Unilever campaign sees soup dispensed from billboards
Outdoor ad firm JC Decaux has launched a campaign for Unilever’s Cup a Soup Sensations which enables samples to be dispensed from billboards in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. To obtain a sachet, consumers call a number displayed on the panel.
The media agency behind the idea was Mindshare, and the ‘Call to dispense’ idea has been billed as an Australian first.
Unilever Continental Soup brand manager Damien Chan said: “This outdoor dispensing mechanic is perfect for Continental to bring sampling opportunities to the CBD streets. The locations have also been carefully selected to deliver a desirable pedestrian audience & fit with Cup a Soup ease and convenience.”
Yeah I’m really going to wait for five minutes in a line for a 20c sachet of crap powdered soup. Nice concept, shame about the product.
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It will be fun for the homeless to watch people who can afford phones have soup dispensed to them on the street for free
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this will go gangbusters, everyone loves a freebie
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What’s to stop me ringing the number now and the machine spitting out some soup…?
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I just called the number and got the congratulations message. Sounds like there’s some soup waiting for me in Sydney. I’m in Melbourne. That was fun!
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Reminds me of Skinners Rats. Perhaps unilever is conducting operant conditioning on all us “city rat types”.
But seriously, if the soup is good (and packet soup usually does exceeds peoples expectations in testing) then theres no better way to persuade people than by having them consume some. It also is the best way to kickstart consumers in to a “winter soup habit” after summer.
I do question the mechanic though. Why the phone call? what has that got to do with anything?
My big criticism with these initaitves is SCALE. How many people can we reach and are they who we are targeting? That machine looks like it holds a few hundred samples at best. Sampling at Wynard for 3 hrs would deliver over 20K units alone. More effciient still would be to hit 1m letterboxes or co pack it with one of their high frequency foods as a bonus pack and reach 2 million.
MC
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Michael – get your point about scale but one of the biggest challenges is to get the consumer’s attention. We have to keep inventing new, creative ways of getting in front them so they will even notice. Certainly got my attention just now.
The phone call seems key to getting their phone number on a list and being able to prompt them by sms to comment on the facebook page – this campaign is trying to go beyond the ‘just a sample’ route.
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