Nando's Campaign: "share a bite"

D&AD is a renowned organisation within marketing and advertising circles, recognised for hosting competitions focusing on various marketing facets. These competitions involve utilising real briefs provided by actual companies. Nando's was one such company that took part in the 2024 New Blood Award competition. The following creative has been developed with this specific brief in mind.

Background

• Nando's is a casual fast-food chain specialising in peri-peri-style chicken. It once had a cult-like following and was an aspirational place for the people of the UK to dine in. Some of its major competitors are McDonalds, KFC, Five Guys, and the like.

• According to the brief, the brand wanted to expand its market share with the new generation- youths under 25.

• With many fast food chains and small restaurants providing similar food and services, they wanted to design a campaign to position Nando's as the go-to place to spend time and money.

Insight & the Big Idea

Human Insight: GenZs are tired of only socializing online and avoid going out partly because they believe it's expensive. Even if they want to go somewhere affordable, they feel the experience wouldn't be great, not to mention the lack of "third spaces."

The Big Idea: Share a Bite!

Engage in the conversation happening in the target audience’s mind about meeting up with their friends 'one day' and create a positive attitude towards Nando’s as a suitable option.

Why should they consider Nando's? Because It offers an affordable option for hanging out with their friends and the ideal environment for having a great time.

Customer Persona

Strategy

Online Short Form Video Ads: “let’s share a bite”

TikTok and Instagram paid campaign: A short-form video with a bunch of friends goofing around or having a fun time with an emotional song as a background.

This emotional song will be high-pitched and “sped up” as it’s the trend prevalent on short-form video platforms and, as a result, with GenZ. The video would be around 5-10 seconds. 

The video will show a text- POV: you finally meet your friends.

The video ends with an end-frame showing Nando’s brand logo and the following text below it:

"to my friend

let’s share a bite!

me xxxxxx"

Here's a sample video taken from TikTok that gives you an idea. This video gives the exact look and feel needed for this campaign.

The short-form video will be sourced from a real user to give that raw, natural feel. The raw video and the emotional song will make the user stop scrolling and watch the video.

Once they are at the end of the video and when Nando’s name is displayed with the above message. The nostalgic emotion created while watching the video will be translated to the brand, making it a part of the conversation they have in their mind, hence positioning Nando’s as a suitable hangout spot.

Since there is a positive attitude towards the brand, the next step would be to give them a rational reason to consider the restaurant. 

Offline Banner Ads: “POV: the therapy you need”

The offline ads will be about turning the positive attitude into brand consideration. Since the overarching idea is to tell customers that Nando’s has the right deals and the perfect environment to hang out with friends, the offline ads will just do that.

The banners will also have an emotional component. The “leverage point” will be an image of friends having a good time sharing a meal with a text saying “POV: the therapy you need.”

GenZ is highly aware of the mental health issues that result from going to therapy, or the idea of therapy is prevalent and candidly spoken about in their social media channels. The supporting text will talk about why they should consider dining at Nando’s.

The Viral Loop: Polaroid

To create a viral loop of awareness and the idea of going to Nando’s as a “cool”, Polaroid photos will be given to the group dining at the store. Even though they can click pictures using their phone, having a Polaroid might be a memento they might want to share on their social media channels. The Polaroid will have Nando’s branding and the campaign tagline:” share a bite”. To make the Polaroid more interesting, it can have different designs in the background, which can be store-specific.

Research Process

Product research

Competitor Research

Market Research