An overview of Evian's Live Young marketing campaign and the rise of social media as part of their comms mix

1. Evian live young
A Campaign Overview
March 2014

2. Evian live young

3. Campaign history
• Evian, owned by Danone, has been producing bottled
water since in 1879 in Evian-le-Bains
• Nowadays Evian water is marketed to adults as a
premium brand, making the connection of Evian
water with a healthy lifestyle
• To maintain its status several limited editions of the
bottles have been made by high-end designers like
Jean Paul Gaultier and the Haute Couture Limited
Edition designed by Christian Lacroix (opposite)
• But in 1935, Evian was first marketed as being the
water mothers should use in powdered milk
solutions for babies
• In 2009, this campaign was reborn in a slightly
different guise…

4. Rollerskating Babies
• Rollerskating babies was the first ad in the Evian
Live Young series
• The ad was an immediate online hit, and to date
has received more than 73m hits for the main
version, though there are many spin offs, local
versions, and imitations
• It currently holds the Guinness World record for
the most viewed TV advert online
• It spawned off-shoot content, such as this
deliberate piece of ‘found footage’ Baby Break
Dance, viewed 17m times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUJdpDfXZ
A#t=4
Digital display and FB campaign

5. Baby inside you
• Despite the success of the ad campaign,
sales of Evian actually dropped in 2009-
10 due to the worldwide recession
afflicting Europe and the US, Evian’s key
markets
• The campaign developed in 2011 to a new
route, hoping to try and help recapture
lost share of sales, Wake the Baby inside
You
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg1j
AWtWUaU#t=7
• The campaign this time touched more of
Evian’s owned and earned assets
• It was also a more digital campaign,
utilising social media and stunts to
greater effect

6. Sharapova brand spokesperson
• Maria Sharapova used extensively
at events for Evian, fitting them in
around her tour schedule

7. Sharapova brand spokesperson

8. Baby inside you
• Maria Sharapova attends a Live Young event in New York, where people
could make their own version of the advert
• This was captured for YouTube

9. Think before you app
• App created to turn your
tweets into a fairly
rudimentary game
• Not a lot of downloads or
buzz around this

10. facebook
• Facebook site is well-liked
• Regular activity, all around a
strong campaign theme
• Drives promotions, also
experiential

11. Experiential
• Experiential pushes, such as the
#LiveYoungJanuary have been
happening this month
• Giving away space hoppers in
London was one idea
• Sending in a selfie of yourself
pulling a squirrel face was todays!
• Levels of success difficult to
quantify..

12. Twitter
• Very low Twitter following
• Not a regularly used
channel for their audience
• Shows the pitfalls of
Twitter for brands which
don’t have a very strong
following, or an awful lot
to say

13. LATEST CAMPAIGN: BABY & me
• Latest campaign, baby & me launched last April http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfxB5ut-KTs
• It was the most watched TV ad campaign of 2013 on You Tube, beating even John Lewis, with 70m
views
• It spawned 334 imitations, and in the UK, was shared on social networks almost 7m times
• A long-mooted app, allowing users to see themselves as babies has been promised on the site for
months now. Let’s hope it arrives soon!
• Evian sales have grown significantly, thanks in part to a hot summer, and buoyant emerging markets
sales, the Waters division of Danone is up 7% for the first three quarters of the last financial year, a
transformation in fortunes

14. Has social media changed evian’s media planning?
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
UK TV
CINEMA
PRESS
LIVE
ON YT
27/4 –
1 spot
£115K
9m
Views
16/4 – 27/5
£1,106K
258m
Views
20/6-
3/7
£568K
132m
Views
1/6-
13/6
£513K
120m
Views
28/12-31/1
£1,807K
450m Views
May-Jun
£206K
201
4
Jan DetoxWimbledonWimbledonWimbledon
1st Jul
73m views
16th Jun
17m views
14th Apr
4m views
19th Apr
70m views
Films regularly released
on YT prior to TV release
First film released 6
months earlier (in UK)
Non-dancing babies far
less popular
Latest spot had just
30% the ATL
investment
First film teased with
‘found footage’ YT-only
spots
Afford additional bigger
Press. Social Jan campaign

15. KEY TAKE OUTS FOR MARKETERS
• Evian have created a range now of very shareable content, creating a huge amount of Earned media value
• The campaign is successful due to a number of factors:
– Universal appeal of babies
– Lack of language barrier
– Use of humour, tongue in cheek ‘cool’
– Broad premium product appeal – there’s no embarrassment in sharing a bottled water commercial
• Certain elements have not been as successful:
• Use of apps looks messy and uncertain
• Twitter account not popular or regularly used
• Sharapova is universally known but not universally liked by sports fans
• The second campaign Baby Inside, was not a You Tube hit, despite high levels of TV spend, and Print
• Key take outs for Marketers:
• When looking to engage very broad audiences, use universal materials and themes
• Humour is key to the charm.
• Minimise language, and words, and use music, preferably a well-known soundtrack, as it makes
communications much easier to share and be understood