2022 Winners & Shortlists

Background

The world is yearning social interactions and adjusting to the new normal. And for that we all want to have peak confidence in our day to day conversations in person. Having a strong fresh breath game helps us feel like we can take on the world, even the occasional small talks. But what happens when our near and dear ones aren’t doing so well in the fresh breath department? Offering a piece of refreshing chewing gum is a sure way to help them out, but maneuvering through that conversation can get tricky and it doesn’t end well most of the times. Wouldn’t it be amazing if there was an anonymous way to alert our friends and family and offer them an incentive to consume chewing gum. Introducing Extra: Friendly Alert.

Describe the creative idea

Anyone can have a less-than-fresh breath day. But when it happens to someone we know and care about, we seldom dare to alert them. We partnered with a market leader in the chewing gum category – Mars Wrigley’s Extra – to offer a good Samaritan service on a social messaging platform for people to find the right words to be able to alert their friends and keep their breath fresh and feel confident. And all of this anonymously.

Describe the strategy

We wanted to come up with a simple solution to an everyday social problem. That meant turning a potentially confrontational and uncomfortable conversation into something that’s light hearted and helpful by keeping the sender’s identity anonymous. There’s an approximately **185% (double check) mobile penetration rate amongst users in the UAE and people are constantly on their smartphone devices sharing videos, messages, memes and everything in between. Anything that is remotely disruptive or a first gets shared on platforms like Whatsapp immediately. The Extra Friendly alert is an innovation based solution that naturally fits within daily digital behavior of our target audience and can be activated at any time and from anywhere.

Describe the execution

We drove people to a microsite where they could select from carefully crafted humorous messages to send to friends anonymously. This was done in order to ensure messages received by people weren’t insensitive or rude. An example of one of the messages: Listen up, you delightful shawarma enthusiast ;) A friend wants to remind you there’s a fine line between garlic taking your breath away and garlic breath keeping them away. So, here’s an InstaShop discount code to order some Extra gum: GETYOURDINGBACK The friend would receive the message via the Whatsapp messenger with a discount code for purchasing Extra chewing gum at one of the region’s largest eCommerce / online grocery platform – Instashop. This way people are able to gently and anonymously alert their friends to uplift their fresh breath game while at the same time driving conversion.

List the results

A simple solution to an everyday social issue. As a result, we had hundreds of thousands of discount codes converted into Extra gum. Over 34,000 daily alerts 87% discount code conversion on Instashop Over 680K total alerts sent out (and counting) Top 10 sales on Instashop over a four-week period