The “Oils Nobody Cares about” campaign demonstrates like no other how an original thinking and a provocative insight can be at the heart of a transformative strategy rooted in earned, and radically influence the perception of a brand and a product in a traditionally stagnant category: Lesieur’s campaign is using in a clever way a succession of IRL and digital PR stunts as storytelling and conversation-starter elements, to get earned media, unprecedented levels of engagement for the category, and a tangible impact on the brand. This is the campaign who has created the new tone of voice of Lesieur –

The sad truth about sunflower, rapeseed and other seed oils is that…NOBODY, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY CARES ABOUT SEED OILS. Despite the fact that 78% of French consumers buy them, the market has shrunk by 50% in the last 20 years. Most of the people don’t even know the brand of seed oils they are buying. Which is quite paradoxical for France, the country of haute cuisine, where like nowhere else, people say they care about everything they eat.

So, in this tough context, how can Lesieur, the leading French oil company, find a way to make people care about their freshly improved, pesticide free, and sustainably produced sunflower, rapeseed and special frying oils?

By replacing Lesieur’s old and patronizing brand voice, by a more provocative, honest and conversational one to get back the control over the brand’s narrative.

The idea is to use this hard category insight - the complete lack of interest for seed oils - as a provocative topic to spark conversations around seed oils.

“THE OILS NOBODY CARES ABOUT”. The campaign that made people care about Lesieur oils by honestly claiming that they don’t.

To provoke French food-savvy consumers to have a conversation about a product not given the attention it deserves, Lesieur did an experiment in supermarkets all over France, changing Lesieur’s oil labels to absurd ones demonstrating that French consumers are buying seed oils without even looking, then fueled the discussion with a nation-wide campaign: putting outdoor billboards saying that nobody cares in places where there’s nobody, using influencers that nobody follows, or even replacing Lesieur’s online ads that nobody watches with content everybody loves… always promoting Lesieur’s product benefits. And to make people react, the campaign was massively shared on social channels.

With a modest budget and a social media led campaign, the brand needed a strong idea generating a. lot of PR and earned media to cover a nation-wide retail territory, make people talk, and switch the perception of the brand/product.

At the core of the campaign, the creative idea was a PR stunt, as Lesieur have provocatively hacked its own products, completely modified the labels to absurd ones, and put them on sale in-store as a PR event, demonstrating that French consumers are buying seed oils without even looking. Then, to fuel the discussions, the brand launched a nation-wide campaign: putting outdoor billboards saying that nobody cares in places where there’s nobody, using influencers that nobody follows, or even replacing Lesieur’s online ads that nobody watches with content everybody loves… generating always more PR by massively sharing all the campaign conversational elements on social channels.

Lesieur’s bold PR approach was the key piece of a campaign creating a conversation about seed oils, and Lesieur’s new bottle names and redesign were at the heart of all the debates.

“THE OILS NOBODY CARES ABOUT” have generated more than 10 million media impressions, with an average 12% engagement rate and 90% average completion rate for the video content, but most of all, a not so modest 7% increase in sales in a traditionally stagnant and un-conversational category, making it the most successful campaign in the brand’s 100 years’ history. The Oils Nobody Cares about campaign demonstrates like no other how a bold and provocative experience can make both a brand and product seen in a new light and impact brand consideration.