BIJL PR NOMINATED FOR TWO EUROPEAN EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Bijl PR has been nominated for no less than two ‘best PR and communications’ campaigns for the European Excellence Awards.
One nomination went to the ‘Promises’ campaign, a collaboration with T-Mobile, in the ‘Telecommunications’ category, and one to the ‘Freedom: Powered by Veterans’ campaign in collaboration with the Veteran Institute, in the ‘Benelux’ category. Both nominations are an amazing compliment for our clients and for us!
T-Mobile Nederland: Promises campaign
In October of 2018, T-Mobile and Tele2 launched the Promises campaign, created by Bijl PR in close collaboration with T-Mobile Nederland’s ‘Corporate Communications’ department.
In the Promises campaign, we showed stakeholders, politicians and the general public the benefits of a fusion between T-Mobile and Tele2 for all clients. Our goal was to change the opinion of the people behind the decision regarding the fusion, the European Commission, from doubtful to positive.
Our biggest challenge was challenging the idea that fusion would minimize competition in the Dutch telecom field. T-mobile and Tele2 both have a big history of competition and challenges, and they both maintained the exact opposite. The campaign contributed to a full approval of the fusion, and politicians as well as the media were positive about the campaign!
Freedom. Powered by Veterans
The Veteran Institute (Vi) provides care for and services to Dutch veterans, service victims and their families. They strive for more awareness, knowledge and appreciation from the public. We assist Vi in reaching these goals through PR and Creative Communications. We were nominated in the category ‘Benelux & France’ for our combined activities.
Vi asked us to develop a communication and PR strategy focused on /aimed at creating awareness and acknowledgement for Dutch veterans, and we created media attention/awareness by, among other things, constantly challenging the persistent, inaccurate stereotype among the public of the old, male, WWII, PTSD veteran.
At the heart of our approach were the veterans themselves, sharing their stories. In order to create maximum impact, we went for (and are still going for) a strategy and approach where we pitched interviews with national and regional media, videos of veterans telling their stories (in collaboration with 365 Media), visualization of persistent stereotypes and their nuances, posts on social media (stories/interviews) and online articles. For special events and/or subjects, we always develop a concept where the story is told through multiple forms of content. Great examples are:
- A speed dating session with veterans on Bevrijdingsdag (Dutch Independence Day)
- The Annual Veteran Lecture
- Annual spotlight on veterans taking part in the Honorary Couloir on May the 4th
- Creating awareness for female veterans
- Research into veteran’s home front
- A WWII meeting with over 100 veterans of ages 90 and up attending
Our combined efforts have in recent years resulted in amazing stories, video, packed Vi Lectures and very successful speed dating sessions.The European Excellence Awards will take place on Friday November 29th, in Lisbon, Portugal.