There’s nothing funny about cold meats. That is unless you are the Campofrío brand that differentiates itself from others in the cold meat category in Spain by being the only brand to use humour in its advertising.

Let’s start at the beginning. The recession hit Spain hard. Spain needed cheering up…and with sales falling, Campofrio needed to stand out in the category. Campofrio brought together 25 of Spain’s most recognisable comedians for a TV spot that became a publicity sensation. The spot was prelaunched online 4 days before the TV Campaign. In addition to our paid media, the campaign earned 1m views online on YouTube in 24 hours, #holaeselenemigo was a trending topic on Twitter for 48 hours. We won +21% fans on Facebook and +32% followers on Twitter in December. Publicity and earned media were worth €5,5m.

We realised that if we gave Spaniards more comedy our bond would be stronger. A top performing ad was not good enough. We would turn a 30" spot into a national TV programme on the nation’s favourite public channel TVE. The only problem was that TVE didn’t allow advertising or branded content…

Advertising on TVE, and therefore the presence of any brand, has been banned by law since 2010. Furthermore there is no history of this type of branded content in Spain and TVE had never accepted a branded content proposal before. In addition to our programming TVE, we even broadcast a high rating teaser campaign for a full month before the show using the same principles of branding with no brand. Also, after its success the TV channel broadcast for a second time the show "Brighten up your spirits!"

We achieved a first with the channel by persuading them to allow Campofrio to make a two-hour programme for primetime, on the agreement that the Campofrio name would never appear.

Our challenge was to tell the brand story…without ever mentioning the brand! This is how we did it:

1) We adapted Campofrio’s brand positioning of “enjoying life” for the title of the show: “Brighten up your spirits”

2) We used the colour, fonts and shapes of the Campofrio logo for the title of the show

3) The show featured the cast of the spot and used the same music

4) The actor who did the voiceover on the spot became the host of the show

Remember that Campofrío only paid for the production, not to have it aired or promoted on-air.

Our 2 hour show broadcast premiered on Friday 18th May was an instant hit. The audience spiked at almost 9m. The average viewing audience was 3,807,000, a 32% share of peak-time viewing. It was the No1 show in Spain that week after Live Football. “Brighten Up Your Spirits” was the No1 trending topic on Twitter. Regarding media investment, our exposure was valued at €1,328,000m, teaser campaign at €819.137.

TVE decided to broadcast the show again on Sunday 27th May; average audience 983,000 viewers, brand presence valued at €934,800.

Did the audience see the brand?

Research based on 2,500 viewers' interviews revealed:

• 84% of those who remembered seeing a brand associated it with Campofrío (no branding was shown or mentioned).

• 72% remembered seeing the logo itself (no logo being allowed).

• 67.3% had heard about the TV Show well in advance of “D day” (we didn’t pay for this).

• 76% thought that Campofrío’s sponsorship favoured their purchase intention.

In summary, we used content to communicate a brand that wasn’t seen or heard more cost effectively than traditional advertising.