GRILL GRILL CHEESE

TitleGRILL GRILL CHEESE
BrandSEOUL DAIRY
Product / ServiceMOKJANG NADEULI GRILL GRILL CHEESE
CategoryD01. PR Excellence in Effectiveness
EntrantMcCANN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
Idea Creation McCANN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
Media Placement McCANN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
PR McCANN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
Production McCANN SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Credits

Name Company Position
SJ Kim McCann Worldgroup Korea CEO
Hyerim Kim McCann Worldgroup Korea Copywriter
Donghyun Lee McCann Worldgroup Korea Art Director
Young Ki Ha McCann Worldgroup Korea Head of Media
Jee Young Kwak McCann Worldgroup Korea Head of Strategy

The Campaign

Research revealed that our target millennials are highly involved in the “modisumer” trend, which refers to consumers modifying existing products to best suit their needs or taste. We decided to use this trend to our advantage, by creating a new concept of “Sam-Chee” and emphasizing how “Grill Grill Cheese” can be a great addition to eating “sam-gyup-sal” (pork belly) at Korean BBQ restaurants, a long-lasting tradition. In terms of how to deliver this idea with impact, we employed a play on words. As “Sam-Chee” originally means Spanish Mackerel, we adopted a humorous tone in our video. We exaggerated the angry reaction of the store owner by illustrating, quite literally, the local saying of “laser shooting out of one’s eyes,” commonly used by Koreans to describe a fiery stare that would only be natural when asked for a fish dish at a Korean BBQ restaurant.

Results

Seoul Dairy was facing difficulties due to consumers’ strong preference for imported cheese and the rise of cheaper domestic brands. Through this PR campaign, Seoul Dairy hoped to increase sales by 100% and generate significant product interest. The results against KPIs clearly showcase our campaign’s PR effectiveness. Despite promoting the least purchased type of cheese with a limited budget, we yielded a 400% increase in sales and a 100% increase in relevant keyword searches. Our focused, highly intentional PR efforts were key to our success. Although we didn’t have any celebrity sponsorships, considered essential for successful campaigns in Korea, our in-depth knowledge about our target millennials helped us overcome that barrier. Leveraging our target’s active social media engagement and yearning for becoming a trend-setter, we created the right content for the right media channel, stimulating discussion and making our campaign go viral, in turn yielding outstanding results for Seoul Dairy.

Execution

We aired our ads on select CATV, IPTV, PPL, direct and banner spots for the first campaign period (2017.06-2017.07). Our PR efforts mainly focused on CATV channels, while leveraging cinema ads since many of our target millennials spend their weekends at the theater. During our second campaign period (2018.01-2018.02), we aired only on CATV. The most impactful PR element would definitely be our collaboration with “Delicious Guys,” an iconic food comedy program through which we trialed the creation of “Sam-Chee” on air. This collaboration set off our campaign to a good start because it persuaded our target millennials to actively try the “Grill Grill Cheese” product without hesitation. As the four comedians are well-known for their voracious yet highly selective appetites, their praise of “Sam-Chee” immediately captured people’s attention with credibility. The clip went viral on social media soon after it was aired, bringing the “Sam-Chee” trend to life.

INCREASE IN SALES: - Though our initial objective was to see a 100% increase in sales, we saw an extraordinary 400% increase in sales when compared to the average monthly sales for the past eight months. Through our campaigns that were held during June-July 2017 and January-February 2018, sales increased from a monthly average of 14,213 units (2016.10-2017.05) to 56,822 units (2017.06-2018.02). - Even after our second campaign ended in February 2018, monthly sales maintained a high average, representing the effectiveness of the campaign. GENERATE PRODUCT INTEREST: - During the first two-month campaign period (2017.06-2017.07), “Grill Grill Cheese” achieved 52,100 and 53,100 relevant keyword searches, respectively. This was a 100% increase when compared to the months prior to the campaign. - “Grill Grill Cheese” came to appear as one of the top results on Naver, Korea’s largest portal website, whenever “grilled cheese” was searched for. Prior to the campaign, “Grill Grill Cheese” had not been among the search results that would initially pop up. - The drastic increase in product interest was also noticeable in the number of Korean BBQ restaurants that requested to sell our products; more and more consumers were seeking to enjoy “Sam-Chee.” CREATE A LASTING TREND: By adding on a completely Western yet widely loved food item, “Sam-Chee” was born – forever changing the way Koreans enjoy a traditional delicacy.

The Situation

Despite our limited budget, our PR strategy that focused on TV channels most favored by our target millennials enabled effective communication of our attempt to reinvent Korean BBQ with “Sam-Chee” (“sam-gyp-sal”(pork belly)+“cheese”) as a “modisumer” (consumer who modifies products to suit their needs/taste) product. Our strategy in epitome would be our PPL on “Delicious Guys,” an iconic food comedy program featuring four comedians famous for their voracious yet highly selective appetite. Their praise of “Grill Grill Cheese” served as a powerful testimony, leading our target millennials to try our product with “sam-gyup-sal” for maximized taste, making “Sam-Chee” go viral.

The Strategy

Understanding that our millennial target audience is always eager for new, unique experiences to enjoy and share, we created a new “modisumer” concept of “Sam-Chee.” In order to encourage our target millennials to 1) try out and 2) promote “Sam-Chee” within their respective communities so that it becomes a popular, lasting trend, we had to strategically spread out our media spend. As our limited budget eliminated celebrity sponsorships and large, public TV channels from our options, we chose to focus on select media channels that our target millennials favored the most. Such channels included CATV comedy and drama shows, Naver (most used Korean portal site), and IPTV spots. All PR efforts focused on portraying “Grill Grill Cheese” as a tasty addition to Korean BBQ that will maximize its already amazing flavor and become unforgettable. Millennials soon added credibility by sharing their experiences through their own means.