about the fact that everyone has creativity and the same fears within them. "Creativity is in each and every one of us! Some just have more time to play with it and make a living out of it," Brouwers says in his presentation. "Creativity is an option, fake it, 'til you make it!"

Interested in the book? Order now with the code EYESANDEARS via www.lusterweb.com and get a 20% discount.

5 take-aways from earned marketing

Isabelle Maselis was our final Pecha Kucha presenter. In the talk about her job at the new Flemish streaming service "Streamz", she revealed that she had approached the new job with all the wrong expectations. Previously at Unilever, she thought she knew exactly how to market content. However, right at the beginning of the launch of Streamz in September 2020, she learned that you first have to convince journalists to write about your product. The provider approached the launch strategically and published a press release that contained only the Streamz logo as a key visual. This encouraged the press to use the logo in every report, which helped the launch not to be overshadowed by Disney +, which was launched at the same time. "With series and films, different angles also count, and you can always highlight them," reveals Maselis. "That makes journalists want to write about the product again and again."

Furthermore, she learned that the right influencers are more important than a particularly large number. Thus, Streamz asked the true crime podcast duo "De Volksjury" to cover cases from a crime show that was already very well known and thus decisively increased the number of viewers. At the same time, Isabelle Maselis had another learning. "You don't have to tell the influencers what to say and how to say it or which hashtags they should use. They know their followers and understand exactly what they respond to." The campaign for Euphoria proved this: Influencer martini_bellini created different make-up looks to match the series and thus attracted the followers.

Conclusion on Pecha Kucha

Corinna Kamphausen, CEO of Eyes & Ears of Europe, also had the courage to do a Pecha Kucha presentation and introduced the association in 6:40 minutes. "It is not easy at all to present a whole slide full of information in just 20 seconds. Our speakers impressed me a lot for that alone!", the CEO sums up. "The presentations were extremely interesting and I'm already looking forward to exploring the Benelux market further, staying in touch with all the speakers and hearing many more case studies from them – maybe even at this year's EYES & EARS."

However, before the EYES & EARS in November, there will be a second round of the Pecha Kucha event which will take place on 6 July – after all, the Benelux market still has a lot of exciting things to offer! More information and the opportunity to register as a participant can be found here: https://eeofe.org/en/pechakucha