#Vedettmotel: Vedett’s efforts to be conversation-worthy on every brand level

Note: Marieke and I got divorced in 2020. This post might not reflect the current situation.

It’s interesting to see how marketing campaigns are changing:

1. Marketing is more about acts, not ads. It isn’t about saying what you’re about, it is about showing what you’re about. No ads, acts. Campaigns are more than ever about surprising consumers or really doing something for consumers.
2. Marketing is too important to leave it just to the marketing team. If you really want to do something for consumers, it’s often outside the scope of pure marketing. E.g. if you want to have the best service in the world, you will have to involve customer service. And if you really want to show what your company is about, you will have to show the people behind the screens.
3. Marketing is embracing conversations. More and more campaigns do a small, but really conversation-worthy things. E.g. KLM surprised 28 passengers to get a reach of millions, Heineken surprised several hundreds of people in an Opera building to get a reach of millions, etc. Something I called ‘spotlight tactic‘ before. Even apart from spotlight tactics, leveraging social media and/or conversations is part of most recent campaigns.
4. Marketing is more about programs and less about campaigns. See my earlier posts on gradual engagement. It is really important to build stories than don’t last for a brief campaign period, but can engage people throughout the year.

We have created our conversation-worthy on every brand level around these developments:

Based on this, it’s nice to see how brand campaigns are evolving.

Take Vedett.
Last week, I was invited to spend the night in the Vedett Motel with my girlfriend. The Vedett Motel is a cement truck (!) turned into a true moving hotel. With a bed. With a computer and tv. With free wifi. With a (extra cold) shower. With bikes.
The motel will travel through Europe the coming period to visit festivals, bars, cafes and … Vedett fans. This week, the truck will be at the Dok Kantine location at the Gentse Feesten.

Smart?

Vedett is smart in being worth sharing, even on a detailed level:

• Every guest gets a limited ‘Moteltrucker’ shirt
• There are many Vedett details in the truck: the wallpaper, the penguin, the hatstand, beer crates to hide gear, Vedett boxes, etc.
• The motel guide is great in copy and visuals
• They collect motel stories in the guest book

And they enable sharing by providing free wifi and an internet-connected computer as well (dear hotel owners, maybe you could learn from this instead of charging me 10 euros every time I want to use the internet in your hotel).

Belgian beer brand has a track record of doing smart conversation-worthy stuff.

Want in? Check http://www.vedett.be/motel

Note: Vedett is not a client and I am not paid by Vedett 🙂 Vedett offered me to stay in their Vedett Motel without asking anything in return. Vedett was a partner of the most recent JongTuig drink in Gent, en two-monthly event that I host together with my friend Andrew Vassallo.