Results and Effectiveness

All mediums worked in perfect synergy resulting in Cornetto’s sales growth of 25% surpassing past 10 years’ records. In just three weeks, a remarkable 6579 participants called in (versus around 3000+ for station’s own radio contests). With overwhelming participation and requests for Cornetto’s theme song, it stayed on the charts for a record-breaking 18 weeks! The news frenzy generated massive PR value worth over RM3.5 million. Crowds swarmed the many road shows and the finale concert. Cornetto’s brand ambassadors were offered several endorsement deals following the Cornetto Love Sparks campaign.

Creative Execution

Pre-campaign: Articles hinting a budding romance between Dafi and Gita were strewn over a number of print titles. Just as curiosity was brewing amongst readers, we engaged in a 3-phase Integrated love connection like never before. Phase 1: Excitement –Determined to make the song a hit, we lobbied for free radio airplay. Cornetto’s theme-song received tremendous amount of popular requests and hit the charts. Music-video commercial clips and TVC promos raised excitement. Ambassador popularity garnered free front-cover features and interviews, further hyped up by romance rumors between them. Bus wraps and freezer wraps continued campaign visibility. Phase 2: Engagement –In conjunction with Cornetto's SMS contest, we ran HotFM’s first interactive on-air duet singing contest where winners were determined by online voting. Phase 3: Enjoyment –We held an on-ground finale concert for fans; the biggest prize went to radio contest winners who would sing live on stage with Dafi and Gita!

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In an extremely cluttered ice-cream category continually compounded by new innovations, Cornetto needed to entice distracted Malaysian youth and engage them in something above regular advertising tactics. Beyond increasing consumption, Cornetto had to continuously drive Top-of-Mind awareness and brand preference in a fun, flirty context, in-line with its brand proposition as a “catalyst of Love”. The idea was based on two insights: 1) Youth constantly seek the attention of peers of the opposite sex 2) Indonesian music is increasingly popular among them. Merging these with Cornetto’s brand proposition, the ‘Love Sparks’ idea was conceived to build affinity with consumers by connecting with their minds (and hearts!) via Cornetto’s specially-written theme song. Newly-appointed brand ambassadors, Indonesian singer Gita Gutawa and local heartthrob Dafi brought the fresh love-song to life. The ambassadors and song elements were weaved across relevant touch-points –Radio, Outdoors, Print, TV and at an on-ground finale concert.