CATEOGORY: Promotional Web Site
SECOND-PLACE CAMPAIGN: Ben & Jerry’s Do the World a Flavour
AGENCY: Maynard Malone
CLIENT: Unilever/Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s does the world a flavor with the introduction of Fairly Nuts, a new consumer-made fair trade ice-cream product
The Ben & Jerry’s brand is built around a commitment to making really (I mean really) delicious ice cream. But what’s equally important to Unilever is Ben & Jerry’s other commitment: the one to its values-led sourcing philosophy in which the firm uses only fair trade ingredients in making its products.
Fair trade helps farmers in developing countries get better trading conditions and a fair price for their product. As a responsible organization, Unilever wanted the community to understand the importance of their commitment to fair trade.
“They wanted to make sure Ben & Jerry’s consumers knew about the social mission side of the brand,” said Katy McEvoy, senior account manager at digital agency Maynard Malone. The agency created Do the World a Flavour, a contest as well as an immersive rewarding experience online where Web visitors could both learn about the brand’s social mission and have fun at the same time.
“We combined a fun competition with a powerful message that the consumers could get involved in,” she said.
The campaign ran from April 14 to May 26, 2009. It was designed, developed and implemented by Maynard Malone in 13 countries, including the UK, U.S., France, Turkey, Hong Kong and Singapore.
To enter the contest, consumers had to design and personalize their own flavor. With every ingredient they clicked on, a mouseover explained which fair trade area the ingredient was sourced from. Videos showed farmers on their fair trade farms and provided background information. Contestants could then send their completed flavor to their friends by uploading it to a Facebook app. The campaign was promoted through a home page takeover across Ben & Jerry sites throughout Europe and the U.S. that showed a conveyor belt dynamically pulling in tubs consumers created.
One winner from each country received a trip to the Dominican Republic to visit a sustainable fair trade cocoa farm. The overall winning flavor — called “fairly nuts,” consisting of caramel and praline and almond clusters — was made into a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The flavor hit store shelves in Europe and the U.S. in March and “is doing really well,” McEvoy says.
What’s really interesting to note is that this campaign didn’t have any above the line marketing support. The entire investment was placed in below the line media — including digital, PR and social media.
The results were more than double the goals. The target was for 5,400 people from the UK to enter the competition. They actually got 12,554 with 2,384 coming from Facebook. They had 71,360 entries from Europe and more than 100,000 worldwide, exceeding all expectations and targets. Web site dwell time increased from 3:45 minutes in January/February to over 8:0 minutes in April and 10.08 minutes in May.
The key to the success of this campaign, McEvoy said, was engaging and entertaining consumers.
“With fair trade, you have to make sure you’re not being too serious and have fun as well, and this was an opportunity to have fun,” she said. “Everyone loves making up an ice cream flavor, but they also learned the benefit that flavor would bring to farmers around the world. It was a balance between fun and the message behind it.” —Lynn Russo Whylly
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