Evian’s marketing campaign

What was it marketing?

Evian is the most famous still water in the French market. But what you should know is that Evian is also about 3 times more expensive than other similar brands in France. This gap can be even more important in other European countries where the brand is sold, like UK, Germany, etc. For that reason, they needed to differentiate themselves from their competitors and to increase the brand awareness globally.

How did they market it? Was there anything unique?

'Live Young' is their slogan. Evian's brand is probably now so differentiated and has this premium status thanks to their unique brand communication. They used babies to enhance their values. The advertisement features a group of break-dancing babies and is much more playful than previous ad campaigns. 

This campaign was set to launch simultaneously in France, UK, Germany, Belgium, Canada, US, Russia and Japan. In France, this activity campaign was heavily supported by TV. 

In other markets, the activities of the campaign needed to focus on digital channels, such as:

• Digital: a full entertainment program was created online, with 2 pre-launch viral movies, a Premiere, a Making Of, and interviews with the babies on YouTube, blogs and the new Evian Live Young website.

• Public relations: to activate the world’s media and stimulate general interest around the campaign and the brand.

• Events: Berlin Fashion Week, US Masters etc, to engage consumers locally.

• TV & Cinema: to leverage the entertainment dimension.

• The live Young Training Evian Website: to continue engaging consumers with the brand.

• Print: to complete the message of the campaign

• Evian Baby & Me App for smartphones: to give everyone the chance to try the experience for themselves and discover their inner baby

Evian brand could also be effectively differentiated as a result of their packaging design. Since 1995, Evian has issued limited edition bottles annually with customized design.

In 2008 they collaborated with Christian Lacroix, and in 2009 with Jean Paul Gaultier, the Hermes creative director. By working with famous designers to create unique and exclusive bottles, Evian positions its brand as high end and fashionable.

Evian is constantly striving to differentiate their brand.

How successful was it? What effect did it have on the company?

The results and effectiveness of this global campaign were seen in a massive, positive public relations noise or buzz around the brand.

In 2010, the Evian Roller babies campaign was certified by the Guinness World Records as the most viewed online ad of all time with over 165 millions views and counting (20M views in two days, 100M views after 10 weeks, 6.9M shares). The campaign app, which allowed people to “babify” faces, generated 25M baby pictures. Internet users watch the ad three times on average. Ad viewers are three times more likely to go to the Evian website than average.

The economics results of this campaign were seen in a rise of sales and market share:

France: +7% in sales.

UK: +13% in market share.

Canada: +7% in market share.

Why do you think this was successful?

I think it's relevant to mention that Evian, now as a global brand, has a strong esteem in its country of origin and is considered as a strong local brand, which may have helped in its success as a global brand. Consumers in France have known Evian for many years and have developed a close relationship with it.

However, Evian knew how to make an extremely creative, funny, high-quality and engaging YouTube video, placing the video at the heart of a global digital campaign and take advantage of synergy with TV. With Youtube, they simply uploaded videos and ads to their channel without paying for it. The YouTube channel served as the “television channel” for Evian, which might have saved Evian a great deal of money. What is more, YouTube can be accessible to people all over the world. All it requires is a stable web service. 

Also, on both ads, they show the effect of Evian by showing people of different races, who can all become young after drinking Evian water, as suggested by the slogan of the brand. The use of multiculturalism is more likely to appeal to people of different races.