Matutano: ELEFUNK SHOW

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Branded Content

Advertiser: MATUTANO

Product/Service: NUTS

Date of First Appearance: Mar 10 2010

Entrant Company: OMD SPAIN, Madrid, SPAIN

Project Director: Laura Gómez (OMD)

Account Director: Elisabeth Bachs (OMD)

Creative Director: Manuel Carbajo (OMD)

Media placement: TV Campaign - Tele 5 - 10 March 2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Our product category registers little investment and negligible strategic media innovation. The positioning of the brand (a combination of taste and fun) was translated into a very pleasant and equally effective TV ad starring Wendy, an elephant capable of dancing with impeccable style, motivated of course by new MATUTANO NUTS. But, previous research revealed that over 50% of the target reached had been super- exposed to the message. Wendy had managed to become a highly-recognized character, a star with high level brand association, but the commercial had simply had its day. Ah, but had its star had HER day?

Our strategy was built on three major pillars: first, find a viable idea that would not risk overexposing the campaign; secondly, make the most of Wendy’s popularity to construct a new “episode” of her relationship to the brand; and finally, keep the costs down on additional production activities.



Creative Execution

“More than Dance” became the TV smash hit of the season. The weekly show, an adaptation of Britains “Strictly Come Dancing”, features a group of well-know personalities who compete amongst themselves in a dance contest. They might be actors, athletes, models… so why not Wendy?

That’s right, our proposition was to take our dancing elephant to the best dance stage on TV and let her strut her artistic stuff for a viewing audience of millions. Wendy’s dance moves, digitally created for the ad, were sent to the “More than Dance” set, and our endearing elephant was instantly embraced as the show’s guest star. This simple post-production work also gave us the chance to create a promotional piece for the show that aired the week before, drumming up interest in Wendy’s appearance as one of the big coming attractions of the week.



Results and Effectiveness

Wendy went from being the star of a TV ad to being an ambassador for the MATUTANO brand, a character capable of successfully conveying her passion for nuts and her artistic talents. Of course, she also immediately integrated herself as a new potential content vehicle capable of taking new paths and enhancing long- term consumer recognition. A brand content with negligible production costs and 65% cost savings vs. traditional c/grp. Today, Wendy is considering new offers on national programs... via her funny little dances, had become a great little catalyst!