“Victor Cijs thinks clearly, along a certain line. He shifts gears quickly, thinks with you, always wants to take a moment to test. Above all, spend a lot of time researching beforehand. With us, he first talked to a lot of people at length. Much read. Effort made to understand our special audience. Now he is in the middle of it, with his clogs in the clay. And he is open, which is very valuable. Fine is that.

Then Victor gave a presentation that we immediately saw fit. The message overall was beyond expectations. This creative approach is very good. Exactly who we are. He captures the essence. It really is an art to present something commercially and to come across as involved and sincere.

It works! We have become more attractive. Especially because of our website and that video. And we are also better found now. In fact, the number of applications now exceeds the support we can currently provide. And the other institutions and agencies in Almere also know how to find us for the first time. We needed that pull.”

Esther Ouburg – site manager Palet
Client since 2021

“We needed the craftsmanship of Victor Cijs because we had a very important assignment. It was about our long-term survival. We needed to tap into a new market, we also wanted to communicate directly with entrepreneurs for the first time instead of via. And then the question was: how do you do that?

I am most pleased with Victor’s combination of creativity and strategic input. If you break those apart, as many agencies do, you risk losing information in the transfer from one to the other. It is the combination that makes the difference. The beauty is in connecting those specialties. Actually, Cijs & Co’s approach does deviate quite a bit from the standard fare of agencies.

It gave us a highly actionable, results-oriented online campaign. It was to-the-point and consistent. Cijs knows all about primal reflexes and how to influence choices. We see the results growing spectacularly. Then you know you’re doing something good.”

Han Dieperink – Director Institute for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Client since 2014

“Victor Cijs is focused on what attracts children of this age. I find the way he does that an eye opener. He spent afternoons wandering through our auditorium. Then he was sitting there with students, then there again. To understand what the school breathes. Because, of course, what a director like me tells you is not the whole story. That’s smart.

It didn’t hurt us. The success is obvious. Registrations are rapidly increasing. Before that, it was really survival, the engine faltering. For more than a decade, many students disappeared every year, year after year. Cijs managed to change that.

It all became a little rascal-like, playful. I am most satisfied with the videos, they are quickly edited, really appeal to the children. The colors, those heads we put on those shirts. Moreover, the new marketing approach has stimulated that we now also have a fresh young educational concept in terms of content.

As a client, you often have to adapt to an agency’s way of working. This irritated me greatly at our previous agency. Victor Cijs handles that much better. I am very happy with his flexibility. If there’s anything we need to brainstorm about, Victor is there.”

Gerard Roos – director City College
Client since 2017

“Frankly, we had bad experiences with a lot of agencies. They often create all these pretty pictures, leaflets, videos and online things that kind of pamper the outside. Which costs tons of money. But don’t think carefully about what is a compelling message for us.

Our enrollment numbers were under pressure. We ourselves did not know what our story should be to the outside world. Saying you are a good school is not enough. Cijs was the first to start working on what we now had to project. What we needed to emphasize. How we come across.

He first wanted to know what students and parents thought about the school and what they were looking for. Victor conducted interviews with first-year children and their parents. What came out of that was truly surprising and inspiring. It did get better and better and more fun for me to work this way.

What I also really like is that he didn’t throw everything overboard. He also made improvement in the materials we already had. I love the material, the pictures, the texts of our campaign. And yes, the applications turned out particularly well after that! That’s what you do it for.”

Hassan el Hachhiouchi – principal of Calvin College
Client since 2021

“Things weren’t running here when I became director. The school barely got any applications. It was worrisome. Something had to be done. It was make or break. I chose Victor Cijs because of his previous successes. We had to determine who we want to be relevant to. And especially how we were going to handle it. The school had to start growing against the negative trend. Without that growth, the school would go under.

And it worked. Huge. When you see how fast our student body is growing, it’s extraordinary. I had hoped for growth. But the speed of this success has surprised me. We have achieved in three years that Comenius is the popular school to be at today. In fact, we are now running up against the limits of growth, we can’t hire everyone who wants to come here. That’s special, though.

At Cijs & Co, you are not just another customer from whom money can be made. Cijs really immerses himself, goes to great lengths to do so, wanting to sense what the target audience is looking for. Has immersed himself completely and jettisoned his own white perspective. I think that’s clever. And valuable. Our Islamic education, the Islamic context is very different. With Victor, I have seen the insight grow. And from that, he brought his strategic and creative insights to bear. From that discovery, he began to design the marketing approach. I think that’s very strong.”

Freek op ‘t Einde – director Comenius Lyceum Amsterdam
Client since 2018

“In the corona era, we had to make a turnaround at lightning speed. How Cijs handled that then, I must say, was professional. The eyes of a professional. That’s that professional look. And the second thing is, he takes an incredible amount of work off our hands. Many initiatives.

We completely outsourced communications to Cijs & Co. Together we have been running a very good campaign for more than a decade that achieves an above-expected high number of applications. I think that creativity is also a very crucial one. I dare say that would really have been lower without Victor Cijs. I’m pretty sure. The school grew spectacularly during those years.

We have done a nice job in improving, for example, the images and videos on the website and the website itself. It is a combination of Victor’s strategic insights, the fine contact and the creative piece. Cijs has a clear vision. But is not pushy.”

Arno Raven – department manager ARH Bergen
Client since 2011