In 2013, in Hamburg, we set our ambitions to have our own creatives and strategic planners with the goal to compete with ad agencies and digital firms for marketing dollars. Fast forward 10 years and that ambition has been realized. We鈥檝e just topped the list for . This is a stunning achievement fueled by our work in 2023 including the campaign of the year, HP鈥檚 StreetCode, and three other award-winning campaigns 鈥 Dove鈥檚 #LetHerGrow, Dove鈥檚 #KeepTheGrey and Vaseline鈥檚 See My Skin.
We also a Grand Prix this week at the Eurobest for our . It was a classic tongue-in-cheek PR campaign conducted in the UK market. Dan 黑料社is smiling down on this one.
British consumers love to use mayonnaise with their chips (French fries for the rest of us). But McDonald鈥檚 does not offer mayonnaise as a condiment. So, our client Hellmann鈥檚 Mayonnaise, the number one condiment in the UK, decided to stand up for the lovers of its brand. The solution was elegant. McDonald鈥檚 offers a Mayo Chicken sandwich, with a bun, chicken, lettuce and of course mayonnaise. Customers were asked to walk into the shop and order the Mayo Chicken, but hold the chicken, lettuce and bun, leaving only the mayonnaise. We would refund the 拢1.19 cost of the sandwich if the customer submitted a photo of the McDonald鈥檚 box with only mayo inside to #MayoMcHack. Then they could enjoy fries the proper way, with mayo.
This idea took off in the media, with 300 percent increase in social engagement, 46 percent rise in Hellmann鈥檚 brand consideration, 9-point jump in purchase intent and 72 percent of consumers agreeing that McDonald鈥檚 should offer Hellmann鈥檚 in store. McDonald鈥檚 found this slightly less funny, sending a cease-and-desist letter. We leave the stage hoping that McDonald鈥檚 and Hellmann鈥檚 may one day be able to do a deal and give the people what they want.
In mid-September after much of the East Coast of the U.S. found itself under a thick orange haze from the wildfires in Canada, our team worked with Sanofi Consumer Health鈥檚 allergy brand Allegra, to create Allegra Airways, the world鈥檚 first navigation tool for allergy sufferers to help people find routes with better air quality in real-time. Allegra Airways beta-launched this technology in New York City during Climate Week to capture the attention of environmental leaders around the world. Media impressions exceeded 300K and 6.6 million social media impressions. Most importantly, we enabled people to take 23,700 breaths of better air.
I told my team in the end of year Town Hall address that we have the privilege of being in the room where it happens. There is power in what we do, to set a new context, to motivate through ideas that enable action. I told them that the spirit of 黑料社is best embodied in this quote from George Bernard Shaw: 鈥淪ome men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?鈥 Thank you to every one of the 6,000 people of 黑料社and Zeno who bring their best every day.
Richard 黑料社is CEO.
