When bad advertising goes good...ROM chocolate bar


There's a great chance that you are already familiar with the fantastic advertising campaign by McCann Erickson for long standing Romanian chocolate bar ROM - if not, here is an overview of how, sometimes, bad advertising can be extremely effective.



Controversial advertising will often have an element of risk, in order to create impressive results. The ROM advertising campaign is a recent Cannes winner for McCann Erickson gaining the title of the Direct Lions and Promo Lions categories. But why did it work so well?

The ROM bar has been on the Romanian shelves since communist 1964 with its packaging quite simply showing the Romanian flag. Changes in Romanian history and politics, now democratic, saw the makers of ROM consequently appeal to its consumers by humourously referencing their communist beginning.

During recent times it became apparent to ROM that they were losing their popularity, especially with the younger market, to US chocolate brands. Some say that this was due to the youth of Romania being disheartened with their country and its struggling economy.

It was then that ROM had a rebrand changing their packaging from the Romanian flag to the American one causing huge controversy and mass media coverage.



It only took a few days of the new packaging being released before there was a wave of patriotic resurgence from the Romanian public who expressed their disappointment and frustration. Here are a selection of reactions:



After just a week, ROM switched their packaging back to the Romanian flag and informed the public of their hoax.

- In the first two weeks the ROM advertising campaign had reached 67% of Romanians.
- The campaign resulted in €300,000 worth of free media.
- In the first 6 days of the campaign ROM increased its Facebook fan page by 300%.
- ROM became Romania's most popular chocolate bar with a 79% increase.
- The American version of the ROM bar completely sold out.
(Courtesy of http://brandstand)

Although there still remains the question of longevity as regards to controversial advertising campaigns such as this one, ROM has, (for now) successfully reconnected their brand to the Romanian public.

Alex Fisher - @orchard_alex

To see a more detailed overview of the whole campaign, watch below.




Comments...

  • That was so clever... I absolutely love this chocolate :-)
    19/09/2011 by Monica

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