GOLD: The Lano Kid

Client: Lilleborg A/S
Submitted by:OMD Norway
Campaign Title: The Lano Kid of the Year

The Challenge:
Lano is one of Norway’s longest-established (1936) and well-known brands operating within the personal wash category. Lano may be considered ‘the people’s soap’ of Norway.
For 60 years the company has run an annual ‘Lano Kid’ photo contest where members of the public submit and vote for kid of the year. The winning prize in 2010 is a 30,000NOK travel grant and the child’s picture on Lano refill bottles.

Lano’s challenge today is declining market share in the personal wash category and a drop to the #2 spot. To regain market leadership, Lano is re-launching the product to improve brand aesthetics (more contemporary packaging and design), while adjusting the formula (even more mild/skin-friendly/gentle).

Digital Strategy:
Lano recognized how highly their customers value social media and how they have incorporated it into their daily lives to satisfy emotional needs.

Yet, social media works best when corporations take a backseat. A natural discovery of the rebrand made sense by provoking conversations around the competition and making Lano top of mind. By generating interest in the competition, we would inevitably raise awareness of the relaunch. (Participation could be deterred should the product become the main focus rather than the emotional experience.) By acting as facilitators, Lano was able to satisfy their consumer’s digital need – to share their love for their children.

For this reason we took the decision not to feature the product in our online advertising, nor on the front page of the Lano.no campaign microsite. To drive traffic to the site, we adopted an awareness strategy, embracing large banner formats and high impact placements.

The microsite was bold — quite different from any that Lano had developed previously. The new look of the site was intended to convey the softness and contemporary design of the revamped range, with product information on a separate page. The competition was recognized as the emotional pull for these visitors, and put at the heart of the site.

Results:
Google Insights also verifies that there have been more than 3.7 million visits to lano.no with 1.3 million unique visitors. Put in perspective, this is approximately 27% of the total Norwegian population.

Facebook was responsible for 70% of total visits — equating to almost 2.6 million visitors. As anticipated, these visits were driven by users sharing voting links. Also, 183 independent fan groups were set up by voters.

By far the vote leader for most of the competition has been Mikael from Nordland, a child with a disability. This aspect of the campaign was picked up nationally, generating a great deal of debate and PR around the campaign, with a 6-page feature in Dagbladet’s weekend magazine, and mentions on some of Norway’s biggest sites including NRK.no.

Most importantly, these results have translated into better performance on the bottom line – sales are up. Lano has successfully increased its market share when looking the first 4 weeks of the campaign versus the previous period, according to ACNielsen Norway. The key goal of this campaign was to take steps to regain the market leader position, and the Lano Kid competition 2010 has been a resounding success for Lano and one that provides a platform from which they will look to grow over the coming years.