Vestiaire Chat: Ludovic Bonnet, former Marketing and Communications Director at BigMat

For a number of years now, BigMat has been promoting diversity and inclusion in the broadest sense of the term through its communication slogan: "People count too". How does amateur sport enable BigMat International to nurture this signature? Here's how.

Checkroom talk
22/10/2021
4
mins
written by
Martin

What drew BigMat to amateur sport?

For a number of years now, we've been promoting diversity and inclusion in the broadest sense of the term through our communications slogan: "People count too".

And if there's one place that promotes inclusion, it's the sports field. On the pitch, we have to play as a team, with solidarity and respect, so that everyone can give their best and excel. Each player is a link in the collective success.

We find this spirit on building sites or during a construction project: craftsmen work together to create a collective work, each one a link in the chain of success.

By supporting amateur clubs for the past 3 years through the Les Bâtisseurs du Sportoperation, BigMat has nurtured this brand signature.

What are BigMat's objectives with this scheme?

The aim is twofold:

  1. Reinforce the Group's image in the heart of our catchment areas.
    In France, nearly 800 youth teams (U13, U15 and U18) located less than 30km from a sales outlet have been supported in 3 years. As our customers are craftsmen, the initiative enables us to reach their children, or at least their families, and thus bring these customers closer to our members through a local exchange.
  2. Involve our members in the initiative , since they are the ones who receive and hand over the equipment to the clubs.
    This federates the whole group around a common project and brings the scheme down to local level.


Why act for sport?

Initially, getting the BigMat brand involved in amateur sport with act for sport (formerly La Centrale Du Sport) was a real gamble, as they had never launched this type of operation before.

They presented us with a unique dual expertise:

  1. Equipment expertise and a network of distributors to streamline the financial and logistical aspects of a nationwide operation
  2. The teams' digital expertise, both in the creation and animation of the operational digital environment and in data and results orientation, was reassuring.

But what made the difference at the time was that they exuded the DNA of amateur sport and had an overwhelming desire to serve a societal cause, which went hand in hand with our desire to nurture the brand signature.

How did you go about internationalizing the project?

In view of the enthusiasm shown by the clubs during the registration period and in social media when they received their outfits, and the involvement of our members, we have proposed that BigMat International join the scheme at the end of 2019.

As the Group is present in 6 other countries, the challenge was to propose a common system while meeting the challenges of each territory and bringing value to the territories of our 904 sales outlets.

Chaque antenne nationale (Belgique, Italie, Espagne, Portugal, Slovaquie et République Tchèque) ont pu soutenir le sport de leur choix via les clubs amateurs de la zone de chalandise de leurs adhérents (ndlr : < 45km d'un point de vente).

With the 3rd season underway, we're proud to say that we support over 1,000 clubs across Europe.

A project which, in addition to communicating our brand, also federates our internal teams and involves each of our outlets in a global operation.

RCS Anthinois, partner club of BigMat Matériaux 2000 (Belgium)

What are the challenges facing "Les Bâtisseurs du Sport"?

Today, the challenge is to diversify our support for associations and to include members even more in a common strategy. To achieve this, we have developed new mechanisms with act for sport:

  • Theclassic operation where clubs are selected according to pre-established criteria: federation club, with at least 2 junior teams, less than 30km from a member, etc.
  • Operation Members, which enables our members to support the amateur club of their choice while benefiting from the advantageous rates of the classic operation. We have supported clubs in a variety of sports (soccer, basketball, rugby, etc.).
  • The"Les Bâtisseurs du Vestiaire" (Locker Room Builders)operation, which has been tested in the current season and offers clubs supported in previous editions the opportunity to submit their renovation projects via a call for projects mechanism.

Nota bene: At the time this article was published, Ludovic Bonnet had taken over as CEO of the Sud Management group and left Bigmat International.

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