2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

CANTALOUPE OR WATERMELON?

BrandPEPSICO
Product/ServiceMIRINDA
EntrantOMD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryFast Moving Consumer Goods
Idea Creation OMD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Media Placement OMD Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Why is this work relevant for Media?

When PepsiCo launched its new Mirinda Watermelon limited edition can, we were tasked with getting users to try the product. This work is relevant to the media category because we combined our big insight – of choice in perception and perspective leading to debate being sparked – and used integrated media and channels to amplify engagement. Here was a case of a big consumer insight powering a campaign where internal choice – on how to perceive a product – was at the heart of it.

Background

Mirinda, a PepsiCo brand, had a limited edition Mirinda Watermelon can, with design elements including both watermelon and cantaloupe. Trials had shown that Mirinda Watermelon tasted of watermelon to some users; and of cantaloupe to others. Our brief was to raise product engagement. The only way to do this was to get users to first become aware of the product, then trial it, and go on to express an opinion on whether it tasted of watermelon or cantaloupe. Our big creative idea was to play on this dichotomy: watermelon or cantaloupe? The limited edition can design, which already incorporated both fruits, inspired our campaign.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

Our big insight boiled down to choice, and what it means. External choice – where people are inundated with variety – can actually reduce happiness. But to give people a single product, and unleash internal choice, where everyone can have an opinion, is an effective bonding experience and a very powerful way of sparking conversation. As an example, of one the most explosive Internet memes of recent times was the blue and black, or alternatively white and gold, dress. The same dress; two different perceptions. This led to online camaraderie, debate, and the meme going viral. The insight here is that consumers are more invested in products and ideas that they debate online, and engage others about. This is kind of akin to a football club, where half the fun is supporting your team. People like being given internal choice – the luxury of having an opinion, and expressing it.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our execution strategy rested on two pillars: first, sparking debate using the internal choice principle where people express their opinions on taste; and second, amplifying this conversation to boost engagement and product trials. We started with the big question – watermelon, or cantaloupe? What does the can taste of? Our campaign videos ran on the region’s top TV channels by reach, and were also served on digital Video on Demand platforms. This was the start- sparking the debate. To amplify, we combined social posts and stories to increase online reach. And then, realising that our target demographics were particularly active on music streaming apps, we reached out there as well.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

First, we created 30s TVCs and served them across multiple digital platforms - YT, programmatic, mobile, Anghami, social (FB, IG & Snapchat). Our TVC also ran on top TV channels such as MBC, Rotana, Zee and OSN. This was the primer stage, designed to introduce the duality of the watermelon/cantaloupe debate and spark awareness that differences of opinion existed. Now that we had an audience informally bifurcated into camp watermelon and team cantaloupe, we continued to target and amplify. We ran 15s cut-downs across all our platforms. On social, our TVCs were combined with bite-sized content pieces – influencer reposts, IG stories, Snapchat Lens, and Facebook AR Lens. To capitalise on our demographic being active on music streaming app Anghami, we created personalised playlists and audio ads to encourage product trials so that people could form an opinion and then have their say.

List the results (30% of vote)

Our results outperformed benchmarks and targets. We reached 87% of our audience, far above the 50-70% benchmark. Our video assets had 19M+ digital views with a 40% view-through rate and 35% video completion rate,exceeded KPI benchmarks across all channels. Importantly, the debate reflected positively on the Mirinda, and Mirinda Watermelon. We saw 10+ brand awareness, purchase intent and consideration on YouTube, 16+ on message association on YouTube, and 13+ on ad recall on Facebook and Instagram.

Credits

Name Company Role
Farah Zidan KTP Associate Creative Director