Insight
Nando’s core proposition is ‘Eat Interesting’. It’s about surprising and delighting consumers with their food. Its communications (and antics) are no different. Nando’s is all about being cheeky and unexpected.
This speaks to its target audience of 18-34 year olds, who are adventurous when it comes to life, food, and travel. The Nando’s audience is always looking for something bigger, better, and more exciting. So Mango and Lime was developed to keep Aussie millennials on their toes, and let them know that Nando’s is not just spicy, but it has got a tangy and zany side too!
But let’s be honest... There’s only a small handful of devout sauce-advocates in the world - let alone in Australia. Sauce is not exactly “adventurous” or something to rave on about! So Match Media needed to give Aussies a reason to care... It needed to get people to sit up and get Australian lips talking about this gob-smacking sauce on a national scale.
But the biggest challenge was spend. Unlike higher spending competitors, the biggest challenge was a budget of less than $200,000 AU ($157,000) that needed to support all 263 franchises nationally. During the campaign timeframe alone, McDonalds was outspending Mango & Lime messaging by 5202%, while KFC was outspending the Mango & Lime messaging by 420%.
With limited paid media, Nando’s needed to get talked about on a grand scale to ensure it got on people’s radars, and show Australia exactly what it is made of… Mango and Lime!
Strategy
A new sauce isn’t exactly big news. And that’s precisely what the agency needed to capture attention and extend budget. So, it didn’t just need a big idea. It needed a goliath idea that would bring Nando’s proposition of “Eat Interesting” to life.
So the agency started thinking about what Australian’s found interesting… It discovered that Australian’s have a fascination with BIG things. Some might even say a big obsession…The world’s largest island is home to the Big Banana (Coffs Harbour); Big Merino Sheep (Goulburn); Big Prawn (Ballina)… Just to name but a few.
Then the idea came… Australia is also home to a Big Mango (fruit sculpture that’s 3 storeys high)… So, Match Media set its sights on the iconic Mango in Bowen, Queensland… (See attached).
It wouldn’t just borrow inspiration from The Big Mango… It decided to steal it.
BEST LAID PLANS
It wanted to leverage the mango as a conversation piece, and use media to link back to the product-launch. So Nando’s surprised Australians with an unbranded heist and followed with a big reveal. Zero branding meant that it could surprise and delight, authentically. Better yet, it meant that the news story would take on a life of its own.
Planning the heist was critical - timing and phasing of messages even more so… It couldn’t risk sceptics blowing the cover, nor could it risk the story fizzling out. To pull off the perfect ‘crime’, the agency kept eyes on the prize: NEWS, NEWS, NEWS. It needed to maximise noise in market and capture the attention of bold Aussie millennials.
Stealing the mango meant stealing attention. Match Media’s job was to stoke the fires, ensuring that social and radio channels fuelled the story. Not only would it plant the right messages, sequentially – it would create opportunities for earned media to extend it further...
Execution
The Mango was the vehicle for saucy conversation. Overnight, it stole the Big Mango with nothing but a crane and a crew sworn to secrecy. Did anyone notice? Saucetenly!
MONDAY: Bowen Council released a statement advising the public about the The Big Mango’s disappearance. The story was covered by all major national news media outlets. Nandos’ secretly stepped in, launching A ‘Big Mango’ Facebook page. The agency then released ‘real’ security video footage of the heist. Social media went wild. Twitter even branded it #mangogate!
TUESDAY: Everyone was talking about it! The “Missing Mango Mystery” aired nationally on ABC, SBS, 7/9/10 News and The Project. Major morning TV shows Sunrise and Wake Up ran the story, and overnight the news went global – reported in America, Belgium, UK, Japan, and France! So the brand fessed up… It released “how we did it” footage on social channels. This was publicised nationally by news media, for free.
WEDNESDAY: It needed to integrate the product so Match Media leveraged social, radio, and press to invite people to see The Big Mango and sample Mango & Lime sauce.
THURSDAY: Official Launch day. It relocated the Big Mango to Melbourne’s Federation Square (alongside a giant Lime). Ten’s breakfast Wake-Up show covered the event, and thousands showed up to try out the new flavour and get photos for themselves. This was supported by social activity.
FRIDAY: The Big Mango was returned to Bowen and locals were invited to watch. This was also covered across national media.
Results
The campaign reached 25,562,331 people in four days (Australia’s population is 22 million!) Match Media extended Nando’s media budget reach by over 900%. It created a nation-wide media frenzy and made sauce news-worthy!!
• Over 3,000+ TV, radio, print and internet stories reported.
• The news even went global reaching over 50 countries including UK, USA, China, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium and Sweden.
• Over $13 million in free publicity earned in Australia alone.
Social Media went crazy! On Facebook, Bowen’s Big Mango Facebook page attracted 5,372 Likes & reached 1.2 million people. Of this - 126,360 people engaged with content. Nando’s Facebook page received 2,765 new Likes and reached 1.3 million people. 129,306 engaged with content, with positive engagement at 88.5%.
YouTube generated 283,250 views and was shared 15,877 times - sending the Nando’s page as a “popular” feature on YouTube during the campaign life.
Across Twitter, #mangogate and #bowenmango became the #1 trending topic in Australia. Millions more, including politicians and celebrities posted, tweeted, shared and talked about it.
Sales skyrocketed at launch, with the incremental sales reaching a peak of 8,000 sales/week.