Title	CARREFOUR AFFORDABLE BANANA
Brand	CARREFOUR - ALL BRANDS
Product/Service	FMCG
Category	B03. Real-time Response
Entrant	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Production	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Post Production	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Bill Bilquin	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Senior Copywriter
Sébastien Stevens	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Senior Art Director
Nicolas Dansette	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Social Creative
Christophe Crasselts	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Head of Growth & New Business Director
Alizée Lippert	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Senior Account Manager
Gabriel Araujo	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Creative Director

Why is this work relevant for PR?

In December 2019, the news lit up with a viral story about a banana duct-taped to a wall that sold for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami, a project by performance artist Maurizio Cattelan. This was a story that the supermarket Carrefour couldn’t miss, and we directly knew the brand had to react. The story trended on Saturday, and by Monday Carrefour had posted a tongue-in-cheek response on social media bringing a media value of more than $19 million in a matter of days.

Background

The story’s theme of outrageously expensive fruit selling as art provided the perfect tension to bring to life Carrefour’s Act for Food message - good wholesome food should be affordable for everyone. Moreover, the clear visual symbol of the story (the banana duct taped to a wall) opened up a rich creative territory for Carrefour – one which we knew would stand out in the social media space.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In order to link this pop-cultural moment to Carrefour’s Act for Food’s message, we insisted on our belief that fresh produce should be affordable. The social media posts mimicked the art piece and saw a banana sticked to a wall next to the actual price it would cost in store (€1.59).

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

By spreading our message of affordability (“With our organic products, culinary art is within everyone’s reach”) on social media, we aimed from the beginning for word of mouth. A carousel on Facebook and stories on Instagram were selected as the smartest media formats, allowing us to showcase a variety of organic fruits and veggies and creating a more engaging experience. The clickable or swipe-able links make it one of the strongest traffic-driving formats, so the execution was optimised to drive visits to the website. This successfully extended the post to deliver more value beyond brand awareness.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

In only two days from the ‘scandal’ happening to the publication of our post, we had to move fast. Given that time was of the essence, upon launch we strategically boosted the post with a small media investment of $3,000 to kickstart the conversation. After that, we prayed for the conversation to start.

List the results (30% of vote)

Within four days, our banana achieved a massive organic reach of 5,489,408 (vs. 712,576 paid reach), which equates 50% of the Belgian population. This is remarkable considering the organic reach restrictions on Facebook. The content was Carrefour’s best-performing Facebook post in 2019, delivering an engagement rate eight times higher than average. It also delivered 678,151 clicks to Carrefour’s website – a very welcome traffic spike just in time for the festive season. Within Facebook the content garnered: · 24,527 shares · 1,372 comments · 8,725 reactions · 99.88% positive reactions Finally, the post was praised in 12 different countries with over than 265 million impressions and 50% of the media coverage mentioning Carrefour in the headlines. So, with a ridiculously small media investment of $3000, we got a media value of more than $19 million, meaning that our banana was 160 times more valuable than a $120.000 banana. But above all, we made people know that with Carrefour, you can buy the best ones with cents.