Fanta was one of Coca-Cola’s most impacted brands by COVID-19 in Ireland. Edelmans objective for this year’s Halloween campaign was to regain consistent value share by recruiting Gen Z. To do this we needed to reinvigorate the drinks connection with our bullseye target audience. Edelman used the Halloween occasion to get 16–24-year-olds to choose the drink and enter the Fanta Epic Prizes and Scary Surprises activation through the on-pack mechanic where entrants could find out instantly if they won.
As the messaging was focused around an on-pack promotion they partnered with a strong group of Gen-Z influencers with content creation skills to bring this campaign to life in a unique way that married well with their own style and tone of voice. Edelman also worked with its creative team to design trick ‘jump scare’ styled content incorporated as part of their influencer’s content. A first for the brand, the jump scare was an exciting new layer that they hadn’t seen done before. It was important it worked effectively, and tests were done by the team to ensure it gave the jump they were aiming for while watching. They tracked heart rates and reactions while working on the edit to allow the team to curate the perfect Halloween fright!
Edelmans rationale for utilising a ‘jump scare’ was rooted in their understanding of the audience and how they consume media. They knew that short-burst, vertical video content is king on social media and to bring the depth of the Fanta TVC experience to life, they needed to make each fright as jarring and realistic as possible.
Viewers are living with their phones in-hand, and Edelman decided to break the fourth wall to catch their attention. As a result, they opened with cracked screen effects backed by loud shrieks and reverb. Zombie-inspired hands burst out from the ground with horrifying laughter and flashing lights.
The creators chatted to camera about Fanta’s connection with Halloween and the epic prizes to be won, however each piece of content was interrupted with spooky jumps, screeching sounds and scary visuals that would make followers get the ultimate Fanta fright when thinking they were viewing regular Ad content!
The results speak for themselves, the influencer content had an average story retention rate of 83% vs a KPI of 70%, meaning that 83% of viewers had their attention captured from frame one until the end of the story messaging. The feed content had an estimated reach of 82,138 vs a KPI of 21,742. Their influencer ecosystem achieved 8,786 engagements vs a KPI of 2,130. Fanta has now regained share lost (27.9%) and successfully reached 2019 levels, growing month on month. This proves that adding a layer of outside of the box thinking to what can be often seen as repetitive influencer content, allows the brand to stand out and infiltrate the lives of Gen Z effectively.
