Estimates 33 per cent sales growth since the repositioning in April.
There are some new flavours of gum introduced by Chiclets in Egypt. They’re ‘illogical’, by design. A Cherry and Orange Mint pack on one side and a Grape Mandarin Mint on the other greeted us in mid-October on the brand’s Facebook page. They were a logical extension though, of a consumer campaign that launched months ago.
When Mondelez launched a campaign championing ‘Nothingness’ to reposition Chiclets in April this year, the brand’s market share had dropped to around 22 per cent, down from the over 50 per cent of yesteryears and 34 per cent in 2010-‘11. The brand’s dilemma, shared by creative agency partner JWT Cairo, was on repositioning a brand with a strong heritage, one which enjoyed great affinity to older consumers who had grown up with it.
Mondelez International deserves more credit than its gets for making the decision to go with a bold revamp campaign and reposition Chiclets as a brand for adolescents, notes Mohammed Sabry, managing director, JWT Cairo. The campaign seems to have delivered, as Mondelez International Egypt estimates sales growth of 33 per cent since the launch of the campaign.
View the campaign’s launch spot here:
On the campaign’s impact on the brand, Menna El Sweify, senior brand manager – gum, Mondelez International Egypt, explained, “We could see the success of the campaign on the digital front and the impact it had over our new target segment in terms of interaction with the brand, yet we can’t give you the final take till we get our tracker results, but we are definitely optimistic.”
The new target group has 12 to 13-year-olds at its core. This is in sync with the demographics of the market, where over 50 per cent of the population is under 20 years, notes Sabry.
The brand was going through a repositioning exercise globally, on a parallel. The campaign for Egypt though, took into account local sensibilities and youth pulse of the market. It started off with a listening exercise on social media.
Sabry explained, “We listened on social media to ensure that we were not out of touch with the target group – we discovered that we were! The only way we could embrace change in a way that was credible to them, was to invite them to participate in the ‘Nothingness’.”
Several thousand videos came in, and the best pieces of content were included in webisodes. And that’s still continuing, adds the JWT Cairo head. These, he underlines, are helping re-assert the ‘Nothing is everything’ premise. The ‘illogical’ flavour combos are currently being promoted through the advertising.
Does the ‘Nothingness’ plank have legs to go further? The agency thinks so. Sabry surmised, “Anything that has relevance and touches a chord will have legs to continue – especially if it engages consumers with participation. The ads, online content and variants… they enable us to create a ‘World of Chiclets’. The opportunity for originality is endless – because it’s about ‘Nothing’. It’s about the spirit of adolescence.”
(This article appears in the issue of Campaign Middle East dated 26 October 2014.)