THE GREAT SUGAR RECALL

TitleTHE GREAT SUGAR RECALL
BrandDUTCH DIABETES FOUNDATION
Product/ServiceTHE GREAT SUGAR RECALL
Category E02. Low Budget / High Impact Campaign
Entrant HAVAS LEMZ Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation HAVAS LEMZ Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production HAVAS LEMZ Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Credits
Name Company Position
Remco Marinus Havas Lemz Creative Director
Merien Kunst Havas Lemz Creative Director
David Koop Havas Lemz Head of Strategy
Thamara van Trappe Havas Lemz Creative Producer

Why is this work relevant for PR?

With a touch of activism and minimal support in paid media, the Diabetes Foundation unleashed the power of its followers to wake up and shake up the food industry. The Great Sugar Recall campaign made a big impact in a very short time span, raising awareness - and quite a few eyebrows. At the same time, it laid the foundation for long-lasting partnerships between the Diabetes Foundation and manufacturers & retail - and made actual change happen.

Background

The Dutch consume more than 2x the recommended amount of sugar. Too much sugar can lead to type 2 diabetes. Awareness among consumers is low and the food industry is all talk but no action. Each year, the Diabetes Foundation chooses an unconvential approach to battle the sugar problem. With the Sugar Rehab Clinic (2016) and the Fed Up petition campaign (2017), they raised awareness for the problem with a larger audience and created an active following on Facebook and Instagram. This year, it was time to challenge the food industry head on and invite them to create real solutions together with the Diabetes Foundation.

Describe the creative idea

Hundreds of products contain hidden, unnecessary sugars. People simply don't expect sugar to appear in something like salad dressing, tea, or in a dairy drink. And what do you do when a product does not meet your expectations? Right, you return it to the store. We launched a nationwide call to the food industry to reduce hidden sugars in popular products. Consumers were empowered to create personal sugar recalls through social media. An unauthorised, rebellious approach that was guaranteed to get some attention and demand a response from the industry. The look & feel is deliberately basic, to make it appear semi-official and serious.

Describe the strategy

Primary audience: food industry (manufacturers and retail) Secondary audience: consumers age 9-99 Media: print, radio, facebook & instagram PR planning: - newspapers ads and radio for awareness and boosting the consumer activation - press release and press conference for news outlets, open letter print ad for the food industry

Describe the execution

With a minimal placement of basic looking product recall ads - frontpage, of course - and a simple radio ad, we kicked off the campaign. For 1 day only. After that, we encouraged the 140K Facebook fans of the Diabetes Foundation to share their own recall ads for products that they were angry about. To support the story, we placed several advertorials online where people could read about the issue and the risk of type 2 diabetes. Finally, an open letter to the food industry reached out to retail and food manufacturers to sit down and fix this problem - an invitation that was accepted by 16 key players in the Dutch market.

List the results

Tier 1 Ad print & online: 2.9 million impressions Radio: GRP 47, reach 28% Facebook: reach 160.000 Facebook shares (organic): 3.296 Total reach: 13.6 million Total value: €580.000 (cost €98.000) Tier 2: Consumer awareness not measured. Food industry action: key players at round table meeting. Long-lasting partnerships & pledging faster transition, e.g. Albert Heijn retailer introducing hundreds of low-sugar products Tier 3: 12.007 growth in Facebook fans 12.773 growth in newsletter subscribers 63.191 website visitors