In September, we announced the winners and finalists of the Microsoft Advertising Partner Celebration. Now, we want to put these Celebrated Partners in the spotlight. We interviewed the seven winners to get an inside look on these companies, their history, objectives, partnership with Microsoft Advertising and more.
Microsoft Advertising Celebrated Partner, Netherlands — Maatwerk Online
Lars Maat, Founder & CEO – Maatwerk Online
Lars leads the company along with Ruben de Vries and Nick Heurter
Tell us about your company – it’s history, current size and business objectives.
I founded the company in 2013. It was never my intention to grow as big as we are now, or to even have colleagues! I was more like a freelancer in SEA & Social advertising. However, I was getting more and more requests for collaborations, so I decided to take on some staff. Along the way I worked with another company (OnlineMarketing.nl) for SEO and Development. We came together and decided that it was probably best to join forces and continue as one big agency: Maatwerk Online. Since then, we grew from 5 till 25 people in just 3 years.
What is your company’s vision/mission/specialization?
We like to be different than other agencies. We don’t have yearly contracts, we don’t have account managers. Every client has their own specialist working for them and have direct contact with the specialist. If they don’t like the collaboration, they can stop anytime they want, because we want to have a partnership with our clients. We want to be an asset to them and if we can’t realise that, then the client shouldn’t be held to a contract.
What product features offered by Microsoft Advertising do you rely on the most to achieve your vision?
It took some time for Shopping to be (finally) rolled out in the Netherlands. So at this point: the core of our Microsoft Advertising activities are search campaign related, but we intend to go all in with shopping!
How does your company embody inclusivity and giving?
Our staff has an unlimited study budget. They can attend all events, buy all the books and attend all the workshops they want. Also, our team has 34 free days in a year, which is pretty amazing right? Everybody is equal; whether you’re a junior or a team lead; if you have a opinion backed up with good facts and arguments, you can get everything done at our company!
We also send away gifts and surprises to our clients on a regular basis. Somebody has an injury? We send them a fruit basket. A client with an anniversary? We send them a nice gift! We want to make sure that everybody loves the company — not only our staff but also the other stakeholders.
How have you adapted to recent changes in consumer trends brought about by COVID-19?
It’s a difficult time, obviously. On the one hand we’ve got clients who are doing well because of COVID-19. We are constantly scaling up their campaigns. But on the other hand, we’ve got some clients who are in big trouble financially. Of course, we’ve lost some clients as well, and some unfortunately went bankrupt. But we as a team managed to stay strong (and safe). We’ve changed our (sales) focus, kept in touch with every client (even the ones that left our company due to COVID) and tried to keep a close-knit team as best as we can in order to face these times.
Congratulations to Maatwerk Online and a huge thank you to all those that submitted nominations. Don’t miss our spotlights on Celebrated Partners from the US, UK, France, Canada, Australia and Germany! The next round of nominations for Microsoft Advertising Celebrated Partners will be accepted 5-15 April 2021.
If you haven’t enrolled in the Microsoft Advertising Partner Program yet, make sure that you apply at microsoftadvertisingpartners.com so you’re eligible for the next round.
If you’re an enrolled partner, stay connected with us and up to speed on all things partner-related by joining the Microsoft Advertising Partner Community on LinkedIn.
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