The Challenge
BAVET is a Belgian food brand that showcases quirkiness or being ‘out of the ordinary’, as they call it. Their tagline? Made for Friends! They are all about saucy goodness but also about a hospitality atmosphere that oozes friendly yet cool vibes. However, the message wasn’t coming across online as strong as they’d like it to. Their website was in need of a new, fresh design, and unique copywriting that would let BAVET make stains online as well as on your shirt. The goal was to pivot (pivot pivot!) themselves and really make their mark on the market, as well as generate more (online) traffic. Furthermore, BAVET is ambitious: they’ve already grown into a collection of 17 restaurants (!) but they’re aiming for international waters.
Our Idea
We didn’t have to think twice about the question, especially when we heard we were getting ‘carteblanche’. Exactly our cup of eh, spaghetti. Together, we looked at the scope and decided that we’d provide them with a storyline, in order to check the correct tone of voice. Once that would be approved, we’d deliver (more or less) 9 website pages in English as well as in Dutch to fit the design of OWOW. We promised: we’ll be there for you.
What we did
True to our style, we started by conducting interviews with the marketing people at BAVET. Something they greatly appreciated and gave them a sense of trust: we were really listening to their story and considering their spirit. We also made sure we talked to the founder of BAVET, so he could tell us more about BAVET’s history and core values. It soon became clear that they wanted to stick to a funky and slightly wacky Tarantino flavour while at the same time keeping the door open for every audience. Kids as well as youngsters as well as hipsters as well as adults as well as grannies as well as … Everyone had to feel welcome. Quite the spread position for us, but we cheerfully got to it.
We began by writing out the storyline of BAVET in English to show them that we understood the brand. It’s an important part of how we work at Unmute You: we get in sync to make sure we’re all on the same page. Jumping from their tagline ‘Made for Friends’ we incorporated cultural references (to the 1990s series F.R.I.E.N.D.S., for instance) and started playing around with words. Most of all, we made sure to get all the key messages in there, so they’d be assured we weren’t forgetting anything. We’re very proud to say that BAVET responded by saying: “Wow, spot on!” Mission accomplished! We were good to go. #TheOneWhereTheClientIsAwesomeSauce
The pages
We proceeded by working out the specific website pages (such as the home page, an about page, restaurant pages, a job page, a community page …) in English. Basing ourselves on the design of OWOW, we worked in a document that was open to BAVET to comment on. This way, changes in the design were easily reported back to us, and we had the flexibility to adapt things from our side. The arrangements and the scope were clear, and BAVET’s fast and constructive feedback helped us to switch things up quickly. In fact, everything went so smoothly that the flow couldn’t have been much more organic if we’d tried.
As is our custom, we only started on the Dutch pages once the English ones were fully approved. Since we never go for a literal translation, those were constructed from scratch as well. To crank things up a notch, we made sure that the cultural references reflected a more Belgian and specifically Flemish personality. The process and our mutual understanding made it a swift success; co-creating with BAVET felt almost amicable. Before we knew it, all was delivered, and the project was done! *Insert Janice’s ‘Oh My God!’ here*
The Results
According to the client, they’re now extremely proud when they open their website – as are we. The puzzle just fits. The design from OWOW, which is truly a piece of art, combined with our sassy but inviting copy, makes the brand splash on your screen. You seriously wonder whether you’re going to get stains just from looking at all that yumminess. When we asked Julie Waterplas, Marketing Manager at BAVET, what it was like seeing the results, she indicated that it had been a relief to see the change appear so visibly. Before, she hadn’t felt a sense of pride when looking at the website while now, she beams when talking about it. From here, it’s just a matter of waiting, analysing the new visitors’ data and checking whether all our combined efforts resulted in more online traffic and clicks. Fingers crossed!
The most important part, though, is that the image and story of BAVET are now perfectly in sync. The website conveys their message and reflects the core personality of the brand. Would BAVET go back in time to work with us again? Yes, they would; check out their glowing recommendation in the quote below!
Could it be a better project? We don’t think so. If anything, we look forward to the next one!
For the pop culture simpatico out there: did you spot all the F.R.I.E.N.D.S references in our blog? There are #SEVEN (this one included). Happy hunting!
