30.8.14
Otrivine | Owning the first sneeze
Insight
Ahhh-choo…nose blocked…eyes running….head like cotton wool? A cold can stop us in our tracks and Otrivine had a compelling claim to soothe sufferers - it unblocks your nose faster than pills. But this was not translating into sales in the UK. Partly this was due to being outspent by competitor Vicks, and to its narrow promotional resources.
Novartis traditionally relied on TV and had only global TV promotional assets. Nothing was available to encourage sales closer to the point of purchase. However, the bigger challenge was attracting the attention of customers to a low interest product. Consumers rarely prepared ahead for the ‘cold and cough’ season. Instead they only thought about decongestants when they caught a chill. The task was to take a different approach to tackle the dominant player and win over hard-to-reach commuters. But how?
Strategy
Although the UK ‘cold and cough’ season runs from November to March, outbreaks are more likely to occur when the temperature drops below a critical level and when people are in close proximity to each other. When a cold strikes, sufferers swiftly look for a quick and easy solution to cure their cold - but only once the symptoms start. This sparked the strategy. The brand would capitalise on the correlation of cold weather and cold symptoms and reach individuals when their need, and interest, were highest.
It created the first ever temperature dependent media solution that was both agile and mobile: agile to react to outbreaks of colds when the temperature dropped below five degrees; and mobile to catch the commuter audience on the move when they had an increased chance of catching a cold - and the opportunity to buy a cure.
Execution
Otrivine took over key train and underground stations in London, delivering the brand message directly to acommuter audience. Digital screens throughout mainline stations displayed creative, cleverly adapted from our existing TVCs. And they reinforced Otrivine’s power to unblock noses via ticket gates that illustrated ‘unblocking’ as commuters passed through them. Whether they were on escalators, the concourse or platforms, the messaging could not be missed!
By targeting the morning commute, it was able to be part of typical morning conversations: “How are you this morning”? To turn awareness into instant sales, they used real-time ‘WEVE’ geo-fencing temperature sensitive mobile technology to target commuters when they were a short distance from a store selling Otrivine. Consumers received an SMS message that highlighted the benefits of Otrivine’s powerful relief and directed them to the closest Boots or Tesco store, where they could immediately purchase with ease.
Results
Sales jumped 16% year on year and awareness of Otrivine and its faster unblocking message increased 38% amongst those exposed to the initiative. Crucially, those who saw the campaign were four times more likely to purchase Otrivine. The innovative temperature reactive mobile activity reached more than 150,000 people - all in close proximity to partner stores; and strengthened a relationship with these key partners.
The creative approach has been recognised as a best practice within Novartis. The strategy is now being rolled-out in the US, Germany and Sweden. It has also changed the company’s approach to developing global promotional assets. Now, instead of just TV, it is designing across all screens.
Otrivine Brand Manager Pamela Chan, said: “It was a media breakthrough to be ‘mobile’ for Otrivine. We loved the flexibility and engagement allowing us to reach our target customer at the right location and right temperature!” Results not to be sniffed at!
- BRAND:
- Otrivine
- BRAND OWNER:
- Novartis
- CATEGORY:
- Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare
- REGION:
- United Kingdom
- DATE:
- February - March 2013
- AGENCY:
- Starcom Mediavest
- MEDIA CHANNEL:
- Direct Marketing,Digital,Mobile,Out-of-Home
Intel | Your World
Insight
For Intel, its 18 to 34-year old target audience comprises of major technology consumers. However Intel is an enabling ingredient - it’s the unseen bit inside - and so doesn’t significantly influence their purchase decisions. OMD needed to show the potential Intel had to enrich their lifestyle and passions.
The agency knew that Intel’s audience (like most consumers) love sport and music. Not hugely ground-breaking insights, true, but what it also discovered through further digging was the audiences’ passion for testing the limits and exploring what is possible with their technical devices.
This empowering consumer insight gave OMD permission, in tandem with its new communication strategy of “Look Inside” to shift the focus from “showing what Intel make” to “showing what Intel makes possible” – bringing a new richness around the activities the audiences love – music, sport, fashion and the outdoors.
The second media insight was that The Feed is dying a slow death. With Facebook and Twitter at an average engagement rate of 1%, down from 16% last year, anyone who publishes or reads content on Facebook and Twitter has a cluttered and less engaging experience. What does this mean for brands like Intel who have invested heavily, for many years, in this form of publishing and in content creation yet feels let down by The Feed?
Strategy
Working in collaboration with OMD’s sport and entertainment marketing division and partner creative agencies, social analysis identified pioneering influential individuals within the music, sport, fashion and outdoor areas, and negotiated ground-breaking collaborations. The agency invited these Influencers to explore exciting collaborations with Intel’s engineers, providing them with the support and technology to create products that push the creative boundaries.
The first collaboration launched in early 2013 with fashion designer Christian Joy who created her ‘super guitar-licks rock star jacket’ – a wearable tech light-show that responds to the guitarist’s pedal. The programme has since developed to include influencers such as singer-songwriter Imogen Heap who worked with Intel to invent a running app in which the music keeps pace with the runner’s speed, drawing in ambient sound from the runner’s environment; and Olympic & World triathlon champions, the Brownlee brothers who with the help of Ultrabook and Intel engineers, ‘gamified’ their repetitive training routine, enabling them to race against a virtual, hybrid Super Brownlee.
Each influencer has added something unique making the programme bigger and better, culminating with our biggest influencer to date – Ben Saunders who attempted to cover the longest unsupported polar expedition in history – which launched in October 2013 across 13 EMEA markets. Ben worked with Intel engineers to ensure his Ultrabook functioned at minus 50 degrees centigrade to help him communicate with the outside world from the middle of nowhere.
The campaign was extended to Intel.com, with a dedicated hub documenting the progress of each Influencer through video, images and other content. For the media insight, OMD recognised the gap in engagement and sought to find better content partners that could distribute this extraordinary content via a new network of native content partners to reach, engage, and drive consumers to sale.
Execution
The paid media strategy was simple but dogged: The right content. The right place. The right audience. If it could do this with low levels of paid media, earned media would grow exponentially, so OMD focused on three objectives – engaging advocates; converting interest and creating buzz.
As a result, the planning execution was bespoke to each collaboration – each plan tailored to build on the passion points and the existing equity each Influencer already had, carefully crafting media to allow the paid media to drive further organic growth by embedding it within the social environments both they and the target audience inhabit.
For all campaigns Intel used Facebook, but targeted the passion verticals as well as existing fans. For Christian Joy it targeted Fashion and Technology verticals; for Imogen Heap it targeted Music and Technology verticals; for Brownlee Brothers it targeted Sports and Technology and for Ben Saunders targeted Outdoor activities and Technology.
Intel also used additional channels and media owners specific to their vertical. For Christian Joy it worked with eBuzzing to excite and engage fashion bloggers; for Imogen Heap it worked with Spotify to target listeners through banner advertising; for Brownlee Brothers it used Promoted Tweets and utilised OMD’s RTB tool, targeting sports fans to build a cost efficient long tail hosting content; and for Ben Saunders it partnered with Discovery Channel to share campaign content to an engaged tech influencer audience. Finally the agency worked with Buzzfeed to create bespoke posts and editorial series “#Mindblowing facts” – a media first.
Results
The success in using low levels of paid media to catalyse earned media has seen strong results across the 13 markets, delivering a truly geo-wide campaign delivering against all campaign objectives.• In one month Buzzfeed delivered 87k engagements (page views), 18k social engagements achieving a 1.3X Social Lift – for every 10 people who saw the content from paid media, an additional three people saw the content as a result of sharing. That's equivalent to 30% earned media
• Facebook delivered over 400m impressions - 21% of which were earned impressions
• 55% of the 1m YouTube videos were earned views
• The Intel.com Shop page, where laptops are bought from, recorded an increase in purchase engagement rate from 25% to 40% and 74,000 visits were driven to Intel.com from Facebook
• Over 1.7M actions have been generated (shares,likes, retweets and comments)
• Over 120,000 new Facebook fans and Twitter followers were acquired organically, creating a 1:3 ratio of earned media to paid media overall.
The past year has been a chance for Intel’s social fans to inspire and be inspired by what is ‘inside’ Intel’s products, and to add to Intel’s ever-growing image as a company that innovates and makes new things possible.
Heineken | Road to the Final
Insight
Beer and football- a perfect combination to reach a male audience. Hence why Heineken is the global sponsor of the UEFA Champions League (UCL), the most prestigious club platform for international football stars and their clubs. Every year, this sponsorship platform drives awareness and preference for Heineken amongst UCL fans. But in 2013, Heineken wa
nted to evolve the communication of its UCL sponsorship. To deepen its relationship with UCL football fans by offering them something unique. Something that this audience would really enjoy and would therefore drive deeper engagement with the Heineken brand.
The answer was simple- focus on the areas of UCL that resonate most strongly with the male, football-loving audience. Focus on the intense level of competition and comradery that is inherent in football. And provide its male audience with an opportunity to get involved and feel that sense of competition, that comradery for themselves.
Strategy
The audience for this activity are men 21- 35, intense football fans who are highly competitive. They never pass up an opportunity to challenge a mate and would never back down when challenged themselves. To them, watching UCL football is inspirational- the epitome of athleticism and competition.
EBuzzing needed to find a way to extend the UCL experience from the TV screens, into these men’s hands. To bring the sense of competition to them. The central video asset developed for the campaign- “The Final”- was developed specifically focus to inspire these men. The video showcased the epic lengths that a fan will go to in order to be able to watch the UCL Final. Although the video culminated with the man arriving at the final match, the focus of the video is on the worldwide journey this man is willing to undertake to achieve something that is so important to him, everything from fighting through the jungle, hoping on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle, or managing to entertain harsh borders guards. He will do anything for his passion of the game. This video was used as the hook. It also needed something else to drive action.
Heineken knew its male target is highly competitive, so how could it trigger that passion? ‘The Kick’ online social game was created. An updated version of pinball, ‘The Kick’ was created to be highly addictive for our target- an easy to play, quick game that integrated the Heineken brand, elements of UCL football and was inherently social. The game would promote players to test their skills and to then challenge their friends to do the same. A social scoreboards was created to allow them to compare their results against their friends’, further driving the sense of competition and promoting gameplays.
Execution
‘The Final’ video ran on broadcast media around the world through local media and sponsorship packages. The reach of this asset was going to be huge. Heineken needed to capitalise on this awareness to drive engagement with The Kick game. It started with securing a global media world first! Heineken was the first advertisers to use YouTube’s trueview video product. Due to the lack to competition for this product, it delivered cost-efficient views of The Final asset across seven countries, specifically target users who were most likely to engage with the content and drive them to our game.
Through the use of a global video partner, the brand merged the video asset directly with the game in the custom-built widget, capturing the audience who was inspired by the video to immediately challenge them to test their own skills, all without leaving their current online environment. To ensure everyone, anywhere could play this game, a truly state of the art cloud-based hosting solution was created. This solution meant that that game could be played in any environment through the widget and would allow them to handle up to six million concurrent players! It identified a users’ location and tailored the language of the game to create a custom experience. Social media icons prompted players to share their results with friends and challenge them to try to beat their scores, something they knew their mates couldn’t resist! A social scoreboards was created to allow comparing of results, further driving competition and gameplays.Results
Online views of The Final video delivered over 35 million views, exceeding the target by 26%. The insight was right - this audience can’t say no to a challenge! 76% of those who viewed the video online went on to play The Kick game, with over 6.7 million gameplays of The Kick, smashing the target by 573%! And of those gameplays, over five million were unique players. And they didn’t just play it once - they successfully triggered their competitiveness to play again and try to beat their score.
Average time spent with the game was just under four minutes. With over 500,000 social engagements, they were eager to share with their friends too. Heineken research tracking demonstrated a 4% increase in Heineken’s awareness of UCL versus the previous year. Heineken’s activity brought the passion and competitiveness of UCL football into the hands of the audience.
- BRAND:
- Heineken
- CATEGORY:
- Drinks (alcoholic)
- REGION:
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Canada
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Romania
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Thailand
- United Kingdom
- DATE:
- April - May 2013
- AGENCY:
- EBuzzing
- MEDIA CHANNEL:
- Online,Sponsorship,TV
Lilly | Lilly - Get it out of the way
Insight
Getting men to visit a doctor is difficult in the best of circumstances. Trying to encourage a visit to discuss to Erectile Dysfunction (ED) and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH enlarged Prostate) is near impossible. And yet that was the primary objective of Lilly’s ED and BPH treatment education campaign.
Peeling apart the core target provided the insight that these “balanced men" (referred to as "Balanced Barry") – aged 40-65 yrs, active, healthy and in stable relationships - want to enjoy life with their partner and hope nothing gets in the way. As sensitive personal conditions, Balanced Barry is reluctant to talk about them, with anyone: partner, friend, let alone their doctor.
In fact, research has shown that it can take an average of two years to seek treatment for this condition, with many men not seeking treatment at all, instead viewing this as an untreatable part of the natural aging process. Against this backdrop of embarrassment and stigma, the internet is a unique vehicle which allows for understanding of the condition and the potential treatments available, whilst offering complete discretion. Trust is vital - Balanced Barry wants to ensure they are receiving accurate health information and when investigating the conditions, the first place they turn to would be a trusted medical source.
Strategy
Discretion & Integrity. Due to the sensitive nature and strict regulatory requirements, OMD needed to accurately target Balanced Barry. Therefore, it needed digital vehicles that would serve a message against the specific profile. The efforts focused on encouraging men to deal with ED/BPH concerns by connecting them with information that enabled a meaningful conversation with their doctor, helping them realise these conditions are treatable and need not infringe on their relationship.
The overarching digital strategy was to own Balanced Barry's experiences, within laser targeted male interest sites, in trusted health resources and when they were seeking additional information within Search. The objective was to help support Balanced Barry on his journey to treatment, occupying all of his digital touchpoints, like a trusted friend offering guidance and prompting action. Establishing a long term (always-on) presence was a key goal within these trusted platforms. The agency recognised that standard digital advertising can sometimes be seen as wallpaper, so went deeper by integrating Lilly ED & BPH doctor-produced tools and advice into trusted 3rd Party medical environments. This allowed Lilly to embed content and form a deeper association where men and their partners were going to learn more. Search is also a key resource for men looking for guidance and information.
Of course, paid search is the backbone to many campaigns and OMD looked to own and optimise the core ED/BPH keywords, to establish real estate in this space, capture traffic and drive to Lilly content areas for greater education and engagement. These relevant partnerships and quality search implementations were further reinforced by serving highly targeted ads via a real-time display buying tool. Focusing in on Barry in their other core areas of interest - News, Sports, men’s lifestyle – these communications acted as reminder messaging, additional to offline media and encouraged prompt action.
Execution
The partnerships with flagship third party independent medical sites involve annual, always-on activity to establish a long term association within the ED/BPH space. While unique solutions were developed in each market, these partnerships delivered deeper engagement and integrity across a breadth of activity:
- Trusted Medical writers, commissioned to answer new questions on ED and BPH within the site
- Co-branded Medical Site / Lilly Hub, providing integrated content through an environment the reader trusts
- Case studies for readers to engage with
- Sponsorship of ED Health Centres
- Co-branded Medical Site / Lilly Hub, providing integrated content through an environment the reader trusts
- Case studies for readers to engage with
- Sponsorship of ED Health Centres
These editorial relationships gave understanding and credibility to the Lilly message and drove greater engagement to prompt action – supporting the goals of educating men and getting them to talk to a Doctor. Specific to Search, it concentrated on information seeking terms around ED and BPH, served with continually tested ad copy. Optimisation focused to the Talk to your Doctor and Questionnaire sections of the website (for Barry to print off to take to his doctor). Additionally, bidding on campaign terms and ED/BPH health related terms, connected the audience to content offline to online - allowing them to explore content relating to symptoms, causes, treatment etc., furthering the propensity to talk to a doctor.
To serve highly targeted messages to these men with limited wastage, OMD utilised digital programmatic buying. This technology offered both contextual and demographic data targeting, combined with the cost efficiency of biddable display media. This ensured it directed the display communications to Balanced Barry effectively and efficiently.
Results
Independent Millward Brown research proved achievement of the primary objective getting "Balance Barry's" to visit their doctor - on average those who saw the campaign were 45% more likely to visit their doctor. The extremely relevant partnerships dramatically improved our primary “Talk/Find a Doctor” measures. -
Sweden: In first 5 months 12.2k men read the partnered articles with an outstanding 31% clicking through to Lilly for more guidance
Spain: CTR jumped from 0.15% display, to 0.71% with the new partnership presence and Talk/Find a Doctor % post click conversion improved to 8.8%, versus 1.2% of previous activity across all markets.
Search improved the key KPIs during the April/May campaign with 1 in 10 going from homepage to take the ED/BPH health questionnaire and 1 in 16 to visit ‘Find/Talk to your doctor’ (28,000 ED/BPH questionnaire and 18,000 Find/Talk to doctor visits). Overlaying programmatic buying dramatically reduced the cost per KPI (Find/Talk to a Doctor) conversion, with reductions of 51% in Sweden and 67% in Spain vs. previous traditional display.
A challenging task but the campaign has prompted more "Balanced Barry's" to visit their doctor and solve their ED/BPH problems.
- BRAND:
- Lilly
- CATEGORY:
- Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare
- REGION:
- France
- Italy
- The Netherlands
- Portugal
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- DATE:
- 2013
- AGENCY:
- OMD
- MEDIA CHANNEL:
- Direct Marketing,Digital,Online,Print
SBAB | The Loss Generator
Insight
SBAB has been a state owned mortgage loan company since 1985, and is now on a journey to becoming a “real” bank, with all the bank services offered by the commercial banks. The first step on this journey is to make people start using SBAB for more than mortgage loans. Hence, SBAB offers a savings account with high interest rate, no fees and free account withdrawals.
The marketing challenge is to increase the number of people opening a savings account with SBAB, and to increase the weekly deposits to these accounts. UM recognised that people have very low trust in banks in general. The four big commercial banks have a market share of 80%+ and are hugely profitable. They offer poor savings account interest rates with restrictions regarding withdrawals.
SBAB - as a former mortgage loan organisation - is strong in big cities in the mortgage loan category. But its market share for savings account is low, and so is the awareness of SBAB’s offer. However, SBAB is more trustworthy, being a state owned bank without the heritage of poor conditions for saving accounts.
UM built a strategy focusing on challenging the big commercial banks, comparing the SBAB offer to the other banks. It wanted to explain what low interest rates actually mean to your savings in an easy understandable, challenging and fun way. The overall objective was to increase number of savings accounts, and increase weekly deposits.
Strategy
UM wanted to build on the fact that the overall trust in the big commercial banks is low. Everyone is aware of low interest rates and high profits among the big banks – still the churn to smaller banks is very low. It’s a low engagement category – and it’s very complex. And even if banking is a very cluttered media category, the big banks don’t advertise savings accounts – for obvious reasons.
Given this, UM wanted to highlight how much money Swedes lose by having poor conditions on their savings accounts. UM strived to make this tangible, explaining the amount by relating to actual situations. How much money do Swedes lose in a week, a year, while waiting on a bus, while reading a newspaper etc.?
The agency created “The Loss Generator” on the SBAB website and in social media. “The Loss Generator” is a counter, showing how much Swedes have lost since January 1 by saving money in bank accounts with low interest rates – i.e. visualising the difference to the SBAB offer. At any time you can push “Stop the loss”, and the generator tells you what the loss is worth to date – transferred to what that money would buy; number of cinema visits, entries to the amusement park, etc.
Execution
UM aimed to show how much loss Swedes generate by poor savings account conditions through smart use of media:
Dailies: Focusing on Stockholm/Göteborg/Malmö, UM bought three consecutive ads/pages. The first ad said “This second, Swedes lose 499 SEK”, the second “Tomorrow you will have lost 43.099.072 SEK”, and the third “In one year, you will lose (gulp) 15.731.161.388 SEK”
Outdoor:
- Bus shelters: “2 minutes to the bus? Then you will lose 59.860 SEK on low interest rates”
- Underground: UM built a series of ads in the escalators, where the numbers increased: “Every second, Swedes lose 499 SEK on low interest rates”, “Now you’ve lost 2.494 SEK” …etc.
- Streets: UM used digital Eurosize ads, where they brought out “The Loss Generator” in real time counters on billboards. These street furniture where strategically bought outside or nearby big bank offices.
- Bus shelters: “2 minutes to the bus? Then you will lose 59.860 SEK on low interest rates”
- Underground: UM built a series of ads in the escalators, where the numbers increased: “Every second, Swedes lose 499 SEK on low interest rates”, “Now you’ve lost 2.494 SEK” …etc.
- Streets: UM used digital Eurosize ads, where they brought out “The Loss Generator” in real time counters on billboards. These street furniture where strategically bought outside or nearby big bank offices.
Online: Dynamic ads, reflecting the environment, e.g.: “When you Facebook for a quarter, Swedes have lost 449.100 kr. on low interest rates” …etc.
TV: A generic spot, explaining how much Swedes lose in a year, portraying the commercial banks a profitmaking clowns.
UM deployed two campaigns like this in 2013; in May/June, and in October/November.
Results
The results in 2013 were beyond all expectations, a pyramidal success.
- After the first campaign (May/June) the weekly baseline deposits increased by 279%
- After the second campaign (Oct/Nov) the average weekly deposits had increased by +663%, Q1 average compared to Q4 average.
- The market share for savings has also increased for SBAB: from 1.84% (Jan-Nov 2012) to 2.69% (Jan-Nov 2013). This is the highest market share increase among all banks…
- …but the SBAB share of “new” savings money in 2013 is 15%. This means that SBAB is number one in market share for new money – even bigger than the commercial banks, which have a far higher market share of the total savings.
- In October-November alone, the SBAB market share of new money is 34%! To put this in perspective, the overall market share (all savings) is 2.69%, as mentioned.
- Number of SBAB savings accounts increased from June 30, 2013 to December 31, 2013 by 24%...
- …and to total savings amount with SBAB increased by 45% during the same period!
- After the second campaign (Oct/Nov) the average weekly deposits had increased by +663%, Q1 average compared to Q4 average.
- The market share for savings has also increased for SBAB: from 1.84% (Jan-Nov 2012) to 2.69% (Jan-Nov 2013). This is the highest market share increase among all banks…
- …but the SBAB share of “new” savings money in 2013 is 15%. This means that SBAB is number one in market share for new money – even bigger than the commercial banks, which have a far higher market share of the total savings.
- In October-November alone, the SBAB market share of new money is 34%! To put this in perspective, the overall market share (all savings) is 2.69%, as mentioned.
- Number of SBAB savings accounts increased from June 30, 2013 to December 31, 2013 by 24%...
- …and to total savings amount with SBAB increased by 45% during the same period!
- Campaign recognition: 46% (finance category average: 30%)
- Liking: 27% (finance average: 18%)
- “The campaign is relevant for me”: 36% (finance average: 19%)
- Liking: 27% (finance average: 18%)
- “The campaign is relevant for me”: 36% (finance average: 19%)
To put the spend level and campaign size into a Swedish a perspective: the SOV for SBAB in 2013 is 8,5%, making SBAB the 5th biggest spender in this category. Hence, the campaigns have been medium sized campaigns.
The first step on the journey of transferring SBAB into a “real” bank has been highly successful. And the journey continues in 2014, when new services will be launched.
The first step on the journey of transferring SBAB into a “real” bank has been highly successful. And the journey continues in 2014, when new services will be launched.
Gillette Venus| Tag The Weather Gillette Venus
Insight
GILLETTE’S PROBLEM: WHEN WOMEN ARE SHIVERING, THEY’RE NOT SHAVING!
Sweden gets very cold in winter. For five months of the year, sub-zero temperatures engulf the region, and darkness and snow force people to stay indoors. As a result, Swedes don’t shave much. After all, why should they bother when they have to swaddle themselves in coats, thermal underwear and tights just to leave the house?
This is bad news for Gillette, whose Venus ladies shaving range suffers from a double-digit sales slump every winter.
Gillette realised that during the colder months, the brand’s biggest challenge is not rival razor products - it’s the weather.
While Gillette’s female target like to regularly shave and show off their legs in the summer, that routine becomes less and less frequent in the winter. The brand's key insight was that it needed to re-programme this behaviour to boost frequency of shaving and increase sales of Gillette Venus.
Gillette’s major problem, of course, was that it couldn’t change the weather, but could it help its target dream about sunnier climates, imagine long hot days, remember what summer feels like?
And, if Gillette could get them thinking warm - if it could really bring that dream warm weather to life - perhaps Gillette could fire up their summer shaving routine.
Sweden gets very cold in winter. For five months of the year, sub-zero temperatures engulf the region, and darkness and snow force people to stay indoors. As a result, Swedes don’t shave much. After all, why should they bother when they have to swaddle themselves in coats, thermal underwear and tights just to leave the house?
This is bad news for Gillette, whose Venus ladies shaving range suffers from a double-digit sales slump every winter.
Gillette realised that during the colder months, the brand’s biggest challenge is not rival razor products - it’s the weather.
While Gillette’s female target like to regularly shave and show off their legs in the summer, that routine becomes less and less frequent in the winter. The brand's key insight was that it needed to re-programme this behaviour to boost frequency of shaving and increase sales of Gillette Venus.
Gillette’s major problem, of course, was that it couldn’t change the weather, but could it help its target dream about sunnier climates, imagine long hot days, remember what summer feels like?
And, if Gillette could get them thinking warm - if it could really bring that dream warm weather to life - perhaps Gillette could fire up their summer shaving routine.
Strategy
GILLETTE’S STRATEGY: SHARING SOMEONE ELSE’S SUMMER WOULD STOP WOMEN SHIVERING AND START THEM SHAVING AGAIN!
Gillette couldn’t change the weather, but it could change the mind-set of its audience. If Gillette could remind them of summer – by helping them share and swap stories and pictures with women in warmer climates – Gillette could emotionally engage them with their summer shaving routine.
Gillette needed to start that process early to remain relevant during the cold season. It knew its target was increasingly mobile and smartphone dependent, spending hours plugged in to social networks and online photo-sharing platforms. In Sweden, women use Instagram twice as much as men and 39% use it on a daily basis.
Gillette would give women the chance to win a trip somewhere warmer, by entering Gillette’s photo contest on Instagram. For the chance to win, women would have to submit photos of the coldest places in Sweden, labelling them with Gillette’s #venuscompetition hashtag. This would be great content to share – while painfully cold, there’s nothing prettier than a sparkling blanket of snow. Gillette’s snap-happy women wouldn’t be able to resist.
A specially selected jury of female bloggers from sunny Florida, Brazil and Australia, would comment on the pictures and select daily favourites – giving Gillette’s photographers social fame and moving them closer to the holiday.
Keeping shaving on women’s mind, Gillette would offer a discount on Venus products to anyone posting a picture. Uniquely, this discount would be based on the weather conditions at their GPS-stamped location. The colder the weather, the bigger the discount. A partnership with an online retail brand would make purchase just a tap away.
Top fashion bloggers would also spread the word about Sweden’s weather – by showing sun-worshipping local Miami residents just how cold it was in Stockholm. Gillette would use their reactions – and photos – to create more sharable content on Facebook and the Venus website.
Gillette couldn’t change the weather, but it could change the mind-set of its audience. If Gillette could remind them of summer – by helping them share and swap stories and pictures with women in warmer climates – Gillette could emotionally engage them with their summer shaving routine.
Gillette needed to start that process early to remain relevant during the cold season. It knew its target was increasingly mobile and smartphone dependent, spending hours plugged in to social networks and online photo-sharing platforms. In Sweden, women use Instagram twice as much as men and 39% use it on a daily basis.
Gillette would give women the chance to win a trip somewhere warmer, by entering Gillette’s photo contest on Instagram. For the chance to win, women would have to submit photos of the coldest places in Sweden, labelling them with Gillette’s #venuscompetition hashtag. This would be great content to share – while painfully cold, there’s nothing prettier than a sparkling blanket of snow. Gillette’s snap-happy women wouldn’t be able to resist.
A specially selected jury of female bloggers from sunny Florida, Brazil and Australia, would comment on the pictures and select daily favourites – giving Gillette’s photographers social fame and moving them closer to the holiday.
Keeping shaving on women’s mind, Gillette would offer a discount on Venus products to anyone posting a picture. Uniquely, this discount would be based on the weather conditions at their GPS-stamped location. The colder the weather, the bigger the discount. A partnership with an online retail brand would make purchase just a tap away.
Top fashion bloggers would also spread the word about Sweden’s weather – by showing sun-worshipping local Miami residents just how cold it was in Stockholm. Gillette would use their reactions – and photos – to create more sharable content on Facebook and the Venus website.
Execution
SHARING PHOTOS AND STORIES LED TO SAVINGS ON SHAVING!
In January 2013, in the middle of the Swedish winter, Gillette launched the Gillette Venus ‘Tag the Weather’ competition website and made the tough climate conditions work in its favor.
In January 2013, in the middle of the Swedish winter, Gillette launched the Gillette Venus ‘Tag the Weather’ competition website and made the tough climate conditions work in its favor.
To win a holiday to Miami, consumers took photos of their winter weather and published them on Instagram; the campaign site automatically found them thanks to the hashtag used. Each photo was instantly given a bad weather score. Based on geo-location, the colder the conditions recorded (based on historical weather data) the higher the score.
Consumers could convert this into a dynamic discount for the Venus Proskin Sensitive. The lower the temperature, the bigger the discount. Gillette’s unique partnership with Halens, the region’s biggest online fashion and personal care retailer, meant that purchase was always just a click away.
Gillette’s message combined display, video and blog partnerships on mobile and web. Tag the Weather appeared on blog portal Devote.se and fashion blogs such as Tyras.se. It created videos showing Swedes talking to Americans in Miami about their weather and asking if they wanted to swap locations. They were hosted on YouTube, Facebook, female blogs and the campaign site.
Above-the-line ads invited women to show off their everyday weather to a unique jury of sun-spoiled bloggers (Steffi from Miami, Alana from Rio, Chrystal from Sydney), who also wrote about the competition and extreme weather in Sweden.
Wherever possible Gillette’s shivering target was exposed to the warmer weather being enjoyed by women elsewhere.
Results
SHARING PICTURES LED TO SALES HEATING UP BY 570%
In just two weeks Gillette attracted more than 5,800 Instagram photos – the highest number ever in Sweden. Overall, Gillette reached 444,500 Instagram users earning nearly 130,000 likes. The campaign site attracted more than 160,000 unique visitors – 80% via a mobile device.
In total, Gillette reached three million unique mobile devices across the region, while Facebook and Instagram activity reached 91% of all Swedish women 18-35.
In just two weeks Gillette attracted more than 5,800 Instagram photos – the highest number ever in Sweden. Overall, Gillette reached 444,500 Instagram users earning nearly 130,000 likes. The campaign site attracted more than 160,000 unique visitors – 80% via a mobile device.
In total, Gillette reached three million unique mobile devices across the region, while Facebook and Instagram activity reached 91% of all Swedish women 18-35.
Gillette’s response-led tactic generated incredible sales. The impact on sales of was incredible. During the campaign online sales of Venus Proskin Sensitive increased 570% and blades were up 100%. While in-store sales were boosted by 36%.
Digital,Mobile,Online
Quaker Oats | Havrecrunch | Yellowstone Diet
Insight
Turning the negative into a positive. Every day seems to bring us new information about what is good for us, what we should eat, how we should look, new extreme diets and new forms of exercise. They can range from the practical to the absurd. We know that people want to look and feel good, but the barrage of mixed messages combined with an increased focus on looks and lifestyle in society meant that our audience were being negatively affected rather than feeling positive about who they are. The beginning of any new year was particularly full of these messages as people focused more on their lifestyle and eating at this time of year.
With the launch of the Havrecrunch, Quaker Oats set out to challenge this negative trend, there is more to life than the next diet fad and it wanted to remind consumers of this. OMD needed to come up with an idea targeted specifically at this audience to get their attention, entertain them while also enlightening them about what leading a healthier lifestyle actually means.
The marketing challenge was to create awareness for the new Havrecrunch product by creating a meaningful connection with the target audience based on insights on their conscious living and eating habits.
Strategy
There is no miracle cure, but everyone claims their new product to be one, which is where the grizzly berries come into the picture.
The Yellowstone berry was considered a super-food for bears and it had recently become famous and a discussion point in social media forums. The Yellowstone berry helps bears get through the winter hibernation period and had recently become almost extinct before an initiative by Yellowstone Park bought the berry back to life.
With the berry background story in place, OMD would create fake commercials for a diet called “The Yellowstone Diet”. This diet was to come from these wild berries that scientists had supposedly been researching the last eight years. By harnessing the credibility of the story and armed with the knowledge that previous campaigns which had used humorous content were a success, the Yellowstone berry diet campaign was born.
Video content was created in an exaggerated and funny way to get people’s attention and have those wondering if this was real or not. The agency would release the ‘fake commercials’ on several social platforms that the audience uses to research, discuss and share new trends and diets. OMD’s strategy was to get the target group’s attention and use them to spread the Yellowstone diet themselves through social media. It would then move to mainstream channels such as print and out-of-home to reveal that the diet was about conscious living and encouraging people to eat healthily, rather than just chasing the next big fad.
Quaker believes that “There is no miracle cures – eat healthy and use your common sense”. With its brand story at the heart of the campaign it would set out to challenge the negative trend in body consciousness in an entertaining and irreverent tone of voice.
Execution
Knowing that being online and having credible buzz around a product was the key to attracting its audience, OMD recruited key ambassadors to promote the Diet and seeded 10 fake diet videos on blogs and forums. The videos consisted of two energetic people in gym gear discussing the diet and explaining the berry in an infomercial style. This included an introduction and demonstrations of the related products such as a Hibernation patch that works while you sleep, by inserting the berries into your nose, and personal favourite the Belly-berries patch for everyday use.
The content was seeded onto sites that contained news about health, fitness and lifestyle; OMD bought premium placements in trustworthy environments. Four Bloggers wrote 10 editorials about their experiences and expectations of the Grizzly Berries. #Yellowstone on Twitter would be track the chatter about the diet. All this was over five weeks alongside the bought placements.
The agency also rolled out budget display placements and cryptic search ads, to mirror the massive amount of ridiculous advertising for getting abs and losing weight in minutes in “untrustworthy environments” to also achieve a cheap TV-shop-feel in several contexts.
As the campaign got more and more ridiculous, OMD finally rolled out on all digital platforms, the BeOn network; Twitter, blogs, display, RTB, GDN, Search, YouTube and Facebook with a reveal, that it was all a part of a campaign highlighting bad diets and that the focus should be on healthy living and breakfasts, with Havrecrunch.
Results
“It’s the fake diet you don’t want to miss!” Havrecrunch delivered on its brand story and message that there is no miracle cure, just simply to eat healthy and use your common sense.
Awareness during the campaign increased the sales index to 334. While the buzz and chatter around the fake diet went crazy throughout the campaign on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, with comments such as: “This is great, where can I get it” to “This is the funniest parody of diet advertising ever seen.
After two weeks of advertising, Quaker Oats had + 27,000 visitors on the website, and + 50,000 views on YouTube, generating approximately +200,000 views spread over 10 videos. Phase 1 achieved an aggregated viewing time of 4,215 hours, equivalent to over 201 days of video consumption. Facebook reached a total of +70,000,000 impressions, while Twitter reached 216,000 impressions and 17,176 engagements, which meant a stunning 7.92% engagement rate.
A highlight of the campaign was an official invitation to have a stand at the 2014 Health and Beauty Conference, where Havrecrunch was invited to demonstrate the Grizzly Berries.
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