Insight
As a brand, NIDO stands for love and the best nutrition milk can offer. For 70 years, an emotional connection has been built between mums, children and NIDO. However, those feelings haven’t translated into the engagement that is necessary to truly build a bond with today’s consumers. Previous campaigns had motivated a few thousand mums to participate, but that’s only a small portion of the millions in the region.
Competition was accelerating their communication investment, dominating NIDO with 94% SOV in 2014. NIDO was in jeopardy of losing connection with mums.
Receiving engagement from mums was no small task. Women in the Middle East are notorious for low response rates to brand campaigns due to social norms and general lack of trust. NIDO needed to tap into a deep emotional area that other brands hadn’t reached.
By speaking with mums across multiple countries, MEC uncovered a new insight into her maternal feelings. Nature has given every mother the instinct to love, nurture and protect not just her own child but the plurality of children. This maternal calling is what makes her motherhood universal.
There’s a generation of children in the Middle East who are struggling with poor nutrition. The situation is so widespread that it’s virtually impossible for just an individual mother to make a difference.
Strategy
The agency wanted to evoke this maternal spirit in Middle Eastern mums and ask them to help children in need through one simple act – take a PLEDGE to raise a healthier generation.
It identified mums that would be most likely to embark on this pledge with NIDO – the Nurturing Mothers. Through research the agency understood her primary motivations for her children are to be healthy and happy. She believes the vitamins and minerals in milk are essential to her child having the polished, healthy physical appearance that makes her feel like a good mother. Now, NIDO would allow her to help other children have this same glow.
There was no purchase required, no coupon to fill, no competition to join in… just pledge her support and the brand would donate glasses of NIDO to a child who needs this nutrition.
1 pledge = 7 glasses of NIDO
The pledge is a simple, but powerful symbol of a heart drawn on a hand. The hand represents the caring acts that a mum does for her children, while the heart symbolises the impact that her and NIDO’s love can have to enhance these acts. It was inclusive for all people to participate, despite the social restrictions around women taking pictures of their faces in conservative parts of the Middle East.
This pledge became the visual rallying cry that united people around the region to join with NIDO and raise a healthier generation.
Execution
Reaching enough people to make a difference required clear focus. The pledge had to be accessible and easy for people to participate.
On Mother’s Day, families came out en masse to NIDO’s 3 simultaneous events in Dubai, Lebanon and Jordan, where thousands pledged on interactive pledge machines. The events were covered live across NIDO’s Instagram and Twitter pages.
A heartfelt video announced the pledge on TV and Online to the wider Middle East audience.
The curiosity of a pledge that costs nothing became an online sensation in popular e-commerce sites such as Cobone and Souq.com where people could engage by “purchasing” a pledge for 0 AED. Within a month, 180,000 pledges were made on Cobone. Soon, the campaign was running across most major e-commerce sites in the region.
On Twitter, MEC sent personalised thank-you images for EVERY pledge, which were shared by audiences on all major networking sites.
With the help of sister Nestlé brands, the campaign was visible through famous household brands such as MAGGI, Pure Life Water and NIDO GUM.
Facebook pledges have been averaging 100,000+ per week.
The campaign generated such an immense buzz that major regional blogs soon picked it up, helping spread NIDO's positive message. In fact, The Pledge was the talk of the entire town, garnering attention on popular TV shows including Super Mom, Hki Jelis, Bahedna Maa Rabeha, Aa Stouh Beirut and Alam al Sabah, with all of their stars taking the pledge.
Results
NIDO set out with a goal of 1 million pledges. To MEC’s knowledge, no campaign had ever reached this level of engagement in the region.
At the time of submission, it has 1,042,808, surpassing even the lofty expectations and showing that if given the right cause, mums will engage with a brand! (See live counter at nidolove.com)
The Pledge dwarfs previous levels of engagements from NIDO campaigns (33K and 8K responses during the last two campaigns).
The campaign has reached 16 million+ people on TV and another 7 million+ online, creating massive buzz.
Facebook was flooded with 100,000 pledges per week on average.
On Twitter alone, the hashtag generated 3.1 million impressions primarily due to people taking the pledge.
Instagram followers grew by over 200% during the campaign, without paid support available.
The campaign impacted perception of the brand as mums said NIDO helps nurture her child’s future (+10pts), is an innovative brand (+18pts), is a brand her children feel close to (+12pts) and is specialized in children’s nutritional needs (+13pts), all of these increases at 90% confidence level.
The business effect has been massive with incremental sales of more than 35%.
Most importantly, through the efforts of these pledgers and NIDO, over 7 million glasses of milk will be donated to children who need it, helping to raise a healthier generation.