Aussie kids are nudie kids may well be true for the generation that has just begun its twenties. They were in primary school when nudie launched in 2003. It got around in a little lilac van. Was seen on the sidelines on sport days. And it was always handing out free samples to kids while it chatted to the grown-ups.
Nudie learned the hard way that everyone has to work hard to keep love alive. It got too big for its footy boots and chit-chat. And it ended up on the supermarket shelf side by side with many, looking a bit fat around its price parts.
So, a few years ago, nudie called in a business whisperer to remind it what its strengths were. Together, they analysed what had changed and identified what nudie stood for. They worked out why nudie had been relevant to retailers and to consumers. What new pressures it had to conquer. And the answer became clear.
Nudie went back to its blueprint. Nudie was failing, not because what it stood for had lost its relevance to retailers and consumers, but because it had lost sight of what it stood for and wasn’t delivering on that. Nudie stands for quality, innovation and fun. And now nudie leads with a set of guidelines to make sure it stays that way.
It’s not a special secret formula. In fact, it’s a set of ‘rules’ any business could follow and every successful business probably does, whether the business makes a product, brands the product, markets the product or packages it.
- Everything is made the Nudie way
- Nudie is unadulterated, pure and leads with “Fruit and nothing else”
- Nudie uses only quality ingredients
- Be brave, not silly
- Do things not done before
- If you do things that have been done before, do them differently
- No brand slapping: Use your own ideas
- If things start to go wrong, knock them on the head/change them quickly.
This year, nudie realised it was doing quite well. And it wondered if it could do quite well at something at which others were not doing very well at all: soft drinks. Soft drinks had developed a bad reputation. People had stopped wanting to drink sugar, colours, flavours and preservatives camouflaged as fun. So nudie invented a soft drink made with 50% real fruit juice (not from concentrate). It contains no preservatives, colours, artificial flavours or other nasties you tend to find in soft drinks such as sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate and phosphoric acid. It is made using 50% real fruit, 47.5% water and less than 2.5% added sugar and natural flavours.
And nudie did something else rather clever. It launched its new soft drink the old nudie way – with samples for the kids and chit-chat for the grown-ups.
Mango built nudie an interactive vending machine to sample nudie soda and get across its point of difference – it’s made with 50% real fruit and bubbles. So, people were invited to challenge the vending machine a series of quirky 50/50 questions, such as, do 50% of people want what you’re about to get now (answer: no, 100% do), can a ninja split an apple in half with his bare hands, does the top half of a muffin taste better than the bottom half and do 50% of people believe in love at first sight. If they answered at least two questions correctly they received a free can of nudie & soda.
Nudie also brought in actors and brand ambassador, Tim Dormer (Big Brother 2013), to create the buzz at key locations that would get people talking about the launch. Their reactions were filmed via six hidden cameras.
And the result?
– 50,000 nudie & soda cans sampled
– 98 apples broken in half
– 56 muffins enjoyed
– 48 proposals (42 yes’s and two run away honeymoons)
– A hilariously entertaining piece of content
“It was a fantastic campaign. The core concept played into the unique proposition of nudie & soda – made with 50% real fruit (and bubbles),” stated Carlie Platts, nudie chief brand governess.
“We received such positive feedback from everyone who was involved. Staying true to our nudie values, we created fun, excitement and laughter when people least expected it.”
Creative credits
Experience: Mango
Staffing: Activnation
Filming: Ninja Milk
Talent: Tim Dormer, Trent Peppercorn & Tamara Meyer
