Emesa is Holland's largest eCommerce group, with 5 million weekly visitors and 95 million visitors per year across 5 leisure and travel websites. In the summer of 2013, Emesa appointed Pleo to help them become a Mobile First company, starting with its hero site VakantieVeilingen.nl Case study presented at Google Performance (Amsterdam) in May 2014.

1. Presented by:
Maarten de Lange | Mobile Marketing Manager | VakantieVeilingen.nl
Renate Nyborg | Founder & CEO | Pleo
How
VakantieVeilingen.nl
became a
Mobile First company
Thinking with Google, 3 June 2014

2. Case Study
Drivers
for Change
1 2 3
Strategy
& Activities
Cornerstones
of Success
Tweet me @renate

3. After 10 years of growth from Email marketing and
Desktop PPC – our landscape had evolved…
Tweet me @renate

4. Consumer Habits were Changing
Mobile disrupted every industry – Newspapers, Music, Taxis, Travel…
Tweet me @renate

5. 25% of VakantieVeilingen.nl’s Web
Traffic was Mobile
Mobile and tablet visitors made up 25%
of returning and new website visitors –
despite not having a mobile website
200k MAUs per month on native iOS and
Android apps, driving 4X conversion
compared to mobile web visits
Tweet me @renate

6. Our mission was to make VakantieVeilingen.nl
a Mobile First Company
From PC Leader to Mobile Giant
Tweet me @renate

7. How did we get there?
Tweet me @renate

8. Pleo helps companies, ranging from startups to
commercial organisations, to innovate, disrupt and
grow in order to reach their full potential.
Tweet me @renate

9. Pleo’s Philosophy
Unlocking the potential of VakantieVeilingen’s
existing assets, customer behaviours and employees
Tweet me @renate

10. Turnaround Programme
(18 months)
PHASE 2
Ecosystem
Development
PHASE 3
Smart
Marketing
Tweet me @renate
PHASE 1
Mobile
Acceleration Plan

11. • Web traffic
• App usage
• Paid media
Kick Off Process (6 weeks)
• Strategic report on Global & Netherlands trends in mobile, social, eCommerce and travel
Landscape
analysis
• One on one meetings with VakantieVeilingen.nl’s Private Equity investor, CEO, CTO, CFO, CMO
• Workshops with App Development agency & internal delivery team (e.g. paid media manager)
Data
Analysis
Stakeholder
Interviews
• KPIs: App Downloads, CAC, Mobile DAUs/MAUs, Conversion Rate, App Store rating, etc
• Recommended management structure and hires to become a Product Centric, Mobile First organisation
• ANALYTICS: App Analytics, Weekly/Monthly Reporting
• MARKETING: Paid Media, App Store Optimisation (ASO), App Customer Service
• PRODUCT: Product UX/UI tweaks, Rapid Prototyping
Business
Goals
Work
Streams
Tweet me @renate

12. Business Goals
ACQUISITION
drive app
registrations
ENGAGEMENT
increase mobile
DAUs /MAUs
CONVERSION
grow revenues
on mobiles
DOWNLOAD! BID! WIN!
Tweet me @renate

13. Formed the ‘Mobile Power team’ in order to drive
rapid progress around key objectives
Service2Media
App
Developers
Renate Nyborg
Strategy & Product Lead
Andre Buren
CTO
Marc Jutten
Technical Product Manager
Maarten de Lange
Mobile Marketing Manager
PLEO
Design & Prototyping
Tweet me @renate

14. Phase 1: Mobile Acceleration (6 months)
29 August 2013
Appointed mobile product
specialists Pleo (UK) to
lead app strategy and
mobile first roadmap
August 2013
Signed deal with Localytics,
the in-app analytics company
that eBay uses, in order to get
deep insight into app user
behaviours
8-10 September 2013
ASO & Analytics training
and strategy are delivered
to the Mobile Power team
17 September 2013
Advised on company
structure and resources
required to become a
Mobile First company
October 2013
Launched responsive
website November 2013
Prototyped SocialPlan, a feature
that allows users to plan with
friends and filter by date,
weather and and interests
October 2013
Signed deal with
Apptentive, a tool to
improve app customer
service and ratings
December 2013
Prototyped BucketList, a
marketing driven feature to
drive mobile DAUs,
conversion and app
downloads
Tweet me @renate

15. Phase 1 focused on understanding and
optimising for Mobile Behaviours
Tweet me @renate

16. App Users bid on INSTANT ACTION
Significant differences in purchasing
behaviours between web and app usage.
People are more likely to buy ‘instant
action’ activities in categories like Beauty,
Evening Out and Day Out.
This follows trends in mobile search.
Tweet me @renate

17. App Users bid MORE FREQUENTLY
Tweet me @renate
Especially if they use both the App and Website…
Sweet
spot

18. Phase 2: A New Ecosystem – Mobile First
SEARCH
DISCOVERY
SEARCH
DISCOVERY
PC Web
• Lead generation
• Convert PC searches
• Convert mobile web/app searches
• Promotion via Google Ads/SEO
Tweet me @renate
Mobile Web
• Lead generation: <1 hour conversion
• Drive bids on PC
• Drive mobile app downloads
• Promotion via Google Ads/SEO
Apps
• Drives discovery
• In-app marketing: e.g. notifications
about relevant offers based on past
bids and purchases
• Promotion via Google/Facebook paid
media and App Marketing
Email
• Drives PC and mobile web traffic
• Drives mobile app downloads
• Deep-link auctions in the Apps

19. Tweet me @renate
Today our traffic comes mostly from Mobile
42%
21%
37%
Platform & Device
Web - Desktop
Web - Mobile
App - Mobile
As of May 2014, 58% of our bids
come from Mobile Devices
On sunny days mobile even
drives 66% of all bids!!
34%
66%
30th March 2014
(sunny day!)
Desktop
Mobile

20. Tweet me @renate
VV Apps drive Optimal Performance
In May 2014 Apps drove 37% of overall traffic,
generating 44% of bids and 44% of revenues

21. Tweet me @renate
Growth in app BIDS
19% 22%
26% 28% 31% 32% 33% 35% 39% 37% 35% 37% 37% 39% 41% 42% 44%
81% 78%
74% 72% 69% 68% 67% 65% 61% 63% 65% 63% 63% 61% 59% 58% 56%
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sept
Okt
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mrt
April
May
APP WEB
App bids grew up
from 19% (Jan
2013) to 44%
(May 2014).

22. Tweet me @renate
Growth in app REVENUES
App earnings grew
up from 15% (Jan
2013) to 44%
(May 2014) of
total revenues. 15% 18%
22% 23% 26% 27% 28% 32% 34% 34% 35%
41% 40% 40% 41% 42% 44%
85% 82%
78% 77% 74% 73% 72% 68% 66% 66% 65%
59% 60% 60% 59% 58% 56%
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sept
Okt
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mrt
April
May
APP WEB

23. Cornerstones of Success
What allowed this project to succeed?
Tweet me @renate

24. Tweet me @renate
External Forces
An external partner (Pleo) led the path to becoming Mobile First.
Mobile is usually VERY political because it touches every department – the CEO, CIO, CMO and CTO can
all feel it’s “theirs”. Working with an external party can help cut through and get sh*t done!
VakantieVeilingen.nl’s Private Equity lead collaborated closely with Pleo,
providing complete access to traffic/user data and financials
Power of Case Studies: Pleo advisor Frank Meehan (ex Board member at Spotify, Siri and Summly)
provided direct insight into the way that Facebook and Yahoo! put product at the heart of their
company, and became Mobile First organisations. This helped convince Board members
Pleo delivered Monthly Board Presentations, updating on the changing landscape and performance metrics
within the organisation. The conversation about radical change must happen at Board and C-Level

25. Internal Forces
Tweet me @renate
Maarten de Lange (who was then a category marketing manager) was a powerful and driven
evangelist for mobile who pushed the project forward with senior management
Created a four person ‘Mobile Power Team’ that worked with Pleo –
a tight unit that was nimble and able to move fast.
The team worked Agile, with an optimisation call each Thursday
Work with existing people: rather than waiting to hire mobile specialists: we freed up
Maarten and Marc Jutten – who were empowered by a product oriented CTO

26. Thank You!
Maarten.deLange@emesa.nl
www.VakantieVeilingen.nl
Renate@pleo.co
www.pleo.co