2018 Brand Experience & Activation

THE IMPOSSIBLE MEAL KIT

TitleTHE IMPOSSIBLE MEAL KIT
BrandSTOCKHOLM GAS
Product/ServiceSTOVE GAS
Category C07. Customer Acquisition & Retention
Entrant TBWA\STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
Idea Creation TBWA\STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
Production MINK MGMT Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production 2 MORE DIGITAL STUDIOS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Additional Company SVENSKA BRASSERIER Stockholm, SWEDEN
Additional Company 2 STOCKHOLMS MATMARKNAD, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Martin Baude TBWA Stockholm Art Director
André Persson TBWA Stockholm Art Director
Johannes Ivarsson TBWA Stockholm Copywriter
Cecilia Bauman TBWA Stockholm Account Director
Ylva Windolf TBWA Stockholm Account Manager
Tobias Bergenwall TBWA Stockholm R&D / Producer
Kalle Widgren TBWA Stockholm Creative Director
Louise Sallander TBWA Stockholm PR strategist
Sofia Swedenborg TBWA Stockholm Digital Director
Fanny von Pongracz TBWA Stockholm Designer
Marika Hedström TBWA Stockholm Account Manager
Thomas Klementsson Mink Mgmt Director/DOP
Marie Linins Mink Mgmt Producer
Tommy Myllymäki Svenska Brasserier Head Chef

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

With The Impossible Meal Kit, we got people to experience the advantages of Stockholm Gas’ product hands on – actively engaging them in the brand and its promise to the market: If you can cook ¬– you want stove gas. On a market clearly dominated by electric stoves, Stockholm Gas challenged people to cook on a top chef-level. And since our meal kit was created by a real chef – Bocuse d’Or-runner up Tommy Myllymäki – the recipes were written for gas stove cooking, and electric stoves became a disadvantage.

Background

Stockholm Gas is the sole provider of town gas (for gas stoves) and a small challenger on a market clearly dominated by electric stoves. More and more people choose, or switch to, the convenience of electric and the B2C-market for stove gas is dropping rapidly. We needed to find a way to decrease the churn and – if possible – increase the number of people actively choosing gas. On the upside: professional chefs cook with gas – and Stockholm Gas delivers stove gas to every high rate restaurant in Stockholm. And one of the major trends (in Sweden) is that knowing your way around a kitchen is a status marker. Simple dishes and simple cooking are for simple people. So, we turned our B2B-strength into our B2C-strategy…

Describe the creative idea

In a city where fast and simple meal kit deliveries are quite common, we introduced the absolute opposite: The Impossible Meal Kit. It consisted of the finest groceries and extremely hard recipes (the starter was actually in the Bocuse d’Or-competition) created by one of Sweden’s most famous master chefs – Tommy Myllymäki. And since Tommy – like the majority of the top chefs – primarily cook with gas, The Impossible Meal Kit was primarily made for gas stove cooking. The kit challenged our foodie target group and proved to them (hands on) that if you want to cook like the pros, you need to get rid of your electric stove. If you can cook, you want gas.

Describe the strategy

Stockholm Gas is the city’s sole provider of stove gas; a low interest-product. However, cooking is not low interest at all, quite the opposite! Hence, the strength of the B2B-side (professional chefs and kitchens use gas) became our B2C-strategy. Our target group is 27-60 y/o apartment-owners in downtown Stockholm who like to cook – and want the best. Town gas is more expensive than electricity, so they’re middleclass and beyond, people who care about status and spend money on their kitchens. We needed to get them to realize the advantages of stove gas and the best way was to prove it to them. We challenged their cooking skills - and their vanity - by launching the most difficult meal kit ever. They saw the challenge, took the bait, entered online, and got The Impossible Meal Kit delivered. And then, the urban foodies with electric stoves were in trouble...

Describe the execution

The campaign was launched with a press event where chef Myllymäki introduced The Impossible Meal Kit and cooked the starter (Ball of Langoustine). A few days later, the challenge went up in local media: The films were shown on big digital screens downtown and online ¬– together with billboards where chef Myllymäki challenged Stockholmers with a “Good luck, you’re going to need it”. Banners and ads in local news outlets and lifestyle/cooking magazines had the same confrontative approach: “So you think you can cook?”. All marketing and PR lead to the campaign site where people signed up for the challenge – and got The Impossible Meal Kit delivered. They read the 32-page recipe book, cooked for hours and then shared the results in social media. We managed to get a Stockholm Gas-branded “Trojan Horse” proving the advantages of stove gas into the holiest of places: the target group’s kitchen.

List the results

The meal kits sold out immediately – and requests for a continuation poured in. For the first time in 15 years, the churn rate decreased – and the number of leads for household clients actually increased by over 200%. With a gross target audience of app 272 000 (27-60 y/o in downtown Stockholm) and a media spend of only 90 000 Euro, the campaign’s reach surpassed 1,8 million.* The campaign site got 38 000 unique visitors during the campaign’s five active weeks. That figure outnumbered Stockholm Gas’ ordinary website traffic 15 to 1 (low interest product). And since the campaign site also included the advantages of stove gas, the tide started to turn. The brand awareness for Stockholm Gas increased by over 60% in the primary target group.