Staying Meaningful - Case Study Of Maltina

Background

The dynamic landscape of Nigerian advertising, where predictability often reigns, breaking through the norm demands an intentional strategic finesse. Here, billboards have for so long been the bulwark of brand communication. However, with the eventual advent of LED screens injecting brief life into static billboards, a fresh challenge emerged—how to infuse life creatively without succumbing to routine.

Amidst these considerations, Maltina, a revered staple malt drink, sought not just to reintroduce its flavoured malt variants but to embark on a journey to reshape perceptions and ignite youthful excitement. With that, it was apparent that a bold narrative that transcends the mundane, embraces innovation, and sets a new precedent for advertising in Nigeria was direly needed to grab, own and sustain the attention of our audience.

The Context

Our mission was simple- Maltina, a renowned malt drink known for its classic and unique taste, had spread its brew to something more flavourful- Pineapple and Vanilla flavours. We thought to ourselves, “these aren’t new products, so why the buzz?” Truly, they weren’t because there was a prior launch with a campaign titled, Own The Flavour. This campaign did quite well but that was it. It was not sustained, not for lack of ideas, but for a lack of products! How could you possibly own flavours that couldn’t be found? This is how supply became the villain to this campaign. As such, we had to go again because where awareness is successful, and demand is met with an absence of supply, memorability is laid to eternal rest.

As time elapsed, surpassing a year, it became apparent that the lingering issue of scarcity needed resolution. The supply problem of the Maltina flavours had now been fixed but we needed to let our market know that we are back on shelves, in coolers, at parties! We needed a triumphant entry; to show everyone that we’ve got flavour! And as simple as that sounds, that was exactly what we did.

“Where do we come in”, you wonder? Hold our malt! - The Thinking

Beyond re-entering the market with our redesigned cans of Maltina flavours, we had other objectives. We needed to change the old perception that was associated with the Maltina brand and upgrade it to a cool, exciting and youthful one. After all, that’s what it means to have flavour. We also needed to bring excitement to the malt category and its consumers and of course, to drive trial and acceptance of these new flavoured variants. Our strategy was to take a walk not too far from the role Maltina Classic already plays which is to inspire joyful connections by sharing happiness. For the Maltina Flavours, we took on the brand role of inspiring our consumers to break out of their routine and share genuine happy moments with their loved ones. This was premised on the insight that our target demo– the Nigerian youth, gets through their daily hustle and bustle coupled with in between stressors by taking a break from routine. We struck it good when we realised that needed break was a little spark, or better yet, a little needed flavour to up their day.

The Idea?

We landed on a simple and direct proposition – Flavour up your day! These four words might have inspired our playbook for our campaign roll out but we didn't stop there. We drilled a little deeper into the routine living of our target and concluded that even if their worlds keep getting busier, and their moments to play become scarcer, thinner and shorter, they could make those seemingly rare moments more memorable and enjoyable…anything to fight the bland taste of a basic day.

The Message: We’ve got Flavour!

We decided to not just re-announce our flavours but to also remind our audience and consumers that though we have been classic and chill over the years; though we have been wearing the suits, the ties, the up-dos and the likes, we still had flavour, and so did they. Yes, we led our campaign with the experiences of our audience making them see themselves in our message while conveying to them plainly that we too, have got flavour. We let this play out in our deployment by letting our flavours show in our vibrant prints, digital banners and out-of-home.

The Execution

Barbie did it. Zara did it. Garnier did it.

Why couldn’t we? Simple– We’re in Nigeria.

CGIs are for foreign countries.

Nothing works here.

Nothing works here?

These big brands delivered effective computer generated images for out-of-home experiences. As Nigerians, the go-to thought is to very easily become fans of it, and to disqualify it from ever happening here. This presented an opportunity to change this routine line of thinking and show off our flavours creatively.

We made Headlines! - The Results

We made it work in Lagos! We created a CGI of our rebranded cans of Maltina Flavours and on a known 3D board in a popular part in the city’s capital, we deployed. Through third party publicity, we scarcely posted our CGI with captions from the perspective of an observer; a bystander! The reactions that followed were beyond what we could have predicted. We enjoyed free media buzz on top news and blog platforms like Instablog Nigeria, Brand Communicator and Pulse Nigeria without spending a dime for that publicity. The comment sections were agog and alive! We have brought the flavour back to outdoor advertising and have now become a point of reference for possibilities. We also did become the catalyst for debates as to whether or not the CGI was real. Our virality also benefited the owners of the 3D board that served as our template as one news platform gave them credit for delivering such innovation! Talk about a ripple of Flavour!

Interested in hard metrics? Across X, Instagram, and Tiktok we totalled over 200,000 likes, over 9,000 comments, with over 1,600,000 views - all organic and earned.

Has CGI advertising come to stay? Does its success lie in the conversations that brew after its execution? Well, for us, we’ll say that because we live in evolving times, the wisdom will be to ride the tides of the tech era and deliver memories for our audiences and the advertising industry.