Kandia Dulce – Eurobest Advertiser of the Year 2011

 

Eurobest Advertising Festival announced that the recipient of this year’s Advertiser of the Year Award, Kandia Dulce, Romanian confectionary company which launched the very courageous “American Rom” campaign.

Manufactured by Kandia Dulce, Rom is a traditional chocolate bar wrapped in the national flag that all Romanians grew up with. Having an ageing and nostalgic consumer base, the Rom bar was losing ground with the young generation who preferred cool international brands.

Working with McCann Erickson Bucharest, Kandia Dulce decided to challenge young Romanian’s national ego by replacing Rom’s packaging with an American version. The first phase of the campaign saw the newly US-branded Rom bar being widely promoted in stores across the country, on billboards, on the campaign’s microsite and Facebook page. The brand change caused outrage across the nation with consumers’ reaction being widely debated and reported. As Romanian patriotism peaked, Kandia Dulce launched the second phase of the campaign which saw, overnight, the US-branded wrapping being replaced once again by the national flag and all communications and promotions reverting to the original Romanian style design. The stunt created immense PR and reporting across all national media.

Kandia Dulce took a great risk and were extremely brave in the way that they re-launched Romania’s favourite chocolate bar ROM. Not only did their achievements supersede their expectations with increased brand awareness and sales in the activated stores, but it also caught the attention of the nation awakening national pride. It’s great to see a traditional brand challenge consumers in such an imaginative way. We are proud to present them with The Advertiser of the Year accolade at Eurobest this year, an honour well deserved

Philip Thomas

Festival CEO

The award will be presented to Kandia Dulce’s Elena Petrea, Senior Brand Manager, and Gianina Popescu, Brand Manager, during the Eurobest Awards Ceremony on Wednesday evening, 30 November, in Lisbon’s São Luiz Theatre.

Rom is a true Romanian brand, the chocolate bar born in the troubled communist era and reborn in democracy, a brand that remained unchanged, authentic and daring in a permanent changing society. We believe that the Rombrand has a special place in the hearts and minds of many people. The amazing engagement of people during the campaign was due in part to this strong connection with the consumer. We are much honoured to receive the Eurobest recognition and we feel encouraged to raise the stakes for another Eurobest in the coming years

Gabriela Munteanu

Marketing Director

The “American Rom” campaign has already won a lot of prizes at Cannes this year, including Grands Prix in the Direct and Promo & Activation categories, but also was awarded at New York Festivals, Cresta and Golden Drum.

Previous recipients of the Eurobest Advertiser of the Year Award are IKEA (2010) and Guinness (2009).

Launched in 1988, Eurobest is Europe’s leading annual awards competition for creative excellence in the categories of Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Craft, Interactive, Media, Direct, Promo & Activation, Design, PR, Integrated and Mobile advertising. Since 2008, the awards, which are judged by Europe’s top creatives, form part of a two-and-a-half day Festival themed to identify and engage specific topics that are relevant to the European market. The festival has been held in Stockholm, Amsterdam and Hamburg, where there were close to 900 attendees. Lisbon, Portugal, will be the host city for Eurobest 2011. Organised by the same team behind the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the Dubai Lynx International Advertising Festival and Spikes Asia, the Eurobest Advertising Festival is a purely European event.