Ben is back

If you have lived in The Netherlands for more than five years, you might be acquainted with the brand called ‘Ben’. Five years ago, this mobile operator was a strong consumer brand as a fighter operator, focusing on young people. To many, the campaigns are still known. Kesselskramer, the creative communication agency, did the black and white (with light blue as the only support color). Ben means ‘to be’ in Dutch. It is also a name. This brand name really was bull’s eye as it proved to be extremely campaignable. I was sort of sad that it disappeared – I was one of Ben’s dedicated followers – but did not think too much of it as I was living in Finland and using the local operator Kolumbus at the time.Now, for the audiences, Ben is back. And guess what, same campaign, same colors, same magic, provided by KesselsKramer.

Ben’s business concept has changed since then. Now you can only get prepaid subscriptions through their web site and it’s only prepaid. Ben targets everyone who is basically only interested in using the cell phone as a phone, so only verbal communication and SMS. Interesting. Anyway. Ben’s campaign is fantastic and quite crossmedial. Check it out at Ben’s site and click ‘Ben benieuwd’.

Mentality research a gogo #1

Today I met with my students who deal with tackling mentality issues. The core question was what mentality is. Good question. My IMAB model has been food for thoughts. But surely, it is only version 0.1. The Doves have added content to the model (Matthijs please post your addition to the model. If you cannot post it as a comment then mail me your stuff so I can put it on-line), the Jumpers are looking for ways to continue their research. Before moving back to the comprehensible and, as Harry van Vliet would say: ‘making it small’, we have decided to do a brown paper session, a brain storm on words on what mentality is. Then, we’ll test it with reference groups. Finally we will use the outcomes in our workshop half April during the Crossing Cultures event in Utrecht. The result of this is – hoping – ontology of ‘mentality’ that we can use to conduct straight forward research on this issue.