How to make the papers 4 years in a row

Free publicity 🇳🇱🇧🇪🇩🇪

Even before we formally started working together, our Dutch PR hero Hein told me: Goboony should launch an annual piece of research to claim definite and undeniable authority in the campervan industry.

And so we did. The Groot Nationaal Camperonderzoek was born in 2021. Each year just before Summer, we send out our press release to make sure campervan travel and Goboony are top of mind for everyone who’s still finalising their holiday plans. And each year we’ve landed headlines in the biggest newspapers of the Netherlands:

2021: Telegraaf & Algemeen Dagblad

2022: Telegraaf & Algemeen Dagblad

2023: Telegraaf

2024: Telegraaf, twice + Playboy (DE)

2025: Telegraaf + Flair (BE)

It’s about all the fun holiday facts you had never thought to ask about.

• Do Dutchies go out of their way to avoid fellow countryfolk when camping? Yep. They do.

• Do men and women have designated campinglife tasks? Yep. They do. Men empty the toilet. Women fry eggs.

• What’s the best dog to bring along on a campervan road trip? A golden retriever.

• Do people have sex more or less frequently when camping? Less. Duh.

• How nostalgic are people? Very. The majority has returned to their childhood holiday destinations. Have you?

Thanks Hein and Cherelle. Working on this every year is a ton of fun.

Update: the January edition

But what if we’d do more or less the same thing in January? Can we pull this off twice a year? Seems like we can. In addition to our pre-Summer research report, we started sending out a trend report filled with predictions for the season. We sent out the first edition in January of 2023 as per the brilliant idea of Sabrina and Marie. Here’s how that’s going so far:

• 2023: Het Laatste Nieuws (BE), Margriet (NL)

• 2024: Telegraaf (NL): 2 in-depth stories in 1 week