2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

In past years, Horlicks convinced thousands Pakistani mothers with powerful facts: it's scientifically proven to help children grow tall, strong and sharp. No wonder mothers believe it's good. But getting kids to demand it, pestering moms to buy more: that wasn't a reality. Horlicks lacked appeal for children. They didn't think it was 'cool', making it harder for moms to get them to have it daily. This had to change to substantially grow share and sales. The NutriQuest platform activates children through an engaging narrative and a state of the art mobile game - linked directly to sales-driving mechanics.

Creative Execution

(This entry focuses on the actual game.) Best practice shows: a game needs a powerful narrative. The Nutriquest-story: the Horlicks factory has been captured by the robot army of an evil scientist who wants to stop children from growing tall, strong and sharp. Only kids can stop him - lead by a group of four child heroes. In the game, children create their own character out of countless options. Then, they go on a obstacle-ridden, robot-infested journey through 3 worlds and 30 levels in stunning 2.5D design to eventually take down the evil dude. Crucially, all game mechanics are "branded": in-game-currency are Nutris; in order to win, you need to use TALL, STRONG and SHARP boosters. And: in store messaging urges the player to rate, share and: BUY THE SPECIAL EDITION PACKS TO GET CODES FOR HIDDEN LEVELS. It's an edutainment-game, sure, but it is also a hard-selling tool.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Strategy and approach paid off in a big way. All KPI for impressions, reach, conversion, downloads and active engagement were exceeded by far (over-indexing between +250 to +375). Importantly, the core audience of children appreciated this effort as proven in social media sentiment and game ratings - NutriQuest consistently achieved 4+ app ratings & reviews across both App Store & Google Play. And finally, the content and platform did more than merely entertain: they yielded a 25% increase in sales directly related to the campaign - measured in uptake of special edition packs (and redemption-rates of codes) in participating outlets.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Horlicks is a GSK child-nutrition brand operating in the Fast Moving Consumer Healthcare category. The branded entertainment platform Horlicks NutriQuest was created to drive Pakistani kids' love for the product and brand - so they demand it more frequently from their moms, subsequently leading to higher sales. Hence: At its very heart this is a highly promotional campaign. The specific tactics deployed underline this. The game itself - its narrative, game play and mechanics - activate product benefits in a way kids understand and love to engage with. Launching this game was all about triggering instant action: download the game. But most importantly: Special edition packs with thousands of unique codes for additional content were deployed in order to directly link the content platform to sales. This was further supported through mall activations (game zones), in-store theatre and the broadcast of promotional trailers and ads.