Coop, Sweden's second largest grocery chain, known for its sustainable practice, wanted to raise awareness about food waste in an engaging way, and by doing so being perceived as the most environmentally-conscious Swedish brand within FMCG.
People often throw away products that have passed their over-cautious best before dates, without smelling or tasting them first. If people stopped relying on best-before dates, food waste would decrease significantly. If COOP could remind people to do that in a fun, engaging and memorable way, people would associate their brand with sustainable practice.
STRATEGY & EXECUTION
To inspire people to smell food before wasting it in a fun and memorable way that would generate real conversation, we decided to use the ick-factor. We created Old Milk, a perfume that smells just like milk gone bad. The activation piggybacked on premium-perfume aesthetics to enhance the element of surprise.
The scent of Old Milk was created by a professional perfumer, who got the assignment to recreate the smell of too old, undrinkable milk.
The development took nearly 10 months. We launched the campaign mainly through earned media and PR-activation, by sending out the perfume along with our key message to influencers, journalist and other relevant opinion leaders. Simultaneously we launched an online film to further spark the debate on food waste on social media.
BUSINESS OUTCOME
The campaign garnered global interest with 250 million earned media impressions. Samples were requested from Germany, France, The Netherlands, USA, India, Australia and China, as well as Sweden
Old Milk was perceived to have a clear sustainability message and brand perception of them as a ‘modern brand that takes responsibility for the environment’ went up by 5% - out performing any previous COOP purpose campaign.