Client: Unilever
Product: Magnum
Category: Food, Beverage, Tobacco
Agency: Liquorice and Mindshare
Country: South Africa
Year: 2015

Campaign Summary

Magnum ice cream overall is widely perceived as expensive win South Africa, which impacts and diminishes its “chocolate expertise” credentials.  The client needed to make consumers believe, once again, that the price was worth the pleasure.

Magnum wanted to change consumer behavior and reinstate consumer loyalty to and belief in the brand as a premium one in the ice-cream market.  What made the challenge even greater was that Magnum sales drop during South Africa’s winter months. The brand needed to produce a yearly campaign to boost sales at the end of this winter season when competitor brands increased their media spend substantially and Magnum’s media spend plateaued. The brand did this with a tweet-activated campaign, that also ran in other social media channels, to remind consumers that Magnum is a chocolate indulgence worth paying for.  

Objective and Context

The consumer profile was of people who always seek out the best and most extravagant experiences in life. They admire celebrities as people living life to the fullest. They are open to new brands, enjoy trying new things and are socially networked and digitally connected. 

These consumers love spending time with friends but also love having indulgent moments alone.  Magnum needed to be seen as their outlet for letting go of their adult responsibilities and enjoying the moment.

The goal was to get pleasure seekers, ages 18-40 to include Magnum in their chocolate repertoire by elevating Magnum to the status of being the ultimate chocolate indulgence worth paying for.

Magnum wanted to increase sales in the Johannesburg region by 11 percent, build awareness about the brand in South Africa at large, serve 25,000 consumers with custom Magnums, and grow the brand’s Twitter followers by 15 percent.

Creative Strategy

Typically, consumers experienced Magnum in a supermarket or a petrol station store, which is not conducive to the “premium brand” positioning. The campaign idea involved creating a flagship “home” for Magnum, where fans could experience the brand qualities of luxury, indulgence and glamour. This would help build the brand’s credentials by focusing on a quality chocolate and ice-cream experience.

The campaign was a tweet-activated game using the hashtag #CelebrateWithMagnum. As users tweeted, their individual Twitter handles faded in and moved towards the Magnum icon as though the Magnum were being “hit” and it faded out. A variant on the game was also served during a random time frame; in this version, playing caused the Magnum chocolate coating to crack open. The tweet to hit at that specific time, causing the Magnum to break, won the prize inside.

Everyone in South Africa was able to get in on the action as they followed it online. The virtual, coated chocolate was refilled 25 times from October 30 and December 15, 2014.

Magnum needed to address and justify its price premium, which meant continuing to behave like a premium brand but offering an incredible experience that amplified the offering. The strategy relied on the insight that premium brands don’t go to their customers, they get their customers to come to them by creating cool and immersive brand experiences.

Another engaging consumer touchpoint was added using a Magnum-branded gold-framed selfie area that was seamlessly integrated into the physical store and gave consumers a chance to feature and share the experience to social channels online.

Magnum also secured celebrity ambassadors for the brand, including Bonang Mathebe, who had 800,000 Twitter followers and 50,000 Facebook fans; Jonathan Boynton Lee (top billing presenter); Kerry McGregor (South Africa’s top photographic model); and Maps Maponyane (Cosmo South Africa’s sexiest man).

In addition to using mobile and social media, the campaign was supported by radio and a pop-up store. Twenty-three percent of the overall budget was allocated to digital and, of that budget, 98 percent was allocated to mobile to reach the target audience.

Results

Here are the results from the first year of the campaign:

• Compared to the 2013 effort -- which had an ROI of 200 percent, this campaign achieved an ROI of 500 percent. 
• There were 48,500 custom Magnums served, which was  97 percent above target.
• Sales volume increased by 22 percent, which was 100 percent above target.
• General volume on impulse purchases increased 13 percent during the campaign period.
• The campaign had a reach more than 20 million impressions using PR, which was 100 percent above target.
• 2.3 million people visited the Magnum Joburg Pleasure Store during November and December 2014.
• Magnum trended seven times during the campaign which created immense talkability and brand equity.
• The radio investment achieved an ROI of 294 percent, as a result of 33 minutes additional airtime exposure and more than 50 additional social-media posts.
• 5,000 photos were taken and shared during the campaign.
• The Magnum Facebook community grew by 14 percent.
• The Magnum Twitter community grew by 25 percent.

Magnum overcome its perception as being too expensive and not really “premium.” Consumer feedback on the campaign was positive with as the target audience expressed enjoyment in being able to interact with Magnum in a fun and unusual way.