FOR EVERY ROBBIE

TitleFOR EVERY ROBBIE
BrandWW (FORMERLY WEIGHT WATCHERS)
Product/ServiceWW
Category A02. Healthcare
Entrant EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production UNIT9 London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Melissa Hinds Edelman UK Managing Director
Stefan Ronge Edelman UK Chief Creative Officer
Indy Selvarajah Edelman UK Creative Director
Oddbjorn Stensrud Edelman UK Associate Creative Director
Thiago Campos Edelman UK Associate Creative Director
Meredith Brengle Edelman UK Digital Director
Chloe Mitchell Edelman UK Associate Director
Veronika Lok Edelman UK Digital Account Director
Bertie Turner Edelman UK Account Manager
Abayomi Ajilore Edelman UK Senior Project Manager

Why is this work relevant for PR?

‘For Every Body’ is an earned-at-heart creative idea, designed to connect with all audiences to enhance brand perception. The campaign turned a potential elitist celebrity endorsement into a statement about inclusivity. It countered the perception that wellness is only for the Instagram elite, thereby raising awareness of WW’s rebrand toward inclusive wellness for everyone. By celebrating real people side-by-side with our megastar celebrity, WW re-introduced its sense of humour, showing WW-style fitness is fun. Media was quick to pick up the project and reacted positively, which is far from guaranteed with celebrity as polarising as Robbie Williams!

Background

Context: WW (formerly Weight Watchers) rebranded globally to transition from a weight loss brand to an inclusive wellness brand that has the pillars of food, activity and mindset. This rebranding included a new tagline, ‘For Every Body’, aimed to connect to consumers on an authentic, human level, showcasing how wellness is ‘For Every Body’. Brief: Bring WW’s new ‘wellness for every body’ brand positioning to life across social media, earned media and influencer. Challenge: To use the new WW ambassador Robbie Williams, an elite celebrity, and still make wellness accessible for everyone. Objectives: - Raise awareness of WW belief that wellness is for every body - Drive consideration of the WW brand - Earn media coverage with positive sentiment for the brand - Drive engagement on influencer’s social channels and WW owned channels - Broaden audience from those wanting to lose weight, to wider focus on wellness

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Insight: When it comes to wellness, people on social media are faced with elite influencers living unachievable and unrelatable lifestyles which make them feel bad about themselves! Instead of inspiring people, it makes healthy living an impossible ideal that most of us can’t live up to. Most wellness brands play into this ‘aspirational’ but ultimately demotivating approach but WW wants wellness to be attainable ‘For Every Body’. To show that healthy living is ‘for every body’, we wanted to rethink the use of celebrity ambassadors. Earned Idea: ‘FOR EVERY ROBBIE’… If Robbie Williams is our celebrity influencer, why not make him the least important Robbie Williams on set? Let’s find all the Robbie Williamses we can - with different ages, bodies, ethnicities and genders. Then let’s get the ‘real’ Robbie Williams to ring them and ask them to make a dance film with him, to get people moving!

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Our target audience was ‘everyday people’, so casting of the Robbies was vital. They had to be likeable, fit with the brand, have their own wellness ambitions …and most of all, they had to be REAL. Once we had the right Robbies, we had to get them moving in a way which felt authentic and fun. Their experience had to be genuine, so it would translate to the everyday people at home. With the help of Robbie Williams’ dance captain and Robbie Williams himself, the Robbies developed four easy-to-follow dance moves to get everybody moving. We filmed the Robbies arriving on set and coming up with the moves, plus the final dance sequence. We released an upbeat online film which showcased the dance moves, showing everyone achievable wellness and encouraging people at home to take part and uploading their own moves to social media using the hashtag, #WWForEveryBody.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

We cast Robbie Williamses from all over the UK and got them together for a day of filming. The media caught wind of our project but got the details wrong, with The Sun newspaper publishing a Robbie x WW partnership article. We played into the leak, releasing a cheeky GIF of Robbie ‘opening the door to a healthier lifestyle with WW.’ Soon after, the hero film went live on social and started racking up views. Building on the excitement, we released ‘moves’ films inspiring fans and WWers to get moving and to post their videos, using the campaign hashtag #WWForEveryBody. Robbie Williams selected his favourites to feature across his social channels. The moves later became the basis of a routine hosted by Robbie’s dance captain at a pop-up ‘House of WW’ in London where media, influencers and the public tried moving like the Robbies’ alongside each other.

List the results (30% of vote)

Results as of March 18th 2019: - 5.1M cross-market views - 5.6M+ online content views (online film) - 5.8M+ online content engagements (online film) - 7.2M+ online content reach - 592M+ combined global media reach - 137 pieces of coverage, across top tier media including Daily Mail, MSN News, Yahoo! News, The Sun and many more. - Key WW message of being ‘for every body’ mentioned in 98% of coverage. The video has generated fantastic comments across all markets, yielding heightened brand interest. Majority of these comments are playful as viewers are wanting to dance along with Robbie, sign up for WW - and even change their names!