2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

• ‘Keeping smiles beautiful’ has always been the core of Crest’s promise to people. However, that promise was being shared by other players. Outspent on traditional media and perceived to be more expensive, Crest was struggling to stand out, connect with consumers and grow share. • With competition approaching dental communication from a serious perspective, focusing on the science behind beautiful looking teeth, Crest decided to explore a lighter approach. • Recognizing that coping with stress was becoming a major challenge for most Lebanese, Crest decided to take the matter in its own hands and give consumers something to smile about. After all, laughter is the best medicine. • Crest believes that a real smile is contagious and thus wanted to give people something to smile about. This, combined with a lower media budget than our competitors, meant that we needed to use the power of social sharing to own the idea of ‘smiling is contagious’ and increase our sales. • The idea: “Spread the Smile”.

The Brief

Grow sales by 10% and increase online fanbase to 30,000 fans in 6 weeks Crest aimed to grow its quarterly sales (vs. year ago) by 10% and increase its fan base to 30,000 fans. It was important to connect on a more human level with its audience to shake off the perception as being expensive and scientific, thus increasing quarterly sales. Measures Target Quarterly Sales +10% Total number of fans 30,000 Total submissions 1,900 Total votes cast 100,000 Total number of views 300,000 stories viewed

Results

Increased Sales +26%, Recruited +60,000 New Fans The results were as bright as the Crest SMILE. Crest brought a smile to thousands of moviegoers in a 6 week period. Their smiles lived on through photographs uploaded on the Crest Facebook page. The campaign resulted in a +26% sales increase versus same period year ago. Our fan base increased to more than 70,000 in 6 weeks, which was unprecedented within the Oral Care category given its overall medicinal image. Spread the Smile Actuals | Index vs. Target +26% actual sales increase Target was +10% sales increase 2,270 submissions 114 252,806 votes cast 252 71,789 fans 239 363,410 stories viewed 121 14 min average time on app - Viral Reach 8,567,592 online users Source: P&G Monthly Sales Data Source: Facebook Analytics Data

Execution

People could spread the smile by uploading content and sharing it. Winners were those who collected the most smiles. The most engaged online users (roughly 10%) were incentivized to generate and share their unique content to win a trip to New York City, home theatres or iPads. Less engaged online users (90%) were encouraged to view and share content for a chance to win 2 cinema tickets, which was then integrated with a cinema stunt and sampling activity. All touch-points drove traffic to Facebook, from outdoor LED billboards, TV ads, cinema stunts, radio shows and online ads. User-generated content was fed back into the communication with users’ submissions appearing on LED billboards and users calling live radio shows to sharing their content. Diligent community management played a key role in managing the competition and Facebook page through quick responses, highlighting the best content, and giving tips to users.

The Situation

Smiling is contagious For most Lebanese, life is an uphill climb. It is a journey booby trapped with mountains of stress and uncertainty, and as the economy worsens and the political divide widens, so does the stress. Crest knew that a smile can go a long way. A smile can dissolve distressing emotions and help people relax. We decided to create a social smile platform where people can share and pass on the smile.

The Strategy

Smiling is contagious For most Lebanese, life is an uphill climb. It is a journey booby trapped with mountains of stress and uncertainty, and as the economy worsens and the political divide widens, so does the stress. Crest knew that a smile can go a long way. A smile can dissolve distressing emotions and help people relax. Crest began with two simple universal truths: (i) smiling is contagious, (ii) When you smile, the world smiles back. We decided to create a social smile platform where people can share and pass on the smile epidemic, in the form of video, photo, and text content. This was done on our Facebook page.