case
Kick-off of AkzoNobel's colour trends campaign
The case
AkzoNobel, the world’s largest manufacturer of paints and coatings, conducts intensive research on cutting-edge social, economic, and design trends. Under the theme Everyday +: Finding the wonderful in the normal, AkzoNobel presented both the ColourFutures 2015 trend book and the global launch of a series of press conferences in Amsterdam. As a company, AkzoNobel was grappling with issues like 'How can we ensure that these colour trends not only penetrate the mindsets of influencers, the media, and the public, but also that they land on their agenda?’
The approach
Linden & Barbosa advised AkzoNobel on the communications plan for the trend report and book. To showcase the most important colour trends, we designed five different lifestyle settings for display at the fashionable Hôtel Droog, and invited the press and influencers to attend the unveiling. Ruud Joosten, managing director of AkzoNobel Decorative Paints, and Heleen van Gent, creative director of the AkzoNobel Global Aesthetic Centre, gave a presentation on global trends and their impact on colour.
The trend research, the event attendees, and the lifestyle settings went down a storm with the roughly thirty national and international journalists and bloggers present. Content was uploaded to AkzoNobel's social media channels for further distribution.
Odet van Winsen
AkzoNobel Decorative Paints Nederland Manager Marketing PR"Amsterdam needs brightening up! That was the principle behind the start of our pilot project with Linden & Barbosa in 2009. People in the Netherlands put the Dutch capital at the top of the list of bleak cities, according to research carried out by Flexa into colour and mood. The thought behind it was that colour, in the form of paint, can do much more than you think. This project netted us a great deal of publicity, including a front-page article in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. Now, our collaboration has taken on a much deeper form. I would describe my contacts at Linden & Barbosa as PR experts who work with a solid plan and a goal in mind and who are enjoyable to work with."