NATIONAL STEW 'N FRIES DAY

TitleNATIONAL STEW 'N FRIES DAY
BrandVRT
Product/ServiceEÉN
Category B01. Use of Social Platforms
Entrant Company MAKE LEMONADE Leuven, BELGIUM
Advertising Agency MAKE LEMONADE Leuven, BELGIUM
Production Company HOTEL HUNGARIA Leuven, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Willem Van den Hoof Make Lemonade Creative Director
Cato Decoster Make Lemonade Creative
Han Van den Hoof Make Lemonade Copywriter
Liesbeth De Vos Make Lemonade Account Manager
Bart Verbeele Hotel Hungaria Creative Director
Ingrid Coppé Hotel Hungaria Director
Lien Vandereycken Hotel Hungaria Producer
Olivier Goris VRT Channel Director
Ruth Desmit VRT Editor in chief online
Els Lagrou VRT Marketing Manager
Sibylle De Backere VRT Marketing Manager
Herta Luyten VRT Network Producer
Björn Verdoodt VRT Assistant Channel Manager
Matthias Oben Minsky Web developer
Jan Vanalpen Freelance Web designer
Maarten Vanermen Freelance Designer

Brief Explanation

For the past five years, popular tv chef Jeroen Meus has helped Belgium discover the joy of home cooking in Channel One’s ‘Daily Dish’. Every other network copied the format, causing the ratings to fall. Channel One asked us to reestablish Jeroen Meus as the original home cooking master. Belgians are very chauvinist about their classics. So we asked the viewers to vote for their ultimate classic dish. Next, we proclaimed the 1st of March to be the National Stew ‘n Fries Day and asked everyone to prepare and share their take on the winning dish.

Results and Effectiveness

90% of the Belgians were aware of National Stew ’n Fries Day, 15% prepared the winning dish, compared to 2% on average Sundays. The campaign was picked up by numerous news outlets. The viewer ratings doubled on Stew ’n Fries day reaching a 50% market share. Interaction on the show’s Facebook page tripled during the campaign, 28.965 people signed up on the Facebook event, the average Daily Dish Facebook post received 231 comments instead of 32 and 1.525 likes instead of 466. On Twitter we reached 706.329 accounts on Stew ‘n Fries Day , resulting in 1.306.512 impressions.

Creative Execution

On January 23rd we launched the campaign website and Jeroen called to vote during his show. Followed with a series of commercials featuring famous athletes and artists promoting their classic dish and asking viewers to vote before January 30th . On the show’s Facebook page we launched several formats activating viewers to vote. On February 13th Jeroen announced the winning dish on National radio proclaiming the 1st of March as the first National Stew ‘n Fries day. Instantaneously we launched a Stew ‘n Fries Day Facebook event followed by print ads asking people to prepare and share the winning dish.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Jeroen Meus is considered as one of the most approachable Belgian celebrities. The viewers see him as one of their own, a classic down to earth Belgian guy. The campaign couldn’t feel like an advertising campaign. So the way Jeroen interacted with his audience had to be very natural and organic. So we asked Jeroen to proclaim the National Stew ‘n Fries Day during an interview on National Radio, as it were a spontaneous idea. This way other news outlets could pick up the story so it would spread organically by word of mouth and endorsements by other celebrities.