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ROM Buzz

ROM Chocolate

Issue 57 | December 2020

Agency

MRM Romania, McCann Worldgroup Romania

Creative Team

CCO McCann Worldgroup Europe: Adrian Botan CCO McCann Worldgroup Romania: Catalin Dobre Creative Director MRM: Ioana Zamfir Content Director MRM: Ion Cojocaru Creative Director McCann Worldgroup Romania: Alexandru Vasile Group Creative Director MRM: Laura Belc Group Creative Director MRM: Adina Stanescu Copywriter MRM: Cosmin Voicu Art Director MRM: Laura Catea

Production Team

Head of AV McCann: Tiberiu Munteanu AV Producer McCann: Alexandru Platon Director: Radu Munteanu Production house: MME

Other Credits

Media Agency: UM Romania Support PR Agency: McCann PR Social Media Strategist MRM: Codrin Badescu Social Media Manager MRM: Madalina Ciocan Group Account Director MRM: Andreea Sofrone Junior Account Manager MRM: Ana Smarandescu Account Manager MRM: Madalina Anghel Media Planner UM: Monica Nastase Digital media planner UM: Cristian Ene Influencers manager UM: Ramona Radu PR Manager McCann Worldgroup Romania: Carmen Bistrian Corporate PR Executive McCann Worldgroup Romania: Corina Nica Kandia Dulce Marketing Director: Gabriela Munteanu Chocolate Category Manager: Elena Petrea Junior Brand Manager: Alexandra Soagher Group Brand Manager: Alina Cranga

Date

September 2020

Background

ROM Chocolate to the rescue of cancelled events A small Romanian chocolate brand offered to sponsor major international cancelled events around the world ROM Chocolate, a small Romanian brand wrapped in the colors of the national flag, offered to sponsor major international cancelled events around the globe.

Although an iconic brand on the local market – it’s Romania’s first chocolate bar, launched in 1964 and wrapped in the national flag colors – ROM would never have had the budget to sponsor big international events. However, for the launch of ROM Buzz – its newest product, a chocolate wafer with rum filling – the brand identified a so-far unexplored territory and decided to take action: reinventing sponsorships, ROM Buzz offered to sponsor the events that it might be able to afford – the CANCELLED ones.

Idea

The majority of international sports, cultural, music events have been cancelled for 2020, and with them all advertising budgets that the big brands would have spent sponsoring them. But ROM, the small Romanian chocolate brand that knows how to fight in hard times, offered to come to the rescue, with a helping hand for some of the cancelled events.

Cancelled events could visit https://getsponsoredbyrom.com and find a sponsorship package. The packages were available in a limited number.

“In a year that is marked by a health crisis, when brands give up on some of their plans, we decided to continue our plans of launching a new product – ROM Buzz, a sweet waffle with a lot of rum filling, aiming to sweeten up some of the events that have been cancelled. We have chosen to be optimistic and turn this tough year into the best year for launching ROM Buzz”, stated Gabriela Munteanu, Marketing Director, Kandia Dulce.

“ROM is no stranger to bold campaigns. In recent years it swapped the Romanian flag on its packaging with the American one, creating national rage and reigniting Romanian dormant patriotism; it changed the image of Romanians on Google (from “stupid” to “smart”); it helped the world understand the difference between Bucharest and Budapest; it launched the first AI ambassador of a country and many more. ROM may not have the marketing budget of big international players, but this always helps us push our creative limits and we couldn’t be prouder to be working for such a brave client. Also, in the context of today’s world, we believe our industry has the responsibility to help brands not only to act responsibly and make a difference, but also to entertain. We wanted to bring a bit of optimism in the world by proposing a lighter tone of voice in a campaign that tackles the new normal,” stated Catalin Dobre, CCO McCann WG Romania & Regional CD McCann Central Eastern Europe.

“When you have such a ballsy brand personality in your hands as we do with Rom, you feel you have to do it justice every time- yes, also during a pandemic. Enter the Romanian challenger thing once more, with the brand now twisting the worldwide negative narrative to its favor and coming up with this deliciously stupid ambition. With that, I believe we made Rom use its tinier but quite efficient weapons to perfection”, stated Ioana Zamfir, ECD MRM Romania.

Results

Social Media Impressions: -13 videos posted on the brands Facebook channel, with a total of 4,7 million views. 4421 like / love / haha reacts and 219 comments.

-15 photos/KV posted on Facebook, with a total of 5824 like / love / haha reacts and 169 comments.

Overall, the campaign was very well received by the audience. The reactions were very good, both for static posts and videos. The videos got higher numbers, because they are funny and explain the campaign in more detail.

Canceled events: In terms of events to be sponsored, around 30 (both on the website and in Facebook comments) requests and messages were received regarding a potential sponsorship and have reached a final sponsorship deal with 6 of them, one of the events having scheduled 10 concerts in Bucharest. The deals are ongoing and will be shared on all SM channels, both brand and event. People were very curious during this campaign to try their new Rom BUZZ and gave them positive feedback.