Tic Tacs: "THE WORST BREATH IN THE WORLD" Online Advert by Ogilvy France

Type of entry: Branded Entertainment
Category: Best use or integration of experiential events
Advertiser: FERRERO
Product/Service: TIC TAC
Agency: OGILVY FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Advertiser FERRERO
Product TIC TAC
Entrant OGILVY FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Type of Entry: Branded Entertainment
Category: Best use or integration of experiential events
Title: THE WORST BREATH IN THE WORLD
Advertiser/Client: FERRERO
Product/Service: TIC TAC
Entrant Company: OGILVY FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
DM/Advertising Agency: OGILVY FRANCE Paris, FRANCE

Production Company: Fishing Fish ()
Film Director: François Nemeta ()
Brand Manager: Anne-Laure Cottel (Ferrero)
Marketing Manager: Camille Chipot (Ferrero)
Creative Director: Baptiste Clinet/Nicolas Lautier/Florian Bodet (Ogilvy France)
Copywriter: Charles-Henry Joyaut (Ogilvy France)
Executive Creative Director: Chris Garbutt (Ogilvy France)
Head Of Digital/Branded Content: Frederic Levron (Ogilvy France)
Planner: Hadi Zabad (Ogilvy France)
Digital Producer: Hugo Diaz (Ogilvy France)
Account Executive: Myriam Nouicer (Ogilvy France)
Account Manager: Nathalie Avedissian (Ogilvy France)
Art Director: Salomé Jestin (Ogilvy France)

Describe the campaign/entry
France is known to be much stricter in terms of regulations around Branded Entertainment compared to other countries in Europe and around the world. French TV channels don’t allow brands to promote outside of allocating advertising slots. The internet, however, is a much freer place to spread content, and is definitely a more attractive way to connect with our consumers in an engaging way.



Results


Challenge:
Everyone in France knows Tic Tac, but it’s a brand that has gone from being a pop culture icon to a checkout counter product. Could we put Tic Tac back on people’s radars and make it part of popular culture again?

Objective:
• Improve brand consideration and engagement by getting people to talk about Tic Tac again
• Activate local pride in Rouen – the hometown of Ferrero and the 2nd most important historical city in France

Strategy:
We wanted to stay true to everything Tic Tac was all about: fresh breath and a little dose of fun. Therefore, we worked off a simple truth: it’s always difficult to tell someone they’ve got bad breath. We knew Tic Tac could do it in a way no other mint could – playfully. To go viral we wanted to do some entertaining storytelling on a large scale. Flashmobs have been done to death, but we had an idea that would not only reinvent the flashmob but also reinvent the product demo!

Execution:
In a busy town square in the French town of Rouen, an actor asks innocent passers-by for directions. When the pedestrians starts to give directions everyone around them faints – a collapsing flashmob of 230 people. Large screens show people throughout the town falling over. In fact, most of the people in the stunt are locals from Rouen - we got the local basketball team, town locals and even employees from the Tic Tac factory to take part. Eventually it becomes clear that the problem is bad breath, something that can be easily remedied with a Tic Tac.




Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.



We built up an audience through:
1. Hiding the content so only people with the YouTube link could view it
2. Having 27 influencers in France and 2 influencers abroad blog, tweet and post the video on Facebook.
3. Giving our 700,000 Facebook fans in France the first viewing of the video before the link went live
4. Utilising paid media levers: YouTube, Facebook and a seeding strategy company
5. Leveraging the city of Rouen (the home of Tic Tac) in the creation of the stunt by inviting local media and casting locals in the shoot




Describe the results in as much detail as possible.



Tic Tac is back on people’s radar in France and making a splash globally. We also managed to reactivate the pride of an entire city as the hundreds of positive comments on Facebook and YouTube reveal in statements such as ‘So awesome! That’s my town!’ and ‘I’m from Rouen!’.
The numbers:
• Generated +1.1m YouTube views in just 3 days
• Currently approaching 3m views
• 2nd most shared video in France during the week of its launch
• Within just a week, already in the top 10 of the most shared videos on Facebook in France during the last 365 days
• Fans on Facebook: + 8,000 fans within just 3 days of launch and growing
• Coverage in major online magazines like Forbes, Huffington Post and the Hollywood Reporter
• Re-tweets of the video on Twitter: + 6,000 shares in the first week
• Mentions on Twitter: more than +1,000 mentions on Twitter of ‘la pire haleine’ and +2,300 for the ‘Worst Breath’ within just 3 days of launch