Eat Your Tweet
Continental Foods
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
CLM BBDO
Creative Team
Creative Directors Benjamin Dessagne, Stéphane Santana Creatives Ronan Coursin, Damien Veillet Art Director Francis Pluntz
Production Team
Head of TV Production Isabelle Darroman Producers Pierre Boudin, Adam Araujo Production Company WOLFGANG
Other Credits
Strategic Planning Director Corentin Monot Commercial Directors Meigge Sauvaget, Ani Radonova Group Leader Antoine Victor Strategic Planners Bastien Beuriot, Margaux Grenouilloux Communication & Influence Manager Marion Weill-Collange Head of Social Media Fabio Iazzetta Social Media Consultant Youcef Boualem Client CEO, General Manager, Continental Foods France Vincent Prolongeau Marketing Director, Continental Foods France Elsa Wagner Pinosa Product Managers, Liebig Continental Foods France Elise Méjane, Louise Lecourt
Date
December 2019
Background
In September 2019, a prime-time TV documentary investigated mass-market soups and revealed to six million people the hidden sugars, additives and artificial flavours they were consuming.
Bad buzz erupted all over Twitter, and there was talk of boycotting packet soups.
This was doubly bad news for Liebig because only a few weeks later they were planning to launch a range of 100% natural soups.
The challenge was to get people to try the new soups despite the damage done to the brand’s reputation.
Idea
The idea was to flip the bad publicity and turn Liebig haters into Liebig eaters.
Hundreds of those who had tweeted bad things about Liebig (“I’ll never buy Liebig again”, “This is shit”, “Honestly, Liebig soups make me want to puke”) were mailed a carton of the new soup with their tweet printed in alphabet pasta to add to it.
Liebig’s critics were asked to eat their tweets and discover for themselves that the new soups were completely natural and very tasty. Which they did.
Results
The idea led to more than 20 million media impressions and was widely praised in the French media. Sales went from -8.6% to +4.6%, turning a crisis into an opportunity.
Our Thoughts
Have you noticed that when brands are in real trouble their managers suddenly become a whole lot braver? Because they have to be. Liebig were faced with a stark choice. Be bold or go under. Simple as that.
Remember the Cadbury ‘Gorilla’? That was in response to the calamitous news that salmonella had been found in Cadbury chocolate. The ad was made not to sell chocolate but to get people to forget that they could be poisoned.
Why oh why, though, do most brand owners only turn to creativity as a last resort? Brilliant ideas are, as they have always been, the only way a company can legally steal a march on its competitors.