The Challenge
The Oosterweel link is rebuilding Antwerp’s ring road, on sites spread across both banks of the Scheldt: new tunnels, new cycling paths, and a ring that finally closes. Lantis is building it, and North by Northwest supports them as event and communication partner.
There’s a clear goal at the end of it: a finished ring road. But that end is still years away. The task is to keep the area livable for everyone until then, and to bring the works closer to the people through real communication and events.
How we work together
For over six years, North by Northwest has organised Lantis’s events, and we support them as a communication partner too. It’s a long-term relationship built on short lines: our Antwerp hub is just around the corner from Lantis’s own offices.
Neighbourhood events
Small-scale activations close to home, like Omloop Oosterweel and the opening of new cycling infrastructure.
Milestone moments
The big steps, marked in style: a tunnel element arriving under the Scheldt, the World Chase Tag championship that opened the new Park & Ride at Luchtbal, and Oosterlicht, a light and sound walk under the old viaduct built with twenty final-year students from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.
Exhibition stands
Small and big. Like at the FTI Closing Festival in 2024, we designed and built an interactive trade show booth for Lantis, translating complex Oosterweel engineering into something visitors of every age could understand and enjoy.
Communication campaigns
Bye Bye Viaduct, which turned the demolition of the Viaduct van Merksem into a citywide story. “You Okay?”, our multilingual safety and wellbeing point, used simple visuals to reach up to 4,000 site workers from many different nationalities.
Website & digital
The Oosterweelverbinding site and the Lantis jobs site, both built and maintained by us.
Magazines & social media
The ‘Dit is Oosterweel’ magazine for the wider public, the ‘@lantis’ magazine for everyone working on site, and support for Oosterweels social media, infographics etc.
The Results
Neighbours
come first
Oosterlicht sold out 14,400 free tickets in one weekend, with priority for the closest neighbours.
Local events receive national media coverage
The World Chase Tag championship put Oosterweel on the news on VTM, MNM, ATV and Sporza.
Campaigns with wide press reach and strong ROI
The Bye Bye Viaduct campaign reached 29 million people in the press, in its teaser phase alone.
A loyal cycling crowd
Omloop Oosterweel lets people experience the site by bike, with lookout towers bringing the works closer to the neighbourhood.
About Lantis
Lantis is the public company building the Oosterweelverbinding, the ring road project people in Antwerp call the site of the century (werf van de eeuw). Its motto: Bouwen aan verbinding, building connection.