2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Life gets rough. Be smooth Life for young Arabs is stressful. Unemployment is high, house prices are rising, the lunch hour is shorter… And on top of that are the steady demands of family and friends. Research among our target revealed this: Young Arabs believe that, although life is tough, they do tend to needlessly overreact to lots of routine frustrations. In hindsight they realise that they could have been more positive. A colleague spills coffee on you; it isn’t the end of the world. You wife shrinks your favorite shirt; life could be worse. The insight: no matter how maddening something seems, a positive attitude can turn things around. When life gets rough, make like Coffee-Mate and #Be Smooth. Beginning with a product truth, that Coffee-Mate cuts the “bitterness” of black coffee, we invite the audience to do the same with everyday “bitter” situations, in a light-hearted way.

Creative Execution

The creative was based on 3 everyday characters that our audience recognise: •The newly married man and his annoying but endearing wife •The easy-going employee and his not so-easy-going boss •The optimistic taxi-driver and his endless stream of difficult passengers Through their trials, our heroes remain cool, reminding us, “Life can be tough, you just need to be smooth”. A fully integrated campaign, using unique content pieces adapted to each medium, was launched on: •Digital: Long and short format videos, across YouTube / Facebook / Instagram. Including social media posts highlighting stressful situations in life. •TV: 35-second spots, 5-seconder sponsorship bumpers •Product placement: On various YouTube shows in Saudi, and popular Lebanese Show “Hayda Haki”, where Coffee-Mate is physically used by hosts to make a rough situation “smoother”. •Radio: Sponsorships with RJ’s asking callers to participate and take part in “stress tests” •Outdoor: billboards and lampposts •Point-of-sale material.

• Sales skyrocketed: 12% increase (Versus 0.3% average growth, 2012-2015) • Coffee-Mate whitened more cups: The creaming ratio rose from 60% to 63.7% (Jan-Jun 2016). (Creaming ratio = NESCAFÉ coffee cups creamed with CoffeeMate/Total NESCAFÉ coffee cups) • Brand loyalty increased: From 45 to 51%, pre- versus post-campaign (Lebanon) • First-choice consideration improved: From 21 to 30%, pre- versus post-campaign (Saudi) • Perceptions of product performance improved: The difference in CoffeeMate ratings among those who had seen, versus those who had NOT seen the communication was: o +28% on “creams my coffee better than milk” o +27% on “will make my coffee moment more enjoyable” • Disposition towards CoffeeMate improved: +85% positive sentiment across social media • Reach grew: +24 million video views across YouTube / Facebook / Instagram Sources: - NESCAFÉ Client data - IPSOS Brand Health Tracker August 2016 - Nielsen Retail Audits

To revive flat sales, CoffeeMate launched a fully integrated campaign aimed at persuading Arab millennials to whiten their coffee with Coffee-Mate instead of milk. As their media consumption has become so fragmented, the only way to ensure effective reach among this target was to integrate our #BeSmooth message across different media, in ways relevant to each touchpoint, to minimize drop-off.

We were talking to young Arabs (24-35), recently married, with a young family. Lots of people start their day with some coffee to wake them up, but our audience want to be “eased” into the day with a creamy white coffee …rather than be shaken awake with bitter black coffee. Creaming coffee is a low-interest behaviour. To revive interest in Coffee-Mate, the work needed to: 1) Create interest in coffee creaming 2) Demonstrate Coffee-Mate’s advantages (tastier, smoother and creamier coffee) over milk, to persuade people to take a second look at the brand. To build “relatability” for the benefits of Coffee-Mate, we talked about how being smooth through life’s little trials really can turn things around. Humour was critical to the executions to increase empathy – and the likelihood of sharing – among the target.