Nestlé's #RichBreak Campaign on Twitter -- Case Study

The chocolate – coated wafer brand of Nestle, Kit Kat has one of the most memorable tag-lines –
Have a break. Have a Kit Kat. The brand is synonymous with encouraging people to take a break
from whatever they might be doing. That is exactly how they promoted their Twitter campaign
#RichBreak.

#RickBreak was their second campaign taking place, the earlier contest took place in July. This
contest begun on 4th August 2014, from 10 am- 6 pm users were intimated about the same via
Twitter hours before the contest begun. To be a participant users had to follow the Kit Kat India
handle and had to include #RichBreak hashtag for ever entry they make.

There were 6 winners to be selected and each to be rewarded with a Rs. 1000 Flipkart voucher
(for this contest, Nestle have formed an association with Flipkart) and the grand prize to this
contest was a trip to Goa. Due to the perks they offered, they got a good number of responses.
They promoted the hashtag on Twitter as well to leverage this opportunity at-max. The contest
allowed participants to show off their creative side by answering the questions being asked and
in-turn win the goodies.

Due to the awareness created about the contest a day prior and with it being promoted increased
the participation since the inception of the contest on 4th August 10 a.m. and the participation
only increased due to the influencers reach. The potential reach of the campaign was around 25
Million users on Twitter. The total number of tweets with the hashtag #Rickbreak was more than
5.5K. on March 17 2010.

On March 17 2010, environmental group Greenpeace launched a social media attack on Nestlé's
Kit Kat brand. A YouTube video parodying the “Have a break; Have a Kit Kat” slogan, it
highlighted the use of unsustainable forest clearing in production of palm oil. This is used in the
Swiss food group’s products including Kit Kat.

Greenpeace had found that Nestlé was sourcing palm oil from Sinar Mas, an Indonesian supplier
that it claimed was acting unsustainably. Nestlé said it used only 0.7 per cent of global palm oil.

In the video, a bored office worker bites off a finger of Kit Kat that turns out to be the bloody
digit of an orang-utan, one of many species threatened by unsustainable forest clearing for palm
oil.

Nestlé’s initial response was to force the video’s withdrawal from YouTube, citing copyright.
This led to a viral outbreak of criticism on social media, Facebook users, for example, were
irritated by its threats to remove posts on its fan page containing Kit Kat logos that had been
altered to read “Killer”.

The antipathy soon gained expression in mainstream media around the world.
After the video was withdrawn from YouTube, Greenpeace posted it on Vimeo, another social
media site, where it had 78,500 views within hours. It reappeared on YouTube on March 21 and
had been viewed 180,000 times overall.

The challenge for José Lopez, a senior operations manager, and his team was twofold. They had
to limit the immediate damage. And in the longer term, Nestlé needed to address the palm oil
sourcing issue and turn the reputational risk into an opportunity.

Instead of trying to control social media conversations, Mr. Lopez’s team had within two months
adapted its approach.

First, to deal with the short-term damage, Nestlé suspended sourcing from Sinar Mas, and the
company held meetings with Greenpeace in which it provided details of its palm oil supply
chains.

With a focus on the longer term, Nestlé sought a credible external partner to certify the
sustainability of its palm oil suppliers.

The company chose the Forest Trust, a non-profit organization that helped the company when it
came to liaising with Greenpeace as well as helping Nestlé to audit its suppliers.

In May 2010, Nestlé also joined the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, a partnership of
companies and other parties aimed at eliminating unsustainable production.

A year later Nestlé had also changed its marketing and communications strategy by hiring Pete
Blackshaw for the new post of global head of digital and social media. MrBlackshaw, a
newcomer to Nestlé, was recruited to help provide a fresh perspective.

By early in year, MrBlackshaw had set up a “Digital Acceleration Team” as part of Nestlé’s
efforts to monitor social media sentiment 24 hours a day. When the team sees problems, the
communications unit co-ordinates the company’s engagement with the relevant parties, such as
suppliers, campaigners, governments and consumers. In addition, Nestlé executives from across
the globe visit the digital acceleration team centre at the headquarters in Switzerland, to learn
about managing social media communications and digital marketing.

“On social media,” MrBlackshaw says, “perhaps the best measure of success is the resounding
sound of silence.”

On the issue of sourcing, Nestlé now has a goal of using only palm oil certified as sustainable by
2015.
 Questions
1. What impact did Nestlé's #RichBreak campaign on twitter created on its audience?
2. How did nestle dealt with the social media campaign against it?
3. In future which strategy should Mrblackshaw use to overcome this type of problems?
4. If you were the social media manager head of Nestle, what immediate measure would you
have taken to handle the situation?

Answers
1. Nestlé's created a great impact as they got a good number of responses. They promoted
the hashtag on Twitter as well to leverage this opportunity at-max. Due to the awareness
created about the contest a day prior and with it being promoted increased the
participation since the inception of the contest on 4th August 10 a.m. and the participation
only increased due to the influencers reach. The potential reach of the campaign was
around 25 Million users on Twitter. The total number of tweets with the hashtag
#Rickbreak was more than 5.5K. on March 17 2010.

2. Nestlé’s initial response was to force the video’s withdrawal from YouTube, citing
copyright. But when it did not work then instead of trying to control social media
conversations, Mr. Lopez’s team had within two months adapted its approach. First, to
deal with the short-term damage, Nestlé suspended sourcing from Sinar Mas, and the
company held meetings with Greenpeace in which it provided details of its palm oil
supply chains. With a focus on the longer term, Nestlé sought a credible external partner
to certify the sustainability of its palm oil suppliers.

3. In future Mrblackshaw should:

4. If I were the social media manager head of Nestle I would do the following:

 Interact and Respond

 Become a Good Listener

 Keep Tweets Short

 Find Influencers

 Focus on Follower Needs and Interests

 Use Promoted tweets and trends to control the damage