2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

In the Egyptian market, offered content is divided between 3 main genres; social talk shows covering what’s happening on a country level, drama or series, and entertainment programs/Special formats. The challenge faced by most brands is striking a balance between content and relevance. Sponsorships do not offer that; they only offer media benefits. Moreover, any branded content needs to go through a lengthy process of approvals, and strict guidelines in order to deliver on the required hype. It’s also noteworthy to mention that sponsorships do not grant brands social conversations within the same deal. The hype of branded content has proven successful with many brands in the past 2 years, but content relevance has always been what makes or breaks the campaign’s success. The hype was mostly led by the use of influencers who lent their credibility to the brands. By time, media consumption patterns have evolved and video content took the lead on reach, right after TV. While the cooking platform was one of the early immigrants to YouTube, quantity ruled over quality. Most content was captured from TV recordings, leaving minimal space for fans to interact.

Results

Pril’s plans to launch its new partnership with Egypt’s favorite Chef Sherbiny coincided with plans to launch the brand’s social assets. Our launch recipe included challenging ingredients. First, the launch of a new formula with a new brand spokesman that is highly popular but also highly utilized by other brands. Second was the relevant, but overused, cooking platform. The third was Mothers’ day, an event where females are bombarded with messages. Being a market leader with a substantial consumer base made us understand the pride women take in cooking for her family and the skills that make her the kitchen heroine she is. To keep up with her heroine status, she dutifully follows cooking shows online to get a full view of how magic happens. The idea was more of an urgency; Pril’s online cooking show was in order. How would we link these elements and make it stand out? Pril’s Facebook page launched, asking moms what made them kitchen heroes. Tips and recipes flooded the page, and right before Mother’s Day, two winners were selected to spend the day at Henkel. They were surprised by the king himself, Chef Sherbiny, and they would co-star the debut of Pril’s Banquet, a show developed exclusively for the brand’s social-media assets. From that moment on, Pril’s fans expected biweekly webisodes that catered to their needs and responded to all their kitchen inquiries on demand. Recipes became the gratitude currency on the page, where Pril celebrated all occasions with new creations and welcomed fans’ participations too. By igniting user generated content, the show became more personal to Pril, differentiating the platform and launching online presence with a bang.

In its social sphere debut, Pril needed to stand out among numerous cooking platforms and introduce its brand ambassador – Chef Sherbiny – with a bang. We made use of Mother’s Day, the time where women are celebrated most. As market leaders with a substantial consumer base, we know the pride women take in cooking for their families and skills that make them kitchen heroes. We created content generated by our fans and invited them to celebrate with us. Sherbiny’s popularity and the human factor of user-generated content served as a traction force to spread our content.

User-focused by design, Pril Banquet succeeded in becoming the first on-demand cooking show online that allows Pril’s fans the exclusivity of interacting with Egypt’s favorite Chef Sherbiny and creating social conversations away from the over-cluttered TV spots. By end of March, we had achieved 356% increase in fan base vs. KPI, 1100% increase in average engagement rate vs. KPI and 63% increase in video views vs. KPI. YouTube also enhanced TVCs reach by achieving 1.8% incremental reach over TV. Engagement generated by Chef Sherbiny’s endorsement and the ensuing community that was developed solidified Pril’s social dominance against competition on all levels. Online success paved the way to bigger and better things. Kitchen Heroes helped boost Pril’s sales volume by 18% vs. 2013, exceeding previously set target and scoring the brand’s highest increase in sales volume since 2013.