Content & creativity in one dedicated team

This week's egtabite puts the spotlight on how the Belgian sales house RMB recently restructured to optimise their client relations and improve focus on the needs of advertisers. The department “Content & Creativity ”, which operates under the label F.L.A.S.H. (“Feel Like A Super Hero”) is part of this recent transformation.

The introduction of F.L.A.S.H. in April 2018 is a new boost to the mission of RMB to be remarkable. The new department, which is part of the Sales department, supports two Business Units (National Sales & Direct Accounts) and - in collaboration with media partners - develops new concepts, tailor-made solutions or campaigns with added touchpoints outside of RMB.

Dimitri Lemmens, Head of 'Content & Creativity says: " In this fast-changing media world, we must do more than simply offer advertising space. Modern communication should also impress with content. We want to face this challenge by working together with all stakeholders: media agencies, advertising agencies, advertisers, media partners and more. RMB will take up a central position to stimulate exchange and dialogue and come up with remarkable solutions which address the expectations of the client.”

#SingWithUs - an enriched sponsorship

One of the campaigns F.L.A.S.H. recently developed puts an inventive twist on a traditional sports sponsorship. The campaign not only maximised visibility for the advertiser, but also succeeded in bringing a nation of football fans closer together.

M&M's, the official partner of the Belgian football team The Red Devils, wanted to enthuse Belgians and football fans during the World Cup to rally behind their national team. The brand entrusted F.L.A.S.H. with a unique challenge: trigger a strong feeling of national pride among as many football fans as possible.

The Challenge

Mars wanted a creative media campaign for their M&M's brand with the Red Devil's slogan «Together, we are all Red». The objectives of the campaign were threefold.

Firstly, strengthen the feeling of national unity during the friendly games on June 2nd and 11th 2018. Secondly, the campaign needed to evoke the values of fun and excitement by placing the well-known chocolate peanut characters “Red” and “Yellow” in the limelight. Lastly, the campaign needed to optimise the visibility for the advertiser during this peak TV moment.

While the Red Devils are well known, the campaign needed to address an issue: the fact that not every Belgian knows the lyrics to the national anthem.

The Strategy

In collaboration with F.L.A.S.H, Mars came up with the idea of tackling these challenges by giving a new impulse to the Brabançonne - Belgium's national anthem - and encouraging the entire country to sing along with the Belgian team during the start of the matches.

The creative solution devised by F.L.A.S.H. was to overlay a 45-second “karaoke crawler” in M&M's colours on the bottom of the screen during the broadcast of both matches. At the exact moment when the Red Devils were singing the national anthem, the lyrics appeared on the screen, together with the animated M&M's characters and the hashtag #SingWithUs.

The Results

The inventive campaign succeeded in optimising M&M's visibility during a very emotional moment of the game, capturing the attention of thousands of viewers, who were eagerly awaiting the start of the match.

During the practice games against Portugal and Costa Rica, RMB’s channel La Une reached a market share of 65% and 66% respectively (802 465 viewers and 950 869 viewers, age 15-54). For both matches combined, this amounted to 1 696 828 viewers, a 38% coverage for ages 15-54.

“The campaign - Together we are all Red - speaks for itself. Just like the M&M's characters everyone is different: yellow, red, blue, orange, green or brown… but when we stand behind the Red Devils united as a twelfth man, we are all red!”, says Sébastien Campopiano, Marketing Director Chocolate at Mars Belgium.