First come babies..
Evian had maintained a close tie in with babies in their marketing communication over the years. The idea had started in 1935 France—Evian was touted as THE mineral water for babies due to its mineral composition.
Seems like it was only yesterday Evian launched it's highly successful web-centric "Roller Babies" campaign. That's the appeal of an online viral campaign—it keeps being shared over and over that one piece of creative seems to not have an expiration date. The Danone luxury water brand is one of the first brands to use Youtube exclusively to deploy its campaign back in 2009. The clip is being highly regarded as one of the first viral videos in the web 2.0 era. Its reputation being cemented in the Guiness Book of Record as the most viewed online advertising ever, racking in more than 25 million views in less than two months of its release.
What's even more impressive, the Nielsen research found that a whopping 95% of those who saw the ad had not seen it on TV, but rather through online shares,
..Then comes a string of viral hits
The campaign had since evolved into its current "Live Young" message. Evian built the global campaign with the sole objective of strengthening its existing brand relationships while also driving awareness to its audience all over the world in a fun and innovative way. The focus on digital medium is not without its reason—the brand isn't very popular to most population outside of France. Utilizing a medium that could reach millions on the other side of the world seems like a logical choice. The brand keeps churning viral videos featuring cute CGI babies doing impossibly dynamic activities, depicting how young you'll feel on the inside after taking a sip of their water. (You can see an array of hilarious executions of the campaign here, here, and here.)
In 2011, they introduced a pretty unique integrated marketing campaign, bringing the active CGI babies to live with a fresh new interactive take. The campaign was launched in Chicago, where Evian outfitted five bus shelters with an interactive digital panel featuring their "Live Young" creative.
The digital billboard allows the consumers to interact with it through the touch screen panel. When pressed, the baby's body would start dancing to a catchy tune—capturing the undivided attention of the otherwise unoccupied audience waiting for their bus to arrive. How clever!
The campaign is a smart mixture of traditional, guerrilla, and digital. A QR code located on the ad gave consumers the opportunity to further engage with the brand through its (now defunct) microsite and "LetsBabyDance" app. The microsite even offered a personalized baby t-shirt for customers who wants to further engage with the brand.
Not stopping there, Evian rolled out the Baby & Me mobile app in May 2014. The app allows users to baby-fy their photos, revealing the inner child within, and share the pictures across social media accompanied by the hashtag #evianbabyandme.
In a world where most digital media campaigns are one hit wonders, it is truly fascinating how Evian's baby campaigns never seems to get old. At the end of the day, it all comes down to a strong brand identity and brand message.
Treat digital media as a vehicle and interactivity as its wheel. The combination of both will steer you and your brand message securely to the intended audience (while bulldozing your competitors flat).
