CLIENT NEWS - ‘Hotheads’ campaign for Monopoly wins SAN Accent Award
Marketing and PR campaign wins 'Leisure' category
The ‘Tribute to the Hothead’ campaign for Monopoly, a brand by toy manufacturer Hasbro, has won a prestigious SAN Accent Award. The marketing campaign, created by creative communications agency KesselsKramer, revolved around the benefits of arguing and showing emotions – so typical for the iconic board game. Thanks to its creative angle and development, reinforced by partner Charly PR's PR strategy, the campaign resonated with the general public and Monopoly sales skyrocketed.
“Our PR strategy added extra news value and credibility to the story. That way, we generated massive media coverage throughout the Benelux."
Karolien Hessels - MD Charly PR
"Consumer insights of Monopoly showed that the game often triggers disappointment and arguments", says Rens de Jonge, Creatief Directeur by KesselsKramer. "But instead of viewing this as something negative, we used it as a strength: for example, think about all the important lessons you learn from showing your emotions and from arguing."
Starting from that principle, KesselsKramer developed a marketing campaign including OOH (in the famous Monopoly streets) and social media. The campaign stood out tremendously thanks to the striking images of emotional children, shot by well-known Dutch photographer Erik Smits, combined with short copy that highlighted the benefits of letting those emotions out. "We are extremely proud of the great response - both from the general public and from trade media - and the great sales results it generated", Jens concludes.
In terms of OOH and social media, the marketing campaign was co-run by EssenceMediaCom.
Marketing and PR complement each other
During the process, Charly PR, Hasbro's Benelux PR agency, joined in to add news value and credibility. Karolien Hessels, Managing Director Benelux: "We immediately saw the potential of the campaign and injected extra value to increase media reach and credibility. For example, we set up a survey amongst Benelux families about their experience with the Monopoly board game, which provided newsworthy figures to further support the story."
"On top of that, we integrated advice from pedagogues on how to engage with your children during or after escalating Monopoly emotions. A strong press release and extensive lobbying within our media network did the rest."
Strong ROI
As a result of the campaign, Hasbro saw Monopoly sales increase by 35 per cent from August to October, compared to the same period of last year. Numerous renowned media in the Netherlands (AD, LINDA., Fabulous Mama, J/M Ouders, ...) and Belgium (De Morgen, HLN, Qmusic, VRT, ...) published the story, which drove a total of 44 earned articles and a potential reach of 66MM.
Floor Peters, Brand Manager Monopoly Benelux: "No other game can frustrate and irritate you like Monopoly does. You could say that arguing is our biggest USP. By using that as a strength, the campaign became a roaring success and Monopoly gained huge visibility with our target audience across the Benelux. I sincerely want to thank KesselsKramer for the great creative marketing campaign, Charly PR for the strong PR strategy and execution, and EssenceMediacom for the perfect OOH and social media execution.”