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Challenge:

Unilever's Breyers brand was losing share as competitors with "better for you" ice cream variants tempted consumers away. The launch of Breyers Smooth & Dreamy - with just half the fat of traditional ice cream - was a chance to hit back. Consumer research revealed that our target audience loved to indulge their ice-cream habit while watching movies at home. Our insight was that while Breyers was an old friend, the traditional version of ice-cream, Smooth & Dreamy was the modern take, updated for a "better for you" lifestyle.

Platform/Idea:

Our strategy took the target audience's favourite movies and created a modern take on the classics. We developed branded content that combined the best of the old with an up to date attitude designed to appeal to our female audience: a precise match with the new Smooth & Dreamy positioning.

Consumer Journey/Activation:

We partnered with Warner Bros to recreate classic scenes from two of the greatest love films of all time: Gone with the Wind and King Kong. Using the latest CGI techniques we inserted a very modern woman, Jane Krakowski star of TV's 30 Rock, to deliver an ironic twist to these classics. Each vignette started with Jane tasting Smooth & Dreamy before slipping into a fantasy world where she reshaped the dialogue on her own terms. Smooth & Dreamy Productions launched during the season finale of 30 Rock to leverage Krakowski's fanbase. Spots ran in other TV favourites on network and cable TV as well as online print, mobile and interactive TV. All media drove consumers online where they could see the full five-minute films, go behind the scenes and even play a leading role in the vignettes.

Results and Effectiveness:

Our unique content attracted massive buzz. Three hundred different placements delivered nearly 440 PR impressions. Our target audience spent an average of 3.37 minutes interacting with our content - seven times the duration of a traditional 30 second spot Rich media significantly outperformed industry benchmarks, reflecting consumer interest and engagement. Smooth & Dreamy's Chocolate Chip variant was the number two new launch based by revenues in the packaged ice-cream sector in 2009. Sales revenues for Smooth & Dreamy are up 16% year on year.