Kinepolis: the extra mile

The extra mile, indicating the formidable length of my post on the e-strategy of Kinepolis, was perhaps a bridge to far what concerns webcopy. "Overnewsed but uninformed" totally fits the Zeitgeist. While nosing around on the internet you've probably noticed that often lots of people are covering one specific subject without passing on founded knowledge on the matter. Let alone giving insides or writing down something nobody else would possibly be able to put down in words. Luckily this wasn't entirely the case on this particular event. We had passed a great deal of 'bashing about', pissing on Kinepolis, repeatedly echoing each other on what was wrong with Kinepolis. Now, thanks to some fantastic bloggers and the therefor crucial event the echo-chamber had morphed and fresh thoughts had been released. "Overnewsed but uninformed" was my motto for digging really deep into the backgrounds that jumped this conversation. All that to share with you a deeper understanding of what is going and how this all came into place.

I know reading on the web isn't quite as inviting as reading a book. In the zone untenable by my own enthusiasm. The post was loaded with several sidestories and inside information leading away from the core idea that particular post was messaging.

Having finished writing it already dawned on me but I was to eager to hit the 'publish' button so I did. During writing I changed my status on LinkedIn into "writing a book on the e-strategy of Kinepolis, the largest host of movietheaters in Belgium", so I was very well aware of the fact that the post was stretching out that extra mile not a soul would reach to read. This morning I received an e-mail of friend and colleague Pietel. He informed me that he was interested in reading the story but pointed out that I should stick to 1 idea per post. He suggested extracting sidestories and indirect information on the topic into different posts, splitting the story, making it easier for readers to gain access to the original post, core of the topic within the vivid conversation roaring about Kinepolis at the moment.

@Pietel: you are right, having to scroll about 3 seconds to meet the bottom of the post, about 7 times an entire screen down the fold of a standard browser-window (1024*768), is a little pushing daisies.

Thus, this has been taken care of. The original post was split up into eatable pieces of blogwriting. Some of you might argue that the core post is still too long but I didn't want to alter the work I submitted on this topic.

I hope it serves your cause and treats your time with pleasing aftermath. Hereby the list of posts embracing my thoughts, observations and insights about a recently started conversation on 'Kinepolis':
» Think of it as Jujitsu. The ins and outs of Kinepolis' latest e-strategy. (original post, insights and background on the conversation)
» How it all started
» Calling in the bloggers
» Martial arts
» Marrying an agency
» Who is Druppels
» To media or not to media
» Join the conversation

Kinepolis: join the conversation

Please join the conversation at:
Tales of drudgery and boredom, Een scheet in een fles, Dipfico's daily, Blogging the news, An unexpected view to the world, Verwarring troef, Blogging in Balegem or De gustibus est disputandum.

More conversations can be browsed by using the widget displayed next, or you use a watchlist to monitor new entries.

Kinepolis: To media or not to media

Today, it is often debated whether it is better to use mainstream, or must I use 'traditional', media or the so called social media online for getting your message through. Though the question is not which is better, the question should rather be: what are you trying to achieve, what goals have you set, what targets are you chasing. Social media is all about talking, establishing a relationship with that customer, rather than just saying "here I am, have you seen me?". Social media can have their value, but talking is not always appropriate for a company or a brand. It all depends let's say, the big change here is that now, other than before, companies are choosing. Choosing whether to push, talk, interact, engage, listen or ... shout.

Kinepolis: Who is Druppels

Druppels, Frédéric De Vries, started working at ProximityBBDO October 2007. First as a Strategist completing a special unit called 'Innovation'. A unit created to guard and amplify the level of creative output of the freshly started merger called ProximityBBDO. It existed of 4 specialists. This unit worked as a satellite orbiting the giant hairball, functioning a plug-and-play unit engaging with the different departments inside the organization. This unit could be referred to as 'a wild-card team'. Druppels creative companions were Adriaan van Looy and Wim Provoost. Frédéric De Vries, former These Days and DigiPoint, is now a Creative Director at ProximityBBDO. Which explains the lack of time for writing decent studied blog-posts like this one. I have to add that killer Aikido training, a fast car, barking dog and biting new girlfriend also add up on his personal time-sheet. I report to "Fré" directly, as he is responsible guarding the Online Art Directors at our company.

Kinepolis: marrying an agency

Not too long ago, Kinepolis chose ProximityBBDO as their sparring partner for talking to their customers. Talking yes. By now most companies have understood that pushing the message through mainstream media doesn't always bring value for money. Kinepolis currently owns and hosts 23 cinema complexes in Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and Switzerland, and employs about 1600 people.

Kinepolis: Martial arts

Jujitsu is mostly known for it's key attribute: turning the attacker's force against him. Some amongst the martial arts experts would argue that the martial art of Aikido is better known for this attribute but that's not quite the point of this article. Of course there's no need to tell you that the force of this new era is that of the consumer. Consumers have the power, consumers are in charge now, no need to keep repeating that. Important is this: consumers can raid on companies whenever they have the feeling they have been done harm, just like that, as long as they get support from others, as long as there is an audience they'll be listened to. So let me stop boring you and move on to the story here.

Kinepolis: calling in the bloggers

"Druppels welcomed the bloggers, together with the Adhese team, as they arrived at the scenery.

Tapping the Groundswell
Robin showed up first. Shortly after the majority of the invited influentials had walked through the door and the drinks were ready to be served the cosy chatter amongst the bloggers started. The crowd knows each other. It's been years since I've had this awkward feeling of being a newbie. I comfort myself with some statistics, namely, that I knew 5 out of 40 attendees. Recognized more than 50% by recalling their faces from flashing avatars. And had found least one somebody with which talking was as if I'd knew him for years, knowing how to handle a
Westside accent has some advantages after all. Bob's nerves were almost untenable. I think be that time he could have given that presentation upside down, he was totally in on it. Bob, Bob Claeys, heir to the Kinepolis heritage. Bob, Kinepolis board-member and by far it's most enthusiastic evangelist. This guy breaths Kinepolis, lives Kinepolis, is (partly) Kinepolis. He would tell the invited crowd about how this company had grown, about their strengths and recent investments in innovative technologies. He was sweating. Although Bob did a great job on bringing an story with flair and lots of juice, still the bloggers were left clueless about their reason being there. Clueless about why their precious time was being occupied. Clueless about why they had been served free drinks, a grim impatience started to arise in the tone of voice of the comment spread through the Twitter services. Bob was talking too long and too loud... A small break came about right on time and the audience moved to a less 'listen to me' kind of space. Food was served, well food. Some bloggers obviously expected more than finger-food and popcorn. The story continued and a new face stood before the gang of online frontiers. The one and only CEO of Kinepolis was ready to take on the beating if necessary, Eddy Duquenne, a brave man. It was time to tune out from the fairy tale of history and wake up. Eddy had a calm, charismatic and unnatural appearance of authority. It was as if he owned the placed. This wasn't a man under siege, he must have been hypnotized. No. He was there, feet to the ground, listening. He explained briefly why he had invited everybody present. He explained their new strategy of listening and talking and shortly after moved to the Q&A. Most Belgian readers amongst you undoubtedly can recall the painful moments plenty of speakers confront when speaking before a Belgian audience, silence. No questions. But this wasn't the case at all. The audience didn't jump him like an outrage mob, the questions were neatly lined up. Time was exploited to raise hands, ask questions and change thoughts. Eddy wasn't being to defensive at all. He left a divine impression.



That question
Then someone popped that one question: "why is the founder of that Facebook group called Kinepolis gaat erover not invited to this talk? He is the reason why we are here, right?".
Eddy smiled and sat his ass down. "Well, as a matter of fact, no, that is not why you are here. At least not entirely. Yes, he is the reason why we have shifted gear in what were working on. But it is not 'because' of him you are here. You are here mainly because we want to start talking with our customers. And we have not invited him because we wanted to emphasize the fact that he is merely the reason for us to shift gears. Also, he has blanked us out, swamping us with negativity and we want to push ourself in the right direction without being defensive, without counterattacking. We want to focus on these new pathways we have chalked down and start off with a clean street. We want to let our audience, our customers, know that we are here from now on. We want to get the message out that we are listening. We took note of every post, every line, written on
the the wall of that Facebook-group and we are working on some of those demands as we speak. I know we haven't been there in the past. And I know we aren't there at the present. But I know we are going to be there in the future. Yes, we are going to remodel our website. Yes, we are going to grease our online ticketing. Of course we want them to be cheaper (instead of the way around few months ago) than the tickets you buy 'offline'. No, we don't want to push the price of our tickets to an outrages amount. It keeps some people from coming to our venues as well remember. But hey, Rome wasn't build in one day. We are an organization tackling a broad range of issues and these things need time. We have to take it slow, one step at a time, think things over sometime, but rest assured we will go on." — wooaw, I mean I was blown away. I myself'd never expect him to be this blunt, honest, with the crowd. Chapeau! And sure, the price of Coke and popcorn bought from the shops inside the venues is out of line but hey what's new. If the Coke is to expensive don't drink it. If your children are nagging for popcorn till your skull starts to open up, give them an asswhoopin' or get a nanny and tell her "no popcorn". Get them a better education or tell them popcorn kills. If the tickets are too expensive, don't go there (sorry that's a joke, go there just skip one meal ;)) But of course, Kinepolis has quite a monopoly on housing movie-theaters in our country, I agree. On the other hand, they do have the best seatings and offer. If you want to seduce a new lover and it works, it is worth the money, right? And if it's not you can always try and hook on some colleagues.



Flawless victory
With Eddy answering a dozen questions flawlessly something dawned to me. I was thinking this guy should start writing a blog on his own. No doubt his analytics would skyrock shortly after the release. After all who wouldn't want to hear news from the captain himself. He has something to say, he has the authority and he has an audience that is eager to talk. But. I wasn't actually there on invitation. I was on his side. And I wasn't fully on top of things concerning the development of the relationship between the agency I work for and his company, Kinepolis, our client. Would I be out of line? I was already out of line for tweeting that the speaker was to loud. Would I be out of line asking about his thought on this, let alone proposing him to do so. I must have bitten my tongue somewhere between 20 and 30 times, my lips were burning. I admit to not be being in control of my enthusiasm in participating and raised my hand. Eddy looked at me, clueless of the fact that I was actually a ProximityBBDO employee. I blended in naturally. Flanked by Dominiek and Goedles on my left and Houbi on my right. I started activating the small zone in my brain that is used for talking: "You answer flawless to each one of these questions. Why don't you take on write a blog of your own? I can imagine a blog written by somebody of your authority would undoubtedly be warmly welcomed by your customers." He answered with confidence, calm and self-assured: "Oh I will. Soon my friend, soon. We're working on it." He meant, I, in the near future. Funny. I was satisfied. A client that leveled. Wonderful.

Kinepolis: how it all started

A Misty winter morning
Druppels vividly recalls that moment: "It was misty winter morning. We were staring at each other from the far end of the table. We all gathered in the Moutstraat, Ghent. It wasn't quite a celebration. The room was filled with a cold but damp air. We were at war, or rather, we were under siege, big time. It wasn't the economic crisis we were tortured by, no, it was the masses. Present were all Kinepolis board-members and 3 envoys of the agency. To Kinepolis it was Pearl Harbor, not single soul was spared." — @mvuijst: Druppels has frozen his writing activities due to a lack of time.
» Who is Druppels

Back to that chilly winter morning in Ghent. "A sigh, a thousand blinks and 4 gallons of coffee later action was undertaken. Yet, it took some more gatherings to get straight on the final plans but a brand new e-strategy was written. It was an ambitious one. A grand revival. Yes, the wisdom of the poker-gods is to be learned by heart; comebacks exist! We were scrambling all the possible guts a board could possibly think of and stood up facing 45000 joiners of a group that was based upon nothing but to destroy us."

Kinepolis: Think of it as Jujitsu

Think of it as Jujitsu
[» Martial arts]

The ins and outs of Kinepolis' latest e-strategy.


Kinepolis, originally uploaded by Pieter Baert.

To Kinepolis it had always been about shouting, talking without listening, assuming not asking. So when we sat around the table with Kinepolis for the first time, somewhere last year, we decided to take it one step at a time. [» How it all started] It seemed obvious we should start with listening. Luckily Kinepolis had build up a huge amount of contacts in their database (so sorry, I'm very bad at remembering numbers but I'd say like 400000 or so, could be lots more, I'm modest, if you know the number please comment) so asking questions would be to hard to get our 'new behavior' going. A large questionnaire was compiled listing a wide range of questions. The questionnaire was mainly focused on topics that concern the satisfaction of the visiting customer. Evidently this questionnaire is key for setting out the new goals Kinepolis and ProximityBBDO wanted to strive for. [» Marrying an agency] Gathering info on what the customer desires of a cinema and entertainment experience today is crucial for starting to build around the axis most important for creating a better Kinepolis. After all Kinepolis has been about
innovative drive and a customer-friendly approach from the start, so they say. The response rate on the questionnaire was satisfying, allow me to even say huge, enormous (again, damn numbers, comment-section please). That info is being scrambled as we speak. Of course just sending out a questionnaire and asking people "what would you do if you ran a cinema" isn't quite enough to get the ball on fire. It was the tipping point of the behavior change though. A green light to start engaging with the new way things work nowadays. Now the motor was up and running the wheel had to be grabbed and seat belt buckled up.

Next, without throwing out a bait, we would listen. Listen to what people are saying to each other about the Kinepolis venues, about the cinema experience, about how they live the entertainment. And where, of all places, could we hear that story best, indeed: the internet. The chance of picking up a conversation about Kinepolis by just walking up the street is nearly nonexistent. So we were designated to using watchlists, searchbots and alertservices for finding out where the conversations were taking place. The results, yes I'm honest from the top down, were rather negative. And
some conversations didn't just sit there being negative waiting to be discovered, no.
Some conversations were marching on, upwards, raving like a mad bull at a red blanket. I recall one night in a place called
the Matrix ...

A group called Facebook
Someone had started a new group on Facebook someone who didn't quite like the Kinepolis management. The group was called "Kinepolis gaat erover" (= Kinepolis crossed a line). By that time the group was supported by about 5000 fans, or joiners. By the end of that day the tribe doubled, vastly expanding, spreading like a lean mean virus. Kinepolis was 'attacked' by the power of the masses and they were not ready to talk back. As you know we were at the embryonal stage of sending out a bloody questionnaire. 2 days later, the founder (
David Callens), starred nationwide spitting out about what is wrong with the management of Kinepolis. Criticizing the organization top down, stripping it from it's pride, throwing all members of the board into a roaring ocean of bad news without being offered a life jacket. [» Who is Druppels]
David had a point on some topics, others were a shout out of unfounded madness but clearly a desperate cry for attention. Kinepolis had to start listening and it did. But, Kinepolis wasn't ready to take on this massive swing. And remained ducked down for the time being. Left, standing, out there, in the middle of nowhere. Naked. Beaten.

Spandex and speakers
In the eighties Kinepolis was a huge success. Mainly due to their innovative approach introducing THX Dolby Surround. "The audience is listening" was their motto those days. Nowadays they are bound to learn the hard way that "the audience is participating". Of course we were eager to help them out as it is as hard on us to see clients suffering as it is to mothers hearing their babies cry.

The tactics?
[» Calling in the bloggers]
Gather all (most...) influential bloggers in town (Belgium). Boys (and girls) with thousands of readers, an audience. Amongst which, lots of Kinepolis lovers and Facebook members. Tell them the story of that one local cinema that grew to be the international enterprise? it is now. Tell them the truth, be open and honest. don't hide, take it like a man and above all "don't get defensive". Listen. be transparent about yourself and your company and above all be human. Act normal. Talk. After all, it can't get any worse.

Nothing to lose.
The result was a cosy gathering of Belgian blogosphere influentials. But don't be fooled. It wasn't all that sunshine, happiness and rainbows. No. It takes great courage and nerves of steal to face a mob like them. Bloggers were called and invited by Enchante. Enchante specializes in business relationships with bloggers and positions itself as being able to establish the perfect link between a brand and the exact right blogger. These bloggers were invited without being given a thorough background of the situation.

I was there that evening.

Listen, think, talk
Inviting this specific crowd was a risk, to us, to Kinepolis. We could lose a client. They could drown a lot deeper, a lot deeper. After all this mass of bloggers represented a huge amount of '(online) media space'. There opinions post are were the eyeballs walk. The influencers were on our side. A crowd that is so trained in seeing scams through would have noticed on the spot if they were being tricked into a trap. It was obvious, we were naked. We didn't beg for help, a story was being told. An honest story, a story from the heart, transparent and sincere. The next day, the conversation started. Bloggers were pushing out and they were on our side. Of course still sceptical about many topics listed on the Facebook group. Of course criticizing current issues. But overly, positive. Moreover, David ended his activities on the Facebook group and posted out to
the 42891 members that his mission was accomplished. Kinepolis had listened to the Groundswell. Kinepolis had started talking. And now, so he ended, "dear Kinepolis, now, we are listening."

[» Join the conversation]