Anthon Berg: The Generous Store

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Live Events and/or Stunts
Advertiser: TOMS GRUPPEN
Product/Service: ANTHON BERG
Agency: ROBERT/BOISEN & LIKE-MINDED
Creative Director: Michael Robert (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Strategist: Søren Christensen (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Art Director: Mark Rif Torbensen (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Art Director: René Sohn Kammersgaard (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Art Director: Anders Kure (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Digital Director: Mathias Birkvad (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Account Manager: Martin Hörrmann (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Graphic Designer: Morten Grundsøe (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Graphic Designer: Peter Vojnovic (Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded)
Director: Niels Nørløv (Gobsmack)
Producer: Emilie Brandt (Gobsmack)
Producer: Christina Erritzøe (Gobsmack)
Digital Producer: Jorge Hernandez (Molamil)
Digital Producer: Ramiro Espada (Molamil)
Media placement: Prelaunch PR - Danish News Media - 24 February 2012
Media placement: Post Campaign Buzz - International Sites - 5 March 2012

Summary of the Campaign
The Generous Store. No cash or credit cards: just good deeds

To reconnect their brand with generosity and inspire people to see the positive effects of being generous, Danish chocolate brand, Anthon Berg, opened the world's first chocolate store where you couldn't pay with cash or credit cards, just good deeds. The pop-up store was only open for a day and had people queuing up for 1.5 half hours to make generous promises towards a friend or loved one on Facebook for a box of chocolate.

The storefront in the city centre doubled as a massive 'outdoor' to generate buzz right away. The untraditional payment method through Facebook took the campaign online, where it immediately became visible across thousands of Facebook feeds. To top it off, the event itself was filmed and seeded as a viral film on Youtube and across numerous international blogs taking it from the streets of Copenhagen to the rest of the world.

The Situation
For over a century, generosity has been a crucial part of the DNA of Anthon Berg, Denmarks Biggest Chocolate company.

When it came to producing great chocolate using only the best ingredients, the brand always did more than expected. The founder was even famous for offering free chocolate every day to the customers waiting patiently outside his store.

But over the years, the brand began to lose its relevance to consumers and most had forgotten what once so clearly differentiated Anthon Berg from other chocolate brands.

The Goal
The client wanted us to make people rediscover the Anthon Berg brand and make them engage with the positive effects of being generous.

As the client firmly expressed it: ”Give people a reason to be generous; spark a wave of generosity; and make it travel through Denmark with our name on it”

The Strategy
The Anthon Berg payoff is 'You can never be to generous'. The payoff refers to the thinking that if you act generously towards other people, you will yourself be rewarded in the long run. It is this thinking that Anthon Berg founded his chocolate company on.

But in order to truly understand the concept of generosity, and believe in its values and benefits, you have to experience it. Research showed that 7 out of 10 people become happy when they are generous towards someone, but only 1 out of 10 experience generosity in their everyday life!

The strategy was to use this campaign as a vehicle to ignite a spark that would turn a single day pop-up shop into massive buzz and international PR rejuvenating the Anthon Berg brand.

Execution
In February 2012 Anthon Berg opened up a chocolate pop-up store for 1 day in Copenhagen.

But it was no ordinary store. The store didn't accept cash or credit cards as payment. It only accepted the promise of a generous deed toward a person you care for. It was called: The Generous Store.

The chocolate was ‘priced’ differently, so people could pick a box according to the good deed they were willing to do. There were more than 30 different payment options ranging from ‘Serve breakfast in bed to your loved one’ to ‘Don’t comment on your girlfriend’s driving for a week’.

The 'cash registers' were iPad devices that ensured people’s generous promises were posted on the Facebook profiles of both the giver and receiver of the generous deed. Many people even provided evidence of their good deeds in the form of pictures on Anthon Berg's Facebook page.

Documented Results
- People waited in line up to 1.5 hours to get in the store
- More than 20% of all customers posted pictures of good deeds
- More than 100,000 people walked by the store on the day
- Massive PR across leading Danish news sites
- The good deeds travelled through 150,000 facebook feeds in just 24 hours
- On Facebook, the campaign generated a 33% increase in number of fans and people talking about Anthon Berg on Facebook was increased in the campaign period by 1000%
- In total the campaign reached more than 1 in 20 people in Denmark in just 2 weeks using a combination of event, online seeding and social media.
- The idea travelled around the world with more than 1,000 blogs and websites writing about it
- The campaigned reached an estimated 3,750,000 people in Facebook and Twitter feeds (so far)