2020 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenges and Goals
M&M’S is a beloved brand known for its candy-coated chocolates that melt in your mouth, but not in your hand. But to tap into the growing large chocolate bar format, M&M’s was launching its first-ever line of M&M’s Chocolate Bars. The bars were tablet-shaped, breakable milk chocolate with M&M’s Minis visible throughout.

So, while the iconic brand name and characters would remain familiar, this meant a new format, a new in-store placement and a new treating occasion. It’s the M&M’s we all love, but now in an unexpected format and a different part of the store.

The challenge was to get chocolate lovers to embrace an unexpected take on a familiar classic.

Insights and Strategy
The strategy began with M&M’S iconic tagline, first used over 50 years ago: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” But here’s the thing: it only made sense because M&M’s had the candy-coated exterior that prevented it from melting in your hands. With the M&M’s Chocolate Bars, the decade old promise could no longer be kept.

But there was another iconic tagline that would work perfectly. Unfortunately, it belonged to KFC. Our strategy was to launch our unexpected take on a familiar classic with an unexpected usage of a familiar tagline: M&M’s Chocolate Bar – It’s Finger Lickin’ Good.

Execution
The brand set out to develop a social campaign that was equal parts fun and disruptive. The campaign kicked off with a Twitter post announcing both the new product and the new tagline. The post sparked a flurry of responses ranging from confused to excited to cautionary.

Among the responses was a post from the official KFC account questioning the potential need for legal action. Of course, behind the scenes, the brand had already received KFC’s consent and participation, but on social media it played out like a friendly negotiation over the ‘borrowed’ tagline. After a few tense posts, two brands ultimately arrived at a détente when M&M’s offered to deliver a large crate of its new Chocolate Bars to a nearby KFC location. Crisis averted.

In addition to the back-and-forth banter with KFC, the brand also created a very tongue-in-cheek launch video, and made a series of social posts on Instagram and Twitter all using the co-opted Finger Lickin’ Good tagline. The creative was all housed at fingerlickingood.ca.

Results
It turns out stealing another brand’s tagline causes quite a stir. The disruptive social campaign introducing M&M’S Chocolate Bars sparked conversations and sales.

Driven largely by M&M’s Chocolate Bars, M&M’s total consumption has grown 10% year-to-date. The Newsfeed engagement rate exceeded industry benchmarks by 247%. Outside of paid media, the campaign generated more than 200,000 organic impressions and more than 13,000 organic engagements.

Credits

Creative Agency: BBDO Toronto
Chief Creative Officer: Denise Rossetto, Todd Mackie
VP, Associate Creative Director: Derek Blais
Art Director: James Leake
Copywriter: Marissa Mastenbroek, Jason Perdue
VP, Group Account Director: Stephanie Page
Account Director: Stephanie Martins
Account Supervisor: Sydney Starke
Account Executive: Sarah Atteck
VP, Planning: Tom Kenny
Digital Strategist: Courtney Dionne

Production Company: Flare BBDO
Executive Producer: Dave Lembke
Producer: Rob Plaxton
Director: Jordan Dashner
DOP: Luke McCutcheon

SGL Studio BBDO
Producer: Rob Quan
Production Artist: Jason Rooney
Retoucher: Kathleen Lau

Ricochet Post
Producer: Janice Rebelo
Flame Artist: Andrew Hobbs
Audio production manager: Mike Rosnick
Editor: Jason Grebski

Colourist: Roslyn Disanto – Nice Shoes

Media Agency: Mediacom
Social Media: FleishmanHillard HighRoad
PR Agency: Citizen Relations