Title	ACT FOR FOOD
Brand	CARREFOUR
Product/Service	CARREFOUR
Category	D01. Strategic Transformation
Entrant	MARCEL Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation	MARCEL Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation 2	PUBLICIS CONSEIL Paris, FRANCE
Media Placement	ARENA MEDIA Paris, FRANCE
Production	CONTROL FILMS Paris, FRANCE
Production 2	FAVORITE Paris, FRANCE
Post Production	PRODIGIOUS Paris, FRANCE
Post Production 2	MIKROS IMAGE Paris, FRANCE
Additional Company	CARREFOUR Massy, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
Elodie Perthuisot	Carrefour	Direction of Strategic Marketing & Brand - Carrefour
Béryl Fleur	Carrefour	Direction of Strategic Marketing & Brand - Carrefour
Jennifer Peyre	Carrefour	Direction of Strategic Marketing & Brand - Carrefour
Christian Verger	Publicis Conseil	Co-CEO, Publicis Communications France
Valérie Henaff	Publicis Groupe	Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis France and President, Publicis Worldwide
Pascal Nessim	Marcel	CEO
Charles Georges-Picot	Marcel	CEO
Anne de Maupeou	Marcel	Chief Creative Officer, Publicis France
Gaëtan du Peloux	Marcel	Executive Creative Director
Youri Guerassimov	Marcel	Executive Creative Director
Jean-François Goize	Publicis Conseil	Creative Director
Martin Rocaboy	Marcel	Copywriter
Clément Séchet	Marcel	Art Director
Sophie Larivière	Marcel	Art Director Assistant
Alice Drapanaski	Marcel	Art Director Assistant
Mathieu Andrieu	Marcel	Graphic Designer
Karine Poussel	Marcel	Graphic Designer
Stéphane Gaillard	Publicis Conseil	World Advertising Director Carrefour
Fabrice Derrien	Publicis Conseil	Executive Managing Director
Aurélie Fossoux	Marcel	Account Supervisor
Olivier Quivigier	Publicis Conseil	Client Services Director
Eric Guillod	Marcel	Account Supervisor
Olivia Baranes	Marcel	Account Manager
Elodie Caron	Publicis Conseil	Account Manager
Elsa Segalen	Publicis Conseil	Account Manager
Angela Rallo	Publicis Conseil	Account Manager
Elise Briane	Marcel	Project Director
Marine Borreil	Marcel	Project Manager
Nicolas Levy	Marcel	CSO & Managing Partner
Sarah Lemarié	Marcel	Strategic Planner
Olivier Bailloux	Publicis France	Head of Strategic Planning, Publicis France
Julien Petit	Marcel	Lead Social Media
Gautier Rennes	Publicis Conseil	Social Media Manager
Cléo Ferenczi	Prodigious	TV Prod
Cécile Vic	Prodigious	Print Producer
Carole Menke	Prodigious	Print Producer
Carine Cottereau	Prodigious	Print Producer
Luis Cervero	Control Films	Director
Jacques-Etienne Stein	Control Films	Producer
Stephen Keith-Roach	Control Films	DOP
Carl Cohen	Control Films	Production Director :

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

Facing one of the most pressing environmental and economic issues, the collapse of our global food production system, this case study shows how a strategic platform transformed the Carrefour company in ten countries all the way through, impacting its products, services and operations, giving back consumers a reason to prefer the brand, and driving long-term growth.

Background

The greatest challenge of the century is the ecological transition. But it won’t happen without a food transition. As conventional agriculture is the #1 cause of global warming and biodiversity loss. In addition to this heavy environmental cost, there are health and social consequences. Obesity is increasing. And the condition of farmers is more precarious than ever. There are also, unexpectedly, business costs. The distribution model based on price wars, low-quality food products at low prices, is becoming increasingly unprofitable for the players who set it up. As margins are getting lower and field yields keep declining. Everybody is losing. The planet, consumers, farmers and retailers. As the inventor of the hypermarket in France, we have historically been part of the problem. We had to accelerate the transformation of the company from a price war model to a food quality one, not only for the planet, but for our business.

Interpretation (30% of vote)

We had to accelerate the transformation of the company from a price war model to a food quality one. - We had to transform the culture internally, - And transform our image in the consumer’s eye. But it is no small feat when you’re a historic retail leader. Carrefour suffered from the « big bad wolf syndrome” . As a retail leader, consumers frequently associated Carrefour with everything that went wrong with the hypermarket model, starting with the standardisation of our food system and agriculture. When you’re big, you’re bad in the consumer’s mind. You’re just fighting for your revenue, at the expense of consumers. To win back consumers, we had to reframe what it meant to be a leader. We had to spin the power of Carrefour into a positive, by putting our leadership power at the service of bettering food quality.

Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

When you’re as big as Carrefour, actions do speak louder than words. Observation #1: Our speeches were no longer heard. Before ActforFood, we had made a first advertising attempt to reposition Carrefour on food quality. But it performed no better or worse than any other retailer campaign. Thanks to post-tests, we have learnt that for people every retailer basically says the same thing. Consumers don't believe in it and therefore quickly forget the ads. We didn't emerge at all, as did most of our competitors in2016: advertising recall was low for retailers, and most ad attributed to every other competitors. Observation #2: In focus groups, consumers spontaneously talked about our concrete actions, not our campaigns. They talked about our actions: like the « organic islands » (organic-only displays) deployed in supermarkets. They felt these actions didn’t come from a big faceless company, but from people, who cared about food quality.

Creative Idea (20% of vote)

We launched Act for Food, a worldwide program of brand actions for the food transition, in which every one of our campaigns is an Act for the food transition. We started by tackling the heart of the problem: the agrochemical lobby’s attack on our food freedom. With a founding act, the Black Supermarket, we fought against an unfair law that forbade sale and cultivation of farmers’ seeds, destroying 90% of the agricultural biodiversity. It changed the law, and public opinion on Carrefour. This founding act deeply influenced the company, and encouraged us to go further and pursue the most important transformation of our history. From then on, all of our campaigns became brand acts for food. Acts to improve consumers’ health, to make our food system better for farmers and the planet. Because it’s only through actions that we’ll eat better tomorrow, not with words.

Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

Corporate impact: Our main goal was achieved as the creative idea of Act for Food succeeded in transforming the company by putting CSR at the heart of its strategy, impacting its business strategy, products, services and operations, in 10 countries. Impact for farmers, planet and health: We launched hundreds of Acts for Food in 10 countries. Notably contributing to change 2 laws on agricultural biodiversity (BlackSupermarket) and slaughterhouse video surveillance, fight against food price inflation in Brazil, convert 2,000 farmers to organic agriculture, finance 60,000 farmers in our quality program… Consumer behaviour impact: Our customers’ buying behaviour started to change as sales of fruits & vegetables worldwide rose by 5% and organic sales by 28%. Image Impact: +8pts brand preference. Business impact: Carrefour’s stock value increased by 9%. As worldwide sales rose by 3.1%, worldwide online sales boomed by 30%, and we became the leader in organic food in France.