2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Moms in the region feel undervalued, particularly by their husbands. Their role at home is underplayed culturally, and their husbands find it difficult to express their appreciation for their wives, as this is not a part of the social norm. We wanted Ferrero Rocher to become the go-to brand for gifting during Mother’s Day and gain market share in both volume and value during the occasion. So, we focused our communication in the weeks leading up to the occasion. Without the budget for traditional ATL to put Ferrero Rocher top of mind during Mother’s Day, we knew we had to capture people's imaginations and bring the brand experience to life in a different way. With a budget of $20,000 we developed a campaign which included a social and an on-ground activation that were emotionally focused and reinforced the fact that Ferrero Rocher is the perfect gift for Mother’s Day.

Describe the creative idea.

A social activation through Facebook and Instagram encouraged people to share what their mothers mean to them. We then rewarded ten selected winners with beautiful artworks using Ferrero Rocher’s iconic golden foil to create stunning and unique portraits of their mothers, because a mother’s heart is as pure as gold. These unique handcrafted pieces were works of art like no other, capturing just how precious a mother truly is, in a way only Ferrero Rocher could.

Describe the strategy.

When given as a gift, Ferrero Rocher is a symbol of how much we value someone special to us. Individually wrapped in gold and crafted from the most premium ingredients, the praline is associated with “preciousness” thanks to the end line that has been running for the past five years in the region: ‘Precious like the people we love.’ We realized that it wasn’t our right to put a label on Mom. In fact, there is no label that sums up motherhood; moms are everything. Instead of telling people what they should think, we created an opportunity for our consumers to contemplate what their mom is to them, and find their own words to express their appreciation with Ferrero Rocher. We asked our audience of males/females aged 25-35 (GCC) to tell us what their mom means to them, rewarding those with the best answers with one-of-a kind handcrafted beautiful artworks.

Describe the execution.

A social activation through Facebook and Instagram encouraged people to share what their mothers mean to them. Ten winners received one-of-a-kind portraits of their mother to gift her on Mother’s Day after sending in a photo. The photos were illustrated by a skilled artist and the shapes of the illustration contours were delicately cut out from the gold foil wrapping of Ferrero Rocher. Each portrait was then produced using a foiling technique combined with collage, utilizing the actual golden foil from Ferrero Rocher pralines as the material. Each unique artwork was handcrafted for over three hours and foiled with at least 30 squares of golden foil per portrait. The artworks were displayed on social media and in a pop-up gallery activation, inspiring people to open up on Mother’s Day and share with their moms just how much they mean to them and how precious they truly are.

List the results.

While the category declined, Ferrero Rocher saw a volume growth of 18% vs 2017 and 34% growth in its core SKU (300g). In the biggest UAE retailers, it was able to grow volume by a staggering 120%. On Facebook and Instagram, we saw almost 3 million engagements – an engagement rate of 12.45% - with overwhelmingly positive sentiment. In the month that the campaign was live, we reversed the trend in 4 declining metrics, particularly the quality and differentiation we were seeking to address: ·‘Is made of quality ingredients’ and ‘Is different from any other brand of boxed chocolates or pralines’ leapt 13 points in Mar/Apr vs. Feb/Mar ·Even ‘has a great taste’ and ‘is a brand for people like me’ saw an increase of 2 points and 1 point respectively, despite not being a focus of the campaign.