Greenpeace vs Nestlé Kit Kat

A study in social media influence

Kit Kat Greenpeace Palm Oil lobbying

Greenpeace - Kit Kat Palm Oil lobbying• 17th March 2010 - UK Greenpeace posted a gory parody video of the standard

Kit Kat – Take A Break ad, showing an office worker gnawing on an orangutan’s finger instead of a Kit Kat bar, and the tag line “Kit Kat Killer”

• The aim was to get Nestlé to stop buying unsustainable palm oil from Sinar Mas, a global supplier that was destroying the south east Asian rainforests where orangutan’s were being threatened

• The campaign took off globally, with many people posting boycott Kit Kat messages on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

• The Nestlé Facebook page was overrun with people begging Nestlé to stop using palm oil and killing the orangutans. Nestlé deleted the messaging and responded with angry comments faced additional backlash for handling their social badly

• Greenpeace globally used other peaceful demonstrations on and offline• By 20th May 2010, only 10 weeks later, Nestlé announced it would stop

sourcing the unsustainable palm oil, a huge victory for Greenpeace and social networking

Greenpeace takes 33% of the conversation

- Using Alterian SM2 to monitor keywords & isolating Australia only

Kit Kat 926 mentions – Jan to July 2010

- Using Alterian SM2 to monitor keywords & isolating Australia only

Kit Kat Mentions – Jan to July 2010

Initial launch of Greenpeace video and campaigning

Success of Greenpeace campaign

- Using Alterian SM2 to monitor keywords & isolating Australia only

Kit Kat-Greenpeace – Sentiment

- Using Alterian SM2 to monitor keywords & isolating Australia only

Kit Kat – Sentiment is influenced by Greenpeace campaign

247 of very negative & 44 of somewhat negative are the Greenpeace related negative campaign

- Using Alterian SM2 to monitor keywords & isolating Australia only

Twitter is the primary channel for mentions (Kit Kat)

- Using Alterian SM2 to monitor keywords & isolating Australia only

Twitter is the primary channel for mentions (Greenpeace)

- Using Alterian SM2 to monitor keywords & isolating Australia only

SIM (Social Influence Marketing) Score Jan – July 2010

Neutral Positive Negative SIM Score

Kit Kat 395 73 337 0.16

1.00 is the highest possible score

Kit Kat extremely low score due to

Greenpeace campaign

SIM (Social Influence Marketing) Score August – Sept 2010

Neutral Positive Negative SIM Score

Kit Kat 63 24 20 0.63

Kit Kat score recovers after the resolution to the

Greenpeace campaign

KitKat Nestlé & Greenpeace Learnings• Greenpeace campaign succeeded in taking down the sentiment of KitKat to

an extremely low level• Nestlé gave fuel to the campaign by having the YouTube video banned

initially, causing international news services to pick it up, and giving the campaign oxygen (it went viral soon after)

• Nestlé did not pro-actively respond using any social media, instead deleted Facebook comments and posted angry status updates around the use of the Nestlé logo by people within Facebook who wanted to bring awareness to the Greenpeace campaign, which caused even more uproar

• Nestlé failure in social and its lack of social crisis management contributed significantly in Greenpeace success in the social campaigning

• Two Australian specific tactical campaigns for KitKat - Desk Jockey and Take Back Time were launched early June to combat the negative impact of Greenpeace on the brand, but did not get enough traction to offset the overall decrease in brand sentiment until well after the capitulation of Nestlé

Tiphereth Gloria Social Media Strategist

http://twitter.com/tipherethhttp://www.digitaltip.com.au