Beyond its mission to showcase the finest global thought leadership in the area of marketing and advertising research, the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) in September offers its readers a bonus: a selection of winning papers from the annual David Ogilvy Awards.
Since 1994, the Ogilvy Awards have celebrated the extraordinary and/or creative use of research in the advertising development processes of research firms, advertising agencies, and advertisers. This year's winners did what past winners have done with intelligence and integrity:
ignited brand resonance by successfully positioning (or repositioning) brands to speak directly to the consumer/customer with more relevance, strength, and authority across multiple platforms and cultures;
helped companies overcome critical challenges to their core brand essence and transform the way they use advertising;
optimized product, campaign, and communication efforts aimed at revitalizing brands and generating new customers, segments, or markets;
literally created new categories of products or services where none existed before; and
achieved unparalleled bottom-line revenues, sales growth, and brand building.
This year the eight Ogilvy Golds,1 awarded at the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) March Re:Think conference, presented an embarrassment of riches for this journal, (JAR typically adapts four submissions in collaboration with the winners). As a result, the editors narrowed their selection by finding a common theme—engagement—among the following Gold winners:
Nestlé – Lean Cuisine: “#WeighThis”
(Grand and Gold Winner, Social Media)
Boeing: “Boeing Innovation Series”
(Gold Winner, Media)
The Clorox Co. – Kingsford Charcoal: “United We Grill”
(Gold Winner, Cross-Platform)
Ontario Women's Directorate: “#WhoWillYouHelp”
(Gold Winner, Creative Effectiveness)
truth: “Finish It”
(Gold Winner, New Audiences)
The truth “Finish It” campaign—a robust case study that involved the collaboration of six research and analytics firms and agencies—proved more complex than could be accommodated in these pages. It will be featured in a forthcoming article in the JAR.
“Ogilvy Award winners set the standard for compelling creative that breaks through the clutter,” said ARF CEO Gayle Fuguitt. “This is inspiring work by ‘risk-taking innovators'—as David Ogilvy would say—’brilliant minds with gusto’ who are making a difference for the consumer while evangelizing leadership.”
We trust you will enjoy the expanded summaries of these four other remarkable campaigns.
Lean Cuisine #WeighThis
GRAND AND GOLD OGILVY WINNER: SOCIAL MEDIA
ADVERTISER: Nestlé Lean Cuisine
AGENCY: 360i
RESEARCH: 360i
MEDIA: MetaVision
CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY
Lean Cuisine for two decades had enjoyed success in the frozen diet meals market. But in 2010, sales started to slip. The brand was losing relevance among its customers. Part of the problem was a change in perceptions from the 1980s–'90s dietconscious era: Health concerns among U.S. academics1 had pejoratively transformed “diet” into a four-letter word.
Although Lean Cuisine's marketing concept had focused explicitly on weight loss, it had an implicit emphasis on dieting. Dieting, in fact, never had been part of Lean Cuisine messaging. But “diet” was its frozen brand category—and, healthconscious consumers increasingly were avoiding frozen foods.
The result: Five years of sales declines from 2010 to 2014. The brand needed to pivot—fast.
To explore this loss of relevance, Lean Cuisine enlisted researchers at 360i, who launched a robust analysis of social segmentation and brand perception in the United States. Among their findings: Lean Cuisine conversations (the way the brand and its followers in the United States communicated in social media) were functional and lacking emotional relevance. Further, the researchers observed that although Lean Cuisine's female consumers lead accomplished lives, they face a society that continues to judge women by appearance—a factor widely cited in other studies (Oreffice and Quintana-Domeque, 2016; Rudd Report, 2008).
Lean Cuisine saw this as an opportunity to make the point that women should value or “weigh” themselves by their accomplishments, not by their physical weight.
By creating a new social-media campaign, “#WeighThis,” the brand, owned by the Swiss prepared-food conglomerate, Nestlé, tapped into the accomplishments that fuel successful lifestyles for women. The centerpiece of the campaign was an emotionally powerful video featuring real women weighing their life accomplishments in lieu of their bodies.
The social media campaign was part of a holistic marketing campaign that also featured television spots about phenomenal women, with the tagline, “Feed Your Phenomenal.”
“#WeighThis” was an integral part of Lean Cuisine's holistic turnaround strategy and largely contributed to the brand's first sales increase in six years, even as its media spend declined year over year.
MARKETING CHALLENGE
In 1981, when Jane Fonda's workout videos, dieting, and leg warmers were popular in the United States, Lean Cuisine as a prepared frozen-food brand for dieters was a category breakthrough.
Fast forward 30 years—and the word “diet” had developed a negative association amid changing mindsets on health and fitness. What's more, consumers increasingly avoided frozen foods. Both factors took a significant toll on the brand: The amount of Lean Cuisine product purchased by the brand's core consumer base dropped by 70 percent from 2010 to 2014, and retailers declined shelf space by 12 percent.2 The latter statistic indicated that the frozen diet category was in trouble. According to one report, 40 percent of U.S. adults considered frozen dinners to have little nutritional value, resulting in a segment decline of 9.3 percent during the previous four years.3
Clip from the “#WeighThis” Video: The woman is asked, “Would you like to weigh yourself?”
Lean Cuisine needed to shift its brand positioning across multiple platforms (television, digital, and public relations), from its ‘80sera diet and weight-loss focus to modern health and wellness. It also needed to improve consumer perceptions about frozen foods to move product in the freezer.
To understand what was at the root of business declines, the brand's marketing team conducted extensive consumer testing focus groups and ethnographies, while also monitoring related social media.
One big takeaway was that Lean Cuisine was no longer considered a relevant ally for modern health and wellness. A pivotal moment came during a focus group, when one woman identified Lean Cuisine as a brand for “lonely, skinny, White women… not me.”
This statement—a reaction to multiple factors, not just ethnicity—reflected the complexity behind how she viewed herself and the brand. It highlighted that the brand was not relevant from two perspectives: self-identity and values. This woman no longer saw herself (physically) represented by the brand, nor did she connect with the brand from an emotional/values standpoint. She did not feel close to the brand, nor did she think the brand reflected her values or motivations.
That single statement, in fact, stopped the brand team in its tracks. The brand needed to change its image and also “talk” about values in order for this consumer to regain her belief in it. Her comments forced honest conversations about current perceptions of the brand and what would be needed to move the business forward.
The rebranding process then began: The brand now knew it needed to improve the relevancy of its recipes from both a culinary and health perspective. For months the research team worked to identify more on-trend recipes that she—the brand target—loved and deliver them with the health benefits that she was seeking, including high protein, gluten-free, or made with organic ingredients/GMO (genetically modified)–free. New packaging and frozen entrée options, such as Vermont White Cheddar Mac & Cheese and Sweet & Spicy Korean-Style Beef, were introduced.
Although the brand's reformulation and updated packaging gave people a reason to believe it was different, Lean Cuisine needed to give them a feeling to believe.
Clip from the “#WeighThis” Video: A woman displays her Dean's List certificate
During previous efforts to relaunch products, through trial and error the brand had learned that it was not enough to
show people facts,
tout improved functional benefits, and
earn its way back into consumers' lives.
Instead, the brand had learned that consumers want to use and support brands that they feel reflect and support their values and beliefs. To truly be more relevant and earn reconsideration, Lean Cuisine needed to reflect on what its purpose was in the world and in women's lives. It needed to connect with consumers' on both an emotional and intellectual level—or, in the words of some marketers—“connect with consumers' hearts and minds.”4
METHODOLOGY
Lean Cuisine's marketing strategy was based on insights it gained from monitoring social media related to the brand—social listening research. The brand hired 360i to supplement the marketing team's study, which included
volume trend analysis,
in-depth social sentiment analysis,
360i Tribe AnalysisSM segmenting the social audience, and
360i Brand CompassSM measuring brand perception
to uncover what it expected would be powerful insights. The desired outcome of that research would inform a campaign that would resonate with the Lean Cuisine audience and new potential consumers.
Through 360i's proprietary social segmentation research (Tribe AnalysisSM) and brand perception analysis (Brand CompassSM), the marketing team identified that the current conversation about Lean Cuisine online lacked emotional resonance.
The product consistently was the butt of jokes. Cultural references about the individual perceived to be the Lean Cuisine consumer pointed to a lonely single female eating dinner at home alone. One social media post in 2014, for example, commented on a woman in a rush: “So in a hurry to get home to ‘Frasier’ reruns and her Lean Cuisine.” Another commented about what eating a Lean Cuisine meal signified to that person: “I'm really really glad I'm no longer at that point in life where I regularly eat Lean Cuisines for lunch.”
A closer look at Lean Cuisine's core target revealed a woman who was succeeding (high-income earners, college graduates—hard workers who provide for others) in a society that continued to judge her not by her accomplishments but rather her appearance. Real-life bios from socialmedia listening uncovered actual snapshots of the Lean Cuisine woman. One contributor described herself as: “44-yearold lung cancer survivor. Training to do my first 5K & get back on my feet after surgery the day before Thanksgiving 2014. Aspiring Vegan.”
CREATIVE EXECUTION
Having identified Lean Cuisine conversation as functional and lacking resonance, the marketing team set out to move the brand into an emotional space and promote conversation around a brand that was about more than just dieting.
The marketing team tapped into the emotional drivers and accomplishments that fuel a successful lifestyle for women in an emotionally powerful spot featuring real women weighing their accomplishments—among them,
becoming a parent,
making the dean's list as a single mother pursuing an academic degree, and
traveling the world.
A video advertisement (“#WeighThis”) opens onto a large empty room—a grand, white interior, reminiscent of neoclassical architecture. There is only one object: a scale. As a woman enters the room, a voice asks her to approach the scale. “Would you like to weigh yourself?” (See Figure 1). Each time the camera focuses on the woman, she is a different person—reflecting the many women who have entered the room representing different ethnic, social, and weight groups.
One asks, “Should I stand on the scale?”
“I'm not going to weigh you,” the voice says.
“Awesome,” another woman replies.
The voice then asks each woman to state her biggest accomplishment while standing next to the scale. One woman has traveled extensively; another, at age 55, has gone back to college, “creating a second chance at my life.” While one woman celebrates her 24 years of marriage, another displays her divorce papers. Still another—single mom working two part-time jobs—holds her dean's list certificate. And so on.
The video advertisement was promoted across several social media and marketing channels. The team:
seeded a centerpiece video on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube;
used paid media to distribute the video to a large audience via the online video marketing specialist, Visible Measures;
launched a public relations effort to pitch the story to the press5;
utilized “influencer marketing” to amplify the message: partnering with 19 bloggers who write from a “Mom's” point of view and/or about health and wellness.
Throughout the campaign, the brand encouraged women on social media to share the ways in which they would like to be “weighed” (or be judged by others) using the hashtag #WeighThis on Lean Cuisine's social channels, promoting an open conversation about meaningful accomplishments. The response was consistently positive:
“I want to be weighed by overcoming everything that people have told me I could not do. And not letting it stop me. #WeighThis”
“I want to be weighed for my joy in life, my resilience/tenacity, and my love of family and friends. #WeighThis”
“I want to be weighed by my love for my kids. #WeighThis”
BUSINESS RESULTS
“#WeighThis” was an integral part of Lean Cuisine's holistic, cross-platform turnaround strategy. It largely contributed to the brand's first sales increase in six years, even during a period in which media spend had declined year over year.
The “#WeighThis” video was an instant and viral success, contributing to a 33 percent increase in positive brand perception. Within the first week of launch, the video reached 6.5 million viewers, earning the No. 9 spot in the AdAge Viral Video chart.
During the campaign timeframe of June 22, 2015, to July 22, 2015, year-overyear results showed the brand's efforts increased conversation about Lean Cuisine by 178 percent across social media. Meanwhile, Lean Cuisine's competitive share of voice increased by 19 percentage points compared with the same timeframe in 2014.
These numbers demonstrated that the campaign resonated emotionally with consumers, who flooded “#WeighThis” and Lean Cuisine's social channels with descriptions of how they wanted to be weighed, and comments on others' posts. The responses also overwhelmed negative comments; the share of negative conversations around Lean Cuisine on social media narrowed to 4 percent from 2014's previous year's share of 25 percent negativity.
Lean Cuisine in 2016 no longer is perceived as a lonely, single woman's quickfix dinner; rather, it is viewed as an advocate for female empowerment.
Boeing Innovation Series
GOLD OGILVY WINNER: MEDIA
ADVERTISER: BOEING
AGENCY: FCB Chicago
RESEARCH: FCB Chicago
MEDIA: TMP Worldwide
CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY
The Boeing Company, headquartered in Chicago, is the world's largest aerospace company and a leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space, and security systems. In 2012, the company launched a brand platform—”Build Something Better.” The name, based on the founder William Boeing's passion to, in his words, “build a better one,” had inspired the eventual creation of the first Boeing airplane—the B&W seaplane.1
Designed to lead up to Boeing's centennial year 2016, the new brand platform engaged key decision makers, influencers, customers, and employee stakeholders.
In 2012, the introduction of “Boeing Innovation Video Series” supported the “Build Something Better” platform by showcasing the depth and breadth of Boeing innovation to the company's “Emerging Influential” target audience, described as “future decision makers, customers, and stakeholders.” According to Boeing, although this audience knew Boeing as a commercial airline manufacturer, it had limited knowledge of the myriad innovations beyond those related to aircraft manufacturing. The marketing team's job centered around changing the mindset of these emerging influentials from being merely aware of Boeing to having a favorable opinion about the company and the advantages of working there.
Boeing looked to maximize the engagement of viewers that it sought through both paid and owned media. Most critical? Strong video content. Boeing wanted to ensure it created the most relevant and engaging online video content that emphasized Boeing's role in innovations in the defense, space, and technology segments, beyond just those innovations in the commercial aircraft space.
A Video Content Analysis research team identified opportunities to optimize new Innovation Series video content. It consisted of representatives from the strategic analytics, strategic planning, and account teams at FCB Chicago, with collaboration from creative team members who eventually implemented the findings. The research, led by FCB's strategic analytics team, involved deconstructing the creative elements in previous online videos to help identify those elements that most effectively helped retain viewers and build advocacy for the videos. This analysis led to the development of an internal scorecard that helped identify how to best structure videos to maximize engagement.
As a result, the company and agency creative teams developed new videos for the series that applied the best practices uncovered by the study. The videos could be creatively structured in a way that resulted in higher engagement rates, maximizing the impact of the ongoing “Build Something Better” campaign.
MARKETING CHALLENGE
The Boeing Company is known around the world as a leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes. What is less wellknown, however, is that Boeing is also a leader in technology innovation beyond airplanes—from space technology and communications systems to material sciences and robotics.
Thus, a key positioning challenge Boeing faced was how to position itself as both an innovative leader and a company with its best years ahead of it. Although the majority of these young “Influencers” viewed Boeing as a successful aviation company, they did not list it among the top U.S. companies; their ratings for Boeing were moderate compared with their support of others like Google. Boeing, as a result, needed to find new ways to meaningfully connect with these young “influencers” to position itself as a true innovator, on equal plane to some of the leading companies in the technology sector.
Clip from the Video Advertisement, “Microlattice: Lightest. Metal. Ever”
The Innovation Series' goal was to educate and engage key audiences with the depth and breadth of innovation at Boeing—featuring the voices of employees—while laddering up to Boeing's brand platform's higher purpose to “Build Something Better.” It was critical that the videos produced in the series be engaging and capture the attention of online audiences before viewers became distracted by other options available to them in today's frenetic and cluttered online content universe.
Although the videos performed well overall in generating views, analytics data showed that 20 percent of Boeing's audience on YouTube were dropping off in the first 10 seconds, worsening over time. To curb these drop-offs, Boeing partnered with FCB Chicago's strategic analytics team to launch a creative-driven, cross-functional Video Content Analysis. The method: measure creative elements frame-by-frame against various key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge what visuals and copy resonated most with the target audiences.
METHODOLOGY
The strategic analytics team at FCB Chicago dissected each of the 40 previously distributed Boeing Innovation videos on YouTube to best understand the creative element combination and sequence that drive desired video engagement.
The team re-examined the 40 videos that already had been distributed in the series, identifying 10 major creative element categories:
Title Sequence
Personal/Human Stories
Super
Product Footage
Product Information/Performance
Engineer Super
Graphic Demo
Relatable Applications
Higher Purpose
Logo Sequence.
These element categories were identified and coded to each of the online videos, on a second-by-second basis. To further understand the sequential effect of these creative elements, the videos each were further coded into four sections:
Intro
Main Body
Close
End.
The 10 creative elements and four sections then were correlated to two KPIs—“view retention” and “view drop-off index” to help sort the data and generate actionable insights (See Figure 2).
The team distilled the findings of the research analysis into guidelines that FCB's creative and production teams could use to create and arrange the video story in the most optimal manner—in ways that ultimately would be most appealing to the audience Boeing hoped to attract and engage.
CREATIVE EXECUTION
The team uncovered a set of key findings from the Video Content Analysis and applied them to new video creation. The findings indicated that Boeing needed to
portray why the technology matters in the first 10 seconds;
highlight Product Information/Performance and facts at the beginning of the video to capture audience's interest;
use high-quality Product Footage to support Product Information/Performance;
leverage Graphic Demo and Relatable Applications to illustrate product details during the main body of a video.
The result: “Microlattice: Lightest. Metal. Ever,” a video about a weird, squishy, light metal (See Figures 1 and 4). It quickly became the Innovation campaign's most successful video.
The video starts with engaging content about product information, supported by high-quality product footage. The goal: capture the audience's attention and avoid view drop-off in the first 10 seconds based on the findings from the video content analysis.
Video Intro View Drop-Off Index by Creative Element Categories
The video then features in-depth product details with Graphic Demo and Relatable Applications to demonstrate the science behind this “world-leading technology.” The goal: retain viewer engagement during the main section of the video.
Additional findings from the research analysis also were applied to help the final creative execution. For example, the researchers had found that including higher purpose and personal/human stories toward the closing would further drive engagement. Accordingly in the video, after explaining the purpose and function of the Microlattice product, a young female research scientist shares her enthusiasm for her work at Boeing: “It's really exciting to be able to work with things that we make, that can eventually go into a real product that a lot of users can interact with.”
The team originally created and tested two versions of the “Microlattice” video on Facebook:
Version 1 based on suggestions stemming from the research, and
Version 2 based on the original edit of the video.
Testing results showed that
Version 1 garnered 20 times more views than Version 2.
Version 1 outperformed Version 2 in “click-to-play rate” when autoplayed on Facebook.
As a result, the winner of the test—Version 1—showed a significantly stronger level of overall engagement compared to Version 2. Strategic distribution among targeted audiences across platforms to achieve business goals followed (See Figure 3).
BUSINESS RESULTS
“Microlattice” became the most successful of the 40 videos made during the three-year Boeing Innovation Series campaign. Posted on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard, it became the tenth most-watched advertisement on YouTube in October, 2015. As of June 2016, the video generated more than 5.2 million views, 21,055 “Likes,” 10,558 “shares,” and 2,297 new YouTube subscribers for Boeing.
“Microlattice” Video Click-to-Play Rate on Facebook
Video Advertisement Clip: Close-up of the new “Microlattice” technology
Application of the analysis' insights helped improve average view duration by 26 percent over a 28-day period. During the same time period, viewer retention rates at the 25 percent and 75 percent dropoff points were both considerably higher for both organic traffic (users interacting with brand communication that Boeing created on Facebook) and paid traffic (users interacting with paid advertising; See Table 1).
By keeping viewers engaged for the duration of the Boeing Innovation Series videos, Boeing could more effectively educate these young engineers and scientists on the innovations taking place at Boeing.
The improvement in engagement also helped accelerate the discovery of the video by media outlets visited by Boeing's target audience, such as Forbes, CNN, Huffington Post, IFLScience!, and Yahoo! These media outlets introduced the video to their large, established audiences, prompting the huge surge in earned views on YouTube, the initial distribution channel for the video.
Average View Duration and Retention Rates for Boeing's “Microlattice” Video
Kingsford Charcoal: United We Grill
GOLD OGILVY WINNER: CROSS-PLATFORM
ADVERTISER: The Clorox Company, Kingsford Charcoal
AGENCY: DDB San Francisco
RESEARCH: Lieberman Research Worldwide, MarketVision Research, ThinkNow Research, IPSOS-ASI
MEDIA: OMD Worldwide, AKQA
CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY
Grilling has been a unifying cultural force since the dawn of time, bringing family and friends together over good food. Scholars even have examined the sociological phenomenon of cooking over a flame (Shahack-Gross et al., 2014).
In the digital age, however, traditional face-to-face gatherings have been threatened by the cultural shift regarding what constitutes social time (Przybylski and Weinstein, 2012).
Kingsford, the charcoal brand of the Oakland, CA–based consumer products company, The Clorox Company, worried that its business was being threatened by that cultural shift. Dollar share had fallen roughly 1.5 percent during the brand's June–July fiscal years 2010 to 2013.
With these factors in mind, the Kingsford marketing team launched a four-part research program for gathering insights about its general market and Hispanic target consumers. Hispanics are an important segment for Kingsford; the brand spends about 20 percent of its media dollars on marketing to Spanish-speaking Hispanics. And the purchasing power of Hispanics is well-known: Nielsen estimates it at more than $1 trillion annually.1
Insights from these studies informed the beginning of a fresh marketing idea rooted in the “lure of the flame” for a crossplatform advertising campaign focused on the social benefits of gathering friends and family around the grill.
A key finding of a robust segmentation study was that Kingsford's renewed target, the “Everyday Grilling Enthusiast,” believes wholeheartedly in the notion that “everything is better together.” The team seized the opportunity to reinforce the notion of togetherness, the old-fashioned way: Once the flame is lit, no one can resist gathering around it. That thinking aligned with Kingsford's earlier product development research, which had identified the multisensorial benefits of charcoal grilling—the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of Kingsford charcoal are a magnet for bringing people together.
The team's work paid off. The campaign's business impact far exceeded expectations, with Kingsford Charcoal dollar sales increasing by the mid-single digits (percentage) in grilling season year 2015 compared with the previous 2014 grilling season, and a 30 percent increase in marketing efficiency.
MARKETING CHALLENGE
People are so consumed with being digitally connected that they are spending less “real” time with their friends and families. Scholars have found that electronic devices have “negative effects on closeness, connection, and conversation quality” and that notably “mobile phones can interfere with human relationships, an effect that is most clear when individuals are discussing personally meaningful topics” (Przybylski and Weinstein, 2012, p. 1).
As grilling is dependent on people coming together, the brand was convinced that Kingsford's business was being threatened by the potential for lack of real togetherness. The tipping point came in 2013 when the brand realized that to reinvigorate topline growth, it needed a long-term demand strategy. It was time to do something to bring grillers back to the kettle.
The “Hey” Spot: The host (center) greets each new guest with an increasingly louder “Hey!”
METHODOLOGY
The Kingsford marketing team fielded four key research studies that identified important insights into the brand's consumer target and how best to communicate to those individuals.
Charcoal Grilling Category Segmentation Study
This large-scale, online, quantitative survey of 2,800 general market and Hispanic charcoal grillers was fielded with Los Angeles-based Lieberman Research Worldwide to understand charcoal griller needs, attitudes, and behaviors. The Kingsford team used the results of this study to identify its optimal consumer segment for Kingsford marketing and product development, the “Everyday Grilling Enthusiast.”
Insights gained: The Everyday Grilling Enthusiast was identified as the optimal target given his
category involvement,
potential to grill more,
fit with Kingsford's innovation strategy,
alignment with key macro trends, and
fit with the brand's “DNA.”
The Everyday Grilling Enthusiast generally was defined as an experienced, experimental, and passionate griller who enjoys socializing with family and friends around grilled food.
In-Home Ethnographies And “Shop-Alongs”
This large-scale ethnography study was designed to generate a deeper understanding of the Everyday Grilling Enthusiast to inform the team's strategic choices and marketing strategy. The Kingsford team worked with Cincinnati, OH–based MarketVision Research to conduct “shop-alongs” and in-home interviews with 58 consumers. (“Shopalongs” are one-on-one interviews during which actual shopping behavior—rather than behavior recorded after the event—is examined.)
This type of research enabled broader engagement across corporate functions: A cross-section of Kingsford employees participated in the research and the resulting brainstorming sessions. The team developed a comprehensive synthesis of what was learned about the Everyday Grilling Enthusiasts' behaviors, attitudes, and desired experience around grilling.
The synthesis summarized what an Everyday Grilling Enthusiast would say about the grilling experience: “When family and friends are over, grilling is an expected part of every gathering (behavior) because I believe grilling is one of the best ways to bring people together for a memorable experience that doesn't require much (attitude) in order to create an experience where I can enjoy the best part—the people.”
It was that key insight that the brand discovered missing in its then-current Hispanic messaging. Updating its messaging to Hispanics, one of its biggest customer groups, became top priority over the brand's general market.
Drawing from the conclusions from those sessions, the marketing team focused on developing some creative ideas that would first be tested with Kingsford's Hispanic consumer segment, “Any Grilling's Good Grilling.” The advertisements, made for television, would be in Spanish.
This Spanish-language Hispanic audience comprises a substantial share of the brand's business; Kingsford spends about 20 percent of its total media dollars advertising to Spanish-language Hispanics. From this, the team learned:
The Everyday Grilling Enthusiast believes that everything he does is better when shared with family and friends; people are his center.2
ThinkNow Copy Testing
Using copy-testing measures provided by Burbank, CA–based ThinkNow Research, the Kingsford team conducted a 3-cell, monadic quantitative copy test on two Kingsford television advertisements versus a control (current) spot with a sample of 119–151 respondents per cell to test the potential of the ideas. The advertisements were intended to convey the idea that Kingsford enables good times with friends and family. One spot, called “Hey,” showed the strongest potential. The host's increasingly louder welcome (with the word “Hey”) when each set of friends arrived was memorable and engaging (See Figure 1). From this, the team learned:
“Hey” was shown to increase purchase interest and significantly increase important equity measures, and humor helped to drive the spot's success. Once in market, Kingsford's internal media-mix modeling showed that “Hey” drove a 10 percent increase in advertising efficiency (incremental volume per every dollar spent) over previous Kingsford advertisements results.
ASI Copy Testing
Given the success of the “Hey” advertising spot against the Hispanic market, the team elected to take a similar approach to its general market advertising. The team partnered with Norwalk, CT–based IPSOS-ASI, to test consumer reaction to two advertisements that tapped into the social aspect of grilling. The two spots, “For the Love of Grilling” and “United We Grill,” were tested in a 2-cell monadic test with a sample of 100 charcoal grillers.
“United We Grill” showed a swath of multicultural America all seemingly grilling together. As the camera pans from barbecue to barbecue, it moves from one Everyday Grilling Enthusiast in his yard to another. The spot drove even more emotional connection than “For the Love of Grilling.” From this, the team learned:
The idea communicated within the “United We Grill” spot—that social grilling is enjoyable—was believable by and personally resonated with charcoal grillers. Insights gained from this research identified the potential for other marketing programs, leading to, for example, the launch of a comprehensive “Social Grilling” program for the total market (English and Spanish speakers), Hispanic, and general market audiences.
The brand knew that it wanted the grill to be at the center of the gathering and that the party needed to be welcoming to everyone. But for the general market, there was a different pace and type of party than for the Hispanic spot, and this is where the cultural insights came in. The Hispanic spot also focused on how Kingsford keeps the party going longer, whereas the general market spot focused on charcoal grilling bringing people together.
CREATIVE EXECUTION
The marketing team further developed its creative idea across multiple platforms: digital/social, the Kingsford web page, and radio, with supporting efforts that worked with both “Hey” and “United We Grill.” The idea centered around the concept, “Grilling isn't just cooking—the sights, sounds, and smells of charcoal are a magnet that brings everyone together.” The marketing goal (and catch phrase): to “ignite the flame” across the many screens that had originally pulled away its customers.
The strategy involved creating relevant, persuasive cross-channel communications—across television, online, and mobile screens—that would draw people back to the grill:
The television spot showed this literally, people from all over the country gathering around a grill for the ultimate social get-together.
Targeted online and mobile banners attached the notion of gathering around a grill to specific occasions—the long weekends of the summer holidays as well as other occasions when there's a reason to get together.
In social media, Kingsford promoted tips prior to key holidays. In particular, Kingsford's Facebook page
offered a rib-eye steak recipe with the message, “This Father's Day grill dad (knows) what he really wants, which is a dinosaur-sized Tomahawk Steak”;
had tips on how to cook burgers for Memorial Day;
gave grilling advice for cooking chicken wings, thighs, and legs for the Fourth of July.
All of these different forms of creative content drove to a revamped Kingsford.com, where grillers could further “up their game” with even more tips and recipes.
The site in 2016 provides what the brand believes to be “all the wisdom required to achieve grilling greatness” for those with just a grill and Kingsford charcoal. In fact, the brand's media buy enabled multiple layers of reach:
Lifestyle-targeted videos expanded online and mobile reach.
Time-based digital content focused on delivering high-impact units posted Thursdays through Sundays, as reminders for the Everyday Grilling Enthusiast to grill when most relevant (and plan ahead accordingly).
Weather-based digital content reminded the Everyday Grilling Enthusiast of days that were perfect to fire up the grill.
Given the brand's total market approach, the marketing team leaned into mobile where they knew their Everyday Grilling Enthusiast would be spending time, particularly Hispanics and millennials (Fulgoni and Lella, 2014).
The goal throughout was to remind him and her to close the laptop and shut off the cell phone in order to bring everyone together.
BUSINESS RESULTS
The “United We Grill” campaign in 2015 exceeded expectations on every key metric:
It drove Kingsford's dollar sales up by a mid-single digit percentage versus the prior year, exceeding the goal of a lowsingle digit percentage increase (Clorox, the parent company, does not reveal sales figures publicly for its individual brands).
It demonstrated increased loyalty by bolstering the amount of money Kingsford charcoal shoppers spent on charcoal (up 6 percent), as well as how frequently they bought charcoal (up 4 percent).
It increased Kingsford's dollar share in the category by 1.5 percent versus the prior year.
Additionally, marketing efficiencies were very strong, with a 30 percent increase in efficiencies versus the prior year within the general market and a 10 percent increase in efficiencies versus the prior year for the Hispanic market.
Ontario Women's Directorate: #WhoWillYouHelp
GOLD OGILVY WINNER: CREATIVE EFFECTIVENESS
ADVERTISER: Ontario Women's Directorate
AGENCY: Leo Burnett, Toronto
RESEARCH: Ipsos Reid
MEDIA: ZenithOptimedia
CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY
In a country known for its low homicide rate,1 its acceptance of diversity,2 and high rate of life satisfaction compared with other industrialized nations,3 acts of sexual violence and harassment against women are shockingly prevalent in Canadian society. One study revealed that 67 percent of all Canadians say they personally know at least one woman who has been sexually or physically assaulted.4
The act could be an uninvited touch, like a neck massage at work, or the taking advantage of someone who—for instance, when she has had too much to drink—doesn't say “No”—but never said, “Yes.’”
According to an Ipsos Reid study conducted in March 2015 on behalf of Ontario—Canada's largest province—residents perceived many of these actions to be a “grey area,” defined as someone's actions not always constituting sexual harassment.5 In response, the Government of Ontario developed a marketing plan called, “It's Never Okay: An Action Plan to Stop Sexual Violence and Harassment.” It consisted of a variety of initiatives designed to raise public awareness of sexual violence and harassment in Ontario and to challenge societal norms and beliefs.
Ontario Women's Directorate, the government agency that advocates for women's issues—particularly violence and economic independence—supported the plan by taking a unique approach in its campaign messaging. The concept involved speaking directly to the bystander who was witnessing an act of uninvited sexual contact, assault, or harassment.
This led to the March 2015 launch of Ontario Women's Directorate's provocative, cross-channel advertisement campaign, “#WhoWillYouHelp.” The goal: to prompt witnesses of such activity to call out offenders, rather than passively watch.
MARKETING CHALLENGE
Sexual assault and violence against anyone in Canada is a criminal offense.6 Although the majority of Canadians say they believe sexual assault and harassment of any kind is unacceptable, many believe they could be doing more or are simply unsure when and how to get involved:
Two-thirds of men in Ontario polled (66 percent) feel they personally could be doing more regarding the issue of sexual assault and violence against women;7
80 percent of Ontarians say they have an obligation to intervene in cases of harassment;8
81 percent of Ontarians feel obliged to intervene in cases of violence.9
The gap between intention and action, however, is most telling: only 37 percent of respondents say they would actually take action and get involved when witnessing violence or harassment.10
Contextual print ads targeted assaults specific to bars, campuses, and high-risk communities and cultures.
The statistics demonstrating such a high level of indifference led the agency to conclude that a typical campaign focused on the victim or vilifying the perpetrator would have little to no impact in changing behaviors and attitudes toward sexual violence and harassment.
Previous public service announcement (PSA) campaigns had highlighted the issue of sexual violence against women, yet it was clear that the Canadian public still felt apathetic or reticent to be part of a solution.
Ontario Women's Directorate needed a new way in—one that would disrupt the inertia and get people to think about the issue in a new way.
METHODOLOGY
The government agency conducted an extensive investigation into cultural and behavioral issues in Canada. Its strategic planners
reviewed 20 years of behavioral studies on the issue of sexual violence and harassment;
interviewed two of the top Canadian behavioral experts on violence against women;
reviewed sexual assault statistics in Canada.
To launch a successful campaign, it was critical that the agency understand the cultural norms and behavioral motivation surrounding the persistent issue of sexual violence and harassment against women.
Statistics showed that a staggering number of sexual assaults go unreported. Out of every 100 incidents of sexual assault, for example,
only six are reported to the police;
less than half of complaints made to police result in criminal charges;
only about one in four of those lead to a guilty verdict.11
Through research and discussions with experts, the agency determined that this disturbing statistical reality was caused, in many cases, by bystander confusion that kept witnesses from taking action.
Bystanders would ask themselves, “Should I intervene or will I be unnecessarily inserting myself where I don't belong, or worse, where I'm not actually needed?” This uncertainty led the majority of people to simply look away, stay silent, and not get involved.
Ontario Women's Directorate believed that if bystanders actually spoke up collectively, they had the power to dramatically change the cultural and behavioral norms at play.
CREATIVE EXECUTION
An advertisement needed to educate the public that the perceived “grey area” was actually quite black and white: There is no ambiguity when it comes to the acceptability of sexual assault and harassment.
The Strategy
Rather than focusing on the plight of the victim, the emphasis was on empowering witnesses to act. The core concept: directly target bystanders to show that by standing by and doing nothing, they were aiding the perpetrator and perpetuating the behavior.
A Cross-Platform Approach
Ontario Women's Directorate wanted both to target bystanders and leverage the power of peer influence to create a tipping point. This, the agency believed, would inspire a behavioral change and a shift in societal norms.
Such was the thought process that led to the design of the campaign, “#WhoWillYouHelp.”
The marketing campaign kicked off with a television advertisement, called “Thank You.” It depicted “grey area” scenarios where the perpetrators thanked the viewer for not getting involved, highlighting the culpability of the bystander in the crime. The television spot was then re-aired after the government's action plan announcement but with a different ending—with the victims either thanking the viewer for saying something, or getting help.
At the same time, print advertisements were placed in restaurants and bars (See Figure 1). The creative content also was adapted for the general population and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBTQ) community. Print was translated into 23 languages and picked up by more than 80 different publications around the world.
All formats were tagged for Twitter with the hashtag, “#WhoWillYouHelp” (“#QuiAiderezVous” for French media), to drive organic reach, conversation, and participation.
BUSINESS RESULTS
Post-campaign research indicated that “#WhoWillYouHelp/#QuiAiderezVous” had a positive impact on opinions toward sexual assault, violence, and harassment.
According to an Ipsos Reid MidCampaign Tracking May 2015 report, 71 percent of respondents strongly agreed that people should speak out more about sexual harassment and violence against women compared with 63 percent before the campaign.
The campaign also encouraged intervention among bystanders in a variety of scenarios involving sexual harassment and assault. Half of Ontarians polled in the above-cited Ipsos Reid report (including half of those between the ages of 18 and 29 years) recalled the provocative advertisement.
Across the board, data from the Ipsos Reid survey demonstrated a strengthening of attitudes and opinions toward sexual harassment, violence, and assault among Ontarians overall and among those who had seen the advertising. Among responses to the survey statements and questions:
“I have an obligation to intervene if I witness sexual harassment”—response favorable, post-campaign: 58 percent versus 37 percent pre-campaign.
“If I witness sexual harassment and don't intervene, I'm making the decision to allow it to continue”—response favorable, post-campaign: 53 percent versus pre-campaign 37 percent.
What's more, Twitter Analytics data revealed the campaign's substantial reach, demonstrating a heightened awareness of this topic. As of the end of the campaign period in May 2015, the campaign hashtag “#WhoWillYouHelp” had reached 85 million people.12
Footnotes
“Ogilvy Award winners set the standard for compelling creative that breaks through the clutter.”
Gayle Fuguitt, CEO & President, Advertising Research Foundation
↵1 A full list of the eight winners in each of the Ogilvy categories can be found in the Appendix.
↵1 “Dieting Does Not Work, UCLA Researchers Report.” University of California Los Angeles UCLA Newsroom, April 3, 2007. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Dieting-Does-Not-Work-UCLA-Researchers-7832.
↵2 Source: A.C. Nielsen Center Data, 2014.
↵3 “Nestlé Lean Cuisine Sales Drop as Shoppers Shun Freezer.” (2014, March 13). Retrieved May 3, 2016, from Bloomberg.com website: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-12/nestle-lean-cuisine-sales-drop-as-shoppers-shun-freezer.
↵4 “Winning Customers' Hearts and Minds—the Pathway to Profits.” (2014, September 5). Retrieved April 3, 2016, from the Global Marketing Alliance website: http://www.the-gma.com/winning-customers-hearts-and-minds-the-pathway-to-profits.
↵5 “Lean Cuisine Makes ‘Massive Pivot’ Away From Diet Marketing.” (2015, June 26). Retrieved May 3, 2016, from AdAge.com website: http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/lean-cuisine-makes-massive-pivot-diet-marketing/299236/.
↵1 “Those Magnificent Men.” Boeing Frontiers. Retrieved May 19, 2016, from http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2010/february/i_history.pdf.
↵1 “Money is Power: Giving Credit to Multicultural Financial Habits.” (2015, March 25). Retrieved May 11, 2016, from Nielsen website: http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2015/money-is-power-giving-credit-to-multicultural-financial-habits.html.
↵2 Although both genders were represented in this study, the majority of respondents were male.
↵1 Canada ranked 89th in homicides per country per 100,000 population, according to the “Global Study on Homicide, 2013.” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from https://www.unodc.org/gsh/
↵2 Canada ranked number 1 in the “Acceptance of Diversity Indicator,” Gallup World Poll of 2011. Retrieved from the Conference Board of Canada website May 11, 2016, at http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/acceptance-of-diversity.aspx
↵3 “How Canada Performs.” The Conference Board of Canada, January 2013. Retrieved on April 15, 2016, from http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society.aspx
↵4 Angus Reid Omnibus Survey, Canadian Women's Foundation, 2012. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://www.canadianwomen.org/sixtysevenpercent
↵5 Ipsos Reid Sexual Violence and Harassment Benchmark Study, March 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from the Ontario government website https://news.ontario.ca/owd/en/2015/11/ontarians-attitudes-toward-sexual-violence-and-harassment-are-changing.html
↵6 The Criminal Code of Canada and Sexual Harassment, Sections 265, 266, 273
↵7 Ipsos Reid Sexual Violence and Harassment Benchmark Study, March 2015
↵8 Ibid
↵9 Ibid
↵10 Ibid
↵11 “Sexual Assault Statistics in Canada.” SexualAssault.ca, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2016, from http://www.sexassault.ca/statistics.htm
↵12 Source: Twitter Analytics
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Vol 56 Issue 3
