Valio: The Lick-Hikers Guide To Inner Strength

Credits & Description:

Agency: Hasan & Partners Helsinki, Finland
Client: Valio
Brand: Valio Oy
Country: Finland
Product: Valio Gefilus
Entrant: Hasan & Partners Helsinki, Finland
Title: Ian Wright -
Product/Service: Valio Gefilus
Idea Creation: Hasan & Partners Helsinki, Finland
Idea Creation 2: Valio Helsinki, Finland
Media Placement: Dagmar Helsinki, Finland
Pr: The Honey Partnership Reading, United Kingdom
Production: Cocoa Mediaproductions Helsinki, Finland
EDC, CEO: Eka Ruola (hasan & partners Oy)
Senior creative: Anu Niemonen (hasan & partners Oy)
Art director: Ville Granroth (hasan & partners Oy)
COO: Jussi Lindholm (hasan & partners Oy)
Account manager: Jonna Ilvonen (hasan & partners Oy)
Copywriter: Juha Nikkilä (hasan & partners Oy)
Production AD: Elli Tervo (hasan & partners Oy)
.: JP Siili (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
Director: Tom Hakala (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
Executive producer: Pauliina Teirikari (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Anton Tevajärvi (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Janne Kilpeläinen (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Joni Kuusisto (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Janne Ahvenlampi (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Teemu Berglund (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Hanna Kartano (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Markku Mäkelä (Cocoa Mediaproductions)
.: Ian Wright (.)
Category manager: Jenni Lindell (Valio Oy)
Category director: Niko Vuorenmaa (Valio Oy)
Executive Vice President: Elli Siltala (Valio Oy)
Executive Vice President, Product groups and R&D: Tuomas Salusjärvi (Valio Oy)
Client manager / social media specialist: Juuso Wäänänen (Dagmar)
Digital performance: Heidi Rautala (Dagmar)
Planning manager: Pirjo Pellikka (Dagmar)
Media analyst: Sari Oras (Dagmar)
Release Date: 15.06.2016
Brief Explanation
LICK-HIKER'S GUIDE TO EUROPE
Fearless man travels around Europe and licks the filthiest objects it has to offer.
Valio Gefilus is a dairy product family that includes good LGG bacteria and vitamins that supports and gives strength to your intestine. LGG is the most studied lactic acid bacteria in the world. We wanted to challenge the bacteria in real life, put the innovation to test and see if it works or not and make a documentary out of the journey.
Ian Wright the famous traveller interviews professionals and experts around the world and challenges his intestine and licks dirty places. While he challenges his resistance at the same time he enjoys the Gefilus and gets all the good bacteria to support his health.
Synopsis:
Valio Gefilus contains a range of good LGG bacteria that improve your overall health and resistance. Because of legislation we were not allowed to talk about all the good benefits our product has. So we needed to be entertaining and interesting, obey the law and especially reach those who are not generally so attentive to their personal well-being.
Relevancy:
Finnish dairy brand Valio Gefilus contains one of the most extensively researched bacteria, LGG, which supports your gut and bolsters resistance. However, because of European food legislation we were not allowed to talk about all the benefits the product has. Another challenge we had was that the gut health is not one of the sexiest things to think about for most people. This is why we needed to go beyond traditional advertising and create content that was entertaining, interesting and relevant – to let our product prove itself in a unique and entertaining way.
Strategy:
We wanted to reach not only the people who were already actively interested in their overall health but also the big +25 audience, generally. Well-being is a rather boring subject to most people, not to mention the specific health issue of immune system resistance or gut health. However, people are increasingly interested in entertaining documentaries. So we decided to document the product in use in a quite extreme and entertaining way.
Outcome:
From the beginning we decided to be honest and simply do a great documentary. In fact, none of us were certain how Ian would survive of all the bacteria he licked.Although our content was commercial and produced by the biggest dairy company in Finland, we were able to get the whole documentary on primetime TV on the biggest channel in Finland. During the first week 200 000 Finns (population 5,4 million) had seen it. In addition, we were able to spread the message in earned media: three of the main media outlets covered the story in their journalistic content.7000 Finns even watched the entire 22-minute documentary via the YouTube pre-roll ad before viewing their selected funny cat video.
Campaign Description:
If we aren’t allowed to talk about the benefits – let the product prove its power. We decided to put our product to the ultimate test. We asked Ian Wright, the world-renowned traveler from Lonely Planet, to do what even toddlers know is forbidden: lick the dirtiest places in Europe. At the same time, Ian consumed our Valio products and interviewed gut health experts during his journey. We filmed this journey and documentary, The Lick-Hikers Guide to Inner Strength, was born.
Execution:
We scouted the dirtiest places in Europe, like the handrails at one of the most congested subway stations, public toilets, kindergartens during flu season, etc., and invited Ian to lick their exposed surfaces. We traveled with Ian for two weeks around Europe, including Russia. During this time, he also interviewed a range of doctors, professors and other experts on the issue of gut health, bacteria and resistance. And of course he drank Valio Gefilus with LGG bacteria.