2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Our “World Expiration Date” campaign took American Garden’s brand manifest “Let’s Savor Life” and strengthened its brand equity. American Garden has always been active within the sustainability space and this campaign is part of its commitment. We discovered that 76% of the population check the expiration dates on food packaging. We identified those expiration dates as a simple yet powerful media space, and used them to show people what would happen to endangered animals within the same life spans as the products by creating special packaging that was sold across the region.

Results and Effectiveness

“The World Expiration Date” campaign strengthened the brand equity manifest “Let’s Savor Life”. We got closer to our audience and built brand affinity with them. The campaign created awareness about a serious issue and American Garden, being a responsible brand, kept its commitment to care for our planet alive. Thousands of special products have reached almost every UAE supermarket, leading people to the American Garden website where they can learn more about the situation and support the cause. Our products grabbed attention on shelves and were noticed by regular customers at first, before soon reaching other people.

Creative Execution

American Garden has a huge distribution channel – their products are available to the public in the region’s main supermarkets and shops. Our special products had relevant information on animal extinction printed on different packaging, from canned tomatoes, sweet corn and baked beans to mayonnaise and ketchup. Therefore, each shelf gave a voice to animals at risk of extinction. On each product, a link to the American Garden website invited people to learn more about the hundreds of endangered animals that we profiled– from vulnerable to critically endangered. From there, customers could take action and support the cause.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

American Garden is a regionally popular brand, synonymous with many food categories. Large numbers of consumers use American Garden products, in some way or the other, every day. Due to people’s close connection with our products, our packaging proved to be the perfect media. When reading information such as an expiration date during the purchase process, people are already thinking about the future. This allowed us to target the serious issue of animal extinction in a way that couldn’t be unnoticed.