Nando’s: Re-Celebrate 2020
2020 sucks was bad—We missed the entire first half of the year thanks to the lockdown. So, when Nando’s told us to help raise everyone’s mood, we let everyone re-celebrate everything they missed.
Role
Copywriter
Content Strategist
Awards
APPIES Malaysia Marketing Campaign Awards 2021
- Gold in Consumer & Business Services
- Gold in Digital & Social
Markies Awards 2021
- Most Creative - Social Media - Bronze
Brief
Our task was to create a regional campaign that would help build brand love and raise the spirits of Malaysians and Singaporeans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Look At The Playing Field
The first thing we did was to identify what was already out there.
There were plenty of brands (including our competitors) that pushed out "we're-here-for-you" manifesto videos
Our competitors had bigger budgets to dominate the online space through ad buys
Our competitors emphasised more on delivery promotions to draw fans to purchase
And yet these failed to resonate with the audience.
Understanding The Problem
We combed multiple social media platforms and online forums and found out that Malaysians and Singaporeans:
Were desensitised to brands telling them they’re right here with them
Felt more alone than ever
Looked for new ways and reasons to connect and lift each other up
The Ideal Idea
From these findings, we realised our ideal solution had to accomplish the following:
Empathise with our audience
Encourage them to lift each other more by providing them with more reasons to connect or enhancing the experience
Stand out in such a wild way that they have no choice but to stop and click in
Push Nando’s to the top of mind when it comes to delivery considerations
With a limited budget and two different target audiences, it meant that our insight had to be relevant to the two different target audiences, and our rollout had to be so impactful that it caused our target audience to do a double-take.
Sounds easy enough.
Our Way In
After several rounds of brainstorming, we finally found our insight:
Celebrations are a huge mood booster
Whether it's a big festive occasion or a small milestone, people look forward to celebrations. They can serve as a perfect opportunity to connect with loved ones or even as a chance to take a break. Which led us to the idea:
Re-Celebrate 2020
To lift their spirits, we’re telling everyone to take a second chance and have a proper re-celebration for everything they missed. We even tied a small promotion and several giveaways to help sweeten the mood.
With the insight and idea settled, we looked for the best way to roll this campaign out.
Rollout
We listed the deliverables against the customer journey to see how they would respond to it.
We then worked on solving the parts that would get ignored. Fortunately, the fix for the Advocacy phase was simple—reducing the barrier of entry and casting the spotlight on those who got rewarded for sharing would encourage more participation.
As for the Awareness and Consideration phase, we relied on another Malaysian/Singaporean insight:
We love to call out mistakes
And with that, we have our hook!
Bringing It Together
We created our teaser posts in the form of Chinese New Year and Hari Raya greetings (festivities that were long-over) and waited for our audience to call us out.
True enough, our fans came pouring. Some speculated a careless intern was behind this mistake, while others thought we were high losing it due to the lockdown. But, as we silently watched it play out, the “mistake” went viral, and even brands like GSC, MBO, myBurgerLab, Marrybrown, EVA Airways, and Xiaomi Malaysia teased us about it.
As the traction for the post reached its peak, we revealed our campaign with an explainer video.
Along with continuing the buzz by replying all the brands that interacted with us.
Results
The campaign
Earned over 4 million organic reach, 1 million engagements (a 40% increase in engagement), over $290,000 in earned media value, and redemptions for the promotion went up by 256% above its weekly target
Won the gold award in both Consumer & Business Services and Digital & Social during the APPIES Malaysia Marketing Campaign Awards 2021
Won the bronze award for the Most Creative - Social Media during the Markies Awards 2021
Made Nando’s viral across Malaysia, netting the #1 trending hashtag during the campaign
