Feb 19 2008
*ben* nostalgisch (brand nostalgia)
Fans of Kessels Kramers’ campaigns, rejoice! BEN is back. BEN was the brand name of a mobile operator that started offering services in the late 1990s. The mobile telephony landscape at that time was carved up between an incumbent (KPN) and its challenger (then Libertel, to become Vodafone later on). Together with Telfort and Dutchtone (remember them?) BEN entered the market in 1998. BEN’s launch campaign is the stuff of brand marketing legend. Devising a “personal” brand, the Kessels Kramer agency chose BEN (a pun on Dutch “I am”) as this brand personality’s first name. A number of ground breaking tv ads and an equally wonderful print campaign ensured a high level of brand visibility. BEN obviously had the “cool” factor. When Tmobile bought BEN, Kessels Kramer fought hard to keep the brand name and the campaign assets out of the deal. And now, BEN is back, using the same Black and White “artsy” stylo. But the old days will never return. In hindsight, the BEN campaign was the epitome of a certain relaxed, multi cultural “dutchness”. It’s no coincidence that the people featuring in the ads were a representative cross section of the dutch population as it wanted to perceive itself: hip, laid-back, relaxed in its new-found multicultural sensibility. Nowadays, the pendulum has swung again: Dutch nationalism has come to the fore, together with Denmark we are last in the “tolerance league table” and the BEN ads seem to be from a completely different era. I must say, I felt the pain of nostalgia as it dawned on me that BEN is making a come back. As come backs go it’s a crippled one: BEN is to be a Tmobile sub brand and it’s a sim-only deal. To celebrate BEN’s rise from the marketing grave I went digging for some of the ads, such as can be found on YouTube. I found the launch ad and BEN’s most brilliant ad, the one that tells you to switch off your phone. Here they both are, enjoy, feel the pain and look back on an era that was so much more free than what we’re currently experiencing.
Ik ben Ben
Ben: Telefoons mogen soms ook even uit
I was an old BEN fan.. When I saw the commercial on TV, I seriously considered switching back from T-Mobile.
yep, I’m an old BEN fan too. Brilliant campaign…marketingfacts.nl covered BEN’s resurgence quite extensively. There, people pointed out, that “BEN er weer” is plain wrong. Of course it should be “BEN terug”. This demonstrates that there is no affinity whatsoever with the old BEN concept.
[...] persoonlijk. Bij dergelijke merken is het veel moeilijker om deze waarden nieuw leven in te blazen. Genoeg puristen die het nieuwe ‘Ben’ niet zo vanzelfsprekend trouw zullen zijn en vinden dat het merk is verkwanseld aan een paar handige jongens van [...]