2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Due to its carbs, pasta is a fuel - it fuels days with energy, it fuels mealtimes with creativity and fun, it fuels families with joy. This became our guiding insight. We launched Panzani on Facebook during Ramadan - where fueling up becomes super important. We fueled fans with nutritional information about pasta, fueled taste by sharing influencers’ unique recipes and fueled good by feeding Dubai's laborers. When it came to going Back to School, we focused on fueling kids' creativity and put them in control of the kitchen, in a series of webisodes called “Fuel School”. Our audience joined the conversation and got inspired by kids doing what they do best: letting their imaginations go wild. In the gaps between ‘main-course campaigns’ we fueled conversation and encouraged our fans to join in. Every post we created was about fueling creativity, fun and inspiration.

Creative Execution

Translating the 'Fuel Creativity' strategy into social posts was exciting and fun. With a tight budget and limited media spend we managed to create campaigns, webisodes and posts that were unique, colourful, fun and insightful. Every single post had a purpose, a unique idea and was relevant to the main strategy. The three key campaigns had a duration of one month each. Between campaigns we had a frequency of 6-8 posts a month. The campaigns were carefully timed to be relevant to the time of year they were in action, as were the day-to-day posts in between each campaign. We channeled the campaign through Facebook - where we built an active and highly involved community. Creating delicious video, gifs and images that were liked and shared across the GCC and beyond.

Results

- With no social media presence, we started at zero. In less than a year Panzani has over 340,000 followers on Facebook, and the number is growing every day! - We changed behaviour. What began as an awareness-focused content plan, soon became an engaging, two-way conversation between the Panzani brand and its consumers. - We have one of the most active and engaged FMCG communities in the GCC region. Even though it doesn't yet have the large following of the other brands, Panzani has far more engagement and activity.

The work created for Panzani on Facebook demonstrates a compelling level of creativity, standing out in the sea of bland branded posts we see daily, while inviting moms and cooking aficionados across the Middle East to engage with the brand. The community grew from 0 to over 340,000 followers in less than a year - a good percentage of it organic. Our work created a community that's more and more involved, engaged and loyal to the Panzani brand. Panzani are now one of the most engaging and creative FMCG brands in the UAE, KSA, Morocco and Lebanon.

We needed to introduce Panzani to the people of the Middle East by creating delicious content that our audience would care about. After all, moms and cooking aficionados in the region would be consuming content from a lot of competing brands. To stand out, we positioned pasta as a vital source of energy and the perfect blank canvas on which to conjure up delicious, nutritious meals. This complemented Panzani's global positioning of creating, eating and fun. We quickly learned that our audience loved to share cooking hints and tips, so rather than a typical call to action we simply invited them into our Facebook kitchen where they could join in the conversation and see what's cooking. This naturally led them into stores to pick up a pack of Panzani and cook up some fun for real.