Start Your Year Smart!
The iconic BTW campaign has run for years. But to stay fresh and relevant to the brand’s core, it needed a new flavor. Our secret ingredient? Empathy and empowerment.
BTW
Client: MediaMarkt
Creative Concept / Strategic-Creative / Graphic Design / Production Lead
Jan 2024
Challenge
BTW campaign posed two linked challenges:
First: it’s a pure sales activation — how do we elevate a price-led offer into something that feels valuable, empathetic, and on-brand rather than just “another discount”?
Second: the campaign needed to work across staggered launch windows (late January in the Netherlands vs. early March in Belgium). With a six-week gap, we had to create a concept and visual system that stays consistent yet flexible enough to feel timely in both markets.
The answer, as always, came from research and strategy: design a core idea that makes the discount feel like more than price alone (adding emotional and practical value), then build adaptable creative modules so timing, tone, and seasonal cues can be tuned per market without losing campaign identity.
Concept
To elevate BTW beyond a sales mechanic, we dug into what makes the campaign truly unique — and how it connects to real-life moments for shoppers:
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Almost Everything – BTW is one of MediaMarkt’s oldest and most iconic campaigns, with an unusually wide range of products on sale. Nearly the whole assortment becomes accessible.
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Time-Sensitive – The campaign runs for less than a week, creating urgency and a built-in sense of scarcity.
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Time to Reflect – Early in the year, people naturally reflect on past achievements and set new goals for the months ahead.
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Longing for Adventure – At the tail end of winter, consumers are eager for fresh energy, novelty, and excitement as spring approaches.
From these insights, one unifying theme emerged: New Year’s resolutions.
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Netherlands (late January launch): Perfectly aligned with the “fresh start” mindset. The creative positioned BTW as the push to kick off new goals — whether that means being more productive, embracing a healthier lifestyle, or simply upgrading your everyday. By slashing prices across the assortment, MediaMarkt makes resolutions easier to achieve and purchases feel like long-term wins.
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Belgium (early March launch): By March, the resolution moment has shifted from starting goals to sustaining them. Here, the campaign encouraged customers to reflect and keep the momentum alive. The narrative stayed consistent but flexed in tone, turning BTW into a timely nudge that helps shoppers stick with their vision.
Visual approach
The creative direction took inspiration from a vision board — that one-page collage where people collect Post-Its, images, and reminders of their goals. By building the campaign’s look around this familiar tool, we connected directly to the theme of resolutions. The Post-Its became a flexible design element: playful yet purposeful, instantly recognizable, and adaptable across markets. This approach gave BTW a fresh identity that felt both personal and goal-driven, while staying consistent with MediaMarkt’s bold brand style.
↑ Unlike the session layer’s focus on resolutions, the purchase layer zeroed in on urgency. Time-limited deals and the “tick-tock” motif created heat and tension, pushing customers to act fast: grab it now, or it’s gone.
Result
While the client ultimately chose the copy “Start Je Jaar Zonder BTW”, a strategic choice to put greater emphasis on the campaign's central offer, working on this project has been an incredibly valuable experience for me. It reinforced how combining thorough research with a carefully tailored design approach can significantly enhance a campaign’s impact and resonance with the target audience. Beyond the final decision, collaborating on this project allowed me to explore creative strategies, deepen my understanding of consumer behavior, and refine my approach to delivering work that balances strategic insight with visual appeal.