Growth for market leader Sambal ABC was stagnating. Indonesian sambal market was filled with clichéd narratives that had commoditized the category. Not a good sign for ABC Sambal. Research showed that many consumers believed that while all advertising talks about unique spicy tastes, in reality all brands taste similar. 

Brand tracks showed that ‘spiciness’ and the ‘thrill’ it promises were key to unlocking growth and ownership of this attribute was critical. In blind tests, ABC was voted the spiciest. But shouting out that we are the spiciest won’t cut it. ABC needed to disrupt the market boldly if it wanted to win the tongues & minds of spice crazy Indonesians. 

Brief: Get Indonesians to notice and realise that ABC delivers spice like no other brand.

Objectives:

Grow market share, create trialists.

Build Brand Power by strengthening our claim on key attributes of ‘Sambal I like’, ‘Makes me crave for more’.

The disruptive campaign boldy created a spice experience and message like never before, by creating the Sambal ABC World’s Spiciest Noodles, and ABC Pedasuransi, a special Spice Insurance to protect Indonesians from the spice of our chilli sauce. The policy gave hospitalization cover for a week worth IDR150000 from Spice related aftermath. This campaign taunted spice crazy Indonesians about our spiciness in an unforgettable way.

Indonesia’s favourite chilli sauce brand, Sambal ABC was a leader in market share, but not in mind & heart share. With a crowd of competitive sambals, each claiming to be the spiciest, our brand was losing out on differentiation.

And spice-loving Indonesians were flirting with newer sambal brands claiming to be spicier. Even though they thought Sambal ABC was the spiciest in blind taste tests.

For a market inundated with similar messages, something disruptive was needed. Instead of just claiming that we were the spiciest sambal of them all, we decided to prove it to Indonesians, with the most memorable tasting experience ever.

That not just reminded everyone how spicy ABC was, but also, memorably and entertainingly made our brand stand out. We chose to create a powerful act instead of an ad, to set our brand apart from the sea of competitors.

First, we collaborated with a notorious ‘Warung’ Chef from Jakarta, Abang Adek to create the World’s spiciest noodles.

Then, to protect people from it, we collaborated with AXA, the world’s third largest insurance giant, to create Pedasuransi, a special spice insurance policy to cover people from the spice of our chilly sauce. The policy covered hospitalization for a week, worth IDR 150,000.

We launched both, the World’s Spiciest Noodles and the Spice Insurance at UFF, Indonesia’s biggest food festival. We created a booth at Sudirman Street Day & Night Market in Jakarta. And reached out to the western part of Java, teasing the spicy bravehearts of the city to sign up for the insurance to show how brave they were. 

Wordless Reviews’ of our noodles on YouTube showed our spice was for real. People came in the tens of thousands and signed up for the Pedasuransi Spice Insurance.

25000+ trials

100000 policies created

55 Million+ views

1.45 Billion impressions

250+ articles in local & international PR

PR 5.8x ROI

Market share up from 47.2% before launch to 49.8% during campaign run.

410 bps increase in Penetration.

520 bps increase in Brand Power.