Challenge

Coca-Cola’s Burn Energy Drink had a brand awareness level of 96% but next to none in brand association. Burn had no emotional value or clear positioning, compared to Red Bull.
Energy Drinks had in the Nordic region been either forbidden (NO+DK) until 2006 or strictly limited (SE), with only brand exposure had been through target audiences experiences outside the region.

Overall objective for campaign

Create Nordic brand and marketing strategy with the purpose of reintroducing Burn Energy Drink as a relevant brand, targeting the Snow, Skate and Electronic Music communities respectively, to strengthen its position towards Red Bull, the only other competitor in an only 4-year-old market.

Reason

In order to create easy-recognizable associations around Burn, along with staying true to the fact that you’re dealing with an energy brand, the experiences, and communication that Burn is part of, must symbolize this. Furthermore, the target groups had to be attractive and have a feeling of “hard to get” to create a trustworthy relevance and a stamp of approval, by people who are notorious for standing tall on their autonomy. Skateboarding, Snow and Electronic Music all symbolized this, but the list was longer and made way for scalability in future activation.

Process

• Mapping communities and environments, clarifying brand perception and target group behavioral patterns and potential opportunities and pitfalls
• Establish brand positioning, brand essence, and voice, tool to claim an undiscovered market space
• Create a strategic long-term road map, with tactically aligned, emotionally centric short-term off- and online activation, accumulating impact.
• Translate activation to relevant retail tools
• Try, monitor, measure, report, adjust

Insight

There was no trust in Burn’s brand communication. The communities wanted a partner they could rely on, someone who didn’t try to exceed them with its own projects but helped the community leverage and grow. Red Bull was out of reach, something astronomical, something fun to look at, but never within reach of interaction or dialogue.

 

Solution

A redefined brand positioning, essence, and voice focusing on being the relatable brand, the brand to be trusted and acting according to community norms:
“We can’t make the season or the event bigger or longer, but we can make it better”

This directing a 3-year long-term community marketing strategy initially supporting existing projects and events along with selecting respected brand ambassadors. Subsequently  recruiting athletes for a pan-Nordic talent team – selection emphasized on personality as much as talent – who could qualify for the global team, participating in X Games, residencies in Ibiza etc.
Hosting talent competitions with relevant prizes. Co-creating with the community, letting them execute the projects on their own terms. A retail collaboration, using community profiles as content generators for retail activation, both in terms of prizes as well as a creative layout of POS.
Setting local websites as hubs for all generated content, open events, programs etc. using Facebook as the main driver to the hub.
All allowing for:

• Becoming the friend the communities longed for
• Creating brand associations through partnerships with leading opinionators and projects
• Creating a possibility for upcoming talents to be discovered by other sponsors, giving them an international media reach
• Letting Burn be a trustworthy driver and communicator of culture, by supporting and contributing the culture already in the works
• Creating emotional ties to the community, having them on own terms and by own initiative, drive amplification and awareness of activation and content

Results

• Burn surpassed Red Bull overall in Norway
• Burn surpassed Red Bull in retail in Denmark
• Overall Burn was the second largest energy drink in the entire region
• Overall ROI on PR: 33,3 (total budget: $31.500 – results: value over $1.050.000)
• Overall ROI for all activation: 14,85 (total budget: $1.750.000 – results: over 26.000.000 impressions)