What: A recent South African Social Listening survey found that conversations online evoked memories emotions and nostalgia about food, this insight led to the “Choose Me or Lose Me” campaign by Simba. The chip brand has recently been on a mission to establish tribes for the various flavours they offer, first doing so with their Sounds of Flavour campaign in 2020. They now want to capitalise on that nostalgia and create the “Tribes” for three of their classic flavours, Salt & Vinegar, Tomato Sauce and Cheese & Onion with their #SaveYourFlava campaign.
How: USSD, that’s it. It’s done through USSD. Kidding… USSD is the entry mechanic with the participants asked to dial the USSD number on pack and follow the prompts, to vote for their flavour. In all fairness it is likely more than that, we assume with the initial campaign insight being informed by Social Listening that this is also being used to measure the talkability online. They also used Influencers, namely JSomething from Micasa and Nadia Jaftha as the Tribe Leaders for some of the flavours albeit the influencer efforts were minimal with 1 feed Instagram post each and stories mentions at the start of the campaign.
Why: We believe the core reason for the campaign was to feed off the nostalgic conversations to drive brand relevance and establish the online “tribes” for each flavour. There could still be a tie to purchase to vote and ultimately that the least purchased flavour does get the axe… but we doubt it. The campaign seems to have fallen flat in recent weeks, following a few negative comments initially with consumers upset that their favourite flavour might no longer be available.
