2010 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

The Pond’s launch in Arabia was a big deal. It needed internal hype, excitement, and a unique idea that could always be remembered. We needed to make internal staff feel involved with the growth of the brand in the most exciting manner. We wanted to give something to staff, that could resemble Pond’s. Something that starts small, that they could grow, nurture and love.

Creative Execution

We wanted them to experience the growth of the brand for themselves, and this is exactly what we achieved. Tulips are the brand’s icon, so it worked perfectly to grow tulips as a metaphor for growing the brand. Giving out 1,049 tulip gift packages is not something that happens on a regular basis, certainly not on the same day. And although giving out flowers is a common gesture, it couldn’t have fit Pond’s any better. The tulips that were handed out had fully bloomed on the day of the launch.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

1,049 specially designed Pond’s boxes containing pre-planted red tulip bulbs were given to every staff member across six countries in the GCC, along with an instruction booklet as to how to grow, nurture and love their tulip. And for some additional excitement, we turned it into a competition too. We planted 10 of the tulip pots with pink tulips instead of red, and those who grew them won a romantic experience for two. This was all explained in the little booklet.

Results

On the 1st of March, the day of the launch, participation was 100%, with 1,049 fully bloomed tulips. This internal campaign literally touched everybody’s senses, with real life tulips. They could actually see the iconic brand growing in front of them. Staff were excited about the launch, and thought that the tulip giveaways were a “beautiful concept”. All this and more contributed to the biggest and most successful Unilever launch in Arabia. This activity helped to take Pond’s market share from 0% right up to 17.1% in its first 6 months, while close competitors took 3 years.