Halls: BRING BACK HALLS GREEN GRAPE!

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Integrated Campaign Led by PR

Advertiser: KRAFT FOODS BRASIL

Product/Service: CANDIES

Agency: ESPALHE

Head Of Business Development (Partner): Gustavo Fortes (Espalhe)

Head Of Amplification (Partner): Roberta Paixão (Espalhe)

Head Of Operations (Partner): Cleber Martins (Espalhe)

Head Of Content (Partner): Patricia Albuquerque (Espalhe)

Head Of Creative Planning (Partner): Wagner Martins (Espalhe)

Media/Performance Director: Leonardo Carbonell (Espalhe)

Operations Director: Gustavo Silveira (Espalhe)

Marketing Director Gums/Candies: Gonzalo Uribe (Kraft Foods)

Candies Manager: Vinicius Pan (Kraft Foods)

Candies Manager: Eduardo Trevizani (Kraft Foods)

Halls Product Manager: José Octavio Freitas (Kraft Foods)

Traineé: André Gonçalves (Kraft Foods)

Media placement: Press Article - G1 - Globo.com - 16-August

Media placement: Press Article - Uol Tecnologia - 16-August

Media placement: Press Article - Época SP Online - 20-August

Media placement: Press Article - Folha Online - 14-October

Media placement: Press Article - AdAge Online - 28-August

Media placement: Press Article - Advertising Age - December

Media placement: Press Article - Revista America Economia - 01-October

Media placement: Press Article - O Globo - 23-October

Media placement: Press Article - O Dia - 30-October

Media placement: Press Article - Revista Marketing - 1-October



Summary of the Campaign

In mid-2011, Halls, a Kraft Foods brand, found that consumers were using social networks to discuss why green grape flavoured Halls had been removed from the market and were asking the company to bring it back.



'Bring Back Halls Green Grape!'



With this first post, the company detected that consumers were interested in seeing this flavour back on the market. The post was quickly liked and commented by hundreds of people. In the Orkut community, called 'I love Halls Green Grape', with over 30,000 members, participants suggested a protest in front of the Kraft Foods building, with banners and signs demanding the return of the green grape flavour.



Faced with this outcry, rather than explaining to consumers why the product had been discontinued, Kraft Foods Brazil saw a business opportunity within the protest. The company not only listened to its consumers, but also relaunched the product in an unprecedented action, paying homage to those fans who had made their opinions heard. The faces of the 3 most outspoken fans were immortalised in busts made by sculptors who used Halls Green Grape candy as their raw material. This was all told first-hand to the brand’s fans on Facebook, complete with an exclusive tribute.



The Situation

In 2011, Kraft Foods announced it was discontinuing the production of green grape flavored Halls. By monitoring social networks, Kraft Foods Brazil identified insistent and frequent requests from internet users that the flavor be brought back to store shelves. This monitoring collected countless manifestations by consumers of Halls Green Grape that had been spreading across several social networks – Twitter, Facebook, and Orkut – and started a methodical analysis on the product’s repercussion.



The Goal

Based on this evaluation, the next step was to align the insights gained from this monitoring with a brand repositioning strategy and, in response to public requests, prepare an action to relaunch Halls Green Grape in Brazil.



The Strategy

The proposal was to make use of the strength of consumers’ requests for the return of the product as a theme for the relaunch of the green grape-flavored Halls. Besides reintroducing the product into its portfolio, Kraft Foods Brazil wanted to use the results obtained on social networks to somehow recognise its most faithful consumers and thus revert these consumers’ frustrations.



Execution

The agency proposed a strategy integrating earned, owned, and paid media to elect the 3 greatest fans of Halls Green Grape who had been most engaged in bringing the product back, and a video was aired inviting other consumers to enter for a chance to win a bust made out of Halls Green Grape. Specialised artists developed 4 sculptures with the faces of the most loyal online fans and one more who was elected through a Facebook app. Over 5,000 Halls candies were melted down and used to create each bust, a process that took a month of work. Since every work of art deserves an exhibit, one of the busiest subway stations in São Paulo was chosen as the stage for public viewing.



Documented Results

The product sold 318% above expectations and contributed to a 22% growth in revenues for Kraft Foods Brasil in 2011.



In addition, the action had great returns for the product’s Facebook and other social network pages, as well as great press visibility, generating spontaneous and word-of-mouth media for the brand.



The campaign generated an ROI of R$8 in earned media for every R$1 spent. The action was twice listed by Advertising Age among the best 10 actions of 2011.



The Year’s 10 Most Killer Pieces of Creative and The 10 Best Social Media Campaigns of the Year.



A 5th bust was produced to honour the Kraft Foods Brazil employee who had most supported the return of the flavour from within the company, in an unprecedented internal marketing action.



Today, the 5 busts are permanently displayed at Kraft’s head offices in São Paulo.



What might merely have been a piece of trade news became a subject of interest for TV news and the largest newspapers and magazines in the country.