Swedish candy brand, Ahlgren’s Cars, wanted to introduce their new fruit-flavoured “car”, called ‘The Fruit Hatchback’. Our task was to create a pre-launch campaign that garnered enough interest to gain the new flavour a foothold in stores and make it a competitive product in the traditionally conservative Swedish candy market. With the current state of the Swedish automotive industry, we marketed the new “fruit hatchback” candy as a real car.

We brought back cancelled show ‘Trafikmagasinet’ (the Traffic Magazine) with presenter Carl Ingemar Perstad. We renamed the show ‘Bilmagasinet’ (the Car Magazine) and asked Mr. Perstad to leak the news of a new Swedish car. We aired four shows on Youtube, spread the news at motor shows around the world and recruited “test drivers” via Facebook.

We spread the news about the “Fruit Hatchback” across all digital screens in central stations of Sweden and then, we arranged an unveiling of the new “Fruit Hatchback” at the Stockholm Lifestyle Motor Show.

The business outcome was remarkable, with the Car Magazine topping the ‘Unruly Viral Chart Sweden’ in February 2013 and getting 524,000 views on YouTube. Ahlgren’s Cars’ Facebook page increased fan base growth by 65%. As the campaign ended, Ahlgren’s Cars became the most talked about brand on Swedish Facebook, achieving a “talking about this” percentage of 31% - a great measure of how deeply involved people became in the campaign.

Fruit Hatchback has become the third most popular candy in Swedish service stores and number 6 in grocery stores.

SWEDEN’S AUTO SECRET … FROM AHLGREN’S CARS

We brought back the cancelled show ‘Trafikmagasinet’ (the Traffic Magazine) with presenter Carl Ingemar Perstad as it had such a cult following. We would rename the show ‘Bilmagasinet’ (the Car Magazine) and have Mr Perstad leak the news of a new Swedish car.

After the first of four shows aired on You Tube, the speculation immediately started in the Swedish press and online as to what this new vehicle could be. We spread the word at famous car shows around the world and we recruited “test drivers” for the new car via Facebook.

We spread the news about the “Fruit Hatchback” across all digital screens in central stations of Sweden. All media channels worked harmoniously together to create buzz and excitement amongst out target audience.

Then we arranged an unveiling of the new “Fruit Hatchback” at the Stockholm Liftestyle Motor Show.

The Car Magazine topped the ‘Unruly Viral Chart Sweden’ in February 2013 and got 524,000 views on YouTube. As the fourth part of the series aired, Ahlgren’s Cars’ Facebook page increased fan base growth by 65%.

As the campaign culminated, Ahlgren’s Cars became the most talked about brand on Swedish Facebook, achieving a “talking about this” percentage of 31% - a great measure of how deeply involved people became in the campaign. Fruit Hatchback became the most sold new candy in Sweden 2013! A remarkable result for a campaign with a limited budget.