UPDATED:McCann Erickson Romania – 2 more Lions – Silver and Bronze – in Media competition, #CannesLions

(adds statement from Victor Croitoru, UM Media Planning Director)

McCann Erickson Romania won, besides last night’s Silver in Direct , another 2 lions during the festivities tonight: Silver in Best use of digital media and Bronze in FMCG in Media Lions competition.

With last night’s  Silver Lion and tonight’s Silver and Bronze in Media for Rom, McCann Erickson Bucharest continues the drive started last year, together with the Romanian chocolate from Kandia Dulce. Last year, McCann Erickson and American Rom were winning, in a 1st for Romania and CEE, 9 prizes at Cannes Lions. For now, the number of prizes McCann Romania got for Rom gets to 12. We hope is 12 and rising 🙂

Universal McCann (McCann Erickson Romania) is the only media agency in Romania awarded at the most important advertising festival in the world, Cannes Lions. Both prizes are very important and a Silver Lion is even more valuable as we are speaking about a prize in digital media (Silver Lion –  Best Use of Digital Media) because, through Romanians are smart campaign, UM and McCann Erickson offered the best example of integration of the digital campaign in the strategy. In 2011, we were pioneers with our 9 prizes won at this festival and the fact that, in 2012, we stayed on winners list at Cannes Lions reconfirms out place on the map of the most innovative and creative agencies in the world

Victor Croitoru

Media Planning Director UM

The team working on “Romanians are smart” campaign included

• McCann Erickson Romania: Adrian Botan, Catalin Dobre, Dinu Panescu, Sebastian Olar, Arpad Rezi, Raluca Voinea, Ileana Serban Parau, Adrian Radu, Alexandru Platon,  Carmen Bistrian, Sanziana Fanica
• MRM: Calin Buzea, Adrian Preda, Laurentiu Stere, Alexandru Vicol, Alina Cuzmin, Catalina Ciorei, Constantin Bunica
• Universal Media: Mihai Trandafir, Victor Croitoru, Alina Carasol, Luminita Visu
• McCann PR: Carmen Bistrian, Sorina Iordan

The case:

Results and Effectiveness

In one month we generated 664,332 searches via ROM’s website. More than 600 national and international online posts with tens of thousands of comments contributed positive content on Romanians and on the campaign, increasing tenfold the number of search results in Google (from 200,000 to about 3,000,000). With a total media investment under €10,000, ROM’s campaign earned €577,000 worth of offline media and €487,320 of online media, touching 2,500,000 people. This brought ROM a 20% boost in sales, an 8% rise in market share vs 2010. In the end we managed to change Romanians’ image on the Internet, proving the power of Google as viral medium.

Creative Execution

We started with the online seeding of the insulting screenshots. Overnight, traditional media outlets exploded, turning this into the hot topic of the day. Three days later we came with the solution: we redirected ROM’s webpage to a landing page, www.romaniansaresmart.com, where people could generate positive searches in Google pages around the world. With a fraction of a traditional media campaign’s budget, we decided to put all our money in Google Adwords and Search Engine Optimization. RomaniansAreSmart.com managed to grow organically raising in just 3 days to no1 result in searches for “Romanians are”. From now on, our strategy was to push the campaign on the offline media agenda using online influencers and rallying top personalities for our campaign. We partnered with the top 10 Romanian bloggers, and launched online a series of testimonials featuring key opinion leaders. The campaign peaked when Romanian CNN, Realitatea TV, joined the campaign in a one-day live broadcast TV marathon, for the National Day, where public figures and regular folk offered support.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Since its 1964 launch, ROM chocolate has been a symbol of Romanian pride. With the 2010 American Rom campaign, the brand strengthened this position. However, after one year off air, ROM’s market share and brand indicators were going down. The brand needed a turnaround, all within a very small budget. The brief was to create a campaign to rekindle people’s national pride for December 1st -Romania’s National Day – a date that meant little but another day off to our 25-35 year-old core target, that however held ROM chocolate dear. Our solution was rooted in a stunning discovery… if one Googled: “Romanians are” in various languages the suggested search predictions were all derogatory. In addition French and Italian media had just launched backlash campaigns against Romanian immigrants. Changing Romanians’ image on Google was the perfect means for ROM to reach its communication objectives and re-awaken national pride.

Romanian agencies submitted 110 entries for Cannes Lions 2012, with the most of them submitted in Radio Lions, according to the Entry List sent by festival’s organizers.

By category, Romania entered works in Cannes Lions as it follows: 9 in Film Lions, 13 in Press Lions, 11 in Outdoor Lions, 19 in Radio Lions, 6 in Cyber Lions, 9 in Direct Lions, 16 in Media Lions, 8 in Promo & Activation Lions, 1 in Titanium and Integrated Lions, 15 in PR Lions, 1 in Creative Effectiveness Lions and 2 in Branded Content & Entertainment Lions and none in Design Lions, Film Craft Lions and Mobile Lions.

Cannes Lions 2012 received a record of 34,301 entries from 87 countries. An overall increase of 19% versus last year, entries have been submitted in 15 different categories: Creative Effectiveness, Cyber, Design, Direct, Film, Film Craft, Media, Outdoor, PR, Press, Promo & Activation, Radio, Titanium & Integrated and the new Mobile and Branded Content & Entertainment Lions categories.