Ben swapped billboards for free sofas and fridges for Dutch students

Ben's student plans come with free connection, free 5G and extra data; the brand wanted a tactic that students would genuinely appreciate instead of a poster they scroll past.

Give students the free stuff they actually love: branded sofas, tables, lamps and even refrigerators appear on city streets, free for the taking.

Blue sofas, tables, lamps and refrigerators appeared unexpectedly across student-dense parts of Utrecht and Leiden, subtly branded with student-plan messages. Students hauled the pieces to their dorms on bikes and shopping carts, folding them into the eclectic decor of student housing. Short videos of the reactions and playful 'student wisdom' social posts carried the campaign online.

Students claimed the items almost immediately; instead of an outdoor campaign that lasts about a week, the brand message keeps sitting in student rooms for years, at what the agency calls a highly cost-effective outlay.

This year, students in the Dutch cities of Utrecht and Leiden were greeted with a unique surprise: blue sofas, tables, and even refrigerators appearing unexpectedly in various locations. What initially seemed like an art installation was actually free furniture specifically for students, courtesy of telecom provider Ben, created by TBWA\NEBOKO to support students during introduction week.

Understanding that students love free stuff, Ben tapped into that insight to engage its target audience and highlight its student-focused mobile plans, which offer free connection, free 5G and additional free data. Instead of investing heavily in traditional billboards or posters, the furniture was placed in areas densely populated by students, subtly branded with promotional messages.

The response was swift — students quickly claimed the items and transported them to their dorms on bikes and shopping carts. 'A standard outdoor campaign usually lasts for about a week. The beauty of this activation is that the message continues to engage the target audience for years to come,' said Erik Falke, executive creative director at TBWA\NEBOKO. The activation was supported online with short reaction videos and a social campaign of playful 'student wisdom' messages.

The insight is exact: students love free stuff, so the ad became a gift — the media budget turned into objects people wanted.

It solved outdoor media's core weakness: dwell time. A sofa in a dorm keeps the brand in a student's life for years, not a week.

The giveaway doubled as a product metaphor — Ben's student plans are built around free, so the campaign literally gave things away.

Documented reactions gave the activation a second life online, with students' bike-and-shopping-cart hauls as the content.

When your audience loves free things, be the free thing: a piece of furniture they keep beats a billboard they pass.

The physical activation ran alongside short online videos documenting students' reactions and a social media campaign featuring playful 'student wisdom' messages, extending the campaign beyond the streets of Utrecht and Leiden.