Having reached outstanding brand recognition rates of around 90 percent and a top-of-mind awareness percentage of over 50 percent, willhaben.at is one of the best known websites in Austria. As a matter of fact, local users have been appreciating the platform for many years. However, in order to become a real “love mark” – a brand that you cherish and trust, that is close to you and that you love to be surrounded by – Schibsted’s Austrian classifieds site has now added offline activities to its marketing portfolio to complement existing marketing channels such as TV and digital/mobile ads/PR.
“Willhaben.at wants to significantly push the personal relationship with its users by meeting them personally at designated events and thus give second-hand trade even more edge. In that context, the buzz word “vintage” provides the ideal background for our very first offline activities,” says Mercedes Krutz, Head of Marketing & HR, willhaben.at.
The first two projects
Willhaben.at is the official launch partner of “Vollpension”, a unique café furnished with delightful vintage finds, where all the cooking and other major work is carried out by “the culinary team of grandma and grandpa”. In addition, Austria’s largest marketplace has had its own trade show booths at Fesch’Markt, Austria’s largest designer market, in the cities of Vienna, Graz and Feldkirch.
A real eye catcher at FESCH’MARKT
From vintage signs, charming wing chairs and stylish lamps to old-school pinball machines and coffee pot lamp shades – the home-bought shelves (purchased, naturally, on willhaben.at) were stacked with these and many other delights. All this buzz attracted over 40,000 customers and more than 500 products were sold over Willhaben’s counter. Prior to the event, these products had been carefully selected and purchased on willhaben.at by Willhaben’s designated team, and were then put on ‘offline’ offer at Fesch’Markt at the same price as the items held online.
The visitors’ feedback was very positive, highlighting the event’s overall beneficial effect:
Great idea! It’s so nice to see you all and be able to check out all these cool products in real life.
‘Willhaben’ has become just as much part of my vocabulary as ‘to google’.
Most of the stall vendors were ‘Willhabingers’- Willhaben employees – who all put in the extra effort voluntarily. And they made sure that willhaben.at would cause a good stir throughout Austria.
Official launch partner of ‘Vollpension’
Who caters for the best desserts, delicious treats and amazing home cooking? The answer has got to be: Grandma! That’s why mostly all of the dishes at the “Vollpension“ (“Full Pension”) initiative are cooked by grandmothers, based on their favorite recipes and served along with exciting stories from their lives. Due to popular demand, after it was originally designed to be a pop-up café, “Vollpension” is now permanently established in the heart of Vienna.
The unique vintage design of the store is tremendously popular with visitors and staff of all ages. “What makes it even more special to us, however, is the fact that 90 percent of the interior has been bought from willhaben.at, ” Krutz explains.
As consequence, establishing a business partnership between willhaben.at and “Vollpension” in June this year was a natural choice. The partnership is quite visible inside the café. Willhaben.at is very present, featured on product tags, door stickers with the collective logo and customized willhaben.at/Vollpension embroidery on the wall.
“Our intention is to take the project to the next level this fall, making it possible to purchase furniture for sale on willhaben.at directly on-site,” says Mercedes Krutz.
