Albert Heijn is the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands with over 1,000 stores. To help bring Albert Heijn’s customer-first vision to life across multiple channels, APS were a natural choice as an experienced in-house agency partner. The award-winning global agency won the pitch process against a number of key competitors.

Overview

As a global communications company working in-house with a number of retailers, APS understands the demands of multi-channel campaigns throughout the year. Their teams work closely with a number of lead agencies, with creatives able to quickly immerse themselves in a campaign – expanding key visuals and concepts and delivering fully-fledged communications, on tight timelines and budgets.

Think

APS provides a unique, one-client touchpoint, taking any brief from concept through to completion and delivery – whether this is POS and packaging in store, creative concepts, video, photography, design, digital or social media content creation.

Create

Being onsite allows for shorter lines of communication. Creative teams work as one with the client to ensure each campaign’s true potential is realised and value-added at every point of the journey.

Deliver

The APS creative network globally supports Albert Heijn’s onsite team in Zaandam – however support will predominantly come from APS’ Halfweg creative hub and APS’ Eindhoven technical hub who have been working closely together with the onsite team since day one, to ensure brand and cultural immersion.

“Our partnership with APS Group has allowed us to deliver on a vision we have had for some time now: to increase control of our marketing communications.”

Albert Heijn Studio Director

Hoya is driven by a passion for partnership and innovation. They needed a new display to showcase their lenses and wanted them to be more sustainable than the existing ones they were using.

For the first campaign we used bamboo instead of aluminum and plastic and Katz Board instead of normal cardboard.

We made all display bases re-usable and everything modular so Hoya doesn’t need to switch the whole display for each campaign.

Hoya is driven by a passion for partnership and innovation. They needed a new display to showcase their lenses and wanted them to be more sustainable than the existing ones they were using.

For the first campaign we used bamboo instead of aluminum and plastic and Katz Board instead of normal cardboard.

We made all display bases re-usable and everything modular so Hoya doesn’t need to switch the whole display for each campaign.

Discover

For a number of years, we have worked with Philips to produce and mail their referral marketing communications, delivering between 100-200k customers pieces per month across their lifeline, well-being and professional healthcare divisions.

Design

Philips asked us to look at innovating their existing direct mail packs, as it was felt that they had become outdated in their creative execution and customer impact.

Deliver

We suggested a new design each month, including a tactile and eye-catching pop-up self-mailer, something Philips had not previously tried before. The mailer had a soft touch coating to add interest when picked up by the respondent.

Develop

Harnessing our extensive vendor base, we were able to deliver production cost savings of over $3.5k, as well as giving Philips new options for their direct mailing. Through their monthly A/B testing, we are working with Philips to use insights gained to further improve response rates.