Episode 52 - Canesten Ad Reviewed by Diageo, JCDecaux and LinkedIn
Sex education is a thorny subject, so making it fun and approachable is quite the challenge. That was the brief for this week's ad for Canesten in Brazil, where the brand made clever use of TikTok to disseminate its message.
Did it manage to make light of the topic while still educating enough people? Or was it not visible enough? And what do our guests Sarah Shimmons (Global Marketing Director for Smirnoff at Diageo), Mavesh Malik (Business Growth Manager at JCDecaux) and Darain Faraz (International Brand Marketing Director at LinkedIn) think about the idea and the execution?
Watch the full episode and see their opinion!
Transcription of audio file
This automated transcription gives you a good idea of what was said, but it’s not 100% accurate.
Tom Ollerton 0:08
Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads and discuss what's good and bad about them. We are partnered this week with Contagious who have helped choose the ad this week, so please go and check those guys out after the show. But before we get to this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Sarah Shimmons 0:31
I'm Sarah Shimmons. I'm Global Marketing Director on Smirnoff, and I work at Diageo.
Mavesh Malik 0:36
Hello, I'm Mavesh Malik. I work as a Business Growth Manager at JCDecaux.
Darain Faraz 0:42
Hi, I'm Darain Faraz. I'm International Brand Marketing Director for LinkedIn.
Tom Ollerton 2:44
Mavesh, what was your response to that, as a consumer, when you first saw it?
Mavesh Malik 2:48
When I first saw it, I absolutely loved it. It made me smile, and instantaneously, it got me feeling engaged with it. Wanting to find out more as well, maybe feel quite curious. That lack of sex education in Brazil, and then they talked about how it was going to be restricted even more by the President, so it felt like they were creating a bit of a movement. They've created this virtual school. They've got some real credible people behind this virtual school that are qualified, but yet they seem like fun individuals that would help me to understand that I'd like to engage with them further, I'd like to find out more.
Darain Faraz 3:26
You know, I completely agree with Mavesh. What bold, brilliant way to tackle a really important serious issue at a time, but it's never been more critical. It was joyous. It was fun. It made what was you know, slightly uncomfortable, subject matter. Very watchable.
Sarah Shimmons 3:42
You know, especially young girls, there's a lot of shame associated with some of the issues that, that they were discussing on the, on the video. And what I thought was nice is the fact that they use TikTok for those younger consumers and really put them on their page. So it felt like they were using the right type of content to really engage with them and remove that level of shame. Because I think if they'd done it in a more traditional way, I think the barriers would have been higher, but the fact that they, they focused on TikTok as the main media channel, I thought that was really good. But I did wonder why they didn't also use other channels. So, you know, they did a lot on TikTok, but I couldn't really see what other channels had they used that potentially could have helped to make the campaign even bigger. And I think it has global rich potential as well on this one, because this is a worldwide issue. It's not just an issue in Brazil. You know, a lot of women are not comfortable talking about their own health, sexual health. So I think there's potential there for them to make this more global rather than just focusing on the Brazil market.
Mavesh Malik 4:41
I did a bit of snooping on LinkedIn to see if there was any, if that had indeed happened, and they just launched it in Italy. So, there they are there. Their global marketing director is talking about an international rollout for the, for the campaign. But where was the earned media around... Around this? What were the other social media channels. That, this is a hugely topical issue and it felt like this one channel to this audience with, was perfect. I mean social media is enormous in Latin America, like it has the highest, some of the highest usage of social media in the world. And so you know, finding a channel like TikTok, I mean, which again has exploded in and of itself, particularly in Latin America was really smart. But I kind of, was, was wanting to kind of get a better sense of the overall narrative and the overall media mix and the overall kind of like approach to it.
Like Sarah said earlier, TikTok is the perfect, perfect platform for that particular young audience, especially because it's interactive as well. What I really actually liked as well about the creative because it's said it was really fun and bright. And then if you guys actually noticed, that there's a lot of pinks, but there's a lot of reds, there's so much red going on in the background in various different ways. And that's Canesten brand colors. So red is a main brand color for Canesten. And I thought that was such a clever way of making sure that they're not using completely distinctive assets, but they're using that color, the actual brand color to make sure these... That the audience is familiarizing themselves with the, the actual brand itself.
Sarah Shimmons 6:18
I thought that was interesting. One, just to build on that, I think... I was kind of disappointed by the level of branding overall. Of course, there's always that balance because, you know, you want it to be authentic and you want it, especially with purpose-led communications like this, you want it to feel authentic. But for me, there could have been more discussion around Canesten specifically, or I'd love to see what their consumer journey is. You know, someone watches something on TikTok, what's next? Do they have an option to purchase the product? Because I think that wasn't really clear from the, from the video.
Mavesh Malik 6:50
I feel like that young audience are going to be first time sufferers. So they are perhaps not have been through anything like, you know, any vaginal health issues before. I like it that it's a bit more subtle and not so much in your face as in I'm selling products to you. I feel like I would... I don't know, if I was young like that, I would engage with it a little bit more and, and I'd be trusting that brand a little bit more, I thought.
Darain Faraz 7:16
Oh, I don't know, I'm gonna have to disagree on that. I was so... I had to pause the video on multiple occasions, as I was watching, it was like, "Where's the branding?" I don't think it would have damaged the authenticity of the campaign. I was a little bit surprised at quite how scant the brand was featured in the entirety of that or what was shared anyway. And one of the things I did want to just touch on, having just done a TikTok campaign, our first LinkedIn first TikTok campaign. Globally, we launched in the UK, we just got the first set of results in the other day. Now I don't have any benchmarks. I mean, of course, TikTok has some benchmark, but with this kind of basically throwing these eyewatering numbers at us. And I'm like, "I don't know what this means." And, and so I touched base with our Brazilian colleagues, and one of them actually is squarely in this sort of demographic. And I said, you know, "Did you see this campaign?" You know, "What do you make of it?" I said, "I'd love to kind of get your steer on it." I was like, you know, this was aimed at you. And it was one of our PR people in our Brazil office. And she's a heavy, heavy, TikTok user. And she's squarely in this demographic and she hadn't seen it at all when all heard about it. And then I spoke to someone else in the PR. Again, similar reactions, "I love it." "Didn't see it." With, I'm not sure where Canesten is in all of it. And interestingly, they pointed to one... They talk pointed to a Samsung creative in Brazil. I think it's called "Crazy Steps." And that had something like, I think was 2.7 billion views. On LinkedIn activation recently had 1.9 billion views. I mean, I don't know what these numbers mean, to be completely honest. Looking into it, and we're, you know, trying to get some benchmarks but you know, the 47 million views and suddenly sort of like, pales into insignificance, somewhat. When you, when you're looking at against, you know, other other campaigns, a lot of big brands are tapping into that.
Sarah Shimmons 9:05
But I definitely think if they had have, had the opportunity to use other channels that they should have taken up from TV to radio, whatever it might be, and really made it you know, maybe that's where the brand could have come in a bit more, so you sort of have more layers to the, to the communication.
Tom Ollerton 9:21
Unfortunately, we've run out of time. So what I'm going to ask you guys to do is to vote or give it a score of five. So, on the count of three, hold up how many fingers out of five you think it deserves? So, one, two, three... A three, a four, and a three. Well, Darain, Mavesh, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us. We will see you all next week.
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