Our cases

Nederlandse Loterij (NLO) is the largest provider of games of chance in the Netherlands, active in lottery and prospective in online gaming. Given the changing commercial and legislative environment, NLO asked for hands-on support to update the 5-year corporate strategy to strengthen their commercial position and grow their added value to Dutch society.

Van Oord is a global leading marine contractor with 150 years of worldwide experience in marine ingenuity. Even though heavy asset industries are yet to be extensively disrupted, Van Oord set the bold ambition to make digital a central value driver for the business, created an internal digital transformation team to do so, and asked us to support this goal.

Albert Heijn is the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands. They were looking to grow their digital offerings to their customers, both online and in physical stores. Albert Heijn defined what the role of digital should be in their organization and set a bold digital ambition. They asked SparkOptimus to define and flesh out four digital focus areas to accelerate.

Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) specializes in products and services for professional kitchens. As rapid digital developments impact the behaviour of its customers, UFS aimed to fundamentally challenge its overall strategy and growth ambition towards 2020.

Golazo is (one of) Europe's largest organizer(s) of recreational running and cycling events. The growing popularity of mobile apps and sport tech as well as the direct consequences of COVID-19 urged Golazo to develop a digital platform that bundles all its products and services in one place, and combine it with complementary offerings from partners. This platform – called LetsMove.com – aims to become the online destination for a healthy lifestyle.

After launching in 2009, Treatwell set out to transform the booking process of an industry that for years relied on pen, paper, and telephone: the hair & beauty market. In a matter of years, the company quickly grew its footprint to become Europe’s leading online platform for booking beauty & wellbeing services. After having completed a global rebrand in 2016, management considered optimizing & harmonizing its salon pricing model a top priority to scale its business to the next level.

Media Markt is an international retailer for consumer electronics. With 50+ stores they are market leader and a known disruptor of the electronics market in the Netherlands. In recent years, their webshop has also grown rapidly. As online sales are becoming a significant part of the business and customers are expecting an omnichannel experience, the way ‘digital’ is integrated in the organization needed a revision. As a result, Media Markt wanted to future-proof their organization.

In order to better serve its online B2C and B2B customers, Coop, a supermarket chain with 325 stores, sought our help to improve the quality and cost-efficiency of its ecommerce fulfilment. Coop used a decentralized, in-store fulfilment solution for its online orders, which no longer sufficed in the rapidly growing segment. Therefore, Coop asked SparkOptimus to design and run a pilot with a centralized ecommerce fulfilment system in close collaboration with its online partner Telesuper.

HEINEKEN N.V., the world’s most international brewer, has made a strong entrance into the field of digital by launching a broad set of digital initiatives in an increasing number of markets across the globe. Committed to accelerating growth in a rapidly changing competitive playing field and driven by the ambition to become the clear winner in beer & cider in a digital age, HEINEKEN asked SparkOptimus for its support in co-developing a shared vision, strategy, and execution plan together with HEINEKEN’s key decision makers: the Executive Team and MDs of HEINEKEN’s largest global Operating Companies.

Reckitt (formerly known as RB and Reckitt Benckiser) Hygiene Home kickstarted a digital transformation to continue winning in a changing market. Reckitt initiated a phased approach to help key markets make a step up in data-driven marketing and sales activities. The objective: to unlock business value through scoped experiments and enable the market to continue the digital transformation autonomously.

IKEA Netherlands has ambitious growth plans for its omnichannel proposition, aiming to provide the consumer with a seamless experience across every channel. IKEA identified optimizing its current delivery fee structure as a key opportunity to grow sales. Realizing the need for a thorough check of its current proposition, IKEA asked SparkOptimus for support to develop an omnichannel delivery fee structure.

ING is a global financial institution with a European base serving customers in over 40 countries. With over 8 million customers ING is the largest consumer bank in the Netherlands. Given the rapid change of customer expectations and the focus of the bank on digital, ING wanted to develop a future-proof design of the omnichannel branch.

HEINEKEN wanted to play into the consumer trends of discovering & enjoying specialty beers and driving sales through a combination of traditional and digital channels and approached SparkOptimus to support them.

HEINEKEN South Africa (HSA) is a young, fast-growing company that sees data as catalyst to its growth ambitions. It has connected the key data sources in its ecosystem to deepen understanding of tavern and consumer behaviour. The next step was to organize commercial operations accordingly. HSA asked us to facilitate this transformation of sales and marketing into a data-driven growth engine.

SHV Energy asked SparkOptimus to help assess and accelerate one of their ventures: Chama Technologies. Chama aims to be the partner of choice for Brazilian households for purchasing gas bottles, by matching supply from dealers with demand from consumers through a digital platform. We helped Chama & SHV-Energy on three topics, (i) re-evaluating Chama’s role in the value chain, (ii) exploring and validating changes in the current model, and (iii) creating an elaborate, bottom-up growth strategy.

eBay Classifieds Group (eCG) is a world leader in classifieds. They provide platforms that “help people find whatever they’re looking for in their local communities”, operating under ten brands that span the globe. Recognizing the potential for impact and opportunities from the continuously changing digital landscape, eBay Classifieds Group asked SparkOptimus to create quarterly reports on the latest trends in the digital world.

New players are increasingly taking market share from large CPGs with digital-native brands. In this dynamic, Reckitt (formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser or RB) asked SparkOptimus to design a brand incubator in which Reckitt combines its core CPG strengths with digital-native DNA to develop and launch a pipeline of new brands through an online-first test-and-learn go-to-market approach.

Coca-Cola wanted to strengthen its retailer collaboration in e-commerce, increasing the level of sophistication of its digital strategy before engaging with customers. It believed that retailer collaboration in e-commerce would accelerate the roll-out of this digital strategy by providing a direct link to sales growth.

HEINEKEN asked SparkOptimus to help them better leverage shop data in emerging markets, in order to make better, data-driven decisions on investments in shops and in parallel learn to become more data-driven.

Colgate-Palmolive Europe (CP EU) is a leading oral, personal, and household care producer with sales in Europe of over $2.4Bn. In recent years, sales of CP products have started to transition towards online through ‘clicks & bricks’, online drugstores, and online marketplaces. Recognizing the potential for online sales to grow further and being aware of the potential for improvement in digital and & e-commerce, CP EU has asked SparkOptimus to refine its digital & e-commerce strategy, including implications for the operating model, develop the resulting roadmap, and support implementation of the strategy.