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American ROM

Issue 20 | August 2011

Creative Team

Group Creative Directors: Dinu Panescu, Catalin Dobre; Creative Director: Adrian Botan; Associate Creative Director: Alexandru Dumitrescu; Copywriter: Florin Florea; Art Director: Andra Badea; Digital Art Director: Laurentiu Stere

Other Credits

Strategic Planner: Ileana Serban Parau; Account Director: Ruxandra Savulescu; Senior Account Executive: Lavinia Vaduva; Account Executive: Sorina Iordan; Account Manager: Ruxandra Vasilescu

Background

ROM is a chocolate bar made in Romania. It had been the leading confectionary brand for many years but had been knocked off its perch by Snickers.

At the same time, young Romanians were increasingly disenchanted with their own country, thinking that life elsewhere in the world was more rewarding

Idea

The ambition was to re-establish ROM as a cherished symbol of Romanianness by choosing not to fight the imported brands but by appearing to join them.

The Romanian flag on ROM’s packaging was replaced with the Stars and Stripes. TV and outdoor advertising suggested that Romanians would do well to start trying to live like Americans.

The ads directed viewers to the ROM website and Facebook page.

Within hours, thousands were reacting to the provocative messages and a debate about the nation’s image of itself had been started.

After a week, the brand went back on TV reassuring Romanians that ROM would return with the Romanian flag back on the wrapper. The spot concluded with an anthem dedicated to ROM and its fans.

Results

The campaign reached 67% of Romanians, generating €300,000 of free publicity.

In six days, ROM’s website had 75,000 unique visitors.

Facebook fans rose by 300%.

Supporters launched petitions and even organised a flash-mob in the capital. All brand image indicators exploded, especially “ROM is a brand for me”, which more than doubled with a 124% increase.

ROM outperformed the market, with a 20% growth (compared to 8.2% category growth) in the most relevant channel, hypermarkets.

It ousted Snickers as No.1 brand.