Talking digital trends in Amsterdam: Top Dutch agencies and brands gaze on big data, behavioural targeting and branded content

It’s estimated that consumers today see an average of 4,000 messages every day of their lives. Out of all that noise, we only act upon five of them, which doesn’t give advertisers very good odds of making a connection with their audience. The question posed to the speakers: “How can advertisers give themselves the best possible chance of being the successful one in 800?”

And very popular it was, with over 350 leading Netherlands and international industry players, including magazine editors, agency CEOs, brand managers and entrepreneurs joining a lively, standing-room-only evening of debate around hot potatoes such as big data, behavioural targeting and branded content.

The speakers came to the debate from diverse perspectives: consumer behaviour expert - and self-professed ‘Science Rockstar’ - Mauritz Kaptein; Tommy Hilfiger global art director for interactive and digital Florentijn Diepeveen; digital agency LBi NL strategy director Ruurd Priester; and Turn business development director Marco Ruivenkamp.

Today, it’s estimated that over 3,800 advertisers in the Netherlands use real-time online advertising and behavioural targeting to market to consumers more efficiently and the trend is one that shows no sign of slowing in pace. In fact, as Marco Ruivenkamp boldly stated, many observers predict a future in which fixed advertising is dead, replaced by the flexibility of bespoke, consumer targeted messaging.

LBi NL’s Ruurd Priester asserted his prediction that a big Dutch brand will be at the forefront of the next big digital innovation. His expert advice for being successful in the digital era was simple but effective: Give consumers something they really want, be creative in what you create, release early and release many, and never stop searching for the next innovation that will transform the landscape and our behaviour, citing Whatsapp as a brand that had recently transformed his life.

Tommy Hilfiger is known for a rich US heritage and its global headquarters are based here in Amsterdam, making it a very interesting brand to the audience. Diepeveen estimates that of the business’s online sales, around 20 per cent per cent are made via tablet today. With this impressive figure in mind, it’s easy to see why brands such as Tommy Hilfiger place such a focus on creating content that is shareable across devices, from laptop to smartphone to tablet.

Perhaps the most outspoken speaker on the night was social scientist Mauritz Kaptein who explained that his company, Science Rockstars, had created over 80m unique consumer profiles that businesses can use to help them to target their advertising more efficiently to each potential customer.

He talked about the digital techniques that brands use to make consumers more likely to click, like and, most importantly, buy – from being told that other people are looking at the same offer to the message that a particular product is low in stock.

All very convincing, but as one wag in the audience so rightly put it, it’s fine and dandy to get consumers hot under the collar about buying your wares, but in the Netherlands, where the standard wait for anything bought online, from a toothbrush to a fridge freezer, is a minimum of six weeks – yes, really, try it and prepare to cry salty tears of frustration – brands have a few, rather more pressing, issues to contend with when leading the way in digital.