The campaign that won Engage Joe Public Gold at the PRISMS

media update’s David Jenkin asked managing director Keri-Ann Stanton about the campaign and what it accomplished.

The '#CloverDroughtRelief' campaign used Instagram to illustrate the hardship faced by farmers, with a series of harrowing images supplied by professional photographers and a photojournalist to bring the story home to South African consumers.

What was Clover’s objective with the '#Cloverdroughtrelief' campaign?

In 2015, South Africa faced the worst drought in 30 years. The country became an importer rather than an exporter of maize and faced a 4.5 million-ton maize shortfall, impacting farmers who had to take extreme measures and in some cases cull their herds. The weakened Rand made it impossible for them to import maize and put the country’s farmers under extreme financial pressure.

Clover’s aim was to help their farmers get through this tough environmental and economical time. The concern was that this was coming at a time when there was an industry increase on the price of milk as well.

The brief was to find a way to communicate this increase in a way that would soften the blow to consumers, highlight the severity of the drought, and position the brand as a good corporate citizen.

What elements did the campaign consist of? Is it safe to say that at its heart was photojournalism?

We decided we did not want to use mainstream media to talk about the Drought Relief Fund as we did not want this to come off as inauthentic. We thus focused on photojournalism via Instagram – unbranded, genuine, and heartbreaking.

What kind of response did the campaign generate?

Clover Fresh Milk sales grew by more than 8%. Communication not only prevented brand switching but got shoppers to buy more Clover Fresh Milk. The innovative Packaging change from the creative team reached a million consumers, linking them directly to our #CloverDroughtRelief picture story. An independent RepTrack survey post-campaign reported that Clover was the most reputable South African brand, beating Coca-Cola and Woolworths, for the first time.

You can view the campaign here. 

For more information, visit engage.joepublic.co.za. 

Interested in reading about other winning campaigns at this year’s PRISM Awards? Read more in our article, Positive Dialogue Communications’ winning idea to protect swimmers.

*Image courtesy of James Kydd