PRE-ORDER THE FUTURE

Short List
TitlePRE-ORDER THE FUTURE
BrandNESTE
Product/ServiceRENEWABLE MATERIALS
Category D03. Use of Branded Content created for Digital or Social Media
Entrant TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Idea Creation TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Media Placement VIZEUM Helsinki, FINLAND
PR TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Production COCOA MEDIAPRODUCTIONS Helsinki, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Steve Brown TBWA\Helsinki Content Director
Iikka Maunumaa TBWA\Helsinki Business Director
Nooma Murremäki TBWA\Helsinki Project Manager
Janni Wiederholm TBWA\Helsinki Creative Content Strategist
Juhana Hokkanen TBWA\Helsinki Creative Technologist
Ville Ohtonen TBWA\Helsinki Creative
Kalle Wallin TBWA\Helsinki Creative
Daniel Julier TBWA\Helsinki Product Designer
Umberto Onza TBWA\Helsinki Product Designer
Milja Hakala TBWA\Helsinki Project Manager
Jeroen Van Hove TBWA\Helsinki Chief Data Officer
Erno Reinikainen TBWA\Helsinki Creative
Tuomas Perälä TBWA\Helsinki Creative
Pia Grekula TBWA\Helsinki Creative
Juhani Ylitalo TBWA\Helsinki Creative
Aku Vehmersalo Vizeum Account Director
Heli Ruotsalainen Vizeum Head of Social Media
Sara Tossavainen Vizeum Performance Marketing Consultant
Ada-Maria Wäck Vizeum Development Manager, Programmatic
Taito Kawata Cocoa Director
Kimmo Manninen Cocoa Producer
Joel Bergvall Shareability Director
Prince Ea Make Smart Cool Futurologist
Noora Ranta TBWA\Helsinki Project Manager
Miika Pärni TBWA\Helsinki Senior Developer
Iiro Hokkanen TBWA\Helsinki Director
Markus Malmberg TBWA\Helsinki PR Manager
Graziano Monteleone TBWA\Helsinki Graphic Designer
Mikko Paasto TBWA\Helsinki Senior Web Developer
Heidi Aalto TBWA\Helsinki Production AD

The Campaign

2016 Edelman trust barometer shows people trust more a message by peers rather than businesses. A significant influencer was needed for the core of the campaign, as Neste was virtually unknown in the global market. Neste could never only pay for the needed impact. Dentsu’s consumer study showed video on social to be the most effective means of communication for the purpose. Media usage insights also showed that native advertising and premium display placements in select tech/IT/business publications would be necessary. Content would be tailored to suit exploited channels. The most forward-minded people's media habits were also studied to understand where and how they consume media, and planned accordingly. Prince EA’s follower bases were studied with SocialBakers, and thus the correct channels, tone-of-voice, and even color schemes were found.

Creative Execution

The project took off on April 20th. During the following six months, two spoken word videos by Prince EA and five innovative renewable material product designs were released in intervals. Content releases were accompanied by PR efforts each time. Target audiences were engaged with branded content and encouraged to pitch their own sustainable future idea. People were also incentivized to vote for their favourite project, based on which Neste would turn the public and jury favourite into reality. To deploy the branded content in an agile manner, online and social media channels were used. The main channels were programmatic display and Facebook. The paid media campaign was designed for the US market only. The media agency and ad agency together implemented an integrated and continuous learning approach, where the team of media specialist shared their knowledge.

Pre-order the Future beat all expectations. The videos became viral hits, when Viral Thread, UniLad and Young Verse republished them. "Everyone Dies But Not Everyone Lives" got 138 000 000 views and 2 700 000 shares, and "I Just Sued The School System", with 213 000 000 views and 6 100 000 shares, is becoming the most viral ad of 2016. Over 700 news articles (from Business Insider to Bloomberg) and a Fox News TV interview raised campaign impressions to 2 671 000 000 (yes, billions) in 218 countries and earned media value exceeded the campaign costs 16-fold. Most importantly: all major automotive, industrial, energy and IT corporations visited the campaign page. And soon Ikea announced, that it will replace ALL its plastic with Neste's renewable plastic. Neste's brand value rose from 427 to 618 million euros (2015 to 2016) and the stock value by 35,7% (April to October).

Neste’s Pre-order the Future campaign relied on earned and owned media, only to be supported by select paid-for placements. Through branded content in chosen social channels, attention for the campaign was attained through a partnership with spoken word artist and thought-leader Prince EA, as the futurologist of Neste’s project. Without a paid media strategy, the influencer collaboration would have been just another Epic split copy, trying to be a viral hit. The digital media strategy had re-targeting at its core, with the aim to increase business value and producing meaningful leads for Neste.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The main target audience encompassed B2B decision makers, opinion leaders and millennials. Cities and municipalities, airlines and transportation companies, universities and the bioplastic industry were amongst desired targets. Based on gathered data, earned media was evidently most effective and cost-efficient in reaching said audiences. The project product designs consisted of five distinct themes, which were used in targeting content on an interest basis. Paid media was to support the distribution of more personalized content to individuals. Still, the influencer collaboration and PR efforts were the basis of the strategy. PR aimed to influence select business and technology publications as well as other social media influencers and relevant bloggers, who wrote about sustainability and renewables. Core of all online strategies was SEE | THINK | DO methodology, where we first boosted brand awareness to a wide audience, secondly targeted more close target group that had most traction and thirdly tactical messages.