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#PRAwards highlight: How Mondelez Malaysia created talkability in the football community

#PRAwards highlight: How Mondelez Malaysia created talkability in the football community

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Snatching the bronze award of "Best Media Relations Strategy" at Marketing and A+M's PR Awards 2020 is Mondelez Malaysia with its campaign "Cadbury FC". With the challenge of drumming excitement and engagement within the football community and Malaysians as a whole, Mondelez tapped on the expertise its appointed PR agency Mad Hat Asia to run a campaign that is full of surprises. Here's a look at how the brand managed to keep Malaysian football fans on their toes throughout the campaign. 

Challenge

As part of its partnership with the Premier League, Mondelez Malaysia looked to launch a second season of its Cadbury FC campaign in Malaysia, with an appearance by football legend and Cadbury FC ambassador, Michael Owen. However, the brand faced a few challenges. It needed to drum up excitement for a campaign with no new announcements, as well as drive interest from earned media to talk about the Cadbury FC contest for the second year. It also had to bring Cadbury and the Cadbury FC contest to the forefront without being overshadowed by Owen’s fame.

Tapping on the expertise of its PR agency Mad Hat Asia, Mondelez Malaysia looked to:

  • Establish the brand’s association with football by encouraging talkability amongst the football community about Cadbury FC;
  • To reinforce the partnership and association Cadbury has with the Premier League;
  • To leverage on Owen to generate visibility of Cadbury FC in traditional and online media.

Strategy

Football is a game that is full of surprises, and Mondelez and Mad Hat Asia replicated the excitement throughout the campaign by developing a campaign direction titled “Full of Surprises”. The campaign direction looked to fully utilise campaign assets to bring the Cadbury FC campaign to life. For the pre-launch, it sought to use creative drops, and for the launch, it looked to utilise a viewing party of Liverpool vs Everton, and football clinic. Influencer engagement was at the heart of its strategies throughout the campaign.

Execution

Pre-launch: To drum up hype, the brand and agency surprised key influencers with the Cadbury FC pinatas that included Cadbury dairy milk chocolates and an invitation to be part of the Liverpool vs Everton viewing party with Owen. They also partnered up with the key Malaysian and regional media throughout the campaign by providing them exclusive media opportunities. In exchange, the media will provide pre-, at- and post- event coverage.

For two weeks leading up to the viewing party of the Liverpool vs Everton match, Mondelez and Mad Hat Asia worked with targeted influencers who were football fans to hype up the upcoming event. They also disseminated an event listing to create awareness and invite football fans to watch the match with Michael Owen.

Launch: The brand and agency also set up a surprise entrance for Owen for the Premier League match, and fans were given the chance to get up close and personal with the legend in a Q&A session, selfie opportunities and engaging activities.

Owen also surprised the Selangor Under-19 football team with an exclusive training session where he shared his best tips and skills with them. The football clinic generated high media interest in the efforts Cadbury were making to engage relevant communities. Additionally, Mondelez Malaysia and Mad Hat Asia worked with English radio station Hitz FM as well as sports broadcast channel Astro Supersports for exclusive content with Michael Owen.

Together with Astro Supersport, two exclusive content were produced:

  • Wishlist TV: In an effort to bring the idea of “full of surprises” to life, Mondelez Malaysia collaborated with Astro Supersports to make three football fans' dreams a reality by surprising them with an appearance by Owen.

  • League of Legends: An exclusive podcast segment on Astro Supersport was produced, with Owen who shared his detailed journey as a football player, as well as information on the Cadbury FC campaign.

Separately, the brand and agency collaborated with Hitz FM for an exclusive content "Hitz FM vs Cadbury FC". The content saw a rematch of a futsal match between the Malaysia’s national women’s futsal team and Hitz FM announcers that first occurred in 2014. This time, the women’s team has Owen as their coach. The partnership earned much organic coverage on Hitz FM’s radio station and social media platforms.

Post-launch: Finally, Mondelez Malaysia and Mad Hat Asia worked with a selected pool of influencers who were passionate about football to continue driving awareness about the Cadbury FC contest in the last month of the campaign.

Results

The campaign generated over RM4 million in PR value across 121 clippings over two months. This is a huge increase as compared to the first season which saw much lesser PR value. It also achieved 600 pax in its on-ground engagement at the viewing party of Liverpool vs Everton with Michael Owen, clinics, media partnership and matches. The campaign also brought in approximately 4.12 million impressions across print, broadcast, online and social media.

Join us on week-long journey at PR Asia 2020 as we delve into topics such as diversity, cancel culture, future of PR, PR with a purpose and many others from 8 to 11 December. Sign up here!

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