Brief: Create something relevant for Halebop's diverse customer base. The background to our idea is that Sweden has a vibrant restaurant scene. From north to south, there are many restaurants that are packed from morning to night – and yet they are never included in the established restaurant guides. And with that, unfortunately, food cultures of entire countries and not getting as much attention as they deserve. With Swedish telecom brand Halebop, we wanted to change this.

One of the most established restaurant guides in Sweden is White Guide. Highlighting restaurants with exquisite food and great ambiance, but also often places with a sommelier and an advanced booking system. It’s a great guide, no doubt about that, but were on another mission – to pay tribute to unsung restaurant gems in Sweden (restaurants that Halebop’s target group visits a lot) and put some well overdue limelight on them. Therefore, we created Not So White Guide – a restaurant guide that highlights the type of restaurants, joints and food stands that never get reviewed in the big guides – but who, nonetheless, serve superb food and is very loved by the target group. So we filled the guide with chow from other cultures and countries, from Bosnian to Ethiopian, from Vietnamese to Persian.

The strategy is built on the insight from the target group where we could see that food is an identity marker that carries stories through generations and connects people. Another insight is that the target group often feels unseen and not spoken to. We had to create something that would generate recognition, make them proud of their heritage and put them in the spotlight. We also wanted people to open up to new flavours, different areas in the city and encouraging moving in other circles. Assets: Physical book, an online version, portrait videos of the restaurant owners and great photos from the joints were being distributed to media and in social. Key Message: Not So White Guide – a restaurant guide that highlights the type of restaurants, joints and food stands that never get reviewed in the big guides – but who, nonetheless, serve superb food.

To get the word out, we used traditional PR crafts and zero media spending. The campaign was for the Swedish market and was executed for 4 weeks. The restaurants in Not So White Guide were hand-picked in the three biggest cities in Sweden. With that in mind we could work with both local PR angles as well as a national angle with the bigger story of the guide. To launch the guide, we teamed up with one of the chefs who participated in Sweden's largest morning show on TV to cook her food and talk about the guide. That same day we arranged a press lunch at one of the restaurants in the guide with journalists and influencers in the target group. This gave us a quick organic spread of the guide.

The guide got attention in national news media as well as local media. It was also seen in lifestyle magazines and podcasts. Over fifty media outlets covered the story, gaining an earned media reach of 3,5 million. In social media is received love bombing from day 1 and the social media impressions was 2,8 million leading up to a total reach of 6,3 million. Thousands of books were handed out, and nearly 700 wanted it so badly they bought their own copy. But the best part of it? It received so much praise that there will be a new Not So White Guide in 2021.