Title	5th LIFE OF A DEAD CURRENCY
Brand	MONDELÉZ INTERNATIONAL - CARAMBAR
Product/Service	CONFECTIONARY
Category	B01. Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Entrant Company	FF PARIS, FRANCE
Advertising Agency	FF PARIS, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
Fred/Farid		Chief Creative Officers
Olivier Lefebvre/Benjamin Marchal	FF PARIS	Executive Creative Directors
Rémi Campet/Rayhaan Khodabux	FF PARIS	Copywriters
Rayhaan Khodabux/Rémi Campet	FF PARIS	Art Directors
Remy Gendre	FF PARIS	Webdesigner
Emmanuel Renard/Edouard Lefebvre/Laure Rouaux	Mondelēz International - Carambar	Advertiser Supervisors
Florent Depoisier/Jessica Talbi/Lola Florin	FF PARIS	Account Supervisor
François Grouiller	FF PARIS	Strategy Supervisor
Jalila Levesque	FF PARIS	PR Supervisor
Aurélien Mérigaud	FF PARIS	TV producer
Françoise Redureau	FF PARIS	Print Producer
Adelyne Cazot/Emmanuel Clavier	FF PARIS	Digital Producer
Charles Dureuil	FF PARIS	Event
Planktoon	Cosmo	Film Director
Capitaine Plouf	-	Music/Sound

The Campaign

In 1999, when the Euro was introduced, French people were invited to convert their old currency: Francs. A few years later, in 2002, Francs definitely lost its value and became a dead currency. Knowing the tensed economical situation, you’ll guess that French people actually converted all their Francs in time to make sure they didn’t lose any money, right? Wrong! In fact, we found out that 4.7 billions Francs had never been exchanged. Carambar, the iconic candy brand with jokes written on its wrapping paper, and whose mission is to put a smile on every children’s face, used the power of PR to create a popular, big-hearted movement. We created the “#The1FrancJoke”: an original promotion that consisted in resuscitating the value of a dead currency. For one month, 1 Franc = 1 Carambar. And because Carambar’s mission is to bring a smile to every children, even the least lucky ones, all the Francs raised during the operation were converted into real Euros benefiting Rire Medecin, a non-profit organization of “clown doctors” who visit and entertain lonely hospitalized children. The entire campaign relied on PR. We sent a fun PR kit to 500 journalists and Key Opinion Leaders explaining this unexpected promotion. Everything was planned around a headlines we knew journalists couldn’t refuse “Carambar brings Franc back from the dead” with a engaging call-to-action (very last chance to use your franc) and a less involving one (tweet a 1-franc/cheap joke).

The Brief

To reactivate top of mind and preference, we decided to create a popular movement. Our main targets were families with kids. But to reach them, we knew we had to activate: 1- KOLs and journalists, to help us make the buzz 2- a “boulangeries” network, where our target buy Carambar We knew from previous years that Carambar is such a popular, playful candy that journalists expect to be surprised. But after shocking them two years ago (fake announcement that we’ll replace the jokes by school exercices), entertaining them last year, we decided to do something good this year.

Execution

In order to optimize the PR efficiency on the web, press and social media, a launching conference one day before the start of the campaign was organized with KOLs and journalists to engage and make them ambassadors of the operation. The conference took place in a loft for a cozy, fun atmosphere that fits with Carambar spirit. A treasure hunt was launched, the guests were invited to find Francs. Then a speech took place to explain the operation and the partnership with Le Rire Médecin. The conference ended with the #The1FrancJoke film projection. On the day of campaign launch, hundreds of PR kits were sent to the press and KOLs from advertising/marketing, communication, comedy, lifestyle and media targets which generated jokes, pictures Twitter, and a true PR burst on the web, social media, press and TVs with several TV mentions.

More than 2 millions views of the brand content film 20 000 tweeted jokes, from the stupidest « Why do witches have brooms? Because vacuum cleaners are too heavy» to the goofiest « The right-side buttock tells the left-side buttock: don’t you think it stinks in the hallway?.» Around 340 main media mentions, in places where usually a brand can not be mentioned, like for example in French number one economic newspaper Le Figaro, or French number one TV news channel BFM or also during the number one TV talk show Touche Pas à Mon Poste 1 000 000 €+ in earned media (5x the cost of production), and total of 150 000 000 impressions A very positive sentiment about the campaign with 99.4% positive mentions Our partner Rire Médecin became the most talked about NGOs during the period And more importantly, more than 1 000 hospitalised children in critical conditions got to spend an hour with a clown, breaking up with their daily routine

The Strategy

Our big challenge was “how do we fuel a popular movement that must last a month?”. Our response relies heavily on PR: - PR was triggered heavily at launch with a PR party and fun custom-design PR kits specialy delivered to key influencers and journalist. - Following a “waves strategy”, we kept triggering different KOL sequentially to sustain interest over time - We focus our PR efforts on popular TV shows and on Twitter, because they are today the 2 referential media in France when it comes to entertainment and iconoclast ideas. The rest of the activation was designed to build on the PR wave: - Low budget (but very targeted) social media - Micro-targeted OOH advertising near our partner “boulangeries” - A piggy bank-designed “Francs For Carambars” truck driving around France - YouTube and Facebook to explain the operation - Twitter for everyone to send their own jokes