Creative and Sustainable Marketing? A Small Business from the Ardennes Shows How

Ardennes-Etape prolongs the life of its promotional material. Enormous advertising poster becomes unique gift for clients and personnel.

Responsible entrepreneurship and sustainability, long-term strategies versus brand awareness, visibility and creativity… Combining these principles is no easy task. Finding the correct balance between them, however, is crucial in the strategic plan of every business. After some puzzling, Ardennes-Etape brought this challenge to a success.

bean bag-ardennes-etape

Limited Resources

Ardennes-Etape took up the challenge, without a grand budget, external resources or world famous advertising agencies. This small business from Stavelot in the Belgian province of Liège with 40 employees combined sustainability and visibility in a creative mix.

For visibility they chose one of the ‘traditional’ channels to put the spotlight on Ardennes-Etape. The result was a metres-high advertising poster in Antwerp and an even bigger one in Rotterdam. Together they reached 24 million people.

Antwerp-Poster-Bean-Bag-Recycling

Sustainability

The posters – 120 square metres in Antwerp and 850 in Rotterdam – were removed after a period of one month. The question: how to extend the life span of this material?

The Ardennes-Etape marketing team found the solution: recycling the poster into a bean bag. Creativity: check.

bean bag-ardennes-etape-recycling

Unique Gift

After some searching they found the perfect partner in DesignPoint. This organisation is – just like Ardennes-Etape – one hundred per cent Belgian and works by the principles of social economy. In close collaboration both posters were transformed in 120 by 120 centimetre bean bags. Without wasting any materials, 290 unique bean bags were produced from both posters. Sustainable and responsible.

A few people won a bean bag in a contest and employees will also receive one. This way they bring this piece of Ardennes-Etape amidst the public. The bean bag – or ‘pouf’ in French – will appear regularly in future campaigns.

Creativity

So with limited resources, a fair amount of common sense and a whole lot of creativity they achieved an optimal result as a small business. After all, restrictions boost creativity.

bean bag-ardennes-etape-bis

So as the Ardennes-Etape tradition wants… A great example of ‘Que du Bonheur’!

For any further information: contact@ardennes-etape.com.

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