V Energy Drink: V Energy Jono Vs Ben [video]

Credits & Description:

Client: Frucor Beverages
Product: V Energy Drink
Entrant: Omd New Zealand Auckland, New Zealand
Idea 3: Mediaworks Auckland, New Zealand
Media: Omd New Zealand Auckland, New Zealand
Media 2: Mediaworks Auckland, New Zealand
Pr: Beat Communications Auckland, New Zealand
Idea: Omd New Zealand Auckland, New Zealand
Production: Mediaworks Auckland, New Zealand
Idea 2: Beat Communications Auckland, New Zealand
Editor: Jul
Account Director: Rob Thomas (OMD)
Account Executive: Ben Poole (OMD)
General Manager: Zac Stephenson (OMD)
Managing Partner: Andrew Reinholds (OMD)
Strategic Director: James Boult (Beat Communications)
Creative Projects Director: Richard Brewer (Beat Communications)
Account Executive: Adam Warin (Beat Communications)
Account Executive: Harriet Mahaffie (Beat Communications)
Account Director: Adam Stevenson (Mediaworks)
Sales Director: Chris Lloyd (Mediaworks)
Integration Specialist: Cam Baker (Mediaworks)
Promotions Executive: Mike Banks (Mediaworks)
Executive Producer Jono & Ben: Bronwynn Baker (Mediaworks)
Creative & Talent: Jono Pryor (Mediaworks)
Creative & Talent: Ben Boyce (Mediaworks)
Marketing Director: Luke Rive (Frucor Beverages)
Marketing Manager: Jo Walsh (Frucor Beverages)
Senior Brand Manager: Nicky Moltschaniwskyj (Frucor Beverages)
Assistant Brand Manager: Ashleigh Anderson (Frucor Beverages)
Senior Brand Manager: Ursla Wiig (Frucor Beverages)
Describe the campaign/entry:
Over the previous two years, we had built a close relationship with MediaWorks’ personalities Jono & Ben (J&B). From crashing golf carts into their studio desks during a live-recording, to bringing over Vanilla Ice for a one-off concert, it had been a highly charged, albeit tactical, relationship.
The affinity between V drinkers and J&B is strong. Not only do they share the same sense of humour, but V drinkers resonated with the ‘mateship’ that J&B have. That element of intense, but inevitably friendly pranking of each other is embedded within young Kiwi culture.
So we connected these two insights together:
• V was losing the ‘share of mind’ battle against Red Bull & therefore losing cultural relevance for young males
• J&B have a strong cultural connection with young males & energy drinkers through their humour and attitude to life – the ‘have a go’ mentality
Creative Execution:
J&B went through all stages of product development, including a factory visit with V’s R&D team, where video and audio content was captured for their TV and radio shows.
A fully integrated approach was launched, as the boys set about rallying the nation to buy their product:
• On pack designs and copy
• POS artwork featuring images of the boys, crucially providing cut through against price positioning of rival brands
• Branded TVCs for both, explaining why their flavour was better
• Weekly in-show TV segments
Once launched, J&B’s social media pages went nuts. The campaign quickly moved from paid to earned media, with the public taking up the challenge of photographing their favourite flavour. The story continued with bespoke content for TV, radio, digital.
The winner and loser was announced on the TV show with the loser being forced to listen to the same Justin Bieber song on repeat for three days.
Jono V Ben was the most successful new product launch in V’s proud history: a total of 2.232m units sold.
This equates to 4.37 cans for every Male aged 18-34 in New Zealand!
The campaign grew the entire energy category by +2.5% (as a comparison, there was a 0.5% category growth in the previous quarter).
Within this, the V brand was up +5.2%.
The sales of J&B cans drove combined V share over this period to 63.7% of market, and Frucor’s overall share in Energy in Oils to 64.8% - its highest level for 11 quarters.
The key Oils channel, where premiums are higher, experienced 12.3% growth vs. previous period.
This is a case study in how to take an existing media property relationship & turn it into something extraordinary. With no creative agency involved, the entire project was driven by the media agency, media owner & PR agency.
The campaign integrated the media property into all elements of the campaign – from ATL & BTL communications, content, on-pack & most notably the development of the product itself.
The campaign was so successful it almost doubled growth across the entire category & catapulting brand growth at a time when our #1 competitor was aggressively using price to buy share.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea:
The strategy became crystal clear: leverage the shared maverick, mischievous, unexpected & witty brand values of both parties to build a deeper more emotional connection with our audience. In turn, this would enhance V’s ‘share of mind’ in a far more tangible and local manner than Red Bull could do.
The relationship needed to move beyond tactical integration to a truly deep, commercial partnership.
We also needed to give J&B full license to tell the V brand story in their own authentic style, which resonated so strongly with our (and their) audience.
Our strategy wasn’t simply to hand the brand over to J&B, it was for J&B to become the brand. And for the brand to become J&B.
The idea was a competition between J&B: which of them could create a more successful V flavour.