CASSIES Silver: Oreo gets in on the Olympic spirit

The campaign focused on athletes and sportsmanship, and boosted Q1 dollar consumption by 16.3% within three weeks.

Events, Seasonal and Short-Term

Situation Analysis: The Canadian cookie market is both competitive and tough, competing mostly on price with moms having been trained to look for cookies on sale. Many people thought of Oreo as a “once-in-while, when it’s on sale” kind of indulgence.

After years of “twist, lick and dunk,” Oreo had launched a less functional and more emotional global positioning – “Wonderfilled” – about possibility and optimism. To sustain the impact beyond launch, “Wonderfilled” needed to be relevant and resonant with Canadians’ daily lives.

Insight & Strategy: “Canadianness” would be at its highest during the Olympics. For Canadians, who celebrate effort over wins and recognize the role of a home team and global goodwill, the Olympics are filled with real-time moments of hoping, wishing, dreaming…wondering. In many ways, a representation of what “Wonderfilled” is about. Oreo, through exclusive sponsorship of the Olympics and status as the “Official Cookie of the Canadian Olympic Team,” had an opportunity to be part of these very special Canadian moments, using real-time marketing to bring genuine presence and immediacy to the shared experience. By appealing to mom’s sense of humanity, nostalgia and patriotism by cheering for Canadian Olympians, she would like and remember Oreo fondly next time she went grocery shopping, buying Oreo for love rather than price.

Execution: A total budget of $598,000 meant a concentration on efficiency and impact for a short and focused window. Digital, social and earned media played important roles in the campaign, which ran from Feb. 3 to Feb. 23, 2014 across TV, YouTube, social media (Facebook and Twitter), digital pre-roll and online display ads.

The creative centered on effort and sportsmanship, focused on our athletes by telling a musical animated story about how all the hard work and sacrifice was really worth it. Communication was focused on CBC sponsorship – the Canadian media home of the Olympics – with communications across all CBC channels (TV, digital, mobile). The brand website, Oreowonderfilled.ca, was the hub for all Olympic content, driving downloads of the Mondelez corporate “Pride & Joy” mobile app (which gave users the chance to win prizes every time Canada won a medal), while social media captured the Canadian Olympic spirit in real time with promotional, responsive and conversational content.

Results: Against a target of 6.8% volume growth for 2014, within just three weeks of in-market support, Oreo’s Q1 dollar consumption grew 16.3% (vs. category of +0.6%), increasing dollar share by 1.1 pts, predominantly through brand penetration increasing 2.5 points vs. year ago to 36.4%. There were also increases in targeted brand opinion measures of “Feel good about eating” (+14 pts), “Feel good giving it to kids” (+10 pts) and “Great value/worth more” (+21 pts).

Cause & Effect: Oreo’s annual media spend was flat vs. the prior year, however investment in 2014 was moved to accommodate Olympics support earlier in the year resulting in a spending increase of $230,000 in the month of February (vs. Feb. 2013). Total distribution points were up 10.9% in Q1 which can primarily be attributed to the launch of the limited edition Pride & Joy cookie. Although distribution increased, this increase is on par with what Mondelez would typically see for the launch of this type of SKU.

Credits:

Client: Mondelez Canada
VP, biscuit & snacks: Janine Keogh
Director, cookies: Hanan Girgis
Senior brand managers: Pam Clarkson, Vanessa Mosakos
Associate brand manager: Michael Goodman
PR: Stephanie Cass
Director of media, consumer engagement: Kristi Karens
Sr. consumer promotions manager: Aditi Burman
Consumer promotions manager: Jeanette D’Souza
Sr. manager digital engagement: Tara Haase
Associate brand manager: Megan Sweeney
Marketing research manager: Marco Massa
Agency: FCB Toronto
VP creative: Jeff Hilts
Sr. CW: David Delibato
Sr. AD: Aya Rafaeli
CD: Curtis Edwards
CW: Joseph Vernuccio
ADs: Mark Ovsey, Cody Sabatine
Broadcast producer: Trish Cranor
Group account director: Anabella Mandel
Managing director: Sunil Sekhar
Account supervisor: Lora Landriault
VP planning: Heather Segal
VP digital: Ricky Jacobs
Digital director: Laurie Dillon-Schalk
Social Strategist: Helen Androlia
Project manager: Ann Van Duzen
Account manager: Joline Christiani