Every child in Germany knows the easter bunny: a rabbit that brings chocolate eggs on easter and hides them in your garden. The weird thing is, though: nobody knows any background for this. Who ist this bunny? Why does he do that? It’s a big part of German and European culture. And oddly enough: a mystery. That’s why in our film we finally reveal the origin story oft he easter bunny. A rabbit, born as the child of a hen and a hare – and gifted with the ability to lay eggs. Quickly he becomes an outcast in the animal world, mocked for his special abilities. He chooses to run away, conquers the human world, becomes a star and returns home on easter as he realizes, that even fame and popularity is nothing compared to the true value of family.
Creative Execution
The dominant part of the production process was shooting and animating the two minute film at the cente of our campaign over the course of four months. Production of different POS and print ads was a parrallel process due to the temporal forerun needed to equip all 4.170 Netto supermarkets with the material needed: dispensers, billboards, posters, ceiling danglers and more. The campaign was launched two weeks before easter and quickly took off – as people were thrilled to see the bunny they came to like in their supermarket, in their facebook feed on youtube and even in a children’s book we distributed in the stores.
The film was viewed over 24 million times across yotube and facebook and garnered enthusiastic international press coverage. It was such a success, that Netto decided to air the whole 2 minute film on TV – across multiple channels simultaneously at prime time. It was even shown in soccer stadiums before the game. Interaction rates on facebook were high – over 13 mio views, over 180.000 reactions and over 144.000 shares. Youtube views ammounted to over 11 mio. in just a few weeks. The children’s book we printed was sold out within days –over 1,3 mio. copies. And best of all: Netto dominated the supermarket communication during the Easter period – competing with bigger brands with a way bigger organic reach and way bigger media budgets!
Our client asked us to come up with a multi-channel easter campaign – and that’s what we did. We created a film as the centerpiece of our communication, but also adapted its idea to work on social media, print ads, the point of sale, TV – and even in people’s homes, when they put their children to sleep by reading a book to them. In the end it was exactly this integration across various touchpooint that got people talking about our idea and contributed to its success in a significant way.
Our film targeted women of all ages who do the grocery shopping for their households. To counquer their hearts we told a touching story revolving around childhood, parenting, social norms, individuality and love. In order to not diminish the effect of the storytelling we put branding and selling second – and only closed the ad with a brand message wishing everyone a happy easter with Netto. The film was published on facebook and youtube, additional posters were placed at the POS, other versions were published as print ads. A version of the story was also published as an illustrated children’s book – so Netto was not only part oft he easter holidays, but also a daily read in all the days leading up to them. The effect: people were not only talking about the story – due to our integrated approach they percieved the bunny as something „owned“ by Netto.