Winners & Shortlists

THE ELOVENA PORRIDGE PHENOMENON

TitleTHE ELOVENA PORRIDGE PHENOMENON
BrandRAISIO GROUP / ELOVENA
Product/ServiceELOVENA OAT PORRIDGE FLAKES
Category B01. FAST MOVING CONSUMER GOODS
Entrant Company DRUM COMMUNICATIONS Helsinki, FINLAND
Advertising Agency DRUM COMMUNICATIONS Helsinki, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Elina Mattila Drum Communication Inc. Communications Consultant
Tero Kekki Drum Communication Inc. Planner/Founding Partner
Ville Teuronen Luoville Oy Ad
Jaana Henriksson Raisio Group Oyj Marketing Manager
Juha Helokoski Raisio Group Oyj Business Director

The Campaign

The brief from client was to create a PR concept that re-invents traditional oat porridge. The long-term business objective is to support retail sales of oat porridge flakes. The solution was to leverage trendy street food culture and food trucks that are becoming more common in Finland. Consumers needed to be surprised and experience porridge in whole new way: as take-away portions served in a hot cup and from an Elovena Porridge Bar food truck (Elovena Puurobaari). To create a new taste experience, all porridge portions were served with toppings called tune-ons (tuunake); a new Finnish word created for the project. To make porridge a hot topic, the concept was launched to the public via media in a press event. After which the Porridge Bar operated in downtown Helsinki for two months. As a result, the concept received dozens of articles, Facebook posts and user-generated Instagram photos all using the communicated hashtags. All media coverage repeated the key messages: traditional porridge is trendy and tasty. This massive PR entity challenged traditional perception of oat porridge: not bland and boring, but trendy and tasty street food. Following the media launch, growth of the porridge phenomenon was organic and rapid, encaging consumers and resulting to a fresh and foodie-like approach to traditional oatmeal. The project was able to transform the almost 90-year-old Elovena brand into the present day with PR tools like press relations, inspiring materials and providing new angle to a familiar topic.

The Brief

Target group for oat porridge is practically all Finns. Therefore the nearly 90-year-old Elovena porridge brand had to come up with a concept that would get Finns excited about porridge. A concept that indicated that porridge is a trendy treat for busy city-dwellers who take care of themselves, and it can be made at home or grabbed while on the run. The aim was to challenge negative perceptions associated with porridge, break down barriers for usage and re-invent the category by convincing consumers of the great taste of porridge. Long-term business goal is to improve retails of oat porridge flakes.

Results

By end of September, over 20 articles published about the Porridge Bar, all repeating the desired key messages: • Porridge is delicious when made well and topped with suitable tune-ons. • Elovena is making porridge a trendy street food. • Porridge is a quick breakfast or even quicker if bought from the Porridge Bar. The press also published tune-on recipes from the press-kit, which enables consumers to prepare tune-ons at home. This supports the long-term business goal of supporting oat flakes retails. The concept’s communicated hashtags were used to share almost 100 user-generated photos on Instagram: both photos of consumers visiting the Porridge Bar and of porridge portions bought there. However, an increasing amount of Instagram photos were of porridge portions inspired by the food truck’s tune-ons but prepared by consumers at home. The Porridge Bar related Facebook posts published by the client received hundreds of likes, comments and shares.

Execution

The preparations began in December 2013. Planning included design for the food truck and related materials, perfecting the customer experience and selecting of media key messages. The concept was pre-launched in June 2014 to Elovena’s own staff and trade clients, and launched to the public via journalists in a press event in August. The press event kit included a press release, photos, recipes for tune-ons and porridge. Journalists sampled the porridge and interviewed Lasse Andersen, the founder of Copenhagen’s porridge restaurant Grød. Andersen was present talking about international porridge trends to prove Elovena’s claim that porridge is trending. To boost concept's virality, hashtags #tuunake and #puurobaari were communicated to journalists and on the side of the food truck. After the launch, the Elovena Porridge Bar operated in downtown Helsinki for two months until the end of September. Both planning, launching and service period were executed as originally planned.

The Situation

Elovena, part of the Raisio group, is an iconic Finnish oat porridge brand, one that has been on the market since 1925. Despite the brand’s iconic positioning porridge sales are dwindling. Porridge is challenged by the widening breakfast foods selection and food trends like low-carb dieting. Many adults also have porridge-related food traumas left over from childhood: oat porridge is considered boring. This needed to change. As Elovena oat porridge is locally produced and healthy, there was a great opportunity to turn consumer's opinions around if porridge is served in a whole new way.

The Strategy

Internationally, porridge is trending: restaurants serving only porridge exist e.g. in New York, London and Copenhagen. Another international food trend are food trucks, which are only now arriving in Finland. To make porridge a hot topic, first thing for PR is to convince the press about it, who will then repeat the message to the grand public The PR campaign to re-inspire Finnish consumers about porridge, combines these two international food trends: resulting to a food truck serving freshly made porridge in convenient take-away portions. The taste of porridge is improved with interesting toppings, or tune-ons as they are called in this concept. Tune-ons like honey-roasted nuts and dark chocolate add new flavours to porridge and re-invent the porridge culture. The Porridge Bar is a PR tool for the 90-year-old Elovena to re-invent itself in the 2010s. The porridge Bar is launched to the public via strong media launch.