• Client: Mentos / 1

OBJECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

Nowadays, introducing a new brand in the gum category could be viewed as a challenge. This very aggressive competitive environment is made up of major players/manufacturers such as Excel, Dentyne and Trident, which have huge advertising budgets compared to Mentos. Mentos Gum had to find its own unique selling language (USL) to stand out from the competitors and clearly differentiate Mentos Gum from Mentos Mints in a campaign to independently push this new product.

Business and communications objectives:
- Build brand equity and awareness of this new product.
- Prompt consumers to try the product.
- Create a buzz around the launch of the product (word-of-mouth/viral).
- Contribute to raising interest and demand (“push”) for Mentos Gum in the distribution network.
- Continue targeting efforts on provinces with the highest development potential (Ontario, Quebec and B.C.), especially in the three greater metropolitan areas (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver).


STRATEGY AND EXECUTION

The strategy developed by Cossette was based on the fact that Mentos Gum is unique: it’s the only gum that is round in a world of rectangular gums! Mentos Gum plays with its uniqueness, roundness and freshness. We had to maintain Mentos Gum’s point of differentiation (roundness), and emphasize all emotional aspects tightly linked to this point of differentiation.

The idea was to graphically represent — in a real and spectacular way — the roundness of the product, capitalizing on its unique shape and the functional benefits of its packaging. This visual representation directly depicted the brand positioning of Mentos Gum: Original, freespirited, with a refreshing shape and taste. Mentos Gum had to create a USL for itself and its unique, simple and forceful brand.

A multitude of packages of Mentos round gum, free from their initial packaging, took their place side by side, forming a working canvas. This canvas of packages of round pieces of gum called to mind the pointillist school of art — a painting technique that uses dots. The round pieces of gum were removed one by one in different areas on the canvas, transforming them into simple images of icons.

We developed a two-tiered approach to boost impact, interest and talk value for the product:
- Traditional media channels were used to maximize reach and frequency.
- Mentos Gum’s USL was brought to life by capitalizing on innovative and intrusive media stunts.

MEDIA MIX

Three talented artists created an original work of art “live” using Mentos gum over three days in high traffic areas of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

OOH — Traditional and spectacular implementation:
- Superboards alongside highways.
- Subway station domination with large murals.
- Subway backlights filled with an illustration made out of real gum packs or wrapped with giant Mentos Gum sleeves.
- Skytrain — Wrapping of eight train cars.
- Zoom miniboards/vending machines in bars, restaurants and fitness clubs.

TV: A media first — New 3 x 10-sec. format TV spot broadcast nationally during top-20 programming to create high frequency.

Website
- Drawing section: User was able to create their own artwork.
- Gallery section: User was able to view other visitors’ creations.
- Artist section: Learn more about the artists, the campaign and the process of using Mentos Gum to create pieces of art.

Web placements
- Use of various creative formats (big box, pre-roll) in younger demographic environments.

MusiquePlus integration
- Buzz Clip sponsorship with an online contest to prompt viewers to create and pop-up their art.
- Mentos Gum live event rewarding contest finalists.

Stunts
- ”Teasers” announcing the stunt and a news release were sent to journalists.
- Sampling was proposed during the stunt periods.

RESULTS

Real net efficiency of the campaign: total awareness of Mentos Gum among those who saw at least one component of the campaign was twice what was anticipated (60% vs. 32%)! And even higher among those aged 18 to 34 (59% vs. 29%), our target group.

In terms of advertising noise, Mentos ranked third at 12%, with an equivalent GRP weight that was half that of the competition!

Total reach stood at 64%, an excellent score. The outdoor campaign ended at 44%! (Including the 3D frescos) — it is important to note that OOH reach rarely exceeds 30%. The norm tops at 26% for this media.

Appreciation for each component of the campaign was excellent, well over norms:
- Internet banners: 61% — norm at 46%.
- Television: 82% — norm between 69% and 74%
- 3D frescos: 86%

In all, 33% of those who had heard of Mentos Gum had tried it during the campaign!

Overall, after the campaign, appreciation of Mentos Gum was very good, 82% of respondents reporting that they liked it “very much” or “somewhat”.

Without a doubt, the Mentos Make Art Pop campaign was mainly appreciated for its creative and artistic side, as well as for its originality and uniqueness! The Mentos campaign received creative recognition at all levels - international, national and local - by winning more than 15 awards and recognitions in the last year.

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