Nescafe: REALLY FRIENDS

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: NESTLÉ
Agency: PUBLICIS CONSEIL
Category: Best non-fiction program, series or film where a client has successfully created a reality, documentary or entertainment show around a product(s) or brand(s)
Advertising campaign: REALLY FRIENDS
Videos Coachs: Alexis Feltesse
Account Managers: Celine Colin (Publicis Conseil)
Digital Project Manager: Marina Chef (Publicis Conseil)
Account Managers: Nathalie Bousquet (Publicis Conseil)
Art Buyers: Jean-Luc Chirio (Elysian Fields)
Communication Director: Jerome François (Nestle France)
Creative Technologist: Julien Chaillou (Publicis Conseil)
Managing Director (Drinks Department): Muriel Lienau (Nestle France)
Marketing Director: Nicolas Deluce (Nestle France)
CCO: Olivier Altmann (Publicis Conseil)
Brand Manager: Samuel Baroukh (Nestle France)
Account Managers: Thomas Guedj (Publicis Conseil)
Art Buyers: Aurelie Lubot (Elysian Fields)
Art Director: Cedric Auzannet (Publicis Conseil)
Creative Directors: Fabrice Delacourt (Publicis Conseil)
Art Buyers: Flore Silberfeld (Elysian Fields)
Account Managers: Marine Berdah (Publicis Conseil)
Creative Directors: Olivier Desmettre (Publicis Conseil)
DOP: Romain Guilbert
Videos Coachs: Thomas Franceschini
Producer: Jimmy Halfon
Copywriter: Martin Rocaboy (Publicis Conseil)
TV Producer: Pierre Marcus (WAM)
Digital Director: Pierre Robinet (Publicis Conseil)

Effectiveness
As the universe of coffee has become increasingly individual and sophisticated, it is getting hard to compete for an instant coffee brand like Nescafé. To stand out, Nescafé wanted to go back to its traditional DNA by reclaiming instant coffee, a casual moment of complicity and sharing. But how can we talk about sharing moments when sharing itself has become virtual? By asking a simple, universal question: “are we really friends with our Facebook friends?” and having a real life test.Our goal was to go and find genuine meetings, this process could not be anything but 100% authentic. This is why we offered Arnaud, a young 37-year-old with 1,200 Facebook friends and no acting experience, a unique challenge: to set off for 2 months, meeting his Facebook friends and trying to have an unplanned coffee with them to see whether they were really his friends.Arnaud took up the challenge and looked through the varied profiles of his Facebook friends: childhood friends, an ex-girlfriend, the father of a friend he had felt obliged to accept on Facebook, work colleagues and even people he had never met! Despite a few rejections, we uploaded around thirty videos showing Arnaud’s project from the first to the very last day, with over 2 hours of videos in total. We also launched the campaign in real life by asking Arnaud to friend bloggers on Facebook, then surprise them in their homes or offices in order to get them to live out the experience. They immediately began talking about the operation proving that all of this was true!From the very first tweets, a fantastic social debate began in France.

Implementation
First of all, we introduced Arnaud’s experience to bloggers so that they could put themselves into the position of Arnaud’s Facebook friends (Arnaud had already added them on Facebook). So these were the first people to talk about the campaign, confirming its authenticity. There was an immediate buzz online. People could choose between finding out as much as possible about Arnaud’s adventure via the campaign website, and following the videos over time on their timeline by liking the Nescafé France Facebook page. Then we launched 3 TV films talking about the different aspects of Arnaud’s adventure to reach out to as many people as possible, including Nescafé’s regular customers who don’t use the Internet as much.

Campaign Description
France is known to be much stricter in terms of regulations around Branded Entertainment compared to other countries in Europe and around the world. French TV channels don’t allow brands to promote outside of allocating advertising slots. The Internet remains the freest place to introduce this type of communication, even though it is increasingly regulated and French Internet users are extremely resistant to any unjustified exposure to brands.

Outcome
2 weeks after Arnaud’s adventure went online, we can’t yet measure results in terms of sales. However the TV advertising campaign has already seen 3 undeniable successes:. Statistics that are generally above the norm: from a quantitative point of view (3.17 million views on YouTube in under 15 days) as well as from a qualitative point of view (2 minutes 52 seconds viewed per video on average, 72% of videos viewed in full and 12% of users watching 100% of the videos (more than 2 hours of content).. The brand is getting back in touch with its traditional fans, and also reaching out to a new generation: the Nescafé France Facebook page has seen a rise of over 38%, talking to an incredibly varied audience (65% women, 35% men, 15% aged under 18, 51% aged between 18 and 34, 34% aged 35 and over).. By launching a universal, modern topic of conversation, Nescafé has created a huge discussion in France (extensive media coverage encompassing a wide range of fields) leaving its competitors lagging behind and making its current and future consumers proud.