Maarud: DON’T [BLANK] WHEN YOUR STOMACH IS EMPTY

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Social Media Marketing

Advertiser: MAARUD

Product/Service: CRISPS

Agency: McCANN NORWAY

Date of First Appearance: Mar 1 2010

Entrant Company: STARCOM NORWAY, Oslo, NORWAY

Creative Director: Tone Helene Angsund (Starcom)

Client Service Director: Catharine Mitlid (Starcom)

Client Service Manager: Jon Axel Nævestad (Starcom)

TV Manager: Eli Ponsonby (Starcom)

Senior Brand Manager: Albert Arli (Maarud)

Marketing Director: Paal Tarjej Aasheim (McCann)

Creative: Tore Woll (McCann)

Creative: Erlend Klouman Høiner (McCann)

Project Manager: Merethe Brunsell (McCann)

Media placement: Internet/Event - Fri Flyt.no, Youtube.no, Tacky.no, Facebook.com, TV2.no, TV3.no, VG.no, - 1 March 2010

Media placement: TV - Discovery, Viasat; TV3, TV2 - 1 March 2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Maarud was the number one crisp in Norway until a larger corporation bought them out and ignored them for other brands in the portfolio. After a few years of stagnancy, Maarud was eventually sold off; luckily to owners ready make innovation and visibility a priority.



Though the typical Norwegian buyer’s are women 25+, were likely to dismiss our renewed efforts, we saw an opportunity to go after young adult males who were looking for an energy boost on the slopes.



After watching our new target, we learned that if you stare at them long enough, they all do one thing – FAIL. (No not that other thing!) Many young men make it an art form, failing many times more than succeeding. So we wanted to show young men and their friends what can happen when your stomach is empty.



Creative Execution

We asked young people to upload their favourite skiing and snowboarding failure videos and stories to Facebook, YouTube and action sports powerhouse, Fry Flyt. With tons of videos pouring in, we asked people to vote on the best to be used as the basis for our “Don’t [blank} When Your Stomach is Empty” campaign.



We also paired with Fry Flyt to become part of their ski movie showings at their skiing and snowboarding competitions. In addition to product sampling, the 10 best “Don’t [blank] When Your Stomach is Empty” movies were shown as part of each movie showing and continued the push to upload the best videos of failure to Maarud’s Facebook and YouTube websites and brand home page.



Results and Effectiveness

We knew that we had hit our mark when we saw a 60 percent jump in brand awareness and a 50 percent brand trial among our target audience within a few weeks of the launch. 300 videos were uploaded to Maarud’s pages and over 12,000 people casted their vote for the best failure video.



Maarud wanted to sell 350,000 packs of crisps and ended up selling over 500,000. We earned a 10 percent global market share immediately following the campaign, and we learned that young adults can’t blame their empty stomachs anymore when they bail on the slopes.