Title	THE GIANT SOURDOUGH
Brand	COOP
Product/Service	SMAK*
Category	G04. Social Behaviour
Entrant	COOP Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation	WE ARE LIVE Oslo, NORWAY
Media Placement	PHD Oslo, NORWAY
Production	WE ARE LIVE Oslo, NORWAY
Post Production	WE ARE LIVE Oslo, NORWAY

Name	Company	Position
Fredrik Bjørn	We Are Live	Art director
Simen Frogner	We Are Live	Copywriter
Petter Elstein Knutsen	We Are Live	Video producer
Kristian Haukland	We Are Live	Creative
Helle Jentsch	We Are Live	Project manager
Ola Nielsen	Ola Nielsen	Creative
Herman Mueller Stormyr	We Are Live	Chief Executive Officer
Kristine Gulheim	We Are Live	Graphic designer
Susan Hansen	We Are Live	Graphic designer
Håkon Bakke	We Are Live	Project manager
Nichlas Botten	We Are Live	Project co-ordinator

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

For one month a giant pop-up-jar of sourdough in the middle of Oslo got people curious and hungry.

Background

During the last couple of years the interest for sourdough has exploded in Norway, and it seems to be a sourdough starter in every home. Social media is flooded with photos of tiny jars with sourdough starters. Smak is a bread brand sold at one of Norway’s biggest grocery chains: Coop. When they started to use sourdough in their recipe, we had to get the word out and get people to try the new and improved bread.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

So we did just like everybody else. Only bigger. We made a giant jar with sourdough starter and put it on display in one of Norway’s biggest shopping streets.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our primary target audience was the quality-seeking people based in central Oslo and secondary the ones who saw the giant sourdough online through social media and the livestream. Our strategy was to do exactly as our target audience, but in a scale so big it had to get noticed.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

In February of 2021 the giant sourdough was brought to life and placed in a shopping window in Bogstadveien, one of Norway’s biggest shopping streets. It was on a display for a month. To keep the giant sourdough alive, the starter was fed everyday. It was fed by celebrity chefs and sourdough experts. We also recruited feeders through social media. The sourdough was also livestreamed 24/7 on YouTube. People could order a “baby starter” from the giant one to bake their own sourdough bread. Or, they could skip the baking and just order a freshly baked sourdough Smak-bread.

List the results (30% of vote)

The average watch time of the livestream was 7 minutes and 23 seconds. The giant jar with a sourdough starter seemed to make people hungry. The sale of Smak-bread increased with 32 percent during the campaign period.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

People have always baked bread at home, but for the last couple of years, Norwegians have taken the bread baking to the next level by making their own sourdough starters. It seems like everybody is mixing flour and water in a tiny jar and naming it, feeding it and posting pictures of it in social media.