Challenger Stories: Spoony makes vegetables cool again

Blended agency iO gives history an extra dimension for visitors to M Leuven thanks to AI-driven web app.

A content strategy is often based on your own insights and those of the client. At iO, we like to link data to this that confirms or corrects those assumptions. In this webinar, data expert Michael will show how he generates the right data to build his strategy based on keyword and competition analyses and content dashboards, and what a data-driven content strategy will look like in the future.

Do you remember when ... the invention of the computer caused a seismic shift in the job market? People unwilling to work with computers were quickly replaced by people who were; and today everyone carries a laptop. Today the same thing is happening with AI. In this webinar, Rodger Werkhoven will share his passion for Artificial Intelligence and introduce you to OpenAI as a love brand.

Watch the webinar now.

How can you effectively utilize content to promote your brand? How can you ensure that your brand stands out with persuasive creations across the appropriate platforms? These questions will be answered in our complimentary webinar, where you'll gain insights on developing a content strategy that seamlessly aligns with your marketing channels and target audiences.  Watch the recording below.

Learn how to move from merely being present on social media to making an impact with an effective social strategy.

A solid employer brand appeals to the employees of today, tomorrow, and yesterday. You attract the right candidates and retain talent. In this whitepaper you will learn how to approach employer branding campaigns from scratch — from strategy to concept and implementation.

An easy way to increase the impact of your advertising is to advertise on the radio. Radio advertising stimulates online search behaviour and has a greater reach than through other media.

Do you know when UX research can be useful? Here's a hint: it's not just when you're developing a new platform. Investing in UX research is also a good idea for existing websites and apps. After all, it gives you a better picture of your users and can lead to higher conversion.

Making and distributing fun and striking videos isn’t just for the wealthy, happy few. Today, creating quality video content is technologically and financially feasible for every budget and every message. In a market that’s overflowing with content, where smartphones have high quality, film-worthy cameras and on the back of the positive inspiration from YouTube and TikTok, any barriers that people might have felt that held back their video creativity were blown away. Discover everything there is to know about video in our white paper.

Does it look as if your organisation is losing the war for talent? Does it start to seem like the right talents consistently prefer to join other companies? Today, unemployment rates in Belgium have hit an historic low (3%). This presents us with opportunities, as well as challenges. Less job seekers, more vacancies, increased competition in the war for talent.

Just about every brand has a mission and a vision. They know very well what they want to stand for. The only problem? They often don't know how to convey that message. How best to translate their brand story into actions.

Interactive content engages people with choices, questions, and options. That’s no different with interactive video — in stark contrast to traditional video, which is linear and forces the viewer to watch passively.

When was the last time you felt truly touched by an advertisement? Pure, raw creativity in the streets, in a magazine, or a heartwarming commercial. In short: a (rare) moment when a brand boldly entered your comfort zone through emotion. Sounds familiar?

Spoiler alert: video is at home in your marketing mix,ideally with its own unique approach – video marketing. Video stands out, you can do a lot with it and the information it carries sticks better. It doesn’t just grab your target group’s attention, it also has an inherent credibility. For these reasons and more, video offers endless possibilities and should be more than 'just' an element in your content marketing strategy.

With cyber week (starting Friday, Nov. 29) and the end-of-year period upon us, there are some great opportunities ahead to give sales another boost, whether you're in B2C or B2B. With this guide and checklist of no less than 61 pages (!), we help you fine-tune your marketing, communication and advertising strategy so that you catch the eye of your target audience. With this guide & checklist, compiled by our +2000 experts from different departments, you'll roll out the digital red carpet for your customers in the year-end period. Download it now.

Data help the marketeer implement digital marketing techniques in customer communication. But how do you use that data, exactly? And how can you enjoy the full force of data? In this whitepaper, we will show you how to optimise your customer and prospect communication through segmentation and personalisation. Moreover, we’ll show you how AI supports these processes.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is omnipresent and indispensable to the modern marketer. Because paid ads are fleeting, because you always want to findable, or because up to 80% of internet users don’t look beyond the first page of search results. This includes a wide range of factors, from your website structure to the content and links.

But how do you get started with a first-party data strategy? What do you pay attention to? Can you still rely on third-party data? And which stakeholders do you best involve in this 'new' phase? In this whitepaper, we help you out.

Visual storytelling and video hit the right notes with your target audience – using words, images, and sounds. With an approach of 'less selling, more telling' you transcend the product level and tell your audience a story. This makes visual storytelling an intuitive and attractive format to create authentic bonds with your customers, employees, or prospects.

“Create ridiculously good content”, an undeniably strong mantra for everyone in the business of content creation. After all, content is a unique way to share relevant and interesting stories with others and therefore forms a bridge between the company and the audience.

Whether you’re a small business or a large multinational, it’s worth considering email marketing.

When setting goals for social content campaigns, it's crucial to ensure they are achievable and have a tangible foundation. The iO Social Benchmark Report provides you with valuable insights into the world of social content performance, so that you can make data-driven choices to optimise your social content strategy.

A tight job market and a short attention span from your target audience, who are also bombarded with content on a daily basis. Does recruiting new talent sometimes feel like a lost battle to you? We believe it doesn't have to be! Break through your target audience's content overload: invest in in-depth content to reach them and strengthen your employer brand. How can you successfully recruit and retain new talent for your brand? Discover it in "From Employer Branding to Recruitment - Insights 2024".

Branded podcasts offer organisations the opportunity to reach and stand out to their target audience in a unique way. Learn more about creating a successful branded podcast in this whitepaper, and discover inspiring examples from the market.

Do you want to rebrand your organisation? Is an acquisition or merger imminent? Or do you want to improve your customer experience, and does this require an organisational change?  For these types of digital transformations, changing technology is often a challenging and crucial part for organisations of all sizes. Whether you need to upgrade the CMS system to a newer version, or you want to increase your innovation speed with a headless CMS, there is often one element that receives little attention: the content migration. Far too often, a content migration is nothing more than the last thing on the list, because it’s the technology that requires a lot of attention and budget, isn’t it? How complex can it be to lift and shift the content from the old system to the new? 

Consumers are increasingly used to communication that is tailored to them. An ad for 30% discount on cat food after you searched for the best kibble is an example. But so is the online purchase process of those kibbles. After all, today we want an online purchase to feel just like its physical counterpart. Online configurators are a great way to replace the eager shop assistant.

Effective communication between government and citizens is crucial in these rapidly-changing times. This whitepaper reveals five essential insights from some leading public communication professionals. Get inspired by these top leaders in the field and learn how to use branding techniques to powerfully communicate your story as a public organisation. After reading this whitepaper, you will know

“Create ridiculously good content”, an undeniably strong mantra for everyone in the business of content creation. After all, content is a unique way to share relevant and interesting stories with others and therefore forms a bridge between the company and the audience.

Will you publish a story online using only text? Good luck. Chances are your reader will tune out before it even gets interesting. Don’t beat yourself up, it’s not your fault. The online world is dominantly visual: images keep the scrolling audience captivated. The alphabet alone won't cut it: when presenting data you can’t do without infographics.

Your brand identity is your brand's personality, what you stand for and what you want to achieve. It is what sets you apart from your competitors. Astrid Vanwolleghem, design director at iO Antwerp, developed a seven-step plan for designing its outward reflection: the visual brand identity. "Anyone familiar with that step-by-step plan will understand why strong branding does not happen overnight," says Astrid. Take a walk through the plan and, along the way, get rid of some preconceptions about creating your visual brand identity!

Social media is the virtual landscape where people go to share, ask questions, and complain. Webcare offers companies the possibility to monitor online messages and provide service where necessary. But how can you give someone a pleasant surprise someone using webcare? And build positivity towards your brand at the same time? The answer: Random Acts of Kindness.

The government uses insights from behavioural science to guide its communication with citizens. This sometimes involves trial and error. DUO's 'tick box' is a well-known example.  But first, let’s start with a bit of theory: the 'paradox of choice' briefly implies that we like choice, but don't like to choose. (Viewing tip: watch this TEDTalk by psychologist Barry Schwartz who coined this term).  The more choices our brain has to process, the harder it becomes to choose. Sometimes it even leads to us making no choice at all. Anyone who has ever stood in front of the dessert shelf in a French Hypermarché can relate to this. There is even a scientific term for this phenomenon: choice paralysis. 

Your verbal brand identity is the set of linguistic expressions of your brand. It bundles the tone in which and style with which you communicate to all your target audiences through all mediums. Together with your visual brand expression, your verbal brand expression conveys who you are, what you stand for and what you can do for your customers. In this blog, we will explore your unique voice together.

Content that performs well and generates lots of leads — every marketer's dream. But creating that kind of content is not easy. Not everything you put out is hit. And it doesn't have to be. As long as you know how to optimally use and reuse your best content. By relying on content repurposing, for instance.

L’équipe social advertising d’iO s’est rendue au siège de TikTok pour le premier workshop pour agences du Benelux. TikTok est le moteur de recherche de la génération Z et une plateforme innovante qui développe constamment de nouvelles fonctionnalités. Dans cet article, nous mettrons en lumière les idées et les opportunités les plus intéressantes que nous avons apprises. 

Vous les entendez ? Écoutez bien, les chants de Noël sont bientôt là. Sérieusement : Noël approche. D'ailleurs, pour moi, Noël a déjà commencé. Alors que j'écris cet article depuis mon hamac, à la fin de mes vacances en Provence, je pense déjà aux sapins, à la neige, aux belles tablées. Et, bien sûr, à la manière de tirer profit de Noël, qui est traditionnellement la période commerciale la plus chargée de l'année. Mais comment assurer le succès de la campagne de Noël de votre marque, et faire en sorte qu'elle se démarque de toutes les autres ?

It’s that time again: It’s Christmas commercial season 2023. I’m ready for a wagonload of snow, candy, British stars, and tortured covers of familiar songs. And what did I get? Exactly that. I love it! A (completely objective) overview of the (mostly) British 2023 Christmas commercials. Brace yourself for Rick Astley, kisses, Ryan Reynolds, talking mittens, singing oven gloves, pink flamingos, John Travolta as Santa Claus and... a rediscovered hit from 1965. And... What did John Lewis do?

Yay! There's a new way to get bite-sized content and insights from iO. In the fall of 2023, Meta launched WhatsApp Channels in more than 150 countries - including ours.

Is a podcast one of the content assets in your campaign? It's easy. Exploit the podcast’s special qualities: a chance to go deeper.

You may not have noticed, but a lot has changed in terms of analytics and tracking over the past five years. This is partly because we've already grown accustomed to many changes, and partly because their impact has come very gradually. Half a decade ago, no one knew of the existence of a cookie banner, a year later everyone thought they could never get used to it, and today we don't know any better. We've made serious strides in terms of data regulation, and perhaps the biggest steps are yet to come in 2024.

Seriously, it's done in no time. And we're about to show you how. The question is: is this what you want? In this blog post, you'll read how we do it at iO, you'll find some tips and tricks to apply on your own work and you'll start to grasp the added value of the human factor.

Does the name Leonhard Huizinga still ring a bell for anyone? Once a popular Dutch writer, now forgotten. He made his debut in 1936 with the book 'De Gestroomlijnde Wereld'. Already a wanderer at a young age, Huizinga's book opened an unknown world to many readers. An exotic world, which seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, because it was more accessible by car, train, boat, and airplane. Faster, more comfortable and with more and more streamlining — quite literally. Curious, boundless, full of wonder. Not realising, as early as 1936, that over that same world lay the shadows of tomorrow.

The end of December is list time. My colleagues at iO invited me to fill the last square of 24till24 with an inspiring list. December 24 is the last day of work before the Christmas holidays for many. That magical time of the year when the professional merry-go-round comes to a complete standstill. It isn’t just the time for family celebrations, it’s also the perfect moment to curl up on the sofa with a good book, a podcast, or a film. So, get into my personal list of the very best viewing, reading, and listening tips. Slide into the holiday season and keep the boredom at bay. Enjoy!

Il y a une fracturee digitale entre les persona que nous utilisons en marketing et la population. En Belgique, l’écart est assez important : près de 50 % de la population est considérée comme numériquement vulnérable. Comment gérer cela en tant qu’organisation ? Comment s’assurer que les produits et services proposés n’excluent personne ? Cet article contient neuf conseils pratiques afin de vous guider vers l’inclusion digitale.  

You’ve made a cool podcast, but it is completely overshadowed by podcasts made by the big media companies. How do you avoid your branded podcast online dying a slow death, ignored in its own lonely corner of the internet?

Avec la campagne de podcast The Missing SS Commander, iO et le Monument national néerlandais du camp d'Amersfoort ont réussi à créer le podcast de marque de 2023. Des chiffres de téléchargement stupéfiants, des commentaires élogieux de la part des auditeurs et auditrices, une contribution importante à l'histoire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale aux Pays-Bas et une augmentation de 30 % du nombre de visiteur·euse·s dans le musée. Voici les principales leçons que nous avons tiré de la création du podcast de marque néerlandais le plus célébré de 2023.

La nouvelle année vient de commencer et les premières tendances sont déjà à nos portes. Plus important encore, les utilisateurs deviennent de plus en plus « libres » : ils se déplacent librement d'un canal à l'autre, à la recherche du contenu qu'ils souhaitent consommer. Il est donc plus important que jamais de garder un œil sur les tendances et d'en tirer pleinement parti. Après tout, elles offrent une occasion parfaite de faire preuve de créativité. Mais à quoi pouvons-nous nous attendre en 2024 ? Dans cet article, nous examinons trois tendances que vous pouvez commencer à utiliser immédiatement.

Le marketing de contenu a-t-il encore du sens en 2024 ? Patrick Severein (Head of Content et stratège) se pose la question.

En tant que rédacteur, devez-vous adopter ou craindre les outils d'IA générative tels que ChatGPT, Copilot et Gemini ? La première option, certainement, la seconde peut-être aussi. En tout cas, ceux-ci vous apportent quelque chose que vous pouvez difficilement refuser. Tenez compte de ces nouveaux développement tout en vous assurant de garder le contrôle. 

Conversational search in the form of an AI chatbot lets your website visitors interact with your content, resulting in a better customer experience.

Saviez-vous que le texte d’un seul bouton sur votre webshop peut être déterminant pour votre taux de conversion ? Peu de gens s’attardent sur ce type de microcopie, alors que celle-ci peut avoir un impact énorme sur les performances de votre plateforme en ligne ou de votre application. Dans le premier article de cette série, découvrez ce qu’est la microcopie au juste, et pourquoi elle est si importante. 

L’histoire de votre marque a beau être révolutionnaire, si vous la racontez d’une manière qui endort tout le monde, vous ne laisserez pas une impression durable. C’est pourquoi votre marque doit avoir un tone of voice à la fois attrayant et approprié. Découvrez dans cet article pourquoi le tone of voice est si important, et comment le définir pour votre marque.

Il y a énormément d’éléments à prendre en compte lorsque vous élaborez votre stratégie de contenu. Cela va de la définition de vos objectifs à l’identification des opportunités et la mesure de ses résultats.   Par quoi commencer, et que faut-il prendre en compte ? Découvrez-le dans cet article. 

"With digital transformation, you can deliver added value to your customers," says Steven De Deyne, Head of Media and Production Competence Center Proximus), it in this video.

How do we make our content accessible, so that every Belgian can find the information they need quickly and easily? The question came from the Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs and the answer? That came from iO. The result: a website that focuses on accessibility and presents the most important information in a crystal clear way.

BenBits is ambitious, and that's not a secret. The brand stands for plant-based chewing gum without plastic — the first in the Netherlands. But the ambitions don't stop there.

Circular economy: it's not just a matter of using shared cars and collecting batteries. There is room for sustainable initiatives in the baby market too, and Tiny Library is here to prove it. The team works every day on the mission to make the baby market more sustainable — that's better for the world and for parents' wallets. 

Our attention spans are shorter, we skip commercials, and we click from video to video all the time. When consumers are bombarded with an avalanche of content every day, how can your brand stand out? Ruth Nys explains how to do creative content marketing without falling into the same old boring marketing tactics trap. Expert:Ruth Nys, Strategy Director Content

On average, people buy five products before they find the right beauty product for them. That's a problem. A problem that We Are Eves wants to eliminate from the world. It's a cosmetics platform with hundreds of thousands of honest product reviews, written by real people. In this video, Esther Leloux, Founder & CEO, tells you all about the platform.

It's time to harness the primal power of Mother Ocean to end animal suffering and offer delicious food that regenerates itself — at least, if it's up to The Dutch Weed Burger. They stand for delicious, plant-based burgers made from seaweed, and in this video, Mark Kulsdom, Co-Founder & Managing Director, tells you all about it.

Social media as a marketing tool is often overlooked, despite their potential, they are frequently underutilised. Nevertheless, a strong social strategy and a brand-oriented focus are the keys to success on social media platforms.

Do you remember when ... the invention of the computer caused a seismic shift in the job market? People unwilling to work with computers were quickly replaced by people who were; and today everyone carries a laptop. Today the same thing is happening with AI. In this webinar, Rodger Werkhoven will share his passion for Artificial Intelligence and introduce you to OpenAI as a love brand.

From Van Eyck’s brothers' Ghent Altarpiece to Rock Werchter: the Canon of Flanders is finally here. The much-discussed list resulted in a bulky book of more than 300 pages and includes an overview of the Flemish language, culture, and history from the end of the last ice age to today. But there is also an online version: www.canonvanvlaanderen.be . iO developed this on behalf of the Commission Canon of Flanders, which received a mandate from the Flemish Government, Department of Education & Training.

Discover the fruitful collaboration between Primagaz and iO in this 'Walk and Talk' video. In this video, you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at the collaborative dynamics between Primagaz and iO. We discuss how we dealt with challenges, how we exploited opportunities and what strategies we developed. We'll take you through our shared journey of growth and success, where trust and a commitment to excellence are central. This Walk and Talk is more than just a conversation - it is a celebration of a collaboration that has stood the test of time. It is a story of mutual growth, of learning and evolving, and of creating value for both organizations.

Social media extends way beyond performance and direct conversion. It's about building brands, building relationships with the target group and strategically distributing content on relevant platforms. Success requires belief in the power of social media and investment in knowledge building and daring to experiment.

It is sometimes difficult to estimate which content is valuable and which is not because of the influence of subjectivity and different opinions in your marketing team. Fortunately, that responsibility lies entirely with the consumer. All you have to do is create a lot of content that is in line with your organisation’s values.

Less is more? Not when it comes to social media content. You need a lot of contact moments to get on the radar and stay there. Then the algorithm decides who sees which content.

Sometimes content marketers suffer from a content burnout: they don't know what to post or how to come up with creative content. The drip model offers a solution: take a look at the 'low-hanging fruit' within your organisation, sector and above all: your target group environment. With social posts that you write from the perspective of your target group, you always deliver engaging content.

Many young people are on Snapchat and TikTok today. In spite of that, Facebook, with 70% active users, remains the largest social network in Flanders. Do you want to reach your audience? Then consider using Reels. Facebook can also deliver strong results for B2B marketing, especially in combination with LinkedIn.

TikTok offers unprecedented potential for organic reach, but also brings challenges: privacy issues, diverse content and users; and a powerful algorithm. Post multiple times a day and focus on native content instead of your own campaign materials.

Since TikTok boosted vertical videos, they have dominated all platforms. Using reels strengthens the bond with your video first users and gives you more organic reach and improves your marketing results.

Conversation management is a shift from webcare to webdare. Where in the past, brands mainly responded to negative experiences and complaints on their own channels, now you join conversations with your consumers on your own and other channels. This increases your visibility and positions you in the market.

Content strategist Sam talks to Vanessa Loose, marketing manager at Dewaele. For Belgium's largest independent estate agent, social media are incredibly important. With a healthy mix of trends and evergreen topics, they always stay on the radar as a life partner in living and business through social media.

When Yorick Bruins lived in Tanzania, he saw a problem: there are too many unnecessary links in the coffee supply chain, preventing coffee farmers from getting a fair price for their beans. He founded Wakuli: an organisation that brings quality coffee from the farmer to the consumer — in the shortest possible chain.

Hendrik Kramer is an Amsterdam-based fisherman and entrepreneur who wants to show that sustainable fishing pays off in the Netherlands. He does this by selling his fish directly to consumers with Wild 'n Zilt.

Research shows that not many people have a positive perception of plant-based cheese. Brad Vanstone wants to change that with his brand Willicroft on Amsterdam's Spiegelgracht.

With BayaBaya, founders Dirk Taselaar and Leon Daggenvoorde aim to take the plastic bottle out of the bathroom. Founded in 2021, the brand sells powdered concentrate for body wash with natural, vegan ingredients. Combine that concentrate with tap water and pour it into the aluminium refill bottle, and you've done your part, too.

Hands Off was founded in 2013 to turn the chocolate industry upside down. For example, founder Kitty Smeeten achieved a 42% CO2 reduction by replacing cow's milk with hazelnut praline. 

iO aide Torfs, le géant flamand de la chaussure, à mieux se positionner sur le marché wallon et en tant qu'acteur de la mode. Découvrez l’article sur cette collaboration.

Optimiser le contenu et la présentation : Comment iO a transformé l'engagement de la newsletter de Proximus. Lisez l'étude de cas ici.

Améliorer la gestion du contenu numérique des sites web de D'Ieteren Automotive ? Lire l'article complet ici ;

Créer une plateforme cohérente : Le rebranding et la refonte du site d'Assuralia pour une meilleure expérience utilisateur Lire l'article ici.

Moderniser les communications numériques dans l'automobile : Libérer le potentiel des réseaux sociaux. Lire l'article ici.

YER is already big but aspired to double their presence in the world of recruitment and selection and secondment. iO helped them with creating a new brand, internal branding, external activation online and offline and bringing 3 websites into 1 site for all target groups.

iO a réécrit tout le contenu pour le lancement de la marque Odido. Ils ont également réalisé la migration du contenu vers le nouveau site web. Vous vous demandez comment ? Découvrez-le sans attendre.

With creative always-on and ad hoc campaigns, our experts help Manna Sauzen grow into a leading Belgian brand.

Embark on a thrilling train adventure across the Netherlands with ‘Het Spoor Bijster’, a fuction podcast by the NS and iO.

Lisez comment nous avons, avec le groupe Brunswick, créé une image de marque complète et une stratégie de mise sur le marché afin de lancer la nouvelle marque Navan. 

Découvrez comment Enexis mène la transition énergétique avec iO, grâce à une campagne pluriannuelle intelligente. Apprenez comment la sensibilisation, le changement de comportement et la personnalisation hyperlocale conduisent à la rentabilité et la pertinence au bon moment.

Comment faire passer en ligne une histoire claire qui génère du trafic vers votre site web quand vous représentez plusieurs entreprises ? Découvrez-le en lisant ce case.

Découvrez comment nous avons aidé la marque de fromage CAMBOZOLA à réactiver ses clients existants tout en attirant les jeunes générations. Lisez notre case.

Pour Prowise, spécialiste des écrans interactifs et des logiciels éducatifs, iO a conçu un nouveau site web WordPress complété par une nouvelle voix de marque et un nouveau texte.

Découvrez comment iO a rendu les sites web et le portail de High Profile Locaties plus faciles à gérer, à trouver et plus évolutifs. Lisez ce case.

Découvrez comment iO a aidé Imperial à se transformer en une marque alimentaire prête à relever les défis du futur.

Comment développer un concept retail digital international qui fasse passer l'expérience client à la vitesse supérieure ?

Découvrez comment Enexis mène la transition énergétique avec iO, grâce à une campagne pluriannuelle intelligente. Apprenez comment la sensibilisation, le changement de comportement et la personnalisation hyperlocale conduisent à la rentabilité et la pertinence au bon moment.

Brussels Airport : découvrez dans ce case comment iO est devenu une véritable extension de l'aéroport.

Découvrez ce qu'iO fait pour l'aéroport et les voyageurs : du branding aux campagnes créatives en passant par la création de contenu.

La communication, interne & externe, est importante pour Brussels Airport. Découvrez comment iO assiste l'aéroport pour cela.

iO propulse Brussels Airport vers de nouveaux sommets grâce au marketing d'influence. Découvrez comment.

iO a aidé Landal Greenparks à créer une expérience d'accueil qui intègre un service personnalisé à la commodité digitale.

What it takes to make booking as easy as possible for you? Discover the power of a strong management vision, a streamlined work process, and long-term, open, and transparent collaboration between Landal GreenParks and iO.

iO experts built a brand new D2C website with an advanced Adobe Experience Manager e-commerce platform for lighting specialists Signify. The result: happy users and satisfied teams. Read the full case here.