During our product launch, we had time to know more about some of our partners in the Netherlands, discuss “make culture and art approachable to the Millenials in China market with join effort,” as well as explaining why they decided to collaborate with Shake to Win.

During our product launch, we had time to know more about some of our partners in the Netherlands, discuss “make culture and art approachable to the Millenials in China market with join effort,” as well as explaining why they decided to collaborate with Shake to Win. 

The panel consisted of four Dutch partners: Rolf Pepers (Visit Brabant Trade Manager), Martijn JepkesE (Grand Café Restaurant 1e Klas Sales Manager), Tomas Snels (Tomas Concept & Creation Founder) and Frank Van Zwol (Unfold Co-founder).

Frank Van Zwol (Unfold Co-founder) and his sister Tess, founded Unfold with the mission to “get more sustainable products in people’s homes” and “make a simple product made by cardboard sexy”. So they came up with the idea of making cardboard sexy by putting Dutch art on it to reach more young people. How? By teaming up with brands and artists, as a result, they got their first collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum creating the Van Gogh stool.

Frank Van Zwol (Unfold Co-founder)

Tomas Snels (Tomas Concept & Creation Founder) mission is to “develop concepts for living”. Because of his admiration of Van Gogh’s art and Brabant, he started to develop the Van Gogh shoes with the idea of a walk with them around the same areas as Van Gogh been in the past. But Tomas did not stop there, due to his interest in cycling, he decided to make the Van Gogh bike to help people to discover Brabant.

Tomas Snels (Tomas Concept & Creation Founder)

Rolf Pepers (Visit Brabant Trade Manager) travels across Europe to visit fairs and shows to promote Brabant to the tourism industry. 2014 was the Van Gogh’s year “it was a great opportunity to show his homeland and the locations that inspired him, so people will also know more about Brabant”. 

Rolf Pepers (Visit Brabant Trade Manager)

Martijn Jepkes, Sales Manager at Grand Café Restaurant 1e Klas, pointed out that the restaurant is attracting many groups, especially FITs. Martjin is conscious of the risen importance of social media and how it helps to raise brand awareness. “We needed some help for Weibo, WeChat, and Emily was one of the first believers to also sale a restaurant online for the tourism industry”. In that sense, he highlighted how helpful Shake to Win is for selling and promoting them online for the Chinese market, as well as the importance of offering the coupon to help Chinese travelers order a two-course dinner. 

Martijn Jepkes, Sales Manager at Grand Café Restaurant 1e Klas

After the self-introductions, it was time for the round of questions. Our founder and CEO, Emily Cheung, pointed that Shake to Win made possible for all of them to sit together, as a “platform that is connecting the dots, packaging experiences for people by visiting the places, understanding the culture by buying the products, and making them accessible for the daily life ”.

How do you see the Chinese Market potential from your perspective?

For Frank Van Zwol, teaming up with local artists to make products helped to make them accessible for young people. He believes that Unfold can also reach a lot of young people in China since they are very closely connected to art.

On the other hand, Tomas highlighted that it is challenging to work together with different cultures, “so we can create a new way of working by using co-creation and collaboration, and see what new innovative ideas and products come out”.

Rolf Pepers considers Chinese visitors very interesting: “we like to be selective in what type of people we attract. We prefer to have FIT visitors coming over”. Visit Brabant is mainly focused on young Chinese people with cultural interests that are willing to go, experience, absorb, and understand the culture. Many small spots that are undiscovered pearls can now be showcased through Shake to Win platform.

Martijn Jepkes also considers that the Chinese market has a huge potential. He likes to see Chinese visitors coming to his restaurant as it means now they like to experience new things.

Why did you choose to work with Shake to Win, which is a start-up with a small team that focuses more on culture?

“You (Emily) are full of power and know what you are doing. It is one of the first reasons why we wanted to work with you,” affirmed Martijn Jepkes. He also saw the importance of what the team does by visiting the spots, its passion, and focus on promoting authentic businesses.

Ruff Pepers loves the team energy; content created, promotion of heritage sites, and traditional locations, but especially the type of public Shake to Win targets. He considers it great to see a change of things perceived as usual into something more accessible for younger audiences: “with this collaboration with Shake to Win, we see the potential on new target groups more future wise. The development of these locations is changing with that”.

Tomas felt a direct connection with Emily and the team because the product he created comes from the heart. He was more interested in selling the product, focusing on the story behind. Also, he appreciated work with a young team that makes work more fun.

Along the same lines, Frank Van Zwol loves how working with Shake to Win team makes business feels very personal. He also likes the fact that Shake to Win has a good understanding of not only China market but the European market. In that sense, it works as an excellent medium for bridging Europe and China.

Emily closed the discussion by reminding that “Shake to Win is not just a commercial company, it is a network built to enable people to get connected and help each other with the mission of preserving culture. Shake to Win makes arts and culture more evident”.

 We want to give a special thanks to Rolf Pepers (Visit Brabant), Martijn Jepkes (Restaurant GRand Cafe 1e Klas) Tomas Snels (Tomar Concept Creation) and Frank Van Zwol (Unfold) sharing their experiences and opinion with us. 

 To know more about how to connect with Shake to Win, send us an email to comm@shaketowin, and let’s start bringing the world closer together.