2020 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenges and Goals
Millennials are at the core of Unilever's business, but marketing to Millennials is easier said than done. They’re looking to make a positive impact in the world, but they struggle to find ways to do it. They look up to leaders, governments and companies for answers and often only see positive sustainable messages that are weighted down by distant promises.

Unilever wanted to show Millennials that brands can have a positive impact on the world and that buying from brands that do good is an easy and accessible way to create change.

Insights and Strategy
At Real Canadian Superstore (RCSS), shoppers maintain a busy life – balancing career and family. They feel social causes are important, but they don’t know how they can contribute in their everyday life. Although Unilever brands support important causes, RCSS shoppers were unaware of how Unilever brands supported social initiatives. And how they could be a part of it.

Unilever wanted to generate awareness of the various sustainable living initiatives of Unilever brands. Their goal was to show shoppers they could make an impact every day by simply purchasing and enjoying any of its brands with purpose.

Execution
Understanding leads to meaningful engagement, so they focused on creating campaign awareness with shoppers. The idea was to bring each individual brand purpose to life via a 360 activation that consisted of TV, digital, social media, influencers, in-store experiences and shelf blades.

Unilever conducted pre-shop experiences through mass awareness channels, influencers and geo-targeted social media posts to educate and drive consumers to the store. When it came to the in-store aspect, the company used a combination of tactics to engage with shoppers. While the shelf blades with QR codes engaged with shoppers at the point-of-purchase, brand ambassadors educated shoppers about the campaign while giving away reusable bags and a coupon booklet. With the post-shop experience, the coupon booklet not only induced repeat purchase but also offered further information about the causes each brand supports.

To prove that Unilever's good intentions weren’t just lip service, the company created a website to provide detailed information about the causes Unilever supports.

The campaign highlighted the specific causes that are supported when someone buys Unilever products:
“Every Dove” teaches girls self esteem.
“Every Hellmann’s” helps reduce food waste.
“Every Knorr” supports sustainable farming.
“Every Seventh Generation Laundry” uses renewable plant-based ingredients.
“Every Love Beauty and Planet Shampoo” uses 100% recycled bottles.
“Every Lipton” supports the rainforest alliance.
“Every Ben & Jerry’s” helps fight for climate action.
“Every Dove Men+Care” supports paternity leave for dads.

The Results

The digital plan generated more than 10 million impressions, while the influencer plan received 17 million impressions (3.9 million unique reach), 2.2 million engagements, a 13.15% engagement rate, with 35,000 links clicked. There were 24 million total impressions delivered via the social plan – 2.7 million unique reach, with 740,000 total engagements. There were 760 National English Television GRPs delivered. As for cinema, there were 1.7 million impressions registered. The geo-targeted posts driving traffic to Real Canadian Superstores during the demo weekend resulted in 680,000 impressions, delivered over two days, 39,000 engagements and a 5.65% engagement rate. The in-store demo received 46,800 interactions per day, and 16,255 coupons were distributed.

Credits

Unilever
Gina Kiroff – Director Foods
Edsil Coutinho – Sr. Assistant Brand Manager
Katharine Williams - Manager Sustainable Business & Communications
Catherine McVitty - Sustainable Business & Communications
Les Chalette – Legal
Robin Hassan - Head, Integrated Marketing & Digital Transformation
Stacy Pringle - Media Manager
David Hyndman - Sr. CMI Manager - Country Customer BPI Canada
Klara Urbanova - Sr. Assistant Shopper Marketing Manager
Jeff Croft - Sr. Customer Team Leader
Derek Knieling - Sr. Customer Team Leader
Giles Morrison - VP Brand Communication Excellence
Nipa Shah - Sr. Global Brand Director
Charlotte Tongue – Global Assistant Brand Manager
Lisa Johnson - Assistant Brand Manager
Dena Ayzikovich - Associate Manager CMI Food and Refreshments

Edelman
Alexa MacDonald, Account Director, program lead
Victoria Neufeld, Senior Account Manager, program lead
Sara Rezaee, Account Director, digital strategist
Jennifer Zies, Senior Account Executive, digital execution
Jessica Fralick, Account Director, crisis & risk lead
Hilary Sloan, Account Director, thought leadership lead
Julia Solomon, Account Executive, earned media lead

Mindshare Canada
Effie Kalambalikis | Senior Manager, Strategy
Amanda DeFields | Director, Strategy
Andrea Miliauskas | Director, Strategy
Michael Marcy | Director, Strategy
Michael Hufana | Senior Associate, Trading
Krista McIsaac Quan-Vie | Associate Account Manager, Social
Casey Blair | Account Coordinator, Social
Debagiti Bhattacharya | Associate Account Manager, Search

Geometry
Sonia Canonico, Director, Client Services
Nikita Hingle, Account Executive
Beth Harris: Production Designer
Mike Snjaric: Creative Group Head
Mosaic
Michelle Dickson, Account Supervisor

UStudio
Venus Tsang – Content Strategist
Kathleen To – Creative Producer
Delia Zaharelos – Business Director
Oditi Mostafa – Content Team Lead

Cornerstone
Kathleen Atkinson
Karen Fan
Barrows
Rachel Marcus, Client Partnerships Manager

Gowling WLG - Rene Bissonette