Fonterra, the New Zealand multinational dairy co-operative, ambushed the 2018 Asian Games with a campaign basedon ‘heroes at home’ and ‘domestic athleticism’.
The initiative, for its high calcium milk brand Anlene, took a mildly provocative approach by asking consumers ‘Who Is An Athlete?’ and aimed to stimulate debate around the question through a new type of competition between a homemaker and the Olympic badminton champion Liliyana Natsir.
The objective was to games related leverage the conversation around sports and active lifestyles, but without any official rights a campaign was built on the insight that ordinary people stretch their own limits to fulfill their everyday responsibilities – so there is an athlete in every one of us.
Fonterra, which didn’t hold any official rights to the 2018 Asian Games (held in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang), set out by asking people on social media ‘What Makes An Athlete?’ with a social poll (on Facebook and Instagram).
The campaign, which was developed in partnership with creative agency FCB Jakarta, then followed with a hero television commercial and an online video that proposed that a homemaker can be just as much of an athlete as a professional sports star.
This spot aimed to further boost social media buzz and discussion in order to attract attention to the campaign’s climax of a Facebook Live challenge between the two trying to do each other’s ‘sports’ as a competition.
While, as the campaign evolved, the brand and agency dialled up the focus on the ‘everyday people’ and they worked with photographer Peksi Cahyo to capture ‘common people with an athletic spirit’.
This photography phase of the initiative culminated on Indonesia’s National Sports Day when the images were showcased in an exhibition.
According to Rochana Wijeyaratne, Fonterra brand marketing manager (Indonesia), the company was relaxed about the provocative approach.
“During a major athletic event such as the Asian Games, all eyes are focused on celebrating and encouraging athletes, but our key objective was to celebrate everyday Indonesians for being ‘athletes’ in their own right,” explained Wijeyaratne.
“It was a very important balance that was needed to be achieved which I think the campaign did very well.”
FCB Jakarta also felt that the challenge was a little of provocative, but that working with the client as a partner helped ease any fears.
“Since it was a provocative and sensitive idea, there was a fear of backfiring. But when your partner in crime ‘the client’ and the whole agency are with you – fear can turn into a strength,” added FCB Jakarta executive creative director Ravi Shanker.
“The massive challenge was to execute the challenge (via Facebook Live) between Liliyana and housewives where they have to switch their roles. Since it was live and the actions/activities had to be coordinated between both parties without retakes, we prayed a lot that day. But our team and the production team planned it well and it came out well,” continued Shanker.
“The most interesting thing was to receive user-generated content, which we didn’t ask for,” said Wijeyaratne.
“When viewers start engaging with a campaign of their own, you know the campaign is working and the brand is getting closer to them.”
Comment:
The challenge of leveraging a significant sports property without any official rights is one that usually relies on innovation and a touch of bravery.
And this campaign was no exception to that rule of thumb and used the approach to successfully leverage the 18th Asian Games.
The campaign, according to the brand and the agency, was the key factor in increasing incremental sales by 17% online and 35% offline through the period.
Cutting through the clutter from official sponsors of the event was a marketing challenge, but the results suggest that the brand’s approach of linking athleticism to everyday challenges helped boost Anlene attention and sales.
The XVIII Asiad, Jakarta-Palembang 2018 was a pan-Asian multi-sport event held from 18 August to 2 September.
Links:
Fonterra
https://www.instagram.com/fonterra
https://www.facebook.com/Fonterra/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/6115/
FCB Jakarta
https://www.fcb.com/location/jakarta
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