We are proud to announce that our client Thijs Keukenmeester of dé VakantieDiscounter has been nominated for the top 100 most influential marketers of 2019.
Congratulations on your nomination! What was your first reaction when you heard you were nominated?
I found out because on LinkedIn I was suddenly invited to link up by several people, congratulating me on my nomination. Then I went searching and found a website that listed the nomination list. It's just nice to be on such a list for the first time. For me, lists and awards are never an end in themselves, but it does give me a sense of pride that the structural performance and growth of dé VakantieDiscounter has made us big enough to appear on such lists.
the HolidayDiscounter continues to grow in bookings, what makes your marketing so successful?
Focus is surely the word that comes up most often when we talk about the success of dé VakantieDiscounter. This focus manifests itself in many forms within our organization. For example, we consciously choose one label (dé VakantieDiscounter) and one product (package holidays). This ensures that you can ignore many issues and work continuously to improve what you focus on.
In marketing, too, it is mainly a matter of choosing what to do and what not to do, and then trying to do it as well as possible. This automatically also means that you have to say "no" a lot in order not to get distracted. We don't have to go along with every new hype, as long as our basis is rock solid.
How do you stay inspired as a marketer in this industry?
I started my working life in the online marketing world, that's where my roots are and I still follow that world with great interest. In addition, a few years ago the offline part was added. There I am really catching up. For example, this year I took Mark Ritson's Mini MBA in Marketing. A super interesting and hands-on course that further enhanced my understanding of what the marketing profession is really about.
In addition, I mainly stay up-to-date by following interesting people within the online and offline marketing world via Twitter. It is interesting to see how the two worlds seem to be diametrically opposed at times, such as in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. By online world is too focused on all the possibilities there are and the efficiency with which you can use them, while in the end it is mainly about the effectiveness of your campaigns.
You guys are busy working behind the scenes on the new campaign, can you give a hint?
After three successful years with Philip&Hugo (formerly TTTO) we have decided to continue with a new agency in the form of INDIE. Together with INDIE we are currently working on the creation and production of next year's campaign. Here we try to take the successful ingredients of previous years and complement them with beautiful new elements.
Like every year, we will be setting ourselves apart from the calibrated "happy people on the beach" campaigns of others. Humor is in the dna of our company, so of course this will not be missing either. In addition, this year we choose to put our customers on a pedestal. They are the heroes who understand what vacations are really about and understand that you don't have to pay too much for them.