Hero Cassis, the soft drink recognizable by its distinctive purple color, who didn't grow up with it? Hero Cassis therefore has a high brand awareness (98%) in the Netherlands. However, brand consideration is not yet at the desired level, so the primary objective of this campaign is to improve its position in the evoked set. To grow in brand consideration, the target audience must be confronted with a message more often. But how does brand consideration grow in a market where standing out is difficult because competitors like Coca Cola, Fanta, Royal Club and & 7Up are calling the shots with huge media budgets?
In response to this challenge, STROOM developed a layered media strategy to reach and enthuse the young target group (18-35 years old) to put Hero Cassis in their refrigerator more often.
Aim for fame: unconventional media with extreme humor
Les Binet and Peter Field show through their "aim for fame" strategy that when a campaign has a surprise effect, it becomes significantly more famous. Famous campaigns have 1.5 times more price effect and 1.5 times better share of voice efficiency. Hero Cassis is competing with the world's biggest brands and therefore the aim for fame strategy is an appropriate strategy to capture the hearts of the target audience. The surprise effects in this campaign focus on 'unconventional media use' and 'extreme humor'. In addition, we know that this younger target group is particularly interested in slightly more raw, not slick, but sincere content. The target group feels less addressed by a 'slick' TV commercial. Based on these principles, a humorous mini video series was developed in collaboration with Raúl & Rigel in which product placement of Cassis played an important role.
There were further distinctive media choices compared to the competition. Other soft drink brands predominantly deploy conventional traditional channels (television & out of home). Based on the target group analysis, we see that the target group can also be easily reached online. This has led STROOM to make other media choices to stand out from the competition. The campaign was built using the Hero-Hub-Hygiene framework.
The Hero layer featured a new video series: The "Hero Cassis refrigerator check weeks. As a grand kickoff to the campaign, an activation was rolled out and the video series was launched. The activation took place in a number of major Dutch cities. Shoppers could guess how many cassis cans were in the fridge and have a chance to win a pallet of Hero Cassis. Because with an unconventional campaign, comes an unconventional prize!
Complementing this, the video series was launched, "Hero Cassis Refrigerator Check Weeks. A smooth, awkward, and witty presenter checked whether people have Hero Cassis in their refrigerator. The actor was completely in tune with the brand. Both the activation and video series were driven big on Instagram, TikTok and skippable YouTube pre-rolls. With these channels, we managed to reach the target audience on the channels where they are most active.
Continue outreach throughout the year and intensify in the peak season
In the hub layer of the campaign, the brand was further loaded during the soft drink high season (summer months) through online video on platforms where the young target audience can be found above average, such as video advertising on gaming sites, Videoland, Twitch, YouTube and social media and in-game advertising. Additionally, DOOH (Digital Out Of Home) around point of sale store purchases were promoted. This layer of the campaign maintained reach and reached nearly 80% of the target audience. Across all medium types, 15 million impressions were achieved and with online video 3.5 million completed video views.
In the hygiene layer of the campaign, always-on content is published weekly on Hero Cassis' social media channels (Facebook/Instagram) to maintain contact with the target audience throughout the year. This always-on component is an important part of the chosen strategy. Hero Cassis is linked to various category entry points in this content. These were formulated on usage (e.g. Camaretto, Cassis combination with Amaretto), the moment (e.g. on the beach), and fun (e.g. a cozy WhatsApp conversation). Social media strategy and content production were handled by online agency Positive NL (formerly Daily Dialogues).