NATIONAL STEW 'N FRIES DAY
| Title | NATIONAL STEW 'N FRIES DAY |
| Brand | VRT |
| Product/Service | EÉN |
| Category |
B03. Consumer Services |
|
Entrant Company
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MAKE LEMONADE Leuven, BELGIUM
|
|
Advertising Agency
|
MAKE LEMONADE Leuven, BELGIUM
|
|
Production Company
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HOTEL HUNGARIA Leuven, BELGIUM
|
Credits
| 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 |
The Campaign
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 love their Classics. So with the 1000th episode coming up we asked everyone to vote for their ultimate classic dish. We launched a call to vote with TV-commercials featuring Jeroen’s celebrity friends endorsing their favourite classic dish, and across social media. Jeroen proclaimed Sunday the first of March to be the first National Stew ‘n Fries Day during an interview on National Radio. We created a simple Facebook event, and asked the Belgian audience to prepare and share the winning dish. Every media outlet picked up on National Stew ‘n Fries Day. People started organizing their own Stew ‘n Fries Day Facebook events. Food retailers, brands, restaurants used the National Stew ‘n Fries Day to campaign their special promotions, resulting in an earned media value that exceeded the paid media value by 100%. With this PR campaign we wanted to prove that after five years, Jeroen Meus is still the original master of home cooking. We knew that the only way to make this work was to use the sympathetic spontaneity and the approachable image of Jeroen himself. We built the campaign to one momentum in a very organic way and installed a new tradition nationwide.
The Brief
To reestablish Jeroen Meus as the original home cooking master and Belgium’s most sympathetic TV chef in an engaging way.
Execution
On January 23rd the campaign website went live and Jeroen launched the call to vote in his show. We also launched a series of TV commercials featuring famous athletes and artist promoting their classic Dish. They asked viewers to cast their vote before January 30th. On the show’s Facebook page we launched several formats to activate people to cast their vote. On the 13th of February the top ten was released on the campaign website and Jeroen announced the winning dish in an interview on National radio. In the same interview he proclaimed the first of March to be the first National Stew ’n Fries day. On the same day we launched a National Stew ’n Fries Day Facebook event page. The following weeks we published tactical print ads asking people to prepare and share the winning dish on Sunday the first of March.
Research revealed that 90% of the Belgians were aware of National Stew ’n Fries Day. 15% prepared the winning dish on Stew ’n Fries Day, compared to 2% on average Sundays. The likeability of the campaign scored 82%. The campaign was picked up in every National newspaper (21 articles in written press only) and numerous other news outlets. The viewer ratings doubled on National Stew ’n Fries day reaching a 50% market share. Interaction on the Daily Dish Facebook page tripled during the campaign. 28.965 people committed themselves by signing up on the Facebook event for National Stew ’n Fries day. On Twitter we managed to reach 706.329 accounts on Stew ‘n Fries Day, resulting in an exposure of 1.306.512 impressions. During and after the campaign, the average Daily Dish Facebook post received 231 comments instead of 32 and 1.525 likes instead of 466.
The Strategy
Jeroen Meus’ strength is that he is considered to be one of the most approachable Belgian celebrities. Belgian viewers see him as one of their own: a classic down to earth Belgian guy. At the same time, this is something other celebrity’s admire about Jeroen. Also, Belgian’s are extremely proud of their classics. With the 1000th episode coming up, Jeroen himself asked the people to vote for their ultimate classic dish. And we asked his celebrity friends to endorse Jeroen by promoting their own ultimate classic dish in a series of TV commercials. The way we proclaimed the first of March to be the first National Stew ’n Fries Day had to be very real and organic. So we asked Jeroen to do this during an interview on National Radio. This way other news outlets could pick up on it so the story could spread organically.