Case Study: How Hershey's India created brand awareness through Valentine's Day campaign

Hershey's India launched 'That's What we Said' leveraging Instagram features targeting modern couples for brand awareness campaign.

The brand awareness campaign case study explores how Hershey's used Instagram's 'Pull & Zoom' feature and more for an interactive campaign.

Category Introduction

The chocolate category in urban India is estimated to be USD $1.4 B (14,000 Cr INR). Within that, the premium chocolate category constitutes a major chunk of around ~3499 Cr, growing annually at ~10%.

The category is witnessing growth with premiumization, where consumers demand unique flavors, different tastes, and textures, as well as exotic ingredients, and are willing to pay a premium for such experiences.

Brand Introduction

• Many consumers are not aware that the Hershey’s Bar was the first product to be introduced in America by the Hershey Company. It is a 125-year-old brand and continues to be the molded chocolate bar in America and available across 70+ countries globally.

• In India, Hershey’s bars are available in three variants- the classic Creamy Milk, the Whole Almonds variant filled with California Almonds and the Cookies ‘n’ Creme variant.

• Hershey India wanted to bring that distinct experience for the Indian consumers and hence launched pan India in Jan 2020.

Summary

An Instagram enabled quiz where couples get to know each other in a quirky way. The brand introduced ‘That’s What We Said’, a play on the popular slang 'That’s What She Said' for Valentine's Day. Couples asked each other a set of 9 fun questions to discover something new and exciting about their relationship.

As a part of the, brand awareness campaign, the game was played by them on the Hershey's India Instagram grid using the 'Pull and Zoom' feature.

Problem Statement/Objective

In a highly
competitive market, the newly entrant Hershey’s chocolates in the category had
dual objectives

• The first objective was to increase awareness and buzz about its heritage and distinct flavors to the Indian consumers.
• Making the brand more relevant for the younger TG on Valentine’s Day by celebrating the core proposition of “Indulge in Togetherness” was the 2^nd objective. Hershey’s brand has been built around the idea of 'Indulge in Togetherness'– which is about enabling loved ones to bond over happy food moments.

Challenges

• Valentine’s
  Day is a very important topical occasion where
  premium chocolates compete for higher consumer’s attention and
  mindshare.

• On such a competitive topical occasion, being a new entrant & a digital-first brand, Hershey’s Bar wanted to appeal and create a stronger connection with the product for the new and younger audiences; Gen Z & Millennials.

Brief

Leverage Valentine’s Day/Week to attract Millennials and GenZ & create a strong brand connect around celebrating & expressing the bonding moments with Hershey’s Chocolate bar.

Creative Idea

Observations

• India has the 2nd highest Instagram user base in the world (~80mn MAU). ~65% of them are Millennials and GenZ. Daily average time spent on the app is about ~45 min.

• GenZ & Millennials prefer Insta-Stories to always stay tuned! From food, travel, OOTD to sharing and expressing their relationship, they use them for sharing every moment with their friends and family.

• When it comes to celebrating Valentine’s Day, they are constantly looking out for unconventional ways to express their bond.

• With such high platform stickiness, Hershey’s launched the Insta-Compatibility Game–“That’ What We Said”, a game centered around Instagram and its core features, so that to couples can be reached out at their place, in the way they love the most!

• Outside of the conventional tone of roses and teddies, Hershey’s aimed to bring the couples bond together in a fun & quirky way!

Also read: Case Study: How Shemaroo’s audience acquisition activity garnered 140mn+ impressions

Execution

• The campaign made couples ask questions about each other and their respective relationships on a Hershey's Chocolate Pip. The cinch here was that the answers had to match, and if they did, the couples scored a point.

• The campaign leveraged the existing Instagram feature, ‘pull and zoom’. Each partner was asked to place his or her fingers on the image and zoom in to read the question and answer accurately. Once the couples got their score, they could share them along with their experience and flaunt their compatibility on their own Insta stories.

• The scorecard carried a quirky chocolate tip to increase their compatibility quotient

• Hershey's also got few Celebrity Couple Influencers such as Daizy & Ankit, Divya, and Varun to join the bandwagon.

• To encourage participation, we also rewarded 7 lucky participants with Hershey’s chocolates and movie vouchers of a premium cinema chain.

Results

• The overall campaign, including the #That’sWhatWeSaid’ over 17.09 million impressions, with a reach of 12.91 million on Instagram, out of which ~50% reach was organic.
• The engagements crossed over 50,000+ in the form of likes, comments, shares, story mentions.
• Since the game was played on the Hershey India Instagram page, Hershey’s also witnessed a massive surge in profile visits amounting to 42,000 and over 900 mentions of the brand. The brand page grew by 28% in a week’s time
• Many consumers thanked the brand in enabling them to know a new aspect about their partner’s in such an engaging way! Not just the couples, siblings and BFFs also started to bond over the game.

Quote

Sharing his views on the campaign, Sarosh Shetty, Marketing Director, Hershey India said, “Instagram is integral to Gen Z’s life where they express and celebrate all their relationships. Hence, Hershey’s launched this Insta-first digital campaign to bring their loved ones together and strengthen their bond through a fun and quirky game — ‘That’s What We Said’, this Valentine’s Day. We are happy that we were able to grab the attention and garner such a huge organic engagement with our audiences through this campaign.”