Title	GIVE HOLLAND A BREAK
Brand	NESTLÉ
Product/Service	KITKAT CHUNKY DOUBLE CARAMEL
Category	A07. Celebrity Endorsement
Entrant Company	J. WALTER THOMPSON AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Advertising Agency	J. WALTER THOMPSON AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
Production Company	SUPERHERO CHEESECAKE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Bas Korsten	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Executive Creative Director
David Navarro	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Digital Creative Director
Maarten Vrouwes/Friso Ludenhoff/	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Creative Director
Agustín Soriano	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Strategy Director
David Navarro/César García Miquel/Maarten Vrouwes/Bert Kerkhof	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Creative Art
Julio Álvarez/Bas Korsten/Friso Ludenhoff/Ivar Van Den Hove	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Creative Copy
Richard Beerens/Axel Eerbeek	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Digital Designer
Michiel Van De Graaf	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Business Director
Jesse Houweling	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Digital Director
Vera Korsten	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Activation Director
Elisah Boektje	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Activation Producer
Robert Harrison	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Designer
Mariska Fransen	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Screen Producer
Michael Leguijt/Chariva Geurts	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Print Producer
Jodi Banfield	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Pr Director
Melanie Hoen	J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam	Pr Producer

The Campaign

KitKat was launching a new product, the new KitKat Chunky Double Caramel. In its campaign, KitKat used the absence of a celebrity, instead of their presence, to exploit the brand territory (“have a break, have a KitKat”) to the maximum and at the same time stand out in the highly competitive candy bar market, becoming the talk of the town once again and increasing all the brand indicators: awareness, preference, consideration and, of course, sales. For the launch of the new KitKat Chunky Double Caramel, the most epic KitKat ever, we were looking for the most epic break ever. And we found a very interesting insight for our objective: every country in the world has an omnipresent, controversial celebrity who is in the media all the time, 24/7. For Holland, it was immediately clear that this person was TV personality Gordon, the perfect choice for giving the whole country the most epic break ever. The idea: To send Gordon to a desert island and give Holland the biggest break ever. A break for the whole country. The Dutch public got to decide how long this break was going to be, and how far he would travel. Because every tweet, share and post helped to send him farther away for longer. During his absence, we provoked a total Gordon blackout, erasing him from every single medium. €1,047,271.20 worth of free publicity. Brand awareness: 98%. Brand consideration: 88%. Purchase intention: 65%. “Perfect for my break”: 45%.

The Brief

Research before the campaign showed the necessity to accomplish the objectives described above in the situation overview. This research led to more specific goals: • Increasing SOV. • Increasing consideration in the purchase funnel. • Making the brand more relevant in the heads of consumers. • Making the brand image more distinctive. • Associating more significantly the association of the brand with “Perfect for my break”. • Increasing the brand image among non-buyers.

Execution

1. In the first phase, we used social media to encourage Holland to send Gordon away, getting them to discuss the idea of having a break from him. On a microsite users could participate by deciding how far and how long the break was going to be. 2. The second phase, when Gordon was on the island, social media was the epicentre of digital engagement because all Gordon’s social media profiles and Wikipedia were banned, creating tonnes of WOM. The ATL media was used to black out Gordon. TV, radio and banner ads were used to send the message: “Gordon-free space. Enjoy your break”. We even built a google blocker that blocked any picture of Gordon on the web.

€1,047,271.20 worth of free publicity. Brand awareness: increased to 98%. Brand consideration: increased to 75%. Purchase intention: increased to 51%. “Perfect for my break”: increased to 45%. Source: SIS.PR report, December 2014 & MetrixLab research, December 2014. During the campaign, KitKat scored its highest (volume) market share ever, indexing 103 in retail and 107 in OOH (out of home), versus the previous highest share ever (during the Android promotion, same period, one year ago). Source: Nielsen. +180,000 visits to the website (Gordon was sent to the farthest island!) 1:51 average visit +14% fans on Facebook 600 comments per post. +25% followers on Twitter. Source: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, MetrixLab In Retail, KitKat gained a 25% market share. In OOH, KitKat gained a 23% market share, 7 points above the candy bar market average. Source: Nielsen.

The Strategy

KitKat chose to market the KitKat Chunky Double Caramel to Dutch people aged 20-30. These guys talk, listen and communicate with each other through social media. We had to establish a conversation with the truly first digital natives (almost all of them have a Facebook profile and spend, on average, more than 25 hours a week online. Because they are digital natives, they are really demanding (more than any other demographic) and expect more from brands. They believe in brand experience, engagement rather than brand messages. It was challenging for a chocolate brand to change the Millennials’ behaviour around the brand: not just to engage them, but involve them and keep them talking about the new product.