Boondoggle lets youngsters create a will for their reckless driving friends

In Belgium, 30% of the victims of weekend accidents are youngsters below 24 years old. Time to reduce this number thought the Flemish Government.

But young people just don't want to be told what they can or can't do. And certainly not by the Government. They only have ears for their closest friends, their 'peers'. But as a friend, it's not that easy to start a conversation with a 'reckless friend' about the way he or she drives. A lot of youngsters are afraid of being the 'loser', the 'weenie', the 'chicken'. So we had to come up with an idea that made the interventions of these youngsters 'cool enough'.

So we created a campaign that asked youngsters a simple question:
"Do you know reckless drivers amongst your friends? Tell them what you’d like to inherit from them."

On www.hettestamentvan.be youngsters have the chance to set up a will for their reckless friend. By sending this will, by mail or Facebook, to their reckless friend, they got the perfect alibi to point out his reckless driving, without being ‘uncool’.  The campaign is also integrated in Netlog. During the weekends, we will bive passengers more than unfilled wills at the biggest clubs, cinema complexes and mega-events. And last but not least, an online movie with Tom Waes and Koen Van Impe was spread to promote the website.

www.hettestamentvan.be
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Boondoggle fires the starting pistol for the sp.a campaign

Boondoggle's first stage of the election campaign for sp.a is intended to bring home the message sharply. Frank Vandenbroucke, Kathleen Van Brempt and Caroline Gennez look the reader directly in the eye from full-page black and white advertisements in newspapers and magazines, along with this message: “If you don’t want to hear anything from sp.a, then just listen to what’s going on”.

The tenor of the adverts is clear: The situation is serious and that will require careful consideration on June 7. It is important that sp.a should have a future say in policy in the current social-economic climate, as opportunities will be lost in Flanders if sp.a does not take part in the decision-making process. If sp.a had not contributed to policy over the last few years, then not everyone would have benefited equally from the job bonus that’s the talk of the town these days, there would not have been any study allowances or maximum levels set for contributions to extracurricular activities, there would have been fewer and more expensive childminding places available, and the building industry would not have received a boost through a large investment in social housing.

Each advert ends with the baseline “sp.a Now more than ever” and expressly invites everybody to enter into a dialogue with the party leaders through the sp.a website, where Vandenbroucke, Van Brempt and Gennez have provided an audio-visual version of their narrative (in full-screen, black and white film clips). Anybody can respond immediately to their personal e-mail addresses and enter into a discussion.

A number of large street events will take place in Leuven, Ghent, Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp on 6 March. Images of the party leaders and the campaign headline (“If you don’t want to hear anything from sp.a, then just listen to what’s going on”) will be displayed on several metres high large panels along the streets. Headsets attached to the panels will allow passers-by to listen to what Frank Vandenbroucke, Kathleen Van Brempt and Caroline Gennez have to say. The senior party people and provincial representatives will be present at these events, so everybody will be able to enter into a personal dialogue with them.

Boondoggle’s intention is that the campaign resolutely moves sp.a into the spotlight. In recent months, sp.a has been a party undergoing regeneration, but that is now a thing of the past. The party has stepped assertively out of the shadows and taken up the baton within the socio-economic debate with the interests of all at heart.

The choice of explicitly targeting voters who are considering not casting their lot with sp.a is a well-considered one, given recent polls. Sp.a is saying to those doubters: Don’t throw away your vote on another party. The party will meet all voters – even those not considering sp.a – looking them squarely in the eye, chest out and chin held high with the courage generated by its own convictions in heart and soul.

Boondoggle recruits engineers of the future for GroupT

Boondoggle showcases Group T’s famous engineering programme in a slick new campaign. The aim of the campaign is to shine a different light on the general perceptions about engineers in order to recruit the engineers of the future. 

“Beyond Engineering”: That’s the baseline for the Boondoggle campaign, as well as the philosophy underpinning the Group T engineering programme. “Beyond Engineering” is about the art of approaching problems as part of a whole ecosystem rather than focusing on unidimensional aspects. To look at a problem in the widest possible context, and particularly to arrive at solutions that don’t create new problems, but that actually make a real difference. It’s not for nothing that Group T’s engineers are described as agents of change.

Boondoggle and Group T have created 4 different double-page adverts to be published in Humo and a particularly interactive website (www.beyondengineering.be) to explain how engineers of the future will think and act. The long copy adverts (a perfect opportunity for us to apply all our skills and produce some page-turning copywriting) illustrate 4 real-life stories of engineers who have each in their own way significantly changed (a part of) the world.

Each advert invites the reader to participate in a fascinating self-assessment test at the www.beyondengineering.be website: Do you have the potential to make a difference as an engineer? The website presents two real-life problems, and you have a choice of three possible solutions for each of them. Each solution has its own – sometimes highly unexpected – consequences which determine whether the solution chosen was the most desirable. Going through the problems gives you an idea of what “beyond engineering” precisely entails: An approach to engineering science that goes so much further than just “building things”. And that is precisely why it's so interesting for ambitious youngsters who want to leave their mark on the world, but who may not have initially thought about a career in engineering.

A taste of Ryanair's social media strategy

"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again."